Metropolis
- the proper name of several cities, e. g. in Thessaly, between Pharsalus and Gomphi, Caes. B. C. 3, 80; Liv. 32, 13, 11.—Mētrŏ-pŏlītae, ārum, m., the inhabitants of Metropolis, Caes. B. C. 3, 81; cf. of others, Plin. 5, 29, 29, § 106; 5, 29, 31, § 120.
METRO´POLIS (Μητρόπολις: Eth. Μητροπολίτης.)
1.A town in the Caystrian plain in Lydia, on the road from Smyrna to Ephesus, at a distance of 120 stadia from Ephesus, and 180 from Smyrna. The district of Metropolis produced excellent wine. (Strab. xiv. pp. 632, 637; Ptol. 5.2.17; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. Nat. 5.31; Hierocl. p. 600.) Near the modern village of Tourbali, no doubt a corruption of the ancient name Metropolis, some ruins are still seen; and as their distance from Smyrna and Ephesus agrees with that mentioned by Strabo, there can be no hesitation in identifying the place. (Comp. Arundell, Seven Churches, p. 22, &c.; Hamilton, Researches, 1. p. 542; Rasche, Lexic. Num. 3.1, p. 633, &c.)
2.A town in the north of Phrygia, and, as the name seems to indicate, the capital of the ancient kings of Phrygia, though Stephanus Byz. (s. v.) derives the name from the mother of the gods. It was situated to the north of Synnada (Athen. 13. p. 574.), and must not be confounded with another town of the same name in the south of Phrygia. Its site is, in all probability, indicated by the ruins of Pismesh Kalasi, north of Doganlu, which show a very antique style of architecture, and mainly consist of tombs cut into the rocks; one of these tombs is that of king Midas. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 24) is inclined to think that these ruins mark the site of Nicoleia; but other travellers, apparently with more justice, identify them with Metropolis. (Franz, Fünf Inschriften, p. 42.) From the extent of the ruins, it would seem that in the time of the Roman emperors Metropolis was an important town; but afterwards it declined, though it is still mentioned by Hierocles (p. 677.)
3.A town in the southern part of Phrygia, belonging to the conventus of Apamea. (Plin. Nat. 5.29.) That this town is different from No. 2, is quite evident, even independently of the fact that Stephanus B. mentions two towns of the name of Metropolis in Phrygia, and that Hierocles and the Notitiae speak of a town of this name in two different provinces of Phrygia. (Hierocl. p. 673; Strab. 12. p. 576, 14. p. 663; Liv. 38.15.) [L.S]
METRO´POLIS (Μητρόπολις, Ptol. 3.5.28), a town of European Sarmatia, on the Borysthenes, near Olbia.
[E.B.J]METRO´POLIS (Μητρόπολις: Eth. Μητροπολίτης).
1.A town of Histiaeotis in Thessaly, described by Stephanus B. (s. v.) as a town in Upper Thessaly. Strabo says (9. p. 438), that Metropolis was founded by three insignificant towns, but that a larger number was afterwards added, among which was Ithome. He further says, that Ithome was within a quadrangle, formed by the four cities Tricca, Metropolis, Pelinnaeum, and Gomphi. The position of Metropolis is also determined by its being on Caesar's march from Gomphi to Pharsalus. (Caes. B C. 3.81; Appian, App. BC 2.64; Dio Cass..) It was taken by Flamininus on his descending into this part of Thessaly, after the battle of the Aous, B.C. 198. (Liv. 32.15.) We learn from an inscription that the territory of Metropolis adjoined that of Cierium (the ancient Arne), and that the adjustment of their boundaries was a frequent subject of discussion between the two peoples. [CIERIUM] Metropolis is mentioned in the sixth century by Hierocles (p. 642), and continued to exist in the middle ages under the name of Neo-Patrae (Νέαι Πάτραι, Constant. de Them. 2. p. 50, ed. Bonn). The remains of Metropolis are placed by Leake at the small village of Paleókastro, about 5 miles SW. of Kardhítza. The city was of a circular form, and in the centre of the circle are the vestiges of a circular citadel, part of the wall of which still exists in the yard of the village church of Paleókastro, where is a collection of the sculptured or inscribed remains found upon the spot within late years. Among other sculptures Leake noticed one in low relief, representing a figure seated upon a rock, in long drapery, and a mountain rising in face of the figure, at the foot of which there is a man in a posture of adoration, while on the top of the mountain there are other men, one of whom holds a hog in his hands. Leake conjectured with great probability that the seated figure represents the Aphrodite of Metropolis, to whom Strabo says (l. c.) that hogs were offered in sacrifice. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 4. p. 506.)
