Listed 100 (total found 278) sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for wider area of: "GREECE Country EUROPE" .
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Gymnesii or Gymnetes (gumnesioi or gumnetes). A class of bond-slaves at Argos, who may be compared with the Helots at Sparta (Steph. Byz. s. v. Chios; Pollux, iii. 83). Their name shows that they attended their masters on military service in the capacity of light-armed troops, but no particulars are known about them.
This word primarily denotes the inhabitants of a district lying around some particular locality, but is generally used to describe a dependent population, living without the walls or in the country provinces of a dominant city, and, although personally free, deprived of the enjoyment of citizenship and the political rights conferred by it.
...From the account given above of the probable origin of the Perioeci of Sparta
we should naturally expect to find a subject population of this kind existing
in most Greek states, which are known to have experienced immigrations not resulting
in a total change of population, but in a combined residence of populations of
different nationality. Immigrations of this kind, which resulted in combined settlements,
were in a high degree the characteristic of Dorian movements; and accordingly
we should expect to find a Perioecic population as the basis of the early Dorian
states. This is in the main verified by facts. In Argos, for instance, we have
an undoubted Perioecic population; and although no true Perioeci can be identified
in cities like Sicyon and Corinth, or most of the later Dorian colonies, this
is easily explained by the fact that these states were created after the movement
of the great Dorian migration was over. The Perioeci of Argos were called Orneatae
from the town of Orneae, apparently the first or the most important town reduced
to this condition by the Argives (Herod. viii. 73). These Orneatae are called
summachoi of the Argives by Thucydides (v. 67, and Arnold's note), and with them
are classed the inhabitants of Cleonae; but that they were Perioeci appears from
the passage of Herodotus, in which he is evidently translating the less familiar
Argive term Orneatae into the more familiar Spartan one Perioeci, to show the
status of the Cynurian population he is describing. How large the Perioecic population
of Argolis was we do not know. A large part of it, Cynuria, was taken by the Spartans
(Herod. i. 82); and the two great Achaean townships, Mycenae and Tiryns, were
certainly not Perioecic towns at the time of the Persian war (Id. vii. 102, ix.
28). After their destruction by Argos about 468 B.C. (Diod. xi. 65), they may
possibly have been reduced to this condition.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ATHENS (Ancient city) GREECE
The Athenians, while the Pelasgians ruled what is now called Hellas, were Pelasgians, bearing the name of Cranai. When Cecrops was their king they were called Cecropidae, and when Erechtheus succeeded to the rule, they changed their name and became Athenians. When, however, Ion son of Xuthus was commander of the Athenian army, they were called after him Ionians.
AZANIA (Ancient area) ARKADIA
The Arcadian tribes "the Azanes, the Parrhasians, and other such peoples" are reputed to be the most ancient tribes of the Greeks
DELOS (Island) KYKLADES
Concerning the Hyperborean people, neither the Scythians nor any other inhabitants of these lands tell us anything, except perhaps the Issedones. And, I think, even they say nothing; for if they did, then the Scythians, too, would have told, just as they tell of the one-eyed men. But Hesiod speaks of Hyperboreans, and Homer too in his poem The Heroes' Sons, if that is truly the work of Homer.
But the Delians say much more about them than any others do. They say that offerings wrapped in straw are brought from the Hyperboreans to Scythia; when these have passed Scythia, each nation in turn receives them from its neighbors until they are carried to the Adriatic sea, which is the most westerly limit of their journey; from there, they are brought on to the south, the people of Dodona being the first Greeks to receive them. From Dodona they come down to the Melian gulf, and are carried across to Euboea, and one city sends them on to another until they come to Carystus; after this, Andros is left out of their journey, for Carystians carry them to Tenos, and Tenians to Delos.
I know that they do this. The Delian girls and boys cut their hair in honor of these Hyperborean maidens, who died at Delos; the girls before their marriage cut off a tress and lay it on the tomb, wound around a spindle (this tomb is at the foot of an olive-tree, on the left hand of the entrance of the temple of Artemis); the Delian boys twine some of their hair around a green stalk, and lay it on the tomb likewise.
In this way, then, these maidens are honored by the inhabitants of Delos. These same Delians relate that two virgins, Arge and Opis, came from the Hyperboreans by way of the aforesaid peoples to Delos earlier than Hyperoche and Laodice; these latter came to bring to Eileithyia the tribute which they had agreed to pay for easing child-bearing; but Arge and Opis, they say, came with the gods themselves, and received honors of their own from the Delians. For the women collected gifts for them, calling upon their names in the hymn made for them by Olen of Lycia; it was from Delos that the islanders and Ionians learned to sing hymns to Opis and Arge, calling upon their names and collecting gifts (this Olen, after coming from Lycia, also made the other and ancient hymns that are sung at Delos). Furthermore, they say that when the thighbones are burnt in sacrifice on the altar, the ashes are all cast on the burial-place of Opis and Arge, behind the temple of Artemis, looking east, nearest the refectory of the people of Ceos.
I have said this much of the Hyperboreans, and let it suffice; for I do not tell the story of that Abaris, alleged to be a Hyperborean, who carried the arrow over the whole world, fasting all the while. But if there are men beyond the north wind, then there are others beyond the south. And I laugh to see how many have before now drawn maps of the world, not one of them reasonably; for they draw the world as round as if fashioned by compasses, encircled by the Ocean river, and Asia and Europe of a like extent. For myself, I will in a few words indicate the extent of the two, and how each should be drawn.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Feb 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
EVIA (Island) GREECE
There were also some Aeolians from the army of Penthilus who remained in the island, and, in ancient times, some Arabians who had crossed over with Cadmus.
KAFYES (Ancient city) LEVIDI
The inhabitants say that originally they were from Attica, but on being expelled from Athens by Aegeus they fled to Arcadia, threw themselves on the mercy of Cepheus, and found a home in the country. (Paus. 8.23.2)
KARYSTOS (Ancient city) EVIA
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KYDONIA (Ancient city) CHANIA
Of these peoples, according to Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the part
towards the east, the Cydonians the western part, the Eteo-Cretans the southern;
and to these last belongs the town Prasus, where is the temple of the Dictaean
Zeus; whereas the other peoples, since they were more powerful, dwelt in the plains.
Now it is reasonable to suppose that the Eteo-Cretans and the Cydonians were autochthonous
KYTHNOS (Island) KYKLADES
The expelled ( from Mount Oeta by Malians and Hearcles) Dryopes settled at Hermione and Asine in the Peloponnese, at Styra, and Carystus in Euboea; also in Cythnus and in Ionia
LAKEDEMON (Ancient country) PELOPONNISOS
(Heilotai), and Helotes (Heilotes). The Helots or bondsmen of the
Spartans. The common account of the origin of this class is, that the inhabitants
of the maritime town of Helos were reduced by Sparta to this state of degradation,
after an insurrection against the Dorians already established in power. This explanation,
however, rests merely on an etymology, and that by no means probable. The word
Heilos is probably a derivative from helein in a passive sense, and consequently
means "a prisoner"- a derivation known in ancient times. It seems likely
that they were an aboriginal race, which was subdued at a very early period, and
which immediately passed over as slaves to the Doric conquerors. In speaking of
the condition of the Helots, their political rights and their personal treatment
will be considered under different heads, though in fact the two subjects are
very nearly connected.
The first were doubtless exactly defined by law and custom, though
the expressions made use of by ancient authors are frequently vague and ambiguous.
"They were," says Ephorus, "in a certain point of view public slaves.
Their possessor could neither liberate them nor sell them beyond the borders."
From this it is evident that they were considered as belonging properly to the
State, which to a certain degree permitted them to be possessed by individuals,
reserving to itself the power of enfranchising them. But to sell them out of the
country was not in the power even of the State; and such an event seems never
to have occurred. It is, upon the whole, most probable that individuals had no
power to sell them at all, as they belonged chiefly to the landed property, and
this was inalienable. On these lands they had certain fixed dwellings of their
own, and particular services and payments were prescribed to them. They paid as
rent a fixed measure of corn; not, however, like the Perioeci, to the State, but
to their masters. As this quantity had been definitely settled at a very early
period, the Helots were the persons who profited by a good, and lost by a bad,
harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to industry and good husbandry,
as would not have been the case if the profit and loss had merely affected the
landlords. In fact, by this means, as is proved by the accounts respecting the
Spartan agriculture, a careful cultivation of the soil was kept up. By means of
the rich produce of the lands, and in part by plunder obtained in war, they collected
a considerable property, to the attainment of which almost every access was closed
to the Spartans. The cultivation of the land, however, was not the only duty of
the Helots; they also, at the public meals, attended upon their masters, who,
according to the Lacedaemonian principle of a community of property, mutually
lent them to one another. A large number of them was also employed by the State
in public works. In the field the Helots never served as hoplites, except in extraordinary
cases; and then it was the general practice afterwards to give them their liberty.
This seems first to have occurred under Brasidas in B.C. 424. On other occasions
they attended the regular army as light-armed troops (psiloi); and that their
numbers were very considerable may be seen from the battle of Plataea, in which
5000 Spartans were attended by 35,000 Helots. Although they did not share the
honour of the heavy-armed soldiers, they were in turn exposed to a less degree
of danger; for, while the former, in close rank, received the onset of the enemy
with spear and shield, the Helots, armed only with their slings and javelins,
were in a moment either before or behind the ranks, as Tyrtaeus accurately describes
the relative duties of the light-armed soldier (gumnes) and the hoplite. Sparta,
in her better days, is never recorded to have unnecessarily sacrificed the lives
of her Helots. A certain number of them were allotted to each Spartan. At the
battle of Plataea this number was seven. Those who were assigned to a single master
were probably called ampittares. Of these, however, one in particular was the
servant (therapon) of his master, as in the story of the blind Spartan, who was
conducted by his Helot into the thickest of the battle of Thermopylae, and, while
the latter fled, fell with the other heroes. It appears that the other Helots
were in the field placed more immediately under the command of the king than the
rest of the army. In the fleet they composed the large mass of the sailors, in
which service at Athens the inferior citizens and slaves were employed. It is
a matter of much greater difficulty to form a clear notion of the treatment of
the Helots, and of their manner of life; for the rhetorical spirit with which
later historians have embellished their views has been productive of much confusion
and misconception. Myron of Priene, in his account of the Messenian War, drew
a very dark picture of Sparta, and endeavoured at the end to rouse the feelings
of his readers by a description of the fate which the conquered underwent. "The
Helots," says he, "perform for the Spartans every ignominious service.
They are compelled to wear a cap of dog's skin (kune), to have a covering of sheep's
skin (diphthera), and are severely beaten every year without having committed
any fault, in order that they may never forget they are slaves. In addition to
this, those among them who, either by their stature or their beauty, raise themselves
above the condition of a slave, are condemned to death, and the masters who do
not destroy the most manly of them are liable to punishment." Myron's statements,
however, are to be received with considerable caution.
Plutarch relates that the Helots were compelled to intoxicate themselves,
and to perform indecent dances, as a warning to the Spartan youth. Yet Helot women
discharged the office of nurse in the royal palaces, and doubtless obtained the
affection with which the attendants of early youth were honoured in ancient times.
