Leucas
Leucas, also known as Lefkas, is an island located in the Ionian Sea, opposite the coast of Acarnania in northwestern Greece. Historically, it was connected to the mainland by a sandbar, making it a peninsula in ancient times. The island has a rich history of habitation dating back to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and is often associated with Homer’s reference to Dulichium. Colonized by the Corinthians around 625 BC, Leucas maintained loyalty to Corinth and began minting its own coinage by 500 BC. Throughout various historical conflicts, including the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, the island played significant roles, aligning with different city-states. Under Hellenistic rule, it eventually became the capital of the Acarnanian League. Roman forces captured the island in 197 BC, later granting it the status of a free community. Today, remnants of its historical significance can be seen through various archaeological sites, including walls of the acropolis, a theater, and the notable Temple of Apollo on Cape Leucatas, linked to legends of love and sacrifice.
Leucas
Leukas (Lefkas)
An island of the Ionian Sea, opposite the coast of Acarnania (northwestern Greece), to which in ancient times it was originally joined by a sandbar, so as to form a peninsula. Leucas was inhabited in Neolithic and (more extensively) Bronze Age times and may be identified with Homer's Dulichium (not with Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, as was earlier suggested: Telemachus' statement that `there is no room for horses to exercise on Ithaca, nor are there any meadows' could not apply to Leucas). The island was colonized by the Corinthians c 625 BC and remained loyal (unlike Corcyra [Corfu]) to its mother city, issuing coinage on the Corinthian model from soon after 500. The early settlers, colonizing the town of Leucas in the northeast of the island, nearest the mainland, cut through the sandbar to enable ships to pass through, but in the fifth century, according to Thucydides, they had to be hauled across the bar.
In the Persian Wars the Leucadians provided contingents to the Greek fleet at Salamis (480) and to the army at Plataea (479). During the Peloponnesian War (431–404) they assisted Corinth (the ally of Sparta) against Athens. After a shortlived alliance with the Athenians against Philip II of Macedonia, they passed into the hands of a succession of Hellenistic monarchs (Cassander, Agathocles of Syracuse, Pyrrhus of Epirus), but c 250 joined the Acarnanian League and became its capital. In 197 the Romans besieged and captured the city and annexed the island, but thirty years later detached it from the Acarnanians with the status of a free community. The figure which appears on its coinage from this period has been identified with Aphrodite Aineias, whose sanctuary stood on a small island beside the northern end of the sandbar joining Leucas to the Greek mainland. In the first century the sandbar was penetrated by a new channel, and a bridge (now under water) was constructed to the mainland. Agrippa seized the island in the civil war against Antony (culminating in the battle of Actium, 31), and in the Principate it was attached first to the new city of Nicopolis and then to the province of Epirus (AD 67).
Prehistoric material has been discovered at Nidri on the east coast. At the city of Leucas portions of the walls of the acropolis and lower town have survived, as well as part of the theater. Remains of lookout towers exist in various parts of the island, and foundations of a Doric temple have been uncovered in the south. There is also a Temple of Apollo (plundered by pirates, and mentioned by Strabo) on Cape Leucatas (Leuce Petra, the White Rock), at the extreme southwest tip of the island, which derives its name from the 2,000-foot white limestone cliff terminating the promontory. It was from here that the priests of Apollo propelled themselves into space, buoyed up—it was said—by live birds and feathered wings, and this was the legendary Leap, `believed to put an end to the longings of love’ (Strabo), from which Sappho threw herself to her death. Criminals, too, were hurled from these heights; Strabo records that, if they survived the ordeal, they were rescued in boats.