ORIKON
(Pascha Liman) S Albania.
At the
head of the Gulf of Valona. The site is a low rocky outcrop on the coast, approached from the E by a swampy
strip of shore and having on the W an open channel that
connects the sea and a lagoon inland of the outcrop; the
channel and the lagoon afforded small ships an excellent
harbor, which was improved by a stone-built quay, still
visible under water. Foundations of a circuit wall with
towers can be traced in rock-cuttings, a small theater or
odeum has been excavated, and there are remains of a
road from the harbor to the Roman road which ran S inland of the Ceraunian peninsula. Inscriptions from the
area- show that the Dioscuri, Aphrodite, and Eros were
worshiped. Though the fortified area was small, Orikon
was an important port of call on the coasting route and
acted as a market for the hinterland of the Gulf; it issued
coinage in the Hellenistic period. Julius Caesar described
the place (
BCiv. 3.llf).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Patsch, “Das Sandschak Berat in
Albanien,”
Schriften der Balkankommission, Antiquarische Abteilung 3 (1904) 71; Excavation report in Buletin, Universitetit
Shtetëror të Tiranës, Seria shkencat shoqërore (1960) 1.92f; N.G.L. Hammond,
Epirus (1967) 127ff.
N.G.L. HAMMOND
