Thessaly

Thessaly, the largest division of ancient Greece, lay south of Macedonia and east of Epirus, being separated from the latter by Mount Pindus, and from the former by the Cambunian Mountains, and the Maliaç Gulf and Mount Ceta bounding it on the S. It is a vast plain shut in on every side by mountains; on the N. and W. by those already named, on the S. by Mount Othrys, and on the E. by Mounts Pelion and Ossa, the only opening being the Vale of Tempe in the north-east, between Ossa and Olympus. This plain is drained chiefly by the river Peneus (now Salambrica) and its tributaries, and is the most fertile in all Greece. Thessaly was originally inhabited by so-called Pelasgians, who, however, were either expelled or reduced to slavery by Dorian immigrants from the more rugged region of Epirus about 1000 B.C. (see GREECE, Vol. V. p. 386). The Penestæ, descendants of the old inhabitants, held a position analogous to that of the Helots (q.v.) in Sparta. There were four districts—Hestieotis, Pelasgiotis, Thessaliotis, and Phthiotis; Magnesia on the coast being a minor division. The government appears to have been oligarchical in the separate cities—of which Pharsalus, Larissa, Heracleum, and Pheræ were the chief—the principal power being in the hands of the two great families of the Aleuads and Scopads. About 374 B.C. Jason, tyrant of Pheræ, was elected Tagus (chief-magistrate) of all Thessaly. The rule of Jason's successors became so unbearable that aid was sought from Philip of Macedon, who in 344 subjected the country to Macedonia. Thessaly remained subject to the Macedonian kings till the victory of Cynoscephalæ, in 197 B.C., brought it under the protection of Rome. Under the emperors Thessaly was united with Macedonia, but after Constantine it was a separate province. In 1204 A.D., with other portions of the eastern empire, it came under the dominion of the Venetians, and in 1355 was taken by the Turks. The restoration to Greece of Thessaly south of the Salambria was recommended by the Berlin Congress in 1878; and subsequently various modifications of the Greco-Turkish frontiers were proposed, the Greeks endeavouring to secure the cession of the whole of Thessaly. War between Greece and Turkey seemed imminent; but in 1881 Turkey agreed to cede, and Greece to accept, Thessaly south of the watershed of the Salambria (the ancient Peneus), the most fertile section of the province. The Greek invasion of the northern part of Thessaly in April 1897 ended, after a short stand, in a disastrous retreat, and the Turks occupied Larissa.