FARANGI
(“Begorra”) W. Macedonia, Greece.
A site in the vicinity of Farangi. There is no ancient
reference to a Begora or Begorra, but the name has long
been accepted as a necessary basis for the name Begorritis
lacus, by which Livy (
42.53.5) identifies Lake Ostrovo.
The true form of the name appears to be
Βοκερία as it is
found on a milestone of ca. the 3d c. B.C. This milestone
points to a site near Kelemiş (mod. Farangi) along the
E shore of the lake, where black-glazed pottery was
found in 1959-60.
Begorra/Bokeria was apparently a station on the Macedonian royal road through Eordaia, the road which later
became the Via Egnatia. The town lost all importance
during the Roman period, and was replaced by a station
at Cellae, near Novigrad (officially Vegorra). This latter
site was for a long time flooded by Lake Ostrovo, but
has recently reappeared. It has been the subject of some
informal investigations.
Excavations in the summer of 1960 revealed a small
apsidal structure, along with some suggestions of rectangular buildings. One inscription, a 2d c. A.D. funereal
monument, probably reused, had been found. Two pieces
of sculpture, a headless male figure and the head of a
youth (size not reported) were taken to the museum at
Florina, along with figurines and architectural fragments.
Coins were found ranging in date from Augustus to Valens, with a particular concentration around the time of
Constantine.
The finds suggest that special attention was paid to the
Via Egnatia in the period of the 2d tetrarchy, and support the argument that the Via Egnatia passed S through
the Kirli Derbend pass and around the S of Lake Ostrovo.
Gradište, a site just N of Katranitsa (mod. Pyrgoi), along
the E side of the lake, probably marks another station
on the Via Egnatia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. M. Leake,
Nor. Gr. (1835) III 316-17; C. Edson, “The Location of Cellae and the Route of
the Via Egnatia in Western Macedonia,”
CP 46 (1951)
1-16
M; G. P. Aziz,
Lebaia, City of the Ancient Macedonians (1958)
I, report of excavations, in modern
Greek; G. Daux, “Chronique des Fouilles 1960,”
BCH
84 (1960), 766-67, with fig. 6 & fig. 12.1;
RE, s.v. Begorritis lacus;
ArchDelt 17.2 (1961-62) 216, with pl. 253.
P. MACKAY
