by Albanian villages ̊. Psaphis was of this number, and perhaps Enoa; although it be exceeding difficult to fix the position of the latter town, which Wheler has stationed upon the top of Parnes', and Chandler in the Plain of Marathon. The circumstance of its being one of the four cities of Tetrapolis' is certainly strong for its position in the Marathonian district; and we had reason to think that the remains of it may possibly exist in the Plain of Marathon, as we have before shewn".

Descending into this plain, we passed a village called Shalishi, where we observed an antient fountain. This place is distant three hours from Magi, and six hours and a half from Marathon, equal to about twenty miles. We

CHAP. II.

Village of
Shalishi.

(6) This may be owing to the circumstance mentioned by Wheler of his descent from Parnes to Marcopoli, when "it was dark;" (Ibid.) and of his early departure thence in the morning, perhaps before it was light, according to the usual mode of travelling in Greece.

(7) Journey into Greece, p. 454.

(8) Travels in Greece, p. 162.

(9) Wheler has attempted to prove, from Stephanus Byzantinus (See Journ. into Greece, p. 455.), that Tetrapolis was itself a city; but the words of Strabo are clear and decisive as to the import of that appellation, which was a district of Attica, containing the four cities of Enoa, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus, founded by Xuthus, who married a daughter of Erectheus king of Athens. Of Xuthus it is said by Strabo, ᾤκισε τὴν Τετράπολιν τῆς ̓Αττικῆς, Οἰνοὴν, Μαραθῶνα, Προβάλινθον, καὶ Τρικοpulóv. Strabon. Geog. lib. viii. p. 555. ed. Oxon. Mr. Hobhouse (Travels, p. 444. Lond. 1813.) mentions a village called Enoe, to the north of the Asopus.

(10) It is plain, from a passage in Thucydides, that Enoa was a frontier citadel, upon the confines of Attica and Boeotia: the Athenians were wont to garrison it in troublesome times. Ἡ γὰρ Οινόη οὖσα ἐν μεθοριοὶς τῆς ̓Αττικῆς καὶ Βοιωτίας, ἐτετείχιστο, καὶ αὐτῷ φρουρίῳ οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι ἐχρῶντο, ὁπότε πόλεμος καταλάβοι: Thucydid. lib. ii. cap. 18. p. 95. ed. Hudsoni. Oxon. 1696.

CHAP. II.

Enea.

EURIPUS.

may

We had no sooner entered the plain, than we were struck
by the appearance of a large insular knoll or hill rising
out of it, beautifully adorned with oak and pine-trees, and
upon the top of which there was a tower; one of many
edifices of the same nature which
be observed
throughout Boeotia, built perhaps for alarm and defence,
during the period of the Latin domination'. We passed,
across the plain, to the right of this tower, leaving it upon
our left hand. After a ride of two hours from Shalishi,
we came to a village called Enea, or Ennea, situated upon
an eminence. It is now in ruins; but it has a large tower
and some walls remaining, among the ruins of several
houses. 'There is no antient name with which the
modern appellation of this place appears to correspond,
except Enoa; but this place is much too near to the
site of Tanagra to have been an antient town. Con-
tinuing our journey through the plain, we passed the ruins
of other houses and towers, proving, however, that it
was once a very populous district. We now began to
ascend the higher parts of the plain towards the north and
north-west, and drew near to the mountains upon the
opposite side of it to those we had quitted. Here we had a
noble view of the whole Gulph of Euripus; to which we were
now so close, that we could discern the buildings upon the
opposite shore of Euboea. We could not so plainly perceive
the

T

(1) Mr. Hawkins has informed the author, that such lofty square towers are also common over all Euboea.

the narrow strait where the bridge of Yakindee' now is; but we saw the two seas upon the opposite sides of the Euripus. At the distance of two hours from Enea, we arrived at the village of Skemata, where we halted for the night. The great plain over which we had been travelling was called by the Albanians Bratchi; but after our arrival at Skemata, we observed that the inhabitants bestowed the name of Nacra, or Nacri, both upon the plain and upon their village. Our total ignorance of the Albanian language would render it absurd if we were to attempt to trace any connexion between this word Nacra, and Tanagra, the antient name of the city and district lying to the north, and perhaps to the south, of the Asopus; although the names of places are so likely to continue in any country, that it would be an unjustifiable omission if we were to neglect altogether the attention. that is due to such corresponding circumstances. But the fact that more than all proved our vicinity to a spot. once occupied by some ancient city, was the prodigious number of antient medals which were brought to us by the people of this place during the evening that we remained with them. Our interpreter had been seized with an attack of the Malaria fever; caught perhaps in the marshes of Marathon: and we had given to him a dose

