106 
JOURNEY TO PLATJEA. 
Platceen- 
sian Terri 
. tory. 
CHAP, horses. Throughout this plain, from the Morea 
' bridge to the well, the peasants, as they till the 
soil, find bits of iron and of lead, together with 
antient coins : from this circumstance, and the 
great fertility of the soil, they maintain that this 
was the field of the memorable battlii of Platcea. 
The road leading from Thebes to the Peloponnesus 
is the present bomidary of the territory of 
Platana^: which is however very extensive, as 
the people of Platana informed us ; for they say 
it reaches to a very considerable distance, 
winding in a fine fertile plain between Platana 
and Pursos. We observed no tombs either 
o 
upon or near to the spot assigned by tradition 
for the scene of such a memorable contest; but 
in going from Platana to Coda, just before 
Ruins of arriving; at the latter place, we found the ruins 
the City ® ^ 
(^piaiaa. of the city of PtAT^A ; and here we saw some 
antient sepulchres without the walls of the 
CitadeP; also afterwards, in descending from 
Coda towards Leuctra, we noticed tumuli in 
the Platceensian plain; corresponding with the 
account given by Pausanias^ ; more than one of 
them being surmounted by a ruin in stone. 
(l) Accordinjf to Pmtsanias, the Asopm afforded the antient boundary 
between the Theban and the Platceensian plains. 
(2) Kara Ti ttiI 'ifehai ftaXurra, ryif i; TLXaratav rd^si ra/r ■s'^oi ti^tv; 
f/.x;:^trafi,Ua¥ ti<rl. PausanicE, lib.ix. c. 2. p. 715. edit. A'w/;rt?V. 
(3) Patisan. ibid. 
