Col. William Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (v. 1-4)

§ 4.363 Thebae was the chief emporium of Thessaly, and owed its importance to this advantage. It so continued until Magnesia having become a dependency of Macedonia, Demetrias, which was founded by Demetrius Poliorcetes, about the year 290 B.C., soon became, by the favour of the kings of Macedonia, the chief maritime city of the Thessalians. The most flourishing period of Thebae appears, therefore, to have been in the fifth and fourth centuries, at which time the Thessalian cities formed an independent confederacy, and commerce was active in every part of Greece; we find accordingly that in the style and construction of its remains Thebae resembles Pelinnaion and Pharsalus, which may be supposed from the tenor of history to have been in their meridian about the same time. It resembles also Mantineia and Messene, as well as Erchomenus, in the less ancient parts of its ruins, of all which the dates are still better ascertained. We first find Phthiotic Thebes mentioned in the history of the Lamiac war, B.C. 323, in which it was the only Thessalian state, except Pelinnaion, that remained neuter. When Demetrius Poliorcetes, in the year 302 B.C., occupied Larissa Cremaste, Antron, and Pteleum, in his war with Cassander, the latter strengthened Thebes and Pherae, and it appears to have been in the Crocian plain that Cassander drew out his army, consisting of 29,000 infantry, against the 56,000 of Demetrius, who derived no other

§ 4.364 advantage from his superiority of numbers than that of liberating Pherae from Cassander, having declined a general action, and made an armistice with his opponent, in order that he might move to the assistance of his father Antigonus in Asia. When the Aetolians extended their power to the Eastern coast of Greece, Thebae was their most distant and most valuable possession. It was taken from them in the year B.C. 217, after an obstinate siege by Philip, son of Demetrius, who changed its name to Philippopolis, and placed in it a Macedonian garrison, which made a successful resistance to the consul Flamininus previously to the battle of Cynoscephalae. The name of Philippopolis was probably not much in use after that event, though we find both names employed by Livy, in relating the transactions at the congress of Tempe, in the year 185 B.C. The historian in his own narrative names it Philippopolis, but in citing the terms of the complaints of the Thessalians against Philip, Thebae is the appellation employed, the complainants naturally avoiding that which attested the former subjection of the place to Macedonia. Strabo, in a passage wherein he observes that Phylace and Alus, two of the cities of Phthiotis under Protesilaus, were near the borders of the Malienses, leaves us in doubt as to which of these places he intended to apply a farther remark,

§ 4.365 namely, that it was midway between Pharsalus and the Phthiotae, meaning undoubtedly Thebae; from which latter he adds that it was 100 stades distant. There can be little question, if Alus was at Kefalosi, that Phylace was the place intended by him, the former position being very far from a line between the sites of Pharsalus and Thebae and not so much as 100 stades from the latter. The ancient site near Ghidek, on the other hand, which I suppose to be that of Phylace, is about 100 stades distant from the ruins of Thebae, and nearly in a line with Fersala, as well as near the middle distance between these two points. Standing also at the debouche of the pass leading from Pharsalus into the Phthiotic plain, it was naturally a post desirable to both people, and likely to be conferred by Philip upon the party whom he wished to favour. From the lower extremity of Thebae Phthioticae to Kokkina, at the north-western angle of the bay of Armyro, is a distance of 45 minutes, the road leading through plantations of vines and figs belonging to Akketjel, and then crossing some charadrae strewn with rounded masses of black porous stone, and others of a blue and of a green cast, exactly resembling some of the lavas of Mount Aetna. Among them are fragments also of white marble.

§ 4.366 On the southern side of the plain of Armyro the hills are chiefly of schistous limestone, in which are veins of white marble. At the end of 20 minutes we pass through some Turkish sepulchres, where many of the stones are of ancient workmanship; one of them has formed part of a decorated ceiling of some large edifice, in which are figures of two doves joining their beaks; the execution not of the best. It may have been brought perhaps from the temple of Ceres, noticed by Homer in the same line with Pyrrhasus, and placed by Strabo at a distance of two stades from the site of that town, which was 20 stades below Thebes. The exact site of the temple I take to have been at a spot where exist many stones and some hewn blocks, at 5 minutes short of Kokkina, at which latter place are vestiges of an ancient town, consisting of wrought quadrangular blocks, together with many smaller fragments, and an oblong height with a flat summit, partly if not wholly artificial. I observed another similar to it, rising from the plain on the right bank of the Kholo, distant one mile from the sea. At Kokkina a circular basin full of water, near the shore, was once probably a small harbour; for not far from it are the traces of a mole. These ruins, both in their distance from the supposed temple of Ceres and from Thebae, agree

§ 4.367 with the position of the Homeric Pyrrhasus, which name was afterwards superseded by that of Demetrium, derived from the adjacent temple of Ceres. As to the remains at Tzingheli, or the skala of Armyro, they belonged perhaps to some establishment of commerce or maritime communication which may have arisen here after the decline of Thebae and Demetrium, and when the more central situations of Armyro and Tzingheli may have been found preferable. I have already remarked, the propriety of the epithets applied by Homer to Pteleum, Antron, and Itonus; that of ανΦιμοεις which he attaches to Pyrrhasus, seems equally appropriate. This maritime valley seldom feels much of the rigour of winter, and the meadows of Pyrasus are doubtless adorned with flowers long before the interior plains, though separated from them only by the heights which shelter Pyrasus from the north, have equally felt the effects of the vernal season. The level beach of the bay of Armyro ends at Kokkina; upon quitting it, at 7.10 Turkish, we immediately enter the hills which extend to Cape Angkistri: the road for the most part passes along the edge of cliffs bordering the shore; it then crosses a small valley with a sandy beach, where stands the tomb of one Halil Aga, who is said to have made himself so obnoxious to the people of Kokus, of which place he had been Voivoda,

§ 4.368 that at their instigation he was waylaid and killed here by some thieves. At 8.15 we halt to buy fish from a boat which had just hauled its net, and having roasted them, dine upon the sea-beach. A neighbouring height is occupied by one of the colonies of Vlakhiote shepherds, who at this season fill all the maritime valleys of Thessaly with their flocks. There is a house for the chief and several kalyvia around it. At 8.40 we continue our route across heights and narrow valleys near the sea, where the wild olive is the most common shrub, and might be made valuable by the mere labour of engrafting. At 9.35, in crossing a height which terminates in Cape Angkistri, we arrive in sight of Volo and the adjacent country, and descend into a plain which is separated only from that of. Volo by a high rocky projection of the hills, which are a continuation of those on the northern side of the'Phthiotic or Crocian plain. A mile to our right, on the summit above cape Angkistri, are the remains of an ancient fortress. At 10 some very large Greek letters of antique form are engraved on the side of a rock to the left; at 10.8 occur the walls of an ancient city, crossing the valley from some rocky hills on the left to lower heights on the right of the road, the crest of which they follow towards the sea, making many angles to meet the varieties of the ground.

§ 4.369 At the southern extremity they terminated in a projection of the coast, between which and another farther to the south, is a plain called Furna, where many ancient tombs are found. In a bay between this second projection and Cape Angkistri are some salt-pans, and buildings belonging to them, which have given to the place the name of Tuzla, or Alikes. On the northern side of the plain which formed the central part of the city, the walls are again to be seen following the summit of a chain of rocky heights which terminate in the lofty precipitous summit before mentioned, the eastern extremity of which meets the north-western angle of the beach of the bay of Volo. Here at the foot of the rocks are many copious sources of water, but rather saline to the taste, for which reason the ancient city was provided also with water from springs higher in the mountain. The ruined piers of an aqueduct of Roman times are a conspicuous object among the ruins, crossing the level in the middle of the city in a direction nearly parallel to the sea beach. The northern extremity of the arches rested upon a height in which the form of an ancient theatre is sufficiently preserved, but without any remains of masonry. Rehind this spot are the ruins of a building of the same age as the aqueduct. On the highest summit of the rocks, above the saline sources, are two Hellenic towers, one of which preserves six courses of masonry. A little beyond it to the northward is a small level, the occupation of which was essential to the safety of the town, and it was accordingly inclosed, so as to form a citadel or outwork: several courses both of its walls and towers still subsist.

§ 4.370 Just above the springs steps are cut in the rock, and a little farther its slope has been levelled either for a road or for the foundation of a wall, more probably for the latter, in which case it would seem that a space on the northern slope of this hill was included within the city, or at least formed a walled suburb, for the form of the ground exhibits some further traces of buildings, and of an inclosure, towards the end of which there is a tumulus. Except on the mountain, foundations of walls only remain; the masonry is of the same regular order as at Phthiotic Thebes, and the two cities were nearly equal in circuit. The sources of water correspond so well to the πήγα πολλά κα δαψιλιίς, which Strabo believed to have given name to Pagasae, (contrary to those who derived it from the building of the ship Argo,) that there can be little or no doubt that these are the ruins of Pagaace. The extent of the city in the times of independent Thessaly, as indicated by the walls of those ages, corresponds perfectly to that which might have been expected of a city which occupied such an important point of the sea coast: nor are the aqueducts and other vestiges of the Roman Empire less in agreement with the remark of Strabo, that Pagasae was the navale of Pherae in his time, having undoubtedly owed that distinction when Demetrias had lost the benefits of royal favour, to the more sheltered position of this

§ 4.371 extreme angle of the Gulf, as well as to its being the nearest point of the coast to Pherae, the chief city in this quarter of Thessaly, and to its general convenience as a sea-port to the Pharsalia, Larissaea, Pheraea, and part of Magnesia. Strabo mentions Pagasae as one of the places which contributed its inhabitants to people Demetrias at the time of the foundation of the latter; so that it was probably extremely reduced, if not quite abandoned, between that time and the Roman conquest. Cape Angkistri is identified with the promontory Pyrrha by the two adjacent rocks, which were named Pyrrha and Deucalion. The fortress above the cape I take to have been Amphanae, for a comparison of Stephanus and Scylax shows Amphanae to have been a small place between Demetrium or Pyrasus and Pagasae.

§ 4.372 CHAPTER 41 MAGNESIA. THESSALIA. THE view of Mount Pelium from Pagasa affords a scene of culture, population, and apparent prosperity, which would give a traveller entering Greece by the Gulf of Volo a most erroneous impression as to the condition of this country. The opposite mountains are covered with the houses and gardens of Makrinitza, Volo, and Portaria, each divided into several makhalas or portions, separated from one another by vineyards or plantations of mulberry and fruit-trees. To the right of these a continuation of the same heights exhibits a similar scene around the towns of Lekhonia, St. Lawrence, and St. George. Between three and four thousand houses are in sight, proving the capabilities of Greek industry and enterprize when only a little relieved from Turkish oppression and misrule. The contrast between Agrafa and Upper

§ 4.373 Thessaly is an example sufficiently striking of the effects of Turkish government in causing the Greeks to cultivate and inhabit the mountains, while the fertile plains remain desolate; but the disproportion between the population of the mountains and plains is trifling there compared to that which is found in Magnesia and Lower Thessaly. Turkish Volo affords a good contrast to the Greek towns on Mount Pelium, and is well calculated to remove any too favourable opinion, which a recently-arrived traveller may have conceived from the flourishing appearance of the mountain. There the custom-house, the narrow streets, almost impassable from stagnant pools and putrid filth, the ruinous and wretched habitations, a square whitened inclosure called the Castle, but consisting only of a slight low wall, surmounted with battlements, and including a mosque with a few Turkish houses, are all highly characteristic of the governing people. This small town, called Kastro by the Greeks and Golo by the Turks, stands at a distance of seventeen minutes from the springs of Pagasae, from whence it is a walk of thirty-seven minutes across a plantation of vineyards and mulberry plantations to Perivolia, where the Turks of Kastro have their summer habitations, situated amidst gardens at the foot of Mount Pelium. A perennial torrent flows through the gardens; but the place is said to be hot and unhealthy in summer, and infested with gnats to an extreme degree.

§ 4.374 With two or three exceptions the houses are in a ruinous state. From Perivolia an ascent of near twenty minutes conducts me to the middle of the Greek town of Volo, under which name are comprehended also Perivolia, Kastro, and a detached suburb of Volo to the southward, called Vlakho Makhala. The houses of this town, so striking and attractive at a distance, hardly support, on a nearer view, the preconceived estimation of them. This is partly to be attributed to the general state of the arts in Turkey and partly to the insecurity even of this favoured district. Defence against hostile attack has been more considered than domestic comfort; not only against the robber, the pirate, the lawless Albanian, or Turkish soldier, or the extortion of neighbouring governors, but with a view also to intestine disputes, often ending in violence and open war, when the mountain is most secure against external enemies. Hence the houses are lofty and built in the form of towers. Glass windows are almost unknown; nor in other respects are the houses to be compared to those of the Vlakhiotes of Mount Pindus, or to those of some of the Greek towns of Macedonia. As an apology, the people of Volo remark, that being in the most exposed situation of the mountain, they have been less able to attend to luxuries than the securer inhabitants of Makrinitza or Zagora.

§ 4.375 The flourishing condition of this corner of Greece, although it could hardly have occurred in any but such a peninsular and defensible position, is in great measure owing to the circumstance of many of its villages having been vakufs of the principal mosques at Constantinople, which has given them a more than ordinary protection from the Porte, and has caused the permission to wear arms for defence against robbers to have been extended to them all. Since the conquest of Thessaly by the Albanians, and the reduction of the kleftes by Aly Pasha, the power and wellknown character of the latter has excited among the Magnesians a lively alarm for their liberties, attended with one good consequence, that they have never been more free from domestic quarrels. Dec. 16.—The ancient Demetrias occupied the southern or maritime face of a height now called Goritza, which projects from the coast of Magnesia, between two and three miles to the southward of the middle of Volo. Though little more than foundations remains, the inclosure of the city, which was less than two miles in circumference, is traceable in almoet every part. On three sides the walls followed the crest of a declivity which falls steeply to the east and west, as well as towards the sea. To the north the summit of the hill, together with an oblong space below it, formed a small citadel, of which the foundations still subsist.

