Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/604

 588 PHARAN.

suffered from the attacks of tlie Actolians and Eleans. Its territory was annexed by Augustus to Patrac, when the latter city was made a Roman colony after the battle of Actium. Pharae contained a large agora, with a curious statue of Hermes. The remains of the city have been found on the left bank of the Kamenitsa, near Prevezd. (Herod. 1. 145; Strab. viii. pp. 386, 388; Pol. ii. 41, iv. 6,59, GO, v. 94; Paus. vii. 22. § 1, seq.; Plin. iv. 6; Leake, Sforea, vol. ii. p. 158.)

2. (Papal, Strab. Paus.; @np7n, Hom. IL. v. 543; ypal, Il. ix. 151; epat, Xen. Mell. iv. 8.§ 7: Eth. aparns, Strab. vill. p. 388; bapaidrys, l’aus. iv. 30. § 3: Aalamdta), an ancient town of Messenia, situated upon a hill rising from the left bank of the river Nedon, and at a distance of a mile from the Messenian gulf. Strabo describes it as sitnated 5 stadia from the sea (viii. p. 361), and Pausanias 6 (iv. 31. § 3); but it is probable that the earth deposited at the mouth of the river Nedon has, in the course of centurics, encroached upon the sea. Pherae occupied the site of Aalamata, the modern capital of Messenia; and in antiquity also it seems to have been the chief town in the southern Messe- nian plain. It was said to have been founded by Vharis, the son of Hermes. (Paus. iv. 30. § 2.) In the Iliad it is mentioned as the weli-built city of the wealthy Diocles, a vassal of the Atridae (v. 543), and as one of the seven places offered by Agamem- non to Achilles (ix. 151); in the Odyssey, Telema- chus rests here on his journey from Pylos to Sparta (iii. 490). After the capture of Messene by the Achaeans in B. c. 182, Pharae, Abia, and Thuria sepzrated themselves fromm Messene, and became each a distinct. member of the league. (Polyb. xxv. 1.) Pharae was annexed to Laconia by Augustus (Paus. iv. 30. § 2), but it was restored to Messenia by Tiberius. [Mrssenra, p. 345.] Pausanias found at Pharae temples of Fortune, and of Nicomachus and Gorgasus, grandsons of Asclepius. Outside the city there was a grove of Apollo Carneius, and in it a fountain of water. (Paus. iv. 30. § 3,scq.,iv. 31. § 1.) Strabo correctly describes Pharae as having an anchorage, but only for summer (vill. p. 361); and at present, after the month of September ships retire for safety to Avmyrs, so called from a river strongly impregnated with salt flowing into the sea at this place: it is the #8wp aduvpdy, mentioned by Pau- sanias (iv. 80. § 2) as on the road from Abia to Pharae.

There are no ancient remains at Kalamata, which is not surprising, as the place has always been well occupied and inhabited. The height above the town is crowned by a ruined castle of the middie azes. It was the residence of several of the Latin chieftains of the Aforea. William Villehardouin II. was born here. In 1685 it was conquered and enlarged by the Venetians. It was the head- quarters of the insurrection of 1770, and again of the revolution of 1821, which spread from thence over the whole peninsula. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p- 842, seq. ; Boblaye, Aecherches, gc. p. 104; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 158.)

3. The later name of the Homeric Phare or Pharis in Laconia. [Puare.]

PHARAN or PARAN (apap), the name of a desert S. of Palestine, between this country and Aegypt. (Gen. xxi. 21; 1 Kings, 31.18.) It is usually identified with the Wady Feirdz, a beautiful and well watered valley, surrounded by mountains, NW. of Sinai, and near the western arm of the

PHARE.

Red Sea (Niebuhr, Retsebeschreibung, vol. i. p. 240, Arabien, p. 402); but though Feirén may have preserved the ancient name of the desert, it ap- pears from Numbers (x. 12, 33, xili. 26) that the latter was situated in the desert of Kadesh, which was upon the borders of the country of the Edomites, and which the Israelites reached after their departure from Mt. Sinai, on their way towards the land of Edom. (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 618.)

In the Wady Fedrdn are the remains of an ancient church, assigned to the fifth century, and which was the seat of a bishopric as early as a. p. 400. (Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 186.) This city is described under the name of Feirdn by the Arabic Edrisi, about a.p. 1150, and by Makrizi about a.p. 1400. (Burckhardt, Syzia, p- 617.) It is apparently the same as Pharan (¢a- pav), described by Stephanus B. (s. v.) as a city between Aegypt and Arabia, and by Ptolemy (v. 17. §§ 1, 3) as a city of Arabia Petraea near the west- ern arm of the Red Sea. A species of amethyst found in this valley had the name of Pharanitis. (Plin. xxxvii. 9. s. 40.) The valley of Pharan men- tioned by Josephus (B. J. iv. 9. § 4) is obviously a different place from the Wady Fezrdn, somewhere in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, and is perhaps con- connected with the desert of Paran, spoken of above. (Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 552.)

PHARBAETHUS (4p6a.80s, Ptol. iv. 5. § 52; Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. bapa:irns, Herod. ii. 166; apEnritns, Strab. xvii. p. 802), the capital of the Pharbaethite Nome in Lower Aecypt. (Plin. v. 9. s. 9.) It stood W. of the Pelusian arm of the Nile, 16 miles S. of Tanais. The nome was a Praefec- tura under the Roman emperors ; and under the Pharaohs was one of the districts assigned to the Calasirian division of the Aegyptian army. Phar- baethus is now Horbeyt, where the French Com- mission found some retains of Aegyptian statuary (Champollion, /’Egypte, vol. ii. p. 99). [W.B.D.]

PHARCADON (@apraiov, dapxnidv: Eth. bapxnddvios), a city of Histiaeotis in Thessaly, situated to the left of the Penetus, between Pelin- naeum and Atrax. It is probably represented by the ruins situated npon the slope of the rocky height above Gritziuno. (Strab. ix. p. 438; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 316, seq.) PHARE or PHARIS, afterwards called PHARAB (bapn, apis, bapai), a town of Laconia in the Spartan plain, situated upon the road from Amyclae to the sea. (Paus. iii. 20. § 3.) It was men- tioned in the Iliad Gi. 582), and was one of the ancieut Achaean towns. It maintained its inde- pendence till the reign of Teleclus, king of Sparta ; and, after its conquest, continued to be a Lacedae- monian town under the name of Pharae. (Pans. ili, 2. § 6.) It was said to have been plundered by Aristomenes in the Second Messenian War. (Paus. iv. 16. § 8.) It is also mentioned in a corrupt passage of Strabo (viii. p. 364), and by other ancient writers. (Lycophr. 552; Stat. Theb. iv. 226; Steph. B. s. v. apis.) Pharis has been rightly placed at the deserted village of Bafio, which lies south of the site of Amyclae, and con- tains an ancient “ Treasury,” like those of Mycenae and Orchomenus, which is in accordance with Pharis having been one of the old Achaean cities before the Dorian conquest. It is surprising that the French Commission have given no description or drawing of