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Modern Description: Stratos was a city in the interior of Akarnania. After the Athenian expedition in the area in 429, pro-Spartan citizens were expelled. During the last quarter of the 5th century BCE became the center of the federal institutions of the Akarnanian Confederacy. In 314 under the instigation of Cassandrus Akarnanians from other cities resettled in Stratos. The ruins of ancient Stratos lie 10km. northwest of Agrinio, on the northern edge of modern Stratos. The city was among the largest and best fortified acarnanian cities, capital of the Akarnanian League between the 4th and 2nd cent. B.C. The medieval village Sorovigli occupied the same site with the ancient city, a fact that resulted in extensive destruction of Stratos' urban network. Among the most important monuments of the ancient city is the 5km. long fortification, the agora and the theatre (its seating capacity has been estimated at ca. 5.000). The cemeteries are near and around the modern village and comprised several built tombs of the 'Macedonian' type. The fortifications, built in the 5th cent. B.C., with modifications dating to the 4th cent. B.C., incorporated 22 gates and 55 rectangular towers. The southern-main-gate of the city, was arranged in the form of a separate small enclosure, and lead to the agora of the city. An inner wall (850m. long) separated the city in two parts. The temple of Zeus and the agora lie in the western part, the theatre in the eastern one. The acropolis occupied the northern end of the fortification; Byzantine ruins have survived within it.
Ancient Stratos' agora was the commercial, political and administrative center of the city. It comprised a central square, built in two levels, surrounded by three stoas (north, east and west); the entrance was at the south. The bouleuterion (a rectangular building with inner columns and seats at all four sides) was built at the northeastern part of the agora. Several statue bases (including a semi-circular pedestal) have been found in the agora's square, at the centre of which was the great altar. A fountain occupied the southwestern corner of the agora. The theatre of ancient Stratos, dating to the late 4th cent. B.C., was the largest in Acarnania, with a seating capacity of 6-7.000. Its koilon is carved entirely in the bedrock and consists of 28 rows of seats, divided in 12 parts by 11 staircases, as well as an upper and a lower section. The koilon and the duct around it were lined with white limestone slabs. Around the rim of the orchestra were three small altars and a seat for Dionysus' priest. The scene had three construction phases, between the late 4th and the early 2nd cent. B.C.
Wikidata ID: Q25408797
Trismegistos Geo: 37649

Info: YP

(Dr. Yannis Papadopoulos, with the support of the Laskaridis Foundation.)

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