Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/292

 27C HISTORY OF GREECE. tins proper territory of Thessaly, but its great expansion wai inland : within it were situated the cities of Phone, Pharsalus, Skotussa, Larissa, Krannon, Atrax, Pharkadon, Trikka, Metro- polis, Pelinna, etc. The abundance of corn and cattle from the neighboring plains sustained in these cities a numerous population, and above all a proud and disorderly noblesse, whose manners bore much resem- blance to those of the heroic times. They were violent in their behavior, eager in armed feud, but unaccustomed to political discussion or compromise ; faithless as to obligations, yet at the same time generous in their hospitalities, and much given to the enjoyments of the table. 1 Breeding the finest horses in Greece, they were distinguished for their excellence as cavalry ; but their infantry is little noticed, nor do the Thessalian cities seem to have possessed that congregation of free and tolerably equal citi zens, each master of his own arms, out of whom the ranks of (he serpent Pytho : at least, this was one among several discrepant legends. The chief youth plucked and brought back a branch from the sacred laurel at Terape, as a token that he had fulfilled his mission : he returned by " the sacred road," and broke his fast at a place called Aetxrvtuf, near Larissa. A solemn festival, frequented by a large concourse of people from the sur- rounding regions, was celebrated on this occasion at Tempe, in honor of Apollo Tempeites ('AirZovvi Te//7m'r(z, in the JEottc dialect of Thessaly : see Inscript. in Boeckh, Corp. Ins. No. 1767). The procession was accompanied by a flute-player. See Plutarch, Quaist. Grsec. ch. xi. p. 292; De Musica, ch. xiv. p. 1130 , JElian, V. H. iii. 1 : Stephan. Byz. v. AttTrvtuf. It is important to notice these religious processions as establishing inter- course and sympathies between the distant members of Hellas: but the inferences which 0. Mailer (Dorians, b. ii. 1, p. 222) would build upon them, as to the original seat of the Dorians and the worship of Apollo, are not to be trusted. 1 Plato, Krito, c. 15, p. 53. IKEI yap dq Ttl.eiaTrj ura^ia /cat aKol.aaia (com- pare the beginning of the Menon) a remark the more striking, since ho had just before described the Boeotian Thebes as a well-regulated city, though both Dikacarchus and Polybius represent it in their times as so much the contrary. See also Demosthen. Olynth. 5. c. 9, p. 16, cont. Aristokrat. c. 29, p. 657; Schol. Eurip. Phceniss. 1466; Theopomp. Fragment. 34-178, ed. Didot; Aristophanes, Plut. 521. The march of political affairs in Thessaly is understood from Xenoph. Bel/en, vi. I : compare Anabas. i 1, 10, and Thucyd. iv 78.