Mantinea (; Mantineia; also Koine Greek Ἀντιγόνεια Antigoneia) was a city in ancient Arcadia, Greece, which was the site of two significant battles in Classical Greece history.
In modern times it is a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit.
History
The city emerged from the
Synoecism of several neighbouring villages around 500 BC.
[David Sacks, Oswyn Murray, Lisa R. Brody, Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World, p. 199] Its patron god was
Poseidon. It was a large city with numerous temples. The fortifications originally were polygonal.
[Matthew P. Maher, The Fortifications of Arkadian City States, p. 229] The temple of
Hymnia, just on the north of the city, is mentioned by Pausanias.
[Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 5. 11, retrieved from http://www.theoi.com/Cult/ArtemisCult2.html] Diotima, who influenced
Socrates, supposedly was a priestess there. Near the city was the dam of Mantineia, one of the most advanced examples of ancient technology.
[S. A. Paipetis, Science and Technology in Homeric Epics, p. 247]
The city was the place of the First Battle of Mantineia, in 418 BC, the largest land battle of the Peloponnesian War. On one side were Sparta and its remaining allies, and on the other were Athens, its allies, plus the cities that had revolted against the Spartans. After the Athenians' commander, Laches, was killed, the battle turned into a rout of the Athenian and allied armies, a result attributed to greater Spartan courage.
Mantineia had been a member of the Peloponnesian League, but during the Peloponnesian War, the city joined Athens. After the war, it was forced to rejoin the Peloponnese. Later, Sparta used the Peace of Antalcidas (387 BC) as a pretext to break Mantineia into its constituent villages. In response, the Mantineans expelled pro-Spartans from the city, but were vanquished in the Siege of Mantinea (385 BC), and the city was dismembered and destroyed. After the Spartan defeat at the end of the Theban–Spartan War, Mantineia re-formed into a single city. The fortifications now became almost oval, keeping some parts of the old walls.[Matthew P. Maher, The Fortifications of Arkadian City States, p. 229]
The Second Battle of Mantinea, in 362 BC, led to the fall of Theban hegemony. In that battle, Athens and Sparta were allied. Thebes won the battle, but its greatest general, Epaminondas, was killed in the fighting.
king Antigonus III Doson sacked the city at 223 BC. Antigonus handed the city to the Achaeans, which colonized it, under Aratus of Sicyon, and renamed the city to Antigonia.[Getzel M. Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor, p. 123]
Roman emperor Hadrian restored Mantineia's name.[W. Hazlitt, The Classical Gazetteer, London 1851, p. 215] In 130 AD he visited the city and built a temple dedicated to his lover Antinous.[Jerome Jordan Pollitt, The Art of Rome C.753 B.C.-A.D. 337: Sources and Documents, p. 179]
Some decades later, probably few years before 166 AD,[Cambridge University Press, Pausanias's Description of Greece, p. xvii] Pausanias visited the area and described the ruins and remains of the city at the time in his 8th book.[Pausanias, book 8, 8.12..7, retrieved from http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8A.html#7]
Modern-day Mantineia is the region around the city of Tripoli in Arcadia, and was named after the namesake city of old. It is also the name of a Protected designation of origin of Greek Vin gris wine, made of the moschofilero grape traditionally grown in the region. The seat of Mantineia is Nestani, home to about one-fifth (20%) of the population.
Mountains surround the valley, including the Lyrkeia mountains as well as the Mainalo mountains to the southwest. The valley consists of vineyards, potato and wheat farms, as well as other crops, and covers about half of the municipality. Several floods ravaged Mantineia in the mid-20th century, even to the extent of forming a lake that has since been drained. Forests dominate the mountains. Rocks and grasslands cover most of the northeast.
The Mantineia Marble, dated to the 4th century BC and now exhibited at National Archaeological Museum of Athens, depicts the mythical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, with a Greek pandouris being played by a muse seated on a rock. This is important to researchers into the history of musical instruments.[ 4th century BC, the trichord, pandouris on a Greek marble in ancient Greece.] Lutes have been present in ancient Greece[ Pandura, the first appearance in Greece.]
Democracy in Mantineia
There was a
democracy in place in Mantineia by 420 BC, when
Thucydides says that the Mantineans joined an alliance led by Argos because it was a fellow democracy.
[Thucydides 5.29.1] Aristotle describes an unusual feature of the Mantinean system: officials were elected, not by the people as a whole, but by a special committee selected by the people.
[ Pol. 1318b22-33] For this committee to be selected, the people had to attend an Assembly of sorts, probably once a year, and there was also a Council,
[Thuc. 5.47.9] like in other Greek democracies. Officials included
damiourgoi (a political role) as well as
theoroi (a religious one) and
polemarchoi (military).
[E. Robinson, Democracy Beyond Athens (Cambridge, 2011), p. 39.] In 385 the Spartans forcibly suppressed the democracy, though it did have a brief revival in the 360s when Mantineia was part of the
Arcadian League.
[E. Robinson, Democracy Beyond Athens (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 41–44.]
Subdivisions
The municipal unit Mantineia is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):
[
]
Province
The province of Mantineia () was one of the provinces of the Arcadia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Tripoli. Its seat was the town of Tripoli.[ ] It was abolished in 2006.
Historical population
Folk music
Mantineian folk music mainly consists of the songs with meters 6/4, Time signature and 7/8.These meters are often the building blocks of the Mantineian folk dances: Tsamiko, Syrtos, and Kalamatianos respectively.
Types of folk songs
Klephtic Songs
Klephtic Ballad songs are about a historical event and the hardships specific villages went through.
Wedding songs
Wedding songs can differ from village to village and the major steps of weddings are followed by music:
Road songs
Road songs gets its name from the occasion they were sung, which was on the road by the workers who were going back to their home.
Laments or Mirologhia songs
are sung often by widows, only women, and include positive thoughts about the deceased in the province of Mantinea.
Folk musical instruments
There were many musical instruments in ancient Greece, however, Davul and Karamuza are the most common instruments existed in the villages of the province Mantineia.
Notable people
See also
-
List of ancient Greek cities
-
List of settlements in Arcadia
External links
