HYA´MPOLIS
HYA´MPOLIS (
Ὑάμπολις: Eth.
Ὑαμπολίτης), an ancient town of Phocis, mentioned by Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.521), and said to have been founded by the Hyantes after they had been expelled from Boeotia by the Cadmeians. (
Paus. 9.35.5;
Strab. ix. p.424.)
It was situated on the road leading from Orchomenus to Opus (Paus.
l c.), and, as it stood at the entrance of a valley which formed a convenient passage from Locris into Phocis and Boeotia, its name frequently occurs in history.
It was at the entrance of this pass that the Phocians gained a victory over the Thessalians. (
Hdt. 8.28.) Hyampolis was afterwards destroyed, along with the other Phocian towns, by the army of Xerxes. (
Hdt. 8.33.) In B.C. 371 Jason, in his march through Phocis, when he was returning from Boeotia after the battle of Leuctra, is said to have taken
Ὑαμπολιτῶν [p. 1.1099]τὸ προάστειον (Xen
Hell. 6.4.27), which is supposed by some to be the same place as Cleonae, a village belonging to Hyampolis. (Pint.
de Virt. Mul. p. 244; Valcken.
ad Herod. 8.28.) In B.C. 347 a battle was fought near Hyampolis between the Boeotians and Phocians. (
Diod. 16.56.)
The city is said to have been destroyed by Philip; but, as Pausanias states that the ancient agora, senate-house, and theatre were still remaining in his time, it must have been chiefly the fortifications which were destroyed by Philip.
At all events it continued to be an inhabited city, and is mentioned in the Roman wars in Greece. (
Liv. 32.18.)
It was embellished by Hadrian with a Stoa. Pausanias mentions also a temple of Artemis, who was the deity chiefly worshipped in the city. (
Paus. 10.35. § § 6, 7.) Pliny (
4.7. s. 12) and Ptolemy (
3.15.20) erroneously describe Hyampolis as a city of Boeotia.
The ruins of Hyampolis may be seen upon a height about five minutes northward of the village of
Vogdháni. “The entire circuit of the fortifications is traceable, but they are most complete on the western side.
The masonry is of the third order, nearly approaching to the most regular kind.
The circumference is about three-quarters of a mile.
The direct distance to this ruin from the summit of Abae is not more than a mile and a half in a north-west direction. Below
Vogdháni, on the side of a steep bank which falls to the valley of
Khúbavo, a fountain issuing from the rock is discharged through two spouts into a stone reservoir of ancient construction, which stands probably in its original place.” (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 167, seq.)
Strabo relates (
l.c.) that there was another town, named Hyampolis, in Phocis, situated on Parnassus.
