Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/586

 570 pp:lla. called by the Bulgarians Pel, and by the Greeks rieWij. Below the fountain, are some remains of buildings, said to have been baths, and still called TO hovTpa. These baths are alluded to by the comic poet Machon {ap. Athen. viii. p. 348, e.) as producing biliary complaints. Althoush little re- mains of Pella, a clear idea may be formed of its extent and general plan by means of the description in Livy, compared with the existing traces, con- sisting mainly of " tumuli." The circumference of the ancient city has been estimated at about 3 miles. The sources of the fountains, of which there are two, were probably about the centre of the site ; and the modern road may possibly be in the exact line of a main street which traverses it from E. to W. The temple of Minerva Alcidemus is the only public building mentioned in history (Liv.xlii. 51), but of its situation nothing at present is known. Felix Beau- jour, who was consul-general at Saloniki {Tableau du Commerce de la Grece, vol. i. p. 87), asserted that he saw the remains of a port, and of a canal connnunicating with the sea. Leake {Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 261 — 266), who carefully went over the ground, could find no traces of a port, of which indeed there is no mention in ancient history : remains of a canal could be seen, as he was told, in summer. An autonomous coin of Pella has the type of an ox feeding, which explains what Steph. B. (s. v.; comp.Ulpian, ad. Bern. deFals. Leg.) reports, that it was formerly called Bourdftoy. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 73; Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 37.) [E. B. J.] COIN OF PELLA IN MACEDONIA PELLA (ne'AAa: Eth. UiWalos). . A city of Palestine, and one of the towns of Decapolis in the Peraea, being the most northerly place in the latter district. (Plin. v. 18. s. 16 ; Joseph. B.J.w. 3. § 3.) Stephanus B. {s. v.) calls it a city of Coele-Syria and Ptolemy (v. 15. § 23) also de- scribes it as a city of Decapolis in Coele-Syria. Stephanus adds that it was also called Butis (r) BoOtis), which appellation seems to be preserved in its modern name El-Biukche. Its name Pella shows that it was either built or colonised by the Jlace- donians. Pliny describes it as abounding in springs ("aquis divitem," Plin. I. c). It was taken by An- tiochus the Great (Polyb. v. 70), and was afterwards destroyed by Alexander Jannaeus, because its inha- bitants would not accept the Jewish religion (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 15 (23). § 3, B.J. i. 4. § 8) ; but it was afterwards restored by Pom pay. (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 4 (7). § 4.) Pella was the place to which the Christians of Jerusalem fled before the destruction of the latter city. (Euseb. U. E. iii. 5 ; Epiphan. de Mens, et Ponder, p. 171 ; Reland, Palaestina, p. 924.) 2. A town of Syria, on the Orontes, better known under the name of Apameia. [Apameia, No. L] PELLA'NA or PELLE'NE (^ UiKKava, Paus. iii. 20. § 2; TO UikKava, Strab. viii. p. 386; UtK- Atji/t), Xen. Hell. vii. 5. § 9; Polyb. ir. 81,xvi. 37; I'lut. Agis, 8), a town of Laconia, on the Eurotas, PELLENE. and on the road from Sparta to Arcadia. It was said to have been the residence of Tyndareos, when he was expelled from Sparta, and was subsequently the frontier-fortress of Sparta on the Eurotas, as Sellasia was on the Oenus. Polybius describes it (iv. 81) as one of the cities of the Laconian Tripolis, the other two being probably Carystus and Bele- mina. It had ceased to be a town in the time of Pausanias, but he noticed there a temple of Asclepius, and two fountains, named Pellanis and Lanteia. Below Pellana, was the Characoma (XapoKco/ua), a fortification or wall in the narrow part of the valley ; and near the town was the ditch, which according to the law of Agis, was to separate the lots of the Spartans from those of the Perioeei. (Plut. I. c.) Pausanias says that Pellana was 100 stadia from Belemina; but he does not specify its distance from Sparta, nor on which bank of the river it stood. It was probably on the left bank of the river at Mt. Burlid, which is distant 55 stadia from Sparta, and 1 00 from Mt. Khebnus, the site of Belemina. Mt. Biiirlid has two peaked summits, on each of which stands a chapel ; and the bank of the river, which is only separated from the mountain by a narrow meadow, is supported for the length of 200 yards by an Hellenic wall. Some copious sources issue from the foot of the rocks, and from a stream which joins the river at the southern end of the meadow, where the wall ends. There are still traces of an aqueduct, which appears to have carried the waters of these fountains to Sparta. The acropolis of Pellana may have occupied one of the summits of the mountain, but there are no traces of antiquity in either of the chapels. (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 13, seq.; Boblaye, Recherches, <^c. p. 76 ; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 191 ; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 255.) PELLE'NE. 1. (neA^j/>), Dor. UiKXdva, Xe- AiVa.Steph.B. s. ». : Eth.TleWTjvtvs, Pellenensis,Liv. xxxiv. 29 ; Pellenaeus, Plin. iv. 6 : Tzerkori, nr. Zu- grd), a town of Achaia, and the most easterly of the twelve Achaean cities, whose territoiy bordered upon thatof Sicyon on the E. and upon that of Aegeira on the W. Pellene was situated 60 stadia from the sea, upon a strongly fortified hill, the summit of which rose into an inaccessible peak, dividing the city into two parts. Its name was derived by the inhabitants themselves from the giant Pall.as, and by the Argives from the Argive Pellen, a son of Phorbas. (Herod, i. 145 ; Pol. ii. 41 ; Strab. viii. p. 386 ; Paus. vii, 26. §§ 12 — 14; Apolk Rhod. i. 176.) Pellene was a city of great antiquity. It is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue ; and according to a tradition, preserved by Thucydides, the inhabitants of Scione in the peninsula of Pallene in ^Macedonia professed to be descended from the Achaean Pallenians, who were driven on the Macedonian coast, on their return from Troy. (Hom. //. ii. 674; Thnc. iv. 120.) At the commencement of the Peloponnesian War, Pellene was the only one of the Achaean towns which espoused the Spartan cause, though the other states afterwards followed their example. (Thuc. ii. 9.) In the time of Alexander the Great, Pellene fell under the dominion of one of its citizens of the name of Chaeron, a distinguished athlete, who raised him- self to the tyranny by Alexander's assistance. (Paus. vii. 27. § 7.) In the wars which followed the re-esta- blishment of the Achaean League, Pellene was several times taken and re-taken by the contending parties. (Pol. ii. 52, iv. 8, 13 ; Plut. Cleom. 17, Arat. 31, 32.) The buildings of Pellene are de-