City
Heraclea
near Bitola
Listen to the story
Heraclea is marked with a pair of towers, and that honour suits the moment the map seems to capture: this form of the name is attested only in the third century AD, when the town received the proud title Septimia Aurelia Heraclea. Named after Heracles, it was Heraclea Lyncestis, the most important city of Upper Macedonia, near Bitola in North Macedonia. It prospered on the Via Egnatia, and in 48 BC Pompey met an envoy of the Dacian king Burebista here. Later a bishop's seat, it was devastated by the Goths in the fifth century.