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

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§ 2.160 herdsman or shepherd was to be met with in a day’s journey. All Greece, he adds, could hardly furnish 3000 hoplitae, or the number which the State of Megara alone sent against the Persians at Plataea. It is not to be supposed, however, that the best parts of Greece were as much depopulated as these unproductive districts; or that the population of Greece had diminished, in the same proportion as the number of regular troops maintained by it. The Roman conquest had put an end to the maintenance of native soldiers, and to the military art in Greece, and although as early as the time of Polybius, the population and wealth of the country had been grievously diminished, and had not improved in the reign of Augustus, there can be little doubt, that between this time and that of Hadrian, Greece had somewhat recovered, in consequence of the peace and protection which the country enjoyed in common with the other provinces of the Roman Empire, and to a greater degree than many of them.
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§ 2.161 CHAPTER 13 BOEOTIA, PHOCIS, LOCRIS Dec. 9.—This forenoon, having quitted the monastery of Skripu, I cross the north-eastern angle of the ancient city, and at 10.58 begin to pass by a narrow paved road, between the foot of the upper cliffs which formed the northern boundary of the city and the summit of the lower, which immediately overhang the principal source of the Melas, or that which joins the Cephissus. It is difficult to understand where the Temple of Hercules could have been, which Pausanias places at the springs
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§ 2.162 of the Melas, seven stades from Orchomenus, for the rock rises so abruptly from them, that there is no position for a temple, and the sources are not seven stades from Orchomenus, but immediately under its northern side. At 11.9, we quit the lower range of cliffs, the higher still overhanging the road, and soon afterwards begin to descend the rugged side of the mountain, by a most perilous path. At 11.33, having arrived at the foot of the hill, we enter a plain on the north-eastern side of Mount Acontium, bounded eastward by the marshes of the Melas, and pursue the borders of the marsh to Tzamali, a small collection of huts on the brink, where we arrive at 11.45. This seems to be the site of Aspledon, a Boeotian city in the time of the Trojan war, but in that of the Roman Empire an abandoned site of the Orchomenia. Strabo states, that its distance from Orchomenus was twenty stades, which is sufficiently correct, and that the Melas flowed between them, which is true as to the northern Melas, though it is not crossed in the road. It is not easy, however, to understand “the western exposure,” by which Strabo endeavours to account for Eudeielus, the name of Aspledon in later times, Tzamali being open to the eastward, and surrounded by heights in a western direction. Nor is the abandonment of the place by its inhabitants in consequence of the scarcity of
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§ 2.163 water, as reported by Pausanias, compatible with the vicinity of such a river as the Melas. Upon examining, however the words of the two authors, we find that neither of them guarantees the fact which he alludes to, from his personal knowledge. The word τάχα, employed by Strabo, and the φασι of Pausanias, leave the origin of the name, Eudeielus, and the cause of the abandonment of the site of Aspledon, equally doubtful. At Tzamali we quit the Topolia road and turn to the left to the head of the plain; at 11.55 leave to the right that which conducts to the places lying between the northern shore of the Cephissis and the Euboic frith, and at 12.11, arriving at the western extremity of the plain of Aspledon, ascend some rugged hills which connect Mount Acontium with the peak now called Khlomo. At 12.35, at the head of the ascent, we enter upon a plain which, interrupted by some small heights, reaches to the northern side of Mount Acontium, and is connected in the opposite direction with a hollow which slopes to Khubavo, Belissi, and the Stena of the Cephissus. At 12.45 we halt till 1.24 at a fountain to dine; and after a rugged descent, arrive at 1.40 at Exarkho, a village of 30 houses, in a spot where two narrow valleys meet, which rise from hence towards two summits of the ridge of Khlomo. The northern is the largest, and is in great part cultivated.
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§ 2.164 On a peaked hill above Exarkho, to the west, are the ruins of a small polis, probably Abae. The hill being, like all the others of this range, a bare rugged rock of white limestone, and the walls being built of the same stone, the ruins might easily be passed without notice at a short distance, although nearly half the height of the wall is in some places extant. No remains are now to be seen on the summit of the peak; but on its southwestern side two parallel walls are traceable at the distance of about 100 yards asunder, which formed apparently an interior inclosure of the citadel. These walls in most part are a perfect specimen of the second order of Hellenic masonry, having, as it were, but one course in the whole work. Some of the polygonal masses are very large. As usual in Greek fortresses of the highest antiquity, there were very few towers, the cross defence being chiefly procured by simple flanks at intervals. There is one tower, however, near the principal gate. This gate, which is now buried to within six feet of the top, is of a singular form, the upper part, which is three feet high, diminishing from ten feet in breadth to seven and a half. This seems to have been merely an opening to admit light, for immediately below it there are projections from the wall on each side, which were evidently pivots for the suspension of folding doors. There are the vestiges of two other gates immediately opposite to each other in the parallel walls before noticed. The hill is quite insulated, and is very difficult of ascent on the north-eastern and eastern sides, where no walls are now traceable. I cannot recognize any remains of the theatre which
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§ 2.165 Pausanias remarked, and which, as well as the Agora, was of an antique construction. Having descended the hill on the west, passed through a ravine, and entered the plain at a point which is half way on the road from Exarkho to Vogdhani, we arrive a little farther at a small eminence advancing into the valley, upon which are some remains of a square building of regular Hellenic masonry, but built of stones smaller than usual. The lower part of the wall of one side of the inclosure is extant, together with a portion of one of the adjoining sides. Within the inclosed space lies a large square stone, with a simple moulding, together with another, circular and pierced in the middle, probably the peristomium of a cistern or granary. I have little doubt that these are remains of the temple of Apollo of Abae, whose oracle was of such ancient and extensive celebrity, that it was consulted, together with that of Trophonius, by Croesus, and again by Mardonius. It was twice destroyed by fire; the first time by the Persians, in their march through Phocis, after they had taken Hyampolis; and again, in the Phocic war, B.C. 346. The Boeotians were posted at the temple, while the Phocians were erecting a fortress at or near Abae, when a fire
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§ 2.166 having occurred, accidentally according to Diodorus, but which Pausanias attributes with more probability to the Thebans, the temple was destroyed, as well as some Phocian refugees within it. Hence it is evident that the temple was not within the city, which agrees with the existing ruins. The most ancient and celebrated temples of Greece were generally so detached. The grove of Trophonius furnishes a neighbouring example, and perhape that of the Graces at Orchomenus was another. The practice was closely connected with the peculiar character of the people, whose sense of the inviolability of the sacred places, was only exceeded by their jealous mistrust of one another. After the second misfortune, the temple of Abae remained a ruin until the reign of Hadrian, when that emperor caused a smaller to be erected adjacent to the ancient building; and of this, or rather of its peribolus, the existing walls are probably the remains. In the new temple, Pausanias found three ancient upright statues, in brass, of Apollo, Latona, and Diana, which were dedications of the Abaei, and had perhaps been, saved from the former temple. From hence it takes me 10 minutes to ride to Vogdhani a village smaller than Exarkho, and situated just at the upper extremity of a valley, which slopes to Belissi and Khubavo, and where the torrents from Mount Khlomo and the adjoining ridges unite, and descend through the middle of the aforesaid valley to the Cephissus.
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§ 2.167 The principal branch comes from the north, along a vale which is inclosed between Mount Khlomo and a parallel ridge which has already been described as having its south-western termination at Khubavo, Merali, and Sfaka, at the northern entrance of the Stena of the Cephissus. At 5 minutes northward of Vogdhani, a point or tongue, advancing from the western mountain into the valley, is crowned with the ruins of a small ancient town, which Pausanias shows to have been Hyampolis; for he states that the road from Orchomenus to Opus led by Abae and Hyampolis, but that Abae was a little on the left of the route Mount Khlomo being exactly interposed between Skripu and Talanda, near which latter Opus was situated, the road from Orchomenus to Opus naturally followed the easy valleys to the westward of that mountain, instead of making a direct course over it, and traversed consequently the site of Exarkho, leaving the hill of Abae on the left, from whence it passed under the walls of Hyampolis, which advance into the middle of the valley. The road from Hyampolis to Elateia is expressly described by Pausanias as a mountain-road; and we find accordingly, that a mountain occupies all the space between Lefta and Vogdhani.
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§ 2.168 Hyampolis having been situated at the entrance of a narrow vale, leading to the Opontia and seacoast of the Epicnemidii, and which formed a convenient entrance from Locris both into Phocis and into Boeotia: its name occurs on several occasions in ancient history. Herodotus has related some remarkable circumstances attending a victory gained at Hyampolis by the Phocians over the Thessalians, and Diodorus informs us, that a contest took place here on a somewhat similar occasion, between the people of Boeotia and of Phocis, in the year B.C. 347. Before that time, Jason of Pherae, returning out of Boeotia after the battle of Leuctra, and passing by Hyampolis in his way to Heracleia Trachinia, had taken the προάστίιον, or outer city, probably from the same motive which prompted him to destroy the walls of Heracleia, namely, that they should not be any impediment to his free passage into Greece. It was undoubtedly for a similar reason that the walls of Hyampolis were demolished by Philip son of Amyntas. The entire circuit of the fortifications is traceable, but they are most complete on the western side. The masonry is of the third, nearly approaching to the most regular kind. The circumference is about three quarters of a mile. The direct distance to this ruin from the summit of Abae is not more than a mile and a half in a north-west direction. Below Vogdhani, on the side of a steep bank which falls to the valley of Khubavo, a fountain issuing from the rock is discharged through two spouts into a stone reservoir of ancient construction, which stands probably in its original place.
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§ 2.169 Dec. 10.—Ten minutes from Vogdhani southwestward, is another source of water, which issues from the rocks on the side of the road leading from Talanda to Livadhia, near three small ruined churches standing in a grove of trees: the stream from the rocks having joined that which flows from the fountain of Vogdhani, falls into the united torrent from the valleys of Abae and Hyampolis, and from thence flows to the Cephissus near Belissi. One of the ruined churches contains an inscribed stone, but ill preserved, and in so dark a situation that I was unable to copy it, though I could distinguish the words αργυρίου μνας τριάκοντα, and at the end μάρτυρας oi θεοί. Having returned to Vogdhani, and set out for Talanda, I again visit the ruins of Hyampolis. On a small level in the centre of the ancient site lie some architectural fragments of considerable dimensions, adorned with mouldings, and a large cistern faced at the top with wrought stones, but below hollowed out of the rock, which is here covered only with a thin layer of earth. The opening of the cistern is 9 feet 10 inches long, and 4 feet broad, and spreads below into the usual spheroidal form; it is now filled with rubbish.
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§ 2.170 There are many other smaller cisterns of the same kind, some of which are lined with stucco. The ground within the fortress is partly cultivated. The valley of Hyampolis, like most of the similar sites in Boeotia, has a light fertile soil, but is marshy in winter. Pausanias says of Hyampolis, that though it had been burnt by Xerxes, and again destroyed by Philip, there remained an ancient Agora, a small council-house, a theatre not far from the gates, a stoa built by Hadrian, and a temple of Diana, of which he did not see the statue, as it was shown only twice a year. He adds, that with the exception of a single well, the inhabitants had no other water than that which fell from heaven. The larger receptacle, therefore, was probably a public cistern, and the smaller excavations may have been private repositories for the same purpose. Abae was no better supplied with water than Hyampolis, but both of them had a good resource at no great distance in the fountains which I have described. Leaving the ruins at 10.13, we follow the valley Which conducts to Talanda, and which at the widest part is half a mile broad, bounded on either side by the lower heights of the two including ridges. To the left leads the road to Kalapodhi, Geli, and a monastery of St. Elias; a part, probably, of the ancient ύρπνη οδος, from Hyampolis to Elateia. On our right are the steeps of Mount Khlomos, or Khlomo. At 10.43 the village of Valtesi is a quarter of a mile on the left; above which the vale narrows rapidly: instead of following it we ascend
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§ 2.171 the lower heights of Khlomo, when Kalapodhi soon appears in a cultivated slope of the opposite hills, two miles in direct distance from us, and three miles distant Geli in a higher situation, to the northward of the former. St. Elias is on the other side of the ridge of Geli. We now pass over barren hills covered with the purno-kokki oak: at 11.18, Purnari, which derives its name from those shrubs, is a mile on the left, at the head of the little valley of Valtesi, which has now dwindled to a mere ravine. Soon afterwards, crossing a brook which flows into the plain of Talanda, we descend the mountain, and at 12.20, after a halt of 15 minutes arrive in the plain, at the entrance of which are some mills turned by the same stream. We then diverge to the right under Mount Khlomo, and at 12.38 enter Talanda, or Talandi. This town contains about 300 houses, of which one-third are Turkish; some of these are large, and each having its garden, they look well at a distance; but the greater part are said to be desolate, and verging to ruin, partly in consequence of a plague, which carried off entire families not many years ago. The governor is Issed Bey, a son of the Kapijilar Kiayassy of Aly Pasha. The Greek quarter is separated from the Turkish. The bishop του Ταλαντίου, who is a suffragan of the metropolitan of Athens, is at the head of the community, and has a tolerable house at the Episkopi, standing in a garden of oranges, lemons, and other fruit trees, which, although a mere wilderness, is the best
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§ 2.172 in the place, and is considered as something extraordinary in this country. The plain is very fertile, but little cultivated for want of hands. The marshy parts towards the sea yield kalambokki, the rest of the plain excellent wheat, vines, from which a tolerable wine is made, and a few olive trees, which succeed perfectly. The merokamato, or price of daily labour, is the same as at Athens, Livadhia, ac.; namely, forty paras a-day, with an oke of wine. The district contains between thirty and forty villages, the greater part of which are very small, and but half inhabited, many of the people having migrated to the districts of Livadhia and Athens since Aly Pasha has possessed the place. The mukata is now in the hands of his son Vely, who is endeavouring to induce the emigrants to return, by promising to remit a part of the impositions. The town stands entirely in the plain, but immediately at the foot of a steep and lofty mountain called Rodha, which is connected with Khlomo, and a branch of which intercepts the view of the south-eastern extremity of the gulf, while an advanced ridge of the mountain called Xerovuni obstructs it to the northward, leaving the plain only, which is included between them, visible from the town, and beyond it the Gulf of Talanda, the Euboic channel, and the cultivated region round Rovies in Euboea, on either side of which, but particularly to the southward, that coast consists of steep high cliffs.
