Halos

Map of classical and hellenistic Halos.

Halos: Greek town in southeastern Thessaly.

The city of Halos is mentioned by Herodotus of Halicarnassus as naval base for one of the Greek expeditions against the Persian invaders in the summer of 480 BCE. Herodotus also informs us about a remarkable religious custom that included the threat of human sacrifice. The town, which was close to the Pagasitic Gulf, was sacked in 346 by Parmenion, one of the generals of the Macedonian king Philip II. For more than forty years, the territory belonged to Pharsalus.

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Halos today, seen from the citadel.

In 302, however, the people of Halos were permitted to return (text), and they rebuilt their town in a military camp of Demetrius I Poliorcetes, who had occupied this place to prevent his enemy Cassander from moving into Greece. Archaeologists have established that the town, which was to the south of the original city, had the typical square outline of a Hellenistic military settlement. The new city was ill-fated: within a generation, it appears to have been destroyed by an earthquake.

Remains of Demetrius' enceinte.

Today, the remains of the southern part of the enceinte built by Demetrius (satellite photo) can be seen close to the highway from Thessalonica to Athens. Several houses have also been unearthed, and on a hilltop, you can still see the ancient citadel (satellite photo). A part of the finds can be seen in the museum of nearby Almyros.

Centuries later, the Byzantines built a fortress (satellite photo): the site had not lost none of its strategic importance.

Demetrius Poliorcetes

Literature

R. Reinders, New Halos. A Hellenistic Town in Thessalía, Greece (1988)
R. Reinders and W. Prummel (eds.), Housing in New Halos. A Hellenistic Town in Thessaly, Greece (2003)