Topeiros Explained

Topeiros
Name Local:Τόπειρος
Type:municipality
Periph:East Macedonia and Thrace
Periphunit:Xanthi
Pop Municipality:9473
Area Municipality:312.5
Population As Of:2021
Coordinates:40.9833°N 72°W
Licence:AH
Mayor:Thomas Michoglou[1]
Since:2014

Topeiros (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Τόπειρος) is a municipality in the Xanthi regional unit, Greece. The municipality has an area of 312.493 km2.[2] Population 9,473 (2021). The seat of the municipality is in Evlalo.[3]

History

Topeiros was an ancient Thracian settlement, which in the imperial times evolved into a great urban center survived until the Byzantine period. The city is identified with the late Roman and Byzantine ruins saved a little south of the modern village of Paradeisos, where there is a passage of the river Nestos. The city functioned as tribal, administrative and religious center of the Thracian tribe of Sapaioi.

Thanks to its strategic position, in early 2nd AD century it was rebuilt – according to the Greek type of city-states – by emperor Trajan under his provincial policy intended to urbanization of Thrace. It was then known as Ulpia Topirus in Latin. Within the limits of its territory that stretched on both banks of the river Nestos were a dense network of rural settlements and castles, as well several Roman stations of via Egnatia.[4]

Notes and References

  1. https://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/d/home/en/municipalities/9018/ Municipality of Topiros, Municipal elections – October 2023
  2. Web site: Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation). National Statistical Service of Greece. el.
  3. Web site: ΦΕΚ B 1292/2010, Kallikratis reform municipalities. el. Government Gazette.
  4. D. C. Samsaris, Historical Geography of Western Thrace during the Roman Antiquity (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2005, p. 79-91