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§ 2.173 The island of Atalanta, now called Talandonisi, which is separated by a narrow frith from the Boeotian shore, and extends into the centre of the gulf, shelters the Skala, or port of Talanda, which is an hour distant from the town to the east; there are at present two three-masted vessels lying in the harbour. It is evident that the modern town has derived its appellation from the island, for the loss of the initial vowel is common in the transition of ancient names into modern, and thus Talanda affords one among many instances in Greece of a preservation of name with a change of position. Many fragments of Hellenic buildings are dispersed about the town. Among them I remarked a frize of Ionic dentils at the fountain in the Greek quarter, and some Ionic capitals in two ruined churches; a marble chair in a church on the outside of the town: in that of St. Panteleemon a broken inscription, which has been published by Meletius, and in that of St. Theodore another, which, as well as the former, contains the name of Opus. But notwithstanding these remains, and that Talanda occupies an advantageous and agreeable situation, abounding in water, it is certain that Opus was not exactly in this spot. The distance of Talanda is much too great from the sea to correspond with the testimony of Strabo and Livy, the former of whom places Opus at a distance of
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§ 2.174 fifteen stades from the shore, the latter only a mile. The mountain, moreover, which rises immediately behind Talanda, steep and unbroken, affords no site for an acropolis, nor are there any traces of ancient walls to be found at Talanda. At Kardhenitza, on the other hand, a village situated an hour to the south-eastward of Talanda, on the side of the hill which rises from that comer of the plain, and just above the inner extremity of the Opontian gulf, there exist the remains of an ancient city in a position more elevated than Talanda, and at a distance from the sea corresponding to the fifteen stades of Strabo. On the ridge above Kardhenitza stands a single tower, partly Hellenic, and conspicuous from all the plain of Talanda as well as from other parts of the adjacent country. It was well placed for commanding the road leading from the Opontia into Boeotia round the eastern side of Mount Khlomo. The inner extremity of the Opontian Gulf below Kardhenitza is a shallow bay bounded by a high peninsula on the north-western side; and on its opposite shore, joined by a river, which flows from a village called Proskyna, and which, as it corresponds to the Platanus of Pausanias, may guide us to the positions of Corseia, Cyrtones, and Halae. Strabo confirms the position of Opus at Kardhenitza, by remarking that Cynus, the επινειον or emporium of Opus, was sixty stades distant from that city, on the cape which terminated the Opontian Gulf; and that a fertile plain lay between
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§ 2.175 the two places, thus leaving little doubt that Cynus occupied the north-western cape of the gulf, where at the distance of about a mile to the north of the village of Livanates, is a tower called Paleopyrgo, and some Hellenic remains, distant about eight miles, in a direct line from Kardhenitza. On the heights above Livanates inland are the ruins of a Hellenic fortress, which seems to have been intended for the protection of Cynus towards Elateia, in the same manner as the tower before-mentioned protected Opus towards Orchomenus. Such having been the positions of Cynus and Opus, it is evident that Livy has given an incorrect idea of that of Cynus, in his narrative of the campaign of the year B.C. 207, when the Romans and Attalus king of Pergamus, were engaged in assisting the Aetolians against Philip. He relates, that when Attalus occupied Opus, Sulpicius, with the Roman fleet, anchored at Cynus, on his return from an unsuccessful attempt upon Chalcis, and his words are, “Romanus celeriter abstitit incepto, classemque mde ad Cynum Locridis (emporium id est urbis Opuntiorum mille passuum a mari sitae) trajecit,” giving the idea that Cynus was on the shore immediately below Opus, instead of being sixty stades distant. He had probably misapprehended Polybius, whose narrative he followed.
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§ 2.176 Rovies, which is on the coast of Euboea, nearly opposite to Cynus, is a small town partly inhabited by Turks, but chiefly by Greeks. Here are some remains of the walls of Orobiae, of which Rovies is the modern form by the usual changes. Lipso indicates, by a similar corruption, the site of Aedepsus, and its hot baths, which were sacred to Hercules, are said to be still called τα θερμά. The distance from Cynus seems correctly stated by Strabo. The eastern Locrians, the only Locri mentioned by Homer, and who were all under the command of Ajax, son of Oileus, are described by the poet as “the Locrians who dwelt opposite to Euboea ”; at a later period they were divided into two parts by a narrow branch of Phocis, containing the district of Daphnus, which thus caused Phocis to extend from the Corinthiae to the Maliac Gulf. Daphnus, however, falling to ruin, and its lands having been assigned to the Opontii, the Locrians then occupied the whole shore from Thermopylae to Halae in Boeotia. If Strabo is correct, Daphnus might be exactly recognized by its distance of ninety stades from Cynus, and of one hundred and twenty from Elateia, as well as by its harbour. Between it and Cynus was Alope.
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§ 2.177 Cnemides was a fortress, the situation of which may be recognized near the modern Nikoraki by its position on a projection of the coast opposite to the islands anciently named Lichades, and the Euboean promontory Kenaion.
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§ 2.178 The site of Thronium was ascertained by Meletius, who found above the village Romani, at a place named Paleokastro, where some remains of the city still exist, a dedicatory inscription of the council and demus of the Thronienees. The situation is at the distance from the sea which Strabo mentions, on the bank of a broad torrent perfectly corresponding to the Boagrius, which flowed by Thronium, and which is described by Strabo as sometimes dry and sometimes flowing with a stream two plethra in width. Thronium was the chief town of the Epicnemidii, where the coins with the legend ΛΟΚ.ΕΠΙΚ. or ΛΟΚΡ. ΕΠΙΚΝΑ. were probably struck. Thirty stades from Thronium, towards Nicaea and Thermopylae, stood another Locrian town, Scarpheia, ten stades from the sea, and something less than thirty from another place of which the name is lost. It appears from Pausanias that Scarpheia was in the ordinary route from Elateia to Thermopylae by Thronium, and equally so from Livy, who states that Quinctius, before the battle of Cynoscephalae, marched from Elateia by Thronium and Scarpheia to Heracleia. By this circumstance, therefore, and by the numbers of Strabo, the exact position of Scarpheia is ascertained to have been between the villages'Andera by a view of the promontory,
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§ 2.179 and Molo, which being fixed, it will follow that the deficient name in the text of Strabo is either Nicaea, of which the probable position has already been indicated, or the town which stood at Pundonitza; for to either of them the something less than thirty stades would be applicable. If the latter place was intended, the deficient word may have been Tarphe, or Pharygae, the former of which was the Homeric name, and the latter that attached in the time of Strabo to a town which then possessed a temple of Juno Pharygaea, and was supposed to be a colony of Argos. Tarphe was the only Homeric town in Locris then inhabited; and Pundonitza, from its strength, its fertile plain, and the relative importance and convenience of its position, is more likely than any other to have preserved its inhabitants then, as it does to this day. Its territory perfectly corresponds to the well-wooded and productive district which Strabo ascribes to Tarphe; and the word Pharygae is well adapted to a situation like that of Pundonitza, in the midst of the passes leading over Mount Cnemis into Phocis. Although the other Homeric towns of the Locri were no longer in existence, their sites were known. Augeiae was
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§ 2.180 near Scarpheia, and Bessa and Calliarus were names descriptive of the places to which they were attached: the former among the woods of Mount Cnemis, the latter in a district well suited to the plough’, and hence, probably, in some part of the elevated plain which lies between Pundonitza and Mount Cnemis. Calliarus was perhaps the place twenty stades from Tarphe, of which the name is wanting in Strabo. The most difficult question in the geography of this part of the country, is that of the ancient appellation of the peak, now called Khlomo, the most conspicuous of the secondary summits of this part of Greece, and presenting itself on all sides as a mountain which could not have failed to have had some celebrity among the ancients. Was it the proper Cnemis, and were the ridges which lie between it and Callidromus, considered only subordinate portions of the same mountain? some of the best authorities support this opinion. Anciently there was no distinction of Opontii and Epicnemidii, nor are the latter mentioned by Homer or Herodotus or Thucydides or Polybius, when speaking of the Eastern Locrians, of whom Opus was considered the metropolis.
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§ 2.181 Even Strabo, from whom the distinction is chiefly derived, in one place describes Opus as the metropolis of the Epicnemidii, and the same is confirmed by Pliny and Stephanus. If Pliny is incorrect in adding that the river Cephissus flowed through the Epicnemidii to the sea, he shews at least that he protracted their boundaries quite to Boeotia, which accords with Mount Khlomo, and not with any mountain to the north-westward of it. Pausanias, though he has not employed the word Epicnemidii on any occasion, but has applied to all the Eastern Locrians the name Hypocnemidii, or Locrians under Mount Cnemis, includes among them the Opontii, as he shows in alluding to the mention of the Opontii by Herodotus, but more particularly in his description of the bounds of Phocis. “The Phocians,” he says, at the beginning of his Phocica, “extend to the sea opposite to the Peloponnesus and towards Boeotia, from Cirrha, the port of Delphi, to the city Anticyra. But towards the Maliac Gulf they are prevented from being a maritime people by the Hypocnemidii, who border on Phocis in that direction; these are the Scarphenses beyond Elateia, and above Hyampolis and Abae, those who possess Opus and its port Cynus.” It is probable that Pausanias here specifies Scarpheia, because it was the only town in that part of Locris subsisting in his time. From these several testimonies the inference would not be unreasonable, that the whole mountainous ridge of Eastern Locris was called Cnemis,
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§ 2.182 and consequently that Khlomo, the highest, and by far the most remarkable summit, was the proper Cnemis. Upon examining the places themselves, however, there is great difficulty in agreeing to such an opinion. Mount Khlomo is so completely separated from the ridges of Fondana and Grados by the valley leading from Hyampolis into the Opontian plain, that it cannot be conceived that the two mountains were ever considered identical, or that they had not some separate denomination. Strabo more than once informs us, that the district of Daphnus, on the shore of the Euboic strait which was afterwards ascribed to the Opontii, belonged in more ancient times to Phocis, and thus separated the Opontii bordering on Phocis and Boeotia, from the Epicnemidii bordering on the Oetaei and Malienses. Now it is impossible to suppose that the proper Cnemis should at any time have been excluded from the Epicnemidii as distinguished from the Opontii, which it would have been when Daphnus belonged to Phocis, if we identify Cnemis with Khlomo. The position of the fortress of Cnemides, moreover, exactly at the foot of the central part of the mountains, which extend from the plain of Pundonitza to that of Talanda, is a strong proof that this was the real Mount Cnemis, which we may easily believe to have been sometimes considered as comprehending the district of Opus within its denomination, because it stretches into the plain of Opus, and because Cynus, the naval dependency of Opus, was in fact situated on its eastern extremity. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to believe that Mount Khlomo was
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§ 2.183 ever entirely included within the boundaries of Locris, as it is surrounded on every side, except the north, by Phocic and Boeotian districts. Little can be adduced on either side of this question from the remark of Strabo, (p. 425), that Mount Cnemis was fifty stades distant from Cynus, since we are at liberty to make the measurement from the site of Cynus either to the nearest part of Mount Khlomo, or to the mountain of Grados, and in either case it will not be found very incorrect. So doubtful, however, is the text of Strabo in this place, that he may very possibly have meant by fifty stades, the distance, not to Mount Cnemis, but to Alope. Upon the whole, I have little hesitation in concluding that the maritime summits lying between Pundonitza and Cynus, together perhaps with that more inland, named Fondana, were the proper Cnemis. Khlomo perhaps bore the same appellation as a Boeotian town described by Pausanias as built upon a lofty mountain, which from the tenor of his narrative could hardly have been any other than Khlomo. After having informed us that Holmones and Hyettus were villages of the ancient Orchomenia, the former twelve stades from Copae, the latter seven stades from Holmones, and that Hyettus still contained a temple, in which the sick sought remedies for their diseases, and where the Deity was worshipped under the shape of a rude stone,—he proceeds to remark, that about twenty stades beyond Hyettus stood Cyrtones, more anciently called Cyrtone. “It is built,” he adds,
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§ 2.184 “upon a lofty mountain, and contains a grove, and temple of Apollo, with upright statues of Apollo and Diana, a source of cold water issuing from a rock, a temple of Nymphs at the source, and a small grove of planted trees.” After having crossed the mountain from Cyrtones, occurred the small town Corseia, half a stade below which there was a grove of wild trees, chiefly the holly-oak, and a small statue of Hermes in the open air. In the plain below, the river Platanus joined the sea, on the right of which was the small maritime city Halae, the last of those belonging to the Boeotians on the sea which separated Locris from Euboea. Considering the position of the Orchomenia in general with relation to that of Copae, now Topolia, and of the river Platanus near the maritime frontier of Boeotia at Halae, we cannot but infer that Holmones, Hyettus and Cyrtone, lay in a north-western direction from Copae, that the road to Corseia crossed Mount Khlomo not far to the eastward of the peak, and that as this summit is the only mountain in this part of Boeotia meriting the description of an opoς υψηλόν, the city Cyrtone was very near it on the eastern side. Whether any ruins still exist to confirm this opinion, remains to be explored. Corseia is noticed by Demosthenes and Diodorus as an important fortress of Boeotia; in the Phocic war it fell into the hands of the Phocians, together with Orchomenus and Coroneia. I am informed that ruins corresponding in situation to the description of Pausanias still exist near Proskyno, from the
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§ 2.185 heights around which is collected the river, which I suppose to have been the Platanus. Between the mouth of this river, and the shore below Opus, a large stream issues from the mountain, and joins the bay of Armyra to the eastward of the salt sources, from which that harbour takes its name. In a country where subterraneous rivers so often occur, we may readily suspect this stream to originate in the Cephissic basin, which has no discharge for its superfluous waters but through the mountains which separate it from the Euboic frith. Now it is remarkable, that Strabo notices a chasm near Orchomenus, which absorbed the waters of the Melas. and that in illustration of these words of the geographer, there is, to the northward of Orchomenus,' between Tzamali and Xeropyrgo, a bay similar to that at the north-eastern end of the lake, where the Cephissus begins its subterraneous course. I have already stated, that the northern Melas, instead of flowing like the southern to the Cephissus, takes from its very sources a direction entirely different, and which, although I could not trace it through the marshes, tends exactly towards the bay above mentioned; there is a great probability therefore that the stream finds its way through the marshes, and flowing to the end of the bay, there enters a Katavothra, of which the emissory is the river which issues between Opus and the mouth of the Platamis;
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§ 2.186 for this point is exactly at the end of the shortest line through the mountains, from the extremity of the bay of the Cephissis near Tzamali. In summer, the question might perhaps be resolved, even by a distant view from the heights of Orchomenus, without descending into the unhealthy marshes. An actual inspection is the more necessary, as the testimony of Strabo regarding the chasm of the Melas is not free from suspicion: for he describes the Melas as flowing through the Haliartia, which being at the opposite end of the Cephissic basin, either shows Strabo to have been very ignorant of the locality, or his text to be here, as in so many other places, very much corrupted. Dec. 11.—After employing the morning in a tour around Talanda, I proceed at 1.30, on my return to Livadhia, by the way of Parapotamu, and the Boeoto-Phocic straits. At 2.20 leave the road to Vogdhani on the left, and cross into the little vale of Purnari, which is connected with that of Valtesi, though a low ridge immediately above the latter village separates the course of the waters, flowing respectively to the Opontian bay and to the Cephissus. At 3, leaving Valtesi a little on the left, we ascend a cultivated champaign, which is separated from the valley of Khubavo and Belissi by the rocky mountain on the western side of the pass of Hyampolis; and on the other side is bounded by the rugged heights extending to Elateia, and in the direction of Cnemis. In the midst of this elevated valley stands the small village of Kalapodhi, where we arrive at 3.25, having stopt a few minutes at a
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§ 2.187 ruined church on the side of the road, composed almost entirely of wrought stones and other Hellenic remains, among which are some portions of frizes and architraves; a little farther two pieces of a large Doric column, 4 feet 2 inches in diameter, lie nearly buried in the ground. These dimensions indicate the former existence of some large building in this place, for it is not easy to believe that such masses could have been brought hither from the temple of Abae, which is 4 miles distant, still less from that of Minerva Cranaea, near Elateia, which is at a much greater distance and separated by rugged hills. In the church-yard at Kalapodhi lies a sepulchral stone, bearing the common ornament of a cockle-shell between two roses, and inscribed with the word'Αμύνανΰρος in beautiful characters. Possibly the district around Kalapodhi was that of the Locrian town Naryx, noted for having been the birth-place of Ajax, son of the Oileus; for it is evident, from the description of the coast of Locris by Strabo, that Naryx was not near the sea; and there are two historical occurrences recorded by Diodorus, in which the reference to Naryx is well suited to this position. In the year B.C. 395, the same in which Lysander was slain at Haliartus, Ismenias, commander of the Boeotians, undertook an expedition against Phocis, and defeated the Phocians near Naryx of Locris; whence it appears that Naryx was near the frontier of Phocis. In the year 352, Phayllus, who commanded the Phocians, and their allies, and who not long before had been
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§ 2.188 defeated by the Boeotians near Orchomenus, again on the Cephissus, and a third time near Coroneia, invaded the Epicnemidii, took several towns, occupied and lost Naryx, and advanced to Abae, where he was surprized by the Boeotians, who, elated by this success, entered and laid waste Phocis,—but in attempting to relieve Naryx, which was again besieged by Phayllus, were defeated by him. The town was in consequence taken by Phayllus, who soon afterwards died. The Doric column may have belonged to the principal temple of the Narycii, where Ajax doubtless received heroic honours. Having lost 10 minutes at Kalapodhi, we proceed along the valley, and arrive at 3.47 at a rugged ridge, where begins the descent into the plain of Elateia. Dhragomano and Lefta are not seen, on account of a projection of the mountains on the right, but Turkokhorio is visible. At 4.15 we arrive at Sfaka, a small hamlet on the descent, and from thence, after having halted 10 minutes, descend into the plain at the point of the rocky mountain, which beginning from hence, stretches eastward to Vogdhani, where it forms the western side of the pass of Hyampolis; many copious springs issue from the mountain, and not only form a long lake at the foot of it, but make this whole comer of the Elatic plain marshy during the greater part of the year. A paved causeway leading to Lefta and Turkokhorio passes above the springs along the foot of the mountain, which to the very summit is a mere rock.
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§ 2.189 The marshy edges of the lake begin a little below Sfaka, and the lake is prolonged round the point of the mountain as far as opposite Merali. where a stream issues from it, which, as I before remarked, joins the Cephissus, in the Stena; a part of the water is conducted by a canal to some mills between Merali and Khubavo. We arrive opposite Merali at 5.5, but are obliged to make a detour in order to cross the canal and river, the latter by a bridge. The best lodging which the village affords, is a long cottage of the usual kind, but in this instance so filled with oxen, horses, asses, bags of wheat, and baskets of kalambokki, that with difficulty I find space sufficient in it. The wheat is the produce of the ημεροκάματο, or day-labourers’ share of the harvest, which is a kuveli of 22 okes per diem, now selling at Livadhia for 5 1/2 piastres; to this is added an oke of wine. The wages in the cultivation of vines and cotton are a piastre a day and an oke of wine, —the ordinary price of day-labour in Greece. In kalambokki it is customary for the labourers to take a tenth of the produce. Merali stands on the side of a round low hill, which, though now in pasture, consists of a very fertile and cultivable soil, without any rock. It is separated from the height of Krevasara, which is lofty and rocky, by a level of about three fourths of a mile, through which flows the Cephissus. The river approaches the south-eastern corner of the latter height, where it is crossed by a bridge in the main road from Zituni by Turkokhorio to Livadhia.
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§ 2.190 In a line with the hill of Krevasara, and separated from it by a narrow plain, rises the lofty insulated conical height, which I have already remarked (Nov. 30) as being in face of Bissikεni, towards Krevasara; this height ends in a low summit, crowned with one of those towers of which I before remarked, that there appears to have been a system of them pervading Boeotia and Phocis. A castle of the middle ages, or perhaps of the same date as the towers, crowned the extreme point of the Edylian ridge, from whence to the opposite advanced heights of Parnassus the distance is about half a mile. This is the strongest part of the Boeto-Phocic pass. In the narrow level stands the khan of the Kadi on the right bank of the Cephissus, opposite to which the Kineta, or river which issues from the lake of Sfaka, joins the Cephissus just under the extremity of the aforesaid rocky point, upon which stands the ruined castle. Dec. 12.—Leaving Merali at 9, and re-passing the bridge and canal, I ride up in 15 minutes to Khubavo, which stands on the foot of the rocky mountain, in the opening of the valley rising to Vogdhani, immediately opposite to Bolissi, on the foot of Mount Edylium. These are all small hamlets of about 20 houses, each with a pyrgo for the Spahi, who is generally an Albanian. While inquiring at Khubavo concerning a treasure of ancient medals, said to have been found by one of the inhabitants of that place, the sudden appearance of one of these Spahis, with hanjar
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§ 2.191 and pistols in his girdle, puts an end to the enquiry, as none of the villagers dare answer such questions in his presence. Two or three of them, however, follow me in crossing the plain to the Paleo-kastro, and show me a large quantity of small gilt copper coins, of the lower empire, which were a part of the treasure. The Paleo-kastro consists of the remains of a castle of lower times, inclosing a small table summit to the westward of Belissi. This height is connected with the foot of the extremity of Mount Edylium by a low ridge of rock, over which passes the road from Vogdhani to the bridge of the Cephissus near the khan of the Kadi. The hill is rocky all around, but the level summit is ploughed and cultivated. Among the remains of the modern castle are a few pieces of a Hellenic wall of the polygonal kind. There can be little doubt that these are remains of the city of the Parapotamii, the position, as I before remarked, agreeing in every respect with its description by Theopompus and Strabo. Leaving the Paleo-kastro at 11, and passing over the ridge which joins it to the mountain, I descend to a ford of the Cephissus a little below the khan, and having crossed the river, follow its right bank: at 11.30 cross by a wooden bridge a canal derived from the Mavro-nero, and three minutes farther the united stream of the Mavronero and Platania by a stone bridge; the Cephissus being then only a few paces on the left.
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§ 2.192 Soon afterwards the road quits the river, and crosses the plain in the direction of Kapurna, where I arrive at 12.8, and in the afternoon return to Livadhia. Placed, as the valley of Chaeroneia is, at the entrance of the extensive and fertile plains of Boeotia, and most conveniently situated for observing all the entrances into them from the side of Phocis, it often became the scene of military operations, though, unfortunately for history, the most remarkable of them did not occur until after the time of the best historians. In the year B.C. 447, Chaeroneia was taken by Tolmides the Athenian, just before his defeat and death at Coroneia. During the Sacred or Phocic war it was attempted by Onomarchus the Phocian without success, was taken by Phalaecus his son, who succeeded to the command of the Phocians on the death of Phayllus, and was speedily retaken by the Boeotians. But no particulars are related on these occasions which can be illustrated by a view of the locality. Nor is that celebrated battle, which extended the Macedonian power over all Greece, and influenced the destinies of the civilized world for the ensuing two centuries, described in a manner more satisfactory either by Diodorus or by Plutarch, probably from the want of contemporary accounts of an event which was already ancient in the time of those authors, especially the latter, who might otherwise have had a good opportunity of enlarging on the details of the
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§ 2.193 action, and of illustrating them by his knowledge of the topography of his native place. Of the battle between the Roman forces and the army of Mithradates, which occurred 250 years later, Plutarch had the means of leaving us a much fuller description. Sylla had taken Athens when Taxilles, entering Greece from the northward with a numerous army, and encamping in the plains of Elateia, left his opponent only a choice of difficulties. On the one hand the chariots of the enemy and the superiority of his cavalry, rendered it hazardous to meet him in the plains of Boeotia: on the other, Attica was unable long to afford supplies, especially when Archelaus, occupying Munychia with his fleet, had prevented their arrival by sea. The more powerful motive prevailing, Sylla moved into Boeotia, and encamped at a place in the plain of Chaeroneia, called Patronis. Here he was joined by Hortensius, who made his way from Thessaly by a circuitous route through Mount Parnassus to Tithorea, where he came into contact with the enemy’s forces, but having resisted their attacks during the day, succeeded in the following night in descending through difficult passes to the place where Sylla was expecting him. I have already shown the probability that the bye road by which Hortensius avoided the Asiatic army in the Elatic plains, was that which I followed from Velitza by Bissikoni into the northern valley of Dhavlia, and not far below which, near Khasnesi, are the sources of the Mavronero.
