Boardman J., Hammond N.G. L. The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC
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THESSALY 295
some of their names and families, and some snippets of information
about them. The Aleuadae, reputedly responsible for the first federal
organization and leaders of the pro-Persian group before 480; the
Scopadae, victims of collective disaster in the late sixth century (divine
wrath, or the roof of their dining-hall, fell upon them), the Creondae,
Echecratidae and others. Their wealth was notorious:
Many were the serfs who drew their monthly rations
in the halls of Antiochus and of lord
Aleuas; many the calves that with the horned cattle
bellowed as they were driven to the byres of the
Scopadae; thousands of sheep were pastured across the plain
of Crannon by their shepherds for the hospitable Creondae.
So sang Theocritus later
(Id.
xvi. 34ft). With these resources they could
behave as befitted Thessalians, generously and magnificently; mag-
nificently in their dedications to the gods (the earliest offering at
Delphi known to Pausanias (x. 16.8) was made by an Echecratidas of
Larissa), their banquets (more famed for their size than their savour),
in their racing-stables (Thessalian horses were the first in Greece);
generously in their patronage of the poets, Simonides, Anacreon and
Pindar among them, though, as Simonides discovered, poetry was more
appreciated for its flattery than its finesse. Indeed, when asked why
Thessalians were the only people he never cheated, he replied, 'Because
they are too stupid' (Plut. Mor.
15
D).
But in the society which these men administered there were two
elements unknown in Boeotia. The invading Thessalians had occupied
only the plain. Of its previous population one group moved south to
settle in Boeotia, some crossed the sea to establish themselves in Lesbos
or the neighbouring coast of Asia Minor, others will have withdrawn
to join the inhabitants of the surrounding hills, many, probably the
majority, became 'Penestae', the serfs who pastured the sheep or drove
the cattle and drew their rations in exchange.
18
Naturally the central power came, though not without a struggle
(Arist. Pol. i269a36-8), to dominate its less well-endowed neighbours,
either informally, as with the Dolopes on the eastern slopes of Mt
Pindus, or formally. Three peoples in particular had some special status,
the Perrhaebi along the northern border, the Magnesians on the east
coast and the Phthiotic Achaeans in milder country to the south.
Sometimes they are described as 'subjects', sometimes, apparently, they
are included among Thessaly's 'allies', thus implying for them some
ambiguous relationship similar in kind, though not necessarily in
content, to that of the so-called 'subject-allies' to Athens in the
18
E 12); E 124, 48-53-
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
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Map 17. Central Gteece and Thessaly.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THESSALY
developed Delian
League.
As we shall see they were independent
enough, in the main presumably in domestic matters, for Thessaly to
claim votes for them on the Amphictionic
Council;
subservient enough,
presumably,
to make it worth Thessaly's while to do so.
Once,
but only
once, they are called
perioeci,
'
dwellers-around', in a constitutional not
merely a geographical context, where two of their duties are mentioned,
to provide light-armed troops in wartime and to pay tribute, its nature
and occasion unspecified, on a scale 'laid down by Scopas', i.e. in the
sixth century or before. But that is our only clue to the mechanics of
the arrangement.
19
The
general condition of the Penestae is more readily grasped
—
one
of complete servitude to their Thessalian masters. But closer definition
is difficult.
Much
depends on numbers. Were the Thessalians nearer to
a conquering elite, as the Normans were in England, or to a new
population as the Spartans were in the Laconian plain? How far down
the scale could Thessalians be? How rich was the richest Penestes?
Theocritus
gives a gloomy view of stinted rations as a reward for labour,
but
a near contemporary of his, Archemachus of Euboea,
20
describes
a fairer contract, that the serf should work the land and pay a
contribution, presumably
a
fixed proportion of the produce, in exchange,
as did the Helot in
Sparta
or the Athenian
hektemoros.
He was, moreover,
given
security against being
sold
abroad or arbitrarily killed. Some of
them, adds Archemachus, were even more prosperous than their
masters. The two pictures are not irreconcilable and other evidence is
not inconsistent with variation. References to revolts, vague but no
doubt
real, or possible revolts might argue hard conditions - but there
can be discontent with inferiority of status as well as with poverty.
