In CHAP. VIL

Pasha, or of those who have plundered in his name.
the short space of six months, they had paid to his tax-
gatherers, as they told us, eighty purses; being equivalent
to forty thousand piastres. Poverty is very apparent in
their dwellings; but the cottages of Phocis are generally as
much inferior to those of Boeotia, as the latter are to those
of Attica. Nor can it be otherwise, where the wretched
inhabitants are so oppressed by their lords. The whole of
the earnings of the peasant is here taken from him; he is
scarcely allowed any means of subsistence. Add to this
the frequent calamities of sickness and fire; and “plague,
pestilence and famine" will be found to have done their
work. This village had been twice burned within one year,
by banditti, who come generally from Epirus, or from the
Straits of Thermopyla, or from Joannina, or from Zeitún,
or from the neighbourhood of Joannina and Zeitún.
As one source of consolation, in the midst of so much
misery, the inhabitants told us "they had no Turks resident
among them." Such is the forlorn condition of the present
inhabitants of TITHOREA! It was widely different in former
times; although it began to decline soon after the Christian
æra. Pausanias relates, that the Tithoreans began to
experience an adverse fortune one generation before his time.
The vestiges of the Theatre were however then visible,
and the Peribolus of the antient Forum'. We did not find
the Theatre; which must be attributed entirely to our want

of

(2) Pausanias, ibid. p. 879.
(3) Ibid.

CHAP. VII.

Antiquity of
Tithorea.

Other Memorabilia.

of

proper observation; because this, of all other things, is the most likely to remain. But we did find, what we should least have expected to see remaining, namely, the FORUM mentioned by Pausanias. It is a square structure, built in the Cyclopéan style, with large masses of stone; but laid together with great evenness and regularity, although without any cement; the work being not so antient as the architecture of Argos, of Tiryns, or of Mycena. The walls of the city were executed in the same manner; and they were fortified with mural turrets, as at Platea. The other memorabilia of TITHOREA, in the time of Pausanias', were, à Grove, consecrated to Minerva, containing her Temple (vaòs) and statue; and a monument (uva) to the memory of Antiope and Phocus. At the distance of eighty stadia from TITHOREA was the Temple of Esculapius; and at the distance of forty stadia from this temple there was a Peribolus, containing an Adytum, sacred to Isis'. The Tithoreans held a vernal and an autumnal solemnity in honour of this Goddess: and so purely Egyptian were the sacrifices then offered, that the custom of swathing the victims in folds of linen*, after the same manner wherein the Ibis, and the bodies and parts of bodies of other animals, were deposited in terra-cotta vessels now found in the subterraneous cavities beneath the Pyramids of Saccára, was considered as a necessary operation. From the account given by Pausanias

of

(1) Pausanias, lib. x. c. 32.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Ibid. p. 880.

p. 879.

(4) Καθειλίξαι δὲ δεῖ σφᾶς τὰ ἱερεῖα λίνου Τελαμῶσιν ἢ βύσσου. Ibid

of the ceremonies that were practised during the celebration of these Egyptian solemnities at TITHOREA, we may collect sufficient information for the illustration of that strange custom in Egypt; a subject hitherto involved in the utmost obscurity'. Here we find that certain birds called Meleagrides, together with other animals, were sacrificed to Isis', WRAPPED UP IN LINEN BANDAGES, AFTER THE EGYPTIAN MANNER OF SWATHING THE VICTIMS. After making this curious observation, it is further remarked, by the same author, that the Egyptians celebrate their festival of Isis when the Nile begins to rise': and hence it may be inferred (as the Tithorean solemnity was an imitation of the Egyptian festival, even in such minute parts of the ceremony as the swathing of the victims, also described as being buried near to the sacred Adytum of Isis") that the burial of the swathed animals in the earthen pots at Saccára took place in the same manner, and at the celebration of the same festival.

