Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1185

 THEKAMBOS. Thera was the name of the city, supposing that Ti6is here signifies only the political community of the Theraeans. On the other hand, it was so usual for the islands of the Aegaean to possess a capital of the same name, that, taken in connection with the inscription last mentioned, it is probable, either that Ptolemy has accidentally omitted the name of the capital, or that in his time the Theraeans had re- moved from the lofty site at Messa-Vouno toOea upon the sea-coast at Kamari, where submarine ruins still exist. Upon the other or S. side of the Cape Messa- Vouno, at Perissa, there are also so many ancient re- mains as to lead us to suppose that this was the site of an ancient city, but no inscription has been discovered to give a clue to its name. Upon either side of the mountain of Messa- Vvimo there are numerous tombs. South of Perissa is C. Jixomiti, and a little to the N. of this cape there are the remains of an ancient city, which is probably the Eleusis of Pto- lemy. Here are the ruins of a mole under water, and upon the side of the mountain many curious tombs. There are likewise some ruins and tombs lioss conjectures may be the site of Melaenae. The i.■^land of Therasia possessed a town of the same name (Ptol. iii. 15. § 28), the ruins of which were discovered by Ross opposite Epanomeria in Thera. (Besides the earlier writers, such as Tournefort and (ithers, the reader is particularly referred to Eoss, lieisen aiifden Griechischen Inseln, vol. i. pp. 53, teq., 86, seq., 180, seq.; and Lieut. Leycester, Some Account of the Volcanic Group of Santorin or Thera, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xx. p. 1, seq.) THERAJIBOS or THRAMBUS (&epdfi§ws, Herod, vii. 123; ©pd^uSoj, Steph. B. s. v.; QpafxSrii's, Scylax, p. 26; BpafcSovaia Seipds, Lycophr. 1404), a town of the peninsula Pallene, in Chalcidice in Macedonia, is called a promontory by Stephanus B., and is hence sujiposed by Leake (^Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 156) to have occupied a position very near the promontory Canastraeum, the most southerly point of Pallene ; but from the order of the names in Seylax we would rather place it at the promontory upon the western side of the peninsula, called Posi- dium by Thucydides (iv. 129). THERAXDA, a town of Moesia, now Trenonitza (Geogr. Rav. iv. 15; Tab. Peut.). [T. H. D.] THERAPNAE (QipdwaL -. Eth. Qipairvaios), a place in the territory of Thebes, between this city and the Asopus. (Eurip. Bacch. 1029 ; Strab. ix. p. 409 ; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 369.) THERAPXE. [Si'AUTA, p. 1029, b.] THERA'SIA. [TnEUA.] THEUIO'DES SINUS (©TjpicoSvjs icSAwos, Ptol. vii. 3. § 2), a gulf on the coast of the Sinae, be- tween the promontories Nutium (Notion), and Satyron (Sarupaic). Perhaps the gulf of Tonkin, or that between the Cape St. James and the river of Campodja. [T. H. D.] THERMA. [Thessai.onica.] THERMAE (Qep/xoi) was the name of two cities in Sicily, both of which derived their name from their position in the neighbourhood of hot springs. 1. The no7-thern Thermae, sometimes called for distinction's sake Thermae Himekenses (now Termini), was situated on the N. coast of the island, in the immediate neighbourhood of the more ancient city of Himera, to the place of which it nmy be con- sidered as succeeding. Hence its history is given in tk; .article Huiejs.v. THERMOPYLAE. II6I 2. The southern Thermae, or Theumae Seli- NUNTIAE {Sciacca), was situated on the SW. coa.st of the island, and, as its name imports, within the territory of Selinus, though at a distance of 20 miles from that city in the direction of Agrigentum. There can be no doubt that it occupied the same site as the modem town of Sciacca, about midway between the site of Selinus and the mouth of the river Halv- cus (Platani), where there still exist sulphureous waters, which are in constant use. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 217 ; Cluver, Sicil. p. 223.) We have no account of the existence of a town on the site during the period of the independence of Selinus, though there is little doubt that the thermal waters would always have attracted some population to the spot. Nor even under the Romans did the place attain to any- thing like the same importance with the northern Thermae; and there is httle doubt that Pliny is mistaken iu assigning the rank of a colonia to the southern instead of the northern town of the name. [Hi.MEKA.] Strabo mentions the waters (ja vdara TO SeAii/owTia, Strab. vi. p. 275); and they are again noticed in the Itineraries under the name of Aquae Labodes or Labrodes (^Itin. Ant. p. 89 ; Tab. Peut.) [E. H. B.] THERJIAICUS SINUS. [Thessai.oxica.] THERMO'DON (Qepfj.iiSwi' -. Thermeh), -d river o( Puntus, celebrated in the story about the Amazons, is described by Pliny (vi. 3) as having its sources in the Amazonian mountains, which are not men- tioned by any other ancient writer, but are believed still to retain tlieir ancient name in the form of Mason Dagh. (Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 283.) Strabo (xii. p. 547) places its many sources near Phanaroea, and says that many streams combine to form the Thermodon. Its course is not very lorjg, but its breadth was nevertheless three plethra, aiid it was a navigable river (Xen. Anab. v. 6. § 9, vi. 2. § 1; Arrian, Peripl. P.E. p. 16.) It discharged itself into the Euxine near the town of Themiscyra, at a distance of 400 stadia to the north-east of the mouth of the Iris. This river is very often noticed by ancient writers. See Aeschyl. Prom. 274, Suppl. 290; Herod, ix. 27; Scylax, p. 33; Strab. i. p. 52, vii. p. 298 ; Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 10 ; Ptol. v. 6. § 4; Pomp. Mela, i. 19; Plin. si. 19, xxxvii. 37; Virg. Aen. xi. 659 ; Ov. ex Pont. iv. 19. 51 ; Pro- pert, iv. 4. 71, and many other passages. [L. S.] THERMO'PYLAE '(©^pfxonvhai), or sini].ly PYLAE (riuAai), that is, the Hot Gates or the Gates, a celebrated narrow pass, leading from Thessaly into Locris, and the only road by which an enemy can penetrate from northmn into southern Greece. It lay between Mcuiit Oeta and an in- accessible morass, forming the edge of the Maliac gulf. Inconsequence of the change in the course of the rivers, and in the configuration of the coast, this pass is now very diflerent from its condition in ancient times ; and it is therefore necessary first to give the statement of Herodotus and other ancient writers respecting the locality, and then to canijjare it with its present state. In the time of Herodotus the river Spercheius flowed into the sen in an easterly direction at the town of Aiiticyra, considerably VV. of the pass. Twenty stadia E. of the Spercheius was another river, culled Dyras, and again, 20 stadia further, a third river, named Jlehis, 5 stadia from which was the city Trachis. Between the mountains where Trachis stands and the sea the plain is widest. Still further E. wns the Asopus, issuing from a rocky gorge (5io(j(p(i{),
 * it C. Kolumbo, in the NE. of the island, which