PHYLE
Attica, Greece.
The most direct way
from Athens to Thebes led from Chassia up Parnes by a
difficult pass to the W of Harma and the deme of Phyle,
over the watershed into the Skourta plain, and thus to
Thebes. This was the route taken, in reverse, by Thrasybolos in 404-403 B.C. when he brought his followers
from Boiotia to Phyle and later to Peiraeus (
Xen. Hell.
2.4.2). In the 4th c. B.C. an ephebic garrison was stationed at Phyle (Dem.
De cor. 38 and
IG II
2 2971). The
fort was captured by Kassander, retaken in 304 by Demetrios (Plut.
Dem. 23.2: surely
καταστρεψάμενος does
not have to mean “pulled down”), and returned to
Athens. It continued to be used by the ephebes in Hellenistic times.
To guard this important pass, the Athenians built a
compact, well-sited, naturally defended fort early in the
4th c. B.C. In style quarry-faced isodomic ashlar, the
outside face still stands to a maximum of 20 courses,
strengthened by towers, the one immediately N of the
main gateway circular, the others rectangular. Linking
these towers was a rampart walk, defended by an embattled parapet of embrasures and buttressed merlons
covered with heavy coping blocks. Within the fortification, on its flat summit, are the slight remains of several buildings. From this citadel the guards could sigual directly to Athens.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Wrede, “Phyle,”
AthMitt 44 (1924)
153-224
MPI; G. Säflund, “The Dating of Ancient Fortifications in Southern Italy and Greece,”
OpusArch 1
(1935) 107-10; F. Winter,
Greek Fortifications (1971)
138-39.
C.W.J. ELIOT