§ 4.376 A level space in the middle elevation of the height was conveniently placed for the central part of the city. The acropolis contained a large cistern cut in the rock, which is now partly filled with earth. On one side of it is a modern semicircular inclosure, of rude construction, at which a miracle is exhibited on Easter Sunday. An aperture under the semicircle, which is dry all the rest of the year, then becomes full of water and remains so for 24 hours, whatever quantity may be taken out by the numerous spectators assembled to witness the miracle. Here also is a church of the Panaghia, and around it are the foundations of some ancient building, within which is a bottle-shaped cistern hewn in the rock, and lined with stucco; it is now half full of water, and is reported never to be dry even in the middle of summer. To the westward, of this place, on the highest summit of the ridge, are the foundations of a round tower of modern construction, similar to those which are seen in many parts of the adjacent coasts. From this spot many of the ancient streets of the town are traceable in the level which lies midway to the sea, and even the foundations of private houses: the space between one street and the next, parallel to it, is little more than 15 feet. About the centre of the town is a hollow, now called the lagumi or mine, where a long rectangular excavation in the rock, 2 feet wide, 7 deep, and covered with flat stones, shows by marks of the action of water in the interior of the channel that it was part of an aqueduct, probably for the purpose of conducting some source in the height upon which stood the citadel, into the middle of the city.

§ 4.377 I have mentioned a similar construction on the site of Pharsalus; indeed, it appears from several examples, but particularly from the aqueduct of Syracuse, the longest and best preserved of any I have had an opportunity of observing, that a rectangular channel excavated in the rocks, or constructed where no rock existed, and following all the variations of the ground in preserving its level with a fall just sufficient for the current, was the ordinary mode of conveying water among the autonomous Greeks. The Roman method of carrying the conduit across valleys upon arches was an improvement, as admitting of more direct lines, and by shortening distances allowing a greater choice of springs; it might even, notwithstanding the arches and piers required for it, be an abridgment of labour, but like all the works of the Romans compared with those of the Greeks, it was less lasting, and more frequently in need of repair. According to vulgar belief, the lagumi formerly communicated with a cavern on the seaside, but on visiting the latter I found nothing to render the supposition probable. Boats are sometimes drawn up into the cavern through a narrow cleft in the rock, and it contains an altar sacred to the Panaghia σπηλιώτισσα. In importance of situation Demetrias was considered equal to Chalcis and Corinth, and the three were denominated by Philip, son of Demetrius, the fetters of Greece.

§ 4.378 To the great grandfather of Philip, the celebrated Poliorcetes, Demetrias owed its name and foundation. It became a favourite residence of the kings of Macedonia, to whom it may have been recommended not more for its convenience as a military and naval station in the centre of Greece than for many natural advantages, in some of which it seems to have been very preferable to Pella. The surrounding seas and fertile districts of Thessaly supplied an abundance of the necessaries and luxuries of life: in summer the position is cool and salubrious, in winter mild, even when the interior of Thessaly is involved in snow or fog. The cape on which the town stood commands a beautiful view of the gulf, which appears like an extensive lake surrounded by rich and varied scenery; the neighbouring woods supply an abundance of delightful retreats, embellished by prospects of the Aegaean sea, and of its islands, while Mount Pelium might at once have afforded a park, an ice-house, and a preserve of game for the chace. The only parts of the gulf concealed from Goritza are the northeastern bay beyond St. George, another at the eastern end of the peninsula of Trikeri and the northern extremity of the bay of Armyro, near Kokkina. To the left the view extends over a narrow plain and winding shore, which stretches along the foot of the mountain for four miles to Lekhonia, the only Turkish town in the peninsula, but which is inhabited also by Greeks in equal number, who are for the most part labourers for the Turkish proprietors.

§ 4.379 Above Lekhonia are the remains of a small Hellenic town, which was probably Nelia, Demetrias having been situated between Nelia and Iolcus. Beyond Lekhonia are seen the modern villages of Argalasti and Lafko, situated upon the lower part of the Magnesian peninsula, near the isthmus which connects it with the smaller peninsula of Trikeri. The description given by Strabo of the situation of Iolcus is involved in some difficulty, as he places a it at a distance of 20 stades from Pagasae, and of 7 from Demetrias, whereas the real distance between these two cities was scarcely less than 50 stades. There seems but one mode of reconciling this contradiction, supposing no textual error. Although Iolcus itself in the time of the geographer was only a τόπος, or site famed in ancient history, it appears that the name was still employed as descriptive of a portion of the sea coast of the district of Demetrias. If we suppose, therefore, this coast to have extended from Perivolia to Vlakho-makhala, which is about a mile distant from Demetrias, the distance of one extremity of the coast of Iolcus from Pagasae, and of the other from Demetrias, will be tolerably correct as stated by Strabo, and the αιγιαλος Ίωλκος will then comprehend all the space occupied by Volo, including

§ 4.380 Vlako-makhala. The only part of this space having any appearance of an ancient site is a steep eminence which rises from the shore between the southernmost houses of Volo and Vlakho-makhala, and upon which stands a church with a few monastic cells adjoining to it. The church is called Episkopi, as being the cathedral of the bishop of Demetrias, one of the suffragans of the metropolitan of Larissa. In the walls of the church are some marbles representing in low relief subjects taken from the Gospels, a kind of decoration very uncommon in Greek churches, where painting, gilding, and framing in gold or silver, are generally the only arts employed. Some large squared blocks of stone, forming part of a wall, are said to have formerly existed at the foot of this height, and to have been broken to pieces, and carried away in boats for the construction of new buildings on the shore of the gulf. Possibly Episkopi may have been the acropolis of Iolcus, and the town may have been dispersed, like Volo, over the entire site, which is well suited to the description of Iolcus, as lying at the foot of Mount Pelium, and as fertile in grapes. That Iolcus stood on some part of Greek Volo is the more credible, as a torrent, flowing through Vlakho-makhala

§ 4.381 between Episkopi and Goritza, corresponds to that Anaurus, in which Jason was said to have lost one of his sandals, and which was near Demetrias. There are said to be several Hellenic sites still apparent in the lower peninsula or isthmus, which stretching southward from Mount Pelium separates the gulf from the Aegaean sea, particularly near Argalasti, and to the eastward of Nekhori, the two towns which possess the best districts and most level lands in the peninsula. The former I take to have been the district of Magnesia, or the city of the Magnetes, where the coins of that people were struck; for although this place is scarcely ever mentioned in history, its existence is proved from Demosthenes, from whom we learn that it was taken and fortified by Philip, but afterwards restored to the Thessalians. From a scholiast of Apollonius, supported by an ancient author named Cleon, it appears to have been situated in the lower part of the peninsula, near the gulf, and not near the rugged exterior coast.

§ 4.382 A ruin named Khorto-kastro, on the coast near Argalasti, may possibly occupy the exact site of Magnesia. That it stood in that part of the peninsula, may be inferred from Herodotus, who evidently alludes to the cape of St. George or Promiri on the eastern shore, not far from Argalasti, and opposite to the island of Skiatho, when he speaks of the promontory of Magnesia, which by later authors was denominated Cape Sepias. As to the lines of Apollonius to which the Scholiast refers, nothing can be made of them in illustration of the ancient positions in Magnesia; for although the poet appears to describe a succession of objects along the coast after the Argonauts had begun their voyage, he was obviously ignorant or totally negligent of their order when he named Sepias before Magnesia, and placed Aphetae the last of all, which appears evidently

§ 4.383 from Herodotus to have been within, or at least in the entrance of the Gulf, and nearly opposite to Artemisium in Euboea. The ancient existence, however, of a Peiresiae in this quarter seems confirmed by Stephanus, who distinguishes it from the Piresia or Asterium of Thessaly. In the description given by Herodotus of the wreck of the fleet of Xerxes on the coast of Magnesia, he describes Sepias only as an ακτη or shore. This agrees with the nature of the coast, which presents neither cape nor shelter to the north of Promiri, except at a small port named Tamukhari, near some ruins which seem to indicate the site of Casthanaea, a town from which the chestnut, a tree still abounding on the eastern side of Mount Pelium, derived ite appellation in Greek and the modern languages of Europe. Ipni being described by the historian as εν Πήλιω, or at the foot of the mountain itself, was possibly at the little Skala of Zagora. The ruins to the eastward of Nekhori, may be those of Rhizus; for this place was one of the circumjacent towns which contributed their population to Demetrias on its foundation, and according to Scylax, Rhizus was not in the gulf but on the exterior shore.

§ 4.384 From the same authority we may infer, that there was a town Sepias near the Cape. The district of the rugged Olizon having been opposite to Artemisium in Euboea, seems to be thus identified with the peninsula of Trikhiri; and the town itself may perhaps have been situated upon the isthmus connecting that peninsula with the rest of Magnesia, and having on either side a harbour answering to the λιμην of Scylax. The numerous ancient names in a small compass of territory, proves this angle of Thessaly to have been densely populated, as it is at the present day; nor is it surprising that the fine shelter of the Gulf compared with the rugged and inhospitable nature of the ακτά αλίμενος Πυλίου on the eastern side, which proved so fatal to the fleet of Xerxes, should have caused the inhabitants to prefer to the exterior shore, the vicinity of the Gulf, where it would seem that Mothone, Coracae and Spalathra were situated. Mount Pelium has two summits connected by a ridge below which is a deep ravine. The northwestern summit, called Plessidhi, rises immediately above Portaria; to the southward of which, one hour and a half above Dhrakia, which lies between

§ 4.385 the two tops, there is a fine cavern, commonly known by the name of the Cave of Achilles: it is supposed to have been the place where Achilles was instructed by the Centaur Chiron; and in fact the situation accords exactly with the data of Homer and Dicaearchus, the latter of whom states, that in the same place there was a temple of Jupiter Actaeus, to which it was the custom for many of the sons of the principal citizens selected by the priest to ascend at the rising of the dogstar, clothed with skins on account of the cold. Dicaearchus mentions also two rivers of Mount Pelium called Crausindon and Brychon. One of these is now named Zervokhia, and falls into the Gulf between Nekhori and St. George. The coincidence of modern opinion and ancient authority in the instance of the Cave of Achilles, led me to hope that I should find in this civilized corner of Thessaly some more sound learning and geographical criticism than is generally to be met with in Greece, but I was quickly undeceived on receiving a visit from some of the Archons of Volo, the leading personage of whom, proceeded immediately in a manner not uncommon among learned Turks as well as Greeks, to pour forth his whole

§ 4.386 stock of knowledge without order or connection. He knew that the gulf was the ancient Πελασγιος κόλπος; but the greater part of his information on the antiquities of this interesting angle of Greece was not a little at variance with received opinions: as coming from a native of Iolcus, however, it may be worth mentioning. The ship Argo, he assured me, conveyed Agamemnon from hence to the Trojan war, in company with Akhillefs, a famous giant of this neighbourhood, whose armour weighed 500 okes; and who, after having introduced the wooden horse into Troy, was murdered in a bath. The ruins which I supposed to be those of Pagasa, are the remains of Demetrion, a city built by the Genoese, and so named from an ancient monastery of St. Demetrius no longer existing. The ruined building near the theatre was a mill, and the δόντια, or teeth, which I took for the piers of a Roman aqueduct, were for the purpose of conveying water to the mill, though the declivity is in the contrary direction. On hearing this strange effusion, I began to suspect that Kyr had been maliciously put forward by his companions, that he might make himself ridiculous; but their gravity showed that they placed implicit confidence in his erudition. The same learned gentleman afterwards conducted me to see an ancient sepulchral stone, which his zeal for the fine arts and veneration for the works of his ancestors has induced him to preserve by fixing it in the wall of the church, and then blackening the letters and ornamenting the stone with some figures in the modern Greek taste.

§ 4.387 The inscription on it is Άριστω Κλεοπάτρας, of which Cleopatra he knew nothing more than that he was a βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων, or king of the Greeks. This certainly is not a happy specimen of modern Magnesian learning. But in truth the people of this favoured peninsula, although not inferior to the other Greeks in natural talent, have been slow in the encouragement of education, and have derived little advantage in this respect from their secure and retired situation. The priests Gregorius and Daniel, of Milies, authors of a work in Romaic called “η Γεωγραφία Νεωτερική,” or Modern Geography; and a third Miliote, named Anthimus Γαζής, who has lately edited Meletius, having in vain attempted to make their countrymen sensible of the importance of education, were obliged to seek a subsistence in civilized Europe which they were unable to obtain in their native peninsula. One of their projects was to establish a college or academy on the mountain, which would quickly have attracted the youth of every part of Greece. They had even procured a firmahn from Sultan Selim, had obtained 800 purses, chiefly from some rich merchants settled in Europe, and had provided books and mathematical instruments, in all which they were greatly assisted by the Greek princes Ypsilanti and Demetrius Morusi; the enlightened supporters of learning at Constantinople;

§ 4.388 but a dispute having arisen in Magneσia respecting the town in which the academy was to be established, Makrinitza having claimed a right of preference which others contested, the principal persons on the mountain giving no encouragement to the measure, and the two Greek princes falling into disgrace at Constantinople, the project fell to the ground, soon after which the promoters of it retired into Christendom. There are now five schools on the mountain for teaching Hellenic; at Makrinitza, Dhrakia, Portaria, Zagora, and Miliεs. That of Makrinitza has generally about thirty scholars, a few of whom advance as far as Thucydides and Homer, the rest not beyond Aesop. When a little more instruction is thought desirable, the young men are sent to Constantinople. It is to be lamented that education has not met with better encouragement in this privileged and sequestered point in the centre of Greece; as it would soon have attracted many educated men as teachers or residents, and would have improved the native manners of the Magnetian peninsula, rendering it a centre of civilization and instruction for the Greeks, and ultimately for the other Christians of European Turkey. The Turkish government is no obstacle to such a proceeding, being too blind or too careless of distant consequences to oppose the education of its Christian subjects, and rather pleased perhaps to see them engaged in such peaceful pursuits, though in the end they may be the most formidable of any to the Ottoman power.

