Palaepharsalus

Coordinates: 39°17′15″N 22°32′34″E / 39.28748°N 22.54271°E / 39.28748; 22.54271 Palaepharsalus or Palaipharsalos (Ancient Greek: Παλαιοφάρσαλος - meaning "Old Pharsalus") was a town of ancient Thessaly, from which the town translated locations to the later location of Pharsalus.[1] The geographer Strabo speaks of two towns, Palaepharsalus, and Phasalus, existing in historical times. His statement that the Thetideion, the temple to Thetis south of Scotussa, was "near both the Pharsaloi, the Old and the New," seems to imply that Palaeopharsalus was not itself close by Pharsalus.[2] Although the battle of 48 BCE between Julius Caesar and Pompey is called the Battle of Pharsalus, four ancient writers – the author of the Bellum Alexandrinum,[3] Frontinus,[4] Eutropius,[5] and Orosius[6] – place it specifically at Palaepharsalus. In 198 BCE Philip V had sacked Palaepharsalus.[7] If that town had been close to Pharsalus he would have sacked both, and Livy would have written "Pharsalus" instead of "Palaeopharsalus". The British scholar F. L. Lucas demonstrated that the battle of 48 BCE must have been fought north of the Enipeus, near modern-day Krini.[8] It has been suggested that Krini was built on the site of Palaeopharsalus, where the old road south from Larissa emerged from the hills on to the Pharsalian Plain.[9]

The site of Palaepharsalus is now thought to be within the confines of the modern village of Xylades.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Livy. Ab Urbe Condita Libri (History of Rome). 32.13.
  2. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. 9.5.6. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  3. ↑ Bellum Alexandrinum, 48.1.
  4. ↑ Frontinus, Strategemata 2.3.22.
  5. ↑ Eutropius, 20.
  6. ↑ Orosius, 6.15.27.
  7. ↑ Livy. Ab Urbe Condita Libri (History of Rome). 32.13.9.
  8. ↑ F. L. Lucas, Annual of the British School at Athens, No. XXIV, 1919–21.
  9. ↑ John D. Morgan in “Palae-pharsalus – the Battle and the Town”, The American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 87, No. 1, Jan. 1983
  10. ↑ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying.
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