of

. (2) The name given in the country to the bridge which now connects Euboea with
the continent of Greece. Mr. Hobhouse visited the spot. He describes the water as
rushing" like a mill-race" under this bridge, and as being "not much more than four
feet deep."
"A strong eddy is observable on that side from which it is about to run,
about a hundred yards above the bridge." See Hobhouse's Travels, p. 453. Lond. 1813.

CHAP. II.

Skemata.

Medals.

CHAP. II.

of ipecacuanha, as the usual preparative for administering the bark. Shivering with a violent paroxysm, and under the influence of the nausea excited by the medicine he had taken, the poor fellow came into the hut (where we were seated upon an earth floor, hastily devouring a baked turkey which the Albanians had brought for our supper), beseeching us to deliver him from the crowd he had gathered around him, by asking for old coins; and he placed before us his cap half filled with bronze medals. We had scarcely time to examine a third of these, before men, women, and children, came flocking in, each of whom added something to the stock. A considerable part of them turned out to be of little or no value; either Roman coins of the Lower Empire; or Greek medals so injured by use and by time, that little could be discerned upon them. Many, however, were purchased by us of a better date, and in better condition, at the usual price which we always paid, of two parāhs for each bronze medal. After this we obtained, with more difficulty, a few that were of silver, from the women; but these constituting a favourite ornament of their head-dresses, they very reluctantly consent to sell. We had not seen so many medals in one place since the visit we paid to Hexamillia, in the Isthmus of Corinth. Among them were medals of Philip the father of Alexander; or of Philip Aridaus; with the figure of a youth on horseback, perhaps Alexander upon Bucephalus, and this curious monogram, after the word BACIɅENC, , for IAINПOY: also medals of Thessaly, Boeotia, Phocis, Etolia; but not one of Attica. Besides these were medals of cities; as of Pelinna-a very rare medal, struck after the Achaian

Achaian League, with the legend entire, PEAINNAIÓN,Larymna, Chalcis, Thebes; and two which peculiarly interested us at the moment, from the present unknown situation of the city; namely, of Tanagra, with the Omega differently written in the legend, being TANASPAIN upon one, and TANAгPAIÓN upon the other. We asked the peasants where these medals were found in such abundance; and they referred us, for the spot, to some Ruins that did not appear to us to be of much importance, which we had passed a short time before our arrival at Skemata'. They

seemed

CHAP. II.

(1) The name of this place is written Scimitari by Mr. Hobhouse (See Trav. 459. Lond. 1813.); and Skimatàri by Mr. Hawkins. The last of these travellers has recently communicated to the author the result of his own observations upon the spot, with regard to the site of Tanagra; and it is highly probable that the coins found by the peasants in such abundance were discovered among the ruins of that city. Those ruins are at a place called Grimàthi, near Skemata, or Skimatàri. Mr. Hobhouse also mentions, that a copper coin of Tanagra was brought to him, by the peasants, from the same place; which he writes Grematha.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. HAWKINS to the Author, concerning the Asopus, and the
Situation of Tanagra.

"I am not much surprised at your omitting to notice the Asopus in your Journal, which, at this distance from its source, is in Winter a muddy torrent, and for eight months of the year wholly dry. Journeying from Parnes towards Thebes, soon after leaving the banks of this river, the plain ceases, and you reach a gently undulating territory, in which is situated the Albanian village of Skimatàri, inhabited by fortyfamilies. Here you were so near to the ruins of Tanagra, that I am surprised that you missed them. They are at a spot called Grimàthi, about three miles to the S. W. at the end of a ridge of hills which extend from thence several miles towards Thebes. The ground, too, has a gradual descent from these ruins towards the Asopus and the great plain beyond it, which it proudly overlooks, and which, I have no doubt, it formerly commanded. There are no well-preserved remains of public edifices, or of walls, at Grimathi: the ruins are in such a state as hardly to deserve notice, did they not serve to point out the situation of Tanagra. I am, I believe, the first traveller who

has