be that this ashlar structure was intended for cult purposes. If so, this was
only one feature of the upland complex as a whole.
Country estates are well known in the landscape of Roman Thrace and
survey in the region of Pautalia has revealed a network of suchvillae
rusticae, set within a chessboard of villages or more substantial agglom-
erations,c. 2 – 3 km apart. At‘Mramorite’near Borovetz, on the west bank
of the River Strymon, a commemorative inscription and a mound
cemetery close to a villa site with substantial architectural remains can
be connected with a well-to-do family that acquired Roman citizenship,
most likely in the latefirst centurybc. Villa sites have also been identified
at Kocherinovo and Krashevitsa, on the east bank of the middle course of
the River Strymon, on the basis of architectural remains built to a high
specification.^23 The settlement history of this part of the Strymon valley
and the layout of such properties indicates a lengthy history of private
estates that precedes the Roman political settlement. Very little research
has been carried out to trace pre-Roman landholding of this type.
Fig. 4.6.Country estate near Kozi Gramadi, central Thrace, composed of a
number of built structures enclosed by a substantial fortification wall (second
half of the fourth centurybc).
(^23) Božkova 1994, 145.
148 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean