Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/582

 5(66 PELASGIOTIS. UrheiL-ohner Rutiens, (f-c, 1843; Jlomnisen, Un- ieritalischen Diahcte, 1850 ; Pricliard, Natural Ilistorij of Man, vol. iii. 4 ; Hpffter, Geschichte der Latein Sprache, p. 11; G. C. Lewis, Credibiliti/ of early Roman JliMorij, vol. i. p. 282 ; and Sclnve- gler. as quoted above. The I:ist-nientioned historian, after a careful re- view of all that ancient and modem authorities have said on the subject, agrees with Mr. Grote in concludinsc that tliuie is no historical foundation for the commonly received traditions about the Pelasgi. He say.s; "The traditional imat^e of the Pelasgic race, evervwheie driven out, nowhere settling them- selves for good, — of the race which is everywhere and nowhere, always reappearing, and vanishing again without leaving any trace, — the image of this gipsey nation is to me so strange, that we must entertain doubts as to its historic existence." After they became a p(^verful nation in Italy, the tradition, which Dionysius follows, tells us that they budiicniy dispersed. This is in itself strange; but, were any other conclusion of the Pelasgian migra- tions invented, we should have to point out Pelas- gians in Italy, which is impossible. Nothing re- mains of them but a few names of places, which are nranife^tly Greek. Lepsius thought an inscription found at Agylla was Pelasgic, but Mommsen (^Un- terit. Dial. p. 17) says it is nothing but old Etruscan. It is not difficult to account for the prevalence of traditions relating to Pelasgi in Italy. Schwegler has ably analysed the causes of this, and disproved on historical and linguistic grounds the views of Xiebuhr and 0. Miiller, which they set up in oppo- sitinn to tlie Roman grammarians. Tiiere is considerable doubt, as he remarks, in what light we are to regard the name Pelasgi, — whether in that of an ethnographic distinction, or in that of an epithet = autochthones or aborigines. We have both in Greek and Lat4n words resembling it suthciently in form to warrant this supposition, — V. g. Uahalus, naAai'x^u'i', and Priscus. The change from A to r is so common as to need no illustration, and the termination -70s is nearly the same as -cus. These remarks, though they apply with con- siderable force to the indiscriminate use of the word Pelasgian as applied to Italian races, need not affect the statement of Herodotus concerning the townships of Scvlace, Placie, and Cieston, which were accounted in his time Pelasgic, and spoke a different language from their neighbours. Tiiat the name Pelasgi once indicated an existing race we m.ay fairly allow ; but we cannot form any historical conception of a people whom Herodotus calls stationary and others migratory, and whose ear- liest abode was between the mountains of Ossa and Olympus, and also in Arcadia and Argolis. On the whole we can partly appreciate Niebuhr's feelings when he wrote of the Pelasgi, — " The name of this people is irksome to the historian, hating as he does that spurious philology which raises pretensions to knowledge concerning races so completely buried in silence." {Rom. Hist. i. p. 26, Transl.) If the Pelasgi have any claims on our attention above other extinct races, it is not because they have left more trustworthy memorials of their existence, but because they occupy so considerable a space in the nivthic records of Greece and, Italy. [G. B.] . PELASGIO'TIS. [Thessalia.] PELE (HijAt;: Eth. Uv^cuos), a small island, fjorming one of a cluster, off the coast of Ionia, oppo- PELIGNI. site to Clazomenae. (Thuc. viii. 31 ; Plin. v. 31 s. 38, xxxii. 2. s. 9 ; Steph. B. s. v. ; see Vol. I. p. 632, a.) PE'LECAS (IleAfKas), a mountain in Mysia, which lay between the Apian plain and the river Megistus. (Pulyb. v. 77.) It is probably the con- tinuation of Mt. Temnus, separating the valley of the Aesepus from that of the Megistus. It has been remarked by Forbiger that there is a striking simi- larity between this name and that of the woody mountain TIXclkos mentioned by Homer, at whose foot Thebe is said to have stood, but the position of which was subsequently imknown. (Horn. II. vi. 397, vii. 396. 425, xxii. 479; Strab. xiii. p. 614.) PELE'CES. [Attica, p. 326, a.] PELE'NDONES (neAfrSores, Ptol. ii. 6. § 54), a Celtiberian people in Hispania Tarraconensis, be- tween the sources of the Durius and Iberus, and situated to the E. of the Arevaci. Under the Ro- mans they were in the jurisdiction of Clunia. They consisted of four tribes, and one of their towns was Numantia. We find also among their cities, Vison- tium, Olibia, Varia, &c. (PUn. iii. 3. s. 4, iv. 20. s. 34.) [T. H. D.] PELETHRO'NIUM (neXedpoviov), a pait of Mt. Pelium, whence Virgil gives the Lapithae the epithet of Pelethronii. (Strab. vii. p. 299 ; Steph. B. s. V. ; Virg. Georg. iii. 115.) PELIGNI {UiKiyvoi) a people of Central Italy, occupying an inland district in the heart of the Apennines. They bordered on the Marsi towards the W., on the Samnites to the S., the Frentani on the E., and the Vestini to the N. Their territory was of very small extent, being confined to the valley of the Gizio, a tributary of the Aternus, of which the ancient name is nowhere recorded, and a small part of the valley of the Aternus itself along its right bank. The valley of the Gizio is one of those upland valleys at a considerable elevation above the sea, running parallel with the course of the Apen- nines, which form so remarkable a feature in the configuration of the central chain of those mountains [Apemnlnus]. It is separated from the Marsi and the basin of the lake Fucinus on the W. by a nar- row and strongly marked mountain ridge of no great elevation ; while towards the S. it terminates in the lofty mountain group which connects the central ranges of the Apennines with the great mass of the Majella. This last group, one of the most elevated in the whole of the Apennines, attaining a height of 9100 feet above the se;i, rises on the SE. frontier of the Peligni; while the Monte Morrone, a long ridge of scarcely inferior height, runs out from the point of its junction with the Majella in a NW. direction, forming a gigantic barrier, which completely shuts in the Peligni on the XE., separating them from the Frentani and Marrucini. This mountain ridge is almost continuous with that which descends from the Gran Sasso towards the SE. through the country of the Vestini, but the great mountain barrier thus formed is interrupted by a deep gorge, through which the Aternus forces its way to tlie sea, having turned abruptly to the NE. immediately after re- ceiving the river Glzio [Aternus]. The secluded district of the Peligni was thus shut in on all sides by natural barriers, except towards the N., where they met the Vestini in the valley of the Aternus. A tradition recorded by Festus (s. v. Peligni, p. 222), but on what authority we know not, repre- sented the Peligni as of Illyrian origin; but this statement is far outweighed by the express testimony