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47-515: Its main town was also called Trachis until 426 BC, when it was refounded as a Spartan colony and became Heraclea Trachinia . It is located to the west of Thermopylae . Trachis is located just west of the westernmost tip of the island of Euboea , north of Delphi . Near this place archaeologists discovered tombs from the Mycenaean period. According to Greek mythology Trachis was the home of Ceyx and Alcyone . Heracles went to Trachis after

94-469: A Thesprotian tribe (according to Herodotus , vii. 176; Veil. Pat. i. 3), and originally came from the Thesprotian Ephyra . Under the guidance of leaders, who are said to have been descendants of Heracles , they invaded the western part of the country afterwards called Thessaly, and drove out or reduced to the condition of Penestae , or bondsmen, the ancient Aeolian inhabitants. Afterwards,

141-512: A tagus , like that of a Roman dictator , was sometimes used as an expedient for keeping the commonalty under, appears very probable. At Larissa, the Aleuadae made some concessions to the popular party. Aristotle (Pol. v. 5) speaks, though we do not know at what time he refers to, of certain magistrates at Larissa, who bore the name of politophylakes and exercised a superintendence over the admission of freemen, and were elected themselves out of

188-840: A geographically diverse region, consisting of broad central plains surrounded by mountains. The plains are bounded by the Pindos Mountains to the west, Mount Othrys to the south, the Pelion and Ossa ranges to the east, and Mount Olympos to the North. The central plains consist of two basins, the Larisa basin and the Karditsa basin, drained by the Pineios River into the Vale of Tempe . The Pagasetic Gulf in southeastern Thessaly

235-636: A later time Heraclea came into the hands of the Aetolians , and was one of the main sources of their power in Northern Greece. After the defeat of Antiochus III at the Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC) , Heraclea was besieged by the Roman consul Acilius Glabrio , who divided his army into four bodies, and directed his attacks upon four points at once; one body being stationed on the river Asopus, where

282-450: A nominal one. Each district may have regulated its affairs by some kind of provincial council, but we are almost entirely in the dark concerning the internal government of each district. When occasion required, a chief magistrate was elected under the name of tagus , whose commands were obeyed by all four districts. He is sometimes called king ( basileus , Herod, v. 63), and sometimes archon (Dionys. v. 74.) He levied soldiers from

329-469: A princely manner ("hospitable, magnificent, the Thessalian way" Xenoph. Hell. vi. 1. § 3), and they attracted to their courts many of the poets and artists of southern Greece. However, the Thessalian commonality did not submit quietly to the exclusive rule of the nobles. Contests between the two classes seem to have arisen early, and the conjecture of Thirlwall (vol. i. p. 438), that the election of

376-414: A strong colony in this commanding situation. They issued an invitation to the other Dorian states of Greece to join in the colony; and as many as 10,000 colonists, under three Spartan oecists (Leon, Alcidas , and Damagon), built and fortified a new town, to which the name of Heraclea was given, from the great hero, whose name was so closely associated with the surrounding district. It was usually called

423-449: A tyranny, probably arising from a democracy, was established by Lycophron, who opposed the great aristocratical families and aimed at the dominion of all Thessaly. (Xenoph. Hell. ii. 3. § 4 ; ^Diod. xiv. 82.) The latter object was accomplished by Jason of Pherae , the successor, and probably the son, of Lycophron, who effected an alliance with Polydamas of Pharsalus and caused himself to be elected tagus about in 374 BC. While he lived,

470-473: The 6th century, when Procopius of Caesarea mentions it as part of Justinian I 's efforts to fortify the nearby pass of Thermopylae . According to Procopius, a wall was erected across the valley of the Asopos, and the town was strengthened with an otherwise unidentified fortress called Myropoles. Traces of Byzantine fortifications, as well as a cistern , survive on the site. The town was apparently abandoned in

517-522: The Great 's horse, Bucephalus , was originally from Pharsalos. The surrounding mountainous regions, however, were less suitable for agriculture and relied more heavily on pastoralism . Thessaly was home to extensive Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures around 6000 BC – 2500 BC (see Cardium pottery , Dimini and Sesklo ). Mycenaean settlements have also been discovered in Thessaly unearthing, at

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564-711: The Heracleots being slain in battle, together with the Lacedaemonian harmost (military governor). But, after the Peloponnesian War, Heraclea again rose into importance, and became the headquarters of the Spartan power in Northern Greece. In 399 BC, Herippidas the Lacedaemonian, was sent there to repress some factious movements in Heraclea ;; and he not only put to death all the opponents of

