Aigai

關於

Aigai (Ancient Greek: Αἰγαί, Aigaí, Latinized: Aegae) or Aegae was the original capital of Macedon, the ancient Greek kingdom of the Argead Makedones in Lower Macedonia, in northern Greece. The site is located on the foothills of the Pierian Mountains, between the modern towns of Vergina and Palatitsia in the Haliacmon valley, and overlooks the central Macedonian Plain. The city was abandoned in the 3rd century and was rediscovered in the 19th.

Three major archaeological missions have been carried out at Aegae. The first was led by Léon Heuzey of the French School at Athens in the 1860s; Manolis Andronikos led excavations over a century later and made many important discoveries, including the tomb of Philip II and the Golden Larnax bearing the Vergina Sun; and Angeliki Kottaridi led restoration efforts in the 2000s. Today it is the site of an archaeological site and two museums. Prior to the discoveries at Vergina, Edessa was thought to be the site of Aegae.

The early Macedonian conceptualisation of the state was that of a typical ancient Greek city-state (Polis), with Aegae as an urban centre (ἄστυ) ruling over the surrounding countryside (χώρα), no different than Athens ruling over Attica or Sparta over Lacedaemon; whether this was historically accurate or a post-rationalisation to legitimise the Argead dynasty is not clear. The urban fabric of the city represents a pivotal moment of transition between the classical Greek city-state and the imperial centres of the Hellenistic period.

The seat of government was later transferred to Pella, which was located on a coastal waterway of the Thermaic Gulf. The current plain of central Macedonia did not yet exist, its area being divided between Lake Ludias and marshland. The plain was created by draining and infilling in modern times. The old capital remained the "national hearth" of the Macedonian kingdom and the burial place for their kings. These were the Temenid, also known as Argead dynasty, which descended from the Perdiccas.

Philip II of Macedon fell by the hand of Pausanias of Orestis at Aigai and his son Alexander the Great was proclaimed king of Macedonia on the spot. The body of Alexander was to have also reposed at Aigai, but it was taken to Memphis through the intrigues of Ptolemy I Soter.

內容改寫自 Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。照片來自 Wikimedia Commons.