Sanctuary of Artemis

Province

Achaea

Province Description

Roman intervention in Greek political affairs resulted in conflicts that led to the destruction of Corinth in 146 B.C. and the sacking of Athens in 86 B.C. It was not until 27 B.C., however, that Augustus formally organized the Roman province of Achaea. Achaea consisted of the cities and territories of the southern Greek mainland between the Peloponnese and Thessaly, as well as Epirus in the northwest and the Ionian and some of the Aegean islands.

The provincial capital was Corinth. Under Nero in the mid-1st century A.D. Epirus became a separate province, and in the mid-2nd century Thessaly was detached and added to the province of Macedonia. Under Roman domination many cities such as Athens, Sparta, Patras, and Corinth grew in size and prominence, the latter two partly owing to their importance as ports. After an initial decline in the number of rural sites in the early Empire, by the late Roman period the countryside was densely settled with farms and villas, due to changing landholding patterns and Roman improvements in agricultural and irrigation technology. The main exports from Achaea were wine, particularly from the northern Peloponnese, as well as olive oil and honey, linen and woollen textiles and marbles.

Location

Aulis
Aulis (Pleiades)

Garden

Sanctuary of Artemis

Keywords

• Literary
• date palms (Phoenix dactylifera)
• sacred groves
• Pausanias
• statues

Garden Description

The Greeks in Homer’s Iliad sacrificed to Artemis at Aulis in Boeotia in the hopes of favorable winds to carry them from Greek shores to Troy (Il. 2.305-310). The late 5th century Athenian playwright, Euripides, made reference to the grove of Artemis in his Iphigenia in Aulis (185-186, 1543-1549). The shrine of Artemis at Aulis was visited by Pausanias in the 2nd century A.D., and he noted white stone statues (presumably marble) of Artemis and palm trees growing in the sanctuary (9.19.6-8). According to him, the fruit was not all edible, as it was in Palestine, but he remarked that the fruit ripened better than the dates in Ionia.

Dates

unspecified

Pleiades ID

579889

TGN ID

5004252

Contributor

Maureen Carroll (ORCID: 0000-0001-9958-8032)

Publication date

21 Apr 2021