Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/704

 688 PYRGUS. could never have been a large town, and appears under the Komans to have sunk into comparative insignificance. It is indeed noticed by Livy, together with Fregenae and Castrum Novum, as one of tlie maritime colonies which in B.C. 191 contended in vain for exemption from military levies (Liv. xxsvi. 3); but we have no account of the time at which the colony was established there, nor does any sub- sequent mention of it occur in that capacity. Its name is mentioned by all the geographers among the towns on the coast of Etruria; but Strabo terms it only a small town (7roA.ix»''OJ'), and Servius calls it in his time merely a fort (castellum), which would agree well with the character of the remains. (Strab. V. p. 225; Mel. ii. 4; Plin. iii. 5. s. 1 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 4; Martial, xii. 2; Serv. ad Aen. I.e.) But in the time of Rutilius it had altogether sunk into decay, and its site was occupied only by a large villa. (Rutil. Itin. i. 223.) No subsequent notice of it is found until it reappears in the middle ages under the title of Santa Severn. The Itineraries vary much in the distances they assign between Pyrgi and the other stations on the coast; but they agree in placing it between Alsium and Castrum Novum: and this circumstance, coupled with the distance of 50 stadia from Caere, given by Strabo, leaves no doubt that it is correctly identified with Sta Severa. (Strab. v. p. 226; Itin. Ant. pp. 290, 301 ; Jtin. Marit. p. 498 ; Tab. Pent.) 1'he site of the fortress of that name is unquestion- ably that of an ancient city. The walls of the present castle, which is of mediaeval date, are based on foundations of very ancient character, being con- structed of polygonal blocks of stone of large size, neatly fitted together without cement, in the same manner as the walls of Cosa and Saturnia. The line of these foundations, which are undoubtedly those of the walls of the ancient city, may be traced through- out theirwhole extent. enclosing a quadrangular space of about half a mile in circuit, abutting on the sea. Some remains of Roman walls of later date occur at the extremities on the sea-coast; but no remains have been found of the celebrated temple which was probably situated within the enclosure; nor are there any traces of the ancient port, which must have been wholly artificial, there being no natural inlet or harbour. (Canina, in the Ann. cleW Inst. Arch. 1840, pp. 35 — 44; Dennis, Etruria, vol. ii. pp. 11 — 16.) The goddess to whom the temple was dedicated is called by Strabo Eileitbyia, but several other writers call her Leucothea (Arist. /. c; Polyaen. I. c), who was identified with the Slater Matuta of the Romans. There is no doubt that the same deity is meant by both appel- lations. (Gerhard, Gottheiten der Etriwiker, pp. 9, 25.) [E. H. B.] PYRGUS or PYRGI. 1. (nvi>yos, Her. Polyb.; Tlupyoi, Strab., Steph. B. s. v. : Eth. XlvpyLT-ni), the most southerly town of Triphylia in Elis, at the mouth of the river Neda, upon the Messenian fron- tier (Strab. viii. p. 348), and hence described by Stephanus B. (s. v.) as a Messenian town. It was one of the settlements of the Minyae. (Herod, iv. 148.) It opened its gates to Philip in the Social War. (Polyb. iv. 77, 80.) Leake places Pyrgi at some ancient remains upon the right bank of the Neda, not tar from its mouth. {Murea, vol. i. p. 57, vol. ii. p. 207.) 2. A town in hollow Elis in a district named Perippia, which Polybius mentions in conjunction with Lasion. (Polyb. v. 102; comp. Liv. xxvii. 32.) PYTHIU>L PYRNUS {Uvpvos: Eth. Uvpvios), a town of Caria, of uncertain site. (Steph. B. s. v. ; Plin. v. 28. s. 29.) PYROGERI, a people dwelling on the Hebrus in Thrace, mentioned by Pliny, iv. 1 1. s. 18. [T.H.D.] PYRRHA {Uvp'pa: Eth. Xluppaios). 1. A town on the coast of the deep bay on the west of the island of Lesbos, which had so narrow an entrance that it was called the Euripus of Pyrrha. It was .situated at a distance of 80 stadia from Mytilene and 100 from Cape Malea. (Athen. iii. p. 88; Strab. xiii. p. 617.) In the Lesbian revolt the town sided with ]Iytilene, but was reconquered by Paches. (Thuc. iii. 18, 25, 35; comp. Scylas, p. 36; Steph. B. s. v.) In Strabo's time the town no longer ex- isted, but the suburbs and port were still inhabited. Pliny (v. 39) reports that Pyrrha had been swal- lowed up by the sea. The bay of Pyrrha is now called Caloni. 2. A small town on the Maeander, opposite to Miletus; it was 50 stadia distant from the mouth of the river. (Strab. xiv. p. 636; Plin. v. 29; Schol. ad Ptol. V. 2. § 5.) [L. S.] PYRRHA .{Tlvppa), a promontory of The.ssaly, now C. Ankistri, in the Pagasaean gulf, forming the northern boundary of the district Phthiotis, and near which were the two islets of Pyrrha and Deucalion. (Strab. ix. p. 435 ; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 359, 360, 371.) PYRRHE'UM. [Ambuacia, p. 120, a.] PYRRHI C ASTRA (Uippov x<^paO- 1- A for- tress in the N. of Laconia, was probably at or near the junction of the Oenus and Eurotas, and is sup- posed to have been so named from having been the place of encampment of Pyrrhus, when he invaded Laconia in b. c. 272. (Polyb. v. 19 ; Liv. xxxv. 27 ; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 345.) 2. In Greek lilyria. [Voh L p. 563, a.] PY'RRHICHUS (nvpptxos), a town of Laconia, situated about the centre of the promontory ending in Cape Taenarum, and distant 40 stadia from the river Scyras. According to some it derived its name from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, according to others from Pyrrliicus, one of the Curetes. Silenus was also said to liave been brought up here. It con- tained temples of Artemis Astrateia and of Apollo Amazonius, — the two surnames referring to the tradition that the Amazons did not proceed further than this place. There was also a well in the agora. The ruins of this town have been discovered by the French Commission near the village of Kdvalo, where they found the well of which Pausanias speaks, the torso of a female statue, the remains of baths, and several Roman ruins. Leake observes that the distance of 40 stadia from the Scyras to Pyrrhichus must be measured, not from the mouth of that river, as Boblaye proposes, but from near its sources. Augustus made Pyrrhichus one of the Eleuthero- Laconian towns (Pans. iii. 21. § 7, iii. 25. §§ 1 — 3; Boblaye, Recherches, i}c. p. 88; Leake, Peloponne- siaca, p. 174; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 276.) PYRRUM. [Perituk.] PYRUSTAE (^nupovarat), according to Strabo (vii. p. 314), a tribe of Pannonia, but undoubtedly the same people as the Illyrian Pirustae. [L. S.] PY'THIUM (nyflioi'), a town of Perrhaebia in Thessaly, situated at the foot of Mount Olympus, and forming a Tripolis with the two neighbouring towns of Azorus and Doliche. Pythium derived its name from a temple of Apollo Pythius situated on one of the summits of Olympus, as we learn from an