Dadaki Stavroula – Doukata Sophia – Elliades Ioannis – Lychounas Michalis, “From the shade of Mt. Athos per levante it takes miles...” Cities-castles-ports on the North Aegean coast
Most ports of the north Aegean coast in the mediaeval period (with the exceptions of Anastasioupolis and Poroi) were prior settlements and follow the general trends of Byzantine history. They played an important role in the civil wars of the 14th c., as they lay at the epicenter of the brutal conflict and suffered the consequences of the decline of the central government and the emergence of centrifugal powers, exemplified by the fiefdom established by the brothers Alexios and Ioannis or the Gattilusi. The ports were located along the main artery of the Via Egnatia or at the end of lateral routes coming down from the central Balkans. Some of them combined multiple functions as river and sea ports (Amphipolis, Ainos) or lay on lagoons (Anaktoroupolis).
Few of these ports seem to have had a major commercial role (such as Thasos with marble, or Maroneia with wine and vinegar) and, with the exception of the descendent of Christoupolis, Kavala, which boomed with the tobacco trade into an international port, none of them acquired any character beyond that of a small fishing port.
The north Aegean ports played a supplementary role to the mainland transportation and defense systems, and they increased in importance whenever the latter failed to guarantee the safety and security of its users. The main naval commercial routes of the Empire, even that between Constantinople and Thessaloniki, seem not to have included the ports of the north Aegean coast, as is also indicated by the absence of shipwrecks.
