Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "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.
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.
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
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