Callium
Callium or Kallion, or Callipolis or Kallipolis, was the chief town of the Callienses, situated on the eastern confines of ancient Aetolia, on one of the heights of Mount Oeta, and on the road from the valley of the Spercheus to Aetolia. It was by this road that the Gauls marched into Aetolia in 279 BCE, when they surprised and destroyed Callium, and committed the most horrible atrocities on the inhabitants. Callium also lay on the road from Pyra to Naupactus, and it was divided by Mount Corax from lower Aetolia.
Its site is located near the modern Veloukhovos, at the site called "Steno", where the castle of Velouhovo was later built.
Names and sources
Thucydides mentions its inhabitants as the easternmost part of the Aetolian tribe of the Ophioneis. It was their chief town, and it is possible that Callium constituted the administrative centre of all the Ophioneis, as attested by Pausanias. In the Hellenistic period, as attested by the inscriptions, the city was called Callipolis, as cited by Stephanus of Byzantium.History
Despite the fact that traces of habitation exist since the Geometric period, Callium was permanently settled in the 4th century BCE. Its prosperity is possibly related to the rise of the Aetolian League into an important power in Greece. Its geographic location was particularly important and it is perhaps the reason why it was ravaged and completely destroyed by the Galatians in 279 BCE. Following their campaign, the city was rebuilt. Several of its citizens, as attested epigraphically, rose to the political hierarchy of the Aetolian League. Excavations revealed a wealthy city, with civic organization and sanctuaries. However, the inhabitants seem to have taken part in the political frictions of the 2nd century BCE regarding the advent of ancient Rome. After the Battle of Pydna it seems that Callium was destroyed by a fire, possibly due to arson.In the 9th century CE, Lidoriki appears to have succeeded Callium as it features in the episcopal lists of that time. In the 14th and 15th centuries only the castle of Lidoriki is mentioned, possibly identified with the remains of buildings and fortifications preserved on the ancient acropolis.