PHALANNA
Thessaly, Greece.
The chief city
of the Perrhaibians in the region. Phalanna flourished
in the 5th and 4th c., replacing Olosson in importance
by 400 B.C.; although later outstripped by Gonnos, it
was still useful to Perseus as a camp site in 171 B.C. Inscriptions indicate that the city records were kept in the
Temple of Athena Polias, although the city decrees were
dated by the tenures of the priests of Asklepios. There
was also a theater and a Sanctuary of Hades and Persephone. The site, misleadingly described by Strabo as
near Tempe, has not been certainly identified, but lay
between Orthe and Gonnos in a position to control the
roads from the N and the rich fields to the S. Although
Karatsoli and Gritzova have been proposed, Phalanna
was probably on the flat hill called Kastri 3 km E of
modern Tyrnavos; there are building blocks scattered in
the area, but no city walls.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Livy 42.54. 6, 65.1; F. Stählin,
Das
hellenische Thessalien (1924) 31f
M; B. Lenk in
RE 17
2 (1937) 2495f.
M. H. MCALLISThR