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64-661: Caphyae subsequently belonged to the Achaean League , and was one of the cities of the league, of which Cleomenes III obtained possession. In its neighborhood a great battle was fought in 220 BC, in which the Aetolians , gained a decisive victory over the Achaeans and Aratus of Sicyon . The name of Caphyae also occurs in the subsequent events of this war. Strabo speaks of the town as in ruins in his time; but it still contained some temples when visited by Pausanias ( l. c. ). The remains of

128-493: A 'leveled line of spears'. Aratus, one of the major Achaean strategoi (generals) and statesmen was known for his use of light forces for irregular operations, a type of warfare suited to the thyreophoroi but not suited to operations in the open field. The League in 217 decided to maintain a standing force of 8,000 mercenary foot and 500 mercenary cavalry, added to a picked citizen force of 3,000 infantry and 300 cavalry, of which 500 foot and 50 horse would come from Argos and

192-446: A chasm of the earth, issues again at a place called Nasi ( Νάσοι ); and that the name of the village where it issues is named Rheunus ( Ῥεῦνος ). From this place it forms the perennial river Tragus ( Τράγος ) (modern Tara or Daraiiko). He also speaks of a mountain named Cnacalos ( Κνάκαλος ) (modern Kastania) in the neighbourhood of the city, on which the inhabitants celebrate a yearly festival to Artemis Cnacalesia . Its site

256-515: A depth of between 25 and 45 m. "Whether or not this town can be identified with Helike is a question to be answered by extensive underwater research. In any case, the discovery of this town can be regarded as an extremely interesting find", according to the Greek scientific journal Archaeology . In 1988, the Greek archaeologist Dora Katsonopoulou, president of the Helike Society, and Steven Soter of

320-510: A formation of double-files of 16 and so forth. However, by the time of the Achaean War in 146 BC, the League's army had decreased in strength and efficiency. The League was even reduced to freeing and arming 12,000 slaves. This was probably due to the 2nd century BC decline in population. This may well account for the increased hiring of mercenaries, especially Cretans and Thracians. The below are

384-420: A large scale, the city would have been taken downward below the sea level. Also, if an earthquake caused the sections of coastline to fall into the sea, this would have created a tsunami, which in turn would have flooded the inland lagoon with the city in it. Over time, the river sediment coming down from the mountains would have filled in the lagoon hiding the city remains beneath the solid ground. Before Helike

448-522: A new mercenary corps that was hired. He spent nearly 8 months of his term as strategos visiting, training and advising cities in this capacity. At the Battle of Mantinea in 207 BC the Achaean phalanx was positioned with intervals between the companies with lighter troops. This was a major attempt by Philopoemen to increase the flexibility of his phalanx. He may have picked up this tactic too from his experience at

512-466: A similar disaster, an earthquake followed by a tsunami , occurred on the same spot. The earthquake was preceded by a sudden explosion, like that produced by a battery of cannon. The aftershock was said to have lasted a minute and a half, during which the sea rose at the mouth of the Selinous River and extended to cover all the ground immediately below Aigio (the ancient Αἴγιον). After its retreat, not

576-511: A similar elite force of the same size at the Battle of Sellasia in 222. However, it was the Achaean general Philopoemen in 208 who changed the Achaean fighting style and weaponry to the Macedonian fashion. According to Plutarch, Philopoemen 'persuaded them to adopt long pike and heavy shield instead of spear and buckler, to protect their bodies with helmets and breastplates and greaves, and to practice stationary and steadfast fighting instead of

640-499: A trace was left of some artillery depots which had stood on the shore, and the beach was carried away completely. In Aigio, 65 people died and two thirds of its buildings were entirely ruined, as were five villages in the plain. The submerged town was long a mystery for underwater archaeology . People were divided in their opinions about the exact location of Helike and produced numerous works and hypotheses: In 1826, François Pouqueville , French diplomat and archaeologist, who wrote

