RHAMNOUS
Attica, Greece.
One of the
most remote of the Athenian demes, Rhamnous was
situated more than 50 km from the city, at the N limit
of Attica's E coast, on the sea overlooking the strait
separating the mainland from Euboia. Because of this
strategic location Rhamnous became something of a
garrison town in the 5th c. B.C., with a detachment of
ephebes on permanent duty in Hellenistic times. The
chief sanctuary, that of Nemesis, is rightly described by
Pausanias (
1.33.2) as “a small distance back from the
coast.” The path linking the sanctuary with the town/fort
was lined on both sides with graves. So varied a set of
remains, together with the many inscriptions, makes it
possible to visualize the lineaments of a miniature city-state with unusual clarity.
The Sanctuary of Nemesis contained two temples set
on a flat terrace, in part supported by walls. The earlier,
and smaller, is to the S, its plan a cella with Doric porch
distyle in antis, built in the 480s B.C. Two thrones, originally placed in the porch, show that Themis was here
worshiped together with Nemesis. A statue of the former
and several other dedications were unearthed in the
cella. They are now in the National Museum in Athens.
Fifty years later a larger temple, dedicated to Nemesis alone, was built to the N of the earlier. It was of
local marble with a peristyle of Doric columns, 6 x 12,
surrounding a cella with normal pronaos and opisthodomos. Although only a few blocks remain in place
above the platform, enough parts of the colonnade and
superstructure lie around to permit a detailed reconstruction. The temple was unfinished at the beginning
of the Peloponnesian War, and completion was delayed
until ca. 420 B.C. Even then, some final finishes, such
as the fluting, were permanently abandoned. But at least
the temple was fit to receive Agorakritos' famous cult
statue, which, according to Pliny (
HN 36.17), M. Varro
preferred above all other statues. From Pausanias' description (1.33.3-8) and from the many fragments preserved both of the large figure of Nemesis and of the small figures on the base, some idea of the group's appearance can be gained.
The fortress has not been fully explored. The most
prominent remains are those of the heavy outer fortification, best preserved to the S, with a gate flanked by two
towers. The summit of the hill is enclosed by a second,
lighter circuit, also best preserved to the S, with an
entrance at the SE corner guarded by a single tower.
The higher circuit is dated to the 5th c. B.C., perhaps as
late as 412 (cf.
Thuc. 7.28.1), the lower to the 4th or
early 3d.
Between these two circuits, some excavation has taken
place, sufficient to reveal a variety of structures and
monuments, but not to explain their purposes or position
within the town's plan. The one exception is a theater
located directly S and W of the opening in the inner
fortification. Here a rectangular open area was divided
into auditorium and orchestra by a base for stelai and
a foundation for prohedriai, three of which still exist
and are dated ca. 350 B.C. These simple arrangements
will have served for assemblies of the demesmen and
ephebes as well as for the attested performances of
comedies.
On the hillside overlooking the fortress' main gate,
on an artificial terrace, a small sanctuary was established
to Aristomachos, a local hero physician said to have been
buried at Marathon. But in Hellenistic times, perhaps
through the broadening influence of the ephebes, his
place was taken by the neighboring healing god from
Oropos, Amphiaraos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Unedited Antiquities of Attica . . .
(1817)
P; W. H. Plummer, “Three Attic Temples,”
BSA 45 (1950) 94-112
P; J. Pouilloux,
La Forteresse de Rhamnonte (1954)
MPI; G. I. Despines,
Συμβολὴ στὴ μελέτη τοῦ ἔργου τοῦ Ἀγορακρίτου (1971)
PI; A. N. Dinsmoor,
Rhamnous (1972)
MPI.
C.W.J. ELIOT