611-635: The Heracleots were defeated, and the town so reduced that in the following year, the Boeotians occupied it to prevent it falling into Athenian hands, and dismissed the Lacedaemonian governor, on the ground of misconduct. Thucydides tells us that the Spartans were "offended at the Boeotians for what they had done." The Lacedaemonians, however, regained possession of the place; and in the winter of 409-408 BC, they experienced here another disaster, 700 of

658-757: The Kastron of Palaia Hill, in Volos , tablets bearing Mycenaean Greek inscriptions, written in Linear B . In mythology, Thessaly was homeland of the heroes Achilles and Jason , as well of mythological creatures and peoples, Centaurs , Lapiths , Phlegyans and Myrmidons . Ancient tribes in Thessaly mentioned by Homer or other poets were: Aeolians , Magnetes , Perrhaebi and Pelasgians . The name of Thessaly recorded epigraphically in Aeolic variants * Πετταλία, Πετθαλία, Φετταλία, Θετταλία . The Thessalians were

705-580: The Lacedaemonians in the town, but expelled the neighbouring Oetaeans and Trachinians from their abodes. In 395 BC, the Thebans , under the command of Ismenias , wrested this important place from the Spartans, killed the Lacedaemonian garrison, and gave the city to the old Trachinian and Oetaean inhabitants. The walls of Heraclea were destroyed by Jason of Pherae , lest any state should seize this place and prevent him from marching into Greece. At

752-550: The Persians. (See Thorax of Larissa , Thargelia (hetaera) ) However, the power of the aristocratical families seems to have continued with little diminution until towards the close of the Peloponnesian War, when decidedly democratic movements first begin to appear. At this time, the Aleuadae and the Scopadae had lost much of their ancient influence. Pherae and Pharsalus then became the two leading states in Thessaly. At Pherae,

799-494: The Spartans, who rarely succeeded in the government of dependencies, displayed haughtiness and corruption in its administration. Hence the city rapidly dwindled down. Six years after its founding a battle took place between the inhabitants of Heraclea and the assembled forces of the Aenianes , Dolopes , Malians, and Thessalians who were directly menaced by the colony. Sparta was unable at the time to send assistance to their colony;

846-501: The Thessalians either as subordinates, dependents, or allies. The perioikoi were composed of Perrhaibia , Magnesia , Achaea Phthiotis , Dolopia , Ainis , Malis , and Oitaia . The three largest cities in Thessaly were Larisa (Pelasgiotis), Pherai (Pelasgiotis), and Pharsalos (Phthiotis). The Thessalian plains were ideally suited for cultivating grains and cereals, and were known in antiquity for horse-rearing. Alexander

893-483: The Thessalians spread over the other parts of the country, taking possession of the most fertile districts and compelling the Peraebi , Magnetes , Achaean Phthiotians and other neighbouring people to submit to their authority and to pay them tribute. Like Laconia, the population of Thessaly therefore consisted of three distinct classes: For some time after the conquest, Thessaly seems to have been governed by kings of

940-622: The Trachinian Heraclea, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, and by later writers Heraclea in Phthiotis (Ἡράκλεια Φθιώτιδος), as this district was subsequently included in the Thessalian Phthiotis . Thucydides also tells us that the Spartans thought the town would "lie conveniently for the purposes of the war with Athens ." From Heraclea the Spartans could ready a fleet to threaten Euboea , and

987-863: The Turkish haraç poll tax upon agricultural commodities. In World War II , the area saw significant resistance to the Germans. A vital railroad bridge linking southern and northern Greece was destroyed here. Today the village of Heraclea is a thriving agricultural community. Recent excavations have also revealed a series of small tombs at the foothills of Oeta near the banks of the Asopus river. Heraclea in Trachis Heraclea (Herakleia) in Trachis ( Ancient Greek : Ἡράκλεια ἡ ἐν Τραχῖνι ), also called Heraclea Trachinia ( Ἡράκλεια ἡ Τραχινία ),

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1034-608: The ancient government in the different towns. At Pherae, he is said to have restored popular, or at least republican, government.(Diod. xvi. 38.) The Thessalian people elected Philip archon tagus of the Thessalian League for life; a few years later (344 BC), he re-established the tetrarchies (or tetradarchie), installing governors devoted to his interests and who were probably members of the ancient noble families. (Demosthen. Philip, ii. p. 71, iii. p. 117; Harpocrat. s. v.). The Thessalian cavalry became also part of

1081-475: The assertion of Strabo, that Heraclea was six stadia distant from the ancient Trachis; for, although the town of Heraclea seems to have occupied the same position as the Trachis of Herodotus, the citadel, which, according to Livy, was better inhabited in the Aetolian War than the city, may very possibly have been the only inhabited part of Heraclea two centuries later. The city is attested at least until