§ 4.389 Mukhtar Pasha has purchased the customs of Volo this year for 200 purses. In favourable years it is supposed that they yield twice as much; for the collectors, under one pretext or another, raise the duty from five per cent, to ten, and are great gainers by the clandestine exportation of grain, which is forbidden to all but the agents of the Porte, who only pay a fee of fifty piastres upon the lading of a ship. Rice from Egypt and Zituni, and alum from the mines near Makri in Asia Minor, for the use of the dyers of Thessaly and Macedonia, are exempt from duty on importation. Of the twenty-four villages of Mount Pelium, none but Argalasti, Nekhori, and Lekhonia, grow corn sufficient for their consumption; but all the lower part of the peninsula abounds in wine, silk, oil, cotton, pulse, oranges, fruits, and all the varied productions of the maritime climate of Greece. Those of the higher villages are almost confined to silk, wine, honey, and horticultural produce: none of them have many flocks or cattle. Volo and Makrinitza owning a part of the plain at the head of the Gulf, possess corn land in that situation; and the same towns, together with Portaria and Lekhonia, have some olive-trees on the heights. The lands of Makrinitza and Portaria produce a sufficiency of oil to admit of the sale of a small quantity in the alternate years. In all the higher villages silk is the staff of life; with this they procure provisions from Thessaly, enjoying plenty when there is a good crop of silk, and the reverse when the season is unfavourable. It is reckoned that landed property pays a fourth of its produce in taxes;

§ 4.390 and in case of dearth, as in the present year, there are many examples of severe distress on the mountain. Still they consider themselves fortunate in their privileges, in the protection which they enjoy from the unchecked extortion of provincial governors, and particularly in their exemption from the quartering of soldiers and the visits of Albanians. But they make a foolish use of their advantages. Internal discord divides every village into parties; a similar jealousy prevails between the principal towns, and each of them strives by bribery, intrigue, and the interest of their patrons at Constantinople, to injure its particular rival or adversary. The Turks are of course enriched, and the Greeks impoverished by these quarrels. Capital crimes are rare; when they occur, the cognizance of them is referred to Constantinople if the parties concerned belong to the Vakufs. Among the others all causes not settled by the elders are tried by the Kadi of the kaza in which the village is inscribed, and at which it. is assessed for the imperial taxes. There are six or eight hundred looms in the mountain for the manufacture of narrow silken or mixed stuffs or towels; but the greater part of these fabrics belong to strangers from Aghia, Ambelakia, or Turnavo. Silken articles of a smaller kind, such as cords, girdles, and purses, are made by the women in some of the towns, particularly Volo, Makrinitza, and Portaria. The men work in leather, and make shoes, sacks, and valises.

§ 4.391 A weaver may earn 50 or 60 paras a day: a day labourer in the vineyards, olive and mulberry plantations, 30 paras, with bread, wine, and meat. The reapers in time of harvest in the plain receive 50 paras, with provision. Last year the deficiency of wheat was supplied at the rate of 16 piastres for the kara-kilo of 150 okes, for which they now pay 45 piastres. Goat’s flesh is the meat chiefly in use, and is commonly 20 paras the oke; beef 8 paras; buffalo 6 paras; wine from 5 to 7 paras. The Magnesians, like the inhabitants of the coasts of Greece in general, derive little resource from the fish with which their seas abound. The women wear a cloth jacket, with a head-dress the most ungraceful that can well be imagined. I shall here subjoin an enumeration of the villages of the Magnesian peninsula, assisted by the work of Daniel and Gregory, to which I before alluded. Beginning from the southern extremity, or isthmus of Trikeri, the first village that occurs is Lafko, then Promiri, and Argalasti. Promiri received its name probably from its proximity to the Magnesian promontory now Cape St. George; Argalasti is at no great distance from a bay of the Pagasetic gulf. The territory of the latter extends quite across the peninsula, and the town was formerly the chief place of the fourteen villages which are Vakufia, but has been superseded in this dignity by Makrinitza. It contains between four and five hundred houses.

§ 4.392 Lafko and Promiri are also enrolled among the Vakufia. Nekhori, another town of the lower peninsula, four hours distant from Argalasti, to the N.W., has, like that town, a district stretching from sea to sea. It contains, with an outlying makhala, 280 houses. Three hours to the N.W. of it is Milies, a town of 300 houses, which, although standing on the southern extremity of the mountain towards the gulf, has lands extending to the outer sea, near which it has also a large makhala called Propando. Nekhori, Milies, and Portaria, are the principal khasia, or villages which not being vakufs belong to one or other of the kazas of Thessaly, of which the imperial revenue is sold every year at Constantinople, generally to some bey of Larissa. Above Milies is Vyzitza, then farther westward Pinakates and St. George; the lands of the latter reach to the gulf, and border upon those of St. Laurence, beyond which stand Dhrakia, Portaria, and Makrinitza, in that order, encircling the summit of the mountain on the western side. Lekhonia is below St. Laurence, and possesses the largest plain in the peninsula: Volo lies just below Portaria and Makrinitza. The latter, with its makhaladhes, contains about 1200 houses, Volo 700, Portaria 700, Dhrakia 600, St. Geoige, St. Laurence, and Lekhonia, about 400 each, Vyzitza and Pinakates 100 each. Of the towns

§ 4.393 on the eastern face of the mountain, the chief is Zagora, from which the whole peninsula is often called Zagora, and its inhabitants Zagoroi Zagora stands immediately below the summit of Pelium on the eastern side, and contains 500 houses divided into four makhalas, situated amidst gardens, and dispersed in a forest of chestnut trees, mixed with some oaks and planes, above, which, towards the summit of the mountain is a forest of beeches. On the shore below the town is a small port named Khorefto. Zagora produces no corn, and only a small quantity of oil and figs, but has some gardens of oranges and other fruits near the sea. It subsists almost entirely by foreign trade, by silk,

§ 4.394 which is made in every house, and by the manufacture of skutia, or cloth for capots: 2000 okes of raw silk are the annual produce, and 50,000 peeks of skutia, which sell for 5 piastres the peek; and after the operation of fulling, or washing, quadruple the value of the raw material. The fulling is performed, as in Mount Pindus, by simply placing the cloth for several days under a torrent of water falling perpendicularly, which makes the cloth shrink and become thick. Almost all the male inhabitants reside abroad during some part of their lives, in the pursuit of commerce, and such is the effect of this industry, that Zagora without any natural means has become the richest of all the villages of the mountain, as the superior comfort of its houses testifies. The principal makhala, which is called St. Saviour, from a large church which it contains, has a school, the oldest in the peninsula, and a library founded by a native named John Prinko, who made his fortune as a merchant in Holland. The other towns on the eastern side of the mountain stand in the following order to the southward of Zagora: — Makriarakhi, Anilio, Kissos, Murisi, Tzangaradha, next to which is Propando, the before mentioned makhala of Milies. To the north of Zagora is Pori. All these towns are vakufia, and to this advantage the development of their industry is in great measure to be ascribed.

§ 4.395 They are all employed in the manufacture of skutia. It appears from the authors of the “Geography,” that there are not less than 7000 houses in the twenty-four villages of the mountain, and as many of these are inhabited by more than one family, and Greek families are seldom small, the whole population of the mountain cannot be computed at less than 45,000. Trikeri, called Bulbulje by the Turks, contains three or four hundred houses, constructed in the same manner as those of the district of Volo, and situated on the summit of a high hill at the eastern entrance of the gulf. The people live entirely by the sea; some of the poorer classes, as well as many of those in the southern villages of the Magnesian peninsula, cut sponges and catch starfish. The others are sailors, ship or boat-builders, and traders. The highest rank are ship-owners, or captains of ships. The richest lend money at a high interest upon maritime traffic, or make advances upon bills drawn upon Constantinople, where the cargoes which are chiefly of corn are generally sold. The Trikeriotes usually fit out their ventures in the same manner as the people of Ydhra, Spetzia, Poro, and many other maritime towns; that is to say, the owner, captain, and sailors, all have shares in the ship and cargo, the sailors generally sharing a half among them, which is in lieu of all other demands. During the scarcity of corn in France at the beginning of the Revolution a sailor's share for the voyage amounted sometimes to three purses, which at that time was equivalent to 150L sterling.

§ 4.396 The peninsula of Trikeri produces nothing but wood; this is brought to town by the women, who perform all the household work; while the men are employed entirely in maritime concerns. The women of some of the other towns of Magnesia are equally laborious, but it is said that none are to be compared with the Trikeriotes for strength, and for the enormous burthens of wood which they bring into the town spinning cotton all the way. Trikeri, although on the main land, is included in the Kapitan Pasha’s government of the islands and White Sea, as the Turks call the Aegaean, and receives its orders from his interpreter, one of the four great Greek officers of the Porte. This arose from the circumstance of the old town having been on the island of Trikeri, the ancient Cicynnethus, from whence they were driven by the pirates. In the south-eastern angle of the gulf, which was probably the harbour of the city of the Magnetes, is a long narrow island named Alata, which produces olives, corn, and vines. To the westward of it is a smaller island bearing olives, named Prassudha. On each of them is a monastery. The lofty summit now called Bardjoia, which occupies all the eastern portion of the peninsula of Trikeri, was probably the Mount Tisaeum of Magnesia, on which stood a temple of Diana, and from which, in the

§ 4.397 year 207 B.C., Philip, son of Demetrius, communicated by torches with other stations in Phocis, Euboea, and Peparethus, for the purpose of obtaining immediate knowledge of the movements of the Roman fleet. The western portion of the Tisaean peninsula, on which the town of Trikeri is situated, appears to have been known as the promontory Aeanteium, and Ptolemy gives reason to believe that there was a town of the same name. Either the modern harbour of Trikeri, or that between the island of Palea Trikeri and the main was the ancient Aphetae, so called as having been the place from whence Jason took his departure for Colchis. There seems at least no other situation in which Aphete can be placed, so as to accord with the narrative of Herodotus in describing the transactions which preceded or accompanied the battle of Artemisium, when the Greeks occupied the latter bay, and the Persians that of Aphetae.

§ 4.398 Dec. 19.—The southerly winds, which have prevailed since I left Ioannina, with the exception of two or three days at Fersala, and again two between Ftelio and Volo, when it blew from the north-east, have had the effect of covering the interior plains with fog or a light rain more frequently than with a heavy rain. On the coast the same kind of mist or fine rain has occurred occasionally, but without any fog, which has been confined to the basin of Thessaly. So marked is this difference between the sea-coast and the interior, that a fog has been visible from Volo for the last three days (and I am assured it is a common occurrence in winter) resting upon the heights of St. George, which separate the maritime plain of Volo from that of Velestino, and giving to the country beyond that ridge the appearance of a boundless lake. The coast meantime has generally enjoyed a bright sky, with the temperature of a fine English April. The difference of climate between Magnesia and inner Thessaly is shown by the olive, which abounds in the former, but in the latter exists only in one or two very sheltered places; for instance, under the great natural south-wall of Kalabaka. From Volo I proceed to Sesklo in an hour and 30 minutes, leaving to the left in succession the castle of Volo, the rocky mountain on which are the northern walls of Pagasa, and at the foot of the same range a small village called the Kalyvia of Volo, beyond which we ascend some heights connected with the north-western side of the mountain of Pagasa to Sesklo. This village contains fifty houses, and the ruins of many others. The inhabitants complain bitterly of the continual passage of Albanians, which they feel the more, both

§ 4.399 positively and comparatively, in consequence of the exemption of their neighbours of Mount Pelium from this most tormenting of all the oppressions to which the Christians of this empire are subject. An Ioannite Greek, on a mission from Aly Pasha, is now residing at Sesklo, not venturing to remain among the Turks of Kastro, whose hatred and jealousy of Aly might easily tempt them to ill-treat a Christian agent of his, especially as they are countenanced at this moment by the Istiradji, or officer of the Porte, who is charged with the collection and export of Thessalian corn, and who is specially instructed to counteract Aly’s encroachments in this angle of Rumili, and to supply the government with accurate reports of his proceedings. A little below Sesklo is an eminence covered with stones, which has much the appearance of an ancient site, though without any actual traces of walls. It may possibly be the site of Aesone, or Aesonia, which was evidently in this vicinity, having been so called from Aeson, who was father of Jason of Iolcus, and whose name is coupled in the Odyssey with that of Pheres, the founder of Pherae. Nor could it have been much farther than this place from Mount Pelium, as it was considered a Magnesian town, and is named by Apollonius in the same verse with Pagasae, which was also a Magnesian city.

§ 4.400 Dec. 20.—From Sesklo to Ghereli 3 hours 50 min. The morning was clear and warm, with a breeze from the sea; but in less than half an hour after entering the foggy region the air became cold, and so damp that our clothes were soon covered with drops of water. In I hour 20 min. we arrive at St. George, a considerable village, situated on the range of heights which connect those near the sea coast with the mountain of Velestino. There is a copious source of water in the village. The lands produce corn and silk. The women manufacture ropes and bags of goat’s hair, and spin cotton as in all the Thessalian villages. From thence we descend into the plain of Velestino, and in less than half an hour leave that town two miles on the left, passing at the same time close to an artificial height which is low with a broad base, and is situated between two others having the usual size and shape of barrows.

