296 
pliny's natijbal histoet. 
[Book lY. 
distance of five liundred stadia, being navigable balf tbat 
distance. The vale, for a distance of five miles througb wbich 
this river runs, is called by the name of Tempe ; being a 
jugerum^ and a half nearly in breadth, while on the right 
and left, the mountain chain slopes away with a gentle 
elevation, beyond the range of human vision, the foliage 
imparting its colour to the light within. Along this vale 
glides the Peneus, reflecting the green tints as it rolls along 
its pebbly bed, its banks covered with tufts of verdant 
herbage, and enlivened by the melodious warblings of the 
birds. The Peneus receives the river Orcus, or rather, I 
should say, does not receive it, but merely carries its waters, 
which swim on its surface like oil, as Homer says^ ; and then, 
after a short time, rejects them, refusing to allow the waters 
of a river devoted to penal sufierings and engendered for 
the Puries to mingle with his silvery streams. 
CHAP. 16. (9.) — MAGNESIA. 
To Thessaly Magnesia joins, in which is the fountain of 
Libethra^. Its towns are lolcos"*, Hormenium, Pyrrha^, 
Methone^, and Olizon^. The Promontory of Sepias^ is here 
situate. We then come to the towns of Casthanea^ and Spa- 
^ The jugerum was properly 240 feet long and 120 broad, but Pliny 
Vtses it here solely as a measure of length ; corresponding probably to the 
Greek TrXeOpov, 100 Grrecian or 104 Roman feet long. Tempe is the 
only channel through which the waters of the Thessahan plain flow into 
the sea. 
2 II. B. ii. c. 262. He alludes to the poetical legend that the Orcus or 
Titaresius was a river of the mfernal regions. Its waters were impreg- 
nated with an oily substance, whence probably originated the story of 
the unwillingness of the Peneus to mingle with it. It is now called the 
Elasonitiko or Xeraghi. 
3 Near Libethrum ; said to be a favourite haunt of the Muses, whence 
their name " Libethrides." It is near the modern Groritza. 
Leake places its site on the height between the southernmost houses 
of Yolo and Vlakho-Makhala. No remains of it are to be seen. 
5 Ansart says that on its site stands the modern Eorakai Pyrgos. 
^ Near Neokhori, and called Eleutherokhori. 
7 Now Kortos, near Argalisti, according to Ansart. 
^ Now Haghios Greorgios, or the Promontory of St. Greorge. 
^ At the foot of Mount Pehon. Leake places it at some ruins near a 
small port called Tamukhari. The chestnut tree derived its Grreek and 
modern name from this place, in the vicinity of which it stifl abounds. 
