Oricum

Epirus in antiquity.

Coordinates: 40°19′8″N 19°25′43″E / 40.31889°N 19.42861°E / 40.31889; 19.42861

Oricum or Orikos (Greek: Ὤρικος or Ὠρικός) was an ancient Greek city^[1][2] in the northern part of Epirus (modern south Albania), at the south end of the Bay of Vlorë.

History

The city, said to have been founded by Euboeans^[3] (perhaps as an Eretrian emporium^[4]), was originally on an island, but already in ancient times it became connected to the mainland; it covered an area of 5 hectares, but archeological remains are scarce.^[5] It was well situated for communication with Kerkyra,^[6] and was only 40 miles across the sea from Otranto, making it a convenient stopping point on the journey between Greece and Italy.^[7] Ancient sources (for instance, Herodotus) describe it as a limen, or harbor, but eventually it achieved the status of a polis, and from around 230 to 168 BC it issued its own coins with the legend ΩΡΙΚΙΩΝ ('of the Oricians').^[8]

It had military importance under Roman rule, serving as a base during Rome's wars with the Illyrians and with Macedonia (which occupied it for a time); it was the first city taken by Julius Caesar during his invasion of Epirus, and he provides a vivid description of its surrender in Book 3 of his De Bello Civili^[9]:

But as soon as Caesar had landed his troops, he set off the same day for Oricum: when he arrived there, Lucius Torquatus, who was governor of the town by Pompey's appointment, and had a garrison of Parthinians in it, endeavored to shut the gates and defend the town, and ordered the Greeks to man the walls, and to take arms. But as they refused to fight against the power of the Roman people, and as the citizens made a spontaneous attempt to admit Caesar, despairing of any assistance, he threw open the gates, and surrendered himself and the town to Caesar, and was preserved safe from injury by him. (III:12)

After this, Oricum "became more of a civilian settlement, and the few remains which can be seen today date from the 1st century BC or later. The Ottomans renamed Oricum Pashaliman, 'the Pasha's harbour', and the lagoon still bears this name, as does the nearby Albanian navy base."^[10]

Orician terebinth ("Oricia terebintho") is mentioned by Virgil^[11] and Sextus Propertius.^[12]

See also

• List of cities in ancient Epirus
• List of ancient Greek cities
• Orikum

References

1. ^ Casson, S. Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria: their relations to Greece from the earliest times down to the time of Philip, son of Amyntas. Greenwood Press, 1971. p. 322 [1]
2. ^ Mogens Herman Hansen and Thomas Heine Nielsen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford University Press, 2004: ISBN 0198140991), p. 347.
3. ^ Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer (London: Allen Lane, 2008, ISBN 978-0713999808), p. 123.
4. ^ Keith G. Walker, Archaic Eretria: A Political and Social History from the Earliest Times to 490 BC (Routledge, 2004: ISBN 0415285526), p. 151.
5. ^ Hansen and Nielsen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 347.
6. ^ Walker, Archaic Eretria, p. 151.
7. ^ Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes, p. 123.
8. ^ Mogens Herman Hansen and Kurt A. Raaflaub, More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996: ISBN 3515069690), p. 149.
9. ^ http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Caesar/CaesarCiv03.html
10. ^ Gillian Gloyer, Albania (Bradt Travel Guides, 2008: ISBN 184162246X), p. 212.
11. ^ Aeneid, X, 136.
12. ^ Elegies, III, 7.49.

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