Seraivashtchi and Gulvashtchi. The road was CHAP. 1. able Rocks. in many places wide enough for a carriage. About half an hour after we began our journey this day, we observed before us, at some distance, in the road, the most remarkable Remarkappearance caused by rocks that we had ever seen. At first we mistook them for ruins, somewhat resembling those of Stonehenge: but as we drew near, we were surprised to find that the supposed ruins were natural rocks; rising perpendicularly out of the plain, like a Cyclopéan structure, with walls and towers; the road passing through the interstices by which they are separated. These rocks are porphyritic: they have that lava-like appearance which is sometimes confounded with volcanic products. Beshck. We then descended towards another lake, Lake upon our right, and of greater magnitude than that of St. Basil, the lake we had passed the day before. It extends at the feet of this chain. of mountains, from west to east; and is called Lake Beshek. There are two towns of the same name, the Lesser and the Greater Beshek. We observed some boats upon this fine piece of water. It is about twelve miles in length, CHAP length, and six or eight in breadth'. J. The plain, in which it lies, may be considered as a (1) This was our conjecture as to its dimensions; but Mr. Walpole states them somewhat differently; which only shews how uncertain all computations by the eye must prove, of the extent of a lake, or inland sea. Nothing is more liable to cause deception, especially when such a piece of water is surrounded by high mountains. The following extract from Mr. Walpole's Journal will give the whole of his Journey from Salonica to Cavallo; or, as he writes it, Cavalla. "At seven hours' distance from Salonica we reached Klissala; passing, on the right, two beautiful lakes, and two towns, called the Greater and the Lesser Beshek. Of these lakes, the first and smallest appeared to be twelve miles in circumference: the larger may be fifteen miles in length, and five in breadth. Many kinds of fish are caught in them, said to be excellent. It is not easy to point out the names which the lakes antiently bore: Johannes Cameniates, who wrote in the year 904 his account of the destruction of Thessalonica, does not give them. His account of the lakes I shall transcribe. In the middle of the plain are two broad lakes, like seas, overspreading the greater part of it. They are productive of great advantages, containing fish, large and small, of different species, and very numerous; of which they afford a most plentiful supply to the neighbouring villages, and to Thessalonica.' Orvos iv μśow, x. c. 2. "The next day we reached the Strymon, about ten hours distant from Klissala. I passed the river at its mouth, in a triangular ferryboat, flowing with a quiet even course. Basil, in a letter to Gregory of Nazianzus, speaking of the river, says: The Strymon flows so ' gently, and its waters are so quiet, that it scarcely appears a river,’— σχολαιοτέρῳ ῥεύματι περιλιμνάζων. Epist. 19. At a little distance were some small vessels riding at anchor, which had come to take in cargoes of corn. The mountains to the north-east are connected with Pangeus (placed by Dio Cassius, 47) near to Philippi, in which the gold mines were worked; giving to Philip and his son Alexander a revenue equal to three millions of our money, annually. 66 Some ruins of Roman work, near the mouth of the Strymon, mark probably the site of Amphipolis; a colony from Athens, and a city of importance in the Peloponnesian war. From this place the Athenians drew I. continuation of the same plain wherein that of CHAP. St. Basil, or St. Vasili, is placed. We can find drew great sums of money, and were supplied with timber for their fleet. (Thucyd. lib. iv.) We find, from an epigram of Antipater, that in the age of the Antonines some remains of the Temple of Diana were extant here: Λοιπά τοι Αἰθοπίης Βραυρωνίδος ἔχνια νηοῦ Μίμνει. The epigram is important, on account of the mention made in it of the situation of the city on each side of the river, ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις δερκόμεθ nov. In the time of Thucydides, the river flowed round it, spippovres rov Erguμóvos; and hence, he says, it was called Amphipolis. (lib. iv.) Some travellers say the ruins at the mouth of the river are called Chrysopoli. If this be true, we have a proof that Amphipolis stood here; for the city, though in ruins when Antipater wrote the lines already