Larissa (capital of Thessaly)
Larissa, the capital of Thessaly in northeastern Greece, is a city with a rich historical and cultural background. Situated on a low hill overlooking the fertile East Thessalian plain, Larissa has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic era. Although it is not mentioned in the Homeric Catalog of Ships, local legends, including those surrounding the nymph Larissa and the aristocratic Aleuadae family, contribute to its historical significance. The city played a role in various political developments, including the organization of the Thessalian League and interactions with prominent figures such as the rhetorician Gorgias and physician Hippocrates.
Larissa’s prosperity during the fifth century BC is marked by its unique coinage and cultural ambition, despite experiencing internal conflicts and external pressures from neighboring powers. It became part of the Macedonian kingdom under Philip II in the 4th century BC and later enjoyed a period of importance under Roman rule, serving as a capital and mint for the Thessalian confederacy. Today, remnants of its ancient history can be observed in the form of tombs and theater ruins, although they are relatively modest. Distinct from another town of the same name in Phthiotis, Larissa stands out as a significant historical and cultural center in Greece.
Subject Terms
Larissa (capital of Thessaly)
Larisa, the principal city and capital of Thessaly (northeastern Greece), dominating the large and fertile East Thessalian plain (Pelasgiotis) from its acropolis situated on a low hill protected by the river Peneus
Though inhabited since Palaeolithic times, the place did not appear in the Homeric Catalog of Ships, but compensated for this deficiency by the accumulation of myths round the nymph Larissa (who fell into the Peneus while playing ball) and above all round the wealthy aristocratic family and ruling house of the place, the Aleuadae, who claimed the Children of Heracles, leaders of the Doric invasion, as their ancestors, and traced their line back to a golden-haired cowherd named Aleuas the Red, who was supposedly descended from one of these Heraclids, Thessalos, and was said to have been courted by a dragon.
It was he to whom the original organization of the Thessalian League was attributed, continuing under successive Aleuadae holding the office of tagos. The first of them to assert his authority over the whole of Thessaly probably lived during the later seventh century BC. Eurylochus, who c 590 took part in the First Sacred War fought for the possession of the revenues of Delphi, was probably an Aleuad tagos; and the earliest known poem by Pindar honored a young protégé of the same house (498). During the invasion of Greece by Xerxes I (480), the Aleuadae of Larissa supported him, but the other Thessalian states dissented and sought briefly, and ineffectively, with the aid of their Greek allies, to defend the valley of Tempe. For subsequent political developments, seeThessaly.
The fine and varied coinage of Larissa begins in the early fifth century with coins displaying the sandal of the mythical hero Jason, which he was said to have lost while crossing the river Anauros. In the second half of the century, despite internal conflicts, Larissa remained prosperous and culturally ambitious, welcoming the rhetorician Gorgias and the physician Hippocrates, who died there in 399. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War (431–404) an oligarchy had gained control of the city, but following its defeat by Lycophron, the autocratic ruler (tyrant) of Pherae (404), the Aleuadae, with the help of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger, suppressed internal strife and reestablished themselves (402). They maintained resistance to the growing power of Pherae, but after the temporary loss of Larissa (before 374), called in first Thebes and then Macedonia (357/6) to help them. In 344, however, the Macedonian King Philip II annexed Thessaly and expelled a tyrant, Simus, whom he had earlier set up at Larissa. Thenceforward the city remained in the hands of the Macedonian kings (at whose court its leaders often played an important part) until its liberation by the Romans (196), who reinstated it as capital and mint of a new Thessalian confederacy and enlisted its people's assistance against the Seleucid Antiochus III the Great and then against Perseus of Macedonia.
A large inscription of c 151/50 BC that has recently come to light indicates that the city supplied grain to Rome. It continued to flourish during the Principate, and in the later empire became the capital of the province of Thessalia. The surviving traces of the ancient city are insignificant, though two groups of rich tombs of the later seventh or early sixth century have now been found at the adjacent villages of Ayios Yeoryios, and sparse remnants of a Hellenistic council house (?) and theater can be seen in the town center. (This Larissa in Pelasgiotis must be distinguished from a second town of the same name, bearing the cognomen Cremaste, in another Thessalian district, Phthiotis).