stone-built pantry at theSyndeterios of the Egnatia Odos, and the
country house at Asprovalta.^20 The property at Vrasna was protected
by three external towers (Fig 4.5). This was an autonomous unit, with its
own olive press and two stone mills, perhaps for grinding corn, and was
evidently controlled by a local urban centre, since roof tiles carried the
names of two officials (astynomoi): Thourippos son of Demetrios and
Patrokles son of Proxenos. At Asprovalta, in the foothills of Mount
Kerdylion, commanding the road east over the River Strymon, was a
large farm complex extending over 0.35 ha. The earliest phase resembled
the fourth-centurybcVari house in the Attic countryside, with a suite of
rooms fronted by a porch and a courtyard in front. This design was
transformed in the succeeding phase, when the walls of the porch were
Fig. 4.5.Country estate at Vrasna, eastern Macedonia, consisting of residential
and storage rooms enclosed by a fortification wall with three external towers (mid
fourth century– 168 bc).
(^20) Adam-Veleni in Adam-Veleni et al. 2003, 114; Vrasna: 95–8; Syndeterios Egnatias:
99 – 100; Asprovalta: 101–7; Adam-Veleni 2009, 5–14; Adam-Veleni,‘Epigraphikes martyr-
ies apo ta Vrasna’,ArchMak6, 1–14.
146 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean