Apollodorus, Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer), book E (search)
Od. 3.189, p. 1463. He says that Neoptolemus sailed across the sea to
Thessaly and there burned his ships by the
advice of Thetis; after which, beingrtained by a
certain Molon and died. As to an early connexion between Thessaly and Cos, see W. R. Paton and E. L. Hicks, The
Inscriptions of Cos, pe over the processions and sacrifices in their honour. The
Aenianes of Thessaly used to send a grand
procession and costly sacrifices to Delphi
the Pelasgians,
and, having taken possession of the country, called it Thessaly. Philoctetes went to the Campanians in Italy; Phidippus with the Coans settle
Pelasgians, and having taken possession of the country he called it Thessaly.Compare
Strab. 9.5.23. Phidippus with the Coans
was drivet in a sedition Philoctetes was driven from
his city of Meliboea in Thessaly （Hom.
Il. 2.717ff.）, and fled to southern Italy, where he founded
Aristophanes, Plutus (ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.), line 489 (search)
rn, cut up leather, bake bricks, bleach linen, tan hides, or break up the soil of the earth with the plough and garner the gifts of Demeter, if he could live in idleness and free from all this work?
Chremylus
What nonsense all this is! All these trades which you just mention will be plied by our slaves.
Poverty
Your slaves! And by what means will these slaves be got?
Chremylus
We will buy them.
Poverty
But first say, who will sell them, if everyone is rich?
Chremylus
Some greedy dealer from Thessaly —the land which supplies so many.
Poverty
But if your system is applied, there won't be a single slave-dealer left.
What rich man would risk his life to devote himself to this traffic? You will have to toil, to dig and submit yourself to all kinds of hard labour; so that your life would be more wretched even than it is now.
Chremylus
May this prediction fall upon yourself!
Poverty
You will not be able to sleep in a bed, for no more will ever be manufactured; nor no carpets, for who would w
the subject of the constitution of
Sparta and that of Crete, and virtually in regard to the other
forms of constitution also, the questions that arise for consideration are two,
one whether their legal structure has any feature that is admirable or the
reverse in comparison with the best system, another whether it contains any
provision that is really opposed to the fundamental principle and character of
the constitution that the founders had in view.Now it is a thing admitted
that a state that is to be well governed must be provided with leisure from
menial occupations; but how this is to be provided it is not easy to ascertain.
The serf class in Thessaly repeatedly
rose against its masters, and so did the Helots at Sparta, where they are like an enemy
constantly sitting in wait for the disasters of the Spartiates. Nothing of the kind has hitherto occurred
in Crete, the reason perhaps being that
the neighboring cities,
people raise the difficulty, How will that ancestor three or four generations
back have been a citizen? GorgiasSicilian
orator and nihilistic philosopher, visited Athens
427 B.C. of Leontini therefore, partly
perhaps in genuine perplexity but partly in jest, said that just as the vessels
made by mortar-makers were mortars, so the citizens made by the magistrates were
Larisaeans, since some of the magistrates were actually larisa-makers.Larisa, a city in Thessaly, was famous for the manufacture of a kind of
kettle called ‘larisa.’ But it is really a simple
matter; for if they possessed citizenship in the manner stated in our definition
of a citizen, they were citizens—since it is clearly impossible to
apply the qualification of descent from a citizen father or mother to the
original colonizers or founders of a city.But perhaps a question
rather arises about those who were admitted to citizenship when a revolution had
<
e state
Requireth—
implying that there is a
special education for a ruler. And
if the goodness of a good ruler is the same as the goodness of a good man, yet
the person ruled is also a citizen, so that the goodness of a citizen in general
will not be the same as that of a man, although that of a particular citizen
will; for goodness as a ruler is not the same as goodness as a citizen, and no
doubt this is the reason why JasonTyrant of
Pherae in Thessaly, assassinated
370 B.C. said that when he was not
tyrant he went hungry, meaning that he did not know the art of being a private
person. Another point is that we
praise the ability to rule and to be ruled, and it is doubtless held that the
goodness of a citizen consists in ability both to rule and to be ruled well. If
then we lay it down that the goodness of the good man is displayed in ruling,
whereas that of the citizen is shown in both capacities, the
should have a suitable site, and the same for all, excepting those
temples which are assigned a special place apart by the law or else by some
utterance of the Pythian oracle. And the site would be suitable if it is one
that is sufficiently conspicuous in regard to the excellence of its position,
and also of superior strength in regard to the adjacent parts of the city.
It is convenient that below
this site should be laid out an agora of the kind customary in Thessaly which they call a free agora, that
is, one which has to be kept clear of all merchandise and into which no artisan
or farmer or any other such person may intrude unless summoned by the
magistrates. It would give amenity to the site if the gymnasia of the older men
were also situated here—for it is proper to have this institution also
divided according to ages,Or ‘for
in this noble practice different ages should be separated’
（Jowett）. and for certain
Then too Demosthenes decided upon war, offering to
his compatriots counsel which, though seemingly prudent, was in reality fraught
with danger.After the accession of Alexander in
336 B.C. Demosthenes proposed a decree to
honor Philip's murderer, and war was imminent. But in the same year, when
Alexander entered Thessaly,
Athens retracted. Demades
apparently negotiated the ensuing agreement, but we have no other evidence
to confirm the statement made in this passage. When the enemy was
encamped near Attica and the country
was being confined in the town, when the city, worthy to be striven for and
marvelled at by all, was being filled like a stable with oxen, sheep and flocks
and there was no hope of help from any quarte
But if we leave these
men too in the lurch, Athenians, and then Olynthus is crushed by Philip, tell me what is to prevent him
from marching henceforward just where he pleases. I wonder if any one of you in
this audience watches and notes the steps by which Philip, weak at first, has
grown so powerful. First he seized Amphipolis, next Pydna, then Potidaea,
after that Methone, lastly he
invaded Thessaly.
It is worth while, however, to observe and
consider how Philip stands today. His present prospects are not so bright or
satisfactory as they seem and as a superficial observer might pronounce them;
nor would he ever have provoked this war had he thought that he would be bound
to fight himself. He hoped that on his first entry he would carry all before
him, and he finds himself completely mistaken. This unforeseen result confounds
and discourages him; and besides there is the question of Thessaly.
The Thessalians were always, of course, born traitors, and Philip finds them
today just what everyone has found them in the past. They have formally resolved
to demand the restitution of Pagasae
and have hindered him from fortifying Magnesia. I have also been informed that they will no longer
hand over to him the profits of their harbors and markets, on the ground that
this sum ought to be applied to the government of Thessaly and not find its way into Philip's coffers. Now if he
is deprived of this source of revenue, he will be hard put to it to pay for the
maintenance of his mercenaries.
