Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/419

 NAUPLIA. Third Messeiiian War, b. c. 455; and during tlie Peloponnesian War it was the head-quarters of the Athenians in all their operations in Western Greece. (Paus. iv. 24. § 7 ; Thuc. i. 103, ii. 83, seq.) After the battle of Aegospotami the Jlessenians were expelled from Naupactus, and the Locrians regained possession of the town. (Paus. s. 38. § 10.) It afterwards passed into the hands of the Achaeans, from whom, however, it was wrested by Epami- nondas. (Diod. xv. 75.) Philip gave it to the Aetolians (Strab. ix. p. 427 ; Dem. Phil. iii. p. 120), and hence it is frequently called a town of Aetolia. (Scylax, p. 14 ; Mela, ii. 3 ; Plin. iv. 2. s. 3.) The Aetolians vigorously defended Naupactus against the Romans for two months in B.C. 191. (Liv. ssxvi. 30, seq.; Polyb. v. 103.) Ptolemy (iii. 15. § 3) calls it a town of the Locri Ozolae, to whom it must therefore have been assigned by the Romans after Pliny's time. Pausanias saw at Naupactus a temple of Poseidon near the sea, a temple of Artemis, a cave sacred to Aphrodite, and the ruins of a temple of Asclepius (x. 38. §§ 12, 13). Naupactus is mentioned by Iliorocles (p. 643) ; but it was destroyed by an earth- quake in the reign of Justinian. (Procop. B. Goth. iv. 25.) The situation and present appearance of the town are thus described by Leake : — " The for- tress and town occupy the south-eastern and southern sides of a hill, which is one of the roots of Mount liiijtUii, and reaches down to the sea. The place is fortified in the manner which was common among the ancients in positions similar to that of E'pahto, — that is to say, it occupies a triangular slope with a citadel at the apex, and one or more cross walls on the slope, dividing it into subordinate enclo.sures. At E'jiakto there are no less than five enclosures between the summit and the sea, with gates of com- munication from the one to the other, and a side gate on the west leading out of the fortress from the second enclosure on the descent. It is not improbable that the modern walls follow exactly the ancient plan of the fortress, for in many parts they stand upon Hellenic foundations, and even retain large pieces of the ancient masonry amidst the modern work. The present town occupies only the lowest enclosure ; in the middle of which is the small harbour which made so great a figure in ancient history : it is now choked with rabbish, and is incapable of receiving even the larger sort of boats which navigate the gulf." (^Nortliern Greece, vol. ii. p. 608.) NAU'PLIA (NayTrAi'a), a rock above Delphi. [Dki.phi, p. 764, a.] NAU'PLIA {ji Nai/TTAi'a : Eth. l^avirXievs), the port of Argos, was situated upon a rocky peninsula, connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It was a very ancient place, and is said to have de- rived its name from Nauplius, the son of Poseidon and Aniymone, and the father of Palamedes, though it more probably owed its name, as Strabo has ob- served, to its harbour (Jaro rod rais vavrl irpo- ffTrXua-Bai, Strab. viii. p. 368 ; Paus. ii. 38- § 2.) Pausanias tells us that the Nauplians were Egypt- ian.s belonging to the colony which Danaus brought to Argos (iv. 35. § 2); and from the position of their city upon a promontory running out into the sea, which is quite different from the site oi the earlier Grecian cities, it is not improbable that it was originally a settlement made by strangers from the East. Nauplia was at first independent of Argos, and a member of the maritime confederacy which held its meetings in the island of Galaurria. (Strab. NAUPORTUS. 403 viii. p. 374.) About the time of the Second Mes- senian War, it was conquered by the Argives; and the Lacedaemonians gave to its expelled citizens the town of Methone in Messenia, where they continued to reside even after the restoration of the Messenian state by Epaminondas. (Paus. iv. 24. § 4, iv. 27. § 8, iv. 35. § 2.) Ai-gos now took the place of Nauplia in the Calaureian confederacy ; and from this time Nauplia appears in history only as the seaport of Argos (6 NauTrAioj Xifxrjv, Eurip. Orest. 767 ; Xijxives 'HavirKioi, Electr. 451). As such it is mentioned by Strabo (I. c), but in the time of Pau- sanias the place was deserted. Pausanias noticed the ruins of the walls of a temple of Poseidon, certain forts, and a fountain named Canathus, by washing in which Hera was said to have renewed her vir- ginity every year. (Paus. ii. 38. § 2.) In the middle ages Nauplia was called to Nav- ttAiov, rh ^AvdwAiov, or ra 'AvarAia, but has now- resumed its ancient name. It became a place of considerable importance in the middle ages, and has continued so down to the present day. In the time of the Crusades it first emerges from obscurity. In 1205 it was taken by the Franks, and became the capital of a small duchy, which commanded the plain of Argos. Towards the end of the 14th century it came into the hands of the Venetians, who regarded it as one of their most important places in the Le- vant, and who successfully defended it both against Mahomet II. and Soliman. They ceded it to the Turks in 1540, but wrested it from them again in 1686, when they constructed the strong fortifications on Mt. Palamidhi. This fortress, although reckoned impregnable, was stormed by the Turks in 1715, in whose hands it remained till the outbreak of the war of Grecian independence. It then became the seat of the Greek government, and continued such, till the king of Greece removed his residence to Athens in 1834. The modern town is described by a recent ob- server as having more the air of a real town than any place now existing in Greece under that title; having continuous lines of houses and streets, and offering, upon the whole, much the appearance of a second-rate Italian seaport. It is built on the peninsula; and some remains of the Hellenic fortifi- cations may be seen in the site of the walls of Fort Itslcali, which is the lower citadel of the town, and occupies the site of the ancient Acropolis. The upper citadel, called Palamidhi (Uaafj.riSiov), is situated upon a steep and lofty mountain, and is one of the strongest fortresses in Europe. Although its name is not mentioned by any ancient writer, there can be little doubt, from the connection of Palamedes with the ancient town, that this was the appellation of the hill in ancient times. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 356, Peloponnesiaca, p. 252 ; Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 187 ; Boblaye, Rechevches, (jf. p. 50; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 389.) NAUPORTUS (Jiamopros). 1. (Laijbach), a small but navigable river in the south-west of Pannonia, flowing by the town of N:iuportus, and emptying itself into the Savus a little .below Ae- niona. (Strab. iv. p. 207, comp vii. p. 314, where some read 'Navirovros; Plin. iii. 23.) 2. A town in the south-west of Pannonia, on the small river of the same name, was an ancient and once flourishing commercial town of the Taurisci, which carried on considerable commerce with Aqui- leia. (Strab. vii. p. 314; Tac. A7171. i. 10; Plin. iii. 22; Veil. I'aterc. ii. 110.) But after the un 2