Guide of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace

A rocky hill known as “Aghia Petra” rises on the SE side of the city of Didymoteicho and near the confluence of Eryhtropotamos and Evros rivers. Professor George Bakalakis claimed that Plotinopolis lied on that hill that has a height of almost 60 m. Earlier opinions placed the city on the north or south of Didymoteicho. Some scholars suggested that the city they were searching lied at the area of Kornofolia. The finding of a relief votive inscription recording the river god Evros, a deity that appeared in the coinage of Plotinopolis, encouraged this theory. On the other hand, Meletios, the Metropolitan of Athens wrote in his Geography that Plotinopolis lied between Traianoupolis and Adrianoupolis. However, a number of inscriptions with the name of the city found on the hill of Aghia Petra confirmed the existence of Plotinopolis on the above-mentioned hill.

The exact relation between Plotinopolis and Didymoteicho was also disputed by scholars in the past. Now most of them coincide in that Didymoteicho did not exist in the antiquity, given that the earliest relevant evidence is found in Byzantine times. It has been also claimed that the two cities coexisted for a period of time as neighbouring fortified positions.

Plotinopolis was founded by the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) in honour of his wife Plotina. The city was built on an extremely important position, in view of the fact that a Roman road passed through the valley of Evros that connected the city of Traianoupolis with the Thracian plain. Geographer Claudio referred to the city in the mid- 2nd century AD and it seems that the city experienced a heyday in the 3rd century AD. Inscriptions dating to that period attest the formation of political institutions like the council, or boule, and the deme, as well as the participation of representatives in Pan-Hellenic religious acts. Plotinopolis is also cited in the 4th century AD Itineraries, while, according to several written sources and testimonies, it was considered as one of the five official cities of the eparchy of Thrace during the early 6th century AD. Procopius referred to the restoration of the wall under Justinian (527-565 AD). From the 9th century onwards, the sources only record the neighbouring Didymoteicho, which makes very possible that the city of Plotinopolis had already been abandoned in that period.

George Bakalakis, Professor of Classical Archaeology was the first to begin research in the 1960’s. Some archaeological finds were already uncovered by the Germans during the Second World War. Systematic excavations commenced in 1977 and continued until the early 1980’s. In autumn 1996 the excavation works started over in the site and are still in progress.

A prehistoric layer of about 1 m thick was traced, probably dating to the Late Neolithic Age as the pottery finds suggest. Postholes from a pile-dwelling building were also found along with several tools like flint stone blades, axes and querns.

The scattered archaeological finds bear witness to the existence of an unknown settlement of the Classical and Hellenistic times that was originally constructed at the location of Plotinopolis. This settlement might have been a small trading centre facilitating commercial activity between the Greeks and the Thracians.

The Classical and Hellenistic architectural remains are scarce. Remnants of an extended Roman settlement were traced in the area. A part of the floor of a Roman building was also found, together with a pipeline system running underneath the floor. It must have probably operated as a public bath or was the bath of a luxurious house. This theory was later confirmed, after the revealing of the “hypocaust” (installations under the floor for heating water in ancient baths).

The walls and the floor of buildings were also uncovered dating from the second half of the 3rd to the late 6th centuries AD. A monumental rock-cut stairway led to a water cistern, which was made in isodomic masonry of hewn cornerstones. The water cistern and the rectangular vaulted culvert that date to the early 2nd century AD likely formed part of the aqueduct of Plotinopolis.

The monumental stone crepidoma is distinctive as well as the propylon of a Roman edifice, which was probably a public building in operation between the 2nd and the 6th centuries AD; in the last phase of its operation, it seems it was converted into a pitheon, i.e. the storage room of earthenware jars.

The necessity for the construction of a fortified wall along the northern side of the hill of Aghia Petra probably arose with the incursions of the Goths. The walls of pseudo-isodomic masonry reach the height of 1.10 metres. It is uncertain whether it dates between the 3rd and 4th centuries. Procopius mentions that it was restored by Justinian.

The excavations carried out on the northern slope of the hill of Aghia Petra revealed a part of a large building with mosaic floors dating to the mid- 2nd century AD. One of the two mosaic floors represents the motif of Leda and the Swan and bears other geometrical decoration, while the other mosaic floor depicts the Twelve Labours of Heracles. It is assumed that the building was the house of a rich merchant or, more likely, a public bath complex.

The hammered golden bust of the Roman Emperor Setimius Severus, “dressed” in scale armour with gorgoneion dates to the second half of the 2nd century AD. It was found at “Aghia Petra” and is now exhibited in the Komotini Archaeological Museum. At the area of Plotinopolis, the body of a male sculpture was found as well as two marble reliefs with an equestrian hero, the first of which dates to the Roman times while the second one dates around the 3rd century AD. The marble head of the Roman Emperor Caracallas was also uncovered together with the upper section of a Roman relief depicting a female figure. In the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, two Roman reliefs with the figure of a gladiator and the funeral supper respectively are exhibited that seem to originate from the region of Didymoteicho and Plotinopolis. Other important finds include a marble body of god Eros having a sash sword sheath that dates to the late Hellenistic era, as well as a small marble statue of a headless female figure of the early Severan times.

The pottery found in the region of Plotinopolis covers a period from the Prehistoric and late Roman until the Byzantine times, thus denoting the existence of a stable population on the hill of “Aghia Petra”. Several pottery sherds were uncovered along with Roman and Early Christian pottery that basically consists of unpainted everyday use vessels, some of them handmade. The Classical pottery found at Plotinopolis covers a period from the 5th until the 3rd centuries BC and consists of pottery sherds decorated in the Athenian West Slope style. Finds also include bases of pointed-bottom amphorae of the 4th century BC, stamped handles of mostly Thasian amphorae, vessels made in the local Thracian ceramic style dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC and Attic pottery of the Classical times.

The excavations at the area of Plotinopolis revealed numerous bronze and some silver coins dating from the Classical (4th century BC) through the Byzantine times (6th century AD). The coins of the imperial era bear inscriptions and some of them depict the deified Evros river, while other bear the representation of Asclepius, or the curled snake or the figure of Thanatos, etc. A remarkable medal was also found with the head of Caracalla on the obverse side and two female heads on the reverse side. The finding of coins from Plotinopolis is recorded in Kornofolia and Ellinochori, near Didymoteicho, where a treasure of silver coins was discovered containing coins from Chersonisos and Parion.

A great number of iron, bronze and bone items were uncovered in the wider area of Plotinopolis along with clay loom weights, flywheels, lamps and jewellery dating from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD as well as parts of columns and capitals of the Early Christian times.

North of the hill of Aghia Petra, the cemeteries of Plotinopolis were found containing several Roman tombs as well as an inscribed Hellenistic funerary stele, a tiled-roof hut tomb and numerous rock-cut tombs dating between the 4th and the 6th centuries AD.

A votive gift dedicated to Hercules by an unknown Thracian king was also found dating to the early imperial times. The discovery of various inscriptions in Plotinopolis bears witness to the cult of Apollo and Asclepius as well as of the deified Evros river.