Potidaea

Potidaea (Greek: Ποτίδαια Potidaia, modern transliteration: Potidea) was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BCE in the narrowest point in Pallene (now Kassandra) in the western point of Chalcidice in what was known as Thrace. Potidaea maintained trade with Macedonia.

While besieged by the Persians in 479 BC, the town was saved by the earliest recorded tsunami in history. [Smid, T. C.: "'Tsunamis' in Greek Literature", "Greece & Rome", 2nd Ser., Vol. 17, No. 1 (Apr., 1970), pp. 100-104 (102f.)] Herodotus reports how the Persians attackers who tried to exploit an unusual retreat of the water were suddenly surprised by "a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before". [Herodot: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hdt.+8.129.1 "The Histories", 8.129] ]

During the Delian League conflicts occurred between Athens and Corinth. However, the Corinthians sent a supreme magistrate each year. Potidaea was inevitably involved in all of the conflicts between Athens and Corinth.

The people revolted against the Athenians in 432 BCE, but it was besieged during the Peloponnesian War and taken in the Battle of Potidaea in 430 BCE. The Athenians preserved the city until 404 BCE, when it was passed into Chalcidice.

The Athenians retook the city in 363 BCE, but in 356 BCE Potidaea fell into the hands of Philip II of Macedon. Potidaea was destroyed and her territory handed to the Olynthians. Cassander built a city in the same site and was named Cassandreia.

The modern settlement of Nea Potidea is near this ancient site.

Trivia

*Gabrielle, a fictional character in "" was born in Potidaea.

References

ee also

*Delian League
*Peloponnesian Wars

External links

*http://alexander.macedonia.culture.gr/2/21/211/21116/e211pa08.html
*http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0839904.html
* [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/potidaea/i.html Greek Coinage of Potidaea]