It is, however, certain that the Doric laws did not bind servants to strict temperance;
and hence examples of drunkenness among them might well have served as a means
of recommending sobriety. It was also an established regulation that the national
songs and dances of Sparta were forbidden to the Helots, who, on the other hand,
had some extravagant and lascivious dances peculiar to themselves, which may have
given rise to the above report. It was the curse of this bondage, which Plato
terms the hardest in Greece, that the slaves abandoned their masters when they
stood in greatest need of their assistance; and hence the Spartans were even compelled
to stipulate in treaties for aid against their own subjects. A more favourable
side of the Spartan system of bondage is seen in the fact that a legal way to
liberty and citizenship stood open to the Helots. The many intermediate steps
seem to prove the existence of a regular mode of transition from the one rank
to the other. The Helots who were esteemed worthy of an especial confidence were
called argeioi; the aphetai were probably released from all service. The desposionautai,
who served in the fleets, resembled probably the freedmen of Attica, who were
called "the out-dwellers" (hoi choris oikountes). When they received
their liberty, they also obtained permission to dwell where they wished, and probably,
at the same time, a portion of land was granted them without the lot of their
former masters. After they had been in possession of liberty for some time, they
appear to have been called neodamodeis, the number of whom soon came near to that
of the citizens. The mothones or mothakes were Helots, who, being brought up together
with the young Spartans, obtained freedom without the rights of citizenship.
The number of the Helots has been estimated by K. O. Muller and Schomann
as having been some 225,000 at the time of the battle of Plataea, as against an
estimated total population of 380,000 or 400,000.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MALIAKOS GULF (Gulf) FTHIOTIDA
MANTINIA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
Wars of, five hundred Mantineans sent to Thermopylae, their late arrival at Plataea, allied with Eleans, Athenians, and Argives, dispersed in villages by Agesipolis, at war with Lacedaemonians, fight on Roman side at Actium, dedicate image of Apollo at Delphi and image of Victory at Olympia.
MYTILINI (Ancient city) LESVOS
Methymna, the second town in Lesbos, was under a democracy, Mytilene under an oligarchy
NAXOS (Island) KYKLADES
The Naxians are Ionians descended from Athens.
PLATEES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
That of Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plateans, the Messenians in Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria upon the sea with her Dorian neighbors, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the islands lying between Peloponnese and Crete towards the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera.
RHODES (Island) DODEKANISSOS
Homer clearly testifies that, among these, Rhodes and Cos were already inhabited by Greeks before the Trojan War
It is also related of the Rhodians that they have been prosperous by sea, not merely since the time when they founded the present city, but that even many years before the establishment of the Olympian Games they used to sail far away from their homeland to insure the safety of their people. Since that time, also, they have sailed as far as Iberia; and there they founded Rhodes, of which the Massaliotes later took possession; among the Opici they founded Parthenope; and among the Daunians they, along with the Coans, founded Elpiae. Some say that the islands called the Gymnesiae were founded by them after their departure from Troy; and the larger of these, according to Timaeus, is the largest of all islands alter the seven--Sardinia, Sicily, Cypros, Crete, Euboea, Cyrnos, and Lesbos, but this is untrue, for there are others much larger. It is said that "gymnetes " are called "balearides" by the Phoenicians, and that on this account the Gymnesiae were called Balearides. Some of the Rhodians took up their abode round Sybaris in Chonia. The poet, too, seems to bear witness to the prosperity enjoyed by the Rhodians from ancient times, forthwith from the first founding of the three cities:
and there his people settled in three divisions by tribes, and were loved of Zeus, who is lord over gods and men; and upon them,wondrous wealth was shed by the son of Cronus.
Other writers refer these verses to a myth, and say that gold rained on the island at the time when Athena was born from the head of Zeus, as Pindar states.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Feb 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
One of the chief recruiting places in the fourth century was Corinth, and afterwards for a time the district near the promontory of Taenarum in Lacedaemon.
TEGEA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
Save the sons of Alcmaeon from the pursuing Psophidians, formerly dwelt in townships, at war with Lacedaemonians, defeat and capture Lacedaemonians, five hundred Tegeans sent to Thermopylae, offerings of Tegeans at Delphi made from Lacedaemonian booty, Tegean tribes.
VOULIS (Ancient city) VIOTIA
More than half its inhabitants are fishers of the shell-fish that gives the purple dye.
ACHAIA (Ancient country) GREECE
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Iones, Ionians; one of the two great original divisions of the Hellenic race, the other being the Doric. Their ancestors at an early period spread over the coasts of Asia Minor, and there established a people of great commercial and intellectual activity, while the ancestors of the Dorians settled in the highlands of Northern Greece. In Asia the Ionians came into close contact with the Semitic peoples, especially at Miletus, and from them received an impulse towards civilization which they in turn imparted to their kinsmen on the other side of the Aegaean. Their name (under the form Iaones) occurs only once in the Iliad, but not long after this we find them in Attica and in a part of the Peloponnesus. Their name was by them derived from that of the mythical Ion, adopted son of Xuthus. The Oriental peoples called the Greeks indiscriminately by the name "Ionians".
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AKARNANIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
(Leleges). An ancient race, frequently mentioned with the Pelasgians as the prehistoric inhabitants of Greece. The Leleges were described as a warlike and migratory race, who first took possession of the coasts and the islands of Greece, and afterwards penetrated into the interior. Piracy was probably their chief occupation; and they are represented as the ancestors of the Teleboans and the Taphians, who were notorious for their piracies. The name of the Leleges was derived by the Greeks from an ancestor, Lelex, who is called king of either Megaris or Lacedaemon. They must be regarded as a branch of the great Indo-Germanic race, who became gradually incorporated with the Hellenes, and thus ceased to exist as an independent people. They are spoken of as inhabiting Acarnania and Aetolia, and afterwards Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, Megaris, Elis, and Laconia, which last was originally called Lelegia; also (in Asia Minor) Ionia, the southern part of the Troad, and Caria.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ALONISSOS (Island) NORTH SPORADES
They were the first inhabitants of the island.
AOOS (River) EPIRUS
Paravaei (Parauaioi, Thuc. ii. 80; Rhianus, ap. Steph. B. s. v.),
an Epirot tribe, whose territories, conterminous with those of the Orestae, were
situated on the banks of the Aous ( Viosa), from which they took their name. In
the third year of the Peloponnesian War, a body of them, under their chief Oroedus,
joined Cnemus (Thuc. l. c.), the Lacedaemonian commander. Arrian (Anab. i. 7),
describing the route of Alexander from Elimiotis (Grevena and Tjersemba) to Pelinnaeum
in Thessaly, which stood a little to the E. of Trikkala, remarks that Alexander
passed by the highlands of Paravaea, - Lazari and Smolika, with the adjacent mountains.
