KASSNDRA

promontory, westernmost of the three prongs of the Chalcidice Peninsula, Macedonia, Greece, projecting into the Aegean Sea. It is a part of the noms (department) of Khalkidhik. Upon the narrow isthmus that links Kassndra with Chalcidice stand the sparse ruins of the Corinthian colony of Potidaea, a port founded about 600 BC; its site is the village of Na Potdhaia just south of the ship canal that was cut through the isthmus in 1937. The classical history of Kassndra revolves around the communities of Olynthus and Potidaea. Settled by non-Greek Bottiaians in the 7th century BC, Olynthus was subdued by Sparta (382379), which dissolved the Chalcidian League that it had dominated for a decade. In 357/356 Potidaea was so completely obliterated by Philip II of Macedon that the Athenian orator Demosthenes wrote that a visitor would not be able to identify the site. As a result of the Olynthian War (349347) that destroyed Olynthus, Potidaea was revived as Kassandreia, which became very prosperous; in the Third Macedonian War (171168) it repulsed a Roman fleet. In the early European Middle Ages it was destroyed by the Huns. Kassndra was occupied largely by cattle and sheep ranchers before the War of Greek Independence (182129), during which its inhabitants were massacred by the Turks for joining the revolt. The Kassndra peninsula has great natural beauty and fine beaches and has become the most important tourist centre of northern Greece.