Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/434

 418 NEMOEENSIS LACUS. NEJIOREXSIS LACUS. [Ariclv.] NEiMOSSUS. [Augustonemetum.] NEMUS DIANAE. [Aiucia.] NENTIDAVA. [Dacia, Yd. I. p. 774, b.] NEOCAESAREIA(Neo/cai<Tap6ia: Eth. NeoKai- capevs). 1. A town in Pontus Polemoniacus, which, on account of its late origin, is not mentioned by any writer before the time of Pliny, was situated on the eastern bank of the river Lycus, 63 miles to the east of Amajia. (Plin. vi. 3 ; Tab. Peuting.) It was the capital of the district, and celebrated for its size and beauty, and is of historical importance on account of the ecclesiastical council held there in A. D. 314. We possess no information about the date of its foundation ; but the earUest coins we have of it bear the image of the emperor Tiberius ; whence it is probable that Neocaesareia was founded, or at least received that name, in the reign of Tiberius, when Strabo, who does not notice it, had already composed his work. It must have rapidly risen in extent and prosperity, as in the time of Gregorius Thaumaturgus, who was a native of the place, it was the most considerable town in Pontus. (Greg. Neocaes. Vit. p. 577 ; Amm. Marc, xxvii. 12 ; Hierocl. p. 702 ; Basil, Epist. 210; Acta Eutych. c. 7 ; comp. Steph. B. s. v. ; Solin. 45 ; Ptol. v. 6. § 10.) According to Paulus Diaconus {Ilist. Misc. ii. 18), the town was once destroyed by an earth- quake ; and from Stephanus Byz. it seems that at one time it was called Adrianopolis. The town still exists under a corrupt form of its ancient name, Nicsar or Nicsara, at a distance of two days' journey north of ToJcat. As to the supposed identity of Cabira and Neocaesareia, see Cabira. 2. A town of Bithynia, of uncertain site. (Steph. B. s. j;. ; Hierocl. p. 693 ; Concil. Const, vol. iii. p. 668.) [L. S.] NEOCLAUDIOPOLIS. [Andrapa.] NE0C05IUM. [CoMUM.] NEON (Nfcif : Eth. Necowos), an ancient town of Phocis, said to have been built after the Trojan war (Strab. ix. p. 439), was situated at the foot of !Mt. Tithorea, one of the peaks of Jit. Parnassus. Herodotus relates that, when the Persian army in- vaded Pliocis, many of the Phocians took refuge in Tithorea near Neon (viii. 32), and that the latter city was destroyed by the Persians (viii. 33). It was, however, afterwards rebuilt ; but was again de- stroyed, with the other Phocian towns, at the end of the Sacred War. (Pans. x. 3. § 2.) In its neighbourhood, Philomel us, the Phocian general, was defeated, and perished in the flight by throwing himself down from a lofty rock. (Paus. x. 2. § 4.) Neon now disappears from history, and in its place we read of a town Tithorea, which is described by Pausanias (x. 32. § 8, seq.). This writer regards Tithorea as situated on the same site as Neon ; and relates that Tithorea was the name anciently applied to the whole district, and that when the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages were collected in the city, the name of Tithorea was substituted for that of Neon. This, however, is not in accordance with the statement of Plutarch, according to whom Ti- thorea, in the time of the Mithridatic war, was a fortress surrounded by precipitous rocks, where the Phocians took refuge from Xerxes. He further states that it was not such a city as the one ex- isting in his day. (Plut. Siill. 15.) If the view of Plutarch is correct, that the fortress, the site of which was afterwards occupied by the city Ti- thorea, was the place where the Phocians took re- NEONTEICHOS. fuge from Xerxes, we may conclude that Tithorea and Neon were two different places. Tlie city, which existed in the time of Plntarch and Pausanias, was a place of some importance, though it had begun to decline for a generation be- fore the time of Pausanias. The latter writer men- tions, however, a theatre, the enclosure of an ancient agora, a temple of Athena, and the tomb of Antiope and Phocus. A river flowed by Tithorea, called Cachales (KaxoATjs), to which the inhabitants had to descend in order to obtain water. In the territory of Tithorea, but at the distance of 70 stadia from the city, was a temple of Asclepius, and also, at the distance of 40 stadia, a shrine of Isis. (Paus. x. 32. §§ 8 — 13.) The name is written TSopia in Hero- dotus and Pausanias, Ttdopala in Stephanus B., Tidopa in Plutarch, but Tiddppa in inscriptions. The Ethnic name in Pausanias is Ti6opffvs, in Ste- phanus TiOopaievs, but in inscriptions Tidopevs, The ruins of Tithorea are situated at Velitza. a village at the NE. foot of Mt. Parnassus. The site is fixed by an inscription found at Velitza, in which the name of Tithorea occurs. Two-thirds of the modern village stand within the ruined walls of the ancient city. A considerable portion of the walls, and many of the towers, still remain. The town was carefully fortified towards the W. and NW., and was sufficiently protected towards the NE. and E. by the precipitous banks of the Cachales, and to- wards the S. by the steep sides of JIt. Parnassus. The walls are almost 9 feet broad. The Cachales, which now bears the name of Kakoreuma, or the evil torrent, flows in a ravine below the village, and thus illustrates the statement of Pausanias, that the inhabitants descended to it in order to obtain water. Behind Velitza, ascending the Cachales, there is a cavern on the steep side of the rock, which, during the last war of independence, received a great number of fugitives. It is very spacious, is supplied with excellent water, and is quite impregnable. This is probably the place where the inhabitants of Neon and the surrounding places took refuge in the Per- sian invasion, as the Delphians did in the Coryciaii cave [see Vol. I. p. 768], more especially as tho height immediately above Velitza is not adapted for such a purpose. A difficult mule path leads at present through the ravine of the Cachales across the heights of Parnassus to Delphi. In the time of Pausanias there were two roads from Tithorea across tlie mountain to Delphi, one direct, the other longer, but practicable for carriages. Pausanias assigns 80 stadia as the length of the shorter road ; but this number cannot be correct, as Leake observes, since the du-ect distance is hardly less than 12 geogra- phical miles. Jlost modern writers have followed Pausanias in identifying Tithorea and Neon ; but Ulrichs, for the reasons which have been already stated, supposes them to have been difl'erent cities, and places Neon at the Hellenic ruins on the Cephissus, called Paled Fiva, distant I5 hour, or 3§ English miles, from Ve- litza. (Leake, Northern Gi-eece, vol. ii. p. 77, seq.; Ulrichs, in Hheinisches Museum, 1843, p. 544, seq.) NEONTEICHOS (^iov relxos), an Aeolian town not far from the coast of Slysia, situated between the Hermus and the town of Larissa, from which its distance was only 30 stadia. It is said to have been founded by the Aeolians,as a temporary fort on their first arrival in Asia. According to Strabo (xiii. p. 621), the place was more ancient even than Cyme; but according to a statement iii the Vita