Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1161

 THAmiACIA. besieged by Philip in n. c. 199; bnt a reinforcement of Aetolians liaving made their way into the town, the kini; was obliged to abandon the sieije. (Liv. xxxii. 4.) Thaumaci was taken by the consul Acihus in the war with Antioclius, is. c. 191. (Liv. xxxvi. 14 ; comp. Strab. ix. p. 434 ; Steph. B. s. v. ©aujua/cia.) Dhomoko occupies the site of Thau- mfxi, and at this place inscriptions are found con- taming the ancient name. Its situation and prospect are in exact accordance with the description of Livy, who copied from Polybi us, an eye-witness. Dodwell says that " the view from this place is the most wonderful and extensive he ever beheld," and Leake observes that " at the southern end of the town a rocky point, overtopping the other heights, commands a magnificent prospect of the immense plain watered by the Peneius aud its branches." (Dodwell, vol. ii. p. 122; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 458.) THAUMA'CIA (0at;^a/cia: Eth. SavfiaKievs), a town of Magnesia in Thessaly, one of the four cities whose ships in the Trojan War were commanded by Philoctetes. It was said to have been founded by Tiiaumacus, the son of Poeas. Leake supposes it to be represented by the paleokastro of Askiti, one of the villages on the JIagnesian coast. This Thau- macia must not be confounded with Thaumaci in Phthiotis mentioned above. (Horn. II. ii. 716; Strab. ix. p. 436; Steph. B. s. v.; Eustath. ad ITom. p. 329. 6; Plin. iv. 9. s. 16: Leake, Northern dreece, vol. iv. p. 416.) THEA'XGELA(06a77€Aa: F.th. QiayjiXw'), ' ^vn of Caria. which Alexander placed under the i^iliction of Halicarnassus, is known as the birth- j h e of Philip, the historian of Caria. (Plin. v. li'i: Athen. vi. p. 271 ; Steph. B. s. i) THEBAE (0f)gai, Herod, i. 182, ii. 42 ; Strab. xvii. pp. 80.5,815, foil.; Thebe, Plin. v. 9.s. 11), the No {Ezekiel, xxx. 14) or Xo-am.-mon (^Nahum, vv. 3,8) of the Hebrew Scriptures; atalater period Dios- poLi.s the Great of the Greeks and Romans (Ai<$(t- TToXts ixeyaAT). Ptol. iv. 5. § 73; Steph. B. s. v.), was one of the most ancient cities of Aegypt. and even, according to Diodorus (i. 50, comp. xv. 45), of the w(.rld. Its foundation, like that of Slemphis, was at- tributed to Jlenes, the first mortal king of Aegypt, i. e. it went back to the mythical period of Aegyptian history. By some writers, however, Memphis was reported to have been a colony of Thebes. It was the capital of the nome formed by the city itself aiiil its environs, though Ptoleiny (i. c.) describes it .1^ pertaining to the Nome of Coptos. In all Upper Aeirypt no spot is so adapted for the site of a great r.ipital as the plain occupieil by ancient Thebes. Till' mountain chains, the Libyan on the western, aiiil the Arabian on the eastern, side of the Nile, sweep boldly from the river, and leave on both banks a spacious area, wliose breadth, including the river, amounts to nearly 4 league-s, and the length from N. to S. is nearly as nnich. Towards the N. the plain is again closed in by the return of the hills to the Nile; but on the S., where the western chain con- tinues distant, it remains open. The ground, there- ioie, on which Thebes stood was large enough to contain a city of at least equal extent with ancient lenne or modern Paris; and, according to Strabo, ancient Thebes covered the entire plain. Only a ]"irtion of it, however, was available for population. An immense area was covered with the temples and their avenues of sphinxes; and on the western side, as far as the Libyan hills, lay the monuments of the liead. On the eastern bank, therefore, the population VOL. II. THEBAE AEGYPTI. 1137 was generally collected; and there it was probably densely crowded, since ancient writers assign to Thebes an almost incredible number of inhabitants, ami Diodorus (i. 45) describes the houses as consisting of many stones. The extent of the city is vcrv differently stated by ancient authors. Humours of its greatness had reached the Greeks of Homer's age, who (11. ix. 381) speaks of its "hundred gates" and its 20,000 war-chariots, just as the Arabian story-tellers speak of the glories of Bagdad or Da- mascus under the Caliphs. Before the Persian in- vasion (B.C. 525) no Greek writer had visited Thebes; and after that catastrophe its dimensions had considerably shriuik, since Cambyses is said to have burnt all such portions of Thebes as fire would destroy, i. e. all the private buildings; and under the Persian viceroys no Aegyptian city was likely to regain its original proportions. It does not appear that Herodotus ever visited Upper Egypt, and liis account of Thebes is extremely vague and meagre. Diodorus, on the contrary, who saw it after it.s capture by Ptolemy Lathyrns, about b. c. 87, be- held Thebes in the second period of its decay, and after Alexandreia hail divertai nmch of its commerce to Berenice and the Arsinoite bay. He estimates its circuit at 140 stadia or about 17 miles. Strabo, again, who went thither with the expedition of Aelius Gallus in v.. c. 24, belield Thebes at a still lower stage of decadence, and assigns it a compass of about 10 miles. Bnt at that time the continuity of its parts was broken up, and it was divided into certain large hamlets (^Kaifx7]!)ov') det.ached from one another. Neither of these writers, accordingly, was in a position to state accurately the real dimensions of tiie city in its flourishing estate, i. e. between 1600 and 800 B.C. Modern travellers, again, have still further reduced its extent; for example, Sir Gardner Wilkinson supposes the area of Thebes not to have exceeded 5^ English miles. As, however, during the space of 2600 years (800 B.C. — 1800 A.D.) there have been very material chanc;es in the soil from the contraction of the habitable ground, partly by the depositions of the Nile, and partly by the drifting of the sands, it is scarcely pos- sible for modern travellers to deternune how far Aegyptian labour and art may once have extended their capital. An author quoted by Steiiiianus of Byzantium, probably Hecataeus, runs into the oppo- site extreme, and ascribes to Thebes a pojjuhitiou (7,000,000) hardly possible for the entire Nile- valley, and an extent (400 stadia, or 50 miles) larger than the Theban plain itself. (Steph. B. s v. Aida-TToAis.) The name of Thebes is formed from the Tape of the ancient Aegyptian language, pro- nounced Tliaba in the Memphitic dialect of Coptic, and thence easily converted into &rj§ai, Thebe, or Thebes. In hieroglyphics it is written Av or apk, with the feminine article, t-apk, tiie meaning of which is said to be " head," Thebes being the " lieud" or capital of the Ujipr Kingdom. Its later appel- lation of Diospolis .Miigna (AirfffTroXis v ntydAr)) answers also to the Aegyptian title Aimmei or " abode of Amuii," — Amnion or/.cus,lhe raiii-lieaded god, being the principal object of worshii) at Thebes. The name Tape or Thebes ajiplied to the entire city on cither bank of the Nile; but the western quarter had the distinctive name of Pathyris, or, accoruing to Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 69), Talhyris, as being under the special protection of Atlior, who is sometimes called the President of the West. The necropolis, indeed, on the Libvan side was appropriately placed under 4 u