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Modern Description: The city is in Aitolia-Akarnania. The name refers to two settlements, the older of which was at the foot of Mt. Kurios (Strab. 10.451) between the river Acheloos and the river Euenos, and was mentioned by Homer (Il. 2.638). Pleuron, according to Strabo, was founded by the Kouretes; or Thoas, son of Aeneas, guided the Aitolians there (10.461). When Demetrios II of Macedonia destroyed Pleuron the inhabitants founded a new city on the uplands of Arakinthos, which had the protection of Rome before the taking of Corinth. During the Imperial age the uprisings in Aitolia continued. The ruins of the more ancient city are N of the newer one and cosist of a few remnants of Cyclopean walls. Nea Pleuron has been identified on the Arakinthos (Zygos) in the locality of the castle of *kuri/as *ei)rh/nhs. The city wall is a large rectangule with seven gates and 31 towers served by stairways. The masonry is partly trapezoidal and partly peudo-isodomic with squared faces, well preserved almost everywhere, and datable to ca. 230 B.C. The acropolis occupies the upper part of the site, but little of it remains. A Byzantine chapel was built on the remains of the Temple of Athena. The actual city occupies a vast terrace 243 m above sea level, with which it is linked N-S by a defense wall that also encircles the port. The civil buildings are to the S. The theater is in the SW part of the city with the proscenium leaning against the inside surface of the city wall. The central part of the building housing the skene is a tower. The proscenium had six columns, and the parascenia must have been elevated above it and must have leaned against the wall. The circle of the orchestra is tangent to the skene building. The cavea, well preserved at the N, had five sections and six staircases. The construction of the theater is contemporary with that of the walls. Several other areas are recognizable within the city walls, including the site of the agora, with a stoa oriented N-S and ca. 62 m long, and the plan of the gymnasium. To the SE was a large communal cistern (30 x 20 m) with five rectangular basins. There are also remains of unidentifiable public buildings and rather extensive remnants of houses and cisterns. The necropoleis extend to the S of the terrace occupied by the city. (N. BONACASA
Wikidata ID: Q45793176
Manto: 9063162

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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