T H i: 



3S8 



THE 



who wen- on thU account the more readily imlu 

 found the colony. It toon became an object of jealousy 

 with the other Theasalian tribe*, who frequently hanuwed 

 it, and the Lacedaemonians often wnt reinforcement! toil* 

 support. It wan seized by Jason of Phena, who caused 

 the walls to be pulled down : but it again became a flou- 

 ruhin '.'linns who sometime* held the 



general council of their nation there. It sustained a long 

 siege from the Roman consul Acilius Glabrio, after tli>> 

 defeat of king Antiochusat Thermopylie < n.r. I'.H . The 

 surrounding country was marshy and woody, but the \c 

 tiges of the city itself, according to Sir \\'. Gel I. nrc ob- 

 servable on a high flat on the roots of Mount CEta. On the 

 coast of Trachis, close to the mouth of the small mer 

 Asopus, which runs through a gorge in the mountain en- 

 closing the Trachinian plain, was the village of Anthele, 

 near to which was the temple of the Amphictvonie ' 

 and the place of meeting of the Amphictyons. This locality 

 was also famous for the celebrated Pass of Thermomhe. 



ry physically distinct from Thessaly, 



but in historical times was subject to it, and politically in- 

 cluded within it. It is a narrow strip of country between 

 the mouth of the Peneus and 'the Pagasaean Bay on the 

 north and south, with the chain of Pelion and Ossa on the 

 west, and the sea on the east. The people of this district 

 were called Magnetes, and they were in possession of it 

 from very early times. (Iliad, ii. 7TH5.) They were an 

 Amphictyonie state. In the time of Thucvdides they were 

 dependent on the Thessalians, but they .subsequently, with 

 the rest of that nation, became dependent on the k! 

 Macedon, and continued so till the battle of Cynox-ephabr, 

 when they were declared independent by the Romans. The 

 extreme northern point of Magnesia was Mount Homole, a 

 limb of Ossa, celebrated by the poets as the abode of 

 the antient Centaurs and Lapithae, and a favourite haunt 

 of the god Pan. (Virgil, .l-'.m-iil. vii. G74.) To the south, 

 at the foot of Ossa, was Meliboea, a town on the coast, 

 ascribed by Homer (Iliad, ii. 716) to Philoctetes. Still 

 farther south was the promontory of Sepias, oft' which the 

 fleet of Xerxes was wrecked. Beyond the southern pro- 

 montory of Magnesia, now called Hagios Georgios, the 

 coast takes a south-westerly direction to the entrance of 

 the Pagasaean Bay, the Gulf of Volo. Among the principal 

 towns of Magnesia were Iolcos,Demetrias, and Aphetae. The 

 first of these was a place of great antiquity, and the birth- 

 place of the mythological hero Jason and his anc> 

 It was situated at the foot of Pelion, near the small ri\er 

 Anaurus : it was once a powerful city, but according to 

 Strabo, its downfall was hastened by civil discord and bad 

 government : its ruin was completed by the foundation of 

 Demetrias in the neighbourhood. The adjoining shore was 

 still called lolcos in the days of Strabo, though the town 

 no longer existed. Pagasap, the port of lolcos, and after- 

 wards of Pherse, was famed in Grecian story as the harbour 

 from which the ship Argo set sail on her voyage to Colchis : 

 the name, according to Strabo (ix., p. 430 . \v;\s derived 

 from the number of springs (nnyoi) near it. The site is 

 nearly occupied by the present castle of Vplo. Demetrias 

 owed its name and origin to Demetrius Poliorcetes. It was 

 lounded about B.C. 290, and the first population was derived 

 from the neighbouring towns of Nefia, Pagas;r, &c., all of 

 which were eventually comprised within its territory. It 

 soon became a flourishing citv. and was one of the most im- 

 portant fortresses in Greece, being well situated for defend- 

 ing the approaches to the Pass of Tempe, both on tl 

 of the mountains and of the plains. Its maritime posi- 

 tion also contributed to its importance, Eubcea, Attica, and 

 Peloponnesus being easily accessible from it. After the 

 battle of Cynoscephalae it became the chief town of the 

 Magnesian 'republic, and the sent of government : sub- 

 sequently it was at tached to Die house of Macedon, until 

 the battle of Pydna, when it fell under the Romans. 

 xliv. 13.) In the time of Strabo it had lost much oi' iN 

 splendour, but it was still the' nio-t considerable town of 

 that part of Thessaly. Sir W. Cell thus speaks of its modem 

 ' Pass the ruins of a gate and the walls of nn an- 

 'r ruins mark the site of a large place 

 f Asia Minor was a colony 

 from the The*salian Magnesia, [ANATOLIA.] 



principal -the 



he north ; 1'indiis, on the west ; the ridges 

 Kta, on the couth ; and those of Pelion and 

 OM, on the east. 