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§ 2.194 Here being copiously supplied with water, and defended towards the enemy by the pass of Parapotamii, Sylla found a safe and convenient place of encampment, until he was reinforced by Hortensius. He then advanced towards the enemy, and took a position on a fertile woody hill, in the midst of the Elatic plains named Philoboeotus, at the foot of which there was water— a description which seems to agree with the remarkable insulated conical height between Bissikeni and the Cephissus. The Romans probably occupied both that height and the hill of Krevasara, as in that position they were not only masters of any sources of water there may be at the foot of those heights, but were near the Cephissus, their proximity to which is evident from what follows. As the Roman army consisted only of 15000 infantry and 1500 cavalry, while the enemy amounted to six or eight times that number, the former kept close within their intrench ments, when the Asiatics drew out their forces to display their strength; but when they proceeded to straggle over the country, destroying Panopeus, and pillaging Lebadeia and the oracular temple of Trophonius, Sylla became very desirous of engaging. In order to inspire his troops with an inclination to fight, he first imposed some severe labours upon them, such as cutting canals in the plain, and turning the channel of the Cephissus; and when they began to be tired of this employment, pointed out to them a position
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§ 2.195 which he wished to occupy. It was a hill on which formerly stood “the acropolis of the abandoned city of the Parapotamii —a stony height surrounded with a precipice, and separated only from Mount Edylium by the river Assus, which at the foot of the hill fell into the Cephissus, and rendered the position very strong.” In this passage there is a difficulty. I have already remarked that the testimony of Theopompus, of Strabo, and of Plutarch himself, shows that Paleokastro is the ancient Parapotamii, and the rocky summit above it Edylium; in which case there is no stream which can correspond with the Assus but that named Kineta, which flows from the marsh of Sfaka, and is joined by the torrent of the vale of Khubavo. This river, however, does not divide the hill of Paleokastro from Mount Edylium, as Plutarch leads us to expect, but leaves it on the left, and joins the Cephissus a little below the hill of Paleokastro, which is in fact a low extremity of the mountain itself. The Romans drove away a body of Chalcaspidae, who were moving to the defence of the hill of Parapotamii, and took possession of it. Archelaus then moved against Chaeroneia, but the city was saved by the timely arrival of one of the Roman legions accompanied by the Chaeronenses in Sylla’s army; and Sylla having crossed the Assus, proceeded
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§ 2.196 along the foot of Edylium until he arrived over against Archelaus, who was encamped behind a strong entrenchment at a place called Assia, between Edylium and Acontium. The place in the time of Plutarch was called from the circumstance Archelaus. It was probably situated in that bay of the plain between Edylium and Acontium, which is watered by a small branch of the Cephissus, and where now stands the village of Karamusa. Having remained a day in this position, Sylla left Muraena there in the command of a legion and two cohorts, and having sacrificed at the Cephissus, moved to Chaeroneia for the purpose of joining the troops who had occupied that place, as well as to examine the position of a body of the enemy which, after the unsuccessful movement upon Chaeroneia, had taken a position on Mount Thurium. This height, in the time of Plutarch, was called Orthopagium, and is described by him as a rugged pine-shaped mountain. Below it were the torrent Morius and the temple of Apollo Thurius, who received that epithet from Thuro, the mother of Chaeron, who was the founder of Chaeroneia. Two men of Chaeroneia having proposed to lead a detachment to the summit of Thurium by a road unknown to the Asiatics, Sylla ordered upon this service a body of Romans under Hirtius, and then drew out his army, placing the cavalry on
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§ 2.197 either flank, himself on the right, Muraena on the left, and Hortensius, with a reserve of five cohorts, on the hills in the rear, in order to prevent the enemy from circumventing the Romans by means of their numerous cavalry and light troops. The road indicated to Hirtius by the two Chaeronenses led from Mount Petrachus, by a temple of the Muses. As soon as he had obtained possession of the summit of the mountain, the Asiatics were immediately thrown into confusion by the unexpected attack of the Romans from above; 3000 were slain on the hills, others fell into the hands of Muraena, and the remainder arrived in such confusion at their own camp, as to create a general disorder. Sylla, on perceiving it, moved forward his right so promptly, that the chariots of the Asiatics, which required a certain space to be effectual, were unable to act to advantage. The combat now became general: the Romans threw aside their pilae and fought with swords only, but could not make any impression upon the long pikes and combined shields of the Asiatics, or upon the dense order of 15000 slaves, whom the Asiatic commanders had liberated from the Greek cities: these, however, were at length broken by the javelins and sling-shot of the adverse lightarmed. As Archelaus was extending his right wing in order to encompass the enemy, Hortensius advanced rapidly to meet him, but was obliged to retreat before the Asiatic cavalry to the hills,
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§ 2.198 he was in so much danger of being cut off, that Sylla advanced from the right to his succour. Archelaus perceiving Sylla’s intention by the dust, quitted Hortensius and turned against the enemy’s right, while Taxilles, with the Chalcaspidae, attacked Muraena, so that a shout arising on both sides, and the hills around repeating it, Sylla was for a moment in suspense which way to move; but having resolved to return to his own post on the right, he took one of the cohorts of Hortensius with him, and sent the other four to the support of Muraena. On his arrival he found the right hard pressed by Archelaus, but his men receiving a new impulse from the presence of their commander, in one great effort routed the enemy, and drove him to the Cephissus and Mount Acontium. Sylla then moved to the assistance of Muraena, but found him already victorious over Taxilles, and joined him in the pursuit. Ten thousand only of the vanquished Asiatics arrived in safety at Chalcis (Egripo), while Sylla, according to his own assertion in his commentaries, had only twelve men missing. He erected two trophies, one in the plain where the troops of Archelaus first gave way and fled to the river Molus; the other on the top of Mount Thurium. The latter was inscribed with the names of the two Chaeronenses, who had led thither the Romans under Hirtius. The narrative of which the preceding contains the substance, is rendered the more interesting by its being of a different kind from those which are usually given of military occurrences by Plutarch, to whom we generally look in vain for any accurate or topographical details of such events.
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§ 2.199 It is indeed so well told, that I cannot but consider it as almost a literal extract from the commentaries of Sylla. I was the more anxious, therefore, to compare it with the scene of action. One of the points desirable to be identified is the summit named Thurium. The only remarkable peak in the range of heights which, branching eastward from the foot of Parnassus, border the plain of Chaeroneia on the south, is situated about three miles west of Petrachus, or the acropolis of Chaeroneia, and two south-east of Daulis; it rises from the right bank of the river now called Platani, which I have before described as crossing the plain of Daulis to the Cephissus. But this point is too distant from Chaeroneia, and there can scarcely be a doubt that it was within the Phocic boundary, and in the district of Panopeus, whereas Thurium, as well from the transactions on the day of battle, as from the local tradition concerning Thuro, mother of Chaeron, was evidently in the district of Chaeroneia, and not very far from Petrachus. I conclude, therefore, that Thurium was the highest point of the hills behind Chaeroneia, not far from the right bank of the rivulet, above the left bank of which, lower down, are the ruined walls of Panopeus. The name Mera, attached to a village in the valley, may be a corruption of Morius. The torrent called Molus would seem to be that which joins the left bank of the Cephissus, and which separates Edylium from Acontium. Here, therefore, was Assia, and the placed called Archelaus, where the commander of the Asiatics formed his entrenched camp after Sylla had taken Parapotamii.
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§ 2.200 It is to be supposed, that although this was the position of Archelaus himself, his immense army extended quite across the plain to Chaeroneia and Mount Thurium. The hills in the rear, on which Hortensius was posted, and where he was attacked by a movement of the right of the Asiatics round the left of the Romans, seem to have been not far from Daulis. Although these are the conclusions to which I have come upon examining the scene of action, I am aware that the difficulty which I have already mentioned, may seem to throw some doubt upon the whole explanation. Supposing the narrative to have been written originally by Sylla, and that either the Roman general himself, or the copiers of his memoirs, may have been in error as to the course of the Assus near Parapotamii, it still seems unaccountable that the biographer who adopted the account, and who was describing places near his own door, should not have discovered and corrected the mistake. It may be thought, perhaps, that the citadel of the Parapotamii may not have been at the Paleo-kastro of Belissi, but on the hill of Merali, which being really separated from the adjacent mountain by the stream which joins the Cephissus below the Paleo-kastro, so far corresponds with the words of Plutarch. But the consequence would be that the mountain of Khubavo, and not that of Belissi, was the ancient Edylium, and that the entrenched camp of Archelaus was not near Karamusa, as I have supposed, but in the valley between Khubavo and Belissi, which is quite irreconcileable with the data of Theopompus and Strabo, as to Parapotamii, Edylium, and Acontium. The situation of
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§ 2.201 Parapotamii, in the pass of five stades between Parnassus and the western end of the line of mountains, which terminated at the other extremity in Orchomenus, as well as the length of that ridge and the distance of Parapotamii from Chaeroneia, are all too near the accurate truth when applied to the site near Belissi, to admit of any doubt of the identity. Perhaps it may be supposed that the hill which Sylla pointed out to his troops, and which they afterwards took, was the more conspicuous western extremity of the summit of Edylium, upon which are the ruins of a modern castle, that those ruins occupy the site of the citadel of the Parapotamii, that the Hellenic remains at the Paleokastro of Belissi belonged to the town only, and that the Assus was the small stream near Karamusa, which may seem the more likely, as there is every reason to believe that Assia was in that position. But this would not remove the difficulty, for notwithstanding the identity of name, it is impossible to suppose the river Assus and the village or place Assia to have been very near to each other, the former having flowed below the western extremity of Edylium, and the latter having been situated between Edylium and Acontium. [Soon after his victory at Chaeroneia, Sylla was called upon to oppose a new army of Asiatics which had landed at Chalcis, and after some skirmishing at Tilphossium, gained, near Orchomenus, a second victory over Archelaus, which was so destructive that two hundred years afterwards, in the time of Plutarch, arms were still found in great quantities in the marshes.]
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§ 2.202 Dec. 14.—Since I have left Ioannina, the weather, with the exception of two days of southerly wind and rain at Dhomoko and Zituni has been constantly calm and clear, with a slight north-easter: yesterday it began to threaten, and the change this day declared itself in a tremendous storm of wind, accompanied with intermitting showers. Livadhia, among its other inconveniences of climate, is particularly subject in winter to these sudden and violent gales, which descend from Helicon with such fury as often to carry away tiles and chimneys, as occurred to-day in several instances. The gale when of this extreme violence is denominated a mega. Livadhia being a vakuf is governed by a voivoda, who farms the revenue from the administration of the royal mosques; or more commonly by a vekil, or deputy, for whom the farmer is answerable. The Turk now residing at Livadhia is in the latter capacity, but is himself farmer and collector of the customs. The municipal power is divided among three principal Greek families, of which the first is that of John Khondrodhima, commonly called the Logotheti, from his office in the church. All the affairs of the town pass through the hands of a grammatikos, appointed by these archons. Neither the Turkish voivoda nor the kadi interfere, unless when a Turk is concerned, and the former in particular abstains from it, as he dreads the loss of his usual presents from the Greeks, and the effects of their complaints at Constantinople. His chief business is to receive the imperial taxes,
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§ 2.203 which are let at present to the three persons abovementioned, for 2500 purses a year. These taxes are the miri, or dhekatia, the avaresi, or tax on personal property, and the kharatj, or capitation. The first is underlet in portions every year. Those who farm it visit the villages at the time of threshing, and receive their share, which in lands belonging to Greeks is about an eighth. The remainder is generally divided in the proportion of two thirds to the proprietor, he owning the stock, and supplying the seed corn. The harvestmen are generally paid in kind, either a stipulated quantity by the day, or a tenth of the crop: the remainder is the metayer’s portion, and is shared generally among several persons. In many instances the dhekatia is farmed by the Greek proprietor, in which case his share of the harvest becomes seventeen twenty-fourths nearly. Some of the lands of Livadhia are Spahiliks, and have been held on the feudal tenure of military service ever since the conquest. These pay a much smaller dhekatia to the Spahi, than the Greek lands to the farmer of the vakuf; they are generally hired by Greeks of Livadhia, and are cultivated like the others. Sometimes the Spahilik also is included, and it happens occasionally that the Greek resides in the village as Spahi, but the Spahilik is more commonly in the hands of Albanian soldiers, who find it a good mode of laying out their savings, as the Spahis, besides the tithe, have by custom established a title to a fee of a piastre per annum from every man, and half a piastre from every boy in the village, besides a certain
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§ 2.204 allowance of provision when he resides, which the Albanian always does, for the sake of this maintenance, and other advantages which his station as a Musulman soldier gives him. It sometimes happens that the resident Spahi has not the tithe—only the fee, and what else he can extort. The poor Greek peasant, as I before remarked, derives but little advantage from the land being held by his feliow-Christians. Though he can seldom obtain a fair market for his share of the produce, he generally has to furnish from it the exorbitant interest of some money which the Greek landholder or the Spahi has tempted him to borrow, after having forced him to the necessity of it: in short, he finds himself in no better condition than if he were a labourer on a Turkish tjiftlik. To complete his misery, the upper class of Greeks at Livadhia are as insolent and unfeeling to their inferiors, as they are malignantly jealous of one another; though it cannot be denied at the same time, that they have all the hospitality, wit, and sociable disposition of the nation, and, unlike the thesaurizing Jews and Armenians, generally live to the full extent of their means. Aly Pasha is now more feared than the Porte at Livadhia; and it is found expedient to send every spring a deputation of'Arkhondes to Ioannina with a present of about 100 purses. Not along ago he endeavoured to obtain possession of Dhadhi, but by the management of the chiefs of Livadhia, the ruin of that rising community was for the present avoided. His advances, however, threaten to increase in this direction, his son Vely having lately obtained the mukata of Talanda.
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§ 2.205 Dec. 17.—From Livadhia to Mazi. In crossing the opening of the vale of Coronda, the principal summit of Helicon presents itself very majestically at the head of the valley. It is a round mountain standing rather separate from the rest of the range of Helicon, well clothed with firs, and now capped with snow. The modern name is Paleovuni, or Paleovuna. Half-way thither, hidden from sight in a ravine, is Kukora, from which village there is a road across the Heliconian ridge to Khosia, and Kakosia. In two hours we arrive at the fountain Tilphossa, issuing from the foot of the rocky height now called Petra. The fortress Tilphossaion, which stood on the summit, appears to have been among the most important in Boeotia. Proceeding from thence at 3.5, we cross, in seven minutes, a brook from Rastamyti, a small village half a mile on the right in an angle of the hills, where a ridge connects Tilphossium with Libethrwm: and in ten minutes more cross a stream, the largest we have passed this day except the Phalarus. It rises in the eastern part of Mount Libethrium, and issues through a precipitous gorge lying between the eastern end of Tilphossium and a rocky peak which rises immediately behind the village of Mazi. On the right bank of this river, among a great quantity of loose stones, broken pottery, and other appearances of an ancient site, are several squared blocks, sufficient to indicate
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§ 2.206 the position of Ocalea, a Homeric city, not mentioned by Pausanias, but well described by Strabo, as situated on the bank of a rivulet of the same name, midway between Alalcomenae and Haliartus. His distance, however, of thirty stades from each, though it accords with the fifty stades which Pausanias places between Haliartus and Tilphusa, appears to be too great by more than a third. Leaving now the direct road to Thebes, we ascend obliquely to Mazi, a small village on the foot of a remarkable peaked hill. From Mazi the road continues southward to Mavromati and Eremokastro. The Maziotes chiefly cultivate kalambokki in the plain, and vineyards on the hills around the village. Dec. 18.—I revisit this morning the remains of Haliartus, which are found on a low hill separated from the extremity of the height of Mazi by a narrow branch of the plain, and about a mile distant from the village. Towards the lake the hill of Haliartus terminates in rocky cliffs, but on the other sides has a gradual acclivity. Some remains of the walls of the acropolis, chiefly of polygonal masonry, are found on the summit of the hill, and there are several sepulchral crypts in the cliffs, below which, to the north, issues a copious source of water, flowing to the marsh, like all the other streams near the site of Haliartus. Although the walls of the exterior town are scarcely anywhere traceable, its extent is naturally marked to the east and west by two small rivers, of which that to the
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§ 2.207 west issues from the foot of the hill of Mazi; the eastern, called the Kefalari, has its origin in Mount Helicon. Near the left bank of this stream, at a distance of 500 yards from the acropolis, are a ruined mosque and two ruined churches, on the site of a village which, though long since abandoned, is shown by these remains to have been once inhabited by both Turks and Greeks. Here are many fragments of architecture and of inscribed stones, collected formerly from the ruins of Haliartus. From this spot there is a distance of about three quarters of a mile to a tumulus westward of the acropolis, where are several sarcophagi and ancient foundations near some sources of water, marking probably the site of the western entrance of the city. The tumulus covers perhaps the bones of the men who fell with Lysander in the celebrated battle fought here in the year B.C. 395; for the circumstances of the event point exactly to this situation. Lysander had been sent by the Ephori with a small body of Spartans into Phocis, to collect the forces of that nation, together with those of the contiguous people of Oeta, Heracleia, Melis, and the Aenianes, and had been directed to march to Haliartus, where Pausanias, with 6000 Peloponnesians, was to meet him. Lysander not only succeeded in his mission, but induced Orchomenus to revolt from Thebes, and took Lebadeia by assault, from whence he wrote to Pausanias, informing him that he should arrive at Haliartus on a
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§ 2.208 certain morning at break of day. But the Thebans intercepted his letter, and thus obtained the means of anticipating him at Haliartus while Pausanias was left in ignorance of his motions. Leaving Thebes to the care of their Athenian allies, they marched in the night, introduced a part of their forces into the city, and with the remainder placed themselves in ambuscade, ready to fall on the enemy’s rear, at the fountain Cissusa, near which, adds Plutarch, were monuments of Rhadamanthus and Alcmena, and a place noted for producing the plants from which Cretan javelins were made. Lysander, on his arrival, thought at first of waiting for Pausanias on “the height”; but becoming impatient as the day advanced, he placed himself at the head of his troops, and moved forward with the phalanx in column along the road leading to the city. As soon as he arrived near the wall, the Thebans and Haliartii, rushing suddenly from the gate, slew him and his augur, with a few others, upon which the phalanx retreated to the hills. One thousand of them were slain in the pursuit; but it was fatal also to more than two hundred Thebans, who had rashly followed them into narrow and difficult places.
