Recherche par auteur > Aristodemou Georgia

Until recently, the northern part of Greece and specifically the region of Macedonia, lacked monumental fountain structures (nymphaea) – at least of the scale known from the 2nd and 3rd century AD examples from the Eastern, North African and Levantine provinces. This image seems to be changing with the opportunity of the large-scale public works launched the past decades. Particularly in Thessaloniki, at least two monumental nymphaea have been excavated along the main commercial street of the city (modern Egnatia str.) at the level which corresponds to the Roman strata. The first one follows the exedra (semi-circular) type nymphaeum and the second follows the theatre-façade nymphaeum type. It is of great interest that both are dated rather late, after the mid-3rd century AD. It is a period during which Thessaloniki enjoys a special status as, from the Tetrarchy onwards, it becomes monumentally equipped so as to welcome the emperor according to the standards of the capital.

These structures are located at the same area where the so-called “Portico of the Idols”, a lost, enigmatic Roman monument was located. This was a two-storey high colonnade with statue-like sculpted figures, known by its Judaeo-Spanish name “Las Incantadas” or by the Greek equivalent byname, The Enchanted Ones. A lot has been said about its form and size, its location and orientation, the iconography and the meaning of its sculptural display, its function within the urban fabric, its relation with the other public buildings of the area. Here, we shall focus on one of the proposed views, according to which the monument belonged to a supposed large Thermae/Gymnasium complex, located between the political Forum of the city and the Roman Egnatia str., which was supplied by the underground aquifer. This paper will discuss both the underground water supply, and the ground level water consuming monuments at the center of the roman city. 

The discovery of such public water monuments fills in the gaps in the puzzle of the monumental topography of the Macedonian cities during the Roman period. Hopefully, future excavations will bring more to light. Such water structures, as part of the monumental equipment of a Roman city, attest the cultural and technological communication of the center with the peripheral regions of the Roman Empire, they show how a “globalized", architectural culture and vocabulary are implemented in the cities of the wider northern Greek region and demonstrate the dynamics of the province of Macedonia during the Roman imperial period.