CASSANDREIA
CASSANDREIA (
Κασσάνδρεια,
Κασάνδρεια: Eth.
Κασσανδρεύς:
Pínaka), a town situated on the narrow isthmus which connects the peninsula of Pallene with the main land, on which formerly stood the rich and flourishing city of Potidaea. (
Strab. vii. p.330;
Plin. Nat. 4.10.)
POTIDAEA (
Ποτίδαια: Eth.
Ποτιδαιάτης, Eth.
Ποτιδαιεύς was a Dorian city originally colonised from Corinth (
Thuc. 1.56;
Scymn. Ch. 5.628), though at what period is not known; it must have existed before the Persian wars.
It surrendered to the Persians on their march into Greece. (
Hdt. 7.123.)
After the battle of Salamis it closed its gates against Artabazus, who at the head of a large detachment had escorted Xerxes to the Hellespont. On his return this general laid siege to the place of which he would probably have obtained possession through the treachery of one of its citizens, had not the plot been accidentally discovered.
An attempt afterwards
[p. 1.560]made against it by the Persians was unsuccessful, from a sudden influx of the sea, while the troops were crossing the bay to attack the town; a great part of the Persian force was destroyed, the remainder made a hasty retreat. (
Hdt. 8.127.)
There was a contingent of 300 men sent by Potidaea to the united Greek forces at Plataea. (
Hdt. 9.28.) Afterwards Potidaea became one of the tributary allies of Athens, but still maintained a certain metropolitan allegiance to Corinth. Certain magistrates under the title of Epidemiurgi were sent there every year from Corinth. (
Thuc. 1.56.) In B.C. 432 Potidaea revolted from Athens, and allied itself with Perdiccas and the Corinthians.
After a severe action, in which the Athenians were finally victorious, the town was regularly blockaded; it did not capitulate till the end of the second year of the war, after going through such extreme suffering from famine that even some who died were eaten by the survivors. (
Thuc. 2.70.)
A body of 1,000 colonists were sent from Athens to occupy Potidaea and the vacant territory. (
Diod. 12.46.) On the occupation of Amphipolis and other Thracian towns by Brasidas, that general attempted to seize upon the garrison of Potidaea, but the attack failed. (
Thuc. 4.135.) In 382, Potidaea was in the occupation of the Olynthians. (
Xen. Hell. 7.16.) In 364, it was taken by Timotheus the Athenian general. (
Diod. 15.81; comp. Isocr.
de Antid. p. 119.) Philip of Macedon seized upon it and gave it up to the Olynthians. (
Diod. 16.8.) The Greek population was extirpated or sold by him. Cassander founded a new city on the site of Potidaea, and assembled on this spot not only many strangers but also Greeks of the neighbourhood, especially the Olynthians, who were still surviving the destruction of their city.
He called it after his own name Cassandreia. (
Diod. 19.52; Liv.44.11.) Cassandreia is the natural port of the fertile peninsula of Pallene (
Kassándhra), and soon became great and powerful, surpassing all the Macedonian cities in opulence and splendour. (Diod.
l.c.) Arsinoe, widow of Lysimachus, retired to this place with her two sons. (
Polyaen. 8.57.) Ptolemy Ceraunus, her half-brother, succeeded by treachery in wresting the place from her. Like Alexandreia and Antioch, it enjoyed Greek municipal institutions, and was a republic under the Macedonian dominion, though Cassander's will was its law as long as he lived. (Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient History, vol. iii. pp. 231, 253.) About B.C. 279 it came under the dominion of Apollodorus, one of the most detestable tyrants that ever lived. (Diod.
Exc. p. 563.) Philip, the son of Demetrius, made use of Cassandreia as his principal naval arsenal, and at one time caused 100 galleys to be constructed in the docks of that port. (
Liv. 28.8.)
In the war with Perseus his son (B.C. 169), the Roman fleet in conjunction with Eumenes, king of Pergamus, undertook the siege of Cassandreia, but they were compelled to retire (
Liv. 44.11,
12.) Under Augustus a Roman colony settled at Cassandreia. (Marquardt, in Becker's
Handbuch der Röm. Alt. vol. iii. pt. i. p. 118; Eckhel,
D. N. vol. ii. p. 70.)
This city at length fell before the barbarian Huns, who left hardly any traces of it. (Procop.
B.P. 2.4,
de Aedif. 4.3; comp. Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 152.)
For coins of Cassandreia, both autonomous and imperial, see Eckhel (
l.c.). The
type constantly found is the head of Ammon, in whose worship they seem to have joined with the neighbouring people of Aphytis.
[
E.B.J]
