Kassope
Located in SW Epeiros, above the modern village of Kamarina. The city was apparently the result of a Συνοικισμόςof the Kassopaians in the 3d c. B.C. although some earlier remains, notably roof tiles, may indicate prior settlement on the site. Kassope may not have been severely damaged in the destructions attendant on the Roman conquest. In any event, there is evidence that it flourished at least up to the founding of Nikopolis. The site of the ancient city is extensive: its circuit wall has been calculated to be 2800 m long. A large theater, a smaller theater in the agora, the foundations of a temple, and the remains of a grid plan agora have been recorded.
A portion of the city has been excavated. Most interesting is a large building (33 x 30.3 m) constructed of ashlar and polygonal masonry, with upper courses built of baked brick set into a wooden superstructure. The building contains 17 rooms grouped around an interior courtyard, with an entrance through an 18th room which served as a doorway for the building on the S. The courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade of 26 octagonal Doric columns. There was also an upper story in the building on three of its four sides, perhaps allowing enough space for a total of 30 rooms. The rooms in the upper story must have been accessible by wooden ladders, while those on the lower one show some evidence for hearths and foundations for tables. The building has been identified as a katagogeion or guest house, and apparently some destruction in the 1st c. B.C. was followed by repairs.
A street 4 m wide runs to the S parallel to the katagogeion; to the SE lies the small theater, and to the SW a rectangular building so far unexplored. On the other side of the street is a long Doric stoa (63.1 x 11.3 m) which faces N; its construction is similar to that of the katagogeion. Opinions differ as to dates: 1) the katagogeion is placed in the first half of the 4th c., primarily on the basis of early roof tiles, and the katagogeion in the 3d c.; 2) the stoa and the katagogeion are more or less contemporary, constructed in the second half of the 3d c. when the agora itself was laid out.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (1835) 244-53P; RE 10 (1919) 2332-34 (Bürchner), Suppl. vol. 4 (1924) 879-80; S. I. Dakaris, Ἀϝασκαφὴ ἐις κασσωπὴν-πρέβεζης, Praktika (1952) 326-62PI; (1953) 164-74; (1954) 201-9; (1955) 181-86; N.G.L. Hammond, Epirus (1967) passimMPI; Der kleine Pauly (1969) 149.
W. R. BIERS