PHLIOUS
Peloponnesos, Greece.
Located in
the NE part of the region in a broad plain W of the Nemean valley.
Excavations in 1924 indicated occupation from the
Early Neolithic period to Byzantine times. Mycenaean
finds were scanty, confirming the statement of the ancient
authors (
Strab. 8.382;
Paus. 2.12.4-6) that the city of
Homer (Araithyrea) was not located at the site of the
later city. Phlious participated in the Persian Wars, contributing 200 men to Thermopylai and 1,000 to Plataia
(
Hdt. 7.202; 9.28.4). She was constantly an ally of Sparta
and no doubt valuable to that state in providing a route
to the Corinthian Gulf which did not pass under the walls
of Argos. Her 4th c. history is one of internal strife and
defense against various enemies (Xen.
Hell.). Little is
known of her political organizations, but a Hellenistic
proxeny decree found on Delos may preserve the name
of one of the tribes, Aoris. A Pythagorean school apparently flourished at Phlious at the end of the 5th c.
(Diog. Laert. 8.46) and the city provides the setting for
Plato's
Phaedo. Pratinas, the composer of satyr plays,
was a native (Suid. s.v. Pratinas). The Roman city as
described by Pausanias (
2.13.3-8) was extensive, and
he states that Hebe was the principal deity. Numerous
buildings are mentioned, among them a Temple of Asklepios located above a theater.
Traces of antiquity are abundant at Phlious, both on
the acropolis and in the plain to the S, where the city
proper was located. Portions of wall are visible along
the N, E, and W sides of the acropolis and the E city
wall can be traced for some distance in the plain. On one
of the terraces at the W end of the hill stands a modern
chapel, almost entirely constructed of ancient blocks, possibly the site of the Temple of Asklepios. Farther down
the hill to the W lie a fountain-house and a large, partially excavated building with a hypocaust.
Most of the buildings discovered in the early excavations lie at the SW foot of the hill. An apparent hypostyle hall, explored by only a few test trenches, yielded pottery and architectural fragments of the late archaic
period. East of this lies a rectangular structure with an
interior colonnade (known locally as the Palati), and
to the N a scene building and a theater cavea. Supplementary excavations reinvestigated the Palati, which appears to date to the 5th c. B.C., and the theater, the lower portion of which was excavated. This consists of the E
retaining wall of the cavea, a line of poros benches, and
a partially cleared exedra on the W.
The theater in its present form is Roman and no doubt
it is the one seen by Pausanias below the Temple of
Asklepios, which must be located either immediately
above the cavea or farther to the E under the chapel,
where most modern writers have placed it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. Washington, “Excavations at Phlius
in 1892,”
AJA 27 (1923) 438-46
PI; C. W. Blegen, “Excavations at Phlius 1924,”
Art and Archaeology 20
(1925) 23-33
I; E. Meyer, “Phleius,”
RE 20 (1941) 269-90; L. Robert, “Un Décret Dorien Trouvé à Délos,”
Hellenica 5 (1948) 5-15; R. Legon, “Phliasian Politics and Policy in the Early Fourth Century B.C.,”
Historia 16 (1967) 324-37; W. Biers, “Excavations at Phlius, 1924.
The Prehistoric Deposits,”
Hesperia 38 (1969) 443-58
PI; “Excavations at Phlius, 1924. The Votive Deposit,”
Hesperia 40 (1971) 397-423
I; “Excavations at Phlius, 1970,”
Hesperia 40 (1971) 424-47; 42 (1973) 100-20
PI.
W. R. BIERS