§ 4.401 They form a direct line across the narrowest part of the plain of Thessaly, between Velestino and the last heights of the Pelian range. A little farther we pass a rising ground, and beyond it another, both strewed with numerous fragments of marble and stones, the remains of ancient habitations. At the end of an hour and a quarter from St. George, we pass close to the right of the village of Rizomylo (rice mill) by the Turks called Dinghi, and at an equal distance from thence arrive at Ghereli; midway Hadjimes, a Turkish tjiftlik of fifty Greek houses, is a mile to the right; the whole interval between these villages is an uninclosed plain of nascent corn. The soil resembles that around Larissa, being light and easily wrought with the plough: in good seasons it yields ten or twelve to one in wheat, but is said to require more moisture than Upper Thessaly or the Larissaean plain. Ghereli belongs to the family of Mustafa Pasha of Larissa, whom I remember as Pasha of the Morea, and who died in Bosnia, of which he latterly had the government. The Sultan, who according to the Turkish laws was heir to his property, gave it up to the family without any deduction. Many squared stones of ancient fabric are observable at Ghereli, and some sori, roughly formed out of a single block of stone. They have all been brought from a magula ίτ height covered with remains of ancient buildings, a mile or two to the westward, at the foot of the ridge of hills called Karadagh, or Mavrovuni, whither it has been the custom from time immemorial for the neighbouring

§ 4.402 villagers to resort for building materials. Wrought stones and sori brought from thence are to be seen in many parts of the surrounding plain, the former encircling the wells, and the latter serving as water troughs. An old Hadji, who is master of my konak at Ghereli, and Subashi of the village, which is inhabited by Greek labourers, remembers many sepulchres to have been opened at the Magula; and once, a small coin to have been taken from between the teeth of a skeleton. An inscribed marble, which is now at Ghereli, was brought probably from the same place; the letters are unfortunately so much obliterated as to be quite illegible. Dec. 21.—From Ghereli to Aghia five hours; Kastri, a place mentioned on my second Thessalian tour, is exactly half way. Quitting Ghereli at 4.25, Turkish, we leave, in fifteen minutes, Kililer at the foot of the hills one mile and a half on the left: at 5.5 pass between the two small villages of Buragan and Alufada, the latter to the right; then passing a little to the right of Hadjobashi, leave, at 5.30, on the same side, Sakalar, a little beyond which is a large tumulus, with some other small artificial heights near it. So far, this fertile plain is well cultivated; but at 6 the land becomes marshy, and a quarter of an hour farther covered with water. This inundation follows the western foot of the Pelian range.

§ 4.403 In spring, when the Salamvria is swollen by the melted snow of the mountains surrounding Thessaly, a channel situated at a short distance below Larissa conducts the superfluous waters into the Karatjair or Μανρολιμνη, the ancient Nessonis. As soon as this basin is filled, the Asmak (in Greek Asmaki) conveys the waters to the lake of Karla, which, with the exception of some torrents falling into it from the northern and western sides of Mount Pelium, is entirely thus formed. The river not having overflowed last year, the Karla is now low, and there is not much water in the intermediate marsh, compared with its state in ordinary seasons. But the Asmak always contains some deep pools near Karalar, as I witnessed when crossing it on the 17th of December, 1806. The vulgar assert that it has no bottom; and that the fish of the lake of Karla, which are very numerous in favourable seasons, are all bred in the Asmak, and are carried into the lake by the καταβασιά, or descent of the Salamvria. This may be partly true; but the Asmak is so inconsiderable in very dry seasons, that the lake Nessonis and the river itself are probably the chief breeding places. At 6.30, having crossed the marsh, we arrive at the foot of the Pelian range, about two miles to the northward of a large Greek village called Kukurava, and follow the foot of the hills, which consist for the most part of a bare calcareous rock, to Kastri. This is a ruinous village belonging to Vely Pasha, and derives its name from the walls of an ancient city inclosing the face of the hill at the foot of which the village

§ 4.404 stands. The position is such as the ancient Greeks frequently chose, being a rocky height on the edge of a plain, with a copious source of water at its foot, separated by a hollow from the main body of the mountain, defended on one side by precipices and on the other by a ravine and torrent. The spring at Kastri recommended the situation the more from its vicinity to a thirsty plain, where the only supply of water in summer is from wells. It issues from the foot of a rock which forms the foundation of a large tower. This tower and all the remaining walls, although consisting of small rude stones and mortar, mixed with broken tiles, are of very solid construction. They are remarkable for having many square perforations through the entire thickness. The plan of the fortification is similar to that at Gritziano, excepting that here the flank defence is obtained by semi-circular towers and redans, whereas at Gritziano the towers are rectangular, like those commonly used in Hellenic works. The lower front of Kastri, being the weakest side, was protected by an outer wall or counterscarp. Not a vestige of any building remains within the inclosure except an ancient church. In some parts the walls are almost complete, in others they are ruined to the foundations. The circumference is about a mile. The Proestos of Kastri has preserved a sepulchral inscription which he found on the outside of the ancient walls. The characters are evidently of the best times, but too much defaced for copying.

§ 4.405 Among the ruins of a small building in some vineyards on the southern side of the village, lies another inscribed stone in characters of a much later date, and remarkable for having the sigma turned in a direction opposite to the accustomed— a fashion which seems to mark the period when Magnesia, comprehending all Pelium and Ossa, was a province of Macedonia, and Demetrias its chief town. This inscription is complete, and signifies that Hellenocrates, who had held the office of purveyor of corn, had erected the stone as a boundary in a road called Hecatompedus. Ancient coins are said to be very commonly found within the paleokastro and in the adjacent fields, but none of the villagers have any at present. When they happen to find a coin of silver, they take the first opportunity of disposing of it to some χρνσικος, or goldsmith, at Aghia or Larissa, who may perhaps melt it, if he has not an opportunity of disposing of it to advantage to some itinerant Frank, or of sending it to a correspondent at Constantinople. In Thessaly, as in Macedonia, coins of copper are found in abundance on the ancient sites, and are generally sold by the peasants, when a sufficient number of them has been collected, to the workers in that metal, who most frequently convert them into cooking utensils. The occurrence of inscriptions and coins at Kastri is deserving of notice, as proving that the ruins, although the masonry bears no resemblance

§ 4.406 to the southern Hellenic, are really of those times, and thus confirming the opinion which I formed of the similar constructions at Dhamasi, Gritziano, and several other places in Thessaly, where, as at Kastri, few if any wrought masses of stone are to be seen; but where the position, the mode of occupying the ground, and the general construction sufficiently resemble the undoubted Hellenic to show that they are works of the same people. Indeed, since the time of the early Roman Empire, Thessaly has never been sufficiently tranquil, opulent, or populous, to require or to execute fortifications so extensive and so numerous. From Kastri we follow for upwards of a mile along the foot of the mountain the vestiges of an ancient wall, obviously intended as a protection to the road from the encroachments of the marsh: it was constructed of solid masonry, and is probably the όδος εκατόμπεδος, or road of a hundred feet, mentioned in the inscription. In thirty-five minutes we pass through Plessia, a small tjiftlik-village, and then turn the angle of the hills which form the southern side of the entrance into the valley which branches eastward from the great Larissaan plain, and extends to Dugan, Dhosiani, and Aghia. An insulated eminence which rises from the plain between Plessia and the foot of Mount Ossa, but nearer to the latter, has apparently been the site of an ancient come, as well from the form of the ground as from numerous vestiges of walls on the slope and around the brow of the height.

§ 4.407 The valley into which we now enter presents a pleasant contrast to the immense naked plains which we have left, and which, although as well cultivated as any in Greece, are less remarkable for beauty than for the grandeur derived from their great extent and their noble horizon of mountains. Scarcely a tree is to be met with between Fersala or Velestino and Larissa. The valley of Dhosiani, on the contrary, is enlivened by a rivulet which flows to the Asmaki, and is shaded in some places by majestic plane-trees, in others by the oleander, lentisk, and agnus castus. The villages on the including heights of Ossa and Pelium, as well as those in the valley, are surrounded by mulberry plantations, vineyards, and fields of corn, which is just above ground: in the lowest levels the land is prepared for maize. To the left the snowy peak of Kissavo surmounts lower heights well covered with a variety of trees: on the right the northern summit of Mount Pelium, less elevated, but having a small quantity of snow upon it, is clothed in this part almost entirely with oaks. The only modern name I can learn for this northern extremity of the Pelian ridges is Mavrovuni, which is hardly a distinction, being, as I before mentioned, attached to the heights north-west of Velestino, as well as to another mountain near Petrino. At the end of thirty-five minutes from Plessia, having followed generally the left bank of the rivulet, we cross it and pass through Dugan, which contains one mosque, a few Turkish houses, and about 100 Greek.

§ 4.408 A height on the opposite side of the stream seems by its appearance of art to indicate an ancient site. Twenty-five minutes farther is Dhosiani, of the same size as Dugan, and consisting entirely of Greek houses, with the exception of a serai belonging to Vely Pasha, who has lately converted this formerly free village into a tjiftlik. The serai has a garden, in which is a large square tank with a kiosk in the centre, surrounded by a square inclosure regularly planted with young fruit-trees. Besides this house, Vely possesses two others in Thessaly, one at Trikkala, the other at Misdani, in the Trikkaline plain; but they are now both neglected, while this is in tolerable order. Some fine groves of planes border the rivulet a little beyond Dhosiani. Soon afterwards we arrive in sight of Aghia, which stands on the foot of Mount Ossa, and half an hour before sunset arrive in the middle of the town at the end of a fifty minutes’ ride from Dhesiani. Soon after my arrival, a formal visit from the Tagi of Aghia, now entitled the Γέροντες or elders, is interrupted by the chimney catching fire—an accident that seemed alarming, as the house is chiefly of wood, and the fire burnt for some time with great fury; my visitors, however, considering it a matter of no consequence, or rather as a convenient substitute for sweeping, our discourse proceeds uninterrupted by the roaring flames. Aghia, which has now about 500 families, is said to have been considerably more populous before it fell into the hands of Aly Pasha. It was then governed by a voivoda appointed by the Sultana, to whom its revenue is assigned; and it enjoyed, as well as several other places in this neighbourhood similarly

§ 4.409 protected, among which the principal are Thanatu, Karitza, and Rapsiani, all now in the hands of Aly Pasha, the same advantages as the towns in the southern part of Magnesia. The upper classes at Aghia live upon the produce of their corn-fields and vineyards, or the culture of silk, and the manufacture of stuffs made of silk, called fitilia, or of silk and cotton mixed, named aladja, and of cotton towels. Out of 100 workshops, some of which have two looms, the cotton towels employ twenty. The fitilia are about twenty-five feet long; those called kaftanlik for making kaftans rather longer. The width is two feet, which is the usual breadth of a Thessalian loom. The measures in use at Aghia for their stuffs are a rupi, which is the breadth of the hand including the thumb: eight rupia make an endizia. A weaver earns forty paras a day. Labourers in the vineyards and mulberry grounds, and in the fields of corn and kalambokki receive twenty-five paras, and in the summer forty with provision; in the plain of Larissa sixty. Aghia had begun to share in the commerce of dyed cotton thread with Germany, by which Ambelakia and Rapsiani have arisen to eminence, but the interruption caused by the war between Russia and the Porte, which has so much injured those two towns, has at Aghia almost annihilated the traffic with Germany. Enjoying a better soil and richer territory than Ambelakia and ‘Rapsiani, it would have had a great advantage over those places had it not been more exposed by its situation

§ 4.410 to Albanian extortion. It is now 22 years since Aly first entered it as Dervent Aga; but it was not till a few years ago that he bought the malikhiane or farm for life from the Porte. He has been greatly assisted in his avaricious projects by the factious spirit of the inhabitants. By alternately encouraging each of the tarafia, or parties into which the place is divided, and by readily listening to their mutual accusations, he derives profit from every new complaint, and renders his power more secure in this quarter. At present the town is divided between the parties of two brothers, Alexis and George. The latter had held the post of hodja-bashi, and having been regular in his half-yearly visits to Ioannina with the aladjak, or collective payments from the town, accompanied by a present from himself, he had enjoyed for many years the undisturbed possession of a great part of his private property, together with the chief municipal power. In 1807 Mukhtar Pasha coming into Thessaly in pursuit of the rebel Papa Evtimios, listened to the persuasions of Alexis, who finding all other modes insufficient, openly accused his brother of having been in league with an Albanian Bolu-bashi, who is the Dervent Aga’s agent at Aghia, to favour the flight of the bishop’s niece, who had run away with one of the deacons; and of having received a bribe to connive at the elopement. In consequence of this accusation, both brothers were sent for to Ioannina, and have not yet been allowed to return home, though they have made great pecuniary sacrifices, both to the Vezir and to Mukhtar Pasha, and

§ 4.411 though Aly has at length declared himself satisfied that George had no share in the elopement. George’s son, who had been at Vienna for his education, had not been twelve days in Aghia before the opposite tarafi accused him of having taken upon himself to act as a Gherondas, and of having raised money in that capacity without authority. He was forthwith sent for to Ioannina, where he still remains. Besides the brothers, some other branches of the family, to the amount of twelve or fourteen, are now there. The heads of the other chief houses are in Germany, so that the wife of Kyr Ghiorghi seems now to be considered the chief person at Aghia. Dec. 23.—The houses of Aghia are pleasantly dispersed among beeches, walnut-trees, oaks, planes, cypresses, mulberry plantations, vineyards, and gardens. The part of Ossa which rises immediately to the northward is chiefly covered with beeches. Chestnut, oak, and ilex, are the trees most common on the opposite Slopes of Pelium. The only deficiency in this beautiful situation is that of a view of the sea, of which, although only a few miles distant, it is deprived by a ridge, noticed by Herodotus, which closes the valley of Dhosiani, and unites the last falls of Ossa and Pelium. To the eastward this ridge falls to another valley, terminating in a wide κόλπος, or gulf, bounded to the northward

§ 4.412 by Cape Kisavo, on the coast of Ossa, and to the soathward by a projection of the PeBan range, between Pori and Zagora. Although the retreat of the coast is so small, compared with its extent, that it has not at present any specific name as a gulf, there can be no doubt of its identity with that which Strabo names the gulf of Meliboea, since besides his clear description of it, as lying between Pelium and Ossa, he has accurately assigned to it a length of 200 stades, and to the seacoast of either mountain 80 stades Between Aghia and the sea, a central position in the connecting heights, at the western extremity of the maritime valley, was occupied by an ancient fortress, or small fortified town. The walls are constructed, like those at Kastri, of broken tiles and small stones, with a large proportion of mortar; and they are of the same thickness, or about nine feet, but their state of preservation is very different. On the north in particular, they are scarcely traceable; but the hill is here so precipitous, that a slight defeuce was perhaps thought sufficient. All this end of the height is surrounded by the bed of a torrent, which descends from Kksavo, and having been joined just below the Paleokastro by another from Mavrovuni, or Pelium, flows through the valley above mentioned to the Melibaean gulf.