704-621: A war against the Aetolian League , which was called the " Social War ". The young king Philip V of Macedon sided with the Achaeans and called for a Panhellenic conference in Corinth, where the Aetolian aggression was condemned. After Aratus's death, however, the League joined Rome in the Second Macedonian War (200–196 BC), which broke Macedonian power in mainland Greece. The Achaean League

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768-447: Is located near the modern Chotoussa . 37°45′52″N 22°15′28″E  /  37.7644°N 22.2579°E  / 37.7644; 22.2579 Achaean League The Achaean League ( Ancient Greek : Κοινὸν τῶν Ἀχαιῶν , romanized :  Koinon ton Akhaion , lit.   'League of Achaeans') was a Hellenistic -era confederation of Greek city-states on the northern and central Peloponnese . The league

832-572: The American Museum of Natural History launched the Helike Project to locate the site of the lost city. Ancient texts, telling the story of Helike, said that the city had sunk into a poros , which everyone interpreted as the Corinthian Gulf . However, Katsonopoulou and Soter raised the possibility that poros could have meant an inland lagoon . If an earthquake caused soil liquefaction on

896-658: The Archaic period , a bronze snake head, and rare golden necklace were found. Later, following its fall to the Achaeans, Helike led the Achaean League , an association that joined twelve neighboring cities in an area including today's town of Aigio . Helike, also known as Dodekapolis (from the Greek words dodeka meaning twelve and polis meaning city), became a cultural and religious center with its own coinage. Finds from ancient Helike are limited to two fifth-century copper coins, now housed in Bode Museum , Berlin . The obverse shows

960-408: The Battle of Leuctra , during a winter night. Several events were construed in retrospect as having warned of the disaster: some "immense columns of flame" appeared, and five days previously, all animals and vermin fled the city, going toward Keryneia . The city and a space of 12 stadia below it sank into the earth and were covered over by the sea. All the inhabitants perished without a trace, and

1024-520: The Mycenaean period (c. 1750-1050 BC) were also found, becoming the principal city of Achaea . The poet Homer states that the city of Helike participated in the Trojan War as a part of Agamemnon 's forces. In the space of a possible little Poseidon temple, beginning around 850 BC, religious artifacts like bronze and clay items such as figurines, clay chariot wheels, iron weapons, and pottery dating to

1088-556: The Research about Helike and in 1968 Helike-Thira-Thebes ; in 1962 George K. Georgalas, the Greek writer; and in 1967 Nikos Papahatzis , a Greek archaeologist who published Pausanias’ Description of Greece . Spyridon Marinatos said that only the declaration of a third world war would obscure the discovery of Helike. In 1967, Harold Eugene Edgerton worked with the American researcher Peter Throckmorton . They were convinced that Helike

1152-480: The Roman era. G.T. Griffith has written that Achaean War was "a hopeless enterprise for the Achaeans, badly led and backed by no adequate reserves of money or men." Lucius Mummius received the agnomen Achaicus ("conqueror of Achaea") for his role. The original name Koinon of Achaeans (Achaean League) continues to exist in epigraphy , denoting either the previous Peloponnesian members (see koinon of Free Laconians ) or

1216-548: The Voyage en Grèce ; in 1851 Ernst Curtius the German archaeologist and historian who speculated about its location; in 1879 J. F. Julius Schmidt , the director of Athens Observatory, issuing a study comparing the Aegeion earthquake which occurred 26 December 1861 with an earthquake which might have destroyed Helike; in 1883 Spiros Panagiotopoulos , the mayor of Aegeion city, wrote about

1280-428: The hegemon had ultimate command on land and sea, but in fact the office seems to have been an honorary position which obliged the holder to contribute money to the League and support the League's military ventures. Ultimate decision-making power rested with the assembly ( synodos ), which was held at Aegium four times a year. All male citizens of communities belonging to the League were entitled to attend. Alongside

1344-424: The Achaean army was now composed of light troops. The thyreophoroi were a mixture of evolved peltasts and light hoplites , carrying the thureos shield, a thrusting spear and javelins. Plutarch says that they could be effective at a distance, but in close combat the narrow thureos shield disadvantaged them. He also says that their formation was ineffective, because it lacked inter-locked shields or

