Listed 10 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "DOMOKOS Province FTHIOTIDA" .
MELITEA (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
Meliteia. Melitaia, Meliteia, Melitia, Eth. Melitaieus, Meliteus.
An ancient town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, situated near the river Enipeus, at
the distance of 10 stadia from the town Hellas. (Strab. ix. p. 432.) The inhabitants
of Melitaea affirmed that their town was anciently called Pyrrha, and they showed
in the market-place the tomb of Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, (Strab.
l. c.) When Brasidas was marching through Thessaly to Macedonia, his Thessalian
friends met him at Melitaea in order to escort him (Thuc. iv. 78); and we learn
from this narrative that the town was one day's march from Pharsalus, whither
Brasidas proceeded on leaving the former place. In the Lamiac war the allies left
their baggage at Melitaea, when they proceeded to attack Leonnatus. (Diod. xviii.
15.) Subsequently Melitaea was in the hands of the Aetolians. Philip attempted
to take it, but he did not succeed, in consequence of his scaling-ladders being
too short. (Polyb. v. 97, ix. 18.) Melitaea is also mentioned by Scylax, p. 24;
Ephor. ap Steph. B. s. v.; Dicaearch. p. 21; Plin. iv. 9. s. 16; Ptol. iii. 13.
§ 46, who erroneously calls it Melitara. Leake identifies it with the ruins of
an ancient fortress situated upon a lofty hill on the left bank of the Enipeus,
at the foot of which stands the small village of Keuzlar. (Northern Greece, vol.
iv. p. 469, seq.)
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
PROERNA (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
A town of Phthiotis, in Thessaly (Strab. ix. p. 434), which Stephanus
B. writes Proarna (Proarna), and calls by mistake a town of the Malians. In B.C.
191 Proerna, which had been taken by Antiochus, was recovered by the consul Acilius.
(Liv. xxxvi. 14.) We learn from this passage of Livy that Proerna stood between
Pharsalus and Thaumaci, and it is accordingly placed by Leake at Ghynekokastro.
(Northern Greece, vol. i.p.459)
THAVMAKOS (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
Thaumakoi: Eth. Thaumakos. A town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, was situated
on the pass called Coela, on the road from Thermopylae and the Maliac gulf passing
through Lamia. At this place, says Livy, the traveller, after traversing rugged
mountains and intricate valleys, comes suddenly in sight of an immense plain like
a vast sea, the extremity of which is scarcely visible. From the astonishment
which it excited in the traveller, the city was supposed to have derived its name.
It stood upon a lofty and precipitous rock. It was besieged by Philip in B.C.
199; but a reinforcement of Aetolians having made their way into the town, the
king was obliged to abandon the siege. (Liv. xxxii. 4.) Thaumaci was taken by
the consul Acilius in the war with Antiochus, B.C. 191. (Liv. xxxvi. 14; comp.
Strab. ix. p. 434; Steph. B. s. v. Thaumakia.) Dhomoko occupies the site of Thaumaci,
and at this place inscriptions are found containing the ancient name. Its situation
and prospect are in exact accordance with the description of Livy, who copied
from Polybius, an eye-witness. Dodwell says that the view from this place is the
most wonderful and extensive he ever beheld, and Leake observes that at the southern
end of the town a rocky point, overtopping the other heights, commands a magnificent
prospect of the immense plain watered by the Peneius and its branches.
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
MELITEA (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
A town in Thessaly in Phthiotis, on the northern slope of Mount Othrys, and near the river Enipeus.
A titular see in Thessaly,
suffragan of Larissa, commanding
the defile of Coele at the entrance to the Thessalonian plain. Vainly besieged
in 198 B.C. by Philip, it was taken in 191 by the consul Acilius Glabrio in the
war against Antiochus.
The Greeks call it today Domokos;
it is the chief town of the demos of Thaumakoi, and a well-fortified place, beautifully
situated on a rock crowned by a medieval fortress, west of which are some old
walls. During the last Greco-Turkish war, in 1897, it was the final halting place
of the vanquished Greek army.
