Editing Butrint (section)

=== Ancient Greek period ===
[[File:Butrint Karte de.png|thumb|293x293px|Map of Ancient Buthrotum|alt=|left]]
Excavation at Bouthroton has yielded [[Proto-Corinthian]] pottery of the 7th century and then [[Ancient Corinth|Corinthian]] and [[Attica|Attic]] pottery of the 6th century, however there are no indications of a prehistoric settlement.<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC, p. 269, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-23447-4}}, 1982</ref> ''Bouthroton'' was in a strategically important position due its access to the [[Straits of Corfu]], and its location at the crossroads of mainland Greece and [[Magna Graecia]], the Greek and the "barbarian" worlds.<ref>[[David R. Hernandez]], "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.86.2.0205 Bouthrotos (Butrint) in the Archaic and Classical Periods: The Acropolis and Temple of Athena Polias]", ''Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens'', Vol.86, No. 2 (April–June 2017), p. 205.</ref> Thus, it became one of the two ancient ports in lower [[Chaonia]], the other being [[Onchesmos]] (modern Sarandë).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cabanes |first1=P. |title=The Growth of the Cities |journal=Epirus, 4000 Years of Greek History and Civilization |date=1997 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UV1oAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Ekdotikē Athēnōn |isbn=9789602133712 |language=en |quote=Lower Chaonia utilized the port of Onchesmos (modern Hagioi Saranta) and Bouthrotos}}</ref>

''Bouthroton'' (modern day Butrint) was originally one of the major centres of the Epirote tribe of the [[Chaonians]],<ref>Strabo. ''The Geography''. Book VII, Chapter 7.5 ([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7G*.html LacusCurtius]).</ref> part of the northwestern Greek group of tribes.<ref name=CAH437>{{cite book |last1=Boardman |first1=John |title=The Cambridge Ancient History: The fourth century B.C |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=437 |isbn=9780521233484 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFosAQAAIAAJ |language=en |quote=The north-west Greeks occupied a large area, extending in the west from the Gulf of Ambracia to the Gulf of Oricum ... The main groups from south to north were called Thesproti, Athamanes, Molossi, Atintanes, Chaones, Parauaei, ...}}</ref> They had close contacts to the [[Ancient Corinth|Corinthian]] colony of [[Korkyra (polis)|Corcyra]] (modern [[Corfu]]). According to the Roman writer [[Virgil]], its legendary founder was the seer [[Helenus]], a son of [[Priam|king Priam]] [[Troy|of Troy]], who had moved West after the fall of Troy with [[Neoptolemus]] and his concubine [[Andromache]]. Both Virgil and the Greek historian [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] recorded that [[Aeneas]] visited ''Bouthroton'' after his own escape from the destruction of Troy.
[[File:Pan Butrint.webp|left|thumb|495x495px|Bronze statue of [[Pan (god)|Pan]] unearthed in Butrint in 1981]]
The acropolis was erected on a hill on the bank of a [[lake Butrint]] (or lake Bouthrotum). The first extension of the 7th century BC acropolis occurred during the 5th century BC.<ref name=Andreou>{{cite journal |last1=Ioanna |first1=Andreou |title=Urban Organization |journal=Epirus, 4000 Years of Greek History and Civilization |date=1997 |page=100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UV1oAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Ekdotikē Athēnōn |isbn=9789602133712 |language=en |quote=Bouthrotos, which is situated on a hill on the bank of the lake of the same name, was laid out in the fifth century around an acropolis dating from the seventh century B.C. The walled area at the highest part of the hill, measuring 600x150 m. was ... The agora with its stoas, theatre etc. was organised in a separate, also fortified area.}}</ref> During the first years of the second [[Peloponnesian War]] (413–404 BC) the Corkyreans built fortifications stretching from [[Ksamil]] to Buthrotum. Buthrotum being previously an independent city, became subject to nearby Corfu.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hammond |first1=N. G. L |title=The Tribal Systems of Epirus and Neighbouring Areas down to 400 B.C. |journal=Epirus, 4000 Years of Greek History and Civilization |date=1997 |page=56 |isbn=9789602133712 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UV1oAAAAMAAJ |quote=The early years of the Second Peloponnesian War ... fortification wall in Epirus-, and it is evident that Bouthrotos, an independent city in the time of Hekataios, was made subject to Kerkyra.}}</ref>

By the 4th century BC it had grown in importance and included a [[Theatre of ancient Greece|theatre]], a sanctuary dedicated to [[Asclepius]] and an [[agora]]. The acropolis of Bouthrotum was protected by three circuit walls. The last and outer wall was erected around 380&nbsp;BC enclosing and area of 4ha. This 870m-long wall included bastions and five gates.<ref>Ceka, p22</ref> Two of the most important gates were known as Scean and Lion gate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stillwell |first1=Richard |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400886586 |page=175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NpArDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA175 |language=en}}</ref> Moreover, the agora, the [[stoa]]s, the residential zone and the theatre were located in a separate walled area.<ref name=Andreou/>

Several inscriptions in Buthrotum describe the organization of the Chaonians in the beginning of the 3rd cent. BC. which show that they too had an annual leader called ''Prostates'' ({{langx|el|Προστάτης}} Protector).<ref name=CAH437/> The Greek calendar of Bouthroton appears in the oldest known [[analog computer]], the so-called [[Antikythera Mechanism]] (c. 150 to 100 BC).<ref>Freeth, Tony; Bitsakis, Yanis; Moussas, Xenophon; Seiradakis, John. H.; Tselikas, A.; Mangou, H.; Zafeiropoulou, M.; Hadland, R.; et al. (30 November 2006). "Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism" (PDF). Nature. 444 Supplement (7119): 587–91. {{Bibcode|2006Natur.444..587F}}. {{doi|10.1038/nature05357}}. {{PMID|17136087}}. Retrieved 20 May 2014.</ref><ref>Freeth, Tony; Jones, Alexander (2012). "The Cosmos in the Antikythera Mechanism". Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Retrieved 19 May 2014</ref>

The theatre is known for the impressive number of inscriptions carved on its stones. Most of them deal with manumissions and give a great amount of details on the city during the Hellenistic era.<ref>Pierre Cabanes, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20186365 Nouvelles inscriptions d'Albanie Méridionale (Bouthrotos et Apollonia)]", ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', Bd. 63 (1986), pp. 137–155.</ref> The names of those slaves were almost exclusively Greek with a few exception of Latin ones which bore Greek family names.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Winnifrith |first1=Tom |title=Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania |date=2002 |publisher=Duckworth |isbn=978-0-7156-3201-7 |page=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dkRoAAAAMAAJ |language=en |quote=manumission inscriptions at Butrint, where the names of slaves manumitted are almost all Greek, confirm this...family members}}</ref>

In 228&nbsp;BC ''Buthrotum'' became a Roman [[protectorate]] alongside Corfu.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztqyJi7Ec9UC&q=Buthrotum+became+a+Roman+protectorate&pg=PA65|title=The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge|date=1836|publisher=C. Knight|language=en}}</ref> In the middle of the second century BC Buthrotum was the centre of an independent state, possibly the "Koinon of the Prasaiboi", as listed in the list of the [[theorodokoi]] at the [[Oracle of Delphi]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cabanes |first1=P. |title=From Alexander Molossus to Pyrrhus: Political Developments |journal=Epirus, 4000 Years of Greek History and Civilization |date=1997 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UV1oAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Ekdotikē Athēnōn |isbn=9789602133712 |language=en |quote=The list of thearodokoi of Delphi in the middle of the second century34 confirms that at this period Bouthrotos was the centre of an independent state which was visited by the theoroi}}</ref>