338 LARISSA. 
CHAP, rendered the similitude more striking. After 
IX. . . 
^ '- ' we quitted this plain, we crossed over some 
hills of trifling elevation; and thence descended 
PeiasgioHs. jjj^q ^hc immcusc campaign of Larissa, once 
the greater plain of the Felasgi. The soil here 
is the finest that can be imagined; the land, 
although in many parts imcultivated, being 
smooth and flat, but, even in peaces where the 
plough had passed, very negligently kept, and 
Sepukhres. full of wccds. In this plain are some of the 
most remarkable tumuli known, both as to their 
size and to the regularity of their form. Lucan 
seems to have had the numerous sepulchres of 
Thessaly in contemplation, in one of his splendid 
digressions '. 
At some distance from our road, we saw 
(l) " Thessalia iufelix quo tanto crimine tellus 
Laesisti Superos, ut te tot mortibus unam, 
Tot scelerum fatis premerent ? quod sufficit aevuin, 
Immemor ut donet belli tibi damna vetustas ? 
Quoe seges infecta surget non decolor herba 
Quo non Romanos violabis vomere manes ? 
Ante novce venient acies, scelerique secundo 
Praestabis nondum siccos hoc sanguine campos. 
Omnia majorum vertamus busta licebit, 
Et stantes tumulos, et qui radice vctustA 
Effud^re suas, victis cumpagibu?, urnas : 
Plus cinerfim Haemonise sulcis telluris aiatur, 
Pluraque ruricolis feriuntur dentibus ossa." 
Lucani Pharsal, lib. v\\. v. 847. f . 229. Lifs, 11126. 