1128-408: The body of the people whence they were led to court the people in a way unfavourable to the interests of the aristocracy. There were also other magistrates at Larissa of a democratic kind, called Larissopoioi . (Aristot. Pol. iii. 1.) Besides the contests between the oligarchical and democratical parties, there were feuds among the oligarchs themselves; and such was the state of parties at Larissa under

1175-514: The citadel. On the following day the consul seized a rocky summit, equal to the citadel in height, and separated from it only by a chasm so narrow that the two summits were within reach of a missile. Thereupon the Aetolians surrendered the citadel. William Martin Leake , who visited the site in the early 19th century, remarks that it seems quite clear from this account of Livy that the city occupied

1222-524: The city Trachis was 5 stadia from the river Melas , and that the river Asopus issued from a gorge in the mountains, to the south of Trachis. According to Thucydides , Trachis was 40 stadia from Thermopylae and 20 from the sea. Trachis (as Trachin) is mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad by Homer as one of the cities subject to Achilles , and is celebrated in the legends of Herakles as

1269-482: The death of Eunomus . The town is mentioned by Homer (as one of the cities subject to Achilles) and for the last time in antiquity by Pausanias . In antiquity the settlement was famous for being at the base of the mountain where Heracles is said to have died ( Mount Oeta ) as well as being the place where the descendants of Heracles settled. During the Greco-Persian wars , the fertile plains of Heraclea saw

1316-589: The following decades. Some modern scholars have tried to identify it with the later medieval settlements of Ravennika or Siderokastron , but these identifications are generally rejected as incompatible with the literary evidence. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William , ed. (1854–1857). "Trachis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . London: John Murray. Ancient Thessaly Thessaly or Thessalia ( Attic Greek : Θεσσαλία , Thessalía or Θετταλία , Thettalía )

1363-537: The government of the Aleuadae two generations before the Persian wars, that a magistrate was chosen by mutual consent, perhaps from the commonalty, to mediate between the parties ( archon mesidios , Aristot. Pol. v. 5). At Pharsalus too at the close of the Peloponnesian War , the state was torn asunder by internecine commotions and, for the sake of quiet and security, the citizens entrusted the acropolis and

1410-651: The hostility of the Thessalians . For a short time the Spartans were displaced by the Thebans . After a bloody defeat at the hands of the neighbouring mountaineers in 409, the Spartan governor quarrelled with the native settlers, whom he expelled in 399. Four years later Thebes used her new predominance in central Greece to restore the Trachinians, who retained Heraclea until 371, when the Thessalonian ruler Jason of Pherae seized and dismantled it. The fortress

1457-651: The landing and encampment of the Persian army as they marched to Thermopylae . The settlement formerly known as "Trachis" was renamed " Heraclea in Trachis /Trachinia" by the Spartans , who sent a garrison in 427 BC to guard the Trachinian plain against the marauding highland tribes of Oeta, and built a citadel close by the Asopus gorge. But their attempted settlement during the Peloponnesian war failed, due to

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1504-458: The low ground between the rivers Karvunariá (Asopus) and Mavra-Néria (Melas), extending from the one to the other, as well as a considerable distance into the plain in a south-eastern direction. There are still some vestiges of the citadel upon a lofty rock above; and upon its perpendicular sides there are many catacombs excavated. "The distance of the citadel above the town justifies the words extra muros, which Livy applies to it, and may explain also

1551-434: The plain of Lamia . It stood in a little to the north or rather west of Thermopylae , thus commanding the approach to Thermopylae from Thessaly , and was, from its position, of great military importance. The entrance to the Trachinian plain was only half a plethrum [50 feet (15 m)] in breadth, but the surface of the plain was 22,000 plethra [8 miles (13 km)], according to Herodotus . The same writer states that

1598-413: The race of Heracleidae , who may however have been only the heads of the great aristocratic families, invested with the supreme power for a certain time. Under one of these princes, named Aleuas , the country was divided into four districts – Phthiotis, Plistiaeotis, Thessaliotis and Pelasgiotis: This division continued throughout Thessalian history, and it may therefore be concluded that it was not merely

1645-542: The scene of his death. It became a place of historical importance in consequence of the colony founded here by the Lacedaemonians in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War, 426 BC. The Trachinians (a tribe of the Malians ) and the neighbouring Dorians , who suffered much from the predatory incursions of the Oetaean mountaineers, solicited aid from the Spartans, who eagerly availed themselves of this opportunity to plant