The seat of this tribe must be confined to the valleys of the main
or E. branch of the Aous, and the mountains in which that river originates, extending
from the Aoi Stena or Klisura, as far S. as the borders of Tymphaea and the Molossi,
and including the central and fertile district of Konitza, with the N. part of
Zagori. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 115 - 120, 195.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AVES (Ancient city) ATALANTI
The ancient inhabitants of Euboea. They are said to have been of Thracian origin, to have first settled in Phocis, where they built Abae, and afterwards to have crossed over to Euboea. The Abantes of Euboea assisted in colonizing several of the Ionic cities of Asia Minor.
Aristotle says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the island (Euboea) and renamed those who held it Abantes. (Strab. 10,1,3)
Since it was still a custom at that time for youth who were coming
of age to go to Delphi and sacrifice some of their hair to the god, Theseus went
to Delphi for this purpose, and they say there is a place there which still to
this day is called the Theseia from him. But he sheared only the fore part of
his head, just as Homer1 said the Abantes did, and this kind of tonsure was called
Theseis after him.
Now the Abantes were the first to cut their hair in this manner, not
under instruction from the Arabians, as some suppose, nor yet in emulation of
the Mysians, but because they were war-like men and close fighters, who had learned
beyond all other men to force their way into close quarters with their enemies.
Archilochus is witness to this in the following words:
Not many bows indeed will be stretched tight, nor frequent slings
Be whirled, when Ares joins men in the moil of war
Upon the plain, but swords will do their mournful work;
For this is the warfare wherein those men are expert
Who lord it over Euboea and are famous with the spear.
Therefore, in order that they might not give their enemies a hold
by their hair, they cut it off. And Alexander of Macedon doubtless understood
this when, as they say, he ordered his generals to have the beards of their Macedonians
shaved, since these afforded the readiest hold in battle.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Archemachus the Euboean says that the Curetes settled at Chalcis, but since they were continually at war for the Lelantine Plain and the enemy would catch them by the front hair and drag them down, he says, they let their hair grow long behind but cut short the part in front, and because of this they were called Curetes, from the cut of their hair, and they then migrated to Aetolia, and, after taking possession of the region round Pleuron, called the people who lived on the far side of the Achelous Acarnanians, because they kept their heads unshorn.
CHIOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Pherecydes says concerning this seaboard that Miletus and Myus and the parts round Mycale and Ephesus were in earlier times occupied by Carians, and that the coast next thereafter, as far as Phocaea and Chios and Samos, which were ruled by Ancaeus, was occupied by Leleges, but that both were driven out by the Ionians and took refuge in the remaining parts of Caria.
Abantes from Euboea came to the island
DENTHELITIKI (Ancient area) KAVALA
Dentheletae (Dentheletai, Strab. vii. p. 318; Danthaletai, Steph.
B.; Denseletae, Cic. in Pis. 34; Plin. iv. 11), a Thracian people who occupied
a district called, after them, Dentheletica (Dantheletike, Ptol. iii. 11. § 8),
which seems to have bordered on that occupied by the Maedi towards the SE., near
the sources of the Strymon. Philip, son of Demetrius, in his fruitless expedition
to the summit of Mount Haemus after rejoining his camp in Maedica, made an incursion
into the country of the Dentheletae, for the sake of provision. (Liv. xl. 22.)
(Comp. Polyb. xxiv. 6; Dion Cass. li. 23 ; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p.
474.)
They were the first inhabitants of Doris.
The city became afterwards the capital of the Malians.
EOLIS (Ancient area) THESSALIA
Aeoles (Aioleis) or Aeolii, one of the four races into which the Hellenes
are usually divided, axe represented as descendants of the mythical Aeolus, the
son of Hellen. (Diet. of Biogr. s. v. Aeolus.) Hellen is said to have left his
kingdom in Thessaly to Aeolus, his eldest son. (Apollod. i. 7. § 3.) A portion
of Thessaly was in ancient times called Aeolis, in which Arne was the chief town.
It was from this district that the Aeolian Boeotians were driven out by the Thessalians,
and came to Boeotia. (Herod. vii. 176; Diod. iv. 67; Thuc. i. 12.) It is supposed
by some that this Aeolis was the district on the Pagasetic gulf; but there are
good reasons for believing that it was in the centre of Thessaly, and nearly the
same as the district Thessaliotis in later times. (Muller, Dorians, vol. ii. p.
475, seq.) We find the Aeolians in many other parts of Greece, besides Thessaly
and Boeotia; and in the earliest times they appear as the most powerful and the
most numerous of the Hellenic races. The wealthy Minyae appear to have been Aeolians;
and we have mention of Aeolians in Aetolia and Locris, at Corinth, in Elis, in
Pylus and in Messenia. Thus a great part of northern Greece, and the western side
of Peloponnesus were inhabited at an early period by the Aeolian race. In most
of these Aeolian settlements we find a predilection for maritime situations; and
Poseidon appears to have been the deity chiefly worshipped by them. The Aeolians
also migrated to Asia Minor where they settled in the district called after them
Aeolis, and also in the island of Lesbos. The Aeolian migration is generally represented
as the first of the series of movements produced by the irruption of the Aeolians
into Boeotia, and of the Dorians into Peloponnesus. The Achaeans, who had been
driven from their homes in the Peloponnesus by the Dorians, were believed to have
been joined in Boeotia by a part of the ancient inhabitants of Boeotia and of
their Aeolian conquerors. The latter seem to have been predominant in influence,
for from them the migration was called the Aeolian, and sometimes the Boeotian.
An account of the early settlements and migrations of the Aeolians is given at
length by Thirlwall, to which we must refer our readers for details and authorities.
(Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 88, seq. vol. ii. p. 82, seq.; comp. Grote, Hist.
of Greece, vol. i. p. 145, seq., vol. ii. p. 26, seq.) The Aeolian dialect of
the Greek language comprised several subordinate modifications; but the variety
established by the colonists in Lesbos and on the opposite coasts of Asia, became
eventually its popular standard, having been carried to perfection by the Lesbian
school of lyric poetry. (Mure, History of the Language, &c. of Greece, vol. i.
p. 108, seq.) Thus we find the Roman poets calling Sappho Aeolia puella (Hor.
Carm. iv. 9. 12), and the lyric poetry of Alcaeus and Sappho Aeolium carmen, Aeolia
fides and Aeolia lyra. (Hor. Carm. iii. 30. 13, ii. 13. 24; Ov. Her. xv. 200)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EORDEA (Ancient area) GREECE
Eordeti (Eordetoi, Ptol. iii. 13. § 26), an Illyrian people S. of the Parthini,
whose territory contained three towns, Scampa, Deboma, and Daulia. (Comp. Tafel,
de Viae Egnat. parte Occid. p. 23; Pouqueville, vol. i. p. 382.)
EPIDAVRIA (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
Now as for the Epeirotes, there are fourteen tribes of them, according to Theopompus, but of these the Chaones and the Molossi are the most famous, because of the fact that they once ruled over the whole of the Epeirote country the Chaones earlier and later the Molossi; and the Molossi grew to still greater power, partly because of the kinship of their kings, who belonged to the family of the Aeacidae, and partly because of the fact that the oracle at Dodona was in their country, an oracle both ancient and renowned. (Perseus Project - Strabo, Geography 7.7.5)
ERMIONI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
An ancient race in N. Greece, their settlements in the Peloponnese, dwell on Parnassus, Herakles traverses their country and conquers them, settled at Asine in Argolis, serve in Lacedaemonian army, people of Styra in Euboea are Dryopians.
ERMIONIS (Ancient area) ARGOLIS
The Hermioneans are Dryopians, driven out of the country now called Doris by Herakles and the Malians.
Halieis (Halieis), the name of a sea-faring people on the coast of
Hermionis, who derived their name from their fisheries. (Strab. viii. p. 373.)
They gave their name to a town on the coast of Herinionis, where the Tirynthians
and Hermionians took refuge when they were expelled from their own cities by the
Argives. (Ephor. ap. Byz. s. v. Halieis; Strab. viii. p. 373.) This town was taken
about Ol. 80 by Aneristus, the son of Sperthias, and made subject to Sparta (hos
heile Halieas [not alieas] tous ek Tirunthos, Helod. vii. 137). The district was
afterwards ravaged on more than one occasion by the Athenians. (Thuc. i. 105,
ii. 56, iv. 45; Diod. xi. 78.) After the Peloponnesian War the Halieis are mentioned
by Xenophon as an autonomous people. (Xen. Hell. iv. 2. 6, vi. 2, § 3.)
The district is called e Halias by Thucydides (ii. 56, iv. 45), who
also calls the people or their town Halieis; for, in i. 105, the true reading
is es Halias, i.e. Halieas. (See Meineke, and Steph. B. s. v. Halieis.) In an
inscription we find en Halieusin. (Bockh, Inscr. no. 165.)
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ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
The Evenus River begins in the territory of those Bomians who live in the country of the Ophians, the Ophians being an Aetolian tribe (like the Eurytanians and Agraeans and Curetes and others), and flows at first, not through the Curetan country, which is the same as the Pleuronian, but through the more easterly country, past Chalcis and Calydon; and then, bending back towards the plains of Old Pleuron and changing its course to the west, it turns.
The Apodoti, Ophionenses, and Eurytanes, inhabited only the central districts of Aetolia, and did not occupy any part of the plain between the Evenus and the Achelous, which was the abode of the more civilized part of the nation, who bore no other name than that of Aetolians. The Apodoti (Apodotoi, Thuc. iii. 94; Apodotoi, Pol. xvii. 5) inhabited the mountains above Naupactus, on the borders of Locris. They are said by Polybius not to have been Hellenes. (Comp. Liv. xxxii. 34.) North of these dwelt the Ophionenses or Ophienses (Ophioneis, Thuc. l. c.; Ophieis, Strab. pp. 451,465), and to them belonged the smaller tribes of the Bomienses (Bomies, Thuc. iii. 96; Strab. p. 451; Steph. Byz. s. v. Bomoi) and Callienses (Kallies, Thuc. l.c.), both of which inhabited the ridge of Oeta running down towards the Malic gulf: the former are placed by Strabo (l. c.) at the sources of the Evenus, and the position of the latter is fixed by that of their capital town Callium. The Eurytanes (Eurutanes, Thuc. iii. 94, et alii) dwelt north of the Ophionenses, as far, apparently, as Mt. Tymphrestus, at the foot of which was the town Oechalia, which Strabo describes as a place belonging to this people. They are said to have possessed an oracle of Odysseus. (Strab. pp, 448, 451, 465; Schol. ad Lycophr. 799.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The Agraei, who inhabited the north-west corner of Aetolia, bordering upon Ambracia, were not a division of the Aetolian nation, but a separate people, governed at the time of the Peloponnesian war by a king of their own, and only united to Aetolia at a later period. The Aperanti, who lived in the same district, appear to have been a subdivision of the Agraei. Pliny (iv. 3) mentions various other peoples as belonging to Aetolia, such as the Athamanes, Tymphaei, Dolopes, &c.; but this statement is only true of the later period of the Aetolian League, when the Aetolians had extended their dominion over most of the neighbouring tribes of Epirus and Thessaly.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Apollodorus, also, says that, according to history, the Hyantes left Boeotia and settled among the Aetolians.
(Perseus Project - Strabo, Geography 10.3.4)
EVIA (Island) GREECE
This tripartite cultural division of the island is first reflected in the prehistoric settlement of the island by the semi legendary tribes of the Ellopians in the north, the Abantes in the center, and the Dryopians in the south. Perseus Encyclopedia: id euboea [E: Euboea: Physical Description: History]
Surface finds suggest that (Histaia) it continued to be occupied during the Early Iron Age, probably by the Aiolic speaking Ellopians or Perrhaibians who seem to have replaced the Homeric Abantes. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Histiaia).
