Passing over the legends on this subject, and confining ourselves to historical time, we find an established quadruple division of Thessaly, said to have been introduced in the time of Aleuas, the ancestor (real or mythical) of the powerful Aleuadæ,— Thessaliôtis, Pelasgiôtis, Histiæôtis, Phthiôtis.[1] In Phthiôtis were comprehended the Achæans, whose chief towns were Melitæa, Itônus, Thebæ, Phthiôtides, Alos, Larissa, Kremastê, and Pteleon, on or near the western coast of the gulf of Pagasæ. Histiæôtis, to the north of the Peneius, comprised the Perrhæbians, with numerous towns strong in situation, but of no great size or importance; they occupied the passes of Olympus[2] and are sometimes considered as extending westward across Pindus. Pelasgiôtis included the Magnêtes, together with that which was called the Pelasgic plain, bordering on the western side of Pelion and Ossa.[3] Thessaliôtis comprised the central plain of Thessaly and the upper course of the river Peneius. This was the political classification of the Thessalian power, framed to suit a time when the separate cities were maintained in harmonious action by favorable circumstances, or by some energetic individual ascendency; for their union was in general interrupted and disorderly, and we find certain cities standing aloof while the rest went to war.[4] Though a certain political junction, and obligations of some kind towards a common authority, were recognized in theory by all, and a chief, or Tagus,[5] was nominated to enforce
- ↑ Hellanikus, Fragm. 28, cd. Didot; Harpocration, v. (
Greek characters): the quadruple division was older than Hekatæus (Steph. Byz. v. (Greek characters) ). Hekatæus connected the Perrhæbians with the genealogy of Æolus through Tyrô, the daughter of Salmôneus: they passed as (Greek characters) (Hekatoeus, Frag 334, ed. Didot; Stephan. Byz. v. (Greek characters) and (Greek characters)).The territory of the city of Histiæa (in the north part of the island of Eubœa) was also called Histiæaotis. The double occurrence of this name (no uncommon thing in ancient Greece) seems to have given rise to the statement, that the Perrhæabi had subdued the northern parts of Eubœa, and carried over the inhabitants of the Eubœan Histiæaa captive into the north west of Thessaly (Strabo, ix. p. 437, x. p. 446).
- ↑ Pliny, II. N. iv. 1: Strabo, ix. p. 440.
- ↑ Strabo, ix. p. 443.
- ↑ Diodor. xviii. 11: TLiucyd. ii. 22.
- ↑ The Inscription No. 1770 in Boeckh's Corpus Inscript. contains a letter of the Roman consul, Titus Quinctius Flnmininus, addressed to the city of
