CHAP. XII.

Drabiscus.

Drama.

Philippi.

E. N. E. and N. E. It contains eight hundred houses. The inhabitants are a mixed population of Turks and Greeks; but consist principally of the latter. It has been before observed, that whenever a Voccurs in the pronunciation of the names of places, the letter, if written, would beß: therefore Pravista would become Пgaßiora; and this may be nothing. more than a corruption of the antient Drabiscus of Strabo, and Drabescus of Thucydides, with whose situation it remarkably corresponds. The modern name is written Praveste by Paul Lucas', and Pravasta by Mr. Walpole*.

After leaving Pravista, we descended, towards sun-set,' into the Plain of Sêres, and were about two hours in crossing this part of it from the south-west towards the north-east. Upon our left, but rather behind our route towards the west, we saw a very high mountain covered with snow, called Nevroscope; and directly to the left of us, bearing north-west, another mountain, called Drama. In passing DRAMA, to our subsequent mortification, we also passed the ruins of PHILIPPI; without being aware at the time of the loss we had sustained: although had we attempted to deviate

(1) Εἰσὶν δὲ περὶ τὴν Στρυμονικὸν κόλπον πόλεις καὶ ἕτεραι· οἷον Μύρκινος, Αργίλος, Δραβίσκος, Δάτον. Excerpta ex Lib. VII. fine Strabon. Geog. p. 481. ed. Oxon.

Ἠδωνικῇ, κ.
'Howvikй, K. T. λ.

(2) Προελθόντες δὲ τῆς Θρᾴκης ἐς μεσόγειαν, διεφθάρησαν ἐν Δραβήσκῳ τῇ Thucydid. Hist. lib. i. c. 100. p. 56. ed. Hudsoni, Oxon. 1696. Etiam, lib. iv. c. 102. p. 272.-Et Stephan. de. Urbib. p. 244. (in voc. Apaßηokos) Amst. 1678.

(3) Voyage dans la Turquie, &c. tom. I. p. 61. Amst. 1744.

Δραβήσκος)

(4) See the Extract from his MS. Journal in the beginning of this Chapter.

deviate from the main route, it might have been impracticable. Such was the rebellious and distracted state of the country at the time of our journey, when almost every place was infested either by rapacious insurgents or by banditti. DRAMA is mentioned, not as a mountain, but as the name of a town, in the very curious History of Constantinople, written at the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, by Geoffroy de Ville-Hardouin, who places it in the VALLEY OF PHILIPPI'; so called from the CITY of that name, which, according to the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, was only ten miles from (Cavallo) NEAPOLIS. Belon saw its ruins in the sixteenth century, and spent two days in their examination. He found there the remains of a magnificent Amphitheatre; and a number of Soroi, of the marble of the place, of such magnitude, that nothing to compare with them existed anywhere else'.

He

(5) The Reader may be pleased by a specimen of the original text; to which we shall subjoin the modern version, as published by Du Fresne, at Paris, in 1657.

"En icel termine li Marchis Bonifaces de Montserrat remût de Salenique, si s'en alla à la Serre que Johannis li avoit abatue, si la referma; et ferma après une autre qui a nom Dramine el val de Phelippe."

"Vers ce mesme temps le Marquis de Montserrat partit de Thessalonique, et vint à Serres que le Bulgare luy avoit ruinée, laquelle il referma de nouveau: ensemble vne autre place appellée Drame, en la vallée de Philippi." Geoffroy de Ville-Hardouin, de la Conqueste de Constantinople, c. 238. p. 189. Paris, 1657. Du Fresne, in his Notes upon this passage, says, that the true name for Dramine is DRAMA (p. 351). He refers to Nicephorus Gregor. lib. vii. Cantacuzene, lib. i. c. 52. &c. &c.

(6) It was situate upon the side of a hill: and from the number of its neighbouring fountains, it had originally the name of Konvides. Appian. lib. iv. Bell. Civ. p. 1040. Hierosol. Itinerar. ap. Vet. Rom. Itin. p. 603. ed. Wessel.

(7) "Il n'y a lieu ou l'on puisse voir de plus grands sépulchres de pierres de marbre par les champs, qu' a Philippi, qui ont esté prinses en la montagne, qui est

CHAP. XII.

VOL. IV.

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CHAP. XII.

He mentions, moreover, the colossal remains of a Temple of Claudius, besides inscriptions, and numberless (infinies) statues; and enormous marble columns, both of the Doric and Ionic order, beautifully sculptured, and in a marvellous style of structure'; insomuch, that he considered the ruins of no other city equally calculated to excite admiration3. The abundance and beauty of its marble is explained by the circumstance of a vein of that substance being observed by Belon within the walls of the city': but, independently of the high estimation in which every literary traveller will hold its classical antiquities, its celebrity as the scene of St. Paul's imprisonment

enfermée es murailles dedens le circuit de la ville: car elles sont massives de pur marbre blanc. L'on voit encor maintenant plusieurs escrits restez des gestes des Romains, entaillés en lettres Latines sur le marbre en plusieurs endroicts de la montagne.", Premier Livre des Singularitez observées par Belon, c. 56. f. 57. Paris, 1555.

(1) "Il y a vn tresbeau amphitheatre eslevé depuis terre jusques à la sommité, qui encor est resté tout entier jusques à maintenant et dureroit long temps si les Turcs n'enleuoyent les degrez qui sont taillez de marbre. Il n'est pas en forme ouale, comme est le theatre d'Otricholi, ou bien celuy de Rome, mais en rondeur, comme à Nimes, ou a Veronne: car il n'est pas fermé de toutes parts. . Il est engraué

en plusieurs lieux en la montagne, fait de marbre par degrez. La chose plus antique qui à resté debout en PHILIPPI, sont quatre gros pilliers d'enorme grosseur et hauteur, qui sont des reliques du temple de Diuus Claudius: ou il y a encor infinies statues et grosses colomnes de marbre entaillées à la Dorique et Ionique, de merueilleuse structure, et de grand artifice." Ibid.

(2) "Les ruines de Philippi monstrent aussi grande admiration que de nulle autre ville." Ibid.

(3) "Mais nous attribuons cela à la commodité des pierres, veu mesmement que la veine du marbre est enfermée dedens la ville." Ibid. The Reader may find a more recent and very curious description of the ruins of PHILIPPI, and copies of its inscriptions, in the "Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, écrites des Missions Etrangeres," (tom. II. p. 377. Paris, 1780.) Gruter has given a very imperfect specimen of them (tom. I. p. 129. No. 10.) There is a fair annually held among these ruins.