ON THE VALE OF TEMPE. 



537 



appellantur, situm." The object of the Roman general being to 

 relieve Larissa, it is evident; that no time was to be lost ; and what- 

 ever may have been his reason for not taking a shorter road towards 

 that city ; or for not passing through the defile of Tempe, when he 

 was so near it; (Gonni, which commanded the pass, being at that 

 time in the possession of the, Romans or their allies ;) yet, it is plain 

 that he reached Perrhaabia at the same point, and must have crossed 

 the ridge of mountains in the same direction as Xerxes. 



In the subequent war with Perseus, the Romans seem to have 

 acquired the knowledge of several practicable roads across the 

 mountains, to the north as well as the south of Olympus ; and by 

 one of these Quinctius Flaminius was fortunate enough to penetrate 

 into that country ; but the narrative of this transaction is so obscure, 

 that it is impossible to fix with any degree of precision the line of 

 his march. It appears, however, to have been a very difficult and 

 desultory one. 



At the present day, travellers, instead of passing through Tempe, 

 not unfrequently take the road over the mountains to the north of 

 that pass, which leads through the populous Greek town of Rapsiani 



I shall conclude these remarks on the history of Tempe, with 

 observing, that the ruins of a fortified town, which I suppose to be 

 Gonni, are still visible on the brow of a rocky hill, which commands 

 the western entrance of the defile. It is hardly necessary for me to 

 observe that these ruins are on the road side of the river, that is, on 

 the right; and not on the left, where a fortified post would have been 

 useless ; but where nevertheless, on the authority of the above passage 

 of Livy, it has been generally placed in the maps of ancient Greece. 



As there is a classical interest attached to every thing which 

 belongs to Tempe, I shall subjoin a list of some of the plants which 

 I observed there. 



Laurus nobilis, the Bay. 



Punica granatum, the Pomegranate. 



3 z 



