2. Ancient History. — Strabo tells us that the old name of Philippi was Krenides (vii, 331); and Appian adds that it was so called from the number of "little fountains" {Kpi]victc) around the site. He also says that it had another name, Datus ; but that Philip of Maeedon, hav- ing taken it from the Thracians. made it a frontier for- tress, and gave it his own name (De Bell. Civ. iv, 105). Philip's city stood upon a hill, probably that seen a little to the south of the present ruins, which may have al- ways formed the citadel, but was in all probability in its origin a factory of the Phoenicians, who were the lirst
that worked the gold-mines in the mountains here, as in the neighboring Thasos. Appian says that those were in a hill (Xdipoc) not far from Philippi, that the hill was sacred to Dionysus, and that the mines went by the name of " the sanctuary" (r« aov\a). But he shows himself quite ignorant of the locality, to the ex- tent of believing the plain of Philippi to be open to the river Strymon, whereas the massive wall of Pangseus is really interposed between them. In all probability the "hill of Dionysus" and the "sanctuary" are the temple of Dionysus high up the mountains among the Satra?, who preserved their independence against all invaders down to the time of Herodotus at least. It is more likely that the gold-mines coveted by Philip were the same as those at Scapte HyU, which was certainly in this immediate neighborhood. Before the great expe- dition of Xerxes, the Thasians had a number of settle- ments on the main, and this among the number, which produced them eighty talents a year as rent to the state. In the year B.C. 463 they ceded their possessions on the continent to the Athenians: but the colonists, 10.000 in number, who had settled on the Strymon and pushed their encroachments eastward as far as this point, were crushed by a simultaneous effort of the Thracian tribes (Thucydides, i. 100; iv. 102; Herodotus, ix, 75; Pausa- nias, i, 29, 4). From that time until the rise of the Macedonian power, the mines seem to have remained in the hands of native chiefs ; but when the affairs of Southern Creece became thoroughly embroiled by the policy of Philip, the Thasians made an attempt to re- possess themselves of this valuable territory, and sent a colony to the site, then going by the name of " the Springs" (KpnviStc). Philip, however, aware of the importance of the position, expelled them and founded Philippi, the last of all his creations. The mines at that time, as was not wonderful under the circumstances, had become almost insignificant in their produce; but their new owner contrived to extract more than a thousand talents a year from them, with which he minted the gold coinage called by his name. The proximity ofthe gold-mines was of course the origin of so large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is one of extraordinary fertility. The position too was on the main road from Rome to Asia, the Via Egnatia, which from Thessalonica to Constantinople followed the same course as the existing post-road. The usual course was to take ship at Brundisium and land at Dyrrachium, from whence a route led across Epirus to Thessalonica. Ignatius was carried to Italy by this route, when sent to Rome to be cast to wild beasts. See Strabo, Fi-agnu nt. lib. vii : Thucyd. i. 100; iv. 102; Herod, ix, 75; Diod. Sic. xvi, 3 sq.; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv, 101 sq. ; Pausan. i, 28, 4.
The famous battle of Philippi. in which the Roman republic was overthrown, was fought on this plain in the year B.C. 42 (Dio. Cass, xlvi; Appian, /. c). In honor, and as a memorial of his great victory, Augustus made Philippi a Roman " colony," and its coins bear the legend Colonia Avgusta Jul. Philippensis (Conybcare and Houson, i, 312). The emperor appears to have founded the new quarter in the plain along the banks ofthe Gangites. As a colony (icoXbivia, Acts xvi. 12) it enjoyed peculiar privileges. Its inhabitants were
Coin of Philippi. Vreeru : Hend i f Aneustns, with the lejrend •' Cres. Aug. P. M. Tr. P." [i.e. Caesar Augustus, IV ntilex Ma.xiinus, Trilninitin P..resta»l. /.' ures of .lu'.ius C'a-siir and Augustus, with the legend "Col. Aug-. [Jul.]
L'hHir."
piiium
94
riiiLirri
Roman citizens, most (if them being the families and i i- of veteran soldiers, who had originally set- tled in the place to guard the city and province. They mi a by their own magistrates, called Duum- viri or Praetors i in Greek orpaTnyoi ; ver. 20), n bo ex- ercised a kind of military authority, and were indepen- dent of the provincial governor.
:;. Present Site. -Philippi (now called by the Turks Felibejik) is cul off from the interior by a Bteep line of hills, anciently called Symbolum, connected inwards the N.E. with the western extremity of Hsemus, and to- wards the s.W.. less continuously, with the eastern ex- tremity of Pangaeus. Between tl" fool of Symbolum and the site of Philippi two Tiu.ush cemeteries are passed, the gravestones of which are all derived from the ruins of the ancient city, and in the immediate