Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/421

 BRASIDAS IN THESSALY 399 tone was adopted by Brasidas himself. " He protested his strong feeling of respect and friendship for Thessaly and its inhabitants : his arms were directed against the Athenians, not against them : nor was he aware of any unfriendly relation subsisting between the Thessalians and Lacedaemonians, such as to exclude either of them from the territory of the other. Against the prohibition of the parties now before him, he could not possibly march for- ward, nor would he think of attempting it ; but he put it to their good feeling whether they ought to prohibit him." Such concili- atory language was successful in softening the opponents and inducing them to disperse. But so afraid were his guides of renewed opposition in other parts, that they hurried him forward still more rapidly, 1 and he "passed through the country at a running pace without halting." Leaving Melitaea in the morning, he reached Pharsalus on the same night, encamping on the river Apidanus : thence he proceeded on the next day to Phakium, and on the day afterwards into Perrhaebia, 2 a territory adjoin- ing to and dependent on Thessaly, under the mountain range of Olympus. Here he was in safety, so that his Thessalian guides left him; while the Perrhaebians conducted him over the pass of Olympus the same over which the army of Xerxes had marched to Dium, in Macedonia, in the territory of Perdikkas, on the northern edge of the mountain. 3 1 Thucyd, iv, 78. 'O 6e, KE^EVOVTUV TUV uyuyuv, Trplv TI TtZeov i-varr/vat TO Ku^vaov, ix^P EL ovdev ETnaxuv dpofiu. 9 The geography of Thessaly is not sufficiently known to enable us tc rerify these positions with exactness. That which Thncydides calls the Apidanus, is the river formed by the junction of the Apidanus and Eni- peus. Sec Kicpert's map of ancient Thessaly (Colonel Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, ch. xlii, vol. iv, p. 470 ; and Dr. Arnold's note on this chapter of Thucydides). We must suppose that Brasidas was detained a considerable time in parleying with the opposing band of Thessalians. Otherwise, it would seem that the space between Melitaea and Pharsalus would not be a great distance to get over in an entire day's march, considering that the pace was as rapid as the troops could sustain. The much greater distance between Larissa and Melitrea, was traversed in one night by Philip king of Macedon, the son of Demetrius, with an army carrying kdiers and other aids for attacking a town, etc. (Pplyb. v, 97.) 3 Thucyd. iv, 78.