Phoenicê

According to Polybius, Phoenicê was the richest and most highly fortified town of Epirus. Indeed, between 231-167 BC it was a capital of the region, commanding the immediate surroundings from an elongated hill 270 m above sea level. A three kilometre long fortification encloses almost 40 hectares of this striking hilltop.

It prospered in early Roman times, and is also described by Procopius in the 6th century when its defences were apparently refurbished by the Emperor Justinian. The walls remain one of the most impressive monuments of Phoenicê. Standing sections of the acropolis walls underline the huge scale of the construction, and the sheer bravado of fortifying this dizzy height with such an impressive set of defences emphasise the importance set upon the ancient city as a major centre.

Modern excavations by a team from the University of Bologna have pursued research here, and conserved the monuments excavated by the Italian Archaeological Mission in 1926-27.

On the acropolis, a small prostyle temple (the so-called ‘treasury’) supposedly of the 4th century BC is thought to be part of the agora of the city. To the northwest, of a complex of peristyle houses indicate the location of the residential zone, much of which was also terraced down the western slopes of the city. These houses were built in the 3rd century BC and continued in use into the Roman period, with a much reduced phase of habitation in late antiquity.

In the 6th century, the area around the temple was occupied by a three-ailed basilica with transepts, and with an associated baptismal font erected in the ‘treasury’. The building seems to have remained in use – if of much reduced size – into the early Middle Ages.

Striking is also the theatre set into the slope of the hill, erected in the 3rd century BC with rebuilds of the orchestra undertaken in the later 2nd to 1st century BC, and in the 3rd century AD. The building was on a scale to rival the greatest theatres of ancient Greece and could probably seat up to 12,000 spectators, affording them spectacular views towards Saranda and the coast and Corfu beyond.

In the Roman period the city expanded beyond the Hellenistic fortifications to the low-lying ground to the south of the hill. The modern village of Finiki at the foot of the hill occupies much of the Roman town. Within the houses and gardens of the present village many parts of later Roman structures can be seen, reused in modern dwellings as well as upstanding ruins. The University of Bologna have shown that these buildings occupy a gridded street pattern laid out in the 1st century AD.

Also in the lower city are the remains of the cemetery of both the Hellenistic and Roman cities. A variety of monumental and simple tombs, cremation and inhumation have been excavated indicating its use at least until the 3rd century AD.

More details can be found on www.phoinike.com