Orikon
At the head of the Gulf of Valona. The site is a low rocky outcrop on the coast, approached from the E by a swampy strip of shore and having on the W an open channel that connects the sea and a lagoon inland of the outcrop; the channel and the lagoon afforded small ships an excellent harbor, which was improved by a stone-built quay, still visible under water. Foundations of a circuit wall with towers can be traced in rock-cuttings, a small theater or odeum has been excavated, and there are remains of a road from the harbor to the Roman road which ran S inland of the Ceraunian peninsula. Inscriptions from the area- show that the Dioscuri, Aphrodite, and Eros were worshiped. Though the fortified area was small, Orikon was an important port of call on the coasting route and acted as a market for the hinterland of the Gulf; it issued coinage in the Hellenistic period. Julius Caesar described the place (BCiv. 3.llf).
BIBLIOGRAPHYC. Patsch, “Das Sandschak Berat in Albanien,” Schriften der Balkankommission, Antiquarische Abteilung 3 (1904) 71; Excavation report in Buletin, Universitetit Shtetëror të Tiranës, Seria shkencat shoqërore (1960) 1.92f; N.G.L. Hammond, Epirus (1967) 127ff.
N.G.L. HAMMOND