Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/585

 PELIUM. was an advantageous post for making excursions into the enemy's territory. [E. B. J ] PE'LIUM (TlrjKioi'), a lofty mountain in Thessaly, extending along the coast of Magnesia. It rises to the south of Ossa, and the last falls of the two mountains are connected by a low ridge. (Herod, vii. 129.) It forms a chain of some extent, stretch- ing from Mt. Ossa to the extremity of Magnesia, where it terminates in the promontories of Sepias and Aeantium. It attains its greatest height above lolcos. According to Ovid it is lower than Ossa (Fast. iii. 441), which Dodwell describes as about 5000 feet high. In form it has a broad and ex- tended outline, and is well contrasted with the steeply conical shape of Ossa. On its eastern side Mt. Pelium rises almost precipitously from the sea ; and its rocky and inhospitable shore (d/cTtt dK't/j.ii'os nriiou, Eurip. Ale. .59.5) proved fatal to the fleet of Xerxes. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 384.) Mt. Pelium is still covered with ve- nerable forests, to which frequent allusion is made in the ancient poets. Homer constantly gives it the epithet of iivoffi<piWov {II. ii. 744, &c.). Its northern summit is clothed with oaks, and its eastern side abounds with chestnuts; besides which there are forests of beeches, elms, and pines. (Dicaearch. Descript. Mont. Pel. in Geogr. Graec. Min. p. 106, ed. Paris, 1855; Ov. F(ut. v. 381 ; Valer. 'place, ii. 6.) Mt. Pelium is celebrated in mythology. It plays an important part in the war of the giants and the gods ; since the giants are said to have piled Ossa upon Pelium, in order to scale Olympus. It has been obseiTed that this part of the fable is well explained by the respective forms of Ossa and Pelium. As Pe- lium is viewed from tjie south, two summits are seen at a considerable distance from each other, — a con- cavity between them, but so slight as almost to give the effect of a table-mountain, upon which fiction might readily suppose that another hill of the conical form of Ossa should recline. (Holland, Tra- vels, vol. ii. p. 96.) Mt. Pelium was said to be the residence of the Centaurs, and more especially of Clieiron, the instructor of Achilles, a legend to which the number of medicinal plants found on the mountain perhaps gave rise. (Dicaearch. I. c. ; Horn. 11. ii. 743, xvi. 143 ; Pind. Ft/th. ii. 83, iii. 7 ; Virg, Georg. iii. 92.) According to Dicaearchus (I. c), the cave of Cheiron and a temple of Zeus Actaeus occupied the summit of the mountain. The same writer relates tiiat it was the custom of the sons of the principal citizens of Demetrias, selected by the priest, to ascend every year to this temple, clothed with thick .''kins, on account of the cold. Between the two summits of Mt. Pelium there is a fine cavern, now commonly known by the name of the cave of Achilles, and which accords with the position of the cave of Cheiron, mentioned by Dicaearchus. The same writer likewise speaks of two rivers of Mt. Pelium, called Crausindon and Brychon. One of them is now named Zervokhia, and falls into the gulf between Ntkhori and5t George. (Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iv. p. 384, seq.) Lastly, Pelium was connected with the tale of the Argonauts, since the timber of which their ship was built was cut down in the forests of this mountain. The north-western summit of Mt. Pelium is now named Plessidhi ; but the mountain is frequently called Zagord, from the town of this name immediately below the summit on the eastern side. ('Leake, ;. c. ; PELLA. 569 Me'ziJres, Memoire sur le Pelion et I'Ossa, Paris 1853.) ' PELLA (ne'AAa, Herod, vii. 123 ; Thuc. ii. 99 100; Strab. vii. pp. 320, 323, 330, Fr. 22, 23 •' Ptol. iii. 13. § 39, viii. 12, § 8; Plin. iv. 17; Itiyi. Anton.; Itin. Hkrosol. ; Pent. Tab.; TlfWri, Hierocles), the capital of Macedonia. At the time when Xerxes passed through Macedon, Pella, which Herodotus (J. c.) calls a woMxviov, was in the hands of the Bottiaeans. Philip was the first to make Pella, which Amyntas had been obliged to evacuate (Xen. Hellen. v. 2. § 13 ; comp. Diodor. xiv. 92, XV. 19), a place of importance (Dem. de Cor. p. 247), and fixed the royal residence there ; there was a navigation from the sea by the Lydias, though the marshes, which was 120 stadia in length, exclusive of the Lydias. (Scyl. p. 26.) These marshes were called Borbokos (B6pSopus), as ap- pears from an epigram (Theoerit. Chius, ap. Pint, de Exit. vol. viii. p. 380, ed. Eeiske), in which Ari- stotle is reproached for preferring a residence near them to that of the Academy. Archestratus {ap. Athen. vii. p. 328, a.) related that the lake pro- duced a fish called " chromis," of great size, and particularly fat in summer. From its position on a hill surrounded by waters, the metropolis of Philip, and the birthplace of Alexander (Juv. x. 168; Lucan, x. 20), soon grew into a considerable city. Had Alexander not been estranged from Macedonia, it would probably have attained greater importance. Antipater lived there as regent of Macedonia, but Cassander spent less of his time at Pella, than at Thessalonica and Cassandreia ; from the time of Antigonus Gonatas till that of Perseus, a period of nearly a century, Pella remained the capital, and was a splendid town. (Liv. xxvi. 25, xxxvii. 7, xfii. 41, 51, 67, xliii. 43, xliv. 10.) Livy (xliv. 46) has left the following description, derived undoubtedly from Polybius, of the construction of the city towards the lake. " Pella stands upon a height sloping to the SVV., and is bounded by marshes which are impassable both in winter and summer, and ai-e caused by the overflowing of a lake. The citadel " (the word " arx" is wanting in our copies of Livy, but seems absolutely necessary both to the sense and the grammar) " rises like an island from the part of the marsh nearest to the city, being built upon an immense embankment, which defies all injury from the waters ; though appearing at a distance to be united to the wall of the city, it is in reality separated from it by a wet ditch, over which there is a bridge, so that no access whatever is afforded to an enemy, nor can any prisoner whom the king may confine in the castle escape, but by the easily guarded bridge. In the fortress was the royal treasure." It was surrendered to Aemilius Paullus (Liv. xlv. 45), and became, according to Strabo (p. 323) and the Itineraries, a station on the Egnatian Way, and a colony. (Plin. /. c.) Dion Chrysostomus {Orat. Tars. Prior, vol. ii. p. 12, ed. Reiske) says that Pella was a heap of ruins; but from the fact that there are coins of the colony of Pella, ranging from Hadrian to Philij), this must be an exaggeration. The name of the city is found a.s late as the sixth century of our era, as it occurs in Hierocles. It would seem indeed as if the name had survived the ruins of the city, and had reverted to the fountain, to which it was originally attached; as at a small distance from the village named Neoklwri or Yenikiuy, which has been identified with a portion of the ancient Pella, there is a spring