§ 4.413 The ruined walls are chiefly preserved towards the latter mountain, upon which, at the distance of a mile, is a small village named Askiti. The walls on this side cross a ridge which connects the height with that mountain; and here stands the only remaining tower, which is not semi-circular like those at Kastri, but quadrangular. Within the ruined inclosure are the remains of a large cistern, and heaps of stones collected from the ruins of ancient habitations, together with some foundations composed of large irregular masses. This position commands a fine view of Aghia, of the valley which extends to the Meliboean gulf, and in the opposite direction, of that which contains Dugan, Dhosiani, and many smaller villages, as well as of the including mountains, Ossa and Pelium, and of the Pelasgic plain, beyond which rise the hills of Khassia and Mount Pindus. On the side of Ossa is seen Nevoliani, in a lofty situation above Aghia, and Selitzani, similarly situated above Aidinli, which last is two or three miles north-west of Aghia on a root of the mountain. At Aidinli, Aly Pasha is now building a Tekieh for his favourite Bektashlis. To the southward the view of the land is terminated by a steep bluff of Mount Pelium between Pori and Zagora, already mentioned as the southern extremity of the Melibaan gulf; beyond which, to the eastward, the view extends over the open sea between the cluster of islands to the north-east of Skopelo and the western shore of the peninsula of Pallene, which is twelve leagues distant.

§ 4.414 Behind the latter rises the highest part of the Toronaic peninsula, and beyond it Mount Athos. To the northward of these appear the mountains of the Chalcidice, which terminate near Saloniki. Returning from the Paleokastro, I visited a large ancient monastery, pleasantly situated in a wood of oaks a mile to the eastward of Aghia, and commanding a partial view of the sea, but found no remains there of Hellenic antiquity. A comparison of Livy and Strabo, the former of whom describes Meliboea as standing on the roots of Mount Ossa, and the latter as situated in the gulf between Ossa and Pelium, leave no doubt that it was near Aghia. As Herodotus, Scylax, and Apollonius, describe it as a maritime town, and as the historian mentions it among those near which the ships of Xerxes were wrecked, it can hardly have been so far from the sea as the paleokastro of Askiti, which is three miles distant from the shore. These ruins moreover are not those of a town of sufficient importance for the capital of Philoctetes. Meliboea therefore I take to have stood at a place called Kastri, not far beyond Dhemata, where now exists only a monastery of St. John Theologus. Above that situation, amidst a wood of beeches on the side of Mount Ossa, is Thanatu, a village of 400 houses, on the road from Aghia to Karitza, producing chiefly wine and silk.

§ 4.415 Between Thanatu and Karitza there are said to be indications of another ancient site, at a spot where several large quadrangular blocks of stone are seen in the fields, below which is a ruin, vulgarly named the Tersana, or mint, and another with arches, called ο παλαιός λοντρος, or the ancient bath. Karitza stands in a steep and rugged position, a mile or two above the sea; it contains 150 families, who live chiefly by supplying Saloniki with wood. The land produces little but figs and grapes. Fteri, the port of Karitza, and the most frequented on this coast, is situated an hour to the north of Karitza, midway between Karitza and the mouth of the Salamvria on the edge of the maritime level, which with slight interruptions is continued as far as the great Macedonian plains at the head of the Thermaic gulf. Above Fteri On the lower part of Mount Kissavo, is a convent of St. Demetrius, noted for its magnitude and antiquity. It stands perhaps on the site of Homolium. As to the ancient remains between Thanatu and Karitza, I am inclined to think they are those of JSurymence, which we know from several authorities to have been a town of the Magnesian coast. Apollonius, indeed, seems opposed to this particular site, by naming Eurymenae as if it were the nearest place to Tempe, but as he has evidently not been particular in introducing the names of the places

§ 4.416 on this coast in their exact order, his testimony is of little weight. On the coast between Askiti and Pori, on the eastern face of Mount Pelium, are the following villages in succession, all situated about two miles above the sea shore, and about two hours asunder, with the exception of the first, which is only about half that distance from Askiti: their names are Polydhendhri, Sklithro, Keramidhi, Veneto, and Mintzeles, above which last is Kerasia, and beyond it Pori. If Meliboea was near Aghia, it becomes not improbable that the paleokastro of Askiti, or one of the villages just named, may have been the site of Thaumada, one of the four cities whose ships in the Trojan war were commanded by Philoctetes, for Methone and Olizon were, according to Scylax, as before remarked, in the Pagasetic Gulf; Thaumacia, therefore, it is natural to suppose, was near the intermediate shore between those places and Meliboea. It is proper to observe that this Thaumacia is not to be confounded with the Thaumaci of Phthiotis, a place which either did not exist at the time of the Trojan expedition, or was included by Homer among the other unnamed towns of the dominions of Peleus. Myrae, according to Scylax, was another ancient town on the eastern shore of Magnesia. Three ancient sepulchral inscriptions

§ 4.417 are preserved in the churches of Aghia, brought probably from the site of Meliboea; one of these is a fragment, giving notice of a fine of 5000 denaria to be paid by any violator of the tomb to the ταμείον, or public chest of the city—a number so large that we may infer a great depreciation of the denarius at the time of the inscription; the two others bear names only: as to one of these, the remark occurs, that although it is evidently of a date when the Thessalians employed the patronymic adjective, the father's name is here expressed as generally in Greece by the second case. Probably the Magnetes did not acknowledge themselves to be Thessalians.

§ 4.418 CHAPTER 42 THESSALIA. DEC. 24.—Dhosiani, to which I return this afternoon from Aghia, was once evidently of more importance than it is at present, as it contains four ancient churches, two of which are large. In all of them are many squared blocks, brought from some neighbouring Hellenic site. One of these is the tombstone of a woman named Hermione. In the pavement of the principal church are two handsome slabs of verd-antique, or at least of a species of green marble, of which I observed two similar pieces at Aghia, one of them lying at a fountain.

§ 4.419 Dec. 25.—Having returned by the same route to Kastri, we follow the foot of the hills instead of recrossing the marsh, and in 35 minutes from Kastri leave Kukurava a mile and a half on the left, upon the side of the mountain. Its mukata being in the hands of Halil Bey of Zituni, it is now considered as belonging to the district of Zituni. Halil is the intended son-in-law of Vely Pasha. In 35 minutes more we halt at Abufaklar, a Koniaric village divided into two makhalas, and bearing the usual Turkish signs of poverty and ruin, though the inhabitants enjoy the double advantage of cultivating their own lands in a situation not to be molested by travellers or soldiers. But like their brethren of Asia Minor, these Turks seem to be satisfied with the bare necessaries of life, and to think that all beyond is unworthy of the labour of procuring it. The calcareous rocky hills at the back of Abufaklar produce nothing but the prinokokki or shrubby holly-leaved oak. Towards the plain are some groves of large oaks and plane-trees near the village which give it a pleasant appearance, but the marsh is too near to be agreeable or wholesome. At 8, (Turkish time,) we prosecute our route over some rich corn land, and at 9.10 arrive at a projection of the mountain, beyond which it retires and forms the great bay or retreat of the Pelian range, which embraces the lake of Karla. To the right, or west, beyond the marsh, and opposite to the projecting point of the mountain, a very remarkable height rises like an island out of the plain. This hill, the foot of which is touched by the marsh when the inundation reaches its maximum, is about four miles in circumference, rocky in many parts, but no where lofty, and having two summits connected by a ridge: the southern is pointed, that

§ 4.420 to the northward is more low and even. Between them, on the northern slope of the ridge, stands a Koniaric village named Petra: around the height some rocks rise out of the level, and two or three miles south-eastward is another detached height, smaller and lower than that of Petra, but similar to it, and forming at present an island in the lake of Karla. I have been the more particular in describing the hill of Petra, because it answers most remarkably to a position in the plain Dotium, described by Hesiod in a fragment of the Eoeae of that poet preserved by Strabo. Having turned the projection, our route leads eastward along the foot of the hills, which consist of a bare rock, so rugged that it must be very difficult for any cattle to pass over the points when the inundation reaches to the rocks. These seem to be the Βοιβιάδος κρημνοί alluded to by Pindar. At present there is a wide level, covered in some places with rushes, between the rocks and the edge of the water, which, as the lake is now reduced to a small compass, is at the distance of a mile to our right. In various places on the foot of the hills there are stone huts for the use of the agents of the person who farms the fishery of the lake from the Sultan. Opposite to each hut is a rough quay or jetty, made of loose stones, for the convenience of those who drag the nets. Approaching Kanalia, I observe the villagers ploughing

§ 4.421 the borders of the lake, attended, as in Egypt, by the Gherondes or elders, who at seed-time, on the subsidence of the inundation, superintend the adjustment of the boundaries of the fields. Their award admits of no appeal. The soil is excellent; but if the water rises beyond the usual extent, the peasant may lose his seed-corn, or may be obliged to look for a harvest of fish instead of grain. At 11 we arrive at Kanalia. This village, which contains 200 houses, is situated on the foot of Mount Pelium, shut in on either side by the lower declivities of that mountain, and open only to a view of the eastern end of the lake, of the hills to the south of it, and of a part of Velestino. Such a position cannot be very healthy or agreeable in summer. In fact, the heat and glare of light reflected from the bare white rocks which inclose the lake and adjacent plain are described as intolerable, and not less so the clouds of gnats and flies which infest all the borders of the lake. The village stands nearly on the edge of the highest inundation, where begin vineyards and mulberry plantations, which occupy all the lower part of a fertile valley, extending for three miles to the eastward, with a breadth half as great, and terminating at the northern foot of Mount Plessidhi. The fertile soil and valuable fishery of Kanalia make it the richest village in the district of Velestino, and would have caused it to prosper still more, had not intestine quarrels checked improvement, and at one time almost ruined the place. They have lately adopted the plan of placing a bridle upon themselves in the shape of a Bostanji

§ 4.422 of Constantinople, whom they pay as governor or representative of the Sultan, to whose Hasne the village and fishery belong: from this measure they hope also to derive some protection against Aly Pasha. A party, nevertheless, at the head of which is my host the Hodja-bashi, has been already gained over to assist the Pasha in his design of forcing the Sultan to compound with him by giving him the life farm of the district as at Aghia. The Hodja-bashi justifies his inclination to the Vezir's projects, by the remark, that although the Albanian does not yet command the place, he walks over it, and treads it down, meaning that the Albanians quarter upon them. The Mukata comprises, together with the fishery of the lake, the dhekatia of Kanalia, of Kiserli on the western side of Mount Ossa, of Milies on Mount Pelium, of Demiradhes in the district of Elassona, of Vlakhoianni in that of Dheminiko, of Megarkhi near Kalabaka, and of Apidhia in Agrafa. It has been for several years in the hands of a Greek of Milies, who continues to pay eighty purses a year for it to the Sultan, though from two of the villages he has little prospect of obtaining his dues, as they have become tjiftliks of Mukhtar Pasha and his father. Aly’s principal object at present seems to be that of laying hold of the person of this mukatesi, who, when the Vezir had introduced some of his Albanians into the castle of Volo, under shadow of the rebellion of Papa Evtimio, found it prudent to

§ 4.423 retire to Constantinople; and though he returned to Milies, on ascertaining that the Albanians had been withdrawn from Volo in consequence of the capture of Evtimio in the Aegaean sea, he dares not visit Kanalia, but entrusts his interests here to a deputy. He is entitled to a third of the produce of the fishery, the Kanaliotes enjoying the sole right of fishing, which in plentiful seasons they relax in favour of some of the neighbouring villages. The only fish are carp, a small flat fish, and eels They are caught with seines and handnets, but chiefly in inclosures made of reeds which grow in the lake, and are called μανδράκια, because the fish follow the leader into them like sheep into a fold, the entrance, of course, being so constructed that they cannot return. When the fishing takes place, κερατζίδες, or carriers, attend on the shore with their πράγματα, or things κατ' εξοχήν, by which is here meant either horses or asses, and having paid for the fish, transport them forthwith to the surrounding markets. In summer fish caught in the evening are thus sold at daybreak in Larissa, Aghia, Armyro, or Fersala: in winter, Katerina, Trikkala, and even MOtzovo, are supplied from hence. The agents of the Zabit, as the farmer of the Sultan’s share is styled, attend at the landing places to take an account of the sums received by the Kanaliote fishermen, and receive the third at

§ 4.424 their houses in Kanalia. At present there are no carp in the lake, as they all come through the Asmaki on the overflowing of the Peneius into the Nessonis, and thence into the Boebeis; and this year, according to the local expression, “the mother has not come down” nor was there any considerable inundation last year, so that few fish were caught in the summer, and none have been taken this winter. A deficient inundation is often followed by the farther calamity, that the fish remaining in the reduced lake are killed by the sun, as happened last summer, when the heat and drought were excessive. The wind too is sometimes fatal to them, by raising the water on the lee-side of the lake, and then suddenly abating, by which the fish are stranded or left in small pools, where the heat of the sun soon kills them. The Etesian winds in particular have this effect, as they occur in the hottest season, and when the lake is generally at the lowest. To make amends for the want of fish this year, there has been a plentiful crop of corn from the banks of the lake, which, as the harvest was indifferent in other parts of Thessaly, and in some places failed entirely, has borne a good price; and hence the Kanaliotes have been induced this winter to sow the borders of the lake to a great extent, and with the more confidence, as after a scanty inundation, a more than usually plentiful one is required to restore the lake to its average limits and consequently they have a good chance

