CHAP. IX. Descriptions given of it by antient authors. Cycnus: but the Tempe usually meant by the Poets was in Thessaly; and both Horace and Ovid distinguish it from the others, by calling it THESSALA TEMPE'. And in Virgil's fourth Georgic' we have PENEIA TEMPE. Theocritus also speaks of ΚΑΤΑ ΠΕΝΕΙΩ, ΚΑΛΑ ΤΕΜΠΕ. The descriptions given of TEMPE by Pliny', by Ælian', and by Livy', all concur in representing it as a narrow, beautiful, wooded, rocky glen, with a sounding river flowing through the bottom, between steep and lofty banks, along which there was a narrow difficult pass. Catullus describes it as surrounded by superimpending woods. According to Herodotus, it was an entrance (oßoλ) from Lower Macedonia into Thessaly, by the Penëus, and between Olympus and Ossa; where the Greeks, before they fixed upon Thermopyla, first intended to arrest the progress of the Persian army. We may now therefore see with what surprising precision the author before cited fixes upon the real spot; being guided only by the clue suggested to his classic mind from the hints and allusions of the antient historians". "From Tempe, quæ sylvæ cingunt superimpendentes." Catulli Carm. lxiii. ver. 285. p. 311. edit. Burmanni, Patav. 1737. (7) Ἐς τὰ Τέμπεα ἐς τὴν ἐσβολὴν, ἤπερ ἀπὸ Μακεδονίης τῆς κάτω ἐς Θεσσαλίην φέρει παρὰ Πηνεϊὸν ποταμὸν, μεταξὺ δὲ Οὐλύμπου τοῦ οὔρεος ἐόντα καὶ τῆς Ὄσσης. Herodoti Hist. lib. vii. c. 173. p. 438. edit. Gronovii. (8) Browne's Miscell. Sketches, vol. I. p. 118. Lond. 1798. CHAP. IX. the descriptions of the Poets we can derive no great light. The Zephyris agitata Tempe' of Horace, and the 'frigida Tempe' of Virgil; the epithets umbrosa, opaca, virentia, are constantly bestowed upon this oft-sung dale; but woods will perish, and barbarism will destroy. These are bad landmarks: we must look for others. The mountain will still raise its head, and the river will not cease to flow. Olympus (though a modern might not choose it for one of the steps of his ladder to heaven) is yet a mile high; and the rapid Penëus is well known to Turkish Greece by the name of Salampria". That the Penëus rolled through the middle of it, I have repeatedly said, and am confirmed in the assertion by Pliny, Strabo, and Ovid; but the two firstmentioned authors have thrown such lights on one of the methods of investigation I mentioned, namely, its bearing to particular objects, that I marvel how it could have been mistaken it appeared to them that TEMPE was directly between Ossa and Olympus. THE FACT IS, THE VALE IS ACTUALLY FORMED BY SOME OF THE HEIGHTS OF OLYMPUS TO THE WEST, AND OSSA TO THE EAST. How then Pococke Pococke and Busching. and Busching could possibly have departed from these mountains, to look for it elsewhere, cannot easily be explained." (9) See the complete fulfilment of his prediction, in the circumstance before related of the destruction of the woods for the manufactory and fabrics of Ampelâkia. (10) See the account of its elevation (in a preceding Note by Mr. Walpole) as ascertained by the Antients. μπ (11) See the preceding description of Larissa. It is pronounced Salambria; but in all probability it is written Zalauμmpía; the Greeks sounding their μ like our B. In a modern Greek Play, called Pamela, founded upon Richardson's Novel, Lord Bondfield's name is printed MITONDIA. CHAP. IX. Value of Livy's observations. explained." And that they did so, as it has been observed by this writer, is not less remarkable than that one of them, Pococke, should have selected for his TEMPE, first, a plain, according to his own description', extended to the Penëus from the Convent of St. Demetrius, at the distance of two leagues, through the middle of which flowed no river whatsoever; and afterwards "a valley, two miles wide.” It is difficult to believe that a scholar, such as Pococke was, could have been ignorant of the descriptions which antient authors have left of this celebrated station. It appears from Polybius' that TEMPE was the only passage from the Lower Macedonia into Thessaly; but the description given of it by Livy is so scrupulously exact, and withal so characteristic of the scenery, that it is impossible to mistake it. Even the particular fortification where we found the inscription now given, is mentioned by him; for he says, "it was garrisoned in (1) See Pococke's Observations upon Greece, Vol. II. Part II. chap. 7. p. 152. Lond. 1745. (2) "On the twenty-second we came into a valley about two leagues long, and two miles broad, &c. It is much to be doubted whether these were not the fields of Tempe." (Ibid.) What author has ever described Tempe as containing fields? (3) Polybii Hist. lib. xvii. (4) "Sunt enim Tempe saltus, etiamsi non bello fiat infestus, transitu difficilis: nam præter angustias per quinque millia, quâ exiguum jumento onusto iter est, rupes utrimque ita abscissæ sunt, ut despici vix sine vertigine quâdam simul oculorum animique possit: terret et sonitus et altitudo per mediam vallem fluentis Penëi amnis.” Livii Hist. lib. xliv. c. 6. tom. III. p. 684. Paris, 1738. : (5) "Hic locus, tam suâpte naturâ infestus, per quatuor distantia loca præsidiis regis fuit insessus unum in primo aditu ad Gonnum erat: alterum Condylon castello inexpugnabili: tertium circa Lapathunta, quam Characa appellant: quartum, VIÆ IPSI, quâ et media et angustissima vallis est, impositum; quam vel decem armatis tueri facile est." Ibid. CHAP. IX. in four places one at Gonnus in the mouth of the defile; a second at Condylos, an impregnable fortress; a third near Lapathus, at a place called Charax; and a fourth in the very military way itself, in the middle of the strait," where the road was so narrow, that there was hardly room enough to admit the passage of a single beast of burden, and "where ten men with ease would be able to defend the pass." As for the descriptions given of TEMPE by Pliny and by Ælian, they agree as to the geographical features Pliny, and of the place, but do not possess, altogether, the force, and fidelity, and copious brevity of Livy. Of the two, as that of Pliny is the most concise, if we subjoin what he has said, it will be sufficient': no future traveller will then be at any loss to reconcile the appearance of this defile, with all that the ancient poets, historians, and geographers, have said of TEMPE. (5) "Et ante cunctos claritate Penëus, ortus juxta Gomphos; interque Ossam et 66 Est nemus Hæmoniæ, prærupta quod undique claudit Hæc domus, hæc sedes, hæc sunt penetralia magni Also Ovid: Ovid. Met. lib. i. ver, 568. tom. II. p. 69. Amst. 1727. ed. Burmanni. Elian. VALE OF TEMPE, TO THESSALONICA. Ælian Laurel of Tempe- Banditti - Length of the Pass- Pella |