EDESSA
Macedonia, Greece.
Very ancient
city of Emathia on the NE slope of Mt. Vermion. The
first inhabitants of the area were the Bryges, a Thracian
tribe known under the name of Phrygians in Asia Minor,
where they finally took refuge after being driven back by
the Macedonians coming from the W, from the mountains of Pindus, and from Upper Macedonia, ca. 700 B.C.
(
Hdt. 8.137; Just. 7.1). Linguistically the word Edessa
is considered Phrygian (from vedy-water), and it survived over the centuries, alternating at times with the
word Aigai, a common name for many Greek towns.
Edessa was the first capital of the Macedonians in historical times, until King Archelaos (413-399 B.C.) transferred his seat to Pella.
Under the name of Aigai (
Diod. 16.3, 92, 19.52, 22
frag. 12; Just. 7.1; Arr. 1.11.1; Plin.
HN 4.33; Steph. Byz.
s.v. Aigai), the city was closely associated with the palace and the royal cemetery, both of which remained
fairly important even after the transfer of the capital
to Pella. It was there that religious ceremonies and festivals, weddings, and funerals took place; there that Philip
was assassinated in the city theater while celebrating the
wedding of his daughter Cleopatra with King Alexander
of the Epirots. Members of the royal family were buried
in the royal cemetery of Aigai according to the instructions of the head of the Temenid dynasty Perdikka, in
order to maintain the dynasty (Just. 7.1). Only Alexander was buried far from Aigai and decline set in. But
even after Alexander's death, Kassander buried the
monarchs Philip Arridaios and Eurydice, as well as
Eurydice's mother Kynna, in Aigai with royal honors.
The city is found under the name Edessa in Polybios
(5.97), Diodoros (31.8.8), Strabo (
7.223 and 10.449),
Appian (
Syr. 57), Plutarch (
Vit.
Pyrrh. 10, 12), Polynenus (2.29.2), Ptolemy (13.39 and 8.12.7), Hierokles, and
other Byzantine writers. In later Byzantine years and
during the Turkish occupation the Slavic name of the
city, Vodena, became more common. Today the city is
called Edessa again.
The acropolis extended over the great plateau where
the modern city is situated with its famous cataracts. Its
position is well fortified and strategically important because, of the three passes over Mt. Vermion, it dominates the one farthest N. Through it came the most important road that connected lower Macedonia on the
coast with upper Macedonia and the Adriatic with the
Aegean. During Roman times Edessa was a post on the
Via Egnatia.
Few remains are preserved from the acropolis of
Edessa because of the continuous life of the city and
the perishable nature of the building materials in the
area (poros and wood). The lower city, on the contrary, has valuable ruins. During the years 1923 to 1924
limited excavations were started, and from 1967 to the
present extensive research has been carried on in the
whole area of the lower city. The wall enclosure has
been established and partly uncovered, as well as gates
and rectangular towers. The first period of the walls,
characterized by the technique of building with stones of
unequal sizes, goes back to the 4th c. B.C., but extensive
repairs are noticeable until the later Byzantine years,
during which gates, as well as towers, were walled in or
rearranged during successive additions and modifications.
None of the monuments mentioned by ancient writers
(temples, palace, theater, royal tombs, etc.) have yet
been found. The artifacts which can be removed are
mostly marble architectural fragments, inscriptions, and
sculpture, the majority of them dating from the Roman
period. An old Christian basilica was also excavated,
as well as parts of other Byzantine monuments. The
finds are kept in the Edessa Museum and the Thessalonika Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Pelekides.
Ἀνασκαφή Ἐδέσσης,
Deltion
8 (1923) 259-69
PI; F. Geyer, “Makedonia” (Topographie)
RE 14.1 (1928) 658; J. M. Cormack,
Inscriptions
from Macedonian Edessa and Pella II (1953) 374-81;
id., “Inscriptions from Macedonia,”
BSA 58 (1963) 20-24; P. Lévêque,
Pyrrhos (1957) 147ff passim; M. Karamanole-Siganidou,
Χαλκῆ χείρ Σαβαζίου ἐξ Ἐδέσσης,
Deltion 22 (1967) 149-55
I; M. Michaelides,
Παλαιοχριστιανική Ἔδεσσα Ἀνασκαφή Βασιλικῆς Α,
Deltion 23 (1968)
195-220
PI; Ph. M. Petsas,
Χρονικά Ἀρχαιολογικά 1966-67,
Μακεδονικά 9 (1969) 175-77
II; id.,
Αἰγαί-Πἐλλα-Θεσσαλονικη, Ἀρχαία Μακεδονία, ἔκδ. Ἑταιρείας Μακεδονικῶν Σπουδῶν Θεσσαλονίκη (1970) 203-1911
MPI; N.G.L. Hammond,
A History of Macedonia I (1972).
PH. M. PETSAS