The well-preserved and impressive remains of the wall of Mantineia attracted the interest of European travelers as early as the beginning of the 19th century. The wall has an ellipsoid plan and dominates the Mantin plain like a ring, surrounding and delimiting the ancient city. The construction of the fortified enclosure, in the form that is preserved to this day, is placed in time immediately after the battle of Lefktra, in 371 BC, when the Mantineans, at the prompting and initiative of Epaminondas, were called to repopulate their city .
Mantineia had a fortified wall at least from the early 5th century, which was destroyed by the king of Sparta, Agesipolis in the year 385 BC, in the way Xenophon thoroughly describes in Greek 5,2,1-7 and repeats later Pausanias (8,8, 7-10): he blocked the river Ophi, which crossed Mantineia from one end to the other, as a result of which the city was flooded, the brick superstructure of the wall got wet and it collapsed. This fate became a lesson for the Mantineans, who, when rebuilding the wall after 370, dug a deep trench all around the outside, where they channeled the water of the Ofeus river, which, approaching the city, split into two arms, surrounded the city from the outside and they joined at the other end in another bed.
The perimeter of the newer wall of Mantineia has a total length of 3942 m. Its lower part, 4.20 m thick, is stone and survives at a height of approximately one (1) meter, approaching 2 meters in some places, while the superstructure , which is no longer preserved, was made of brick. The wall was reinforced externally with towers, which have been the hallmark of the city since the time of the first travelers and are depicted in all the scientific textbooks on the art of fortification in antiquity. The exact number of towers has always been a point of contention among researchers and can only be determined through systematic excavation clearances. According to the French excavators, the towers total 122 and are found at intervals ranging from 25 - 30 meters. All the towers are rectangular in plan, with the exception of some protecting the gates of the wall, which are semi-circular. From the at least 8 gates that the wall had, roads started that led - among others - to the most important Arcadian cities of the time, such as Palladio, Tegea, Methydrio, Cleitora and Orchomenos. The strengthening of these gates with towers gave the whole a monumental character.
Exposed to any kind of external threat, due to the geographical location of their city and having learned from the sufferings of the past, the Mantineans built in the early 4th century. a strong fortified enclosure, which is a work-station for the development of the art of defense in the Greek area during the classical era.
Source: MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS
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