MELIBOEA
MELIBOEA (
Μελίβοια: Eth.
Μελιβοεύς).
1.
An ancient town of Magnesia in Thessaly, mentioned by Homer as one of the places subject to Philoctetes
[p. 2.320]（
Il. 2.717).
It was situated upon the sea-coast (
Hdt. 7.188;
Scylax, p. 25;
Apollon. 1.592), andis described by Livy (
44.13) as situated at the roots of Mt. Ossa, and by Strabo (
ix. p.443) as lying in the gulf between Ossa and Pelium. Leake therefore places it near
Aghiá (
Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 414). Meliboea was taken and plundered by the Romans under Cn. Octavius, B.C. 168. (Liv. xliv 46: Meliboea is also mentioned by
Strab. ix. p.436;
Steph. B. sub voce Mela, 2.3;
Plin. Nat. 4.9. s. 16.)
The Meliboean purple is said by Lucretius (
2.499;
Verg. A. 5.251) to have derived its name from this town. Many modern writers, however, suppose the name to have come from the small island Meliboea at the mouth of the Orontes in Syria; but there is no reason for this supposition, as the shellfish from which the purple dye is obtained is found in the present day off the coast of Thessaly.
2.
A town of Histiaeotis in Thessaly, is conjectured by Leake to be represented by
Voivóda. (
Liv. 36.13; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 536.)
