Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/28

 DELPUIlilUM. a coDsideiihle part of the preceding article. The modem works relating to the temple of Delphi are enamerated in the Diet, of Ant. art OraadunK The inscriptions discoyered hy E. 0. MUUer at Delphi are published and illnstrated bj Curtins, Anicdota Dtlphka^ Berol. 1843. D£MONN£Si: 769 COIN OF DELPHI. DELPHI'NIUM. [Chios, p. 610, b.] D£LPHrNIUM (AcA^drtoi'), the port-town of Oropos. [Oropus.] DELTA. The appellation of Delta, or the trian- gular land, was gtyen to Tarious regions by the Greeks, and implies a space of land boonded bj two or more diveiging branches (tf a river, and resembling, in the general form of its area, the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet These were the Deltas of the Indus, the Ister, the Rhone, the Padus or Eridanns: but the name was origipally and specially conferred upon that triangular region which lies between the Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt, and the Mediterra- nean sea. Among the Gxveks this tract of alluvial soil bore various designations, (t^ LiKra • the Lower Country, ^ xirta x*h^ ^^1' >^* 5. § 55; rpiy^tws x^" Ne(A»T», Aesch. Prom, 814; Strab. xvi. p. 791; Herod. 11. 6, seq.; Diod. L 34, seq.; Plin. V. 9. s. 9.) [Aeqyptds.] [W. R D.] DELUS. [Dblob.] DEMETAE. [Dimbtax.] DEME'TRIAS (Aij/iirrpulf), a town of Assyria, stated by Strabo to have been in the neighbourhood of Arbela (xvi. p. 738; Steph. B. «. v.). Isidore of ChanuL mentions another place of this name in Anchofiia. [V.] DEMETBIAS {^iimrp^i E*^ Aijfwrrpicrfi), a city of Magnesia in Thesnly, situated at the head of the Pagasaean gulf, was founded about b. c. 290 by Demetrius Policrcetes, who removed thither the inhabitants of Kelia, Pagasae, Ormenium, Rhizus, Sepias, Olizon, Boebe and lolcos, all of which were afterwards included in the territory of Demetrias. (Strab. iz. p. 436.) It soon became an important place, and the favourite residence of the Macedimian kings. It was fitvourably situated for commanding the interior of Thessaly, as well as the neighbouring seas; and such was the importance of its positioa that it was called by the last Philip of Macedon one of the three fetters of Greece, the other two being Chalcis and Corinth. (Pol. zvii. 11 ; Liv. zzxiL 37.) Leake renuurks that it may have been recommended to the kings of Macedonia as a residence " not more for its convenience as a military and naval station in the centre <^ Greece, than for many natural ad- vantages, in some of which it seems to have been very preamble to Pella. The surrounding seas and fertile districts of Thessaly supplied an abundance of the necessaries and luxuries of life: in summer the position is cool and salubrious, in winter mild, even when the interior of Thessaly is involved in snow or fog. The cape on which the town stood commands a beautiful view of the gulf, which appears like an extensive lake surrounded by rich and varied scenery; tlie neighbouring woods supply an abnndanee of delightfol retreats, embellished by prospects of the vol. I. Aegaean sea and its isUnds, while Mount Pelion might at once have afforded a park, an icehouse, and a preserve of game for the chase." After the battie of Cynoeoeplialae, b. o. 196, De- metrias ?ras taken away from Philip, and garrisoned by the Romans. (Pol. xvuL 28; Liv. ^Txiii 31.) In B.C. 192, it was surprised by the Aetolians; and the news of its defection from the Romans determined Antiochns to defer no longer his departure to Greece. (Liv. XXXV. 34, 43.) After the return of Antiochus to Asia in b.c. 191, Demetrias surrendered to Philip, who was allowed by the Romans to retain poasession of the place. (Liv. xxxvi. 33.) It continued in the hands of Philip and his successor till the over- throw of the Macedonian monarchy at the battle of Pydiia, B.C. 169. (Liv. xliv. 13.) Demetrias is mentioned by Hierodes in the sixth century (p^ 642, ed. Wesseling). The ancient town is described by Leake as occu- pying " the southern or maritime face of a height, now called Goritzoy which projects from the coast of Magnesia, between 2 and 3 miles to the southward of the middle of Volo. Though litUe more than foundations remains, the inclosnre of the city, which was less than 2 miles in circumference, is traceable in ahnost every part On three sides the walls fol- lowed the crest of a declivity which fiidls steeply to the east and west, as well as towards the sea. To the north the summit of the hill, together with an oblong space below it, formed a simdl citadel, of which the foundations still subsist A level space in the middle elevation of the height was oonvenientiy placed for the central part of the city. The acropolis contained a large dstem cut in the rock, which is now paitiy filled with earth .... Many of the ancient streets of the town are traceable in the level which lies midway to the sea, and even the foundations of private houses; the space between one street and the next parallel to it, is littie more than 15 feet About the centre of the town is a hollow, now called the lagdmi or mine, where a long rectan- gular excavation in the rock, 2 feet vride, 7 deep, and covered with fiat stones, shows by marks of the action of water in the interior of the channel that it was part of an aqueduct, probably for the purpose of conducting some source in the height upon which stood the citadel, into the middle of the cit^" (Lcoke, Northem GreecSf voL iv, p. 375, seq.)*'f>^A i.J/Uf*' ./ Xc. oonr or DKHamuAs. DEMONKFSI or DEMOKE'SI (AWvnytroi: Eth. Atifjunfpiiatosy Hesychitts {s. v. Arifutyyiiirios X<iiAiro5) says that there are two islands near By- zantium, which are called by the common name Demonnesi, but have severally the names Cfaalcitis and Pityusa. These belong to the Princess Isles. [Chaijcttis.] Stephanus («. v. AtiiA^ifiiaos) de- scribes Denumesus as an island near Chakedon, where cyanum and chrysoeoUa were found. In another place (s, v. XoAierrit), where Stephanus is citing Artemidorus, the islands Pityodes, Chalcitis, and Prote are mentioned. It 10 sometimes assumed that the Demonesus of Stephanus is the same as his Chalcitis; but he does not say so, nor does his de»> Bcription of the two agree. Pliny (v. 32) places 3d