NEA PAPHOS, FONDATION CHYPRIOTE OU LAGIDE? NOUVELLES CONSIDÉRATIONS SUR LA GENÈSE DU PORT ET DE LA VILLE
NEA PAPHOS, FONDATION CHYPRIOTE OU LAGIDE? NOUVELLES CONSIDÉRATIONS SUR LA GENÈSE DU PORT ET DE LA VILLE

Author(s): Claire Balandier
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Paphos; city foundation; harbour; katoikia; city walls; Nikokles; Ptolemy
Summary/Abstract: Nea Paphos is generally considered to have been founded by Nikokles, the last king of Paphos. Some scholars have proposed that Ptolemy may have founded the new city ca. 312 BC or after 294 BC. In this paper, the author tries to analyse and summarise the different proposals and suggests another hypothesis, namely that the foundation was not the result of a global scheme but instead, of different steps. Nikokles seems to have created the harbour, Ptolemy may have established a military settlement (katoikia), and then, once becoming king, and after taking control of the island again from 294 BC onwards, may have encouraged the development of the city. Is it possible that the Antigonids playeda role in the development of its harbour when they controlled the island between 306 and 294 BC. Nevertheless, it is only after Paphos becomes the seat of the Ptolemaic strategos in the early second century BC, probably after the Ptolemaic fleet was withdrawn from the Aegean in 145 BC, that Nea Paphos is protected by a strong city walls with perhaps another protected harbour in front of the North West gate: the intra muros city seems to have been enlarged and reshaped as a small version of Alexandria in Cyprus, until its destruction by an earthquake in the last quarter of the first century BC and its rebuilding under Augustus’ auspices.

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