Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/58

 5iB HISTOK OF GREECE. The terror spread by Alexander's military operations was 80 great, that not only the TribaUi, but the other autonomous Thra- cians around, sent envoys tendering presents or tribute, and soli- citing peace. Alexander granted their request. His mind being bent upon war with Asia, he was satisfied with having intimi- ■'ated these tribes so as to deter them from rising during his ab- sence. What conditions he imposed, w'e do not know, but he ac- cepted the presents.* While these applications from the Thracians were under de- bate, envoys arrived from a tribe of Gauls occupying a distant mountainous region westward towards the Ionic Gulf. Though strangers to Alexander, they had heard so much of the recent stantinoplc. 1. The one (called the King's Road, from having been in part the march of Xerxes in his invasion of Greece, Livy, xxxix. 27; He- rodot. vii. 115) crossing the Hebrus and the Nestus, touching the northern coast of the ^gcau Sea at INeapolis, a little south of Philippi, then cross- ing the Strymon at Amphipolis, and stretching through Pella across Inner Macedonia and Illyria to Dyrrachium (the Via Egnatia). 2. The othci, taldng a more northerly course, passing along the upper valley of the He- l)rus from Adrianople to Philippopolis, then through Sardicia (Sophia) and Naissus (Nisch), to the Danube near Belgrade ; being the high road now followed from Constantinople to Belgrade. But apart from these two roads, scarcely anything whatever is known of the country. Especially the mountainous region of Khodope, bounded on the west by the Strymon, on the north and east by the Hebrus. and on tiie south by the J5gean, is a Terra Incognita, except the few Grecian colo- nies on the coast. Very few travellers have passed along, or described the soutiicrn or King's Road, while the region in the interior, apart from the high road, was absolutely unexplored untd the visit of M. Viquesnel in 1847, under scientific mission from the French government. The brief, but interesting account, composed by M. Viquesnel, of this rugged and imprac- ticable district, is contained in the " Arciiives dcs Missions Scientifiqucs ct Litteraires," for 1850, published at Paris. Unfortunately, the map intended to accompany that account has not yet been prepared ; but the published data, as far as they go, have been employed by Kicpert in constructing his recent map of Turkey in Europe; the best map of these regions now exist ing, though still very imperfect. The Illustrations (Erlaiiterungcn) annex- ed by Kiepert to his map of Turkey, show the defective data on which th« chartography of this country is founded. Until the survey of M. Viques ncl, the liigher part of the course of the Strymon, and nearly all the cours* of the Nestus, may be said to have been wholly unknown. . ' Arrian, i. 4, 5 ; Strabo, vii. p. 301.