

823 



THESSALONICA. 



THESSALY. 



626 



Pelasgic religion. [DoooxA.] In Thesprotia Aristotle found the 

 Hellenes under their ancient name of Gneci (Aristot. 'Meterolog,' 

 i 14.) From this country the Thessali migrated to take possession of 

 Thessaly, about sixty years after the Trojan war, having previously 

 left their original seats in Thessaly, and proceeded iato Thesprotia, 

 about eight generations before the Trojan war. 



THESSALONl'CA (Saloniki), an ancient city of Macedonia, in the 

 district of Mygdonia, was formerly called Therme or Therma : it is 

 in 40" 33' N. 1st, 22 57' E. long., about ten miles east of the ancient 

 river Eohedorus, at the head of the modern Gulf of Saloniki, formerly 

 called the Thermaic liny, from the ancient name of the city. Therme 

 was at first an inconsiderable place. Xerxes made some stay here on 

 his march into Greece (Herod., vii. 12S). A short time previous to the 

 commencement of the Peloponnesiau war (B.C. 432) it was taken and 

 occupied by the Athenians, but it was soou afterwards restored to 

 1'erdiccas, the kin; of Macedonia. The name of Thessalonica was 

 given to it by Ca-sauder, the son of Antipater, in honour of his wife 

 Thessalonica, who was sister of Alexander the Great With a view to 

 its aggrandisement, Cassander collected together (about B.C. 315) the 

 population of several adjacent towns, so as to make it one of the most 

 important cities of northern Greece. (Strabo, 1. c., p. 330.) Afcer 

 the battle of Pydna (B.C. 163), in which the Romans defeated Perseus, 

 tiio then king of Macedonia, Thessalouica, with the other Macedonian 

 towns, surrendered to the Romans, and was made the capital of the 

 second of the four regions into which Macedonia was divided by them. 

 (I. ivy, lib. xliv., c. 10 and 45; lib. xlv., c. 29.) Livy speaks of it as 

 being then a very celebrated city. It possessed an excellent harbour, 

 and had the additional advantage of lying on the great Roman military 

 road, the Via Egnatia, which, commencing at Dyrrachiuui, on the 

 western side of Greece, and extending to Byzantium, afforded the 

 easiest land communication with Thrace, Asia Minor, and the shores 

 of the Eaxine. In St. Paul's time it was much frequented by people 

 of different nations; the Jews bad a synagogue in it; and it was also 

 the seat of the Roman government. Under the empire, it continued 

 to be so flourishing and important a city, that it was selected as the 

 residence of the prefect of Illyricum, and the metropolis of the Illy rian 

 provinces. In the reign of the emperor Theodosiua, Botheric, com- 

 mander of the garrison, with his principal officers, was murdered by 

 the people of the town for having imprisoned one of the popular 

 characters of the circus (A.D. 390). The emperor Theo.loaius gave 

 orders for the punishment of the people, and no less than 7000 persons 

 were massacred by barbarian soldiers in a promiscuous carnage, which 

 lasted for three hours (Gibbon, 'Roman Empire,' c. xxxviil. 



Haioniki is a large walled commercial towu, imposingly built on the 

 slope of a hill, and commanded by a strong castle called Heptapyrgium, 

 or the ' .Seven Towers,' and has about 75,000 inhabitants. Part of the 

 walls are of polygonal architecture ; the gate of Vardar was built in 

 honour of Augustus, after the battle of Philippi. There are two other 

 ancient triumphal archei in the town. The hippodrome is a vast 

 area in the centre of the town, entered by a propykoum, formed by 

 five magnificent Corinthian pillars supporting an entablature in Attic, 

 with figures in high relict The rotunda is built after the model of 

 the Pantheon in Home ; tts interior is covered with mosaics. The church 

 of Santa Sophia a now a mosque. The metropolitan church of St. 

 Demetrius has been also converted into a mosque. An ancieut temple 

 of Venus has been likewise appropriated to Mohammedan worship. 

 The town has handsome and large bazaars, and important silk factories. 

