Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1202

 1178 THRACIA. the Propoiitis, of ■which we may mention Aegospo- tami, renowned, notwithstanding its insignificant size, the Arzus, and the Erginus. The rivers which fall into the Euxine are all small, and few of them are distinguished by name in the geographers, though doubtless not so unhonoured by the dwellers upon their banks : among them Pliny (iv. 18) mentions the Pira and the Orosines. The Hebrus drains at least one-half, probably nearer two -thirds, of the en- tire surface of Thrace ; and on its banks, or on those of its tributaries, most of the level portions of the country are situated, as well as nearly all the inland towns. Its principal affluents are the Arda (in some maps called the Harpessus), and the Suemus on the W., the Tonzus, Artiscus. and Agrianes on the E. The Thracian coast of the Aegean is extremely irregular in its outline, being broken up by bays which enter far into the land, yet appear to be of comparatively little depth. Jlost of them, indeed, are at the mouths of rivers, and have probably been filled up by alluvial deposits. It was perhaps for tills reason that several of them were called lakes, as if they had been regarded as belonging to the land rather than to the sea; e. g. Lake Cercinitis, already mentioned, which seems, indeed, to have been little more than a marsh, and in Kiepert's map its site is so represented; Lake Bistonis, east of Abdera; and Stentoris Lacus, at the mouth of the Hebrus. The gulf of llelas, formed by the northern shore of the Chersonesus and the opposite coast of what may he called the mainland, is an exception to this de- scription of the Thracian bays. The coasts on the Propontis and the Euxine are comparatively un- broken, the only gulf of any extent being Portus Hellodos, near Anchialus, which is known in mo- dern times, by the name of tiie bay of Bourghaz, as one of the best harbours in the Euxine, the Thra- cian shore of which was regarded by the ancients as extremely dangerous. [Saljiydessus.] The principal promontories were, Ismarum, Ser- rheum, Sarpedonium, and Mastusium, on the southern coast ; Thynias and Haemi Extrema, on the eastern. For an account of one of the most remarkable parts of Thrace, see Chersonksus, Vol. I. p. 608. Off the southern coast are situated the islands of Thasos, Samothrace, and Inibros ; the first is sepa- rated from the mainland by a channel about 5 miles wide; the other two are considerably more distant from the shore. The climate of Thrace is always spoken of by the ancients as being extremely cold and rigorous: thus Athenaeus (viii. p. 351) describes the year at Aenus as consisting of eight months of cold and four months of winter; but such statements are not to be taken literally, since many of them are mere poetical exaggerations, and are applied to Thrace as the representative of the north in general. The Haemus was regarded as the abode of the north wind, and the countries beyond it were believed to enjoy a beauti- fully mild climate. (See Niebuhr, Ethnog. and Geog. i. p. 16, Eng. trans.; Soph. >lni«^. 985; Eurip. Hhes. 440 ; Theophr. de Caus. v. 17 ; Virg. Geoi-g. iii. .350 seq.; Ov. Pont. iv. 10. 41, ib. 7. 8; Trist. iii. 10; &c.). Even after making full allowance for the undoubted effect of vast forests, undrained marshes, and very partial cultivation, in lowering the average temperature of a country, it is dilflcult to believe that a land, the northern boundary of which (i. e. of Thrace Proper) is in the same parallel of latitude as Tuscany and the Pyrenees, and the highest moun- tains of which are less than 9000 feet above the THRACIA. level of the sea, can have had a very severe climate. That the winter was often extremely cold, there can be no doubt. The Hebrus was sometimes frozen over: not to dwell upon the " Hebrus nivali coinfiede vinctus " of Horace (Ep. i. 3. 3; cf. Virg. Aen. xii. 331, and the epigram, attributed by some to Cae- sar, beginning, " Thras puer adstricto glacie dum ludit in Hebro "), Florus (iii. 4) relates that, in the campaign of Minucius in southern Thrace, a number of horsemen in his army were drowned while trying to cross that river on the ice. Xenophon states that the winter which he passed in Thrace, in the mountainous district of the Thyni, was so cold that even wine was frozen in the vessels, and that many Greek soldiers had their noses and ears frostbitten ; the snow also lay deep upon the ground. And that this was not an exceptional season may be inferred from Xenophon's remarks on the dress of the Thra- cians, which seemed to him to have been devised with special reference to the climate, and to prevent such mishaps as those which befel the Greeks (^Anab. vii. 4. §§ 3, 4). Tacitus {Ann. iv. 51) assigns the early and severe winter of Mount Haemus among the causes which prevented Poppaeus Sabinus (a. d. 26) from following up his first success over the re- bellious Thracians.* Pliny (xvii. 3) says that the vines about Aenus were olten injured by frosts, after the Hebrus was brought nearer to that city; the al- lusion probably being to the formation of the western mouth of the river, nearly opposite to Aenus, the floating ice and the cold water brought down by which would have some effect in lowering the tem- perature of the neighbourhood. Mela (ii. 2, init.) describes Thrace generally as agreeable neither in climate nor in soil, being, except in the parts near the sea, barren, cold, and very ill adapted for agriculture and fruit-trees of all kinds, esceiat the vine, wliile the fruit even of that required to be protected from the cold by a covering of the leaves, in order to ripen. This last remark throws some doubt upon the accuracy of the writer; for the shad- ing of the grapes from the direct rays of the sun is obviou.sly more likely to prevent than to promote their arrival at maturity; and hence, as is well known, it is the practice in many parts of Europe to remove the leaves with a view to this object. However this may be, it is certain that Thrace did produce wine, some kinds of which were famous from very early times. Homer, who bestows upon Thrace the epithet ep(§iAa| (//. xx. 485), repre- sents Xestor reminding Agamemnon that the Grecian shipjs bring to him cargoes of wine from that coun- try every day (/6. ix. 76); and the poet celebrates the excellence of the produce of the Maroneian vine- yards. {Od. ix. 197, seq.) Pliny (xiv. 6) states that this wine still maintained its reputation, and describes it as black, perfumed, and growirig rich with age; a description which agrees with Homer's (I. c). Paul Lucas says that he found the Thra- cian wine excellent. (Eo?/. dans la Turqide, i. p. 25 ; see also, Athen. i. p. 31.) Thrace was fertile in corn (Plin. xvii. 3), and its wheat is placed by Pliny high in the scale of excellence as estimated by weight. It has, he says (xviii. 12), a stalk consisting of several coats (Junicae), was compelled to change his route in consequence of heavy and continuous snow-storms, in the month of November (pp. 213, 312). The wind also was extremely violent.
 * M. Viquesnel states, on two occasions, that lie