Philippopolis

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Philippopolis (Ancient Greek: Φιλιππούπολις, Φιλιππόπολις) is one of the names of the ancient city (amongst which are Thracian Eumolpia/Pulpudeva, Roman Trimontium) situated where Plovdiv is today. The city became one of the largest and most important in the region and was called "the largest and most beautiful of all cities" by Lucian. During most of its recorded history, the city was known by the name Philippopolis (Ancient Greek: Φιλιππούπολις, romanized: Philippoúpolis, lit. 'Philip's city') after Philip II of Macedon. Philippopolis became part of the Roman Empire and capital of the Roman province of Thracia. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Philippopolis had a population of 100,000 in the Roman period. Philippopolis was in a fertile region on the banks of the Maritsa River (the ancient Hebrus). The city historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres (820 feet) high, because of which Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as "The City of the Seven Hills".

The earliest signs of habitation on the territory of Philippopolis date as far back as the 6th millennium BC when the first settlements were established. Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery and objects of everyday life on Nebet Tepe from as early as the Chalcolithic, showing that at the end of the 4th millennium BC, there already was an established settlement there. Thracian necropolises dating back to the 2nd-3rd millennium BC have been discovered, while the Thracian town Eumolpias was established between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC.

The walled town was built by the Thracian tribe of the Bessi. In 516 BC during the rule of Darius the Great, Thrace was included in the Persian empire. In 492 BC the Persian general Mardonius ruled Thrace again, and it became nominally a vassal of Persia until the early rule of Xerxes I. From 479 BC the town was included in the Odrysian kingdom, a Thracian tribal union.

The town was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC, (giving his name to the new city) and the Odrysian king was deposed. This marked the expansion of the city with an organised Greek street plan. Ten years after the Macedonian invasion the Odrysian king Seuthes III revolted against Alexander the Great 's rule resulting in neither victory, nor defeat, but stalemate. Under Macedonian suzerainty the Thracian kings re-established their kingdom and started to exercise influence again.

The city was destroyed by the Celts as part of the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe, most likely in the 270s BC.

In 183 BC Philip V of Macedon conquered the city, but shortly afterwards the Thracians re-conquered it.

In 72 BC the city was seized by the Roman general Marcus Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War but was soon restored to Thracian control. In AD 46 the city was finally incorporated into the Roman Empire by emperor Claudius. It gained city status ( municipium ) in the late 1st century. As Trimontium it was an important crossroad for the Roman Empire and was called "the largest and most beautiful of all cities" by Lucian. Although it was not the capital of the Province of Thrace at this time (which was Perinthus ), the city was the largest and most important centre in the province. It was the seat of the Union of Thracians and the Via Militaris (or Via Diagonalis), the most important military road in the Balkans, passed through the city. Roman times were a period of growth and cultural excellence and the ancient ruins tell a story of a vibrant, growing city with numerous public buildings, shrines, baths, theatres and a stadium. The large scale of public construction during the Flavian Dynasty (69-96 AD) led to the city being named Flavia Philippopolis.

Hadrian (r. 117–138) visited the city as part of his tour of the empire and a triumphal arch was erected outside the east gate in his honour.

In 172, a second wall was built to encompass part of the city which had already extended out of the Three Hills into the valley, but leaving other parts outside unprotected.

In about 250 the Battle of Philippopolis involved a long siege by the Goths led by their ruler Cniva. After betrayal by a disgruntled citizen who showed them where to scale the walls, the city was burned and 100,000 of its citizens died or were taken captive according to Ammianus Marcellinus.

The city had contracted until the middle of the 4th century but then prospered later in the 4th century, like many cities in the region, and started spreading across the plain again. Philippopolis regained its size of the 3rd century, at its greatest prosperity. This expansion is shown by new large buildings on the acropolis (Trimontium) and also across the plain, such as the eastern baths and large Basilica.

However, it was destroyed again by Attila 's Huns in 441–2 and by the Goths of Theodoric Strabo in 471.

Philippopolis fell to the Bulgars of the First Bulgarian Empire in 863, during the reign of Boris I ( r. 852–889 ), having been briefly abandoned by the Christian inhabitants in 813 during a dispute with the khan Krum ( r. c. 803 – 814 ). After this the settlement contracted, though it remained a major city, with the city walls rebuilt and new Christian basilicas and Roman baths constructed in the 4th century. During the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars, the emperor Basil the Bulgar-Slayer ( r. 960–1025 ) used Philippopolis as a major strategic fortification, governed by the protospatharios Nikephoros Xiphias.

In the middle 11th century, the city was attacked by the Pechenegs, who occupied it briefly around 1090. The city continued to prosper, with the walls restored in the 12th century, during which the historian and politician Niketas Choniates was its governor and the physician Michael Italikos was its metropolitan bishop. According to the Latin historian of the Fourth Crusade, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Philippopolis was the third largest city in the Byzantine Empire, after Constantinople ( Istanbul ) and Thessalonica ( Thessaloniki ).

It suffered damage from the armies passing through the city during the Crusades as well as from sectarian violence between the Eastern Orthodox and the Armenian Orthodox and Paulician denominations. During the Third Crusade, Frederick I camped in Philippopolis from 26 August to 5 November 1189.

The city was destroyed by Kaloyan of Bulgaria ( r. 1196–1207 ) in 1206 and rebuilt thereafter. In 1219, the city became the capital of the Crusader Duchy of Philippopolis, part of the Latin Empire. The Second Bulgarian Empire recovered the city in 1263, but lost it to Byzantine control before recapturing it in 1323. The Ottoman Empire conquered Philippopolis ( Turkish : Filibe ) in 1363 or 1364.

The earliest signs of habitation on the territory of Philippopolis date as far back as the 6th millennium BC when the first settlements were established. Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery and objects of everyday life on Nebet Tepe from as early as the Chalcolithic, showing that at the end of the 4th millennium BC, there already was an established settlement there. Thracian necropolises dating back to the 2nd-3rd millennium BC have been discovered, while the Thracian town Eumolpias was established between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC.

The walled town was built by the Thracian tribe of the Bessi. In 516 BC during the rule of Darius the Great, Thrace was included in the Persian empire. In 492 BC the Persian general Mardonius ruled Thrace again, and it became nominally a vassal of Persia until the early rule of Xerxes I. From 479 BC the town was included in the Odrysian kingdom, a Thracian tribal union.

The town was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC, (giving his name to the new city) and the Odrysian king was deposed. This marked the expansion of the city with an organised Greek street plan. Ten years after the Macedonian invasion the Odrysian king Seuthes III revolted against Alexander the Great 's rule resulting in neither victory, nor defeat, but stalemate. Under Macedonian suzerainty the Thracian kings re-established their kingdom and started to exercise influence again.

The city was destroyed by the Celts as part of the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe, most likely in the 270s BC.