Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/290

 274 HISTORF OF GREECE. which afterwards ripened into moral philosophy, as manifested in gnomes, or aphorisms, or the age of the Seven Wise Men. But before I proceed to relate those earliest proceedings (un- fortunately too few) of the Dorians and lonians during the his- torical period, together with the other matters just alluded to, it will be convenient to go over the names and positions of those other Grecian states respecting which we have no information during these first two centuries. Some idea will thus be formed of the less important members of the Hellenic aggregate, pre- vious to the time when they will be called into action. We begin by the territory north of the pass of Thermopylae. Of the different races who dwelt between this celebrated pass and the mouth of the river Peneius, by far the most powerful and important were the Thessalians. Sometimes, indeed, the whole of this area passes under the name of Thessaly, since nomi- nally, though not always really, the power of the Thessalianfi extended over the whole. We know that the Trachinian Hera- kleia, founded by the Lacedaemonians in the early years of the- Peloponnesian war, close at the pass of Thermopylae, was plant- ed upon the territory of the Thessalians. 1 But there were also within these limits other races, inferior and dependent on the Thessalians, yet said to be of more ancient date, and certainly not less genuine subdivisions of the Hellenic name. The Perr- haebi 2 occupied the northern portion of the territory between the lower course of the river Peneius and Mount Olympus. The Magnetes 3 dwelt along the eastern coast, between Mount Ossa and Pelion on one side and the .ZEgean on the other, compris- ing the south-eastern cape and the eastern coast of the gulf of Pagasaj as far as lolkos. The Achaeans occupied the territory called Phthiotis, extending from near Mount Pindus on the west to the gulf of Pagasae on the east, 4 along the mountain chain 1 Thucyd. iii. 93. Oi Qeaaa7*ol ev 6vvu.fj.et ovref TUV Tavry ^up<wv,o2 uv inl ry yy IKT'I^TO (Herakleia), etc. over the chain of Olympus or the Cambunian mountains by which Xerxes and his army passed out of Macedonia into Perrhsebia ; see the description of the pass and the neighboring country in Leake, Travels in Northern Groece, ch. xxviii. vol. iii. pp. 338-348 ; compare Livy, xlii. 53. 4 Skylnx, 1'eripl. c. 64 ; Strabo, ix. pp. 433-434. Sophokles included th
 * Herodot. vii. 173 ; Strabo, ix. pp. 440-441. Herodotus notices the pass
 * Skylax, Periplus, c. 66 ; Herodot. vii. 183-188.