Megalithic polygonal wall in Plovdiv (Philippopolis). The earliest signs of habitation on the territory of Philippopolis date as far back as the 6th millennium BC.(Official information from Wiki) !
Philippopolis (Ancient Greek: Φιλιππούπολις, Φιλιππόπολις) is one of the names of the ancient city (amongst which are Thracian Eumolpia/Pulpudeva, Roman Trimontium) situated where Plovdiv is today. The city became one of the largest and most important in the region and was called "the largest and most beautiful of all cities" by Lucian. During most of its recorded history, the city was known by the name Philippopolis (Greek: Φιλιππούπολις, translit. Philippoúpolis, lit. "Philip's city") after Philip II of Macedon. Philippopolis became part of the Roman empire and capital of the Roman province of Thracia. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Philippopolis had a population of 100,000 in the Roman period.
Philippopolis was in a fertile region on the banks of the Maritsa River (the ancient Hebrus). The city historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres (820 feet) high, because of which Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as "The City of the Seven Hills".
The earliest signs of habitation on the territory of Philippopolis date as far back as the 6th millennium BC when the first settlements were established. Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery and objects of everyday life on Nebet Tepe from as early as the Chalcolithic, showing that at the end of the 4th millennium BC, there already was an established settlement there. Thracian necropolises dating back to the 2nd-3rd millennium BC have been discovered, while the Thracian town Eumolpias was established between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC.
The walled town was built by the Thracian tribe of the Bessi. In 516 BC during the rule of Darius the Great, Thrace was included in the Persian empire. In 492 BC the Persian general Mardonius ruled Thrace again, and it became nominally a vassal of Persia until the early rule of Xerxes I. From 479 BC the town was included in the Odrysian kingdom, a Thracian tribal union.
The town was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC (giving his name to the new city) and the Odrysian king was deposed. This marked the expansion of the city with an organised Greek street plan. Ten years after the Macedonian invasion the Odrysian king Seuthes III revolted against Alexander the Great's rule resulting in neither victory, nor defeat, but stalemate. Under Macedonian suzerainty the Thracian kings re-established their kingdom and started to exercise influence again.
The city was destroyed by the Celts as part of the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe, most likely in the 270s BC.
In 183 BC Philip V of Macedon conquered the city, but shortly afterwards the Thracians re-conquered it.
Roman history
In 72 BC the city was seized by the Roman general Marcus Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War but was soon restored to Thracian control. In AD 46 the city was finally incorporated into the Roman Empire by emperor Claudius. It gained city status (municipium) in the late 1st century.
The date when the megalithic polygonal wall was created in Plovdiv is unknown... One of the hypotheses says that it was possibly built by the Pelasgians at the end of the Bronze Age.. The second hypothesis says that it was built by the Greeks after the Pelasgians (which is unlikely, but hypothetically possible). The third hypothesis says that the Greeks and then the Romans and even the Byzantines built in the Iron Age... But if there are same builders, then why is there such a big difference in the stone blocks and in the methods of masonry ?
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