We do not know if Thaumaci was a bishopric whilst Thessaly
owned allegiance to the pope; in any case, when Illyricum, in 732, was withdrawn
from the pope's jurisdiction by the emperors of Constantinople,
this city became a suffragan of Larissa.
In 1882, during the annexation of Thessaly
to Greece, the diocese became
dependent upon the autocephalous Church of the Kingdom of Greece.
After a while the diocese was suppressed by the new organization of this Church
(1899). After the Frankish conquest in the thirteenth century, Thaumaci became
a Latin bishopric.
S. Petrides, ed.
Transcribed by: Barbara Jane Barrett
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
MELITEA (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
A city of Achaia Phthiotis, it lies on the edge of the plain N of
Othrys watered by the Europos (Buziotikos) and the Elipeus (Chiliadhiotikos) just
above the plain on the N end of a N spur (Xerovouni) of Othrys. Modern Meliteia
(formerly Avaritsa) lies at the W edge of the ancient city. It issued coinage
in the 5th c. B.C. when it was associated with Pherai, was a chief city of the
Achaians, was joined to the Aitolian League probably from 265 B.C. Philip V failed
to take it in 217 B.C. (Polyb. 5.97.5f; 9.18.5-9). It belonged to the Thessalian
League after 189 B.C.
The wall circuit is visible, but poorly preserved. It included an
acropolis ca. 180 m above the plain, thence the walls included a triangular section
down to the plain. The walls down the hill are flanked by ravines. A cross-wall
divided the city into upper and lower halves. The wall where preserved is built
of irregularly sized rectangular blocks. It had a circuit of ca. 4 km. There is
a late 3d c. B.C. building inscription in the E wall. A cloister of Haghia Triadha
lies a little S of the acropolis, built partly on an ancient temple (?) foundation.
Meliteia's neighbor to the S was Narthakion; on the track there, 25 minutes S
of the city is a small fort. Forty minutes further is a church of Haghios Georgios,
probably on the site of a temple. Meliteia controlled a considerable area; a good
deal of inscriptional evidence exists for its boundaries. Its area has been estimated
at ca. 462 sq. km (Stahlin, RE).
T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PROERNA (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
A city in Tetras or Achaia Phthiotis (Strab. 9.434) on the main road
from Thaumaki to Pharsalos probably located (first by Leake) at Gynaikokastro,
the end of a spur of Mt. Kassidhiaris which projects into the W plain of Thessaly
halfway between Thaumaki and Pharsalos. It dominates a small marshy plain to the
N of it. The modern town of Neon Monastirion is a little to the SE. Scarcely anything
is known about Proerna's history.
In the plain just to the W of the modern Dhomoko-Pharsala highway
is a large, oval, flat-topped mound, called Tapsi. This is surrounded on the top
by a wall of polygonal masonry. In 1965-66 excavations on the mound uncovered
foundations of 4th c. B.C. houses on its flat top and on the W and S slopes. A
section of the circuit wall was excavated, which proved to be not just the archaic
wall, but the Classical as well. Some remains of Classical houses were also discovered
on the top of the mound, which had been occupied since at least the Bronze Age.
East of the highway, 400 m E of the mound, can be seen another wall circuit preserved
to several courses high. This wall has a circumference of ca. 2 km and encloses
a hill with two peaks and a hollow between resembling a theater facing the plain
on the N. The wall is double-faced, built of well-cut, thick; rectangular and
trapezoidal blocks with rough faces, laid in fairly regular courses in the towers,
more irregularly or in step fashion elsewhere. The wall is some 2 m thick. Twenty
projecting square towers have been preserved along it. There are three gates with
complex entrances flanked by towers preserved on the SW, S, and SE sides. The
exterior face of the wall is pierced by drain channels. Just to the N of the SE
gate can be seen a long section of a cross wall running E-W which cut off the
highest, E, peak from the rest of the enclosure. The wall was disturbed by an
earthquake in 1955, but was restored.
