394 FROM THE VALE OF TEMPE, 
CHAP. We were almost buried in the quicksands, in 
■ crossing the branches of this river; for it was 
widely flooded. The classical Reader will of 
course feel anxious to fix the antient name of 
these rivers, flowing through a country con- 
cerning which even antient geographers seem 
to have had no precise ideas. The southern 
limits of PiERiA are differently defined by 
Ptolemy and by Strabo, although it be so natu- 
rally bounded by the Defile of Tempe, where the 
plain terminates'; and for the courses and 
names of the rivers flowing from Olympus to- 
wards the Gulph of Therma, we have very little 
information; which aggravates the loss of the 
latter part of the Seventh Book of the Geo- 
graphy of Strabo. From all, however, that can 
be collected concerning the Mauro-Nero and the 
Pellica, it is evident, as will more plainly appear 
in the sequel, that they jointly constitute the 
Baphyrus. Bopkyrus of Lwy. But it will then be asked, 
where are the remains of Dium, whose situation 
(l) According to St ephanus of Byzantium., there was a city called 
PiERiA. {Vid. Steph. Byzant.deUrUb. ifc. p. b49.^ Amst. 1678. edit. 
Gronovii.) His Commentator says, " Pieria, urhs in regione cogno- 
raine. Ubi locorum fuerit hsec regie, silentio preterit. E Ptolemaei 
lib. 3. c. 13. didici Pieriam esse Macedoniae regionem ; Livius verb, 
libro 39. cap. 26. Petram in e4dem regione celebrat, &c. &c. Pieriae 
niontis Tbracis in quo commoratus est Orpheus meminit Scholiasta 
Apollonii Rhodii ad ejus Argonautic. lib. i. ver. 31." 