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§ 2.209 The king of Sparta was on his march from Plataea to Thespiae when the news reached him. The next day he arrived at Haliartus; but finding that the Phocians and other allies had inarched off in the night, and Thrasybulus on the following day bringing a body of Athenians to the assistance of the Boeotians, all he could do was to enter into terms for the body of Lysander, which it would have been difficult to have obtained in any other mode, as it lay near the walls. Retreating out of Boeotia, he buried Lysander in the district of the Panopaei, in the road which Plutarch, being himself of Chaeroneia, very naturally describes as that leading from Chaeroneia to Delphi. It appears from the same author, that the rivulet which flowed along the western wall of Haliartus, where Lysander fell, was named Hoplites; the same probably as the Lophis of Pausanias, to whose fable concerning it the situation of the sources near the tumulus is well adapted. Cissusa was evidently the fountain below the cliffs of the hill of Haliartus; for the existence near that fountain, of plants from which javelins were made, indicates the proximity of the marsh, and that position accords with the remark of Plutarch, that the Thebans marched to Cissusa with the city on their left.
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§ 2.210 They would naturally avoid its southern side, lest Lysander should be in possession of the heights, and the northern extremity was well suited to their intention in placing themselves there, if we suppose the entrance of the city where Lysander was slain, to have been near the tumulus. The rocky gorges to the westward of the hill of Mazi agree exactly with the rugged places where the Thebans suffered, and as Plutarch adds that their loss had been predicted by an oracle which warned them to beware of Orchalides and the hill of foxes, which latter was in the district of Haliartus, towards Helicon, and in his time was called Alopecum, we cannot but infer that Alopecum was the peak of Mazi, and Orchalides a village which may have occupied the site of Mazi itself. Although the hill of Haliartus is not fifty feet higher than the lake, its rocky point projecting into the marsh is remarkable from every part of the plain. Possessing a fertile district, and commanding a pass in the center of Boeotia, which is well described by Strabo as a strait between a mountain and the lake Copais: Haliartus was one of the
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§ 2.211 most important of the cities of this province, as the circumstances of the Boeotic war just mentioned prove. Having, unhappily, on two great occasions, sided with the weaker of two contending parties, it was twice exposed to the vengeance of power; first in the Persian invasion, when its conduct formed an honourable exception to that of the rest of Boeotia, and again in the last struggle of the Macedonians under Perseus against the Romans; the consequence of which latter imprudence was that Haliartus no longer existed in the time of Strabo. The praetor Lucretius, who took it after a spirited resistance, destroyed the town, sold its inhabitants for slaves,and embarked its pictures,statues, and other valuable property in his ships. The territory was afterwards given to the Athenians. Nor does it appear that Haliartus had recovered, like some other Greek towns, any portion of its former prosperity in the time of Pausanias, for he found here only seme temples without roof or statue, which had been destroyed by the Persians, and had been purposely left in that state, like some others at Athens; it was not even known to what deities they had been dedicated. A monument in honour of Lysander still remained, and a heroum of Cecrops, son of Pandion. The Haliartia extended westward to Mount Tilphossium, as appears by the remark of Pausanias, that the
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§ 2.212 Haliartii had an open sanctuary of the goddesses called Praxidicae, which was very near that mountain. The Kefalari, which is as large as the Phalarus, but does not like that river fail in summer, as I remarked on my former journey in this country, originates near DUsia and Mavromati, and receives the river of Zagara. At its entrance into the plain of Haliartus, the greater part of its water is turned eastward along the foot of the heights to some mills; but its natural course is by the village of Megalo Mulki into the marsh not far to the northeastward of Haliartus. The two branches of the river from Mavromati and Zagara seems to accord exactly with the Permessus and Olmeius, which, according to Strabo, flowed from Helicon, and after uniting entered the lake Copais near Haliartus. Zenodotus, whom Strabo quotes in reference to Ascra, and from whom he seems to have derived his information as to the Permessus and Olmeius, stated the former to have had its sources in the Thespiace, and described the latter as a stream towards the summit of Mount Helicon about three hundred stades from Thebes. The sources of the Kefalari being about midway between the sites of Haliartus and Thespiae, agree
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§ 2.213 perfectly with those of the Permessus, and the river of Zagara so far accords with the Olmeius, that it flows from a valley which separates Libethrium from Helicon. The distance of three hundred stades from Thebes, however, is too great for any part of the Heliconian mountains. Having crossed the Kefalari at the ruined mosque, and passed Mulki half a mile on the left, we proceed along the foot of the hills, and in fourteen minutes from the Kefalari arrive at a copious fountain at the foot of a low rock similar to the cliffs of Haliartus, and about half a mile from the edge of the marsh. Above it stands a square tower half ruined, and of the same construction as those at Xeropyrgo and other places in Boeotia. To the north-eastward of this point the slope of the mountain now called Faga meets the marsh in a projecting point; between which and another extremity towards Kardhitza the marsh forms a bay. At 10.17 we begin to ascend the low ridge which separates the two great Boeotian basins, those of the Cephissis and of Thebes, and which connects Mount Faga with the roots of Helicon; at 10.21, on its summit, we arrive at a small piece of Hellenic wall, consisting only of three or four stones in their places, on the right hand side of the road. The direction of this foundation is oblique to the road, running north and south, while the direction of the road in this spot is south-east. On the height on either side are many stones in the ploughed land, not natural to the soil, as well as other usual indications of an ancient site.
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§ 2.214 Pausanias, moving in the direction of this point from the Neitides gate of Thebes, arrives at about forty stades from thence, at a temple of the Cabeiri, to the right of which was the Teneric plain, and to the left a road branching to Thespiae, distant fifty stades. On the other side of the Teneric plain rose the mountain where the Sphinx was said to have lain in wait for passengers, putting them to death, if they were unable to interpret her enigma. The ruins of Onchestus, where still remained the temple and statue of Neptune Onchestius, in an αλσος, or sacred grove, were fifteen stades distant from the mountain. Pausanias does not mention the distance on the direct road from the Cabeirium to Onchestus, nor does he continue his route from Onchestus to Haliartus; but turning from the Cabeirium to Thespiae, describee the places in that part of Boeotia before he proceeds to treat of Haliartus, thus leaving no information as to the distance and direction of Onchestus, either from Thebes or from Haliartus. But Strabo has supplied this deficiency; for after censuring Alcaeus for placing Onchestus at the foot of Helicon, whereas it was at a considerable distance from that mountain, he states that it was in the Haliartia, on a naked hill near the Teneric plain, and the Copaic Lake. He farther remarks, that Medeon, another Homeric town of the Haliartia, was afterwards called Phoenicis, from its position at the foot of Mount Phoenicium, that Medeon was very near Onchestus, and that Mount Phoenicium was in the
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§ 2.215 district of Thebes. Upon comparing these authorities with the places, it is evident that Faga was the mountain of the Sphinx, which the Greeks in general called Sphingium, but the Boeotians Φίκιον, or Φυκιον, from Φιξ, the Boeotic form of Σφίγξ, and it seems also that the same mountain, or at least a part of it, near the Haliartia, was named Phoenicium. The modern name Φαγας may be a corruption of Φίκιον, or it may be a vestige of the fable of the devouring Sphinx. It further appears from the same authors, that the Teneric plain was the north-western portion of the plain of Thebes, or that part of it which lies at the foot of Mount Faga to the southeast; and that Onchestus, having been within the Haliartia, fifteen stades distant from the mountain, and near the Copaic lake as well as the Teneric plain, could hardly have occupied any other position than the low ridge which separatee the plains, and where the Hellenic vestiges still subsist. Medeon having also been in the Haliartia, would seem to have stood near the lake in the bay on the northwestern side of Mount Faga, between the site of Haliartus and Kardhitza. At 11.10, having halted till that time, I leave the supposed site of Onchestus and begin to descend from the pass into the plain, which at first is not so much as a mile in breadth, bordered on the right by gently-rising cultivated heights, and on the left by the rugged sides of Mount Faga. At 11.24 we
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§ 2.216 have the foot of this hill near us on the left, and at 11.27 the highest peak. As we proceed, the plain between us and the mountain becomes broader, and is now inundated. In summer it produces kalambokki. Before us, as far as Thebes, the great level, as well as the long slopes of the hills to the right of it, is for the most part a continued corn-held, without a single fence. A part of the arable is lying fallow, and some part of the land is in pasture, but upon the whole it is as well cultivated a district as any in Europe. At 11.46, Vaia and Khasnesi, two considerable villages, separated only by a small ravine, are two miles on the right. Vaia is the lower. At 12.5 we cross the road leading from Vaia to Mazeraki, which latter is two or three miles on the left, in the Teneric plain near the foot of the lower declivities of Mount Faga, where are some sources of water, and above them on the heights a monastery.' At 12.15 we pass Tzodnno, and a few minutes further Morokamo at the foot of the slopes on the right. These, like Mazeraki and the others, are small villages. At 12.40 the most projecting point of Mount Faga is on the left, a low stony rise, which we may suppose to have formed the separation between the Teneric plain and that of Thebes. From thence the lower ridges of that mountain trend to the northward towards the heights connecting the mountains Phicium and Ptoum, and below which is an inundated κόλπος, or bay of the Teneric plain. At 12.50 we cross the Kanavari, or Kanavri, a small stream
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§ 2.217 dry in summer, which rises at Erimokastro, and joins the Lake of Senzina near its southern extremity—halt five minutes. At about a quarter of an hour from Thebes we begin to ascend obliquely the heights on which that town is situated, and at 1.30 cross a rivulet called Platziotissa, which rises a little above Thebes, and flows in a ravine along the western side of the town. In ascending the bank of this ravine to the town, a fountain occurs named Paraporti.
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§ 2.218 CHAPTER 14 BOEOTIA. The hills immediately around Thebes are for the most part uncultivated, and, being intersected with large white charadrae or furrows, have rather a dismal appearance. They are capable of producing good wine, but the Thebans seem to think only of the culture of com. The πεδίον πυρηφορον is still noted for its fertility, and produced last year 148,000 kuvelia of wheat of excellent quality, while in almost every other part of Greece the crop was indifferent: 500 kuvelia of flour are sent
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§ 2.219 weekly to Έgripο, there being no mills at the latter place. The greater part of the land in the district of Thebes is owned by three men of Egripo, Ahmed Pasha, mousellim of that place; Bekir, now Pasha of Bosnia, and Rashid Bey: the landlord and the Greek cultivator share the produce of grain equally, the former finding the seed and half the oxen; but there is a tribe of kiayas and grammatikoi who superintend the landlords’ concerns on the spot, and contrive to diminish very largely the receipts of both parties. To the observer from Thebes, Mount Faga, the ancient Phicium, or Phoenicium, presents a single bare and rugged peak, which to the right is separated from a long even ridge equally bare, and nearly of the same height, by the opening in which stands the village of Kardhitza. The latter mountain is the ancient Ptoum, now known in different parts by the names of Palea, Strutzina, and Skroponeri, and extending from Kardhitza north-eastward until it is blended with Messapium, now called Khtypa. Midway between Thebes and Messapium, and hiding the highest part of the latter is the mountain named Samata, or Siamata, vulgarly pronounced Shamata, from a village of that name behind it. It is bold and rocky, with a flat summit; and being the nearest, is the most conspicuous of all the mountains around Thebes. It seems clearly to be the ancient Hypatus.
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§ 2.220 Dec. 19.—Pass the forenoon on a height called Psilirakhi, that is to say, η Ύψηλη Pαχη, or the high ridge, which is distant two miles direct from Thebes to the east-southeast. It is the nearest point affording a good view of the southern Boeotian basin, or that which is bounded on the south by the Boeoto-Attic range of Cithaeron and Parnes, to the west by Helicon, and to the north by Phicium, Hypatus, and Messapium, and which, as I before observed, is separated only from the great northern valley of Boeotia by the ridge of Onchestus. On observing how completely distinct the two great valleys are, each of them being surrounded by mountains except at that ridge, one is not surprised that Boeotia should have been for a long time divided into two great political leagues, of which Thebes and Orchomenus were deservedly the chief places, nor that Thebes, surrounded by a larger extent of more uniformly fertile country, and happily situated at a moderate distance from three outlets of maritime commerce, should have acquired a preponderance over its rival, which would have raised Thebes to much higher destinies than it ever attained, had the Boeotians been more favourable to letters and instruction. To this cause alone a historian of the age of Alexander attributes the fact, that their power was never durable, notwithstanding their three seas, their ports on the Corinthiac Gulf, communicating with Italy, Sicily, and Libya, and those on the Euboic frith, which conducted on one side of the Euripus to Egypt and Cyprus, and on the other to Macedonia and the Propontis.