§ 4.425 that their crop of corn will not be injured by the water. Sometimes, though very rarely, the lake is quite dry, as it will be next winter if there should be no inundation in the course of the year. Indeed, they say that it would now be dry but for the torrents which have poured into it from the mountain. The inundation generally takes place from the middle of February to the middle of April of the Roman calendar, and brings with it fish full of roe, which is soon afterwards converted into young fish. In the middle of summer these weigh about ten to the oke, towards the end of the year three or four to the oke, at the end of the second year an oke each, and of the third year two okes. When the seasons are favourable for two or three successive years, the quantity caught is immense, and the fish are sold at six or eight paras the oke, at other times from ten to twenty. The fishing times are not regulated by natural causes, but by. the calendar, the principal object being to supply the market with fish during the Greek fasts, and to those who fast strictly on the days of αργία or suspension, when there is an ιχθύος κατάλυσις; that is to say, when instead of αναιματα, such as shell-fish, star-fish, and botargo, fish having blood is allowed, as well as eggs, milk, and cheese, and which days are therefore in reality feasts. The fasts which chiefly affect the fishery of Karla are in August, before the κοιμησις της Παναγίας, the twenty-five days preceding the feast of St. Demetrius, which occurs on the 26th of October (old style), and the fast of Advent before Christmas. On all these occasions, Wednesdays and Fridays are excepted from the suspension of the last. The sale is most extensive in December, as the fish may be carried farther. In good years the Zabit gains from twenty to forty purses, but this year will be a considerable loser by his mukata. The Kanaliotes estimate the degree of bereketi, or plenty, by the number of pithamadhes or palms in the lake. The depth of water in the centre at present is five palms: when it is full there are twenty-five palms.

§ 4.426 Dec. 26.—The obstinacy and violence of the Etesian winds in July and August, to which I have just alluded, are well known to those who have had to struggle with them in the Aegaean in that season. As a contrast for this sometimes disagreeable, though probably always salutary characteristic of the climate of Greece, nothing can be more delightful than the general tranquillity of the autumn and early winter throughout the eastern side of the Grecian continent, beginning generally about the middle of November, and sometimes lasting the greater part of the month of January, between which and April is generally the true winter in Greece. The wind, since I have been in this province, has generally been light, whether with or without rain, and during the last month there have been only two violent gales; one of these occurred yesterday, the other at Aghia, and neither of them lasted more than twelve hours.

§ 4.427 Eastern Greece, however, is subject to greater extremes of temperature than the country to the westward of Pindus, where southerly and westerly winds are so prevalent during the winter, that the cold is seldom very durable or very severe, except in the parts near the central ridge. Daniel and Gregory of Milies state in their “Geography,” that the olive trees of Magnesia, where the climate is milder than in any other part of Thessaly, were killed by the frost in 1782. In 1779 the lake Boebeis which was then so full as to extend to Kastri, was frozen entirely over, so that persons passed from Kanalia to the opposite side. The flocks perished, and many a Vlakhiote shepherd returned to his mountains without a single sheep. The authors confirm the truth of their account by describing the peculiar sound caused by the cracking of the ice from one end of the lake to the other, a phaenomenon remarkable to them from its rare occurrence in so southern a latitude. I have met with many similar testimonies as to the occasional severity of the winter, particularly in Upper Thessaly, where only two years ago the sheep perished in great numbers, and where the plains are covered sometimes for a fortnight with snow to the depth of eight or ten palms; this may be seen also in Epirus, in the interior plains of Ioannina, Arghyrokastro, Konitza, and in the intermediate valleys, but seldom nearer to the sea.

§ 4.428 The lake Boebeis derives its modern name of Karla from a village which stood a mile to the south-east of Kanalia, but of which no traces now remain, except scattered stones and a large ancient church, dedicated to St. Nicolas, in the middle of the valley, near the high-water mark of the lake. Kanalia, which has supplied its place, was formerly situated in the upper part of the mountain, but when robbers and the other vexations perpetually occurring in Turkey had depopulated Karla, the prospect of gain induced the people of Kanalia to descend from their healthy situation. The ruins of the houses and churches of old Kanalia are still to be seen on the mountain. The ancient Beebe, which as well as the lake is sufficiently identified by the words of Strabo, occupied a height advanced in front of the mountain, sloping gradually towards the plain, and defended by a steep fall at the back of the hill. It appears to have been constructed of Hellenic masonry properly so called. The acropolis may be traced on the summit, where several large quadrangular blocks of stone are still in their places, among more considerable ruins formed of small stones and mortar. Of the town walls there are some remains at a small church dedicated to St. Athanasius at the foot of the hill, where are several large masses of stone showing by their distance from the acropolis that the city.was not less than two miles in circumference.

§ 4.429 The hill on which it stood is rocky and covered with prinaria: at the back of it are some sepulchres, formed of quadrangular slabs placed vertically in the earth. At the foot of the height to the northwest, without the walls of the town, there is a never-failing source of water in a deep cavity; in winter it generally fills up the cavern to the mouth: it is now however very low, but the water is excellent, and contributed probably to recommend this site to the original settlers. It may have been perhaps to protect their fountain as well as to command a view to the westward over the lake and plain, that the ancients built a small castle on the peak of a rock, about half way in a right line between the Paleokastro and Kanalia. Its masonry is of the same kind as that of the ruins at Kastri and Gritziano; that is to say, the walls are thick, formed of small irregular stones and mortar, and pierced with many square holes. At a distance of five or six hundred yards to the south-east of the site of Beebe are the remains of a small ancient building, composed of a coarse species of white marble which splits easily into thin slabs. It was apparently a detached temple; the length within is fourteen, and the breadth ten feet, with walls 3-1/2 feet thick, having an entrance in the middle of one end 3 feet 7 inches wide. One of the long sides is still six feet high above the soil, in five courses of regular masonry, forming the whole thickness of the wall, and of which the two upper courses project over each other within; thus showing that they formed a part of the roof of the building, and that

§ 4.430 it was constructed in a manner very commonly found in Greek doors and roofs of small span. A small quantity of cement mixed with broken tiles has been employed in this masonry. The building is on the slope of a rocky height, a little above the foot of it. At the church of St. Nicolas, on the site of Karla, are some fragments of fluted Doric columns I foot 9 inches in diameter, with 20 flutings, and several masses of white marble, of which stone the adjacent mountain seems to be chiefly composed. From the church of St. Nicolas I cross the mountain which borders the vale of Boebe on the south to Kaprena. In various parts of the mountain huts have been built by the people of Kaprena for the Vlakhi, who come into this part of Thessaly with their sheep in the winter, and hire both pasture and huts. By the Greeks of Thessaly these people are commonly called Karagunidhes, or black cloaks. With the extension of Αly Pasha’s landed property in Northern Greece, his flocks also have increased, and the greater part of those which winter in the plains of Thessaly now belong to him or his sons. Each of the three Tepeleniote Pashas has a tjoban-bashi, or head

§ 4.431 shepherd, who appoints the winter-quarters, corresponds with the subordinate leaders, and reports to his master. Not only these persons, but those likewise who conduct the flocks of others or their own into Thessaly, and who were formerly exposed to the extortions of the Koniaridhes, now enjoy the Vezir’s protection, as coming from places subject to his government. Hence the Vlakhiotes are better disposed towards Aly than his other subjects, except those immediately in his employment. In like manner the Vlakhiote shopkeepers, tailors, day-labourers, and itinerant venders of capots, enjoy in the towns a greater degree of security than formerly. The numerous flocks on the heights around Kaprena and Kanalia illustrate the epithet πολυμηλοτάτη bestowed upon Boebe by a dramatic poet who was a careful observer of manners and topography. The fish of the Boebeis, on the contrary, are not noticed in any of the ancient authors, unless Boe should be substituted for Βολ, in a fragment by a poet often quoted by Athenaeus, though as Bolbe was a lake in Macedonia, such an alteration is by no means necessary. As to the cereal capabilities of Boebe, it is not surprising that they should have been unnoticed so near to the Pheraean, Amyric, and Larissaean plains.

§ 4.432 Kaprena is a village of 50 houses situated on an elevated level among the hills which lie between the lake of Karla and the plains extending to Volo. Above the village, on one of the highest points of these hills, are the ruins of an ancient town with a citadel on the summit, of which the entire circuit is traceable. On its lower side a part of the wall is still standing, built of rude masses of stone, the interstices of which are filled with smaller rough stones without mortar. Though the masonry resembles the Cyclopian of Tiryns, the rude blocks are so much smaller than at that place, that the Hellenism of these ruins might perhaps be doubted did not the extent, the nature of the position, the general construction, the citadel on the summit, and the body of the place on the slope to the southward all furnish a strong testimony of their origin. Within the inclosure the ground is covered with small stones, and the foundations of the buildings are so preserved that the streets might be planned. The place is defended on the east and south by steep cliffs, which in the latter direction overhang Kaprena. The acropolis commands a view of Volo, Demetrias, great part of the Pagasetic gulf, and in the opposite direction of the lake Boebeis, and of the plains as far as Larissa and Turnavo. If we may suppose Homer in his catalogue to have named the towns of Greece as nearly in their order as his versification would allow, these should be the remains of Glaphyrae, which he places between Boebe and Iolcus.

§ 4.433 As Glaphyrae is not mentioned in subsequent history, it may perhaps have ceased to have any importance at an early period, which in some measure agrees with the appearance of the ruins. The fields of Kaprena produce only corn, and are not very fertile: the soil is of that red colour so often met with in the hilly districts of Greece. The situation is healthy, but cold in winter, and the inhabitants are often annoyed by the wolves of Mount Pelium. These animals are equally troublesome at Zagora, on the opposite side of the mountain, and more or less to all the villages near the forests, in which abound also the deer, the roe, and the wild hog. It would appear from Strabo that there was a town of Orminium at the foot of Mount Pelium between Kaprena and Volo, for he describes it as situated viro or at the foot of that mountain, near the lake Boebeis, at a distance of 27 stades from Demetrias, the road passing through Iolcus; and this he confirms by the remark, that Iolcus was 7 stades from Demetrias, and 20 from Orminium. The geographer conceived this place to have been the same as the Ormenium of the Iliad, but we

§ 4.434 may be permitted to doubt whether he was right in this opinion, or in supposing that the fountain Hypereia, mentioned in the same verse of the Catalogue, is that which at a later time was celebrated as a source in the town of Pherae, for the warriors from the country around Pherae, Beebe, and Iolcus, followed Eumelus, whereas those from Ormenium and Hypereia were under Eurypylus, whose third town was Asteriam, which I have already shewn to have stood at Vlokho, near the junction of the Apidanus and Enipeus, forty miles to the north-westward of Pherae; whence it seems clear that Eurypylus ruled over the plains of Thessaliotis, which are watered by the Apidanus and Enipeus, and which bordered south-eastward upon Phthia, to the south and south-west upon Dolopia, and north-westward on the Tripolitis of the Asclepiadae. Ormenium, therefore, probably stood in some part of these plains. It was said to have been founded by Ormenus, grandson of Aeolus, and to have descended to Eurypylus in preference to his first cousin Phoenix, although Amyntor, father of Phoenix, was the elder son of Ormenus, because Phoenix had quitted his

§ 4.435 family. That the native place of Phoenix was not near Mount Pelium is evident from his speech to Achilles, wherein he describes his quarrel with Amyntor, and relates, that when he fled from his paternal house, he crossed the “broad Hellas ” before he arrived in Phthia, where Peleus cherished him like a son, and at length made him king over the Dolopes. The Orminium of Mount Pelium, or Magnesia, seems therefore to have been different from the Ormenium of Thessaliotis. Similar considerations tend to the belief, that the Hypereia of the poet was not the fountain at Pher (By but possibly the source below Dhomoko, or that near Ghynekokastro, or at Vrysia. Our road from Kaprena to Velestino follows a valley which branches westward from the little plain of Kaprena, and then descends by a gentle slope to an opening just opposite to Velestino, where the plain is narrowest, and is crossed by three tumuli, noticed on the 20th. They form a direct line, and are nearly equidistant respectively, as well as with reference to the heights on either side. The distance of Kanalia from Velestino is the same as that of Kaprena, which occupied two hours and a half at the usual pace. The road from Kanalia leads between the southern side of the lake and the mountain of Glaphyra, and enters the plain at Delikali, a small valley situated at the foot of those heights.

§ 4.436 Dec. 27 to 31.—The vilayeti of Velestino formerly contained 72 villages, and included the district of Volo, but by the effects of discord among the chief Turks who seem to have caught the infection from Mount Pelium, without acquiring the industry and economy of their Christian neighbours; their possessions in the plain gradually became the property of beys of Larissa, and the revenues of the khasia of the mountain, which were before farmed by them, fell into the hands of Turks of Larissa, Fersala, or Trikkala; even the spahilik of Rizomylo, which is only three or four miles distant from Velestino, now belongs to a Larissaean, and there are only twelve villages in the district, none of which except Kaprena, Kanalia, St. George, and Sesklo, contain more than from fifteen to twenty-five houses. In the town there are about 250 Turkish families, but the Turkish houses are much more numerous: such of the remainder as are tenantable are occupied by Greeks of Agrafa, or by Vlakhi of Mount Pindus. The chief profit of the Turks is derived from their gardens and mills, a sort of property they prefer, as it gives a good return without much trouble. The Turkish houses are built amidst gardens, which extend also beyond the houses to a considerable distance in the plain, the stream which flows from the fountain anciently called Hypereia furnishing an abundant irrigation, as well as the means of working numerous mills. All the surrounding villagers bring their corn here to be ground, and supply themselves with vegetables from a weekly market on Fridays.

