BeroiaLOUISA LOUKOPOULOU

Beroia was an important ancient city in

MACEDONIA (Bottiaia), built on the eastern

slope of Mount Bermion, allegedly named

after the daughter of the mythical king Beres.

The area was settled by Macedonians ca. 700

BCE, but Beroia is first mentioned with other

Macedonian locations in a disputed passage of

Thucydides (1.61.4) on Athenian activity in

northern Greece in 432.

Beroia was among the first Macedonian

cities to surrender to the Romans following

the Roman victory at Pydna (168; see PYDNA,

BATTLE OF). The city grew in unprecedented

importance and prosperity, particularly under

the empire, when it became the seat of the

Macedonian KOINON, celebrated as a “metropo-

lis and twice neokoros”; later, also as “colonia

and four times neokoros.”

A rich harvest of inscriptions, dating almost

exclusively from the Roman period, illustrates

various aspects of Beroia’s civic life: a consti-

tution with a pronounced aristocratic charac-

ter, typical of all Macedonian cities, with an

epistates as the chief executive official, heading

a board of magistrates, possibly named tagoi.

As in all Macedonian cities, the priest of

ASKLEPIOS was eponymous, while HERAKLES (HER-

CULES), the ancestor of the royal Macedonian

dynasties, both the Temenids and the

Antigonids, was the city’s patron deity under

the epithet of Kynagidas. Evidence indicates

also the cults of Apollo and Hygieia, later asso-

ciated with that of Asklepios; of Dionysos,

revered with the epithets Agrios, Erikryptos,

Pseudanor; of Athena, Ennodia, Hermes, Pan,

and Atargatis. A long inscription of Hellenistic

date details the regulations governing the

functioning of the city gymnasium. Ample

information on local civic, social, and religious

institutions is further provided by over two

Figure 1 Triumphal Arch at Glanum, Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. © Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art

Library.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1098–1099.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah14063

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hundred manumission inscriptions, mostly

from the sanctuary of the Mother of Gods

Autochthonous in Leukopetra, located in the

vicinity of Beroia.

Ancient Beroia lay right under the Byzantine

andmodern city of the same name. Its territory

bordered that of Pella to the northeast, Aigai

to the southeast, and Mieza to the north;

it included several secondary settlements

named in inscriptions of Roman date: Kyneoi,

Auranton, Kannonea, and Droga. The earliest

remains uncovered in Beroia date to the Early

Bronze Age. As early as the fourth century BCE,

a partly preserved fortification circuit wall

made of local poros protected the city and its

acropolis situated in the western extremity.

The upper parts and more recent sections indi-

cate an emergency reconstruction in the third

century CE, with extensive reuse of ancient

marbles, often bearing important inscriptions.

There were at least three gates: toward the east

(to Pella, Edessa, and Thessalonike), south (to

Pieria and the Haliakmon crossing), and west

(to upper Macedonia across Mount Bermion).

Little remains of the ancient city plan under the

modern dense construction grid. The main

road axes and the ancient agora corresponded

presumably to themodern civic center and road

network. An epistylion bearing a dedication to

Dionysos attests to the existence of a theater as

early as the late Classical or early Hellenistic age.

The stadium and the gymnasium were closely

located in the eastern outskirts of the city.

The Museum of Beroia houses interesting

collections of Hellenistic pottery, terracotta

figurines, and lamps, and, most importantly,

a series of reliefs and sculptures of high artistic

quality, mostly chance finds or salvaged from

the walls.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Brocas-Deflassieux, L. (1999) Beroia, cite de

Macedoine: etude de topographie antique. Beroia.

Gauthier, P. and Hatzopoulos, M. B. (1993) La loi

gymnasiarchique de Beroia. Athens.

Gounaropoulou, L. and Hatzopoulos, Μ. Β. (1998)Epigra’eς Kato Makedoniaς (metaxu touBermiοu orouς kai tou Axiou potamou). TeuwoςA΄: Epigra’eς Beroiaς. Athens.

Hatzopoulos, M. B. (1996) Macedonian institutions

under the kings: a historical and epigraphic study,

2 vols. Athens.

Hatzopoulos, M. B. and Paschidis, P. (2004)

“Makedonia.” InM. H. Hansen and T. H. Nielsen,

eds., An inventory of Archaic and Classical

poleis: 794–809. Oxford.

Papazoglou, F. (1988) Les villes de Macedoine a

l’epoque romaine. Athens.

Petsas, P., Hatzopoulos, M. B., Gounaropoulou, L.,

et al. (2000) Inscriptions du sanctuaire de la

Mere des dieux autochtone de Leukopetra

(Macedoine). Athens.

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