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§ 2.221 The Psilirakhi, although not high, is the most central summit in the southern basin, and stands in the middle of a low range of hills, which, branching from the eastern end of Mount Helicon, extends to the Euboic frith, and divides the basin into two parts, of which the Parasopia, or vale of the Asopus, is the most remarkable plain in the southern division: and that of Thebes in the northern. The position of Thebes was determined by its being the only spot in the separating ridge where water is plentiful. Towards Helicon, in the vicinity of Thespus, the ridge becomes lower and rounder, and is well cultivated in many parts; to the eastward of Thebes it is not so fertile, and the villages are consequently less numerous than to the westward, but the hills are covered with a fine pasture, and abound in wild thyme, and other odoriferous herbs. Eastward of Psilirakhi the ridge rises to its highest peak, now called Soro, the falls of which approach so near to the foot of Mount Parnes that there is only a narrow rocky ravine between them, through which the Asopus finds its way from the Parasopian valley into the Tanagraan plain, and from thence by another similar ravine into the Oropia. Thebes is now called τα Θήβα, or more commonly in Boeotia, τα Φήβα, by that easy substitution of the one aspirate for the other, of which there are many examples in the ancient language.
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§ 2.222 The Turks say Stifa. The town stands on a hill, separated on every side from the adjacent heights, rising about 150 feet above the plain, and situated two miles to the northward of the highest part of the ridge. It is bounded to the east and west by the ravines of two small rivers, and is surrounded by a ruinous wall, composed of materials and repairs of various ages, among which are seen, in many places, Roman tile work, and large squared blocks in the Greek style. A low projection at the northern extremity was occupied by a keep or tower, which, as well as another tower at the north-eastern angle, with its adjoining gateway, are of more solid construction than the rest of the work, and are chiefly composed of ancient materials. The circuit is about a mile and a half, and is said to contain 700 families, of which about 250 are Turkish. The streets are narrow, and the houses stand close together, with few gardens. To the southward, between the town and the ridge, the hollow which was anciently occupied by lower Thebes, is now crossed by a ruined aqueduct upon arches, which still conveys water into the town from the western rivulet. The district contains 64 villages, most of which are small. At Thebes, as in most of the towns of Greece, which continue to occupy their ancient sites, the remains of antiquity chiefly consist of fragments of architecture and sculpture, or of inscribed marbles, dispersed among the houses, mosques, baths, and fountains, in the walls, stairs, streets, and pavements. Not one of the ancient buildings
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§ 2.223 can be traced; though it is very possible that some remains of them may be mixed with the modern structures, or buried by them, and that on the site of Lower Thebes to the southward of the town, where they are more accessible, many other valuable remains may still subsist below the surface of the soil. The village of Tabakidhes, on the eastern side of Thebes, mentioned by Spon and Wheler, is no longer in existence, but the church of St. Luke still remains there, and contains the sorus, or great stone coffin, vulgarly called the tomb of St. Luke. The ten hexameters on one side of it, which have been published by those travellers have suffered an injury since their time, so that five or six letters towards the middle of each line are no longer legible. On the opposite side of the monument are two other inscriptions which they did not notice, one in hexameters, the other in trimeter iambics. The three are all of different dates, but relate to the same family. From that which was copied by Wheler and Spon, it appears that the monument was made by order of one Zosimus, to contain the body of his son Nedymus, whose mother was an Italian, named Adae.
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§ 2.224 The second inscription in hexameters was in honour of the same Nedymus, and was placed upon the sorus by his son Zosimus, who reserved a place in the receptacle for himself, and declared that any one who should put any other body into it, should pay to the treasury ten thousand denaria. The third epitaph was not inscribed until the death of the second Zosimus, the body of whose son Nedymus had in the mean time been deposited in it The great grandfather, Zosimus the first, seems to have had a different sepulchre. In the third inscription the tomb declares itself to be full, and closed, and denounces the usual imprecation upon any one who should open it.
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§ 2.225 The second inscription is imperfect at the end of several of the lines; the third is nearly complete. The monument is of white marble with a highly ornamented operculum, the surface of which represents a covering of leaves. But neither the letters nor the poetry admit of a date anterior to A.D. 300. The inscriptions in the town are neither numerous nor well preserved. Two of them relate to Bacchus and his artists, that is to say, to the persons employed in his service in the theatre. A third is the sepulchral monument of a lady named Sacunda, styled a female hero. Below this inscription is another in smaller character, and apparently of a less ancient date. In this a priestess of Isis, named Nicaeo, daughter of Ariston, dedicates the Anthedonian coffin, (on which the inscription is engraved,) declares it to be sacred, that it shall not be used by her heirs, and that any one who shall force it open, or pollute it, shall pay 700 denaria to the goddess. It would seem from this document, that Anthedon was noted for producing stone, fitted for ληνοι, or stone coffins, more commonly denominated σοροι. Of the other inscriptions which I find here, the most remarkable are a fragment of names in the Boeotic
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§ 2.226 dialect, and the sepulchral monument of one Chareas, qualified as an arch-physician and hero. The only undoubted relic which I can discover of the walls of Hellenic Thebes, now forms the lowest part of the northern tower, just above the plain. About thirty yards of the ancient work are still traceable, and four or five courses are visible, if courses they can be called, the masonry of which, like that of Tiryns, is formed of very roughly hewn masses of stone, originally fitted in the intervals with smaller stones, which have mostly fallen out. This wall is not straight, but forms a curve. Its masonry, its curved form, but above all its thickness, which is more than twentyeight feet, seem to prove that in antiquity it may vie with Mycenae, or even with that of the Τιρύνθιον πλίνθευμα, which it most resembles. Another monument, apparently of remote times, is found to the eastward of the town, not far to the southward of the church of St. Luke. It is a barrow of a form, which, though rare, is not unexampled — in Greece, having a double slope thus. In the absence of remains of art, it is only by means of the landmarks of nature that we can hope to trace the ancient topography of this city. Besides the hill of the Cadmeia, which is well defined on every side, the only natural features
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§ 2.227 that can be recognized are those celebrated rivers and fountains which first attracted inhabitants to the site, and which contributed with other advantages to make Thebes the chief city of Boeotia. Three torrents traverse the site, and flow northward into the plain of Thebes, one on either side of the Cadmeum hill, having their origin in the low ridge, which, two miles to the southward of the town, begins to fall in that direction to the Asopus. The third is a beautifully clear and copious pool of water, in an artificial basin, situated at less than a mile to the S.S.E. of the modern town. Its stream flows to the plain through a ravine where derivations are made from it at different levels, to turn mills, and irrigate gardens, so that little water remains in ordinary seasons at its entrance into the plain. The small church of St. John, from which the river is named, stands exactly at the fountain-head. The western river, named Platziotissa has a more constant course in the plain, though, being considered the purest of the Theban waters, no small quantity of its water is diverted to supply the fountains of the town. Several sources on, or adjacent to the ancient site, yield their contributions to this stream, some of which, in a country so subject as Greece is to earthquakes, may not now issue from the earth in the same positions as the fountains of ancient Thebes.
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§ 2.228 The two most remarkable are that of Paraporti, which has already been noticed, and another situated five or six hundred yards higher up the river, and, like Paraporti, near, its right bank. To the eastward of the ravine of the Ai Ianni, distant a third of a mile from the town, is the most copious of the Theban sources, a modern δωδεκάκροννος, issuing from the side of the hill through twelve spouts. The place is called St. Theodore, and was described by Spon, in 1676, as the handsomest of the suburbs of Thebes, but of which three or four cottages only now remain. The superfluous waters of these rivers and sources serve to irrigate gardens, and plantations of cotton, tobacco, and kalambokki, in the plain to the northward, and in summer are entirely consumed in that manner: in winter they render the plain marshy. Thebes had been thrice subverted when twenty years after its last destruction by Alexander, or in the year 315 B.C. Cassander, assisted by the Athenians and by the people of Messene and Megalopolis, in gratitude to their founder Epaminondas, restored the whole circuit of the walls, and laid out new streets. Dicaearchus, who wrote not long afterwards, thus describes the city. “The site is level, the form circular, with a
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§ 2.229 circumference of seventy stades. It is plentifully provided with water, and abounds in green pastures and fertile hills, and in gardens beyond any city in Greece. Two rivers flow through the town, and irrigate all the subjacent plain; there is also a subterraneous stream issuing from the Cadmeia through conduits which are said to have been constructed by Cadmus. The abundance and coolness of the water, the agreeable breezes, the verdant aspect of the place, its gardens, fruits, and other productions of the season, render Thebes a most agreeable residence in the summer. In the winter, on the contrary, it is very unpleasant, being destitute of fuel, and constantly exposed to floods and winds. It is then often covered with snow, and is very muddy.” Although seventy stades is the circuit here ascribed to Thebes by Dicaearchus, he assigns in his verses a much smaller extent, namely, forty three; and this number being in metre, and consequently more free from suspicion of inaccuracy, was probably the reputed perimeter of the walls, as Pausanias still traced them with their seven gates, near 500 years afterwards.
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§ 2.230 This circuit was very nearly equal to that of the Asty, or upper town of Athens. In the seventy stades, Dicaearchus may have intended perhaps to include the suburbs and the gardens, to which he particularly alludes. After the time of Cassander, Thebes suffered in common with the rest of Greece from the contests of which it became the scene, especially those between Rome and Macedonia; its particular calamities recommenced with the Mithradatic war, when Sylla punished Thebes for taking part against him, by presenting half its territory to the Gods, as an atonement for his having plundered their treasuries at Olympus, Epidaurus and Delphi. Although the Romans afterwards restored their land to the Thebans, the city never recovered from that calamity; but having largely shared, as well as Chalcis, in the chastisement inflicted upon the friends of Achaia by Mummius, after the capture of Corinth, it was reduced to such a miserable state in the time of Augustus, that it scarcely deserved, according to Strabo, to be called a town. Near two centuries later, when Greece had a little recovered under the Roman emperors, Pausanias found Thebes occupying, as it now does, the Cadmeia. In the decline of the empire, as the maritime towns of Baeotia became exposed to hostility or piracy, the population of this province was probably in great measure concentrated in the advantageous
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§ 2.231 internal positions of Thebes and Livadhia, and the walls may then have been constructed, which, with a succession of repairs, have subsisted to the present time. In the fourth century Thebes was in so respectable a state of defence, that Alaric, impatient to reach Athens, would not. lose the time that a siege of Thebes would have required; and in the 12th century, it was of such magnitude, that, according to Benjamin of Tudela, the Jews alone amounted to 2000, who were “skilful workers in purple and scarlet.” Under the Turks, like all their towns, it has gradually declined. Although inhabited Thebes was confined to the Cadmeia, when Pausanias visited the place, all the principal monuments connected with Theban.mythology and history were still in existence, more or less preserved. The following is an abstract of their description by that traveller. The road from Plataea entered at the gates Electrae; the other gates were the Proetides, the Neitae or Neitides, the Crenaeae, the Hypsistae, the Ogygiae, and the Homoloides. Not far from the gates (Electrae) was a Polyandrium of the Thebans, who fell in fighting against Alexander, and a little beyond it the place where Cadmus produced men, by sowing the teeth of the dragon which he slew at the fountain of Mars.
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§ 2.232 To the right of the same gate was the hill sacred to Apollo, who was surnamed Ismenius, from the river flowing by it, which was more anciently called Ladon. Before the entrance of the temple was a rock, named the chair of the prophetess Manto, daughter of Tiresias; and to the right of it were statues in stone, supposed to represent Enioche and Pyrrha, daughters of Creon. At the entrance of the temple were statues in marble of Minerva and Mercury, surnamed from their situation Pronai; the former was said to be the work of Scopas, the latter of Phidias. The temple contained a statue of the god by Canachus, exactly resembling that made by the same artist at Branchidae, except that it was of cedar instead of brass. Among the tripods in the temple was that dedicated by Amphitryon for his son Hercules, when the latter officiated as Daphnephorus: a young man remarkable for beauty and strength was still chosen every year to fill this office. Above (or beyond ) the Ismenium was the fountain sacred to Mars, who placed it under the guardianship of the dragon which was slain by Cadmus; near the fountain was the tomb of Caanthus.
