page_title: Amphipolis
section_title: Revival in Late Antiquity
hierarchical_section_title: Amphipolis / History / Revival in Late Antiquity
caption_attribution_description: English: Plan and neighbourhood of Amphipolis
context_page_description: Amphipolis is a municipality in the Serres regional unit of Greece. The seat of the municipality is Rodolivos. It was an ancient Greek polis, and later a Roman city, whose large remains can still be seen.
  Amphipolis, an Athenian colony, was the seat of the battle between the Spartans and Athenians in 422 BC, and also the place where Alexander the Great prepared for campaigns leading to his invasion of Asia. Alexander's three finest admirals, Nearchus, Androsthenes and Laomedon, resided in Amphipolis, which is also the place where, after Alexander's death, his wife Roxana and their small son Alexander IV were exiled and later murdered.
  Excavations in and around the city have revealed important buildings, ancient walls and tombs. The finds are displayed at the archaeological museum of Amphipolis. At the nearby vast Kasta burial mound, an ancient Macedonian tomb has recently been revealed. The Lion of Amphipolis monument nearby is a popular destination for visitors.
  It was located within the region of Edonis.
context_section_description: During the period of Late Antiquity, Amphipolis benefited from the increasing economic prosperity of Macedonia, as is evidenced by the large number of Christian churches that were built. Significantly however, these churches were built within a restricted area of the town, sheltered by the walls of the acropolis. This has been taken as evidence that the large fortified perimeter of the ancient town was no longer defendable, and that the population of the city had considerably diminished.
  Nevertheless, the number, size and quality of the churches constructed between the 5th and 6th centuries are impressive. Four basilicas adorned with rich mosaic floors and elaborate architectural sculptures (such as the ram-headed column capitals – see picture) have been excavated, as well as a church with a hexagonal central plan which evokes that of the basilica of St Vitalis in Ravenna. It is difficult to find reasons for such municipal extravagance in such a small town. One possible explanation provided by the historian André Boulanger is that an increasing ‘willingness’ on the part of the wealthy upper classes in the late Roman period to spend money on local gentrification projects (which he terms euergetism, from the Greek verb εὐεργετέω; meaning 'I do good') was exploited by the local church to its advantage, which led to a mass gentrification of the urban centre and of the agricultural riches of the city's territory. Amphipolis was also a diocese under the metropolitan see of Thessalonica – the Bishop of Amphipolis is first mentioned in 533. The bishopric is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
caption: Plan and neighbourhood of Amphipolis.
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