Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "THISVI Ancient city VIOTIA" .
THISVI (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Thisbai, Eth. Thisbaios. A town of Boeotia, described by Strabo as
situated at a short distance from the sea, under the southern side of Helicon,
bordering upon the confines of Thespiae and Coroneia. (Strab. ix. p. 411.) Thisbe
is mentioned by Homer, who says that it abounds in wild pigeons (polutretrona
te Thisben, Il. ii. 502); and both Strabo and Stephlanus B. remark that this epithet
was given to the city from the abundance of wild pigeons at the harbour of Thisbe.
Xenophon remarks that Cleombrotus marched through the territory of Thisbe on his
way to Creusis before the battle of Leuctra. (Hell. vi. 4. § 3.) The only public
building at Thisbe mentioned by Pausanias (ix. 32. § 3) was a temple of Hercules,
to whom a festival was celebrated. The same writer adds that between the mountain
on the sea-side and the mountain at the foot of which the town stood, there is
a plain which would be inundated by the water flowing into it, were it not for
a mole or causeway constructed through the middle, by means of which the water
is diverted every year into the part of the plain lying on one side of the causeway,
while that on the other is cultivated. The ruins of Thisbe are found at Kakosia.
The position is between two great summits of the mountain, now called Karamunghi
and Paleovuna, which rise majestically above the vale, clothed with trees, in
the upper part, and covered with snow at the top. The modern village lies in a
little hollow surrounded on all sides by low cliffs connected with the last falls
of the mountain. The walls of Thisbe were about a mile in circuit, following the
crest of the cliffs which surround the village; they are chiefly preserved on
the side towards Dobrena and the south-east. The masonry is for the most part
of the fourth order, or faced with equal layers of large, oblong, quadrangular
stones on the outside, the interior as usual being filled with loose rubble. On
the principal height which lies towards the mountain, and which is an entire mass
of rock, appear some reparations of a later date than the rest of the walls, and
there are many Hellenic foundations on the face of this rock towards the village.
In the cliffs outside the walls, to the northwest and south, there are many sepulchral
excavations. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 506.) Leake observed the mole
or causeway which Pausanias describes, and which serves for a road across the
marsh to the port. The same writer remarks that, as the plain of Thisbe is completely
surrounded by heights, there is no issue for the river which rises in the Ascraea
and here terminates. The river crosses the causeway into the marsh by two openings,
the closing of which in the winter or spring would at any time cause the upper
part of the plain to be inundated, and leave the lower fit for cultivation in
the summer; but as the river is now allowed to flow constantly through them, the
western side is always in a state of marsh, and the ground has become much higher
on the eastern side.
The port of Thisbe is now called Vathy. The shore is very rocky, and
abounds in wild pigeons, as Strabo and Stephanus have observed; but there is also
a considerable number at Kakosia itself. The Roman poets also allude to the pigeons
of Thisbe. Hence Ovid (Met. xi. 300) speaks of the Thisbaeae columbae, and Statius
(Theb. vii. 261) describes Thisbe as Dionaeis avibus circumsona. Thisbe is mentioned
both by Pliny (iv. 7. s. 12) and Ptolemy (iii. 15. § 20).
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
afterwards Thisbae (Thisbai). Now Kakosia. A town of Boeotia, on the borders of Phocis, and between Mount Helicon and the Corinthian Gulf.
A city at the S foot of Mt. Helikon, on the site of the modern town;
it is situated in a corridor 350-700 m wide between a rocky hill to the N (Palaiokastro)
and, to the S, the edge of a plateau linked to Mt. Helikon (Neokastro).
The site had an important Mycenaean settlement; in Classical times,
up to 338 B.C., Thisbe formed part of one of the districts of Thespiai. Thereafter
the city was independent. In 172 B.C. it sided with Perseus but was forced to
open its gates to Flamininus; a senatus consultum of October, 170, settled the
matter to the advantage of the Romans (IG VII 2225). The city ramparts ran around
the two hills and the lower city. A wall of coarse polygonal masonry runs across
the NW part of Palaiokastro (acropolis). The E wall of the lower city and the
Neokastro rampart are of regular 4th c. masonry; the eight towers have finely
grooved corners. The W rampart has disappeared. Remains of the ancient city include
some hundred reliefs and inscriptions dating from the 5th c. B.C. to the 3d c.
A.D. (at the Thebes Museum and in modern buildings at Thisvi and Korini, 1.5 km
to the SE), as well as quantities of pottery ranging from the Mycenaean to the
Roman period.
To prevent flooding in the lower (E) section of the Thisbe basin a
long dike was built N-S, noted by Pausanias; two sluices regulated the passage
of water. The road running from Thisbe to its port, now Vathy, on the Gulf of
Corinth, passed over the dike.
P. Roesch, 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 3 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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