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§ 2.233 To the left of the gate Electrae were the ruins of the house of Amphitryon, and the temple of Hercules. The house of Amphitryon contained the bedchamber of Alcmena, said to have been the work of Trophonius and Agamedes. Here, also, was a monument of the children of Hercules by Megara, a stone called Sophronister, said to have been thrown at Hercules by Minerva, to prevent him from slaying Amphitryon, the figures of women named Pharmacidae in low relief, and above the Sophronister an altar of Jupiter Spodius made of the cinders of victims. The temple of Hercules contained his image in wood, which was supposed to be the work and dedication of Daedalus, with another in white marble, which was sumamed Promachus, and was made by two Theban artists, Xenocrates and Eubius. The aeti of the temple were adorned with figures by Praxiteles, representing all the twelve labours of Hercules, except the destruction of the birds of Stymphalus, and the cleansing of the Eleian land, instead of which there was the wrestling of Hercules with Antaeus. Within the building were colossal figures of Minerva and Hercules in relief,
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§ 2.234 made of Pentelic marble by Alcamenes and dedicated by Thrasybulus and his comrades, when, having proceeded from Thebes to Athens, they there put an end to the tyranny of the Thirty. Adjoining to the Heracleium were the gymnasium and the stadium of Hercules. There was an altar at Thebes of Apollo Polius; and an altar in the open air, with a statue of Minerva bearing the Phoenician epithet of Onga, and said to have been dedicated by Cadmus. This statue had formerly stood in a temple, which appears from Aeschylus to have been without the city, near one of the gates. As the ancient acropolis was the only inhabited part of Thebes when it was visited by Pausanias, the Agora of that time contained some of the most ancient monuments of the Cadmeia; a part of it was supposed to occupy the exact site of the habitation of Cadmus. Here were shown
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§ 2.235 ruins of the bedchambers of Harmonia and Semele; the place where the Muses sang at the wedding of Harmonia, and a piece of wood adorned with brass by Polydorus, said to have fallen from heaven when Semele was stricken with lightning, and named Bacchus Cadmeius: also three statues; one of Bacchus in solid brass, by Onassimedes; with an altar wrought by the sons of Praxiteles; the second of Pronomus, a celebrated improver of the flute, and composer of music for that instrument; and the third of Epaminondas. Near the latter was the temple of Ammon, containing a statue by Calamis, dedicated by Pindar; also a triangular pillar, upon which was engraved an ode of Pindar, addressed to the Ammonii, and near it an altar dedicated by Ptolemy, son of Lagus. Near this temple was the place of augury, where Teiresias observed the flight of birds, and a temple of Fortune, whose statue, bearing the child Plutus, was the work of Callistonicus of Thebes, except the face and hands, which were made by Xenophon of Athens. There were also three wooden statues of Venus with the surnames of Urania, Pandemus, and Apostrophia, said to have been formed from the beaks of the ships of Cadmus, and to have been dedicated by Harmonia. There had formerly been a temple of Ceres Thesmophorus, and a house of the descendants of Cadmus, but a bust only of Ceres remained, and some brazen shields said to be those of Lacedaemonian officers who had fallen at Leuctra.
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§ 2.236 Near the gates Proetides was the theatre, and adjoining to it a temple of Bacchus Lysius, which contained statues of Bacchus and of Semele. Here were also the ruins of the house of Lycus, monuments of Semele, of the sons of Amphion and of the daughters of Amphion, and a temple of Diana Eucleia, whose statue was by Scopas. Within the sanctuary were interred the two daughters of Antipoenus, who had devoted themselves to death for the public benefit in the war between Thebes and Orchomenus; and before the temple was the figure of a lion, dedicated by Hercules, when he had defeated the Orchomenii under their king Erginus; near it were statues of Apollo Boedromius and of Mercury Agoraeus, the latter presented by Pindar. Half a stade distant from the tombs of the children of Amphion was their funeral pile. Near (the heroum) of Amphitryon were two statues in stone of Minerva Zosteria, so called because Amphitryon here armed himself when he was proceeding against Chalcodon and the Euboeenses.
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§ 2.237 The monument of Zethus and Amphion was a small barrow. The funeral pile, as well as the objects subsequently mentioned, were, probably, without the walls. The tomb of Amphion certainly was, as appears by a fact related by Pausanias, and still more from Aeschylus. From a comparison of these authorities it seems to have stood in the plain between the site of the gate Proetis and the northern extremity of the Cadmeia. As the torrent, which forms the ditch of modern Thebes to the eastward, and which marks the extent of the Cadmeia in that direction, is much the least considerable of the three rivulets of Thebes, there can hardly be a doubt that the two others were the two rivers of the ΰιποταμος πόλις, named Dirce and Ismenus.
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§ 2.238 That the Ismenus was the eastern is manifest from Euripides, who represents Theseus as directing his herald in proceeding from Eleusis to Thebes to cross the Asopus and then the Ismenus. But Pausanias is still more conclusive, by describing the Ismenus as situated to the right of the gate Electrae, entering Thebes from Plataea, and the Dirce as crossed in the road which led from the gates Neitides towards the mountain of the Sphinx. The Ismenus, therefore, was the river now called Ai Ianni, and the Dirce the Platziotissa or western stream. The middle torrent may have been the Cnopus, for this was the name of a river, and of a village, (called also Cnopia,) through which the river flowed, and which was near Thebes on its southern side, exactly in the position of the torrent towards its sources. in approaching Thebes from the south, ancient foundations are first seen at about a mile in direct distance from the modern town.
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§ 2.239 Here I observed some remains of Hellenic walls, and an oblong quadrangular well or pit excavated in the rock. According to the data of Dicaearchus and Pausanias, this was nearly the situation of the Electris or gate entering lower Thebes from the southward, for this point being a mile and a half distant from the northern extremity of the Cadmeia, and the city having been nearly circular, the circumference would thus have been 4.7 miles, which, measured along the ramparts, would be not very different from the 43 stades of Dicaearchus. As the source of the Ismenus was no more than three quarters of a mile from the Cadmeia, and not so much from the river Dirce, it is evident that both that source, and a part of the course of the Dirce must have been included within the walls, if we comply with the conditions of Dicaearchus, which will require a diameter from east to west of at least a mile and a half; a distance confirmed by the remark of the same author, that two rivers flowed through the city. On the other hand, it appears from Aeschylus that the Ismenus at its entrance into the plain was without the walls, for he describes Tydeus, when presenting himself opposite the gate Proetides, which led to Chalcis, as halting on the bank of the Ismenus, and forbearing to cross, because the sacrifices were
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§ 2.240 unpropitious. The same may be inferred from Euripides, who, in describing the military position of Theseus, when after the return of his messenger he marched in person at the head of the Athenians to recover from Creon the unburied bodies of the Argives, represents the infantry as drawn up on the heights along the Ismenus, the cavalry as occupying the extremity of the line near the fountain of Mars, (meaning one of the fountains of Dirce,) and the chariots on the right near the tomb of Amphion. Thus the army invested Thebes on every side, except to the northwest. The infantry was well protected in front by the ravine of the Ismenus, and the chariots were very properly stationed in the plain, where alone they could act. Even the messenger who describes the battle seems to have been well placed on a tower near the gate Electrae, which was toward the centre of the line and on ground commanding a view of the greater part of the site of Thebes.
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§ 2.241 The seven gates of Thebes are alluded to by Homer and Hesiod, and frequently by Pindar and the Athenian poets: six of them are named by Aeschylus and Euripides, and all the seven by Apollodorus and Statius, as well as by Pausanias. But none of these five authors are in exact agreement as to the names, or have observed any regular order in naming them: of three gates, however, we have nearly the situation by knowing the places to which they conducted. These are, the Electris, Proetis, and Neitis; of which the first led to Plataea, the second to Chalcis, the third to Onchestus. The Neitis seems to have been not far to the westward of the northern extremity of the
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§ 2.242 Cadmeia, for Pausanias describes three monuments in succession between it and the crossing of the river Dirce, thereby indicating a considerable interval between the gate and that crossing, which agrees with the actual course of the river at its entrance into the plain, whereas farther up the valley the river flows immediately at the foot of the Cadmeian hill. The Homolois may be placed on the same side of Thebes, having been the gate through which the Thebans re-entered the city, when they were recalled by Thersandrus from Homole in Thessaly, whither they had fled after the victory of the Epigoni at Glisas. Without the gate Proetis, on the road to Chalcis, were the monuments of Melanippus and Tydeus, then the tomb of the sons of Oidipus, and fifteen stades beyond them a cenotaph of Teiresias. Pausanias then observes, that the Thebans possessed a tomb of Hector, at the fountain Oidipodia, which was so called because Oidipus there washed himself after the murder of his father, and that they brought thither from Troy the bones of Hector by command of the Oracle, which directed them also to honour him as a hero. Near the same fountain was the tomb of Asphodicus, who was said by the Thebans to have slain Parthenopaeus, one of the seven chiefs. Although the mention of these monuments by Pausanias follows that of the cenotaph of Teiresias, there is great reason to believe that they were much less than 15 stades distant from the city; as well
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§ 2.243 from the words of the oracle as from the ίστι Θηβαίοις with which Pausanias introduces the mention of the tomb of Hector, and equally so from the story attached both to the tomb and the fountain. On this supposition the fountain of St. Theodore agrees in situation with that of the Oidipodia. The source, according to Spon, was supplied from the head of the Ismenus; but even this would not be inconsistent with the words of Pausanias, who describes the Oidipodia as a κρύνη, or constructed fountain. I am more disposed, however, to believe that the fountain of St. Theodore is, in part at least, a vein of water separate from the Ismenus and which still flows perhaps in the ancient conduits. That the Oidipodia was, like the fountain of St. Theodore, to the right of the road to Chalcis, is supported by the observation of Pausanias as to the Gymnasium, Stadium, and Hippodrome. “Before the gates Proetides,” he says, “the Thebans have a gymnasium called the Gymnasium of Iolaus, and a stadium which resembles those of Olympia and Epidaurus, being a heap of earth. There also is the heroum of Iolaus. Beyond the stadium to the right is the Hippodrome, which contains the monument of Pindar. From thence there is a road to Acraephium, for the most part plain etc.” The three constructions here mentioned must have occupied a large space of ground, and seem to have filled up all the space between the roads to Chalcis and to Acraephium, the direct route to which latter town, as well as to Hyle and Aspledon, led probably through the northern gate.
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§ 2.244 The remaining objects described by Pausanias in the vicinity of Thebes were on the north-western side. Very near the gate Neitides was the tomb of Menoeceus, son of Creon, and a little farther a monument of stone representing a shield upon a column, which marked the place where the two sons of Oidipus slew each other, and then the Syrma of Antigone, so called because Antigone being unable to carry, here dragged, the dead body of Polynices to the funeral pile of Eteocles. On the opposite side of the river Dirce were ruins of the house of Pindar, and a temple of Dindymene, containing a seated statue of the goddess, of Pentelic marble, dedicated by Pindar, and the joint work of Aristomedes and Socrates, artists of Thebes. In the road which issued at the gate Neitides was a temple of Themis, with a statue in white marble, then temples of the Fates and of Jupiter Agoraeus; the former without any statue, the latter containing the deity in stone. A little farther was a Hercules, surnamed Rhinocolustes, because he (here) cut the noses of the heralds of the Orchomenii. Twenty-five stades beyond it was the grove of Ceres Cabeiria and Proserpine, into which the initiated only were allowed to enter, and seven stades farther a temple of the Cabeiri, to the right of which was the Teneric plain, and to the left a road, which, at the end of fifty stades, conducted to Thespiae.
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§ 2.245 Dec. 21.—From Thebes to Egripo.—At 10.27, quitting the eastern extremity of Thebes, I leave, at 10.33, the fountain of St. Theodore on the right, and at 10.50 the road to Bratzi, a branch of which leads to Sykamino. At 11.15 an ancient foundation, called by the modern Thebans “the Gates,” crosses the road. A mile before arriving at this place, we begin to descend a low root of the Psilirakhi, advancing into the plain in the direction of the heights of Moritzi, which latter are connected eastward with the mountain of Siamata. At 11.21, the nearest point of a low rocky hill, small but conspicuous from its insulated position in the plain, is three or four hundred yards on the left; its termination at the opposite end is more abrupt, and is there separated only by a narrow continuation of the plain of Thebes from the foot of Hypatus or the mountain of Siamata. This low hill seems to correspond exactly to that Teumessus, which was on the road from Thebes to Chalcis, in sight from the walls of the Cadmeia, and which was
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§ 2.246 described by the poet Antimachus as an ηνημόεις ολίγος λόφος, or little windy height; for its situation between the two mountains cannot fail to render it subject to the full force of the gales, both from the east and the west. The rich surrounding plain may also justify the epithet of λεχεποιη, or grassy, which the poet bestows upon Teumessus in the Hymn to Apollo. Nor are the words of Pausanias, which place it exactly upon the route’, adverse to the same conclusion, for our track is not the most direct way to Egripo, but a winter road, following the foot of the heights to the right of the direct route. In the time of Pausanias there remained at Teumessus only a temple of Minerva Telchinia, without any statue. At 11.30, after crossing a small cultivated bottom surrounded by low shrubby terminations of Mount Soro, the road ascends a low ridge which forms a junction between that mountain and the otherwise insulated hill, the supposed Teumessus, At 11.41 we begin to descend, and at 11.44 arrive in the plain which forms a continuation of that of Thebes, by means of the opening already noticed, between the hill of Teumessus and Mount Hypatus, where the plain is not more than half a mile in breadth. At 11.50 Serghis [Syrtsi m. Ypato] is a mile and a half on the left, on the slope of the mountain; at 11.58 we are just below the centre of its summit and near its lowest falls. At 12.10 Spakhidhes [m. Eleon] is half a mile on the right. At 12.35, two
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§ 2.247 or three miles on the right, a ruined tower of modern construction appears on the top of a rocky height, which hides from view the village of Andritza, where are some Hellenic remains, and a copious source of water. The ridge connecting Parnes with Cithaeron appears between the height of Andritza and that of Soro. We now ascend a low root of Mount Hypatus, which is steep and rocky, or clothed only with wild shrubs; and after a delay of four minutes cross, at 1.5, some Hellenic foundations. At 1.22 an ancient sorus is in the road, and near it a wall, traversing the road obliquely: between this and a fountain, where we arrive at 1.28, are other Hellenic foundations near the road side, and 200 yards on the left, above the right bank of a torrent which descends from near Platanaki, a monastery on the mountain, a small height retains evident traces of the citadel of an ancient town. The source of water and foundations probably mark the position of the city walls, and the sorus may have been one of the sepulchres outside the walls. The fountain is on the right bank of the torrent [m. Ritsonas Rema], which is now dry, but after rains unites with other torrents, and joins the sea near Dhramisi [m. Paralia]. A road along the left bank conducts to Bitzoni [m. Ritsona]. Having halted at the fountain till 1.57, we begin to mount a ridge of hills connected to the northward with Mount Khtypa, which now appears on the left. The road leads between two peaked heights of the ridge by a natural pass, where to the left are some remains of a wall of loose stones, ascending from the road side to the summit of the peak.