Penestae could be thought of
as
a mass fit-fotthe lowest kind of military
duty
- but one Thessalian prince in the fifth century could furnish two
or three hundred Penestae as
cavalrymen
from his own estate, suggesting
that
Thessaly as a whole might provide
some
thousands.
21
Utterly
miserable yokels 4o not make xavalrymen.
Details,
then, are obscure and other questions cannot be answered
-
did the serfs belong to the state, as Helots did? Probably not.
Could
a serf ever be freed, as occasionally a Helot was? Probably yes. Were
there local variations inside Thessaly as there were no doubt, in relations
with the
perioeci}
And here we must turn Krthe-main problem
—
how
much of a unity was Thessaly? How did it become^the federal state
which we know in the fifth and fourth centuries?
There
were four regions of the plain, Hestiaeotis (north-west),
Pelasgiotis (north-east) containing most of the major cities, Thessaliotis
"
E
II
9
;
A
26,
1-6.
20
p
GrH
^
p
,
21
[Dem.]
XIII.
23 and Dem. xxm. 199.
297
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298 4
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- CENTRAL GREECE AND THESSALY
(south and west) and Phthiotis (further south and east around the city
of Pharsalus), each with its villages
or
towns, each made
up of
the
estates
of
great families, more
or
less powerful locally and as large
as
geography, economics, politics
or
the hand
of
the gods directed from
time to time; now rivals, now friends in the game of dynastic intrigue.
The Echecratidae seem to have been as fruitful of marriage ties as the
Metelli
at
Rome
-
the name appears
at
Larissa,
at
Pharsalus
and at
Crannon; the Creondae and the Scopadae were distinct
—
but there was
a Scopas, son of Creon.
22
But these links should not be assumed to be
any more enduring than were those of the Metelli, nor should any one
group be credited with lasting authority over the whole.
Opinions differ on the machinery through which any such authority
could have been exercised. In
511
the Thessalians
'
by common decision'
sent
a
force to help the Athenian tyrants in accordance with an alliante
which may date back to the 540s.
23
But that is the earliest firm evidence
for
a
federal council
or
assembly and therefore, presumably, for some
rudimentary kind of federal organization. A date no later is also implied
by the financial arrangements introduced by a Scopas. Other references
are clouded, mainly by the ambiguity
of'
Thessalians'
-
all Thessalians
or only some? Some four thousand were killed
in a
battle with
the
Phocians, too many one would think for
a
local levy, but that was late
in the sixth century. The Thebans defeated the ' Thessalians
K
and their
'commander', Lattamyas,
at
Ceressus earlier
in
the same century and
the rare name
in
the form Lattamos recurs
in a
late inscription from
Crannon (as son of an Echecratidas!);
a
purely Crannonian expedition
to southern Boeotia would
be
odd.
24
A
certain Eurylochus, origin
unstated (though the name recurs
in
Larissa
in
the late fifth century),
led the 'Thessalian' forces in the first Sacred War
c.
595-590, and the
involvement
of
the Amphictiony
in
this war suggests pan-Thessalian
support
-
but does not impose it. Before 700 Cleomachus of Pharsalus,
with 'Thessalian' cavalry helped the Chalcidians
to a
victory
in the
Lelantine War, but were they Thessalians or Pharsalians (cf. CAH
in.
1
2
,
ch. 18*)?
In sum,
it
seems
a
little more likely than not that there were cases
of combined action before the mid-sixth century, occasions when
an
ethnic consciousness, which was always there and, as
in
Boeotia, may
already have been celebrated regularly at the sanctuary of Athena Itonia
near Pharsalus, was translated into federal endeavour.
In
the fourth
century it was asserted by the ambitious Jason of Pherae that the system
on which such action was based
had
been created
at an
early
but
unspecified date by
a
certain Aleuas, nicknamed the 'Red' according
22
D 50, 235-8.
23
Hdt. v. 63.3;
cf.
below, p. 317.
24
Below, p. 304;
IG
ix.2, 469.
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THESSALY 299
to Aristotle who supplements (but perhaps in some measure distorts)
Jason's picture.
