Neapolis

Neapolis (nēăp`əlĭs) [Gr.,=new city], name of many cities in ancient Greek and Roman times. The most important is the modern Naples, Italy.

---

Naples

 Italian Napoli ancient Neapolis

City (pop., 2001 prelim.: 993,386), capital of Campania, southern Italy. Located on the northern side of the Bay of Naples, southeast of Rome, it was founded c. 600 BC by refugees from an ancient Greek colony; it was conquered by the Romans in the 4th century BC. Part of the realms of the Byzantines and then the Saracens, in the 11th century it was conquered by the Norman ruler of Sicily, and through the 19th century it was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Naples. It was entered by Giuseppe de Garibaldi's expedition in 1860. Heavily damaged in World War II by Allied and German bombing, it was later rebuilt, but it suffered severe earthquake damage in 1980. It is a commercial and cultural centre and a major port with diversified industries. Among the city's attractions are medieval castles, churches, and a university.

---

Neapolis 

(Russian, Neapol’), an ancient city mentioned in the Chersonesus decree of the second century B.C. and in the Geography of Strabo as one of the Scythian royal fortifications in the Crimea. Neapolis probably was located in the southeastern outskirts of what is now Simferopol’, on a high plateau that constitutes the largest Crimean Scythian archaeological site (20 hectares). The governmental center of the late Scythians from the third century B.C. to the third century A.D., the city reached the height of its development in the second century B.C. Neapolis was destroyed as the result of an invasion by the Goths in the third century A.D.

Major archaeological excavations of Neapolis were conducted in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Finds include the remains of a strong defensive wall (8.5 m thick) with two gate towers. One of the towers was a mausoleum with 72 burials belonging to a king and nobles, who were buried with their horses, weapons, and many gold ornaments. Remains of dwellings and public buildings, including some with frescoes, have been uncovered. Archaeologists have also found portrait reliefs, fragments of statues, and pedestals inscribed in Greek dedicated to the gods.

More than 200 burials have been investigated in the necropolis; these include sumptuous family vaults carved into the cliffs, earthen vaults, and rows of flat graves. A painting in one of the burial vaults depicts a horseman, a Scythian with a lyre, and boar hunters with dogs. Another painting depicts a Scythian archer and dancing figures.

REFERENCES

Shul’ts, P. N. Mavzolei Neapolia skifskogo. Moscow, 1953.
Shul’ts, P. N. “Issledovaniia Neapolia skifskogo (1945–1950 gg.).” In the collection Istoriia i arkheologiia drevnego Kryma. Kiev, 1957.
Babenchikov, V. P. “Nekropol’ Neapolia skifskogo.” In the collection Istoriia i arkheologiia drevnego Kryma. Kiev, 1957.
Dashevskaia, O. D. “K voprosu o lokalizatsii trekh skifskikh krepostei, upominaemykh Strabonom.” Vestnik drevnei istorii, 1958, no. 2.
Pogrebova, N. N. “Pogrebeniia v mavzolee Neapolia skifskogo.” In the collection Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, no. 96, Moscow, 1961.
Raevskii, D. S. “Skify i sarmaty v Neapole.” In the collection Problemy skifskoi arkheologii. Moscow, 1971. (Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, no. 177.)

O. D. DASHEVSKAIA