Oct 2017 - Another day in Greece….. another “Greek” ruin….! Well not really - ok Philippi is in Greece and was named by Philip II of Macedon in 356BC when he captured it for its nearby gold mines and strategic position, but this is no Delphi or Delos. There are some remains of “Greek” civilisation - but what you are going to see is primarily a late Roman colony planned as “Colonia Victrix Philippensium”. This occurred as “late” as 30BC following the Battle of Philippi 10 years earlier, and the city then developed into an early centre of Christianity - particularly from the 4th C, until it withered in the late 6th C.

Greece has only added 2 sites to its inscribed list in the 21st Century - Corfu in 2007 and Philippi in 2016.  One can understand perhaps a certain reluctance to put forward yet more archaeological sites from classical “Greek” civilisation and the “Roman” and “early Christian” ruins of  Philippi do “fill in” another period across the long “continuum” of Greek history. But I do wish they would get round to Knossos and Akrotiri!!

My main memory of Philippi is of a vast area of stone blocks hardly rising above ground level, which form the layout of the Roman City (Photo). Scattered around are a few taller pillars and walls, but the site lacks any really significant “sight” whether artistic or architectural. The, originally “Greek”, theatre is not particularly noteworthy among many such remaining structures. It was altered by the Romans to accommodate better their love of animal/gladiator conflicts (ie removal of the front rows to create a wall to keep those lions at bay and the introduction of an entry tunnel for them!) and is now used for a modern “Festival”. The city is set out around the Forum, alongside which runs the famed “Via Ignatia” whose visible paving still shows the cartwheel lines of wear. Some, otherwise insignificant, walls create a partially roofed “room” where it is said that St Paul was held prisoner (c57AD).

The site majors significantly on its Pauline “connections”, not unreasonably perhaps, since both he personally, and his memory, contributed to the city’s development as a centre of early Christianity. There are the (mainly minimal) remains of no less than 3 Basilicas (unimaginatively titled Basilicas “A”, “B” and “C”!), an octagonal church and a “Bishops House” but none would seem to offer much of note to the non specialist. The first Christian church building in the City (indeed possibly in Europe??) predated the “on view” remains of the Octagonal church which was built over its location. The remains of a Roman villa with a few mosaics and the inevitable “Roman latrines” complete my inventory. Behind the ruins, lies a bare rocky hill which constituted the acropolis of the original Macedonian city – but the description didn’t indicate that there was much to see up there and we didn’t climb it.

Outside the inscribed area lies the modern Baptistry of St Lydia, erected next to the stream where, tradition holds, St Paul baptised the first documented (Acts 16 14-15)    convert to Christianity in Europe. It seems to be an “obligatory” stop for many visitors to Philippi, demonstrating again the “Pauline” attraction of the site, and its garden is set out for services and outdoor baptisms in the very stream…….

The Western end of the site is entered along a “gated” tarmac road with its central white lines still clearly visible but now closed to traffic and forming the prime walkway through the site. It appears that this was, until fairly recently, the main road between the towns of Kavala and Drama. This “original” route, cutting the ruins of Philippi in two, is clearly visible on Google Satellite view, together with its realigned new by-pass to the South and West - all part of Greece’s preparation for Philippi’s nomination since ICOMOS would have been very unlikely to have liked a highway passing right through the site! But there were further problems to overcome – the Nomination file (still) contains significant passages about the Battle of Philippi, whose battlefield site was to be an element of the nomination but was willingly “dropped” by Greece in order to keep ICOMOS happy. We didn’t bother to try to track it down.

And that’s about it. I found that this WHS needed a lot of faith and/or imagination to breath life into its dead stones. I lack the former (though others following the footsteps of St Paul found this aspect uplifting) and wasn’t particularly able to summon up the latter compared with the numerous other Roman cities around the Med we have visited.