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§ 2.248 The pass and ruined wall are conspicuous objects in the surrounding country. Although no towers are traceable, nor any squared blocks of stone remain in their places, there can be little doubt that this work is Hellenic, the wall having been of the usual thickness, and consisting of the rough materials of which the ancients usually formed the interior of their masonry. On the right hand, or eastern side of the pass, are vestiges of a similar wall, which extend, as I am informed, as far as the inclosure of an ancient city on the mountain immediately opposite to the town of Egripo. It is evident that the road from Thebes to the Euripus must in all ages have led through this pass. At 2.26 on the summit of the pass a beautiful view opens of the Euripus, of the town of Egripo, and of a great part of the island of Euboea. At 2.34 we begin to descend the mountain into the maritime plain, and at 3.7 to cross that plain towards Egripo. It consists of open corn land, without any trees, and is intersected with low rocks. The falls of Mount Khtypa, which bound it to the north-west, are also very rocky. The rocks in the plain are of white marble, and are covered with wild thyme. At 3.30 we pass along the shore of the southern bay of Egripo, under the hill of Karababa, and at its eastern extremity cross the bridge of the Euripus into the kastro, or fortress, of Egripo. The current of the Euripus is running to the southward very rapidly, with a visible difference of level between the two sides of the bridge. Having passed through the kastro, or fortress, I proceed to the house of the Russian consul, which is situated at the extremity of the glacis.
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§ 2.249 Beyond Teumessus Pausanias describes the road from Thebes to Chalcis in terms of which the following is the substance. To the left of Teumessus, seven stades farther, were the ruins of Glisas, and near them, on the right of the road, a small heap of earth shaded with wild, as well as planted, trees: it was the burying-place of Promachus, and other Argive chiefs slain in the expedition of the Epigoni. On the direct road from Thebes to Glisas was a place surrounded with chosen stones, called the head of the Serpent. Above Glisas rose Mount Hypatus, upon which stood a temple and statue of Jupiter Hypatus. A torrent named Thermodon flowed from the mountain. Turning again towards Teumessus, and into the road to Chalcis, occurred the monument of Chalcodon, who was slain by Amphitryon, and farther on the ruins of Harma and those of Mycalessus. On the sea-shore of the Mycalessia stood a temple of Ceres Mycalessia, containing a statue of the goddess. The temple was to the right of the Euripus, which divides Euboea from Boeotia; a little farther in the same direction was Aulis. Here stood a temple of Diana, and two statues in white marble, one bearing torches, the other drawing a bow. In the temple was preserved some of the wood of the plane-tree mentioned by Homer. The fountain also was shown where the plane grew, and on a neighbouring hill the brazen foundation of the tent of Agamemnon.
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§ 2.250 Before the temple grew some date trees, the fruit of which ripened better than in Ionia, though it was not so good as the date of Palestine. The few inhabitants who remained in Aulis were potters. Its territory, as well as that of Harma and Mycalessus, was possessed by the Tanagraei. The principal question which arises from the preceding abstract of the remarks of Pausanias is, whether the ruins on the bank of the torrent of Platanaki are those of Glisas, or of Harma, Teumessus being placed at the insulated height before mentioned, and the Mycalessia having been the country adjacent to the Euripus. The mountain of Siamata, which rises immediately above the ruins, and in which the torrent flowing by them has its origin, seems to decide that they were those of Glisas, for the former answers exactly to Mount Hypatus, and the latter to the Thermodon, in regard to which we may remark, that there is no other torrent flowing from the eastern or southern side of this mountain, or that if any other could be found, it would flow into the Theban plain towards the lakes to the north of Thebes, whereas it is evident from Herodotus that the Thermodon had an easterly course, since he describes it as having flowed between Tanagra and Glisas.
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§ 2.251 It may be objected to the positions of Teumessus and Glisas here supposed, that the distance between them is much greater than the seven stades of Pausanias, consequently that if Glisas was on the torrent of Platanaki, Teumessus could not have been situated on the insulated height. But it seems very unlikely that there should have been an interval of no more than seven stades between those two towns, for such they were in ancient times, though when Pausanias travelled one was a mere ruin, and the other only an insignificant place. I conceive therefore that there is an error in the distance, as stated in the text of Pausanias. If Glisas stood on the torrent of Platanaki, Harma occupied probably the important pass leading into the maritime plain, where the existence of the ancient wall affords a confirmation of all the three positions in question. As to Mycalessus, the proofs of its situation are: —First, That Thucydides describes Mycalessus as sixteen stades distant from the Hermaion. which was on the sea-shore not far from the Euripus, as will be more clearly shown hereafter. Secondly, that the temple of Ceres Mycalessia was, according to Pausanias, on the shore to the right of the Euripus, by which he certainly meant the south, since he afterwards describes the Anthedonia as being to the left of the Euripus. It seems evident, therefore, that the temple of Ceres stood on the
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§ 2.252 shore of the southern bay of Egripo, and that Mycalessus was the ancient city, of which the ruined walls still remain, on the summit of the height immediately above that bay. The connection of its fortifications with those in the pass of Harma by means of a long wall, tends to confirm this opinion, for as the plain certainly belonged to Mycalessus, it is not credible that Aulis, the only other ancient place to which the ruins can be ascribed, should have been in possession of the pass which led into the plain. Moreover, Mycalessus is described by Thucydides as a place of importance, and its autonomous coins still exist; whereas Aulis, although a city in the Trojan war, was chiefly known in after times as a harbour. It is easy to conceive that the Mycalessii may have entered into a compact with the people of Harma for the common defence of their passes, or, perhaps, that as Mycalessus still subsisted in the time of Strabo, while Harma was deserted, the Mycalessii may have made the remains of Harma serve for the defence of the pass leading into their territory, and may have connected it for greater security with their own fortifications. In the time of Pausanias, Mycalessus was in ruins as well as Harma. The objection to the position of Mycalessus just indicated is, that Strabo places it on
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§ 2.253 the road from Thebes to Chalcis, whereas its supposed ruins are near two miles to the right of that road; but Strabo seems to have been writing loosely of places which he had never seen, and his words παρ οδον do not imply that the ruins were exactly on the road, but only near it. Indeed it would not be easy to reconcile any situation on the road with the testimony of Thucydides. The Sanjak of Egripo includes the kazas of Thebes, Athens, Livadhia, Salona, and Talanda, but the revenues of all those places being administered by voivodas having annual appointments from the Porte, the power of the Pasha in time of peace hardly extends beyond the island. He is now absent, and the government is in the hands of a Musellim. The revenue of the Pashalik amounts to about 400 purses, and is derived from the sale of the dhekatia of all the lands not feudal, or from the Spahiliks attached to the Pashalik, from the customs and kharatj, from an excise on grain and other objects of consumption, and from bribes to permit the forbidden exportation of corn and butter. The chief produce of the island is wine; from Cumae and Kastrevala alone, 20,000 barrels of 54 okes are sent to Smyrna and the Black Sea, of which the average price on the spot is five piastres a barrel. Wheat and oil are exported only in the years when the circumstances of production and demand happen to be favorable. Vallonea, cotton, wool, pitch and turpentine, are also exported, but in small quantities. The Russian consul has been obliged by his superiors to exchange the agreeable residence of Athens for this miserable place, not on account
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§ 2.254 of the commerce, which is very small, but because it is the residence of the governor of this part of Greece, and therefore better adapted to the protection of the numerous Greek ships now sailing under the Russian flag, or of those of the Septinsular Republic. As the best security against insult, the consul has found it necessary to take into his service, as janissary, a certain Hassan, who is surnamed Karabeber, or Black Pepper, from his swarthy complexion, and the fame which he acquired here in his youth, by killing many of his fellow-citizens in those quarrels for which the Turks of Egripo are notorious. Hassan has acquired so much influence, that last year he quelled a mutiny of the people. Both the Island of Euboea and its chief town are called Egripos, a manifest corruption of Ευριπος, and which the Turks pronounce Gribos, or Aegribos. The greater part of the best lands of the island are owned by about thirty Turkish families, residing principally in the Kastro of Egripo, which contains about 1000 others of the lower orders. These, with 200 families in Karysto, Rovies, Oreus, Kastrevala and a few smaller places, compose the whole Turkish population of the island. The Christians are about five times as numerous, but in the town of Egripo do not form above a third of the inhabitants. Many of the houses in the outer town are ruined and uninhabited, particularly on the southern side: this is in great measure the effect of the plague which lately raged here. The town is supplied with water from wells, the best of which was choked up on the 4th of last September, old style, by the earth brought down by a fall of rain,
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§ 2.255 which lasted forty-eight hours. The famous Arethusa, which was disturbed in former ages by the effect of earthquakes, has now totally disappeared. The only remains of ancient Chalcis I can find are some fragments of white marble in the walls of the mosques and houses, and the bust of a statue in the wall of a house in the fortress. But it is difficult to explore among these intolerant barbarians. The lion of St. Mark remains over the gate of the Kastro; many of the better houses are of Venetian construction, and there is a church with a high pointed roof, square tower, and Gothic windows, which was probably built by the same people, as they were in almost constant possession of this place for the three centuries preceding its capture by Mahomet II. in 1470. The most remarkable Turkish monument is an enormous piece of ordnance, like those of the Dardanelles, which defends the approach to the southern side of the Kastro. This fortress is a construction of different ages; square towers erected before the invention of gunpowder are mixed with Venetian bastions of antique construction, or with Turkish white-washed walls and battlements. There is a dry ditch, intended to be flooded at pleasure, but which is now filled with rubbish.
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§ 2.256 The glacis of the Castle is occupied by the Turkish burying-ground, beyond which is the Christian town surrounded by walls, in a wretched state of dilapidation, encircling the promontory of the Kastro in a semi-lunar form from bay to bay; beyond these the Turks have lately thrown up a pallisaded rampart of earth across the isthmus. The bay on the northern side of Egripo is called St. Minas, that on the southern side Vurko, or Vulko, a name having reference to its shallow and muddy nature. This bay communicates by a narrow opening with a long winding strait which extends about four miles to a second narrow opening, where stands a tower upon a low point of the Euboean coast, in the plain of Vasiliko. No vessels except boats can approach Egripo on the southern side, nearer than the tower. On the north they have no difficulty in approaching, as there is a depth of four orghies, or more than 20 feet, near the walls; nor is there said to be any such danger in the anchorage as Livy would lead one to suppose, though it cannot be doubted that the entire strait between the island and the main, is subject to violent squalls from the mountains. The Euripus, which strictly speaking is no more than the narrowest part of the strait between the foot of Mount Karababa
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§ 2.257 and the western walls of the kastro is divided as to its breadth into two unequal parts by a small square castle, founded on a rock, and having a solid round tower at the north-western angle. A stone bridge, 60 or 70 feet in length, connects the Boeotian shore with this castle, the entrance into which is by a drawbridge near the north-eastern angle. Another wooden bridge about 35 feet long, which may be raised at both ends for the purpose of admitting the passage of vessels, communicates from the small castle to the gate of the kastro, which is in a tower projecting from the walls. The inner channel is said always to afford a depth of eight or nine feet: under the stone bridge the water is much more shallow. Egripo having become more barbarous since Spon and Wheler travelled, it may be long before any person has such an opportunity of observing the flux and reflux of the strait as the Jesuit Babin, whose remarks have been published by Coronelli, Spon, and Wheler. He agrees with Livy, so far as to show the error of the common opinion entertained by the ancients, that the change of current occurred seven times a day, but he does not confirm the ancient historian as to its total irregularity, and its entire dependence on the winds; which, however, can hardly fail to affect the reciprocation in some degree, by means of the local and temporary currents which they cause in every part of the Aegaean. Babin seems to have ascertained that the tide was sometimes regular as in the ocean, and at other times irregular; and that both the regular and irregular tides followed the phases of the moon,
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§ 2.258 though not to such a degree that the tides could be predicted to within a day or two before or after the changes; the regular days were generally 19 in the month, the irregular 11, and the former were in the first and third quarters, the latter in the second and fourth. The Jesuit’s facts seem to have been chiefly derived from the millers of the Euripus, but unfortunately the mills which are below the arches of the stone bridge are no longer worked. It is believed by the people of Egripo, that the small castle on the rock in the Euripus did not exist in the time of the Venetians, but was built by the Turks soon after the conquest. Coronelli, however, whose work was published in 1686, the year before Athens was taken, and Negropont invested by the Venetians, states that the entrance from Boeotia first crossed a bridge of stone of five arches, about 30 paces long, that it then passed at the foot of a tower of Venetian structure, over the door of which the lion of St. Mark still remained (though the Turks had then possessed the place 200 years), and entered the town over a wooden drawbridge. These remarks seem sufficiently to explain that the round tower is Venetian, and the remaining part of the work Turkish, of which indeed there is every appearance. The communication from the bridge of stone to that over the inner channel now passes, as I have already stated, through the north-eastern angle of the castle, the round tower remaining to the right, which agrees with Coronelli.
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§ 2.259 The earliest construction of a bridge over the Euripus known from history occurred in the 21st year of the Peloponnesian war, when the Euboeans revolted from the Athenians, and endeavoured to obstruct the Euripus. On this occasion they readily obtained assistance from the Boeotians, whose general interest it was that “ Euboea should be an island for others, but a part of the continent to them.” A great number of hands were employed in narrowing the strait, so as not to leave a passage for a single ship, but only the necessary opening for the current between two towers which were built at the extremity of the διάχωσις, or mole which was thrown up from either shore. As the Athenians tried in vain to interrupt the work, and both Boeotians and Euboeans are stated to have joined earnestly in forwarding it, a part of its effects may possibly remain to the present day. The Boeotian mole probably extended across the shallow channel, and included the rock upon which the small castle stands. During the expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia, the Chalcidenses not only fortified the bridge with towers, a wall, and gates, but, inclosing a place on the Boeotian side, called Canethus, within the circuit of their city, thus obtained a fortified bridge head. Canethus, therefore, was probably the hill of Karababa.

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