§ 4.437 The Turks who possess corn land depend upon the Greeks for its cultivation. The former supply the seed and a house for the κολλήγας, or fanner, who furnishes cattle and implements of agriculture, and takes half the crop after the deduction of the dhekatia; sometimes every thing belongs to the landlord, and the farmer is only an φγαπκ, or labourer, who receives a third of the nett produce for his own wages and the daily labour he may employ. The lower classes of Turks are shoemakers, tailors, barbers, butchers, bakers, cooks, menial servants, and labourers in the gardens but not in the fields. The Varusi, or Greek quarter, which once contained as many families as the present Turkish, now consists for the greater part of ruins or uninhabited houses, and a part of its site is converted into gardens or cornfields. The decline of the Greeks has been caused, like that of the Turks, as much by their foolish contentions as by the oppression of the government. The φαριαις or ταραφια into which they were divided, persecuted one another, intriguing with the Beys for this purpose, and lodging complaints against their rivals in the Turkish Mekheme; while the Turks found their interest in fomenting these disputes, and as at Larissa, each Bey patronized some one or other of the principal Greek families. Velestino was long noted for the savage disposition of its Turkish inhabitants, and for its lawless government, and it would then have been impossible for a traveller to make such a journey in Thessaly as I have done. Affairs are now altered.

§ 4.438 The Turks still retain their barbarous manners, and their hatred of Christians, but they are kept within bounds by the fear of Aly Pasha, whose authority is unquestioned here, though he has not yet introduced one of his pedicular bolubashis to complete the humiliation of these insolent Osmanlis. On the fall of the nizam djedid and the elevation of Mustafa Bairaktar they flattered themselves that Aly’s influence at the Porte was at an end, and that they could resist his incroachments in Thessaly: he soon however sent twenty of his Derventli horsemen from Aghia to quarter upon the town, and did not withdraw them until their expences, with the addition of a present, had cost the community eighty purses. Since that lesson his mandates have met with no resistance, and according to the lively expression of the Greeks, a dirty buyurti from Ioannina half the size of one's hand is of more effect than a firmahn of the Porte three feet in length. By means of these “impressions of the lion's paw” the people of Velestino are robbed of 20 purses every year, without being saved thereby from similar imposts from the Porte when required by the necessities of war, or other causes. All such extraordinary contributions, which are entirely separate from the ordinary imposts paid to the Mukatesi, are called avayet, in Greek οίκοδομία, because they are raised by a classified house tax. The yearly amount paid by each principal Turk of Velestino styling himself Bey, is from 250 to 300 piastres. The mukata is in the hands of Seid Aga of Armyro, who is now in prison at Ioannina

§ 4.439 on the pretence of his having insulted one of the Vezir’s tatars, for which he will probably atone by a heavy fine before he is allowed to return home. The walls of Pherae, although apparent only in places, still preserve enough of their foundations to give an accurate idea of the limits of the city on every side, except towards the plain, where no remains are traceable. When Velestino was in the height of its prosperity, it occupied two thirds of the same ground. On the northern side, the ancient walls followed the brow of two tabular summits, the sides of which seem to have been partly indebted to art for their present shape, and to have had the effect of two great bastions protecting the entrance into the city from the northward. Vestiges of the northern or Larissaean gate, and some foundations of the adjacent walls still remain on the neck between the two heights. The approach must have been very imposing to the stranger who arrived at Pherae on that side, the ground being so formed that nothing but the walls could have been visible until the gate was passed, when the whole city was laid before him. Even now this entrance into the Varusi has a striking appearance, although little but the ruins of Greek houses form the foreground of the picture. The ancient walls are principally preserved at the back of a church in the highest part of the Varusi, where stood a tower which has lately fallen, and has been restored by some modern masonry. To the north the two heights are defended by a deep torrent bed, in the steep banks of which many sepulchres have been found.

§ 4.440 In the corn-fields beyond the torrent to the north-east are several large squared blocks, which belonged apparently to some temple standing without the city. Very little of the foundation now remains, many squared masses having lately been taken from thence and applied to the building of a new bridge. The mason who was employed in this work asserts that some of those which he found there he buried again, because they were covered with figures and ornaments. Not far from thence on the road to Larissa are still lying some fragments of fluted Doric shafts of two feet in diameter and very tapering, formerly perhaps columns of the same temple. Below the easternmost of the two heights an inferior level, but considerably higher than the plain, was included within the city, as appears by a few straggling blocks indicating the direction of the ancient walls. At the foot of this height on the southern side is the fountain Hypereia surrounded by handsome plane trees, in the midst of the Turkish quarter, on one side of an open space, another side of which is occupied by a mosque. The water rushes from several openings in the rock, and immediately forms a stream,

§ 4.441 which is conveyed in a channel lined with wrought stones, once belonging to Hellenic buildings; after turning several mills it is joined by another stream flowing from a pond to the southward of the principal fountain, and thus augmented pursues a course of three miles to Rizomylo, through gardens of fruit-trees, melons, and pot-herbs, mixed with oaks, elms, and poplars,—the successors of the plantations near Pherae, which are noticed by Polybius. Near Rizomylo are some groves of large oaks which are said to have been much thinned of late years. From Rizomylo the Hypereia crosses the plain to the lake of Karla. The water is bright and pure, cold in summer, and generally issues in greater quantity in that season than in the winter. Nevertheless, the Greeks of the Varusi prefer the water of their wells for drinking, nor do they make much use of the Hypereia for other purposes, as the ascent of the hill with full vessels is laborious, and the women are afraid of insult from the Turks. Just above the principal source are the remains of a curved wall concave towards the water. The stones are laid together without cement, and the courses are narrower in proportion to the length of the stones than was usual in Hellenic masonry. Near these, which are the remains perhaps of a small circular temple, lies a fragment of a Doric shaft 3 ft. 3 in. in diameter.

§ 4.442 The ancient inclosure of the city is not so easily traceable on the western and southern sides as on the northern. A little beyond the north-western angle a wall is visible, crossing the hollow which separates the two heights above noticed from another parallel ridge, upon the summit of which, in two or three places, the ancient masonry may be distinguished among the remains of modern walls. From this hollow and the upper part of the Varusi rises a peaked hill, upon which are some quarries, and on the summit the remains of a small castle of very massy Hellenic workmanship. The line of wall beyond these points is not evident; nor is it very certain whether the peak was in the acropolis, or only an outwork to cover it It seems not impossible that this height, whether it was the acropolis or the site of an exterior fortress, may have been the Mount Chalcodonium, below which Apollonius represents Pherae to have been situated; as we sometimes find that an acropolis bore a specific name. But Chalcodonium may also be applied on the same authority to the southern and highest summit of Mount Karadagh, which is only about five miles to the S.W. of this point; and as that remarkable summit has not been described in ancient history so as to be recognized by any other name, it will be convenient at least, if not certainly correct, to attach

§ 4.443 to it the name of Chalcodonium. In general the masonry of the walls was of a regular kind, like that of Pharsalus, but there is a piece approaching to the polygonal kind in the cellar of a house near the Larisscedn gate. At the church, a pedestal which has three holes on the upper surface of it appears from the inscription to have supported a statue of Augustus: there is also a sepulchral monument at the same place erected by one Aglais, daughter of Hippolytus, where the father’s name is expressed according to the elegant Thessalian custom by the adjective ΊπποΧύτιια. As all the inscriptions which I have seen in this form are in letters of the best times of antiquity, and as the monuments on which they are found bear a small proportion to those in which the ordinary Hellenic form of the genitive prevails, we may infer that the custom became obsolete in this province, together with the disuse of the Thessalo-ASolic dialect. Although it is impossible to assign an exact period to this change, which probably was gradual, some states having preserved their ancient dialects for a longer time, or in greater purity than others, we can hardly suppose that dialectic distinctione long survived the Roman conquest; as by that event the country, already depopulated and impoverished by wars and calamities of every kind, was completely humiliated, and little was left in Greece of that pride of antiquity and spirit of emulation by which the use of the dialects had been retained in public documents after they had ceased in the spoken language. The latter change was probably complete in the age of Alexander; but we have a proof in an inscription of Orchomenus, of the Boeotic having been employed on public monuments after his time, and a few Aeolic or Doric forms were even retained in that of Augustus.

§ 4.444 Dec. 29.—This day I made a tour in the plain of Velestino by Rizomylo and Hadjimes to Petra, returning from thence by the magula of Ghereli, and along the roots of Mount Karadagh, to Velestino. This plain is considered more productive than the Pharsalian, and equal in fertility to the Larissaean. Even this year, when the harvest was generally deficient in Thessaly, the lands of Hadjimes, Rizomylo, and Ghereli, gave a tolerable return. The plough, which is of the same form as in other parts of Greece, and yoked to a single pair of oxen, makes only a slight impression on the surface, and manuring is never practised. The hill of Petra is two miles beyond Hadjimes. The village, which is inhabited by Koniari Turks and a few families of Greek labourers, stands, as I before remarked, on the northern side of the long ridge, which I described as uniting the two summits of the height. Several Turks of the village followed us to the top of the hill, curious to know the object of my visit, and murmuring that it was some τέχνη or contrivance of Aly Pasha portending no good to them. They were too much afraid of my Albanian servant, although a Christian,

§ 4.445 to offer any incivility; but sufficiently showed that it would have been difficult to visit the place in safety under other circumstances. The sides of the hill of Petra are steep and in some places precipitous, but on the summit there is an undulating space, which, where not rocky, is covered with grass, and from whence there is a fine view of Velestino, Larissa, Turnavo, and the mountains Olympus, Ossa, Pelium, and Othrys. The waters of the lake, which are now at the distance of two miles, advance, when the inundation is at its height, quite to the foot of the hill on the eastern and northern sides. The larger, or north-eastern summit of the hill, is surrounded by foundations of Hellenic.walls of remote antiquity, and other remains, similar in their apparent antiquity, are seen at the foot of the same height to the north, as well as quite to the edge of the marshy ground, which, in times of inundation, becomes a part of the Boebeis. The only other monument of antiquity I can find is a sepulchral stele now used as a step in the stair of a Turkish house, and which is inscribed, in letters of the best times, with the name of Attyla, daughter of Eurypothus, the name of the father being expressed by the adjective Εύρυπόθίια.

§ 4.446 The walls on the hill were of great thickness, constructed of large irregular masses, and when complete resembled probably in construction those of Tiryns or Mycenae. The southwestern, or smaller of the two hills, seems not to have been included in the ancient acropolis, though it has some appearance of having been fortified, which, as it is the steeper and higher of the two, was necessary to the safety of the place: it rises about 200 feet above the plain, and ends in a peak. I have already suggested that die height of Petra is that double hill near the lake Boebeiis said to have been the dwelling-place of Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas and mother of Aesculapius by Apollo, who, on the information of a busy crow, punished her with death for having intrigued with Ischys son of Eilatus.

§ 4.447 We learn from Pindar that these twin hills were the site of a town called Lacereia, which, from other authors, seems to have been also known by the name of Dotium, though this appellation was more generally applied to the surrounding plain. As Hesiod describes the twin hills to have been situated “in the Dotian plain opposite to the vine-bearing Amyrus;” a natural consequence of placing Lacereia at Petra, will be that the ruins at Kastri are those of Amyrus, Kastri being on the opposite side of the marshes of the Boebeis. The hills, at the foot of which Kastri is situated, are well adapted to the vine; and the plain around it will be found perfectly to accord with that Amyric plain mentioned by Polybius in relating the last transactions of the Social War, when the Aetolians, by means of their possession of Thebae Phthioticae, were enabled to cause damage not only to the people of Demetrias and Pharsalus, but even to those of Larissa, by making incursions as far as the Amyric plain. As the words of Hesiod indicate that the Amyric and Dotian plains were contiguous, we may infer, from the two authorities, that the Amyric plain lay between the Dotian and Larissaean, or exactly opposite to Kastri, between that place and the

§ 4.448 north-eastern extremity of the ridges of Karadagh. At the same time it must be admitted, that as tumuli are commonly unerring evidences of an ancient site, the artificial heights near Sakalar may possibly indicate the site of Amyrus, they being moreover still more central than Kastri to the Amyric plain. Apollonius alludes to a river Amyrus near Lacereia, which thus accords with the Asmaki. The same poet, however, in another passage, seems to describe the river Amyrus as that which joins the sea in the Gulf of Meliboea; but this would identify Lacereia with the paleokastro of Askiti, and would remove it too far from the lake Boebeis, to which it was certainly contiguous. Upon this question there can be little hesitation in preferring the testimony of two native poets to that of an Alexandrian of later times, who, from the passage just referred to, as well as other examples, appears to have been more anxious for the harmony of his verses than for an accurate preservation of an order of names agreeing with that of

§ 4.449 positions. There is greater reason to doubt whether Apollonius was right in placing a river Amyrus on the coast near Mount Ossa, as a different name or word occurs in the corresponding passage of the Orphica. Livy relates that a town named Cercinium was besieged by the Aetolians and the Athamanes under Amynander, when they joined the Romans against Philip in the year 200 B.C. Cercinium, though garrisoned by Macedonians, was speedily taken and burnt, and its inhabitants were either slaughtered or carried away as slaves, which so alarmed all the people around the lake Boebeis, that they fled to the mountains. The Aetolians being chiefly intent on plunder, and hopeless of obtaining it in this quarter, proceeded into Perrhaebia, where, having taken Cyretiae, they sacked it without mercy, and then received the submission of Mallaea. At the instance of Amynander, who thought the moment favourable for attacking Gomphi, which was important to him from its proximity to the Athamanian frontier, the allied forces proceeded from Perrhaebia towards Upper Thessaly; but no sooner had they entered the plains below

§ 4.450 Pharcadon, than the Aetolians began to spread over them for the sake of plunder, and encamped in an insecure situation. Here they were surprised by Philip and forced to retire within their camp, which they abandoned as soon as it was attacked by the king, retreating into that of Amynander, who, disapproving their proceedings and fearful of the event, had established his followers on a height near Pharcadon, half a mile in the rear of the Aetolian camp. Night prevented Philip from pursuing his advantage, and gave facility to the retreat of the Aetolians, who, conducted by the Athamanes through the mountains by roads unknown to their pursuers, arrived, without much farther loss, in Aetolia. As Magnesia and the eastern part of Thessaly were the countries chiefly dependent on Macedonia under the successors of Demetrius, we may infer from this circumstance, coupled with the mention made by the historian of the lake Boebeis, that Cercinrum was near Mount Pelium, possibly at Kastri; or if the ruins at that place were those of Amyrus, in some part of the vale of Dhosiani, perhaps at the spot which I remarked as retaining some remains of antiquity near Dugan. The situations of Cyretia, Malloea, Pharcadon, and Gomphi, having already been stated, there remains no difficulty in understanding the entire movement of the Aetolians as described by Livy. In retreating from near Pharcadon they probably crossed the hills of Khassia towards Kalabaka.

