Vergina - History

History

During the 8th and 7th century BC the area was ruled by Illyrian tribes, which established a strategic base at the location of Aegae. When in the early 7th century BC local Thracian and Paeonian tribes revolted, the Illyrians pulled out. In approximately 650 BC, the Argeads, an ancient Greek royal house led by Perdiccas I, fled from Argos and established their capital at Aegae, thereby also establishing the Kingdom of Macedon. Aegae is said to mean "city of goats" (αἴξ is the Greek word for goat). The capital city of the Macedon kings was called so after Perdiccas I, who was advised by the Pythian priestess to build the capital city of his kingdom where goats led him. From Aegae they spread to the central part of Macedonia and displaced the local population of Pierians. The area of modern Vergina, which has inhabited by Pierians, thus remained uninhabited until the middle of the 6th century BC. After 550 BC, a Macedonian population settled in the area. In the 5th century BC, King Archelaus I moved the Macedonian capital north to Pella on the central Macedonian plain. Aegae remained an important ceremonial center but lost a festival in honor of Zeus to Dion. Aegae continued to flourish into the 3rd century BC until it was destroyed in the 1st century BC.

Modern Vergina was founded in 1922 near the site of the two small agricultural villages of Koutles (Greek: Κούτλες) and Barbes (Greek: Mπάρμπες) previously owned by the Turkish bey of Palatitsa and inhabited by 25 Greek serf families. After the Treaty of Lausanne and the eviction of the Bey landlords, the land was distributed in lots to the existing inhabitants, and to 121 other Greek families from Bulgaria and Asia Minor after population exchange agreements between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. The name for the new town was suggested by the then Metropolitan of Veria, who named it after a legendary queen of ancient Beroea (modern Veria).