Limnaia
Small harbor town at the head of a deep bay in the SE corner of the Gulf of Arta. Mentioned in the literature (Thuc. 2.80.8; Polyb. 5.5.12-6.5), it owed its importance to its good harbor and its position astride the main road from Stratos to Ambrakia (Arta). The Albanian adventurer Ali Pasha, in the early 19th c., repaired the ancient citadel and founded a new town within its walls.
Limnaia must have extended down to the sea; but modern building has erased all ancient remains near the harbor. About 50 m from the shore can be seen the first fragments of the E long wall, one of two linking the citadel to the harbor area. This wall ascends the NE nose of the citadel hill, which it then encircles on the E, S, and W. Where the ground begins to fall on the NW a cross wall returns E, completing the enclosure of the hilltop, while the W long wall angles down the steep slopes towards the modern road and the harbor. The whole system of fortifications seems to be Hellenistic.
There are extensive remains on the hilltop, but most of these belong to Ali Pasha's now deserted settlement.
BIBLIOGRAPHYL. Heuzey, Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie (1860) 320ffMPI; R. L. Scranton, Greek Walls (1941) 82-83; A. W. Gomme, Historical Commentary on Thucydides II (1956) 426-28; N.G.L. Hammond, Epirus (1967) 246-47, esp. on identification.
F. E. WINTER