Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/528

 512 PAEONES. (naioi'i'a, Thuc. ii. 99; Polyb. v. 97, xxiv. 8; Strab. vii. pp. 313, 318, 329, 331; Ptol. iii. 13. § 28; Liv. xxxiii. 19, xxxviii. 17, xxxix. .54, xl. 3, xlv. 29; Plin. iv. 17, vi. 39) was curtailed of its dimensions, on every side, tljough the name still continued to be applied in a general sense to the great belt of interior country which covered Upper and Lower Macedonia to the N. and NE., and a portion of which was a monarchy nominally inde- pendent of Macedonia until fifty years after the death of Alexander the Great. The banks of the " wide-flowing Axius " seem to have been the centre of the Paeonian power from the time when Pyraechmes and Asteropaens led the Paeonians to the assistance of Priam (Hum. II. cc), down to the latest existence of the monarchy. They appear neither as Macedo- nians, Thracians, or Illyrians, but professed to be descended from the Teucri of Troy. When Mega- bazus crossed the river Strymon, he conquered the Paeonians, of whom two tribes, called the Siropaeones and Paeoplae, were deported into Asia by express order of Dareius, whose fancy had been struck at Sardis by seeing a beautiful and shapely Paeonian woman carrying a vessel on her head, leading a horse to water, and spinning flax, all at the same time. (Herod, v. 12 — 16.) These two tribes were the Paeonians of the lower districts, and their country was afterwards taken possession of by the Thracians. When the Temenidae had acquired Emathia, Almopia, Crestonia, and Mygdonia, the kings of Paeonia still continued to rule over the country beyond the straits of the Axius, until Philip, son of Aniyntas, twice reduced them to terms, when weakened by the recent death of their king Agis; and they were at length subdued by Alexander (Diodor. xix. 2, 4, 22, xvii. 8); after which they were pro- bably submissive to the Macedonian sovereigns. An inscribed marble which has been discovered in the acropolis of Athens records an interchange of good offices between the Athenians and Audoleon, king of Paeonia, in thearchonship of Diotimus, B.c.354,ora few years after the accession of Philip and Audoleon to their respective thrones. The coins of Audoleon, who reigned at that time, and adopted, after the the death of Alexander, the common types of that prince and his successors, — the bead of Alexander in the character of young Heracles, and on the ob- verse the figure of Zeus AetopLorus, — prove the ci- vilisation of Paeonia under its kings. Afterwards kings of Paeonia are not heard of, so that their im- portance must have been only transitory ; but it is certain that during the troublous times of Macedonia, that is, in the reign of Cassander, the principality of the Paeonians existed, and afterwards disappeared. At the Roman conquest the Paeonians on the W. of the Axius were included in Macedonia Secunda. Paeonia extended to the Dentheletae and Maedi of Thrace, and to the Dardani, Penestae, and Dassaretii of Ulyria, comprehending the various tribes who occupied the upper valleys of the Erigon, Axius, Stryinon and Augitas as far S. as the fertile plain of Siris. Its principal tribes to the E. were the Odoinanti, Aestraei, and Agrianes, parts of whose country were known by the names of Parstrymonia and Paroreia, the former containing probably the valleys of the Upper Strymon, and of its great tribu- tary the river of Strumitza, the latter the adjacent mountains. On the V. frontier of Paeonia its sub- divisions bordering on the Penestae and Dassaretii were Deuriopus and Pelagonia, which with Lyn- ceslis comprehended the entire country watered by PAESTUM the Erigon and its branches. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 212, 306, 462, 470.) [E. B. J.] PAEO'NIA. [PAEONE.S.] PAEO'NIDAE. [Attica, p. 326, a.] PAEOPLAE. [Paeoses.] PAESICL [AsTi'RES, p. 249. J PAESTANUS SINUS. [Paestum.] PAESTUM (nanTTOv, Ptol.; tlaicTTis, Strab.: Eth. Tlai(TTav6s, Paestanus: Ruins at Pesio), a city of Lucania, on the Tyrrhenian sea, about 5 miles S. of the mouth of the Silarus. It was originally a. Greek colony, named Posidonia (Jloatt^oifia: Eth. noo'etScoj'iarrjs), and was founded by a colony from Sybaris, on the opposite coast of Lucania. (Strab. v. p. 251; Scymn. Ch. 245; Scyl. p. 3. § 12.) The date of its foundation is uncertain, but it may pro- bably be referred to the period of the chief prosperity of Sybaris, when that city ruled over the whole of Lucania, from one sea to the other, or from 650 to 510 K.c. [Sybaris.] It may be observed, also, that Solinus calls Posidonia a Doric colony; and though his authority is worth little in itself, it is confirmed by the occurrence of Doric forms on coins of the city: hence it seems probable that the Doric settlers from Troezen, who formed part of the ori- ginal colony of Sybaris, but were subsequently ex- pelled by the Achaeans(Arist. Pol. v. 3), may have mainly contributed to the establi.--hment of the new colony. According to Strabo it was originally founded close to the sea, but was subsequently removed fur- ther inland (Strab. I.e."); the cliange, however, was not considerable, as the still existing ruins of tiie ancient city are little more than half a mile from the coast. We know scarcely anything of the early history of Posidonia. It is incidentally mentioned by Herodotus (i. 16") in a manner that proves it to have been already in existence, and apparently as a conside- rable town, at the period of the foundation of the neighbouring Velia, about B.C. 540. But this is the only notice of Posidonia until after the fall of its parent city of Sybaris, B.C. 510. It has been sup- posed by some modern writers that it received a great accession to its population at that period ; but j Herodotus, who notices the Sybarites as settling on that occasion at Laiis and Scidrus, does not allude to Posidonia. (Herod, vi. 21.) There are, indeed, few among the cities of Magna Graecia of which we hear less in history; and the only evidence of the flourishing condition and prosperity of Posidonia, is to be found in the numbers of its coins and in the splendid architectural remains, so well known as the temples of Paestum. From its northerly position, it must have been one of the first cities that suffered from the advancing power of the Lucanians, as it was certainly one of the first Greek colonies that fell into the hands of that people. (Strab. v. p. 251.) The date of this event is very uncertain ; but it is pio- bable that it must have taken place bifore B.C. 390, when the city of Laiis was besieged by the Lucanians, and had apparently become the bulwark of Magna Graecia on that side. [Magna Graecia.] We learn from a curious passage of Aristoxenus (a/J. .4<Ae?j. xiv. p. 632) that the Greek inhabitants were not ex- pelled, but compelled to submit to the authority of the Lucanians, and receive a barbarian colony within their walls. They still retained many of their cus- toms, and for ages afterwards continued to assemble at a certain festival every year with the express purpose of bewailing their captivity, and reviving the traditions of their prosperity. It would appear