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1408-522: The Battle of Sellasia, where the phalanx of Antigonus Doson was also divided up with light/medium troops in between them. As well as reforming and re-organizing the infantry, Philopoemen also reformed the citizen cavalry. The cavalry was recruited, much like in other Greek states, from the rich and noble classes. Philopoemen organized the cavalry in lochoi , which usually in ancient military treatises means 'files', most probably of 8 men, grouped into dilochiai ,

1472-515: The Hellenistic historian who subsequently wrote about the rise of the Roman Republic. In 146 BC, the league's relations with Rome completely collapsed, leading to the Achaean War . The Romans under Lucius Mummius defeated the Achaeans at the Battle of Corinth , razed Corinth and dissolved the League, finally putting an end to the independence of Ancient Greece from external rule and ushering in

1536-525: The League and Ptolemy III increased Egypt's support for the Achaeans, being elected as the League's hegemon (leader) in return. Antigonus Gonatas finally made peace with the Achaean League in a treaty of 240 BC, ceding the territories that he had lost in Greece. The increased size of the league meant a bigger citizen army and more wealth, which was used to hire mercenaries, but it also led to hostility from

1600-585: The League for other national elements. Aratus, then only twenty years old, rapidly became the leading politician of the League. In the thirty two years between 245 and his death in 213, Aratus would hold the office of general a total of sixteen times. At this time, Central Greece and the Peloponnese were dominated by the Macedonian Kingdom of Antigonus II Gonatas who maintained garrisons at key strategic points such as Chalcis , Piraeus and Acrocorinth ,

1664-538: The Romans in 146 BC. The League represents the most successful attempt by the Greek city-states to develop a form of federalism , which balanced the need for collective action with the desire for local autonomy. Through the writings of the Achaean statesman Polybius , this structure has had an influence on the constitution of the United States and other modern federal states . The first Achaean League became active in

1728-461: The ancient city; in 1912 the Greek writer P. K. Ksinopoulos wrote The City of Aegeion Through the Centuries and in 1939 Stanley Casson , an English art scholar and army officer who studied classical archaeology and served in Greece as liaison officer, addressed the problem. Other investigators include in 1948 the German archaeologist Georg Karo ; in 1950 Robert Demangel , who was from 1933 to 1948

1792-425: The assembly there was a council ( boule ), which was open to citizen men over thirty years old. Special meetings ( synkletoi ) had to be called in order for the league to declare war, form an alliance, or receive official communications from the Macedonian king or (later) the Roman Republic. The league was ostensibly a democracy, but control seems to have consistently rested with a small elite group who monopolised

1856-431: The city was obscured from view except for a few building fragments projecting from the sea. Ten Spartan ships anchored in the harbour were dragged down with it. An attempt involving 2,000 men to recover bodies was unsuccessful. Aigion took possession of its territory. Strabo recounts how the city was submerged by a tsunami triggered by an earthquake, and argued that this was caused by "the anger of Poseidon", because

1920-524: The city's statuary. Later the site silted over and the location was lost to memory. Adalberto Giovannini argued that the submergence of Helike might have inspired Plato to end his story about Atlantis with its submersion. Ancient scholars and writers who visited the ruins include the Greeks Strabo , Pausanias and Diodoros of Sicily , and the Romans Aelian and Ovid . On 23 August 1817,

1984-664: The director of the French School of Archaeology in Athens; in 1950 Alfred Philippson , German geologist and geographer; in 1952 Spiros Dontas , Greek writer and member of the Academy of Athens; in 1954 Aristos Stauropoulos , a Greek writer who published the History of the city of Aegeion ; in 1956 the Greek Professor N. Κ. Moutsopoulos; in 1967 Spyros Marinatos, a Greek archaeologist who wrote

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2048-432: The federation. For example, Kydonia on Crete joined at some time after 219 BC. The city of Helike had been an important member of the first Achaean League, but sank into the sea following a disastrous earthquake in 373 BC. The town of Olenus , also one of the twelve members of the first Achaean League, had been abandoned before 280 BC, but was sometimes counted as though still extant. The dates in brackets indicate