25
Under him the four regions or ' tetrarchies' had been
recognized, each further divided into klaroi (lots), with the duty to
provide uniform contingents for the army, in all, said Jason, 6,000 horse
and more than 10,000 hoplites. Regulations for
theperioeci
then followed
in the time of Scopas (here it is that Aristotle may have disagreed in
ascribing everything to Aleuas). In charge of the whole was a
tagos
(commander-in-chief), beneath him four tetrarchs. Aleuas, of course,
was the first
tagos —
and Jason saw himself as a successor.
According to Xenophon in his account of Jason, the
tagos
was elected
(' chosen' might be a better word), and, it is implied, was elected only
in special circumstances, e.g. in times of war or other crisis. Some have
therefore argued for a series of
ad hoc
appointments, drawing attention
to the fact that other possible
tagoi
(especially those mentioned above)
do appear in military contexts and to a phrase in a mid-fifth century
inscription which was translated '
in
periods when there was and periods
in which there was not a
tagos'.
But the former could be due to accident
of survival and the latter may well be a mistranslation.
26
Others feel the
need of
a
permanent federal official. For them Jason may be recording
only a fourth-century lapse in the system while the twenty-seven year
'rule of Thessaly' advertised by an inscription for a certain Daochus
in the late fifth century seems to be somewhat more than temporary.
But this is to tamper with Xenophon's words, and the rule of Daochus
can be made, though not without difficulty, to span the twenty-seven
years of the Peloponnesian War.
27
These two views can be expanded, the latter into a story of
a
strong
central authority established by Aleuas at an early date
(c.
700 has been
favoured, but the late sixth century has had its advocates), gradually
enfeebled with the developments of cities with aspirations to indepen-
dence; the former to one of spasmodic (not necessarily weak) federalism
from the start. Neither rules out a real Aleuas or a real Scopas at the
root of Jason's propaganda. Neither should make us overlook the fact
of divisions in or between cities or regions. Nothing should tempt us
to forget that behind the facade, whatever it was, lay reality
—
the
rivalling ambitions of the great houses, of
basileis
unchallenged from
below.
25
Xen. Hell. vi.
1.4-4.57;
Arist. frs. 497-8; cf. E 142.
28
/G ix. 2, 257; E 88.
27
SIG
3
274; L. Moretti, Inscr. Agon. 68-75, no. 29.
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- CENTRAL GREECE AND THESSALY
IV. EAST AND WEST LOCRIS, PHOCIS, MALIS, DORIS,
7OO-5OO B.C.
The area
of
hills
and
mountains between
and to the
wist
of
Boeotia
and Thessaly resolved itself after
the
migration period into
a
number
of units, some
of
which
can
be
described
as,
some
of
which
can
only
be nattered
by the
name
of,
states; Malis
in
the lower, Aenis
in the
upper
Spercheus valley; Doris, reputedly homeland
of
the
Dorians,
by the
source
of
the
Cephissus; Phocis around
Mt
Parnassus dividing Locris
into
two,
East
(or
Epicnemidian
or
Opuntian) Locris,
the
coastal strip
facing Euboea,
and
West
(or
Ozolian) Locris
on the
Corinthian
Gulf.
Two sizeable
and
fertile plains
at
the
heads
of
the Crisaean
and
Malian
Gulfs,
one
less fertile
in
the upper Cephissus valley,
the
rest poor upland
country
or
worse.
Geography, then, dictated weakness
and
provided powerful neigh-
bours
to
exploit
it.
There
is
little history that
is not
tied
up
with
the
comings
and
goings, failures
or
successes
of
those neighbours.
Although
not
formally admitted
to
perioecic status,
the
Dorians,
Aenianes
and
Malians were,
in so far as
they mattered
at all,
under
Thessalian control. Only
of
the Malians
is
anything domestic recorded;
that they
had an
urban centre
at
Trachis under
Mt
Oeta
in the
south,
later,
in
426,
to
be
replaced
by the
Spartan colony, Heraclea Trachinia;
and that their constitution once ('once' from Aristotle's standpoint)
gave political recognition
to
those performing
or
who had
performed
military service,
but
restricted office
to the
former.
28
Phocis
and the
Locrides
are a
little more substantial.
