Vacation days in GreeceRichardson, Rufus B. (Rufus Byam)
History
Vacation days in Greece
Richardson, Rufus B. (Rufus Byam)
Greece -- Description and travel
In spite of a growing belief, starting with Bursian and at last finding
exact expression in Lolling's selection of Palæo-Bazaar, that Thermon
was somewhere near the east end of the lake, Vlocho, the mighty hill
fortress, made such an impression that many regarded the discussion as
one in which it was still worth while to sum up the _pros_ and _cons_,
adding: "If Vlocho is not Thermon, give us some adequate name for it."
But the spade, which has again substantiated its claims to be the best
archæologist, has relegated all this discussion to the limbo of old
notions. Whatever Vlocho was, it was _not_ Thermon. A score or more
of inscriptions found by Soteiriades at Palæo-Bazaar, speaking of the
affairs of the Ætolian League, show that he has found the capital.
What makes the identification absolutely certain is the inscription
containing the treaty between the Ætolians and Philip of Macedon, in
which it is provided that of two copies one shall be set up at Thermon,
and the other at Delphi, which was at the time the ecclesiastical
capital of the league. The French have found one copy at Delphi;
Soteiriades found the other, an exact duplicate, at Kephalovrysi.
After that, one surely need not go elsewhere to seek for Thermon.
A suggestive trifle was found here before the excavations, viz., a
life-size bronze thumb of good work, showing the dint of a hammer on
the knuckle. This probably belonged to one of the two thousand statues
destroyed by Philip.
Leaving Kephalovrysi at two o'clock, instead of taking the shortest
road to Agrinion along the north shore of the lake, at my suggestion,
which again sprung from the desire of seeing something new, we circled
the lake, following the line of Philip's retreat along the south side,
and identifying among other places the site of Trichonion, which gave
its name to the lake. Passing between this lake and its neighbor to
the west, we reached Agrinion just before dark, and found there a new,
clean hotel. The railroad is beginning to work its wonders even in
Agrinion.
This flourishing town of about ten thousand inhabitants, the centre of
the most important tobacco-growing region in Greece, and the capital
of Ætolia, has stolen its name from ancient Agrinion, which lay about
seven miles away on the Acheloos. Its real name is Vrachori, which is
still used by many who do not fancy the revamping of classical names,
especially when they are foisted on to towns that are not entitled to
them, and have an honorable history of their own which has been gained
under the name which it is proposed to set aside. Vrachori is such a
case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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