Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1191

 THESSALIA. netes {ap. A then. vi. p. 265), tins can only lie tnie of a part of these tribes, as we know that the Penestae were entirely distinct from the subject Perrhaebians, Masjnetes, and Achaeans. (Aristot. rolit. ii. 6. § 3.) The Penestae, like the Laconian Helots, frequently rose in revolt against their masters. In the Homeric poems the names of Perrhaebi, Magnetes, Achaeans, and Dolopes occur; and Achaea Phthiotis was the residence of the great hero Achilles. This district was the seat of Hellen, the founder of the Hellenic race, and contained the original Hellas, from which the Hellenes gradually spread over the rest of Greece. (Hom. II. ii. 68.3; Thuc. i. 3; Strab. ix. p. 431; Dicaearch. p. 21, ed. Hud.son; Steph. B. s. V. 'EAAaj). The Achaeans of Phthi- otis may fairly be regarded as the same race as the Achaeans of Peloponnesus. Thessaly Proper was divided at an early period into four districts or tetrarchies, named Thessaliotis, Pela.sgiotis, Histiaeotis and Phthiotis. When this division was introduced is unknown. It was older than Hecataeus (Steph. B. s. v. Kpavvav'), and was ascribed to Aleuas, the founder of the family of the Aleuadae. (Hellenic. Fragm. 28, ed. Didot; Har- pocrat. s. V. Terpapx'ia: Strab. ix. p. 430.) This quadruple division continued to the latest times, and Beems to have been instituted for political purposes; but respecting the internal government of each we have no precise information. The four districts were nominally united under a chief magistrate, called Tagus; but he seems to have been only ap- pointed in war, and his commands were frequently disobeyed by the Thessalian cities. " When Thes.saly is under a Tagus," said Jason, despot of Pherae, " she can send into the field an army of 6000 cavalry and 10,000 hoplites." (Xen. Hell. vi. 1. § 8.) But Thessaly was rarely united. The ditFerent cities, upon which the smaller towns were dependent, not only administered their own affairs independent of one another, but the three most important, Larissa, Pharsalus and Pherae, were frequently at feud with one another, and at the same time torn with intestine faction. Hence they were able to offer little resistance to invaders, and never occupied that position in Grecian history to which their population and wealth would seem to have entitled them. (Respecting the Thessalians in general, see Jlr. Grote's excellent remarks, Hist. of' Greece, vol. ii. p. 363, ^eq.) The history of Thessaly may be briefly dismissed, as the most important events are related under the tieparate cities. Before the Persian invasion, the Thessalians had extended their power as far as Thermopylae, and threatened to overrun Phocis and the country of the Locrians. The Phocians built a wall across the pass of Thermopylae to keep off the Thessalians ; and though active hostilities seem to have ceased before the Persian invasion, as the wall wa.s at that time in ruins, the two nations continued to cherish bitter animosity towards one another. (Herod, vii. 176.) When Xerxes invaded Greece, the Thessalians were at first opposed to the Persians. It is true that the powerful family of the Akuadae, whom Herodotus calls (vii. 6) kings of Thessaly, had urged Xerxes to invade Greece, and had promised the early submission of their countrymen; but it is evident that their party was in the minority, and it is probable that they were themselves in exile, like the Athenian Peisistratidae. The majority of the Thessalians sent envoys to the confederate Greeks at the Isthmus, urging them to THESSALIA. 1167 send a force to the pass of Tempe, and promising them active co-operation in the defence. Their re- quest was complied with, and a body of 10,000 iieavy-armed infantry was despatched to Thessaly ; but the Grecian commanders, upon arriving at Tempe, found that there was another pass across Mount Olympus, and believing it impo.ssible to make any eftectual resistance north of Thermopylae, retreated to their ships and abandoned Thessaly. (Herod, vii. 172, seq.) The Thessalians, thus de- serted, hastened to make their submission to Xerxes; and under the influence of the Aleuadae, who now regained the ascendency in Thessaly, they rendered zealous and effectual assistance to the Persians. After the death of Leonidas and his heroic com- panions at Thermopylae, the Thessalians gratified their enmity against the Phocians by directing the march of the Persians against the Phocian towns and laying their country waste with fire and sword. From the Persian to the Peloponne.--ian wars the Thessalians are rarely mentioned. After the battle of Oenophyta (b. c. 456) had given the Athenians the ascendency in Boeotia, Locris, and Phocis, they endeavoured to extend their power over Thessaly. With this view they marched into Thessaly under the command of Myronides in b. c. 454, for the purpose of restoring Orestes, one of the exiled no- bles or princes of Pharsalus, whom Thucydidcs calls son of the king of the Thessalians. The progress of Myronides was checked by the powerful Thes- salian cavalry ; and though he advanced as far as Pharsalus, he was unable to accomplish any- thing against the city, and was compelled to re- treat. (Thuc. i. Ill; Diodor. xi. 85.) In the Peloponne.sian War the Thessalians took no part ; but the mass of the population was friendly to the Athenians, though the oligarchical governments favoured the Spartans. With the assistance of the latter, combined with his own rapidity and address, Brasidas contrived to march through Thessaly in B. c. 424, on his way to attack the Athenian de- pendencies in Macedonia (Thuc. iv. 78); but when the Lacedaemonians wished to send rein- forcements to Brasidas in the following year, the Thessalians positively refused them a passage through their country. (Thuc. iv. 132.) In b. c. 395 the Thessalians joined the Boeotians and their allies in the league against Sparta ; and wlien Agesilaus marched through their country in the following year, having been recalled by the Sjiartan government from Asia, they endeavoured to intercept him on his return; but their cavalry was defeated by the skilful manoeuvres of Agesilaus. (Xeu. Bell. vi. 3. § 3, seq.) About this time or a little earlier an important change took place in the political condition and re- lative importance of the Thes-salian cities. Almost down to the end of the Pelojionnesian War the powerful families of the Aleuadae at Larissa, of the Scopadae at Crannon, and of the Crcondae at Pharsalus, possessed tiic chief power in Tiicssaly. But shortly before the close of this war Pherae rose into importance under the administration of Lyco- phron, and aspired to the supremacy of Tiiessaly. Lycophion overthrew the government of the nobles at Pherae, and made himself tyrant of the city, lii prosecution of liis ambitious schemes lie attacked Larissa; and in B.C. 404 he gained a great victory over the l.arissaeans and the other Thessalians who were opposed to him. (Xen. Hell. ii. 3. § 4.) In B. c. 395 Lycouhron was still engaged in a con-