In the sanctuary belonging to the church of Velitza, we found an inscription which confirmed our conjecture with regard to the original name of the city whose ruins we had so fortunately discovered. It commemorates a tribute of honour rendered to NERVA, with an enumeration of his

titles,

(5) See the former Section of Part II. of these Travels, Chap. V. p. 167. ("Repository of embalmed birds.") Broxbourne, 1814,

(6) The birds so called were Guinea-fowls, whose feathers and eggs are of a different colour; but the Meleagrides were the sisters of Meleager, supposed to have been thus metamorphosed.

(7) Vid. Pausan. ibid. p. 880.

(8) Ibid. p. 881.

(9) Καὶ κατορύσσουσιν ἐνταῦθα. Ibid. p. 880.

(10) Αδυτον ἱερὸν Ἴσιδος, Ibid.

CHAP. VII.

Inscription

relating to

Tithorea.

CHAP. VII.

:

titles, by the citizens of TITHOREA and the family of the FLAVII, whose names are specified:

AYTOKPATOPANEPBANKAIZAPA

ΑΡΧΙΕΡΕΑ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΟΝ ΔΗΜΑΡΧΙΚΗΣ

ΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΥΠΑΤΟΝΤΟΣ

ΠΑΤΕΡΑΠΑΤΡΙΔΟΣΗ ΠΟΛΙΣ

ΤΙΘΟΡΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΦΛΑΒΙΟΣΣΩ

ΚΛΑΡΟΣ ΚΑΙΤΦΛΑΒΙΟΣΑΠΑΣ**

ΚΑΙ ΦΛΑΒΙΟΣΠΩΛΛΙΑΝΟΣΑΡΙΣΤΟΣ

Having before printed this inscription, together with a critical illustration of it, for which the author was indebted to the profound erudition and to the kindness of Dr. PARR, he must refer the reader to the publication in which it appeared'; adding for the present only, that the date of it may be accurately ascertained. NERVA is here mentioned as being Consul for the fourth time: and he died at the end of January, A. D. 98. in a little less than a month after he had been declared, for the fourth time, Consul'. We noticed some other inscriptions upon sepulchres; but they were merely names, as ΤΙΜΟΚΡΑΤΗΣ, ΕΥΘΥΜΑΧΟΣ, and ΣΩΣΙΚΡΑΤΕΙΑ. Very few medals could be collected at this place; and those few were either Roman or Ecclesiastical brass coins.

(1) See "Tomb of Alexander," Appendix, No. 4. p. 155. Camb. 1805.

(2) When this inscription was before published, the letters at the end of the third line were printed, from the author's copy, TOA. "It was probably," observed Dr. PARR, "written TOA;" although in numerals the line be sometimes omitted. Sir WILLIAM GELL has since visited TITHOREA, and found the writing to correspond with Dr. PARR's learned conjecture. It is written TOÃ. — Sir William Gell found also this inscription upon a sepulchre within the church:

See the Life p. 503.

ΑΡΧΕΒΟΥΛΑ

ΕΥΝΙΧΙΔΑΣ

briu es

CHAP. VIII.

FROM TITHOREA, TO THE STRAITS OF THERMOPYLE, AND TO PHARSALUS.

Paleo-Castro-Ledon-Elatéa-Observations by the magnetic needle -Amphicléa-Via Militaris-Cephissus-Bearings from Mount Eta-Callidromos-Trachiniæ of Sophocles-Cenæan Promontory -Appearance of the Sinus Maliacus-Bodonitza-Topography of the Epicnemidian Locris-Thronium-Polyandrium of the Greeks who fell at Thermopyla-Situation of the Spartan advanced guard-Great northern wall-Platanus Orientalis-Of the Pyle and Therma-Fetid. gaseous exhalation-alluded to by Sophocles-Nature of the Pass of Thermopyla-Path over Mount Eta-Heracléa and River Asopus -Plain of Trachinia -Turkish Dervene Zeitûn Albanese. Women-Bearings from the Heights-Plain of Dowclu-Plain of

Crocius