The most interesting discovery of 1965-66 was on the W side of a small
hill in the modern town, and outside the ancient city walls. This was the rough
stone foundation of a long, rectangular stoa-like building, 6 x 30 m, of the 4th
c. B.C., oriented E-W. At the W end it overlay some older building (s), perhaps
of the late 6th or early 5th c. A large number of objects were found, now in the
Volo Museum, which identified this as a Shrine of Demeter. A number of terracotta
figurines were discovered, all apparently earlier than the stoa, some being of
the 6th c. B.C. A small bronze vase and an archaic (7th c.) bronze figurine of
a deer (?) came from the sanctuary area, among other bronze items such as rings
and pins.
It appears that the acropolis of the archaic and Classical city was
the mound Tapsi, and that the city of that period was located on the slopes of
the mound, chiefly on the S side. The Shrine of Demeter (the first discovered
for certain in Thessaly), which flourished from the 6th to at least the 2d c.
B.C., was located on a low hill to the SE of the mound, near the road. The walls
on the hill to the E of the road may date from the early 3d c. B.C. (as Stahlin
surmised) or somewhat earlier. Hellenistic sherds have been found within this
circuit, but no remains of the city of that period.
T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
THAVMAKOS (Ancient city) DOMOKOS
A city in Achaia Phthiotis (Strab. 9.435). It lay on the pass between
the Spercheios valley and the W plain of Thessaly, overlooking the latter. The
sudden and spectacular view of the sea-like plain gave the ancient derivation
for its name from the verb "to marvel" (Livy 32.4.3). It was evidently
not an important place except strategically, and was a member of the Aitolian
League, probably from the 3d c. B.C. It was besieged by Philip V in 199 B.C.,
but an Aitolian band entered the city and helped it hold until Philip withdrew
(Livy 32.4). The next year Aitolian troops used it as a supply base (Livy 32.13.14).
It was taken easily by M' Acilius Glabrio in his campaign against Antiochus III
and his allies in 191 B.C., while he was on his way from the Thessalian plain
to the Spercheios valley (Livy 36.14. 12-15). In 189 B.C. it was probably freed
with the rest of Thessalian Achaia. The city was the site of a bishopric in Christian
times. Its neighbor to the S was Xyniae; to the N Proerna.
The city lies just to the W of the modern (and ancient) road over
the pass, ca. 4 km S of the Thessalian plain. The acropolis is a small, round,
rocky, abrupt peak (639 m) surrounded on top by a Byzantine (?) wall of stones
and mortar, on the site of an ancient wall, of which virtually nothing is visible.
The modern town is centered on the slope S of the acropolis. The ancient city
wall is visible in places forming a concentric circle some 800-900 m in circumference
around the acropolis. Southeast of the acropolis is one small section with four
courses in place (1924); the wall is of rectangular blocks, laid in even courses.
Brief excavations behind the school (gymnasium) S of the acropolis uncovered a
section of the city wall built of polygonal masonry, making a solid bastion at
this point. At the S edge of the wall was uncovered the foundation of an isolated
tower, presumably to guard the access from the road. The finds from this excavation
mainly consisted of 4th and 3d c. B.C. pottery fragments. A little N of the acropolis
is a flat area on which is the Church of Haghios Aemilianos. Here a foundation
of large stones, 6 x 3 m, was discovered, probably of a tower outside the walls
guarding the approach from the plain. In the N side of the preserved city wall
is a gate which may have given access to this tower. The city wall appeared to
Stahlin to date from the 3d c. B.C.; the polygonal section recently discovered,
however, must be a part of the Classical defenses.
Some 2 km N of Dhomoko, near Milyai (1910) was an ancient foundation,
probably of a temple, near which was found a boundary inscription concerning Angeia
and Ktimenai (see Dhranista). A treasure of Hellenistic gold objects now mainly
in the Benaki and Stathatos collections found in Thessaly in 1929 may have come
from the vicinity of Dhomoko
T. S. Mac Kay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Sep 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