1692-408: The states in each district, and seems to have fixed the amount of tribute to be paid by the allies. (Xenoph. Hell. vi. 1. § 19.) When Jason of Pherae was tagus , he had an army of more than 8,000 cavalry and not less than 20,000 hoplites (Xenoph../. c.), and Jason himself says that when Thessaly is under a tagus , there is an army of 6,000 cavalry and 10,000 hoplites. The tribute Jason levied from

1739-622: The subject towns was the same as had been previously paid by one of the Scopadae family, whom Buttmann supposes to be the same Scopas as the one mentioned by Aelian ( V. H. xii. 1) as a contemporary of Cyrus the younger . When Thessaly was not united under the government of a tagus , the subject towns possessed more independence. (Xenoph. Hell. vi. 1. § 9.) In later times, some states called their ordinary magistrates tagoi (Bockh, Corp. Liscr. n. 1770), which may have been done however, as Hermann suggests, only out of affectation. However, Thessaly

1786-456: The town would be "a useful station on the road to Thrace ." The new colonists also built a port with docks near Thermopylae. It was generally expected that this city, under the protection of Sparta, would become a formidable power in Northern Greece; however, soon after the town was founded, things began to go quite badly. It was attacked from the beginning by the Thessalians , who regarded its establishment as an invasion of their territory; and

1833-476: The whole direction of the government to Polydamas of Pharsalus , who discharged his trust with the strictest integrity. (Xenoph. Hell. vi. 1. § 2, 3.) In the summer of 480 BC, during the Second Persian invasion of Greece , the Persians invaded Thessaly. The Greek army that guarded the Vale of Tempe , evacuated the road before the enemy arrived. Not much later, Thessaly surrendered and the Aleuadae joined

1880-471: The whole of Thessaly was united as one political power but, after his murder in 370 BC, his family was torn asunder by internecine discords and did not maintain its dominion for long. The office of tagus became a tyranny under his successors, Polydorus, Polyphron, Alexander , Tisiphonus , and Lycophron; until, at length, the old aristocratical families called in the assistance of Philip II of Macedon , who deprived Lycophron of his power in 353 BC, and restored

1927-476: Was a colony founded by the Spartans in 426 BC, the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War . It was also a polis (city-state). Originally called Trachis (Τραχίς), or by Strabo , Trachin (Τραχίν), the city was in the region of Malis , in the district called after, it Trachinia. It was located on a rocky plateau above the left bank of the Asopos River , at the point where it leaves Mount Oeta for

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1974-493: Was and is the only body of water suitable for harbours in the region. Strictly speaking, Thessaly refers primarily to the central plains inhabited by the Thessalians in antiquity. The plains were divided into four administrative regions called tetrads: Pelasgiotis , Phthiotis , Thessaliotis , and Histiaeotis . In its broader sense, Thessaly also included the surrounding regions called the perioikoi , which were regions inhabited by different ethnic groups that were closely tied to

2021-582: Was chiefly in the hands of a few great families, who were descended from the ancient kings. Thus Larissa was subject to the Aleuadae , whence Herodotus (vii. 6) calls them kings of Thessaly ; Cranon or Crannon to the Scopadae, and Pharsalus to the Creondae . (Compare Theocr. xvi. -34, &c.) These nobles had vast estates cultivated by the Penestae; they were celebrated for their hospitality and lived in

2068-403: Was hardly ever united under one government. The different cities administered their own affairs independently of one another, though the smaller towns seem to have frequently "been under the influence of the more important ones (Xenoph. Hell. vi. 1. § 8). In almost all the cities, the form of government was aristocratical ("dynastic rule rather than isonomy ", according to Thucyd. iv. 78), and it

2115-521: Was one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece . During the Mycenaean period , Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of the major tribes of Greece, the Aeolians , and their dialect of Greek, Aeolic . At its greatest extent, ancient Thessaly was a wide area stretching from Mount Olympus to the north to the Spercheios Valley to the south. Thessaly is

2162-625: Was rebuilt, and after 280 served the Aetolians as a bulwark against Celts and Macedonians . It was captured in 191 by the Romans , but restored to the Aetolian League until 146, after which it fell into obscurity, and Strabo described it as mostly deserted. During the Greek War of Independence the area was famous for its resistance fighters or klephts , a term which means mountain fighters or bandits, and includes those who opposed

2209-528: Was the gymnasium ; the second near the citadel outside of the walls ( extra muros ), which was almost more thickly inhabited than the city itself; the third towards the Maliac Gulf ; and the fourth on the river Melas, opposite the temple of Diana . The country around was marshy, and abounded in lofty trees. After a siege of twenty-four days the Romans succeeded in taking the town, and the Aetolians retired to

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