The Ellopians migrated to Histiaea and enlarged the city, being forced to do so by Philistides the tyrant, after the battle of Leuctra. (Strabo 10.1.3)
Perseus Project index - Dryopians+Euboea
The island was called, not only Macris, but also Abantis; at any rate, the poet, although he names Euboea, never names its inhabitants 'Euboeans', but always 'Abantes'. Aristotle says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the island and renamed those who held it 'Abantes'. (Strabo 10.1.3)
As eponymous also refered Abas, son o Lynceus, king of Argos.
Another eponymous is the local hero Abas from Chalcis, son of the nymph Arethousa by Poseidon.
ILIA (Ancient country) GREECE
The Caucones are mentioned among the most ancient inhabitants of Greece.
(Strab. vii. p. 321.) As they disappeared in the historical period, little could
be known respecting them; but according to the general opinion they were the most
ancient inhabitants of that part of Peloponnesus, which was afterwards called
Elis. Strabo says that they were a migratory Arcadian people, who settled in Elis,
where they were divided into two principal tribes, of which one dwelt in Triphylia,
and the other in Hollow Elis. The latter extended as far as Dyme in Achaia, in
the neighbourhood of which there was a tributary of the Teutheas bearing the name
of Caucon. (Strab. viii. pp. 342, 345, 353.) The Caucones in Triphylia are mentioned
by Homer, and are called by Herodotus the Pylian Caucones. (Hom. Od. iii. 366;
Herod. i. 147.) They were driven out of Triphylia by the Minyae. (Herod. iv. 148.)
KAMIROS (Ancient city) RHODES
The Dorians formed three city states on the island: Ialysos, Lindos, Kameiros.
KONITSA (Province) IOANNINA
Paravaei (Parauaioi, Thuc. ii. 80; Rhianus, ap. Steph. B. s. v.),
an Epirot tribe, whose territories, conterminous with those of the Orestae, were
situated on the banks of the Aous ( Viosa), from which they took their name. In
the third year of the Peloponnesian War, a body of them, under their chief Oroedus,
joined Cnemus (Thuc. l. c.), the Lacedaemonian commander. Arrian (Anab. i. 7),
describing the route of Alexander from Elimiotis (Grevena and Tjersemba) to Pelinnaeum
in Thessaly, which stood a little to the E. of Trikkala, remarks that Alexander
passed by the highlands of Paravaea,-Lazari and Smolika, with the adjacent mountains.
The seat of this tribe must be confined to the valleys of the main
or E. branch of the Aous, and the mountains in which that river originates, extending
from the Aoi Stena or Klisura, as far S. as the borders of Tymphaea and the Molossi,
and including the central and fertile district of Konitza, with the N. part of
Zagori. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 115-120, 195.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KORINTHIA (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
KOS (Island) DODEKANISSOS
The Rhodians, like the people of Halicarnassus and Cnidus and Cos, are Dorians; for of the Dorians who founded Megara after the death of Codrus, some remained there, others took part with Althaemenes the Argive in the colonization of Crete, and others were distributed to Rhodes and to the cities just now mentioned. But these events are later than those mentioned by Homer, for Cnidus and Halicarnassus were not yet in existence, although Rhodes and Cos were; but they were inhabited by Heracleidae. (Strabo 14.2.6)
LAKEDEMON (Ancient country) PELOPONNISOS
Leleges, an ancient race which was spread over Greece, the adjoining
islands, and the Asiatic coast, before the Hellenes. They were so widely diffused
that we must either suppose that their name was descriptive, and applied to several
different tribes, or that it was the name of a single tribe and was afterwards
extended to others. Strabo (vii. p. 322) regarded them as a mixed race, and was
disposed to believe that their name had reference to this (to sullektous gegonenai).
They may probably be looked upon, like the Pelasgians and the other early inhabitants
of Greece, as members of the great Indo-European race, who became gradually incorporated
with the Hellenes, and thus ceased to exist as an independent people.
The most distinct statement of ancient writers on the origin of the
Leleges is that of Herodotus, who says that the name of Leleges was the ancient
name of the Carians (Herod. i. 171). A later Greek writer considered the Leleges
as standing in the same relation to the Carians as the Helots to the Lacedaemonians
and the Penestae to the Thessalians. (Athen. vi. p. 271.) In Homer both Leleges
and Carians appear as equals, and as auxiliaries of the Trojans. (Il. x. 428.)
The Leleges are ruled by Altes, the father-in-law of Priam, and inhabit a town
called Pedasus at the foot of Mount Ida. (Il. xxi. 86.) Strabo relates that Leleges
and Carians once occupied the whole of Ionia, and that in the Milesian territory
and in all Caria tombs and forts of the Leleges were shown. He further says that
the two were so intermingled that they were frequently regarded as the same people.
(Strab. vii. p. 321, xiii. p. 611.) It would therefore appear that there was some
close connection between the Leleges and Carians, though they were probably different
peoples. The Leleges seem at one time to have occupied a considerable part of
the western coast of Asia Minor. They were the earliest known inhabitants of Samos.
(Athen. xv. p. 672.) The connection of the Leleges and the Carians was probably
the foundation of the Megarian tradition, that in the twelfth generation after
Car, Lelex came over from Egypt to Megara, and gave his name to the people (Paus.
i. 39. § 6); but their Egyptian origin was evidently an invention of later times,
when it became the fashion to derive the civilisation of Greece from that of Egypt.
