The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3)

had devoted his hair to the Spercheius; and from the circumstance, that Menesthius, one of his commanders, was said to be the son of Spercheius and the sister of Achilles.

It is probable that all the people under the command of Achilles and Patroclus, and who had accompanied Peleus in his banishment from Ægina, had the name of Myrmidons, but all the Phthiotæ were called Achæans.

10. They reckon in the Phthiotic district, which was subject to Achilles, beginning from the Malienses, a considerable number of towns, and among them Thebæ Phthiotides, Echinus, Lamia, near which the war was carried on between the Macedonians and Antipater, against the Athenians. In this war Leosthenes, the Athenian general, was killed, [and Leonnatus,] one of the companions of Alexander the king. Besides the above-mentioned towns, we must add [Narthac]ium, Erineus, Coroneia, of the same name as the town in Bœotia, Melitæa, Thaumaci, Proerna, Pharsalus, Eretria, of the same name as the Euboic town, Paracheloïtæ, of the same name as those in Ætolia; for here also, near Lamia, is a river Achelous, on the banks of which live the Paracheloïtæ.

This district, lying to the north, extended to the north-western territory of the Asclepiadæ, and to the territory of Eurypylus and Protesilaus, inclining to the east; on the south it adjoined the Œtæan territory, which was divided into fourteen demi, and contained Heracleia and Dryopis, which was once a community of four cities, (a Tetrapolis,) like Doris, and accounted the capital of the Dryopes in Peloponnesus. To the Œtæan district belong also the Acyphas, Parasopias, Œneiadæ, and Anticyra, of the same name as the town among the Locri Hesperii. I do not mean that these divisions always continued the same, for they underwent various changes. The most remarkable, however, are worthy of notice.

11. The poet with sufficient clearness describes the situation of the Dolopes, as at the extremity of Phthia, and says that both they and the Phthiotæ were under the command of the same chief, Peleus;

“I lived,” he says, “at the farthest part of Phthia, king of the Dolopes.”[505]

Peleus, however, had conferred on him the authority.

This region is close to Pindus, and the places about it, most of which belong to the Thessalians. For in consequence of the renown and ascendency of the Thessalians and Macedonians, those Epeirotæ, who bordered nearest upon them, became, some voluntarily, others by force, incorporated among the Macedonians and Thessalians. In this manner the Athamanes, Æthices, and Talares were joined to the Thessalians, and the Orestæ, Pelagones, and Elimiotæ to the Macedonians.

12. Pindus is a large mountain, having on the north Macedonia, on the west Perrhæbi, settlers from another country, on the south Dolopes, [and on the east Hestiæotis] which belongs to Thessaly. Close upon Pindus dwelt Talares, a tribe of Molotti, detached from the Molotti about Mount Tomarus, and Æthices, among whom the poet says the Centaurs took refuge when expelled by Peirithous.[506] They are at present, it is said, extinct. But this extinction is to be understood in two senses; either the inhabitants have been exterminated, and the country deserted, or the name of the nation exists no longer, or the community does not preserve its ancient form. Whenever the community, which continues, is insignificant, we do not think it worth while to record either its existence or its change of name. But when it has any just pretensions to notice, it is necessary to remark the change which it has undergone.

13. It remains for us to describe the tract of sea-coast subject to Achilles: we begin from Thermopylæ, for we have spoken of the coast of Locris, and of the interior.