Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/301

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

CCT/KAXS.-.EXIAXES. 285 distinct matter of fact from these legends, we may, nevertheless, admit the connection of race between the Thessalian and the Asiatic Magnetes, as well as the reverential dependence of both, manifested in this supposed filiation, on the temple of Delphi Of the Magnetos in Krete, noticed by Plato as long extinct in his time, we cannot absolutely verify even the existence. Of the Malians, Thucydides notices three tribes (ytv>]) at* existing in his time, the Paralii, the Hieres (priests), and the Trachinii, or men of Trachiu :' it is possible that the second oi" the two may have been possessors of the sacred spot on which the Amphiktyonic meetings were held. The prevalence of the hoplites or heavy-armed infantry among the Malians, indicates that we are stepping from Thessalian to more southerly Hellenic habits : the Malians recognized every man as a qualified citizen, who either had served, or was serving, in the ranks with his full panoply. 2 Yet the panoply was probably not perfectly suitable to the mountainous regions by which they were surrounded ; for, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the aggressive moun- taineers of the neighboring region of CEta, had so harassed and Iloeck (Kreta, b. iii. vol. ii. p. 409) attempts (unsuccessfully, in my judg- ment) to reduce these stories into the form of substantial history. 1 Thucyd.iii. 92. The distinction made by Skylax (c. 61) and Diodorns (xviii. 11) between M^?at?c and Ma?uf the latter adjoining the former on the north appears inadmissible, though Letronne still defends it (Pe'ri- ple de Marcien d'Heracle'e, etc., Paris, 1839, p. 212). Instead of Mastic, we ought to read Aa^/eif, as 0. Miiller observes (Do- rians, i. 6, p. 48). It is remarkable that the important town of Lamia (the modern Zeitun) is not noticed either by Herodotus, Thucydides, or Xenophon ; Skylax is the first who mentions it. The route of Xerxes towards Thermopylae lay along the coast from Alos. TheLamieis (assuming that to be the correct reading) occupied the north- ern coast of the Maliac gulf, from the north bank of the Spercheius to the town of Echinus : in which position Dr. Cramer places the Mv/Uctf Uapd^toi an error, I think (Geography of Greece, vol. i. p. 436). It is not improbable that Lamia first acquired importance during the course of those events towards the close of the Peloponnesian war, when the Lacedaemonians, in defence of Herakleia, attacked the Achaeans of Phthiotis, and even expelled the (Etseans for a time from their seats (see Thucyd. viii 3 ; Diodor. xiv. 38). 2 Aristot. Polit. iv. 10, 10.