Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/483

 OENIADAE. which they took; but after holding it for a year, they were attacked by the Acarnanians and com- pelled to abandon the town. (Pans. iv. 25.) Oeni- adae is represented at that time as an enemy of Athens, which is said to have been one of the rea- sons that induced the ]Messenians to attack the place. Twenty-three years before the Peloponnesian War (b. c. 454) Pericles laid siege to the town, but was unable to take it. (Thuc. i. Ill; Diod. xi. 85.) In the Peloponnesian War, Oeniadae still continued opposed to the Athenians, and was the only Acar- nanian town, with the exception of Astacus, which sided with the Lacedaemonians. In the third year of the war (429) Phormion made an expedition into Acarnania to secure the Athenian asceudancy ; but though he took Astacus, he did not continue to march against Oeniadae, because it was the winter, at which season the marshes secured the town from all attack. In the following year (428) his son Asopius sailed up the Achelous, and ravaged the territory of Oeniadae; but it was not till 424 that Demosthenes, assisted by all the other Acarnanians, compelled the town to join the Athenian alliance. (Thuc. ii. 102, iii. 7, iv. 77.) It continued to be a place of great importance during the Macedonian and Roman wars. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Aetolians, who had extended their do- minions on the W. bank of the Achelous, succeeded in obtaining possession of Oeniadae, and expelled its inhabitants in so cruel a manner that they were threatened with the vengeance of Alexander. (Diod. xviii. 8.) Oeniadae remained in the hands of the Aetolians till 219, when it was taken by Philip, king of B'lacedonia. This monarch, aware of the importance of the place, strongly fortified the citadel, and commenced uniting the harbour and the arsenal with the citadel by means of walls. (Polyb. iv. 65.) In 2 1 1 Oeniadae, together with the adjacent Nesus (NiVoj) or Nasus, was taken by the Romans, under M. Valerius Laevinus, and given to the Aetolians, who were then their allies; but in 189 it was restored to the Acarnanians by virtue of one of the conditions of the peace made between the Romans and Aetolians in that year. (Pol. ix. 39 ; Liv. xxvi. 24 ; Polyb. xxii. 15; Liv. xxxviii. 11.) From this period Oeniadae disappears from history; but it continued to exist in the time of Strabo (x. p. 459). The exact site of Oeniadae was long a matter of dispute. Dodwell and Gell supposed the ruins on the eastern side of the Achelous to represent Oeniadae; but these ruins are those of Pleuron. [Pleuron.] The true position of Oeniadae has now been fixed with certainty by Leake, and his account has been confirmed by JIure, who has since visited the spot. Its ruins are found at the modern Trikardlio, on the W. bank of the Achelous, and are surrounded by morasses on every side. To the N. these swamps deepen into a reedy marsh or lake, now called Lesini or Katokhi, and by the ancients Melite. In this lake is a small island, probably the same as the Nasos mentioned above. Thucydides is not quite correct in his statement (ii. 102) that the marshes around the city were caused by the Achelous alone ; he appears to take no notice of the lake of Melite, which afforded a much greater pro- tection to the city than the Achelous, and which has no connection with this river. The city occupied an extensive insulated hill, from the southern extremity of which there stretches out a long slope in the di- rection of the Achelous, connecting the hill with the plain. The entire circuit of the fortifications still OENOANDA. 467 exists, and cannot be much less than three miles. The walls, which are chiefly of polygonal construc- tion, are in an excellent state of preservation often to a height of from 10 to 12 feet. Towards the N. of the city was the port, communicating with the sea by a deep river or creek running up through the contiguous marsh to Petala on the coast. Leake discovered the ruins of a theatre, which stood near the middle of the city ; but the most in- teresting remains in the place are its arched pos- terns or sallyports, and a larger arched gateway leading from the port to the city. These arched gateways appear to be of great antiquity, and prove that the arch was known in Greece at a much earlier period than is usually supposed. Drawings of several of these gateways are given by Mure. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 556, seq. ; Mure, Journal of a Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 106, seq.; see also, respecting the arches at Oeniadae, Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 121.) Strabo (x. p. 450) speaks of a town calbd Old Oenia (J) ivaKaia. OiVai'o*), which was deserted in his time, and which he describes as midway be- tween Stratus and the sea. New Oenia (J) vvv Olvaia), which he places 70 stadia above the mouth of the Achelous, is the celebrated town of Oeniadae, spoken of above. The history of Old Oenia is un- known. Leake conjectures that it may possibly have been Erysiche {'Epvalxv), which Stephanus supposes to be the same as Oeniadae; but this is a mistake, as Strabo quotes the authority of the poet Apollodorus to prove that the Erysichaei wei-e a people in the interior of Acarnania. Leake places Old Oenia at Palea Mani, where he fciund some Hellenic remains. (Steph. B. s.v. OiVeictSai; Strab. X. p. 460; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 524, seq.) 2. A city of Thessaly, in the district Oetaea. (Strab. ix. p. 434; Steph. B. s. v.) COIN OF OENIADAE. OENIUS {Olvios), also called Oenoe (OWt?, Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 16), a small river of Pontus, emptying itself into the Euxine, 30 stadia east of the mouth of the Thoaris. (Anonym. Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 11.) [L. S.] OENOANDA {OlvoavZa), a town in the extreme west of Pisidia, belonging to the territory of Cibyra, with which and Balbura and Bubon it formed a tetrapolis, a political confederacy in which each town had one vote, while Cibyra had two. (Strab. xiii. p. 631 ; Steph. B. s. v.; Liv. xxxviii. 37 ; Plin. v. 28 ; comp. Cibyra.) The town is mentioned as late as the time of Hierocles, who, however (p. 685), calls it by the corrupt name of Knoanda. [L. S.] was the first to point out must be changed into Olvaia. Kramer, the latest editor of Strabo, has inserted Leake's correction in the text. II H 2
 * The MSS. of Strabo have h'lvaia, which Leake