Empúries

Greek Visit

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The Greek geographer Strabo, who wrote in the Augustan period, recounts, referring to Empúries that "emporitans, at first, occupied a small island off the coast today called Palaia Polis (old city), but currently live on land already "(Geography III, 4, 8-9).

In the first half of the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Phocaea founded on a small isthmus strategically located southern of the Gulf of Roses, the Palaia Polis. A headland, also occupied since the late Bronze and early Iron Age to an indigenous population that had maintained contacts with the Phoenician trade.

 

Soon after the establishment of the Greek Palaia Polis, the emporitans create a new sector of the city immediately south of the natural bay, ensuring the control of port facilities. This new settlement, located east of the hills rising around the marshes that border the old coast-line of the "mainland" of Strabo, is what is known of Neapolis (new city), designation granted by J. Puig i Cadafalch. The Greek city of Emporion with kernels of Palaia Polis and Neapolis, developed its urban activity since the 6th century BC to the Roman presence in 218 BC, when the port is used as entry point to the peninsula to Roman troops in their fight against the Carthaginian army.

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Wall of the southern sector (1st century BC)

Wall of the...

Asklepíeion (2nd century BC)

Asklepíeion...

Serapíeion (1st century BC)

Serapíeion...

Salting Factory (1st century BC)

Salting Fac...

Agorá i Stoá (2nd century BC)

Agorá i Sto...

Drains (2nd century BC)

Drains (2nd...

Greek jetty (2nd - 1st century BC)

Greek jetty...

Mosaic (2nd century BC)

Mosaic (2nd...

 
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