Town and polis (city-state) of Pelasgiotis in ancient Thessaly
For the modern village in Greek Macedonia, seeSkotoussa.
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Scotussa shows evidence of human activity from theNeolithic period onwards, including a Mycenaean settlement in theLate Helladic period which persisted into theEarly Iron Age.[7] It is not mentioned inHomer, though the geographerStrabo records an early tradition that the oracle ofDodona inEpirus originally came from this place.[6] It was the home city ofPolydamas, who won thepankration at theOlympic Games of 408 BCE.[8]Xenophon records that the people of Scotussa, alongside the other peoples of Thessaly, fought againstAgesilaus II of Sparta when he marched his forces through the region in 394 BCE.[6] The city was taken byAlexander, tyrant of the nearby city ofPherae, in 367 BCE: it had previously been wealthy, and Alexander massacred its people, putting an end to its prosperity.[5]
The territory of Scotussa included theCynoscephalae Hills,[5] at which Alexander was defeated in 364 BCE at theBattle of Cynoscephalae by an allied force of Thebans and Thessalians led by the Theban generalPelopidas: this battle ended Alexander's hegemony over Thessaly.[9]
Scotussa was prominent during the late fourth century, during period of Macedonian hegemony over northern Greece, and in the ensuingHellenistic period.[5] Between 346 and 330 BCE, the city may have expanded its fortification walls and established a religious cult of Polydamas.[10] It became a member of theThessalian League after 197 BCE.[5] In that year, Scotussa was the site of a secondBattle of Cynoscephalae, between the Macedonian kingPhilip V and the Roman consulTitus Quinctius Flamininus: the Macedonians were defeated, ending Macedonian hegemony over the region and establishing Roman dominance over Greece.[11] It was taken by theSeleucid kingAntiochus III in 191 BCE, but soon after retaken by the Roman consulManius Acilius Glabrio.[6] At some point in the early Roman period, its eastern gate and a large public building collapsed, possibly as the result of an earthquake, and were never rebuilt.[12] Scotussa is mentioned byPlutarch as inhabited in 48 BCE, duringthe civil war betweenJulius Caesar andPompey, but described as uninhabited byPausanias, who wrote in the second century CE.[6]
The ruins of Scotussa are atAgia Triada in the municipality ofFarsala,[13][14] and are known as "Portes" ('Gates').[15] Most of the walls have been lost, though they appear to have been around 2 to 3 miles (3.2 to 4.8 km) in circumference, with anacropolis towards the southwest.[6] A joint Greek and Italian team began archaeological investigation of the site in 2014, including a large-scale survey of the ancient city.[16]
^Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004). "Thessaly and Adjacent Regions".An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. New York:Oxford University Press. pp. 706–707.ISBN0-19-814099-1.
^abcdefKramolisch, Herwig."Scotussa".Brill's New Pauly Online. Brill. Retrieved2025-04-15.
^abcdefSmith, William (1854)."Scotussa".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.
^Miller, Stephen Gaylord (2004).Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 161.
^Roy, Jim (1994). "Thebes in the 360s BC". In Lewis, J. M.; Boardman, John; Hornblower, Simon; Ostwald, M. (eds.).The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 6: The Fourth Century BC (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 203.doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521233484.ISBN978-1-139-05433-1.
Missailidou-Despotidou, V. (1993). "A Hellenistic Inscription from Skotoussa (Thessaly) and the Fortifications of the City".Annual of the British School at Athens.88:187–217.JSTOR30064366.