The Oambunian range wax a branch from Mount Pindua, 

 running in a dir ly nt right angles to it, and 



separating Thessaly from M Hi -lodotus ine> 



tins chain under the name of Olympus. The principal 

 road between the two countries over the mountains was 

 by the Pass of Vohtstana, marked in modern maps a.* Vo- 

 lutza. Another important defile, leading from Thessaly 

 into Macedonia, passed by Pythium, n village with a 

 temple sacred to the Pythian Apollo, situate on Mount 

 Olvmpus, at the north ca'-t extremity of the ran 



Through this latter defile many armies marched in 

 antient times. Thus Xerxes is said by Herodotus (vii. 

 l:i'Ji to have crossed over Mount Olympus from Upper 



ionia into the country of the Perrhapbi in Thessaly. 

 The road which led through. Thessaly to this Pylhium was 

 called the Via Pythia ; and, as Pouqueville states, the 

 shrine of Apollo may have been succeeded by chapel, 

 'reeled on the highest summit of Olympus 'A. D! 1HK) .and 

 dedicated to the prophet Klias. Tin- defile is still much 

 frequented by travellers going to Larissa from the north- 



u parts of Macedonia. Mount Olympus itself is 

 one of the most celebrated mountains ofGi . ially 



in mythology, the stories of which represented it as being 

 the habitation of the Gods, where Jupiter sat shrouded in 

 cloud and mist from the eyes of mortals. It dividi 

 north-east of Thessaly, or Perrhaebia, from Pieria, the ex- 

 tremity of Macedonia on the south-east. It i 

 height of about OTKX) Knglish feet, and the highest parts of 



^carcely ever entirely free from snow. The part of 

 the Cambunian range which lies to the west of Olympus 

 was called Mount Titarus, an outlier or limb of which, 

 Mount Cyphus, rises in the upper valley of the Pern 



Mount Pindus, the western boundary of Th> 

 part of the range of mountains which issues from the 

 Thracian Scomius, and forms what may be called the 

 Greek Apennines. On the north it joins the Illyrian and 

 Macedonian ranges, and to the south it is connected with 

 the branches of CEla and the jUtolian and Acarnanian 

 mountains. It separates the waters which fall into the 

 Ionian Sea and the Ambraciau Gulf (now the Gulf of v 

 from those which empty themseKcs into the northern part, 

 of the ^Egean. The most frequented pass over Pindus from 

 Thosaly into Epirus lay over a part of it called Mount 



ins, probably not far from the modern town of Me- 

 rzovo. One of the highest points of Mount Pindus was 

 Tymphrestus, forming its southern extremity, from which 

 branched the ridge of Mount Othrys, clo>ing the great lias 



of Thessaly on the south, and separating ' 

 which flow into the Peneus from those which run into the 

 southern Spercheius. Its eastern extremity separates the 

 Maliac from the Pagassean Gulf, sinking gently toward the 

 coast. It is often celebrated by the poets of antiquity. 

 It is now known by the different names of Ildlovo. Vari- 

 bovo, and Goura. To the south of Othrys lay the ridge of 

 IKla. which however has no connection with Tin 

 Proper. It is a huge pile of mountains stretching from Pin- 

 dcis to the sea, which it meets at the Pass of Thenn<>p\ he ; 

 it forms the inner barrier of Greece, as the Canilmniaii 

 range does the outer, to which it is nearh parallel in d 

 tion and equal in height. On the wot it branchc- 

 into the country of the Dorians and into yKtolia. On Hie 

 south-c;i-t. beginning from Mount Callidromus, the hi: 

 summit of the range, it is continued without, interruption 

 along the coast of the Eubcean Sea. till it -inks into the 

 \alley of the river Asopus. By means of imot! 

 to the south-west, it is connected with Parnassus, and after 

 skirting the Corinthian Gulf under the names of Cirphu 

 ! lelicon, it forms the northern boundary of Attica, 



the names of Cit heron and Pni 

 I'd' "n of some extent, running from the south- 



east extremity of the lake called Uoebcis to th 

 south Of Magnesia, I'orminga part of the' bounda 



saly on the eat. Homer (J/iod, ii. 743 i the 



f the Centaurs, and it was associated with 



events m Grecian :rment of 



Dicaearchus contains a description of Mount I'clion.aud its 

 botanical productions, which appear to have been very 

 numerous. It was exceedingly well wooded. To the 

 north of Pelion and following the line oi the coast h. 

 chain of Ossa (now Ki M' which mute with 



one of the bran> 'n. At its northern 



extremity it towers into at-: \\ peak, and ac< 



ing to the songs of the country, rivals its neighbour Olym 