 It has a good trade in British produce, and exports corn, cotton, 

 wool, raw silk, wine, tobacco, bees-wax, sponges, sesamum, timber, and 

 staves. Foreign consuls reside in Saloniki. It is the capital of an 

 ey.il. t, which comprises ancient Macedonia and Thessaly. 



THESSALY, one of the principal divisions of Northern Greece, 

 an 1 the cradle of many of the inhabitants of Greece in general, is an 

 extensive and generally unbroken plain, about 80 miles in extreme 

 length and 70 miles in breadth, comprising an area of about 550U 

 quare mile*, and forming an irregular sort of square. This descrip- 

 tion applies only to what may be called Thessaly Proper, which is 

 bounded W. by the range of Pindus ; N. towards Macedonia by the 

 Cambnnian Mountains : S. by the range of Mount- Othrys ; E. by a 

 range of mountains running along the coast nearly parallel to Pindus, 

 in.'l including the summit* of Pelion and Ossa, The basin of Tues- 

 laly a thus surrounded by mountain barriers, broken at the north- 

 east corner ouly by the valley and defile of Tempe (or the Cut), which 

 separates Mount Ossa from Olympus, and presents the only road from 

 Thessaly to the north which does not lead over a mountain pass. At 

 the eastern base of the mountain range which run? from Tempe to 

 the Bay of Pagaste, now the Gulf of Volo, there is a narrow strip of 

 land called Magnesia, between the hills and the sea, interrupted in 

 several places by lofty headlands and ravines, and without any harbour 

 of refuge from the gales of the north-east South of Othrys, the 

 southern boundary of Thessaly Proper, lies a long narrow vale, 

 through which winds the river Spercbeius, and which, though gene- 

 rally, considered as a part of Tbessaly, is separated from it by the 

 range of Othrys, and is very different from it in physical features. 

 It is bounded on the south by the range of (Eta, which runs from 

 Pindus to the sea at Thermopylae in a general direction nearly parallel 

 to the Cambunian Mountains ; and on lU eastern side by the shores of 

 the Bay of Malia, now the Gulf of Zeitoun. According to Greek 



traditions, Tuessaly was known iu remote times by the names of 

 Pyrrha, -iBinonia, and vEolis. The two former names belong to the 

 age of niytholjgy ; the last refers to the time when the country was 

 inhabited by the ^Eolian Pelasgi, previous to the occupation of any 

 part of it by the Thessaliaus, who, accordiug to Herodotus (vii. 176), 

 came from Thesprotia, a region in the west of Epirus, aud settled in 

 the country, which from them derived its future name. The name 

 does not occur in Homer, although the several principalities of which 

 it was composed at the time of the Trojaa war are enumerated. 

 (' Iliad,' ii. 700.) 



From very early times Thessaly was divided iuto four districts, or 

 tetrarchies, Hestiaeotis, Pelasgiotis, Thessaliotis, and Phthiotis; and 

 the division still existed iu the time of the Peloponuesiau war 

 (B.C. 404). 



llcttiizoiis was the mountainous country between Pindus and 

 Olympus; having generally for its southern limit the river Peueu?. 

 Herodotus (L 156) applies this name to the country in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ossa and Olympus, the original abode of the Dorians before 

 they settled in Peloponnesus. From a statement iu Strabo (ix, p. 437), 

 it would seem that the name of Hestueotis was derived from a district 

 in Euboea, whose inhabitants were transplanted to this part of Thessaly 

 by the Perrhoebi. In historical times the Perrhsobi dwelt iu the valley 

 of the Titaresius under Olympus. The north-westeru part of Hes- 

 tiieotis was in ante-historical times (Homer, ' II.,' ii. 774) occupied by 

 a mountain tribe of uncertain origin, called the yEthices. Iu the 

 time of Strabo (ix., p. 434) scarcely auy trace remained of them. 



