# Cierium

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{{Short description|Town and polis in ancient Thessaly}}
{{coords|39.36679|N|22.06635|E|format=dms|display=title|source:http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/25177.html}}
thumb|350px|Map showing ancient Thessaly. Cierium is shown to the lower centre.
'''Cierium''' or '''Kierion''' ({{langx|grc|Κιέριον}}) was a town and [polis](/source/polis) (city-state)<ref>{{cite book|author= Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen |title= An inventory of archaic and classical poleis|url= https://archive.org/details/inventoryarchaic00hans |url-access= limited |year= 2004|publisher= [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)|location=New York|isbn= 0-19-814099-1|chapter= Thessaly and Adjacent Regions|pages= [https://archive.org/details/inventoryarchaic00hans/page/n709 693]-694}}</ref> in the district of [Thessaliotis](/source/Thessaliotis) in [ancient Thessaly](/source/ancient_Thessaly),<ref>{{Cite Strabo|9.5.14.}}</ref> which according to some ancient commentators, such as [Stephanus of Byzantium](/source/Stephanus_of_Byzantium)<ref>{{Cite Stephanus|''s.v.'' Ἅρνη}}</ref> was the successor to the [Homeric](/source/Homer) [Arne](/source/Arne_(Thessaly)), the chief town of the Aeolian Boeotians in Thessaly, from which they emigrated to [Boeotia](/source/ancient_Boeotia).<ref name=DGRG>{{Cite DGRG|title=Cierium}}</ref>

==History==
According to [Thucydides](/source/Thucydides), the [Boeotians](/source/Boeotians) had occupied the territory of [Boeotia](/source/Boeotia) when, sixty years after the [Trojan War](/source/Trojan_War), they had been expelled from the city of Arne by the [Thessalians](/source/Thessalians). [Archemachus of Euboea](/source/Archemachus_of_Euboea) and other authors add that only a few Boeotians decided to stay in Arne and remain as servants of the Thessalians and were called ''[penestae](/source/penestai).''<ref>{{Cite Thucydides|1.12.}}</ref> Stephanus of Byzantium identified this Arne located in Thessaly with the city of Cierium, which was accepted by [William Smith](/source/William_Smith_(lexicographer)), writing in the 19th century, and by some current researchers,<ref>Jorge Martínez de Tejada Garaizábal, [http://eprints.ucm.es/16367/1/T33857.pdf ''Instituciones, sociedad, religión y léxico de Tesalia de la antigüedad desde la época de la independencia hasta el fin de la edad antigua (siglos VIII AC-V DC)'', tesis doctoral, pp.449-451. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2012).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829000423/http://eprints.ucm.es/16367/1/T33857.pdf |date=2018-08-29 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref> others place Arne at [Magoula Makria](/source/Magoula_Makria). a site nearby, but not at, Cierium.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/25174.html|title=Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire|publisher=[Lund University](/source/Lund_University)|accessdate=August 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828001741/http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/25174.html|archive-date=August 28, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the [Second Macedonian War](/source/Second_Macedonian_War), in the year 198&nbsp;BCE after the capture of [Phaloria](/source/Phaloria) by Roman troops and their allies, the cities of Cierium and of [Metropolis](/source/Metropolis_(Thessaly)) sent embassies that offered the surrender of their cities and thus obtained clemency.<ref>{{Cite Livy|32.15.}}</ref>

In the [Roman–Seleucid War](/source/Roman%E2%80%93Seleucid_War), Cieriumwas taken by the army of [Antiochus III the Great](/source/Antiochus_III_the_Great), together with [Metropolis](/source/Metropolis_(Thessaly)) and adjacent fortresses.<ref>{{Cite Livy|36.12.}}</ref> Shortly thereafter Roman consul [Manius Acilius Glabrio](/source/Manius_Acilius_Glabrio_(consul_191_BC)), in his advance through Thessalian territory, received delegates from the cities of Metropolis and Cierium that again, as in the Second Macedonian War, offered to surrender their cities shortly before the [Battle of Thermopylae](/source/Battle_of_Thermopylae_(191_BC)).<ref>{{Cite Livy|36.14.}}</ref>

