THAUMAKOI
Thessaly, Greece.
A city in
Achaia Phthiotis (
Strab. 9.435). It lay on the pass between the Spercheios valley and the W plain of Thessaly,
overlooking the latter. The sudden and spectacular view
of the sea-like plain gave the ancient derivation for its
name from the verb “to marvel” (
Livy 32.4.3). It was
evidently not an important place except strategically, and
was a member of the Aitolian League, probably from the
3d c. B.C. It was besieged by Philip V in 199 B.C., but an
Aitolian band entered the city and helped it hold until
Philip withdrew (
Livy 32.4). The next year Aitolian
troops used it as a supply base (
Livy 32.13.14). It was
taken easily by M' Acilius Glabrio in his campaign
against Antiochus III and his allies in 191 B.C., while he
was on his way from the Thessalian plain to the Spercheios valley (
Livy 36.14. 12-15). In 189 B.C. it was probably freed with the rest of Thessalian Achaia. The
city was the site of a bishopric in Christian times. Its
neighbor to the S was Xyniae; to the N Proerna.
The city lies just to the W of the modern (and ancient)
road over the pass, ca. 4 km S of the Thessalian plain.
The acropolis is a small, round, rocky, abrupt peak (639 m) surrounded on top by a Byzantine (?) wall of stones
and mortar, on the site of an ancient wall, of which
virtually nothing is visible. The modern town is centered
on the slope S of the acropolis. The ancient city wall is
visible in places forming a concentric circle some 800-900
m in circumference around the acropolis. Southeast of
the acropolis is one small section with four courses in
place (1924); the wall is of rectangular blocks, laid in
even courses. Brief excavations behind the school (gymnasium) S of the acropolis uncovered a section of the
city wall built of polygonal masonry, making a solid
bastion at this point. At the S edge of the wall was uncovered the foundation of an isolated tower, presumably
to guard the access from the road. The finds from this
excavation mainly consisted of 4th and 3d c. B.C. pottery
fragments. A little N of the acropolis is a flat area on
which is the Church of Haghios Aemilianos. Here a
foundation of large stones, 6 x 3 m, was discovered,
probably of a tower outside the walls guarding the approach from the plain. In the N side of the preserved city wall is a gate which may have given access to this tower. The city wall appeared to Stählin to date from the
3d c. B.C.; the polygonal section recently discovered,
however, must be a part of the Classical defenses.
Some 2 km N of Dhomoko, near Milyai (1910) was
an ancient foundation, probably of a temple, near which
was found a boundary inscription concerning Angeia and
Ktimenai (see Dhranista). A treasure of Hellenistic gold
objects now mainly in the Benaki and Stathatos collections found in Thessaly in 1929 may have come from the vicinity of Dhomoko.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. S. Arvanitopoullos,
Praktika (1910)
197f; F. Stählin,
Das hellenische Thessalien (1924) 156-58
P; id.,
RE2 (1934) s.v. Thaumakoi
PM;
BCH 75
(1951) 115; P. Amandry,
ASAtene 24-26 (1946-48) 181-98
I (treasure); id.,
Collection Hélène Stathatos, Les Bijoux Antiques (1953).
T. S. MAC KAY