City
Heraclea Santica
Rupite bei Petrič
Listen to the story
Heraclea Sintica, the city of Heracles, the hero famed for his strength, lay in the Macedonian district of Sintike beside the river Strymon, now the Struma, near Rupite by Petrič in Bulgaria. Philip the Second of Macedon probably founded it. Its site was long disputed until 2002, when an inscription turned up there: a letter from the emperor Galerius of AD 307 or 308 restoring the town's lost civic rights. The map gives it a pair of towers, a little larger than usual, which suggests the drawing dates from after that restoration.