Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/155

Rh MACEDONIA 137 Between Lyncestis and the lowlands, near the coast, is a lake district of somewhat inferior elevation, which bore the name of Eordaea, Again, to the southward of Pelagonia is another extensive plain, from which the Haliacmon (Vistritza) draws its waters ; that river ulti mately breaks through the Bennian range behind Berrhcea (Verria), and flows into the Thermaic Gulf. The coast district between the Haliacmon and Olympus, as well as the sea slopes of that mountain, formed Pieria, the original home of the Muses. The chief cities of Pieria were Pydna, where Perseus, the last king of Macedon, was defeated by the Eomans, and Dium. From this neigh bourhood to the head of the Thermaic Gulf a vast maritime plain extended, which was intersected by the Lydiaa and the Axius, as well as the Haliacmon. The Scardus chain, which has been spoken of as separating Macedonia from Illyria, is the northern continuation of Pindus, and the two together form a well-defined backbone, which may be compared to the spina of an ancient circus. At its northern extremity, where it rises from the plain of Kossova, stands a lofty peak, which, to carry out the comparison, may be called the met a or goal of the circus. This summit, which reaches a height of between 7000 and 8000 feet, had no name in antiquity, but is now known by the Slavonic appellation of Liubatrin, or the &quot; Lovely Thorn.&quot; The mountain wall which starts from it presents a most impos ing appearance from every point of view, and is broken through at only one point, where the river now called Devol, rising on its eastern side, divides it to its base as it flows to the Adriatic. Here the chain of Scardus ends, and that of Pindus commences. Northward of this it is crossed by two passes, one near the headwaters of the Axius, between the modern towns of Prisrend and Calcandele ; the other farther to the south, leading from the head of the Lacus Lychnitis (Lake of Ochrida) into the Pelagonian plain. At the southern end of this plain another chain diverges from Scardus, and takes an easterly direction through Macedonia ; in the region between the Strymon and Nestus this was called Orbelus, and between it and the sea lies Mount Pangseus, which was famed for its g^ld and silver mines. The rivers of this country, notwithstanding that they are larger than any that are found in Greece proper, can hardly be called navigable, though barges are floated down them at the present day. The Axius, which is the most important, is celebrated by Homer, on account of its fertilizing water, as &quot; the fairest stream that flows in all the earth&quot; (II., ii. 850), and the valley in which it runs must always have formed a line of communication between the barbarous districts of the interior and the sea. The point of demarcation between the uplands and the lowlands is marked by the Stena, or, as it is now called, the Iron Gate (Demir Kapu) of the Yardar. Here the river cuts through at right angles the mountains that join the Scardus and Orbelus ranges, and forms a deep ravine, through which it rushes in rapids for the distance of a quarter of a mile, beneath steep cliffs that rise to the height of 600 or 700 feet above ; and traces of groovings in the rocks are visible, where a passage has been made in ancient times. At the point in its upper course where it receives its northern tributaries, and begins to bend towards the south, stood the town of Scupi, the name of which was changed by the Byzantines into Scopia, or &quot; the look-out place,&quot; and has now been corrupted into Uskiub. The importance of this consisted in its neighbourhood to the pass over the Scardus, by which the barbarian tribes to the west used to descend into the more level and fertile country, and in its commanding the principal line of traffic. Between Scupi and the Stena, at the confluence of the Axius and the Erigon, was Stobi, the ruins of which have recently been discovered by M. Heuzey, of the French &quot; Mission do Macddoine.&quot; This town was in Roman times the meeting- point of four great roads one from the Danube by Scupi ; another from Sardica, near the modern Sophia, to the north-east ; a third from Heraclea (Monastir) to the south-west ; and a fourth from Thessalonica. The Strymon (Struma) follows a direction nearly parallel to the Axius in eastern Macedonia, and, after passing through the chain of Orbelus, enters the rich plain of Serrhze (Seres), and flows into the Lake of Prasias or Cercinitis, shortly after emerging from which it reaches the sea. On the shores of the Lake Prasias were a number of lacustrine habitations which Herodotus has described, corresponding in their general features to those of which so considerable remains have recently been discovered in Switzerland and elsewhere. At the point where the Strymon leaves the lake was built the important town of Amphipolis, which was surrounded on three sides by the river, thus occupying a very strong position. It was founded by the Athenians in 437 B.C., and was valuable on account of its neighbourhood to the mines of Pangams, and as furnishing a large supply of timber. Its port, at the mouth of the Strymon, was called Eion. The ancient capital of Macedonia, ^Egpe or Edessa (Vodena), stood ot the point where the passes from Lyncestis and Eordoea emerge into the lower country. Its situa tion seems to suggest dominion ; for, while it has at its back all the resources of the richest districts, the view from it embraces the wide maritime plain, the mighty mass of Olympus, and a portion of the Thermaic Gulf. The site, which resembles that of Tivoli, is one of ex treme beauty, for below the level table of land on which the city is built the rock falls some 200 feet in steep precipices, and the river which passes through it, a tributary of the Lydias, divides into a number of smaller streams, which plunge at various points in cascades down the cliffs. When Philip of Macedon transferred the seat of government to Pella, Edessa continued to be the national hearth of the race, and the burial-place of their kings. Pella, the later capital, occupied a much inferior position, being on low hills at the edge of an extensive marsh in the middle of the maritime plain. This was naturally an unhealthy site, and its only strength lay in its swampy surroundings ; so that its nearness to the sea must have been its chief recommendation. The place is now deserted, but the name of Pel is still attached to its vicinity. In Roman times Thessalonica became the chief centre of these parts, which at all times it deserves to be, for it is admirably placed for purposes of communication and trade, as it lies on the innermost bay of the Thermaic Gulf, and forms the natural point of transit for exports and imports. Its appearance recalls that of Genoa, from tho way in which the houses rise from the water s edge, and ascend the hill-sides behind. This city was the terminus of the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road which joined the Adriatic and the yEgean, and formed the main line of com munication between the West and the East. Starting from Dyrrhachium, it threaded the defiles of Illyria, and, passing the Lacus Lychnitis, crossed the Scardus by the southern most of its two passes, which descends on Heraclea ; thence it traversed Lyncestis and Eordrca, till it reached Edessa, and finally crossed the plain to Thessalonica. It remains to speak of the maritime district of Macedonia, called Chalcidice, which projects like a trident into the north of the ^Egean between the Thermaic and Strymonic Gulfs. When seen on the map, it strikingly resembles the Peloponnese in miniature, from its three southern promontories, with deep intervening bays, and the massive breadth of ground from which these spring. This resemblance is still further borne out in the form of XV. 18