From Olynthus to Cassandreia: Macedonian settlement policy in the Chalcidice (348—297 BC)

This work examines settlement and population continuity between the destruction of Olynthus by Philip II in 348 BC and the foundation of Cassandreia on the site of Classical Potidaea under Cassander in 316 BC. In general, it questions whether the continuity of the Olynthian population in the new foundation of Cassandreia is detectable in the archaeological and onomastic evidence, and the extent to which literary narratives shape our understanding. The central research question concerns the political and social consequences of this process of transition. The framework is grounded in the rationale that it limits analysis to the period between a clear structural break (the destruction of Olynthus) and the Antipatrid life of Cassandreia. The structure allows a diachronic demonstration of how Olynthus was replaced by and integrated into a Macedonian royal foundation. It seeks to intervene in the debate between the destruction of the settlement and a controlled reorganization. The findings revise existing models of the League's decimation and clarify the establishment of a new polis.