LYNCESTIS
LYNCESTIS (
Λυγκηστίς,
Strab. vii. p.326; Ptol, 3.13.33), the country of the LYNCESTAE (
Λυγκησταί Thuc. 2.99,
4.83,
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 (
18.6) as
αἱ εἰς τὴν Ἐορδαίαν ὑπερβολαί,--and Thucydides (
4.83) calls a defile in the same mountains
ἡ ἐσβολὴ τ̂ης Λύγκου, 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. 4.83.)
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. 4.124.)
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. 31.33.) From the narrative of Livy, which was undoubtedly
[p. 2.231]extracted from Polybius, as well as from the Itineraries, it would appear that Lyncestis comprehended that part of Upper Macedonia now called
Filúrina, 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 (
26.25,
32.9), and in Thucydides (
4.83,
124) and Plutarch. (
Flamin. 4.)
At or near
Bánitza are the mineral acidulous waters of Lyncestis, which were supposed by the ancients to possess intoxicating qualities. (
Ov. Met. 15.329; comp. Arist.
Meteor. 2.3; Theopomp. ap. Plin. 2.103, 31.2, ap. Antig. Caryst. 180, ap. Sotion. de Flum. p. 125;
Vitr. 8.3; Sen.
Quaest. Nat. 3.20.) They were found by Dr. Brown (
Travels in Hungaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, &c. &c., Lond. 1673, p. 45) on the road from
Filúrina to
Egri Budjá. He calls the place
Eccisso Verbéni; this, which sounds Wallachian, may possibly be a corruption of the name of the
Dervéni or pass. (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 305--318.)
[
E.B.J]
