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{{Short description|Ancient Greek city}}{{Other uses}}
{{coord|39.34773|N|22.91091|E|source:http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/21977.html|display=title|format=dms}} 
[[File:Thessaly.jpg|thumb|350px|Map showing ancient Thessaly. Demetrias is shown to the right on the Pagasaean Gulf.]]
'''Demetrias''' ({{langx|grc|Δημητριάς}}) was a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] city in [[ancient Magnesia|Magnesia]] in [[ancient Thessaly]] (east central [[Greece]]), situated at the head of the [[Pagasaean Gulf]], near the modern city of [[Volos]].

==History==
[[File:Painted stele Demetrias Louvre Ma3631.jpg|thumb|250px|Painted funerary stele from Demetrias in the [[Louvre Museum]].]]

It was founded in 294&nbsp;BCE by [[Demetrius Poliorcetes]], who removed thither the inhabitants of [[Nelia]], [[Pagasae]], [[Ormenium]], [[Rhizus]], [[Sepias]], [[Olizon]], [[Boebe (Thessaly)|Boebe]] and [[Iolcos]], all of which were afterwards included in the territory of Demetrias.<ref>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.436}}</ref> It soon became an important place, and the favourite residence of the Macedonian kings. It was favourably situated for commanding the interior of Thessaly, as well as the neighbouring seas; and such was the importance of its position that it was called by [[Philip V of Macedon]] one of the three [[fetter]]s of Greece, the other two being [[Chalcis]] and [[Corinth]].<ref>{{Cite Polybius|17.11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Livy|32.37}}</ref>

In 196&nbsp;BCE, the Romans, victorious in the [[Battle of Cynoscephalae]] over Philip V in the previous year, took possession of Demetrias and garrisoned the town.<ref>{{Cite Polybius|18.28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Livy|33.31}}</ref> Four years later the [[Aetolian League]] captured it by surprise. The Aetolians allied themselves with [[Antiochus III]] of the [[Seleucid Empire]] in the [[Roman–Seleucid War]]. This ended in the defeat of Antiochus.<ref>{{Cite Livy|35.34, 43.}}</ref> After the return of Antiochus to Asia in 191&nbsp;BCE, Demetrias surrendered to Philip, who was allowed by the Romans to retain possession of the place.<ref>{{Cite Livy|36.33}}</ref> It continued in the hands of Philip and his successor till the over-throw of the Macedonian monarchy at the [[Battle of Pydna]], 169&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{Cite Livy|44.13}}</ref>

During Roman times it lost importance, but it was the capital of the [[Magnesian League]]. In Christian times some buildings were built, especially two churches, one in the northern port, called Basilica of Damokratia, and another one to the south of the city, outside the walls, known as the Cemetery Basilica. Under Roman emperor [[Constantine the Great]] (ruled 306–337) it became a Christian [[episcopal see]] and is now a [[titular see]] of the Catholic Church.<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), "Sedi titolari", p. 880</ref>

According to [[Procopius]] (''De Aedificiis'', 4.3.5), Demetrias was rebuilt by [[Justinian I]] (r. 527–565), but other evidence points to the possibility that "ancient urban life may have already come to an end by the beginning of the 6th century" (T.E. Gregory). Demetrias is mentioned by [[Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)|Hierocles]] in the sixth century.<ref>{{Cite Hierocles|p. 642, ed. Wesseling}}</ref> Its territory was settled by the [[South Slavs|Slavic]] tribe of the [[Belegezitai]] in the 7th/8th centuries, raided and sacked by the [[Saracens]] in 901/2, and by rebels during the [[Uprising of Peter Delyan]] in 1040.<ref name="ODB">{{cite encyclopedia |last= Gregory |first= Timothy E. |title= Demetrias |pages= 603–604 |editor-last= Kazhdan |editor-first= Alexander |editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan |year= 1991 |encyclopedia=[[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 }}</ref>

Following the [[Fourth Crusade]], the town was granted to the exiled Byzantine empress [[Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera]], and after her death in 1210 to [[Margaret of Hungary]], the widow of the [[King of Thessalonica]], [[Boniface of Montferrat]].<ref name="ODB"/> The city came under the rule of [[Manuel Komnenos Doukas]] ca. 1240, but was ''de facto'' controlled by a branch of the [[Melissenos]] family.<ref name="ODB"/> In the 1270s, the Byzantines scored an important victory against the [[Republic of Venice |Venetians]] and the [[Triarchy of Negroponte |Lombard barons of Euboea]] at the [[Battle of Demetrias]].

The [[Catalan Company]] sacked the town in 1310 and kept it until 1381 at least, but from 1333 on, it began to be abandoned for neighbouring [[Volos]]. It was finally captured by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1393.<ref name="ODB"/>

==Archaeology==
The site of Demetrias is at a place called [[Aivaliotika]] (Αϊβαλιώτικα) in the municipality of [[Volos]].<ref>{{Cite DARE|21977}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Barrington|55}}</ref>

The ancient town was described by [[William Martin Leake]], who visited the site in the early 19th century, as occupying "the southern or maritime face of a height, now called Gorítza, which projects from the coast of Magnesia, between 2 and 3 miles [3 to 5 km] to the southward of the middle of Volo. Though little more than foundations remains, the inclosure of the city, which was less than 2 miles [3 km] in circumference, is traceable in almost every part. On three sides the walls followed the crest of a declivity which falls steeply to the east and west, as well as towards the sea. To the north the summit of the hill, together with an oblong space below it, formed a small citadel, of which the foundations still subsist. A level space in the middle elevation of the height was conveniently placed for the central part of the city. The [[acropolis]] contained a large cistern cut in the rock, which is now partly filled with earth . . . . Many of the ancient streets of the town are traceable in the level which lies midway to the sea, and even the foundations of private houses: the space between one street and the next parallel to it, is little more than 15 feet [5 m]. About the centre of the town is a hollow, now called the lagúmi or mine, where a long rectangular excavation in the rock, 2 feet wide [0.6 m], 7 deep [2.1 m], and covered with flat stones, shows by marks of the action of water in the interior of the channel that it was part of an aqueduct, probably for the purpose of conducting some source in the height upon which stood the citadel, into the middle of the city."<ref>[[William Martin Leake|Leake]], ''Northern Greece'', vol. iv. p. 375, ''et seq.''</ref>

The site, about 3&nbsp;km south of [[Volos]], was excavated from the end of the 19th century. Remains of the walls (about 11&nbsp;km) and the [[acropolis]] that was to the northwest in the highest point of the city are preserved. Also uncovered were the theater, the ''Heroon'' (a temple above the theater), an aqueduct, the sacred [[agora]] (with a temple and the administrative center of the city), and the ''Anaktoron'' (royal palace) east of the city on the top of a hill, which was occupied until the middle of second century&nbsp;BCE, and later used by the Romans as a cemetery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2377|title = Ministry of Culture and Sports &#124; Demetrias}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of ancient Greek cities]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{DGRG|title=Demetrias}}

==External links==
*[http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2377 History of Demetrias]


[[Category:294 BC]]
[[Category:290s BC establishments]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 3rd century BC]]
[[Category:Cities in ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Ancient Magnesia]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Greece]]
[[Category:Antigonid colonies]]
[[Category:Macedonian colonies in Thessaly]]
[[Category:Volos]]
[[Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Thessaly]]
[[Category:Byzantine sites in Thessaly]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Thessaly]]