Heraclea Sintica

O: macedonian shield ·HPAKΛEWTWN·	R: club EΠI CTPYMONI
bronze coin struck in Heraclea Sintica in the era of Trajan; ref.: SNGCop 185; weght: 3,86g, diameter: 15 mm

For other uses, see Heraclea (disambiguation).

Heraclea Sintica was an ancient Greekcity in Thracian Macedonia, to the south of the Struma River, the site of which is marked by the village of Rupite, Bulgaria, and which was identified by the discovery of local coins. It was recently accidentally discovered at the foot of an extinct volcano on the land of Rupite. Professor Lyudmil Vagalinski, of the National Institute with Museum of Archaeology in Sofia, noticed strange structures above it: tunnels and an arch. Later on, after geosonar examination by Russian specialists, a large studio for producing ceramic masks for an unknown and as yet undiscovered ancient theatre was discovered. Soon afterwards, the scientists came across the proof of their identification of the city: a Latin inscription, dated 308 AD, of an imperial appeal addressed to the local urban citizens of Heraclea Sintica. Thus ended the years-long argument between Greece and Bulgaria about where Heraclea Sintica actually was.

References and bibliography

• Claude Lepelley: Une inscription ďHeraclea Sintica (Macédoine) récemment découverte, révélant un rescrit de ľempereur Galère restituant ses droits à la cite. in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 146 (2004), 221-231.
• Georgi Mitrev: Civitas Heracleotarum. Heracleia Sintica or the Ancient City at the Village of Rupite (Bulgaria). in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 145 (2003), 263-272.
• Konrat Ziegler und Walter Sontheimer (Hrsg.): Der Kleine Pauly Bd. 2 (1975), Sp. 1034-1035.