Dyme

Dyme (Ancient Greek: Δύμη), or Dymae,[1] was a town and polis (city-state)[2] of ancient Achaea, and the most westerly of the 12 Achaean cities, from which circumstance it is said to have derived its name.[3][4][5] The location of Dyme is near the modern Kato Achaia.[6][7]

This article is about the ancient town. For the Dutch company, see Dyme (company).
O: laureate head of Zeus R: fish under (AX) monogram, (APT) left and ΔΥ up all within wreath
silver hemidrachm of Achaean League struck in Dyme around 86 BC. Coin was struck with worn dies.

ref.: BMC 29, Sear GCV 2974, Clerk 55, BCD Peloponnesos 482

Location
The acropolis from the Mycenaean period, known as Teichos Dymaion, or the Dymaean Wall.[8]

It was situated near the coast, according to Strabo 60 stadia from the promontory Araxus, and according to Pausanias 30 stadia from the river Larisus, which separated its territory from Elis.

Names

It is further said by Strabo to have been formed out of a union of 8 villages, one of which was called Teuthea (Τευθέα);[9] and it is probable, that some of the different names, by which the city is said to have been called, were originally the names of the separate villages. Thus, its more ancient name is stated by Pausanias to have been Paleia (Πάλεια), and by Strabo to have been Stratus or Stratos (Στρατός). The poet Antimachus gave it the epithet Cauconis, which was derived by some from the iron Caucon in the neighbourhood, and by others from the Caucones, who were supposed to have originally inhabited this district.[10][11]

History

Greek history

The first resident of note was Oebotas who was said to be the first Achaean to win at the Ancient Olympic Games.[12] He was not honored for his victory by the Achaeans and legendarily cursed the Achaeans to never win the Olympics for that and the Achaeans did not have an Olympic winner until Sostratus of Pellene won the race.[13] Thucydides indicates it was near a great naval battle of the Peloponnesian War[14] and that some fleeing the battle found shelter there. After the death of Alexander the Great, Dyme fell into the hands of Cassander, but his troops were driven out of the city by Aristodemus, the general of Antigonus, 314 BCE.[15] This city had the honour, along with Patrae, of reviving the Achaean League in 280 BCE; and about this time or shortly afterwards its population received an accession from some of the inhabitants of Olenus, who abandoned their town.[4] A battle took place at Dyme in 226 BCE between the Spartans under King Cleomenes III and the Achaean League under the command of Aratus of Sicyon and ended in a Spartan victory. In the Social War (220-217 BCE), the territory of Dyme, from its proximity to Elis, was frequently laid waste by the Eleans.[16]

Roman era

In the First Macedonian War Cycliadas and Philip V of Macedon would prepare for an attack on Elis near Dyme; but in consequence of Dyme being the only one of the Achaean cities which espoused the cause of the Macedonian king, it was plundered by the Romans under Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus.[11] From this blow it never recovered; and it is said to have been without inhabitants when Pompey settled here a large number of Cilician pirates. In the civil wars that followed, some of these new inhabitants were expelled from their lands and resumed their old occupations.[17][18] Both Strabo[19] and Pliny the Elder[20] call Dyme a Roman colony; but this statement appears to be a mistake, since it is known that Dyme was one of the towns placed under the authority of Patrae, when it was made a Roman colony by Augustus;[11] and it is expressly told that no other Achaean town except Patrae was allowed the privilege of self-government.

See also

References
  1. Livy. Ab urbe condita Libri [History of Rome]. Vol. 27.31.
  2. Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004). "Achaia". An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 481–482. ISBN 0-19-814099-1.
  3. Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 1.145.
  4. Polybius. The Histories. Vol. 2.41.
  5. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p.387. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  6. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying.
  7. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  8. "Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού | Τείχος Δυμαίων".
  9. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p.337. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  10. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. pp. 337, 341, 342, 388. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  11. Pausanias (1918). "17.5". Description of Greece. Vol. 7. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., et seq.
  12. "Archived copy". www.ancientlibrary.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. Pausanias Description of Greece 7.17.13, 7.17.14
  14. "History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides (Chapter8)". etext.library.adelaide.edu.au. Archived from the original on 27 August 2006. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  15. Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 19.66.
  16. Polybius. The Histories. Vol. 4.59-60, 5.17.
  17. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. pp. 387, 665. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  18. Appian Mith. 96; Plutarch Pomp. 28; Cicero Att. 16.1, "Dymaeos agro pulses mare infestum habere, nil miruim."
  19. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. p. 665. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  20. Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 4.6.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Dyme". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

38°08′41″N 21°33′05″E

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