A grandson of this Lelex is said to have led a colony of Megarian Leleges into
Messenia, where they founded Pylus, and remained until they were driven out by
Neleus and the Pelasgians from Iolcos; whereupon they took possession of Pylus
in Elis. (Paus. v. 36. § 1.) The Lacedaemonian traditions, on the other hand,
represented the Leleges as the autochthons of Laconia; they spoke of Lelex as
the first native of the soil, from whom the people were called Leleges and the
land Lelegia; and the son of this Lelex is said to have been the first king of
Messenia. (Paus. iii. 1. § 1, iv. 1. § § 1, 5.) Aristotle seems to have regarded
Leucadia, or the western parts of Acarnania, as the original seats of the Leleges;
for, according to this writer, Lelex was the autochthon of Leucadia, and from
him were descended the Teleboans, the ancient inhabitants of the Taphian islands.
He also regarded them as the same people as the Locrians, in which he appears
to have followed the authority of Hesiod, who spoke of them as the subjects of
Locrus, and as produced from the stones with which Deucalion repeopled the earth
after the deluge. (Strab. vii. pp. 321, 322.) Hence all the inhabitants of Mount
Parnassus, Locrians, Phocians, Boeotians, and others, are sometimes described
as Leleges. (Comp. Dionys. Hal. i. 17.) (See Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol.
i. p. 42, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Expelled from Lemnos by Pelasgians. As the greater part of the Argonauts were descended from the Minyae, they are themselves called Minyae. The Minyae founded a colony in Lemnos, called Minyae, whence they proceeded to Elis Triphylia, and to the island of Thera
MEDIKI (Ancient country) KAVALA
Maedi (Maidoi, Maidoi, Thue. ii. 98; Polyb. x. 41), a powerful people
in the west of Thrace, dwelling near the sources of the Axius and Margus, and
upon the southern slopes of Mt. Scomius. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p.
472.) Strabo says that the Maedi bordered eastward on the Thunatae of Dardania
(vii. p. 316), and that the Axius flowed through their territory (vii. p. 331).
The latter was called Maedica (Maidike, Ptol. iii. 11. § 9; Liv. xxvi. 25, xl.
22). They frequently made incursions into Macedonia; but in B.C. 211, Philip V.
invaded their territory, and took their chief town Iamphorina, which is probably
represented by Vrania or Ivorina, in the upper valley of the Margus or Morava.
(Liv. xxvi. 25.) We also learn from Livy (xl. 22) that the same king traversed
their territory in order to reach the summit of Mt. Haemus; and that on his return
into Macedonia he received the submission of Petra, a fortress of the Maedi. Among
the other places in Maedica, we read of Phragandae (Liv. xxvi. 25) and Desudaba,
probably the modern Kumanovo, on one of the confluents of the upper Axius. (Liv.
xliv. 26.) The Maedi are said to have been of the same race as the Bithynians
in Asia, and were hence called Maedobithyni (Steph. B. s. v. Maidoi; Strab. vii.
p. 295). (Comp. Strab. vii. p. 316; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MESSINIA (Ancient area) MESSINIA
Pylos the son of Cleson, bringing from the Megarid the Leleges who then occupied the country.
MOLOSSIA (Ancient area) IOANNINA
The Talares, a Molossian tribe, a branch of those who lived in the neighborhood of Mount Tomarus, lived on Mount Pindus itself, as did also the Aethices, amongst whom, the poet says, the Centaurs were driven by Peirithous; but history now tells us that they are extinct. (Perseus Project - Strabo, Geography 9.5.12)
MYTILINI (Ancient city) LESVOS
The greatest and most famous and most visited precinct is that which is called the Hellenion, founded jointly by the Ionian cities of Chios, Teos, Phocaea, and Clazomenae, the Dorian cities of Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis, and one Aeolian city, Mytilene.
ODOMANTIKI (Ancient area) KAVALA
Odomanti (Odomantoi, Herod. vii. 112; Thuc. ii. 101, v. 6; Steph.
B. s. v.; Odomantes, Plin. iv. 18), a Paeonian tribe, who occupied the district,
called after them, Odomantice (Odomantike, Ptol. iii. 13. § 31; Liv. xliv. 4;
Odomantis, Steph. B.) This tribe were settled upon the whole of the great mountain
Orbelus, extending along the NE. of the lower Strymonic plain, from about Meleniko
and Demirissar to Zikhnd inclusive, where they bordered on Pangaeus, the gold
and silver mines of which they worked with the Pieres and Satrae. (Herod. l. c.)
Secure in their inaccessible position, they defied Megabazus. (Herod. v. 16.)
The NW. portion of their territory lay to the right of Sitalces as he crossed
Mt. Cercine; and their general situation agrees with the description of Thucydides
(ii. 101), according to whom they dwelt beyond the Strymon to the N., that is
to say, to the N. of the Lower Strymon, where, alone, the river takes such a course
to the E. as to justify the expression. Cleon invited Polles, their chieftain,
to join him with as many Thracian mercenaries as could be levied. (Thuc. v. 6;
Aristoph. Acharn. 156, 164; Suid. s. v. apotethriaken; Leake, Northern Greece,
vol. iii. pp. 210, 306, 465.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ORCHOMENOS (Ancient city) LEVIDI
Minyae (Minuai), an ancient race in Greece, said to have been descended from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus, who originally dwelt in Thessaly, and afterwards migrated into Boeotia, and founded Orchomenus. Most of the Argonautic heroes were Minyae; and some of them having settled in the island of Lemnos, continued to be called Minyae. These Lemnian Minyae were driven out of the island by the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians, and took refuge in Lacedaemon, from whence some of them migrated to Thera, and others to Triphylia in Elis, where they founded the six Triphylian cities. (Herod. iv. 145--148.)