The
physical
division
of
the Locrians
by the
penetration
of
the Phocians northwards
; from Parnassus towards
the
coast
of
the Gulf
of
Euboea produced
two
communities with
a
strong sense
of
identity, some common practices
and much divergence
in
later development.
Each Locris enjoyed
a
stretch
of
coast-line with good harbours,
the
East
at
Larymna
and
Opus,
the
West
in the
Gulf
of
Crisa
and
above
all
at
Naupactus,
a
superb strategic point
at the
narrows
of the
Corinthian
Gulf.
But
neither seems
to
have exploited them much
for
its own commercial development. Presumably through lack of resources,
the East provided only seven small warships (penteconters)
for the
Greek fleet
in
480;
the
West provided none, presumably through lack
of inclination
as
well.
In
one
case
the
wildness
of
the hinterland,
in the
other
its
virtual absence meant that
the
harbours were there
to
help
or
hinder passing traffic rather than
as
centres
for the
distribution
of its
/
goods.
Hindrance
was the
favourite game
of
the
West Locrians. They
are lumped together with
the
Aetolians, Acar-nanians
and
other wild
28
Ath.
461
E,
citing Hermippus,
frs. 70-1;
Scythinus FCrH
13 F
1
et.
al.; Ar.
Pol.
1297b!
2-6.
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E. AND W. LOCRIS, PHOCIS, MALIS, DORIS 3OI
men by Thucydides (i. 5) as traditionalists in the practice of piracy and
brigandage, while a mid-fifth-century treaty between the cities of
Oeanthea and Chaleum devotes itself entirely to the regulation (note,
not suppression) of those arts. But help was available as well - at least
the Corcyreans found it useful to appoint
a proxenos
in Oeanthea in the
seventh century, very useful to judge from the tomb with which they
honoured him in death.
29
The same kind of distinction between coast and hinterland continued
along the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf and into the Ionian sea,
the ' coast' now being taken to include the offshore islands of Ithaca,
Cephalonia and Leucas, but with some differences. The interior of
Aetolia is even wilder than Locris immediately to the east, and affords
correspondingly less evidence for life or history. There was one quasi-
urban centre at Thermum at the foot of the mountains by the side
of Lake Trichonis, later the religious and political centre of the Aetolian
League. Some scanty traces of a primitive temple, perhaps Late Geo-
metric, and the more substantial remains of its sixth-century successor
show that Apollo Thermius was already installed to serve as focus for
whatever communal purposes Aetolians pursued, but of what they were
we know nothing. So too the less forbidding but still remote Acarnania
had its 'capital', at Stratus on the right bank of the River Achelous,
the frontier with Aetolia. A powerful enough city in the fifth century,
it must have existed before but in what capacity we can only surmise.
For the whole area it is enough to note that large tracts were still
un-Hellenized in the late fifth century and to quote Thucydides: 'the
habit of going about armed still survives [jr. in Locris, Aetolia,
Acarnania]'
(11.
68 and 1. 5).
The settlements on the coast, at Calydon, Pleuron and Amphilochian
Argos (inside the Ambracian Gulf) do not offer much more in the way
of solid information except in small measure Calydon where late seventh-
and sixth-century temples testify to the worship of Artemis Laphria and
perhaps, therefore, to the existence of the later important festival which
took her name. Surely, however, their concern was more with the
rich ships that passed close by than with the yokels in the hills behind.
But here there is a new element. Other Greek states, especially the-
Corinthians, established colonies on the coast or in the islands, this
in itself a sign that they saw these as alien, 'barbarian' parts; the
Corinthians on Ithaca, the Eretrians on Corcyra, the Corinthians later
at Corcyra, Leucas, Anactorium and Ambracia. Their story belongs
elewhere in this volume; we note only that their existence witnesses to
the importance of the north and the west. Some went to exploit, some
waited to prey on the exploiters.
z
* M-L no. 4; M. N. Tod,
Greek Historical Inscriptions
(1946) no. 34.
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302 4
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But
to
return
to
the Locrians.
On
one occasion they too indulged
in
a
colonial adventure,
to
Epizephyrian Locri
on the toe of
Italy.