The site of Cierium is in the modern village of [Pyrgos Kieriou](/source/Pyrgos_Kieriou%2C_Karditsa) (Πύργος Κιερίου), in the municipal unit of [Arni](/source/Arni%2C_Karditsa), municipality of [Sofades](/source/Sofades), periphery of [Karditsa](/source/Karditsa_(regional_unit)), [Thessaly](/source/Thessaly).<ref>{{Barrington Atlas|page=55}}</ref><ref>{{Cite DARE|25177}}</ref>

==Rediscovery and situation==
The site of Cierium was first discovered by [William Martin Leake](/source/William_Martin_Leake), who from inscriptions and coins found on the spot has proved that it was sited by the modern villages of Pyrgos Kieriou and [Mataragka](/source/Mataragka%2C_Karditsa) (Ματαράγκα), between the [Enipeus](/source/Enipeas_(Thessaly)) or [Apidanus](/source/Apidanus_(river)), and a tributary of that river. The territory of Cierium adjoined that of Metropolis; and we learn from an inscription cited by Leake that the adjustment of their boundaries was a frequent subject of discussion between the two people. [William Smith](/source/William_Smith_(lexicographer)) cites as evidence of the identification of Arne with Cierium an inscription, which mentions [Poseidon](/source/Poseidon) Cuerius (Κουέριος), a name evidently connected with the river [Cuarius](/source/Cuarius_(Boeotia)) or Coralius in Boeotia.<ref name=DGRG/><ref>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.411.}}</ref> The expelled Boeotians gave this name to the river, and founded upon its banks a temple of [Athena](/source/Athena) Itonia in memory of their former abode in Thessaly. Smith concludes that the river upon which Cierium stood was called Cuerius, Cuarius or Curalius, more especially as [Strabo](/source/Strabo) mentions a river Curalius in Thessaly, flowing through the territory of [Pharcadon](/source/Pharcadon) in [Histiaeotis](/source/Histiaeotis) past the temple of Athena Itonia into the [Peneius](/source/Pineios_(Thessaly));<ref>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.438.}}</ref> in which the only inaccuracy appears to be that he makes it flow directly into the Peneius. [Pausanias](/source/Pausanias_(geographer)) also appears to speak of this temple of Athena Itonia, since he describes it as situated between [Pherae](/source/Pherae) and [Larissa](/source/Larissa), which is sufficient to indicate the site of Cierium.<ref>{{Cite Pausanias|1|13|2}}</ref> Leake supposes with much probability that the name of Arne may have been disused by the Thessalian conquerors because it was of Boeotian origin, and that the new appellation may have been taken from the neighbouring river, since it was not an uncommon custom to derive the name of a town from the river upon which it stood.<ref name=DGRG/>

Cierium is not mentioned under this name in history; but it occurs under the form '''Pierium,''' which is undoubtedly only another appellation of the same place, π and κ being, according to Smith, often interchangeable.<ref name=DGRG/> Pierium was probably the general, and Cierium the local form. Pierium is first mentioned by Thucydides.<ref>{{Cite Thucydides|5.13.}}</ref> It is called '''Piera''' and '''Pieria''' by Livy,<ref>{{Cite Livy|32.15, 36.14}}</ref> in both of which passages it is mentioned in connection with Metropolis. In an Armenian translation of [Eusebius](/source/Eusebius) we find the name of [Amyntas of Pieria](/source/Amyntas_of_Pieria) in the list of the [strategoi](/source/strategoi) who governed Thessaly after the [Battle of Cynoscephalae](/source/Battle_of_Cynoscephalae) (197&nbsp;BCE). [Claudius Aelianus](/source/Claudius_Aelianus) speaks of '''Pierus''' in Thessaly.<ref>Claudius Aelianus, ''N. An.'' 3.37.</ref><ref name=DGRG/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Populated places in ancient Thessaly
Category:Former populated places in Greece
Category:Thessaliotis
Category:Thessalian city-states
Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Thessaly

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cierium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cierium) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cierium?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.