Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "STYLIDA Small town FTHIOTIDA" .
OTHRYS (Mountain chain) STEREA HELLAS
Othrys (he Othrus), a lofty chain of mountains, which shuts in the
plain of Thessaly from the south. It branches off from Mount Tymphrestus, a summit
in the range of Pindus, and runs nearly due east through Phthiotis to the sea
coast, thus separating the waters which flow into the Peneius from those of the
Spercheius. (Strab. ix. pp. 432, 433; comp. Herod. vii. 129; Plin. iv. 8. s. 15.)
On its northern side, many offshoots extend into the plain of Pharsalus. It is
lofty and covered with wood, whence the poets give it the epithet of nivalis (Virg.
Aen. vii. 675) and nenierosus (Lucan vi.337). It is now usually called Gura, from
a large village of this name upon its sides; but its highest summit, which lies
to the east of this village, is named Jeracovouni, and is 5669 feet above the
level of the sea. The subsoil of the whole range is a limestone of various and
highly-inclined strata occasionally mixed with iron ore, amyanthe and asbestos.
(Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 17, vol. iv. p. 330, seq.; Journal of Geogr.
Society, vol. vii. p. 92.)
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
FALARA (Ancient city) FTHIOTIDA
A town of Phthiotis in Thessaly; the harbour of Lamia.
OTHRYS (Mountain chain) STEREA HELLAS
(Othrus). A lofty range of mountains in the south of Thessaly, extending from Mount Tymphrestus, or the most southerly part of Pindus, to the eastern coast. It shut in the great Thessalian plain on the south.
FALARA (Ancient city) FTHIOTIDA
A city of Malis which served as the port for Lamia. It was destroyed
in an earthquake (Demetrios of Kallatis, ap. Strab. 1.20) possibly in 426 or 427
B.C. (Thuc. 3.89; Diod. Sic. 12.59) but perhaps later, according to Bequignon.
In 208 B.C. ambassadors came here to ask Philip V to conclude a peace with the
Aitolians (Livy 27.30.3, where Phalara is characterized as formerly prosperous
on account of its remarkable port and roadstead, as well as other marine and land
advantages). It appears as the port of Lamia again in 192 B.C. (Livy 35.43.8)
and 191 B.C. (Livy 36.29.4) when it was used by Antiochus III.
The city was near Lamia (Steph. Byz. s.v.). According to Strabo (9.435)
it was 20 stades from the mouth of the Spercheios, 50 stades from (Lamia, generally
restored) and 100 stades by sea from Echinos. On these figures, Stahlin placed
it near Imir-bey (modern Anthili) and supposed the remains to have been covered
by the silt of the Spercheios. Most scholars have disregarded Strabo and place
it at Stylis, or Stylidha, which is still used as a harbor for Lamia. This town
is on the N shore of the Malian Gulf, ca. 18 km E of Lamia, at the head of a shallow
bay. About one km NE of the modern town is a steep oval hill with a Chapel of
Prophet Elias on it. Around the top of the hill are the remains of an oval wall
circuit very poorly preserved. One section on the E side is of polygonal masonry;
the rest was built of rectangular blocks, in two faces with a filling of stones.
The perimeter was ca. 330 m.
Just to the W of Stylidha, near the Churches of Haghia Triadha and
Haghios Kyriakos is a long section (ca. 150 m, according to Bequignon) of a wall
running N-S with a setback every 12 to 18 m. It was originally 3 m wide, and in
the 1930s (when it was being used as a quarry) was preserved in one place to two
courses high. It is built of large rectangular and trapezoidal rough-faced blocks.
Bequignon supposed it to be the wall built by Leosthenes during his siege of Lamia
in 323 B.C. to cut off supplies from the city (Diod. Sic. 18.13.3). The wall,
however, looks rather too massive and carefully built for this to be likely. To
the E of Stylidha on the sea are reported to be some remains built with mortar
(Roman?), interpreted by Pappadakis as baths.
No reasonable identification save Phalara seems to have been advanced
for the Stylidha site.
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.
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