Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1148

 1124 TEMISDIA. V. 15, 16.) Its name is afterwards found in all the geographers, as well as in the Tabula, so that it must have subsisted as a town throughout the Ro- man Empire. (Strab. I.e.; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol. in. 1. § 9; Tab. Peut.) Pausanias expressly tells us it was still inhabited in his day; and Pliny also notices it for the excellence of its wine. (Pans. vi. 6. § 10; Plin. siv. 6. s. 8.) The period of its de- struction is unknown ; but after the fall of the Pi/Mian Empire the name wholly disappears, and its exact site lias never been determined. The best clue is that afforded by the Tabula (which accords ■well with the statements of Pliny and Strabo), that it was situated 10 miles S. of Clampetia. If this last town be correctly placed at Amantea [Clampetia], the site of Tempsa must be looked for on tlie coast near the Torre del Piano del Casale, about 2 miles S. of the river Sanito, and 3 from Niicera. Unfortunately none of the towns along this line of coast can be fixed with anything like certainty. (Ciuver. Ital. p. 1286; Eomanelli, vol. i. p. 3.5.) Near Temesa was a sacred grove, with a shrine or sanctuary of the hero Polites, one of the com- panions of Ulysses, who was said to have been slain on tiie spot, and his spectre continued to trouble the inhabitants, until at length Euthymus, the celebiated Locrian athlete, ventured to wrestle with the spirit, and having vanquished it, freed the city from all further molestation. (Strab. vi. p. 25.5; Pans. vi. 6. §§ 7 — 11; Suid. V. tmeuixos.) [E. H. B.] TEMI'SDIA (i/ TeixiaSia, Ptol. vi. 4. § 3), one of the distiicts into which ancient Persia was divided. It cannot now be determined exactly what its posi- tion was; but, as it adjoined the Mesabatae, it pro- b ibiy was part of a long narrow plain which extends through that province in a direction north-west and south-east. (Lassen, in Ersch und Gnihev's E7ici/cl. vol. xvii. p. 438.) [V.] TEMMICES. [BoEOTiA, p. 414.] TEMNUS (TtJiUi'oi' ypos), a mountain range of Jlysia, extending from Jlount Ida eastward into Phrygia, and dividing Jlysia into two halves, a northern and a southern one. It contained the sources of the Macestus, Mysius, Caicus, and Evenus. (Strab. xiii. p. 616:" Ptol. v. 2. § 13.) Hamilton {Researches, ii. p. 125) is inclined to be- lieve that Mons Temnus is the same as the Ak f>(igh, or, as it is commonly called in maps, Morad Daijh. [L. S.] TEMNUS {Ir^iivos: Eth. T7)^fiT7)s), a town of Aeolis in Asia Minor, not far from the river Hermus, situated on a height, from which a commanding view was obtained over the territories of Cyme, Phocaea, and Smyrna. (Strab. xiii. p. 621.) From a passage in Pausanias (v. 13. § 4), it might be inferred that the town was situated on the northern bank of the Ilermus. But this is irreconcilable with the state- ment that Temnus was 30 miles south of Cyme, and with the remarks of all other writers alluding to the place. Pliny (v. 29) also seems to be mistaken in placing Tenmus at the mouth of the Hermus, for although the deposits of the river have formed an extensive alluvial tract of land, it is evident that the sea never extended as far as the site of Temnus. The town had already much decayed in the time of Stra- bo, though it never appears to have been very large. (Xenoph. Hell. iv. 8. § 5; Herod, i. 149; Polyb. V. 77, XX. 25; Cic. ;}ro Flacc. 18.) In the reign of Tiberius it was much injured by an earthquake (Tac. Ann. ii. 47), and in the time of Pliny it had ceased TEMPE. to be inhabited altogether. Its site is commonly identified with the modern Menimen, though Texier, in his Description de I'Asie Mineure, looks for it at the site of the village of Gvzal-Hissar. [L. S.] COIN OF TEMNUS. TEMPE (to Tf>Trr), contr. of TeyUTrea), a cele- brated valley in the NE. of Thessaly, is a gorge between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, through which the wafers of the Peneius force their way into the sea. The beauties of Teinpe were a favourite sub- ject with the ancient poets, and have been described at great length in a well-known passage of Aelian, and more briefly by Pliny : but none of these writers appear to have drawn their pictures from actual observation; and the scenery is distinguished rather by savage grandeur than by the svlvan beauty which Aelian and others attribute to it. (Catull. Ixiv. 285; Ov. Met. i. 568; Virg. Georg. ii. 469; Aelian, V. H. iii. 1 ; Plin. iv. 8. s. 15.) The account of Livy, who copies from Polybius, an eye-witness, is more in accordance with reality. This writer says, " Tenipe is a defile, difficult of access, even though not guarded by an enemy; for besides the narrow- ness of the pass for 5 miles, where there is scarcely room for a beast of burden, the rocks on both sides are so perpendicular as to cause giddiness both in the mind and eyes of those who look down from the precipice. Tlieir terror is also increased by the depth and roar of the Peneus rushing through the midst of the valley." (Liv. xliv. 6.) He adds that this pass, so inaccessible by nature, was defended by four fortresses, one at the western entrance at Gonnus, a second at Condylon, a third at Charax, and a fourth in the road itself, in the middle and narrowest part of the valley, which could be easily defended by ten men. The pass is now called Lyhistomo, or the Wolfs Mouth. Col. Leake gives about four miles and a half as the distance of the road through the valley. In this space the width of the gorge is in some parts less than 100 yards, comprehending in ftict no more th.an the breadth of the road in addition to that of the river. The modern road follows in the track of the ancient military road made by the Romans, which ran along the right bank of the river. Leake re- marks that even Livy in his description of Tempe seems to have added embellishments to the authority from which he borrowed; for, instead of the Peneius flowing rapidly and with a loud noise, nothing can be more tranquil and steady than its ordinary course. The remains of the fourth castle mentioned by Livy are noticed by Leake as standing on one side of an immense fi.ssure in the precipices of Ossa, whicii ati'oid an extremely rocky, though not impracticable descent from the heights into the vale; while between the castle and the river space only was left for the road. About half a mile beyond this fort there still remains an inscription engraved upon the rock, on the right-hand side of the road, -where it ascends the hill: "' L. Cassius Loiiginus Pro Cos. Tenipe munivit." It is probable from the position of this inscription that it relates to the making of the road, though some refer it to defensive works erected