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[15]

These places were of the greatest celebrity when they formed the keys of the straits. There were frequent contests for the ascendency between the inhabitants without and those within the straits. Philip used to call Chalcis and Corinth the fetters of Greece with reference to the opportunity which they afforded for invasions from Macedonia; and persons in later times called both these places and Demetrias ‘the fetters,’ for Demetrias commanding Pelion and Ossa, commanded also the passes at Tempe. Afterwards, however, when the whole country was subject to one power, the passes were freely open to all.1

1 Translated according to Kramer's proposed emendation. Demetrias, according to Leake, occupies the southern or maritime face of a height called Goritza, which projects from the coast of Magnesia between 2 and 3 miles to the southward of the middle of Volo. Pausanias, b. vii. c. 7, says that Philip called Chalcis, Corinth, and Magnesia in Thessaly, the ‘Keys of Greece.’ Livy, b. xxxii. c. 37.

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