Antiquity arrived
at a
date
for
this
in
673 (roughly confirmed
by
archaeology) but could not agree on the origin, geographical or social,
of the settlers. According to Aristotle and (vehemently) Polybius, they
were slaves who had contaminated noble Locrian matrons during the
absence of their husbands in Spartan service during the First Messenian
War; according to Timaeus, free men who reproduced in Italy the free
society
of
their homeland.
30
The discreditable version
as it
stands
is
obviously
a
doublet
of
the tale of the Spartan Partheniae
at
Tarentum
and
the
link with
the
Messenian War
is
nonsensical
—
the Locrians
would hardly wait more than forty years to act against their errant slaves.
Nevertheless, the emigrants may have been some kind
of
unwanted
'inferior' element
in
Locris
—
such men
do
not necessarily forget
the
practices they have left behind (cf. indeed Tarentum)
—
nor is some link
with Sparta impossible. Even if direct Spartan participation, claimed by
Pausanias
(at
in. 3.1)
is
rejected, there may have been indirect contact
through Tarentum, later an ally and possibly
at
the time
an
assistant
in the foundation.
31
There
is
firmer testimony
to
help from Syracuse
and this, with
the
Corcyrean link,
not to
mention
the
admission
of
Locrians
to a
site
in
Corinth's western 'empire', suggests Corinthian
sympathy
-
and Corinth was still Sparta's friend in 673. The founders,
then, even if surplus to domestic requirement, probably had international
as well
as
domestic blessing
for
their effort.
West Locris fits more readily into this pattern than East Locris, and
a West Locrian origin for the colony is further supported by similarity
of alphabet.
32
On the other hand, East Locris might have found
a
key
to the west
in
neighbouring Chalcis and some institutions
of
Italian
Locri are attested
for
(though this does not necessarily mean that they
existed only in) East Locris. Ancient authorities disagreed. We can only
have doubt, even admitting the possibility
of
a joint interest (such
as
there was in Naupactus later). (See also the section on Locri Epizephyrii
in ch. 38.)
Italian Locri was famed
as the
home
of
one
of
the earliest Greek
law-codes,
the
work
of
Zaleucus who
sat at the
feet
of
Thaletas
of
Crete
-
according to others Lycurgus was his fellow-pupil (Arist. Pol.
1274328—30); in either
case,
or neither, he may have taken with him from
his homeland some love of legality, or mainland parents may have learnt
from their colonial children, for there is evidence both in East and West
of quite sophisticated legal procedures
at a
fairly early date.
30
Timaeus FGrH 566 F
I I
and 12; Polybius
XII.
5-16; Aristotle's arguments are inferred from
these passages
(cf.
Walbank ad
loc).
3I
Strabo 259c emended.
32
A
36,
28
5
.
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E.
AND W. LOCRIS, PHOCIS, MALIS, DORIS 303
In West Locris there are only the scantiest traces
of
any federal
structure and the various cities managed their own affairs with little
interference. The piracy law mentioned above was
a
private treaty
between Chaleum
and
Oeanthea; another unidentified city passed
regulations for the allotment of new land and envisaged the admission
of new citizens; Naupactus appears to have negotiated independently
with East Locris and Chaleum
for
reinforcements (all this between
about 525 and 450 B.C.). But the legislation, though local, was refined.
Procedures are laid down for the appointment of jurors, the imposition
of
fines,
the conduct of
cases,
the lines of inheritance, taxation, relations
between old and new members of the community, while in one case
(at Oeanthea) there
is
mention
of
a special court for suits involving
foreigners. An extract from the unknown city to give the flavour of the
whole:
Unless under the pressure of war a majority of
101
men chosen from the best
citizens decide
to
bring
in at
least 200 fighting-men as additional settlers,
whoever proposes a division or puts
it
to a vote in the council of elders or
in the city or in the select-men or makes civil strife...
he
shall be accursed... his
property shall be confiscated and his house demolished just as under the law
about murder.
33
Allusions
in the
same inscription
say
something
of the
city's
institutions. There are magistrates,
demiourgoi
and an
archos,
an aristo-
cratic council, an assembly and what appears to be a second, presumably
non-aristocratic, council. Then there are the mysterious 101 'best men'.
