Phoinike
According to Polybios, this was the best fortified town of Epeiros. It rose on a hill shaped like the wrecked keel of a ship, with the village of Finik at the foot of the hill. The walls, in three sections, are preserved on the hill: the acropolis walls, the walls of the period of the enlarging of the acropolis, and the walls of the fortified city. These walls, constructed in ashlar masonry, employed huge blocks, and in some places rest in the living rock. They date between the 4th c. and 2d c. B.C. Inside the acropolis are the remains of Greek and Roman walls. In the village, there are few remains of Greek walls, but the Roman remains are numerous, incorporated for the most part into modern buildings. Some are in opus reticulatum and brick, others in opus incertum and can be dated even to the late Roman period. A small thesauros has been uncovered on the acropolis. In the Byzantine period it was transformed into a baptistery. Three cisterns, dating between the 5th c. B.C. and the 3d c. A.D., are recognizable, as are a few remains of minor buildings.
The necropolis, set on the slopes of the hill, contains tombs, all of the Hellenistic period, some chest-like in rock slabs and others covered with tiles.
BIBLIOGRAPHYStrab. 7.324; Ptol. 3.14.7; Polyb. 2.5.8; 26.27; 32.22; Procop. De Aed. 4.1.
L. M. Ugolini, Albania antica, II: L'Acropoli di Fenice (1932).
P. C. SESTIERI