2112-481: The fifth century in the northwestern Peloponnese. After the catastrophic destruction of the ancient capital Helike by an earthquake and tsunami in 373 BC, it appears to have lapsed. Xenophon 's Hellenica reports that Achaea underwent a democratic revolution in 367 and the previous ruling class was exiled. The regional Achaean League was reformed in 281/0 BC by the communities of Dyme , Patrae , Pharae and Tritaea , joined in 275 by Aegium, which controlled

2176-444: The generalship and other official positions. Given the difficulty of travelling to Aegium, assemblies were probably dominated by the wealthy. The Achaean army was an army of the traditional hoplite type. From the 270s onwards however, much like the rest of Greece, the emergence of the shield known as the thyreos was incorporated into Greek warfare and a new type of troop was developed. Reforming their troops into thyreophoroi ,

2240-711: The head of Poseidon , the city's patron, and the reverse his trident. There was a temple dedicated to the Helikonian Poseidon. Ancient Greeks would travel to Helike to be blessed by Poseidon and to trade. Helike founded colonies including Priene in Asia Minor and Sybaris in Southern Italy . Its panhellenic temple and sanctuary of Helikonian Poseidon were known throughout the classical world , and second only in religious importance to Delphi . The ancient account puts Helike's destruction in 373 BC, two years before

2304-517: The important sanctuary of Zeus Homarios . The league grew quickly to include the entire Achaean heartland, and after a decade it had ten or eleven members. The key moment for the League's transformation into a major power came in 251, when Aratus , the exiled son of a former magistrate of Sicyon , overthrew the tyranny in his native city and brought it into the Achaean League. Since the Sicyonians were of Dorian and Ionian origin, their inclusion opened

2368-511: The inhabitants of Helike had refused to give their statue of Poseidon to the Ionian colonists in Asia, or even to supply them with a model. According to some authorities, the inhabitants of Helike and Bura had even murdered the Ionian deputies. An account by Seneca claims the sea destroyed the city after an appearance of a comet . About 150 years after the disaster, the philosopher Eratosthenes visited

2432-484: The league consisted of an assembly of citizens, a smaller council, and a strategos (general). The strategos (general) controlled the league's military forces. Originally, two strategoi held office simultaneously, but from 251, there was only one, who was elected annually by the assembly. Until 217 the strategos entered office in May; afterwards he assumed power at the beginning of winter. Individuals could hold

2496-412: The money to challenge the Macedonian hold on the Peloponnese. Aratus' greatest success came when he captured Corinth and the fortress of Acrocorinth in 243 BC in a daring night attack. This effectively blocked Macedonian access to the Peloponnese by land, isolating their allies at Megalopolis and Argos. In light of this success, a number of Greek communities, including Epidaurus and Megara joined

2560-462: The nimble movements of light-armed troops'. These 'reforms' were not necessarily new to some of the constituent cities of the League, as the city of Megalopolis had been given bronze shields and armed in the Macedonian fashion by Antigonus Doson for the Sellasia campaign many years before. Philopoemen then trained the new army how to fight with the new weapons and tactics and how to co-ordinate them with

2624-435: The office more than once (and frequently did so), but not in consecutive years. The general was assisted in his duties by a board of ten demiourgoi , a secretary, a hipparch (cavalry commander), a navarch (admiral), and hypostrategoi (sub-generals commanding in military districts). The office of Hegemon (leader) was given to various Antigonid and Ptolemaic kings at various points in Achaean history. Ostensibly,

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2688-751: The original Peloponnesian members, except the ancient regions of Sparta, Elis and Messenia. Later Hypana in Elis, Corone , Messene , Sparta and Pagae in Attica were joined by conquest. In 223 BC, Megara in Attica deserted the Achaean League and joined the Boeotian Confederacy . Besides many city-states on the Mainland joining the Achaean Federation, certain Mediterranean island city-states also became part of