PAGGAIO (Mountain) KAVALA
Odonianti, a Thracian or Paeonian tribe inhabiting the range of Pangaeum (if the reading be right): Hdt. 5.16, Hdt. 7.112
Satrae SATRAE (Satrai, Herod. vii. 110--112), a Thracian people who occupied a portion of the range of the Pangaeus,between the Nestus and the Strymon. Herodotus states that they were the only Thracian tribe who had always preserved their freedom; a fact for which he accounts by the nature of their country,--a mountainous region, covered with forests and snow--and by their great bravery. They alone of the Thracians did not follow in the train of Xerxes, when marching towards Greece. The Satrae were in possession of an oracle of Dionysus, situated among the loftiest mountain peaks, and the interpreters of which were taken from among the Bessi,--a circumstance which has suggested the conjecture that the Satrae were merely a clan of the Bessi,--a notion which is rendered more probable by the fact Republic. that Herodotus is the only ancient writer who mentions them; whereas the Bessi are repeatedly spoken of. We may infer from Pliny's expression, Bessorum multa nomina (iv. 11. s. 18), that the Bessi were divided into many distinct clans. Herodotus says that to the Satrae belonged the principal part of the gold and silver mines which then existed in the Pangaeus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Sapei (Sapaioi or Sapaioi), a Thracian people, occupying the southern portion of the Pangaeus, in the neighbourhood of Abdera. (Strab. xii. p. 549.) In this passage, however, Strabo calls them Sapae (Sapai), and assumes their identity with the Sinti, which in another place (x. p. 457) he treats as a mere matter of conjecture. The Via Egnatia ran through their country, and especially through a narrow and difficult defile called by Appian (B.C. iv. 87, 106) the pass of the Sapaei, and stated by him to be 18 miles from Philippi; so that it must have been nearly midway between Neapolis and Abdera. The Sapaei are mentioned, and merely mentioned, by Herodotus (vii. 110) and by Pliny (iv. 11. s. 18). Their town is called Sapaica (Sapaike) by Steph. B. (s. v.).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Satrae (Satrai, Herod. vii. 110-112), a Thracian people who occupied a portion of the range of the Pangaeus, between the Nestus and the Strymon. Herodotus states that they were the only Thracian tribe who had always preserved their freedom; a fact for which he accounts by the nature of their country, -a mountainous region, covered with forests and snow- and by their great bravery. They alone of the Thracians did not follow in the train of Xerxes, when marching towards Greece. The Satrae were in possession of an oracle of Dionysus, situated among the loftiest mountain peaks, and the interpreters of which were taken from among the Bessi, -a circumstance which has suggested the conjecture that the Satrae were merely a clan of the Bessi, -a notion which is rendered more probable by the fact Republic. that Herodotus is the only ancient writer who mentions them; whereas the Bessi are repeatedly spoken of. We may infer from Pliny's expression, Bessorum multa nomina (iv. 11. s. 18), that the Bessi were divided into many distinct clans. Herodotus says that to the Satrae belonged the principal part of the gold and silver mines which then existed in the Pangaeus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
RHODES (Island) DODEKANISSOS
Heliadae (Heliadai), a people said to have succeeded the Telchines
as inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, and to have been produced from the earth
by the agency of the solar heat, whence their name, from Helios. (Strab. xiv.
p. 654.) They are further said to have been skilled in all the arts, especially
in astronomy, to have advanced navigation, and to have divided the year into days
and hours. (Diod. Sic. v. 57.) In consequence of the Heliadae, the whole island
of Rhodes was sacred to the sun, who favoured it so much that not a day passed
in the whole course of a year during which the island was not warmed by his rays.
(Plin. ii. 62; comp.)
SAMOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
It is cited that the first inhabitants of the island were the Carians and the Leleges. Settlers were the Cephallenians or the Ithacias under the leadership of Angeus. The Ionians from Athens under the leadership of Nileus banished in the 11th c. B.C. the old inhabitants and colonized the island.
Pherecydes says concerning this seaboard that Miletus and Myus and the parts round Mycale and Ephesus were in earlier times occupied by Carians, and that the coast next thereafter, as far as Phocaea and Chios and Samos, which were ruled by Ancaeus, was occupied by Leleges, but that both were driven out by the Ionians and took refuge in the remaining parts of Caria.
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
SIKYONIA (Ancient area) CORINTHIA
STRYMONAS (River) SERRES
Laeaei (Laiaioi), a Paeonian tribe in Macedonia, included within the dominion
of Sitalces, probably situated to the E. of the Strymon. (Thuc. ii. 96.)
TEGEA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
Tegean tribes.
THESSALIA (Ancient area) GREECE
Penestae (penestai), Thessalian serfs. The word is no doubt from the root of penomai, ponos, penes (Dionys. ii. 9), and we must reject the ancient derivation quoted below. The Penestae of Thessaly were old inhabitants of the land conquered and reduced to villenage by the Thesprotians: according to Theopompus, they were Perrhaebians and Magnetes (Athen. vi.); but Aristotle (Pol, ii. 9, 3) distinguishes these tribes front the Penestae, speaking of them rather as Perioeci than as serfs. Others call them Pelasgi, or, in other words, regarded them as the primitive indigenous people of Thessaly; while Archemachus gives the following account of them:--The Aeolian Boeotians who did not emigrate when their country Thessaly was conquered (compare Thuc. i. 12), but from love of home surrendered themselves to serve the victors, on condition that they should not be carried out of the country (whence, he adds, they were formerly called Menestai, but afterwards Penestai), nor be put to death, but should cultivate the land for the new owners of the soil, paying by way of rent a portion of the produce of it; and many of them are richer than their masters. It appears, then, that they occupied an intermediate position between purchased slaves and freemen, being reduced to serfdom by conquest, and they are generally conceived to have stood in the same relation to their Thessalian lords as the Helots did to the Spartiatae; but this is not exactly the case, for they were apparently not, like the Helots, serfs of the state, but belonged each to some family for whom the personal service was performed, for which reason they were sometimes called Thettaloiketai (Athen. vi.). They were very numerous, for instance, in the families of the Aleuadae and Scopadae (Theoc. xvi. 35), but they were not only tillers of the soil; they formed the retainers of these great families, and served under their masters as cavalry: a body of 300 Penestae under Menon of Pharsalus assisted the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war (Dem. c. Arist.,199; Dem. peri Sntax., 23). They resembled the Helots, however, in the fact that they often rose against their masters.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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