2.Another town in Thessaly, which Stephanus B. calls simply a town in Thessaly. This appears to be the Metropolis mentioned by Livy in his account of the campaign of Antiochus, in B.C. 191, where it is related that the Syrian king having landed at Demetrias, first took Pherae, then Crannon, then Cypaera, Metropolis, and all the neighbouring fortresses, except Atrax and Gyrton, and afterwards proceeded to Larissa. (Liv. 36.10.) From this account it would appear that this Metropolis was in Perrhaebia; and its site has been discovered by Leake, near that of Atrax, at a place called Kastri, where the name of Μητροπολίτης occurs in an inscription. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 371.)
3.(Lygovítzi), a town in the interior of Acarnania, S. of Stratus, and on the road from the latter place to Conope in Aetolia. At a later time it fell into the hands of the Aetolians, but was taken and burned by Philip in his expedition against the Aetolians, B.C. 219. It is mentioned as one of the towns of Acarnania, in a Greek inscription found at Actium, the date of which is probably prior to the time of Augustus. (Plb. 4.64; Steph. B. s. v.; Böckh, Corpus Inscript. No. 1793; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 576.)
4.A town in Amphilochia, near Olpae. (Thuc. 3.107.) As to its site, see ARGOS AMPHILO-CHICUM.
5.A town of Doris. (Steph. B. s. v.)
6.A town of Euboea. (Steph. B. s. v.)
(Μητρόπολις). A town of Thessaly in Histiaeotis, near the Peneus, and between Gomphi and Pharsalus. There were several other cities of this name, one in Phrygia, one in Lydia, and one in Acarnania.
A city of Hestiaiotis located at the foot of a low spur of the Pindus Mts., some 9 km SW of Karditsa, in the W Thessalian plain. It was formed from a synoecism of various towns, perhaps represented by ruins at Pyrgos, Vunesi, Portitsa. It was one of the corners of the square formed by Trikka, Metropolis, Pelinna, and Gomphoi (Strab. 9.437-38). It is first heard of in the 4th c. B.C. and issued coinage ca. 400 to 344 B.C. and again ca. 300 to 200. Its outlying farms were attacked in 198 B.C. by the Aitolians when it was under Macedonian control (Livy 32.13.11, see also Sperchieiai, Dhranista) and in the same year it surrendered to Rome (Livy 32.15.3). It seems to have been prosperous and an important member of the post 196 B.C. Thessalian League. Justinian renewed its walls (Procop. De aed. 4.3.5).
The remains of the ancient city (site confirmed by inscriptional evidence) are few. Modern Mitropolis (formerly Paiaiokastro) occupies the site. The city wall, poorly preserved, is of rough-faced blocks, ca. 2 m thick, and seems to be 4th-3d c. B.C. in date. The wall forms a circle some 5 km around, encompassing an isolated hill in the plain, which in Leake's time at least, had part of a wall preserved around it. Arvanitopoullos thought there were traces of two narrower circuits within the outer city wall. In the center of the ancient city, near the present Church of Haghios Georgios, were in Leake's time assorted architectural fragments and pieces of sculpture, in part brought from the surrounding fields. Here in 1911 Arvanitopoullos cleared ca. 10 m of a stereobate without discovering its full dimensions. He found coins and sherds (now in the Volo Museum) said to be of the 5th-3d c. B.C. and speculated that the foundation might be of a temple, specifically the Temple of Aphrodite Kastnia, who was the chief goddess of the city.
In 1909 at a place called Kalamia, apparently within the (outer?) wall circuit, a tomb was opened which contained a rich assortment of silver and bronze vessels and gold jewelry. The jewelry is of the first half of the 2d c. B.C.; some of the other objects are earlier. Most of the finds were divided between the Museums at Athens and Volo, but some of the jewelry is in the Hamburg Museum. Arvanitopoullos excavated some more graves here in 1911. A Roman necropolis on the road to Karditsa was excavated in the late 1920s.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. M. Leake, Nor. Gr. (1835) IV 506-12; L. Heuzey & Daumet, Mission archéologique en Macédoine (1876) 421I; A. S. Arvanitopoullos, in Praktika (1909) 171; (1911) 337-45P; id., “Eine Thessalischer Gold- und Silberfund,” AM 37 (1912) 73-118I; BCH 52.2 (1929) 5071; F. Stählin, Das Hellenische Thessalien (1924) 128-29; id., RE (1932) s.v. Metropolis 1; H. Hoffman & P. Davidson, Greek Gold (1965) 278-86I(jewelry in Hamburg, and bibliography on treasure).
T. S. MACKAY