2752-474: The purpose of draining the marshy plain, by conducting the water towards the Katavóthra, around which there was, probably, a small lake. In the time of Pausanias we find that the lake covered the greater part of the plain; and that exactly in the situation in which Polybius describes the ditches, there was a mound of earth. It is probable that during the four centuries that elapsed between the battle of Caphyae and

2816-464: The region. In 229 BC, the Achaean League participated in a naval battle off the island of Paxos in a coalition with Korkyra and the Aetolian League , and were defeated by a coalition of Illyrians and Acarnanians ; as a result, the Korkyreans were forced to accept an Illyrian garrison in their city, which was put under the command of Demetrius of Pharos. In 220 BC, the Achaean League entered into

2880-541: The remaining independent Greek states, especially Elis , the Aetolian League and Sparta , which perceived the Achaeans as a threat. Corinth was followed by Megalopolis in 235 BC and Argos in 229 BC. However the league soon ran into difficulties with the revived Sparta of Cleomenes III . Aratus was forced to call in the aid of the Macedonian King, Antigonus III Doson , who defeated Cleomenes at Sellasia . Antigonus Doson re-established Macedonian control over much of

2944-503: The same amount from Megalopolis. Aratus also obtained 500 foot and 50 horse each from Taurion and the Messenians for defence of parts of the League open to attack via Laconia. The citizen infantry would have been armed as thyreophoroi , apart from the citizen light troops who would have been archers and slingers etc. This picked citizen force may well have existed before these so-called reforms, at least on an official basis, as we know of

3008-407: The sea two years before the battle at Leuctra. And Eratosthenes says that he himself saw the place, and that the ferrymen say that there was a bronze Poseidon in the strait, standing erect, holding a hippo-campus in his hand, which was perilous for those who fished with nets. And Heracleides says that the submersion took place by night in his time, and, although the city was twelve stadia distant from

3072-628: The sea was raised by an earthquake and it submerged Helice, and also the temple of the Heliconian Poseidon, whom the Ionians worship even to this day, offering there the Pan-Ionian sacrifices. And, as some suppose, Homer recalls this sacrifice when he says: "but he breathed out his spirit and bellowed, as when a dragged bull bellows round the altar of the Heliconian lord." ... Helice was submerged by

3136-400: The sea, this whole district together with the city was hidden from sight; and two thousand men who had been sent by the Achaeans were unable to recover the dead bodies; and they divided the territory of Helice among the neighbors; and the submersion was the result of the anger of Poseidon, for the lonians who had been driven out of Helice sent men to ask the inhabitants of Helice particularly for

3200-484: The site and reported that a standing bronze statue of Poseidon was submerged in a "poros", "holding in one hand a hippocamp ", where it posed a hazard to those who fished with nets. The meaning of " poros " in ancient Greek is not fully clear, but could refer to a inland lagoon, lake or narrow strait. Most archaeologist thought it referred to the Gulf of Corinth, but there was disagreement from Professor Dora Katsonopoulou. For

3264-460: The so-called "fetters of Greece". In other cities of the Peloponnese, namely Argos , Orchomenus , and Megalopolis , Antigonus had installed friendly rulers who were perceived as tyrants by the Achaeans. Aratus, whose father had been killed by one, called for the liberation of these cities and secured financial support for the League from Ptolemy II of Egypt , an enemy of the Antigonids. He then used

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3328-412: The statue of Poseidon, or, if not that, for the model of the temple; and when the inhabitants refused to give either, the Ionians sent word to the general council of the Achaeans; but although the assembly voted favorably, yet even so the inhabitants of Helice refused to obey; and the submersion resulted the following winter; but the Achaeans later gave the model of the temple to the lonians. Around 174 AD,

3392-406: The traveler Pausanias visited a coastal site still called Helike, located seven kilometres southeast of Aigio , and reported that the walls of the ancient city were still visible under water, "but not so plainly now as they were once, because they are corroded by the salt water". For centuries after, its submerged ruins could still be seen. Roman tourists frequently sailed over the site, admiring

