DO´TIUS CAMPUS
DO´TIUS CAMPUS (
τὸ Δώτιον πεδίον), the name of a plain in Pelasgiotis in Thessaly, situated south of Ossa, along the western side of the lake Boebeis.
It is mentioned as the earliest seat of the Aenianes. (
Strab. i. p.61, ix. p. 442; Plut.
Quaest. Graec. 13.) Hesiod speaks of “twin hills in the Dotian plain opposite to the vine-bearing Amyrus,” said to have been the dwelling-place of Coronis, mother of Aesculapius by Apollo, who put her to death because she had favoured Ischys, son of Eilatus. (Hesiod, ap.
Strab. ix. p.442, xiv. p. 647; comp. Hom.
Hymn. xv.; Callim.
Hymn. in Cer. 25.) Leake identifies this double hill of Hesiod with a very remarkable height, rising like an island out of a plain, about four miles in circumference, and having two summits connected by a ridge: between them is a village called
Petra, from which the hill derives its name.
The north-eastern summit of the hill is surrounded by foundations of Hellenic walls of remote antiquity. We learn from Pindar that the town on this hill was called
LACEREIA (
Λακέρεια, Pind. P. 3.59), to which, however, other writers give the name of Dotium (
Steph. B. sub voce Δώτιον; Plin. Nat. 4.9. s. 16). (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 420, 447, 451.)
