CASSO´PE(Κασσώπη, Steph. B. s. v.;Κασσωπία πόλις, Diod.; Κασσιόπη, Ptol.), the chief town of the CASSOPAEI(Κασσωπαῖοι), a people of Epirus, occupying the coast between Thesprotia and the Ambracian gulf, and bordering upon Nicopolis. (Scylax, p. 12; Strab. 7. p. 324, seq.) Scylax describes the Cassopaei as living in villages; but they afterwards rose to such power as to obtain possession of Pandosia, Buchaetium, and Elateia. (Dem. de Halon.33.) We learn from another authority that Batiae was also in their territory. (Theopomp. ap. Harpocr. s. v. Ἐλάτεια.) Their own city Cassope or Cassopia is mentioned in the war carried on by Cassander against Alcetas, king of Epirus, in B.C. 312. (Diod. 19.88.)
Cassope stood at a short distance from the sea, on the road from Pandosia to Nicopolis upon the portion of the mountain of Zálongo, near the village of Kamarína. Its ruins, which are very extensive, are minutely described by Leake. The ruined walls of the Acropolis, which occupied a level about 1000 yards long, may be traced in their entire circuit; and those of the city may also be followed in the greater part of their course. The city was not less than three miles in circumference. At the foot of the cliffs of the Acropolis, towards the western end, there is a theatre in good preservation, of which the interior diameter is 50 feet. Near the theatre is a subterraneous building, called by the peasants Vasilóspito, or King's House. A passage, 19 feet in length, and 5 feet in breadth, with a curved roof one foot and a half high, leads to a chamber 9 feet 9 inches square, and having a similar roof 5 feet 7 inches in COIN OF CASSOPE.height. The arches are not constructed on the principles of the Roman arch; but are hollowed out of horizontal courses of stone.Leake found several tombs between the principal gate of the city and the village of Kamarína. The ruins of this city are some of the most extensive in the whole of Greece. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 1. p. 247, seq.)