The most remarkable towns of HestitcotU were as follows : 

 Piialeria, or P/uUoria, the first town of any importance on entering 

 TheessJy from Epirus by the passes of Pindus (Liv., xxxii. 15): 

 Oxyncia, aud if^mimm, the latter of which Livy describes as a place 

 of great strength, and almost impregnable, tiompki, an aucieut for- 

 tress, situated ou the Puneus to tue south of Phaloria : it was a place 

 of great strength, and might be said to be the key of Thessaly on the 

 side of Epirus to the north. In the time of Cajsar ('Bel. Civ.,' iii. 80) 

 it was a large and opulent city : it is supposed to be represented by 

 the modern Stagoua. Trice*, now Trikltata, on the left bank of the 

 Peneus, about 12 miles south from Gornphi : it is celebrated by Homer 

 I' 11.,' ii. 729), and placed by him under the rule of the sons of ^Escu- 

 lapius, who was aaid to have been born in the neighbourhood ; about 

 12 miles to the north of it is now situated the convent of Meteora, 

 whose name (the Hanging) is descriptive of its situation upon lofty 

 columns of rock. Mttropolit, a town to the north of the Peiieus, 

 which contained within its territory the lands of three other places 

 not so famous, but more ancient, and which contributed to the for- 

 mation of the new city. Metropolis, with Uoujphi to the north-west, 

 Trice* to the south-weal, and Peliuua to the south-east, formed a square 

 of fortresses, in the middle of which was the ancieut Ithouie, culled 

 by Homer the 'precipitous.' I'elinna, more commonly PeUinncfum, 

 was an important city oa the north of the Peueus, and about 10 miles 

 east of Tricca. Ithome is supposed to have occupied the site of the 

 castle which stands on the summit above the village of Fanari. (Echalia, 

 a city celebrated in mythology, U coupled by Homer with Tricca and 

 Ithouie. Cianniu, or (ionni, a town of considerable importance and 

 antiquity, was situated on the left bonk of the Peneus, about 20 miles 

 from the great city of LarUso, and close to the entrance of the gorge 

 of Tempe. Gonnocondylon, a stronghold iu the windings of the valley, 

 was situated iu the detilo above Gonuus. The Pelagoniau Tripoli*, 

 also a district, which included the three towns of Pylhium, Azanu, 

 and JJaltcke, was situated in tho north-east of Hestueotis, and is also 

 reckoned under Perruaebia by Livv. 



Pelaigiota was in tlie southern part of the lower valley of tho 

 Peneus, and includes the Pelasgiau plains which stretch from Larissa 

 to 1'ueno, near Pelion, having for its boundary on the east the range 

 of nlioa and Ossa. According to Strabo (ix., p. 441), this part of 

 Thessaly was originally occupied by the Perrhasbi, an ancieut tribe of 

 apparently Pelasgic origiu. It was however wrested from them by 

 the Lapithie, another Pelasgic nation, whose original abode was iu 

 Magnesia. They forced some of the Perrbaebi to retire northward and 

 across Piudus, while those who remained in the plains were incor- 

 porated with themselves, under the common narno of Pelasgiuts. 

 The principal towns of Pelasgiotis were as follows -.Lariua : this 

 was one of the most aucieut and flourishing towns of Thessaly : it 

 was situated in the most fertile part of the old country of tho Pcrr- 

 hasbi. The constitution of the city was democratical, the magistrates 

 being elected and removeable by the people. (Aristot, ' Politic.,' v. 6.) 

 The territory of this city was extremely rich aud fertile, but it fre- 

 quently suffered by the inundations of the Peneus. Tha name is 

 Pelasgian. Oranon, or Cninnon, to the south of Larissa, was one of 

 the most ancient aud considerable towns of this part of Thessaly. 

 Scotutta, to the east of Cranon, though noticed by ancient authors, 

 does not appear to have been known to Homer. (Strabo, ix., p. 441.) 

 Wlsbin iU territory was the hill of Cynoscephaloj, or Dogs'-Heads, 

 where a victory was gained by the Romans over Philip of Macedou 

 (B.C. 197). It is one of the hills which separate the plain of Larissa 

 from that of Pharsalia. Phem was near the southern extremity of 

 the Lake Boebeis. It* territory, according to Polybius (xviii. 2), was 

 most fertile, and the suburbs were surrounded by gardens and walled 

 incloiures. Its port was Pngaatc, about 11 or 12 miles distant There 