mentioned, rose again, and was called Chrysopolis: this we learn from Tzetzes on Lycophron, ver. 416. "From the mouth of the Strymon to Pravasta, I count five hours. This place is situate between two plains, and is distant from the sea three hours. There are here many iron works; and the fortresses at the Dardanelles are supplied from this place with balls for the cannon. The mountains containing the iron ore run in a direction from Orfano, near the Strymon, to Pravasta. At three hours' distance is Cavalla, situate on a piece of land projecting into the sea, opposite to Thassus, and united by a low isthmus to the continent of Macedonia. Some derive the name from the resemblance they find in the position of the town to the figure of a horse; the hinder part of which is turned to the sea, and the head to the land. But it appears to be only an abbreviated corruption of Bucephala, the antient name of the place. The distance altogether from Salonîca to Cavalla is between eighty-five and ninety miles, going in a N. E. direction. Near the gate of the town, as you leave Cavalla, are two antient sepulchres, with Latin legends on them: these have been already published. One of these monuments, near a mosque, had the word PHILIPPIS inscribed on it. It was probably brought away from that place, distant, according to the Jerusalem Itinerary, nine miles; according to Appian (lib. iv.) twelve." Walpole's MS. Journal. I. Bolbe CHAP. no notice of this magnificent piece of water in any modern writer. Stephanus of Byzantium mentions a city and lake of the name of BOLBE; leaving us quite in the dark as to its situation'; and the LAKE BOLBE is said by Thucydides to be in Macedonia, but he does not notice the city. From Thucydides we learn, that it had a communication with the sea, towards AULON and BROMISCUS: and this may be true of the Lake Beshek, although to our eyes it appeared completely land-locked, The beginning of the LAKE BOLBE is by D'Anville placed exactly at the distance of forty miles from THESSALONICA'; but the town of the Greater Beshek, which is not so near to Salonica as the eastern extremity of this lake, is only twenty-seven miles, that is to say, nine hours, from that city. D'Anville assigns for it a situation close to the SINUS STRYMONICUS; which does not agree with its real position. It seems evident from thẻ words of Thucydides, considered with reference to his place of observation, that the Lake (1) "Esti nai Bóλßn wóλis, nai xíuvn. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. &c. p. 173. L. Bat. 1697. (2) Καὶ ἀφικόμενος περὶ δείλην ἐπὶ τὴν Αὐλῶνα, καὶ Βρωμίσκον, ᾗ ἡ Βόλβη λίμνη ἐξίησιν ἐς θάλασσαν, καὶ δειπνοποιησάμενος, ἐχώρει τὴν νύκτα. Thucydid. Hist. lib. i. c. 103. p. 27. ed. Hudsoni. (3) Vid. Specimen Geographicum Græciæ Antiquæ. Paris, 1762, 1. Arethusa. Beshek can be no other than the BoLBEAN: CHAP. and having this clue to its history, it becomes a most interesting object to every literary traveller; being thus, at once, guided to the Valley or dale of ARETHUSA, to the situation of Valley of the town of the same name, and to the TOMB OF EURIPIDES, which the Macedonians would not suffer to be violated, that the Athenians might be gratified by the possession of his bones. The BOLBEAN LAKE is mentioned by Scylax as being between ARETHUSA and APOLLONIA. The same LAKE is also noticed by Aristotle. These are perhaps all the allusions to it in antient history: but with regard to the TOMB OF EURIPIDES, our information is copious TOMB OF and decisive. A whole host of authors may be cited to determine the position of this most (4) "Is cum in Macedonia apud Archelaum regem esset, atque uteretur eo rex familiariter; rediens nocte ab ejus cœnâ canibus a quodam æmulo immissis dilaceratus est: et ex his vulneribus mors secuta est. SEPULCHRUM autem ejus, et memoriam Macedones, eo dignati sunt honore, ut in gloriæ quoque loco prædicarent. Ourors còr μvñμa Evgiæíòns wheró mov. (aut, ut ostent. MS. Francq. ap. Wesseling. in Itin. Hierosol. οὔ ποτε σὺν μνῆμα Εὐριπίδη ὄλοιτό που.) Quod egregius poëta morte obitâ sepultus in eorum terrâ foret. Quamobrem cum legati ad eos ab Atheniensibus missi petissent ossa Athenas in terram illius patriam permitterent transferri; maximo consensu Macedones in ea re denegandâ perstiterunt." Auli Gellii lib. xv. cap. 20. p. 409. ed. Delph. Paris, 1681. (5) ̓Αρεθοῦσα Ελληνὶς, Βολβὴ λίμνη, Απολλώνια Ελληνίς. Scylacis Caryandensis Periplus, p. 63. ed. Gronov. L. Bat. 1697. EURIPIDES, |