OROPOS AND THE AMPHIAREION

How to survive and remain independent when surrounded by bigger and stronger neighbours? It must have been a question on the minds of leaders of every small polis in the ancient Greek mainland. Bigger powers inevitably controlled their fates, for instance, through sheer force or influencing their leaders. Oropos was no different in that respect. Located in the eastern fringes of central Greece, its political fate was unwillingly determined by its geography and the three larger neighbours surrounding it.

Roy van Wijk

Just across the Euboean Strait from Oropos there was Eretria, who, according to the thirdcentury historian Nicocrates, had founded Oropos (FGrH 376 F1). Traces of this relationship have been found in the linguistic legacy of the town; Oropos is the Eretrian version of the river Asopos that flowed through Boeotia. To its south there was Athens, its inhabitants always enviously peeking across the ridges of Mount Parnes. To its west, there were the Boeotians, the Thebans first and foremost. A volatile history The political history of Oropos can be summarized in one word: volatile. Between the mid-sixth century and the early third century BC, control over the region swapped between the Athenians, Eretrians, Boeotians and, rarely, the Oropians a staggering eleven times. Sometimes these changes were the result of external…

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Ancient History (Digital) - 1 Issue, AH 53

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