There is no clue to the composition or the competence of the assembly.
Was
it
open
to all and
frequently consulted?
Or
restricted
and
occasional? The council and the 'best men' point
to
the survival of
aristocratic ways.
A
second council,
the
'select-men', smacks
of
something different. Such bodies existed in the sixth century in Chios
and in Athens and after a fashion in Sparta (in the shape of the ephors),
representing something in the community other than the aristocracy,
but anything similar in backward Locris can only astonish.
The Naupactus decree is our fullest evidence for the workings of East
Locris, since besides controlling the status of East Locrian newcomers
in Naupactian society, it lays down their rights, continuing or resumable,
in their homeland.
In
civil and religious matters the colonist is
to
be
treated as
a
foreigner, but he may return to East Locris
if
he wishes
without payment and may inherit family property there. Similarly, next
of kin in Locris may inherit a colonist's property if he presents himself
in person. Allusions again help towards a wider picture. The cities of
East Locris have each their own laws, but responsibility for the decree
33
M-L nos. 13 and 20.
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- CENTRAL GREECE AND THESSALY
and
for
most
of
its
administration rests with
the
federal government
at
the
federal centre, Opus (from which
the
state took one of its names).
Of this government only
one
magistrate
is
named,
an
archos
as
in the
western city,
but
there is also
an
assembly, denned
as
' The Thousand',
a definition which gives
no
clue
to its
power
but
implies some
qualification
for
membership
-
military service
one
would suppose
since
the
Opuntians
at
Thermopylae
in
full force numbered just
1,000
men. Elsewhere
we
hear
of
another institution,
the
Hundred House-
holds,
basically,
it
seems, East Locrian,
but
perhaps shared with
the
West
—
certainly exported to Italy. These formed, no doubt,
a
traditional
aristocracy like that
of
the Eupatridae
in
Athens,
but we do not
know
that they continued
to
have
any
formal constitutional rights.
In 457 the
Athenians took
as
hostages
'the
richest' Locrians
—
their number,
100,
is suggestive (Thuc.
1.
108.3). More onerous, and more certain, was their
liability
to
provide tribute through
a
thousand years
in
expiation
of
the
misdeeds
of
Locrian Ajax at Troy
-
two
girls from their number
to
face
death
or
temple-service
at
Ilium,
at
first
for
life, later annually.
One
might think that such
a
service merited political reward,
but
perhaps
the honour
was
enough
-
in the
third century
one
family volunteered
to accept
a
monopoly.
34
But such rites apart
and
when left
in
peace
by
stronger neighbours,
a Locrian,
be his
bent
for
piracy, politics
or
litigation, could lead
a
fairly happy life. Aristocratic survivals there were,
but
they were
not
conspicuous, government was limited
to a
few, but
quite
a
few.
It
was
the sort
of
state
of
which Aristotle could approve.
The internal history
of
Phocis
is
obscured
by one
dramatic tale
and
one floating event. Herodotus
(VIII.
27-33) describes fighting between
the Phocians
and the
Thessalians
not
long before
the
Persian invasion.
Plutarch (Mor. 244),
in
his
colourful account
of
what
may be the
same
campaign, adds that
it
was
a
Thessalian reprisal
for a
Phocian revolt
in which Thessalian governors
and
tyrants (Thessalian nominees)
had
been killed. Elsewhere {Camillas
19.4; Mor. 866F)
he
mentions
a
Boeotian victory over
the
Thessalians
at
Ceressus
in the
extreme south-
west
of
Boeotia,
a
position which could only have been approached
through Phocis.
In
each case, then,
a
period
of
Thessalian occupation
or domination,
one, say,
about
500,
the
other when? Plutarch puts
Ceressus ' not long before
5
70'.
If he was right,
or
nearly right, one could
imagine
a
continuing Thessalian presence from
the
time
of
the
Sacred
War (below, pp. 313-18) through Ceressus
to
about 5
00.
If he is wrong
(and Plutarch's dates
are
rarely sacred) Ceressus
can be
absorbed into
a shorter, later period
of
Thessalian control; Phocis before about
5 00
can
be
free.
But free
or
not,
we
know nothing
of its
constitution before
the
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