3456-482: The visit of Pausanias, a diminution of population should have caused a neglect of the drainage which had formerly ensured the cultivation of the whole plain, and that in the time of the Roman Empire an embankment of earth had been thrown up to preserve the part nearest to Caphyae, leaving the rest uncultivated and marshy. Pausanias says that on the inner side of the embankment there flows a river, which, descending into

3520-407: The walls of Caphyae are visible upon a small insulated height at the village of Chotoussa, which stands near the edge of the lake. Polybius, in his description of the battle of Caphyae, refers to a plain in front of Caphyae, traversed by a river, beyond which were trenches ( τάφροι ), a description of the place which does not correspond with present appearances. The τάφροι were evidently ditches for

3584-564: The whole of Roman Achaea . In c. 120 BC Achaeans of cities in the Peloponnese dedicated an honorary inscription to Olympian Zeus, after a military expedition with Gnaeus Domitius against the Galatians in Gallia Transalpina . In Athens, in AD 221–222, the koinon of Achaeans, when the strategos was Egnatius Brachyllus, decided to send an embassy to the emperor Caracalla The government of

3648-427: The year of first adhesion. Some cities had periods of separation or foreign occupation and later joined again. From the ancient political geography of Arcadia , not totally compatible with modern Arcadia Helike Helike ( / ˈ h ɛ l ɪ k iː / ; Greek : Ἑλίκη , pronounced [heˈlikɛː] , modern Greek pronunciation: [eˈlici] ) was an ancient Greek polis (city-state) that

3712-481: Was named after the region of Achaea in the northwestern Peloponnese, which formed its original core. The first league was formed in the fifth century BC. The second Achaean League was established in 280 BC. As a rival of Antigonid Macedon and an ally of the Roman Republic , the league played a major role in the expansion of Rome into Greece. This process eventually led to the League's conquest and dissolution by

3776-525: Was one of the main beneficiaries. Under the leadership of Philopoemen , the League was able to finally defeat a heavily weakened Sparta and take control of the entire Peloponnese. The League's dominance was not to last long, however. During the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC), the League flirted with the idea of an alliance with Perseus of Macedon , and the Romans punished it by taking several hostages to ensure good behavior, including Polybius ,

3840-549: Was rediscovered in 2001 buried in an ancient lagoon near the village of Rizomylos . In an effort to protect the site from destruction, the World Monuments Fund included Helike in its 2004 and 2006 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites . Helike was founded in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3000-2200 BC) as a proto-urban town with large rectilinear buildings and cobbled streets; walls and occupation layers rich in pottery of

3904-501: Was rediscovered, a few false starts came along the way. In 1994, in collaboration with the University of Patras , a magnetometer survey carried out in the midplain of the delta revealed the outlines of a buried building. This target (now known as the Klonis site) was excavated and a large Roman building with standing walls was found. Also a well-preserved settlement of the early Bronze Age

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3968-406: Was submerged by a tsunami in the winter of 373 BC. It was located in the regional unit of Achaea , northern Peloponnesos , two kilometres (12 stadia ) from the Corinthian Gulf and near the city of Boura , which, like Helike, was a member of the Achaean League . Modern research attributes the catastrophe to an earthquake and accompanying tsunami which destroyed and submerged the city. It

4032-525: Was to be found on the seabed of the Gulf of Corinth. Edgerton perfected special sonar equipment for this research but permission to search was not granted by the Greek authorities. In 1967 and in 1976, Jacques Cousteau searched, with no result. In 1979 in the Corinthian Gulf, the Greek undersea explorer Alexis Papadopoulos discovered a sunken town and recorded his findings in a documentary film which shows walls, fallen roofs, roof tiles, streets, etc. at

4096-408: Was uncovered. In 2001, Helike was rediscovered buried in an ancient lagoon near the village of Rizomylos . To further confirm that the discovered site belongs to Helike, the earthquake destruction layer consisting of cobblestones , clay roof tiles, and pottery was uncovered in 2012. This destruction layer is in good agreement with ancient texts on the location of Helike and earthquake effects to

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