INTRODUCTION the Massif of Mount Oeta That Dominates Central Greece Divides Into Two Separate Chains Near Thermopylae, One Exten
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INTRODUCTION The interest of scholars should be direct- ed not only to the large and famous cen- ters of Antiquity, but also to the outlying regions and those areas still unexplored [i.e. East Locris], which have preserved much information and interesting mate- rial. —F. Dakoronia 1993a: 126–127 The massif of Mount Oeta that dominates Central Greece divides into two separate chains near Thermopylae, one extending towards the Gulfs of Corinth and Ambracia through Mounts Helicon and Cithaeron,1 while the other, which includes Mt. Callidromus2 to the south and Mt. Cnemis3 to the north, crosses Thermopylae4 and advances through the north of central Greece towards the Gulf of Euboea. Just to the East of the Thermopylae Pass, there is a long strip of land between the sea, along the South side of Northern Euboean Gulf, and the Callidromus chain that extends eastwards until it reaches Mts. Chlomon and Ptoion. This is the area known in Antiquity as 1 Str. 9.4.12. 2 The Callidromus (1,419m above sea level or asl) overlooked the Thermopylae Pass. This mountain was the subject of controversy in Antiquity because, according to Strabo (9.4.13), the chain running from Thermopylae to Phocis had the same name as that extending from Aetolia to the Gulf of Ambracia. We use the name in the rst sense. 3 About Mt. Cnemis (947m asl) see Str. 9.2.42, 3.17, 4.1–2; Paus. 10.8.2; Plin. NH. 4.27; Ptol. Geog. 3.14.9; Eust. Dionysii Periegesin. 422; Oldfather 1909; Philippson and Kirsten 1950: I.339f.; Pritchett 4.147 f; Kase et alii 1991; Die Neue Pauly s.v. Knemis and González, Arteaga et alii in this volume. 4 In Antiquity the Thermopylae ravine formed a narrow pass about six kilometres West- East and was the only way into Locris from Thessaly. It aforded visual control of the Cape Artemisium and the territory of Histiaea in Euboea (Hdt. 7.175), and controlling this pass was an essential element in the struggle for Hegemony in Greece (Str. 9.4.15). The Thermopylae Pass, also called “Pylae” and “Stena” (cf. Hdt. 7.201; Str. 9.3.7, 4.13), separated the Greeks who inhabited the area to the southeast of the Pass, i.e., from the Pass to the Peloponnese, from those northwest of it (Plu. Flam. 5.3) and divided continental Greece, with an imaginary line from the Crisaean Gulf to the Thermopylae, into three parts; one to the north, from the mouth of the river Peneus to the Thermopylae, and another two to the south, respectively from the Thermopylae to the Isthmus of Corinth, nowadays Sterea Ellada or Sterea Hellas, and that which was to the south of the Isthmus (vid. Str. 8.1.3; 9.4.15). 2 introduction Eastern Locris,5 and is today part of an enlarged eparchy (district) of Lokrida6 in the nomos (province) of Phthiotis, with its capital in Lamia. The ancient Eastern Locrians belonged to the Locrian ethnos, which inhabited in Greece two distinct regions separated geographically by Phocis. The Eastern Locrians inhabited the part of mainland Greece facing the islands of Euboea and Atalanti, at the foot of Mt. Cnemis,7 while the West Locrians (Hesperians or Ozolians) had settled the northern coast of the Gulf of Corinth.8 Both East and West Locrians remained aware that they belonged to the same ethnos and we have evidence that they sometimes collaborated,9 although they each had their own federal State. The Eastern Locrian Confederacy was perhaps formed in the sixth cen- tury bc after Thessalian rule ended, and there is evidence to suggest it existed at least in the rst part of the fth century. However, as Nielsen (2000) has referred, before they were known as the Eastern Locrians, the ancient sources used three diferent terms to refer to them: Hypocnemid- ians, Opuntians and Epicnemidians. “Hypocnemidians” was the term used in Locrian sources to refer to themselves, to the Eastern Locrians as a whole, so it may have been their o cial name. “Opuntians” seems to have had an ambivalent meaning: in non-Locrian sources it refers to the inhabitants of the whole of Eastern Locris, but when the Locrians themselves used the term, it referred only to Locrians from the polis of Opus. “Epicnemidia” was used primarily to de ne a geographical subdivision of Eastern Locris, the region situated to the West of ancient Daphnus, in the district of mod- ern Agios Konstantinos, on the Longos plain and in the Dipotamos valley. In this way, although it could sometimes serve to designate all of Eastern 5 Cf. Fossey 1990: 7. 6 Ancient Eastern Locris measured approximately 866sq km. Today the eparchy has an area of 1,456sq km and 128km of coastline (cf. Kotoulas 2002: 9). 7 Cf. i.e. Str. 9.3.1, 4.1; Paus. 10.8.2, 5; Ps.-Scymn. 481–482; and, in general, Oldfather 1926: 1135–1288 and Nielsen 2000: 91–120. 8 In addition to the Locrians of Greece itself, Eastern and Western, there were the Locri- ans of Italy or Epizephyrian Locrians. See Schol. in Pind.Ol. 2: “The Locrians can be divided into three groups (gene): Epizephyrian, Ozolian and Epicnemidian Locrians. The Epizephyr- ians were the Locrians in Italy, the Ozolians shared a border with Aetolia and the Epicnemid- ians faced Euboea”. According to Locrian tradition, Alponus and Opus were the metropoleis of the Eastern Locrians (Str. 9.2.42, 4.17; Plin. NH. 1.4.7; Steph. Byz. s.v.᾽Αλπηνοί). The Eastern Locrians subsequently also colonised Hesperian Locris (Str. 9.4.9). On West Locris, cf. Str. 9.3.1, 4.1, 7; Lerat 1952; Rousset 2004: 391–398 and Domínguez Monedero 2006a: 147–170. 9 For example the Eastern Locrians’ demographic reinforcement of Naupactus in the mid- fth century: IG IX 1 334; Syll3 47; Meister 1895: 272–334; SEG 15.353, 25.641; Buck 1955, 57; Tod GHI I, number 24; Meiggs and Lewis 1988: number 20, pp. 35–40; Larsen 1968: 49–57; Graham 1971: 40–60; Jefery 1990: 106..