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Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "LYGISTIS Ancient area GREECE".


Information about the place (3)

Present location

Florina plateau

Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Lyncestis

   A district in the southwest of Macedonia, upon the frontiers of Illyria, inhabited by the Lyncestae, an Illyrian people. The ancient capital of the country was Lyncus, though Heraclea at a later time became the chief town in the district. Near Lyncus was a river, whose waters are said to have been as intoxicating as wine.

This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Greek & Roman Geography (ed. William Smith)

Lyncestis

  Lyncestis (Lunkestis, Strab. vii. p. 326; Ptol, iii. 13. § 33), the country of the Lyncestae (Lunkestia Thuc. ii. 99, iv. 83, 124; Strab. vii. pp. 323, 326), once a small independent kingdom, and afterwards a province of the Macedonian monarchy. This district was situated to the S of the Pelagones, and between that people, and the Eordaei. It was watered by the Erigon, and lay in the centre of the Egnatian Way, which connected Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The pass which separated Lyncestis from Eordaea, where Philip made his unsuccessful stand against the Romans, is described by Polybius (xviii. 6) as hai heis ten Eordaian huperbolai,-and Thucydides (iv. 83) calls a defile in the same mountains he esbole tes Lunkou, in relating the attempt of Perdiccas against Lyncestis, which ended in a separate negotiation between his ally Brasidas and Arrhibaeus king of the Lyncestae. (Thuc. iv. 83.) It was by the same pass in the following year that Brasidas effected his skilful and daring retreat from the united forces of the Lyncestae and Illyrians. (Thuc. iv. 124.)
  According to Strabo (vii. p. 326), Irrha, the daughter of Arrhabaeus (as he writes the name), was mother of Eurydice, who married Amyntas, father of Philip. Through this connection Lyncestis may have become annexed to Macedonia. The geography of this district is well illustrated by the operations of the consul Sulpicius against Philip, in the campaign of B.C. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 33.) From the narrative of Livy, which was undoubtedly extracted from Polybius, as well as from the Itineraries, it would appear that Lyncestis comprehended that part of Upper Macedonia now called Filurina, and all the S. part of the basin of the Erigon with its branches, the Bevus and Osphagus. As it is stated that the first encampment of the Romans was at Lyncus on the river Bevus, and as Lyncus is described as a town by Stephanus B. (though his description is evidently incorrect), it might be supposed that Heracleia the chief town of this district, was sometimes called Lyncus, and that the camp of Sulpicius, was at Heracleia itself. But though the words ad Lyncum stativa posuit prope flumen Bevum (Liv. l. c.) seem to point to this identification, yet it is more likely that Lyncus is here used as synonymous with Lyncestis, as in two other passages of Livy (xxvi. 25, xxxii. 9), and in Thucydides (iv. 83, 124) and Plutarch. (Flamin. 4.)
  At or near Banitza are the mineral acidulous waters of Lyncestis, which were supposed by the ancients to possess intoxicating qualities. (Ov. Met. xv. 329; comp. Arist. Meteor. ii. 3; Theopomp. ap. Plin. ii. 103, xxxi. 2, ap. Antig. Caryst. 180, ap. Sotion. de Flum. p. 125; Vitruv. viii. 3; Sen. Quaest. Nat. iii. 20.) They were found by Dr. Brown (Travels in Hungaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, &c. &c., Lond. 1673, p. 45) on the road from Filurina to Egri Budja. He calls the place Eccisso Verbeni; this, which sounds Wallachian, may possibly be a corruption of the name of the Derveni or pass. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 305-318.)

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


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