§ 4.451 The breadth of the Dotian plain from the foot of the hill of Petra to Ghereli, which is situated at the first acclivity of the height of Karadagh, is three miles and a half; a mile and a half farther, in a direction a little more southerly, is the Magoula, a circular eminence three quarters of a mile in circumference, which has some appearance of having been surrounded with walls; and where though little is observable at present except broken stones and fragments of ancient pottery, these are in such an abundance as leaves no doubt of its having been a Hellenic site: this, indeed, is amply confirmed by the surrounding villagers, particularly by those of Ghereli, who have always been in the habit of resorting to the site for building materials, and son, which they use for water-troughs. Following the testimony of Strabo, Magoula should be the site of Armenium, for he twice states that town to have been situated between Pherae and Larissa, near the lake Boebeis; and there is no point on a line drawn from Velestino to Larissa nearer to the lake of Karla than the Magoula. From the Magoula of Ghereli to the foot of Mount Karadagh is a distance of two miles; three miles beyond which, near the crest of that part of the ridge which connects the northern summit above Kililer with the southern or Chalcodonium, stands the Turkish village of Dederiani. Here are copious sources of water, which form a small stream crossing the road from Velestino to Larissa between the Magoula and Kililer. There is another kefalovrysi at Hadji Barak, a small village in the mountain above Kililer. These streams join the Asmaki opposite to Abufaklar. Two others which rise on the western side of the heights join the Asmaki towards Kastri and Plessia.

§ 4.452 Dec. 31.—Having sent my baggage to Fersala by the direct road, which traverses a pass on the southern side of Mount Chalcodonium and from thence enters the valley of the Enipeus, I cross the ridge by Gheremi and Supli, leaving the summit on the left. The pass just mentioned separates this mountain from that which borders the Crocian plain to the north, and which is commonly known by the name Tjiraghiotiko, from a small village on it named Τζιράγι. In the pass is the small village Ondoklari, beyond which the road to Fersala follows a valley between the two ridges to Magoula, two hours distant from Fersala, and crosses the Enipeus by the bridge of the Pasha on the road to Larissa. Between the pass of Ondoklari and the hill of Sesklo, is a plain crossed by the road from Armyro to Velestino, coinciding nearly with that which led from Phthiotic Thebes to Pherae. In this plain, at a distance of fifty stades from Pherae, T. Q. Flamininus, coming from Thebae, was encamped previously to the

§ 4.453 battle of Cynoscephalae, when Philip, advancing from Larissa, placed his army at thirty stades from Pherae, in the opposite direction, or about Rizomylo. Mount Chaleodonium is covered with dwarf prinaria, which, being evergreen and of a dark colour, may have given the name Karadagh or Mavrovuni to the whole ridge which stretches from it to the northward notwithstanding that the summits towards that extremity are conspicuously white. Although Chalcodonium, the highest point, is diminutive compared with the mountains which surround the basin of Thessaly, the whole ridge is one of the most remarkable of the Thessalian hills, from its insulated position in the midst of the eastern plains of this province. The higher parts of the ridge furnish an excellent pasture to sheep, and justify the epithet άρηvtic, which Apollonius applies to Pherae. Gheremi, which village we pass through at the end of two hours, is now reduced to three or four Greek families. It stands amidst bare calcareous rocks, exactly on the crest of the ridge, and commands to the westward a view of the plains of Pharsalus and Crannon, with the heights beyond them which rise from the plain on the right side of the Enipeus, near Hadjobashi and Orfana.

§ 4.454 At a quarter of an hour beyond Gheremi we cross the road leading from Larissa to Armyro, and in one hour from Gheremi arrive at Supli, a tjiftlik of ten or twelve families. The western face of Karadagh, on either side of the road from Gheremi to Supli, consists of easy slopes of pasture land, diversified with small levels of corn-fields mixed with groves of oaks and copses of underwood. At Supli the waters from the elevated country which we have passed collect into one bed, and taking a course first to the west and then to the north-west, form at Kusbasan a stream sufficiently large to turn some mills. From thence they flow by Moimali round the northern end of the Karadagh to Saridjilar, which is an hour to the southward of Karalar, and at length join the Asmaki opposite to Plessia, the tjiftlik which I passed on the road from Kastri to Dhesiani. Supli is about three miles distant from the northern point of the ridge of Karadagh, and just below the south-western extremity of that summit. On the peak was situated an ancient fortress, the walls of which inclosed it together with a great part of the slope towards Supli. With the telescope irregular masses are perceivable among the bushes in several places, and the general direction of the walls is indicated by heaps of stone: the masonry seems to have been of a rude kind, like that upon the height above Orfana, at Kaprena and other places. In front of the remains, towards Supli, rises another summit composed entirely of a very white bare rock.

§ 4.455 A mile from Supli, in the opposite direction, or towards Fersala, are the ruined walls of a Hellenic city of much larger dimensions, and evidently one of the principal members of the Thessalian community. The inclosure, which was between two and three miles in circumference, follows on the lower or northern side the bank of the torrent already mentioned, and to the south incloses some heights which were defended by the ravine of another torrent joining the former a little below the western extremity of the city. At the southwestern end of the site stood the acropolis, below which, on the east and north, the ground is covered with foundations of buildings, heaps of stones, and fragments of tiles and pottery. But not a single sculptured marble is to be seen, or a fragment of an inscription. The walls, which in no part have preserved more than a few courses of masonry, are best preserved on the eastern front. Here the modern road from Supli to Fersala passes through the foundations of a gate which was defended by towers and flanked within bowshot by a height on the left which formed the south-eastern angle of the city. Just without the gate, on one side of the modern road, are the foundations of a large building, probably a temple: I have before had occasion to notice instances of ancient temples similarly situated. The masonry of the town walls is of the same elaborate and almost regular kind seen in the ruins of Pharsalus and Pherae, showing that the city was contemporary with those two places, and flourished about the same time; there can be little doubt, therefore, that it was Scotussa, the situation agreeing with all

§ 4.456 that history has left us as to the position of that place relatively to the other chief cities in this part of Thessaly, namely, Larissa, Crannon, Pharsalus, and Pherae. From the account given by Xenophon of the march of Agesilaus through Thessaly into Boeotia previous to the battle of Coroneia, we learn that the Scotussaea as well as the Crannonia lay in a direction from Larissa to Pharsalus and the mountains of Achaea Phthiotis; in fact, the site of Crannon is about the same distance to the right of the road from Larissa to Fersala that these ruins are to the left. That Scotussa was not far from Pherae seems evident, as well from the manner in which it was treacherously occupied by Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, as from a transaction in the Antiochian war, when a body of troops from Larissa, endeavouring to relieve Pherae, retired into Scotussa upon finding that the approaches to Pherae were occupied by Antiochus. Soon afterwards the consul Acilius having marched from Larissa to Crannon received the submission of Pharsalus, Scotussa, and Pherae, and thence proceeded to Proeraa and to Thaumaci. With all these transactions the position of these ruins seems perfectly to agree. It remains to be seen whether their situation will equally accord with the circumstances

§ 4.457 attending the greatest event in history, of which the Scotussaea was the scene, namely, the battle of Cynoscephalae. It was in the spring of the year B.C. 197 that T. Quinctius Flamininus, who had been consul in the preceding year, and was now charged as Imperator with the prosecution of the war against Philip, son of Demetrius, marched from Elateia in Phocis to Heracleia Trachinia, where he concerted measures with the Aetolians, and then encamping near Xyniae on the borders of the ASnianes and Thessalians, was there joined by 2000 Aetolian infantry and 500 horse. From thence he moved into Phthiotis, where he received a further reinforcement of 2000 infantry consisting of Athamanes under Amynander, together with some Cretans and Apolloniatae. After an unsuccessful attempt to take Thebae Phthioticae he marched towards Pherae, having previously directed each soldier to provide himself with the usual materials for constructing the χαραξ, or vallum, with which it was customary among the Greeks and Romans to protect their camps in presence of an enemy. When Quinctius had encamped at a distance of 50 stades from Pherae, Philip advanced from Larissa, and pitched his camp at a distance of 30 stades from the same city in the opposite direction.

§ 4.458 Philip’s phalanx of Macedonian infantry amounted to 16,000, besides which there were 5000 other troops and 2000 cavalry; the Romans had an equal number of infantry, but a superiority of about 400 horse. On the day after the arrival of the two armies in the Pheraea, parties from each met on the hills above the city, but were recalled without coming to an engagement. On the following day there was an action of cavalry near the city, on the heights towards Larissa, in which the Italians had some advantage over the Macedonians. On the third day, both the commanders having found the plantations, gardens, and inclosures, in the suburbs of Pherae inconvenient to their operations, quitted their positions, Philip directing his route to Scotussa for the purpose of obtaining supplies from that city, and Quinctius, who suspected his object, advancing towards the same point by a different route, with a view of destroying the corn of the Scotussaea. A high ridge separated them during this day’s march, at the end of which the Romans encamped at Eretria of Phthiotis, and Philip on the river Onchestus. On the following day the camp of Quinctius was placed near Thetidium in the Pharsalia, that of Philip at Melambium in the Scotussaea, each party continuing

§ 4.459 ignorant of the adversary’s position. On the third morning Philip moved forward towards Scotussa, but a thick fog having followed a tempest of rain and thunder, he had not proceeded far before he found himself under the necessity of halting, when forming the charax, he sent forward a detachment to occupy the heights of Cynoscephalae. These troops fell in with ten turmae of horse, and 1000 light infantry, who had been ordered out by Quinctius to obtain information of the enemy’s movements. After a short pause, caused by mutual surprise, an engagement commenced. At first the Romans were hard pressed, but Quinctius sending a reinforcement of 2000 Roman infantry, with 500 Aetolian horsemen, and Philip not being able so readily to succour his men, because, not expecting an engagement, he had directed a great part of his army to collect fodder, the Romans forced the Macedonians to retreat to the highest part of the hill just as the fog cleared away. The king then sent to their assistance all the cavalry and the greater part of the mercenary infantry, which gave them such a superiority, that the Romans were driven from the heights, and were only saved from a disorderly flight by the Aetolians. Quinctius, finding his whole army in. consternation in consequence of this repulse, thought it expedient to advance with all his forces to the foot of the heights, while Philip, though he disapproved of the position, and was

§ 4.460 not inclined to engage, was at length induced by some of his officers, who represented the enemy as routed, and the opportunity as favourable, to draw out his phalanx from the charax, and to advance to the ridge. But on reaching the summit he was met by his troops retreating before the enemy's legions, and though the right wing only of the phalanx accompanied him, he found himself under the necessity of immediately engaging. Placing therefore on his right those who had just been retreating, and doubling the depth of the phalangitae and peltastae, he commanded the former to charge with their sarissae, while the latter covered the flanks of the phalanx. Quinctius, who had ordered his right wing to remain unmoved with the elephants in front, placed himself at the head of the left, in opposition to Philip. The encounter was accompanied by a tremendous shout on both sides. The Romans were unable to resist the shock of the phalanx, which Quinctius perceiving, instantly formed the design of counteracting the effect by taking advantage of the disunited state of the Macedonians, whose centre was unemployed, and whose left wing had only just attained the summit of Cynoscephalae.

§ 4.461 Quitting therefore the left of his line, he led on his right with the elephants in front against the left of the Macedonians as it arrived, more in marching than in fighting order, on the summit of the ridge, where the ruggedness of the ground increased the difficulty of forming, or of preserving the form of, the phalanx. The success of Quinctius was complete. The Macedonians, terrified by the elephants, and thrown into confusion, soon began a disorderly flight, when a tribune, who was in this part of the Roman line, by a prompt unordered movement, and at the head only of a small body of men, completed the victory by making a circuit to the left, by which means he gained that part of the summit of the ridge which remained in Philip’s rear, in following the retreating left wing of the Romans. At the same moment therefore that the latter, having rallied, had returned against the front of the phalanx, the tribune attacked it in the rear, and in consequence of its dense formation and difficulty of changing front, threw it into the utmost confusion. After a great slaughter, the Macedonians either fled, throwing away their arms, or surrendered and laid them down; 8000 of them were slain in the battle, and 5000 taken. Of the victors only 700 fell. The Romans took possession of the enemy’s camp, but found that it had already been plundered by the Aetolians.

§ 4.462 Philip, as soon as he saw his troops flying in confusion, retired from the field, on the first day to the tower of Alexander, on the second to Gonnus, where he waited to collect his fugitives, and from thence, after having given orders for burning his papers at Larissa, he retired through Tempe into Macedonia.