Amathonte hellénistique et romaine : l’apport des travaux récents

The contributions of excavations and recent French and Cypriot publications of the history of the site have proved very instructive concerning the periods considered. The construction of the port, that of the wall and even the incompletion of this work, the gradual establishment of the architectural framework of the agora (porticoes, fountain, Sanctuary of Bes), and the construction of the Sanctuary of the Aphrodite on the acropolis, the creation of a new sanctuary of the goddess in the lower town : all of this illuminates the importance of the Ptolemaic city on the chessboard of the Eastern Mediterranean. A remarkable epigraphic document which had been previously discovered attests to an episode of rivalry between Ptolemy VI and VIII, and to a well organized cadastral survey of the city. In the Imperial era, emperors replaced the sovereign Ptolemaic rulers besides the existing gods, and to them was added an Adonis Helios. But the urban framework would not have been significantly enriched if it hadn’t been for some constructions in the two sanctuaries of Aphrodite and by the addition of two small temples in the agora which unfortunately remain anonymous. Concerning the last two centuries of the existence of the city (VI – VIIth century), we are able to contrast the urban revival and the flowering of Christian worship. These changes in the last centuries of the city did not end the magical practices which had been entrenched in the mores of the population since the third century or perhaps before. The history, in particular the religious history, of a middle sized town existing during several successive empires, sharing their good fortune and bad times, has been thus enriched and diversified in sometimes unexpected ways.