Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/657

 PLATEA INS.

the sez. (Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. iii. p- $33.)

PLA'TEA INS. (Haréa, NAdrea, MAdtaua, var. lect. ; Herod. iv. 151, 153, 156, 169; Aareias, Seyl. p. 46; TlAaraia:, WAareia, Steph. B.; Sta- diasm. § 41), an island off the shores of Libya, and on the side not far removed from the W. limits of Aecypt, where for two years in the seventh century n.¢. the Theraean colonists settled before thev founded Cyrene. It has been identified with the island of Bomba or Bhourda in the Gulf of Bomba. The island AEDoNtA (Andovia, Ansovis, Ptol. iv. 5. § 75), which Scylax (7. c.) and the Coast-describer (Zc.) couple with Platea, may then be referred to the small island Seal off the harbour of Batrachus; unless it be assumed that there is some mistake in our present charts, and that Aedonia or Aedonis and Platea be two different names for the same island. (Pacho, Voyage dans la Marmarique, p. 52; Barth, Wanderungen, pp. 506, 548.) [E. B. J.]

PLAVIS (Piave), one of the most considerable rivers of Venetia, which has its sources in the Julian Alps, flows by the walls of Belluno (Be- lunum), and falls into the Adriatic sea between Venice and Caorle. Though one of the largest rivers in this part of Italy, it is unaccountably omitted by Pliny (iii. 18. s. 22). who mentions the much smaller streams of the Silis and Liquentia on each side of it; and its name is not found in any author earlier than Paulus Diaconus and the Geographer of Ravenna. (1’. Diac. ii. 12; Geogr. Rav. iv. 36.) [E. H. B.}

PLEGETIUM (UAzyhpiov, Strab. xvi. p. 698), a place mentioned by Strabo, in the NW. part of India, in the state which he calls Bandobane, on the river Choaspes (now Attok). [V.]

PLEGRA (1Aéypa), a town in the interior of Paphlagonia. (Ptol.v. 4. § 5.) [L. S.]

PLEIAE (1Aeiat), a town of Laconia, mentioned by Livy (xxxv. 27) as the place where Nabis pitched his camp in B.c. 192, must have been situated in the plain of Leuce, which lay between Acriae and Asopus. [Levear.] The name of the place occurs in an inscription (Bockh, Jnser. no. 1444). From its position it would appear to be the same as the mara Kaun of Pausanias (iii. 22. § 6), in which passage Curtius suggests that we might perhaps read TiAciae nin. (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 328.)

PLEISTUS. [Deveut.]

PLEMMY’RIUM. [Syracusag.]

PLERA, a town of Apulia, situated on the branch of the Via Appia which led from Venusia direct to Tarentum. It is supposed to be represented by the inodern Gravina. (Itin. Ant. p. 121; Holsten. Not. ad Cluv. p. 281.) The name is written in many MSS. Biera. LE. H. B.}

PLERAET (tAnpaiot), a peopie of Ilyricum, who lived upon the banks of the Naro, according to Strabo (vii. p. 315, seq.). Stephanus B. places them in Epeirus (s. v. TAapator).

PLESTYNIA. [Marst]

PLEUMO’XII,a Gallic people who were under the dominion of the Nervii (Caes. B. G. v- 39). No- thing more is known of them. The name is not. quite certain, for there are variations in the MSS. It is clear that they were somewhere in Gallia and near the Nervii, as we may infer. [G. L.]

PLEURON (TAeupdév: Eth. TAevpdvios, also TAevpovets, Steph. B. s.v., Pleuronius), the name of two cities in Aetolia, the territory of which was called Pleuronia. (Strab. x. p. 465; Auson. Epitaph. 10.)

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PLEURON. 641

1. Oup PrEuRON ( } ma .ad Tneupdéy, Strab. x. p- 451), was situated in the plain between the Ache- lons and the Evenus, W. of Calydon, at the foot of Mount Curium, from which the Curetes are said to have derived their name. Pleuron and Calydon were the two chief towns of Aetolia in the heroic age, and are said by Strabo (x. p. 450) to have been the ancient ornament (apéoxnpua) of Greece. Pleuron was originally a town of the Curetes, and its inhabit- ants were engaged in frequent wars with the Aeto- lians of the neighbouring town of €alydon. The Curetes, whose attack upon Calydon is mentioned in an episode of the Iliad (ix. 529), appear to have been the inhabitants of Pleuron. At the time of the Trojan War, however, Pleuron was an Aetolian city, and its inhabitants sailed against Troy under the command of the Aetolian chief Thoas, the son (not the grandson) of Oeneus. (Hom. JI. ii. 639, comp. xi. 217, xiv. 116.) Ephorus related that the Curetes were expelled from Pleuronia, which was formerly called Curetis, by Aeolians (ap. Strab. x. p. 465); and this tradition may also be traced in the statement of Thucydides (iii. 102) that the district, called Calydon and Pleuron in the time of the Peloponnesian War, formerly bore the name of Aeolis. Since Pleuron appears as an Aetolian city in the later period of the heroic age, it is represented in some traditions as such from the beginning. Hence it is said to have derived its name from Pleuron, a son of Aetolus ; and at the very time that some legends represent it as the capital of the Curetes, and engaged in war with Oeneus, king of Calvdon, others suppose it to have been governed by the Aetolian Thestius, the brother of Oeneus. Thes- tius was also represented as a descendant of Pleuron; and hence Pleuron had an heroum or a chapel at Sparta, as being the ancestor of Leda, the daughter of Thestius. But there are all kinds of variations in these traditions. Thus we find in Sophocles Oeneus, and not Thestius, represented as king of Pleuron. (Apollod. i. 7. § 7; Paus. iii, 14. § 8; Soph. Trach. 7.) One of the tragedies of Piry- nichus, the subject of which appears to have been the death of Meleager, the son of Oeneus, was entitled TAevpoviat, or the “ Pleuronian Women;” and hence it is not improbable that Phrynichus, as well as Sophocles, represented Oeneus as king of Pleuron. (Paus. x. 31. § 4.) Pleuron is rarcly mentioned in the historical period. It was abandoned by its inhabitants, says Strabo, in consequence of the ra- vages of Demetrius, the Aetolian, a surname proba- bly given to Demetrius II., king of Macedonia (who reigned B. C. 239 —229), to distinguish him from Demetrius Poliorcetes. (Strab. x. p.451.) The in- habitants now built the town of

2. New PLecron (7 vewrépa MAcupév), which was situated at the foot of Mt. Aracynthus. Shortly before the destruction of Corinth (3.c. 146), we find Pleuron, which was then a member of the Achaean League, petitioning the Romans to be dis- severed from it. (Paus. vii. 11. § 3.) Leake sup- poses, on satisfactory grounds, the site of New Pleu- ron to be represented by the ruins called 70 Kéozpov 7s Kuptas Eiphvns, or the Castle of Lady Irme about one hour's ride from AMesolongh?. These ruins occupy the broad summit of one of the steep and rugged heights of Mf. Zygos (the ancient Aracyn- thus), which bound the plain of Wesulonghé to the north. Leake says that the walls were about a n.ile in circumference, but Mure and Dodwell describe the circuit as nearly two niles. The most remarkable

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