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PELAGONIA (Ancient area) MACEDONIA
Pelagonia (Pelagonia, Strab. vii. pp. 326, 327; Pelagonia, Steph.
B.), a district of Macedonia, bordering on Illyricum, occupied by the Pelagones
(Pelagones, Strab. vii. pp. 327, 331, Fr. 38-40, 434; Ptol. iii. 13. § 34; Plin.
iv.17). Although Livy employs the name of Pelagonia, corresponding with the fertile
plains of Bitolia, in his narrative of the campaigns of Sulpicius, as that of
a large district containing Stymbara, it is evident, from his account of the division
of Macedonia after the Roman conquest, that Pelagonia became the appellation of
the chief town of the Pelagones, and the capital of the Fourth Macedonia, which
included all the primitive or Upper Macedonia E. of the range of Pindus and Scardus.
(Liv. xlv 29.) It was perhaps not specifically employed as the name of a town
until the other two cities of Pelagonia were ruined; for that Pelagonia, or a
portion of it, once contained three, may be inferred from the adjunct Tripolitis,
given to it by Strabo (vii. p. 327). The town, which, from the circumstance of
its having been the capital of the Fourth Macedonia, must have been of some importance,
existed till a late period, as it is noticed in the Synecdemus of Hierocles, and
by the Byzantine historian, Malchus of Philadelphia, who speaks of the strength
of its citadel (ap. Const. Porph. Excerpt. de Legat. p. 81). From its advantageous
position it was occupied by Manuel Comnenus, in the war with Geisa II. and the
Hungarians. (Nicet. p. 67; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xvi. p. 141.) The name of
Pelagonia still exists as the designation of the Greek metropolitan bishopric
of Bitolia or Monasteri, now the chief place of the surrounding country, and the
ordinary residence of the governor of Rumili. At or near the town are many vestiges
of ancient buildings of Roman times. The district was exposed to invasions from
the Dardani, who bordered on the N., for which reasons the communication (fauces
Pelagoniae, Liv. xxxi. 34) were carefully guarded by the kings of Macedonia, being
of great importance, as one of the direct entrances from Illyricum into Macedonia
by the course of the river Drilon. Between the NE. extremity, Mt. Ljubatrin, and
the Klisura of Devol, there are in the mighty and continuous chain of Scardus
(above 7000 feet high) only two passes fit for an army to cross, one near the
N. extremity of the chain from Kalkandele to Prisrendi or Persserin, a very high
col, not less than 5000 feet above the sea-level; the other considerably to the
S, and lower as well as easier, nearly in the latitude of Akridha. Leake (Northern
Greece, vol. iii. pp. 318-322) is of opinion that the passes of Pelagonia, in
which Perseus was stationed by his father Philip, were this latter depression
in the chain over which the modern road from Scodra or Scutari runs, and the Via
Egnatia travelled formerly. The Illyrian Autariatae and Dardani, to the N. of
Pelagonia, no doubt threatened Macedonia from the former pass, to the NE. of the
mountain-chain of Scardus. (Comp. Grote, Greece, c. xxv. and the references there
to Pouqueville, Boue, Grisebach, and Miller.) Stymbara or Stubara, was situated
apparently on the Erigon, as also were most of the Pelagonian towns. Polybius
(v. 108) speaks of a Pelagonian town named Pissaeum (Pissaion). Ptolemy (l. c.)
assigns to the Pelagones the two towns of Andraristus or Euristus (Peut. Tab.,
the orthography is not quite certain), and Stobi.
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
A district and city in Macedonia, inhabited by the Pelagones, and situated south of Paeonia, upon the Erigon.
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