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''For other places named Pella, see:
Pella (disambiguation).''
'''Pella''' is one of the the 51
prefectures of Greece. Its capital town is
Edessa.
The city-state of '''Pella''' was the palace-capital of ancient
Macedon, (now in
Greece), removed from the older palace-city of Aigi (
Vergina) by king
Archelaos, (413–399 BCE), who invited the painter
Zeuxis, the greatest painter of the time, to decorate it. Archelaos was the host of the Athenian playwright
Euripides in his retirement. Euripides ''
Bacchae'' premiered here, about 408 BCE. Pella was the birthplace of
Philip II of Macedon and of
Alexander the Great, his son. The hilltop '''palace''' of Philip, where
Aristotle tutored young Alexander, is being excavated.
In antiquity, Pella was a port connected to the
Thermaic Gulf by a navigable inlet, but the harbor has silted, leaving the site landlocked.
Archaeological digs in progress since 1957 have uncovered a small part of the city, which was made rich by Alexander and his heirs. The large
agora or market, was surrounded by the shaded colonnades of
stoas, and streets of enclosed houses with frescoed walls round inner courtyards. The first ''
trompe-l'oeil'' wall murals imitating perspective views ever seen were on walls at Pella. There are temples to
Aphrodite,
Demeter and
Cybele, and Pella's '''pebble-mosaic floors''', dating after the lifetime of Alexander, are famous: some reproduce Greek paintings; one shows a lion-griffin attacking a stag, a familiar motif also of
Scythian art, another depicts
Dionysus riding a leopard.
The famous poet
Aratus died in Pella circa 240 BCE. Pella was sacked by the Romans in
168 BCE, when its treasury was transported to Rome. It was then destroyed by earthquake in the 1st century BC; shops and workshops dating from the catastrophe have been found with remains of their merchandise. The city was rebuilt over its ruins, which preserved them.
See also:
Thessaloniki
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