Thessaly (ancient world)
Thessaly, located in northeastern Greece, is characterized by its vast plains and surrounding mountains, making it one of the most fertile areas of the ancient world. The region is nourished by the river Peneus and was historically known for its abundance of horses, cattle, and grain. Its early history includes a Neolithic culture and the establishment of small kingdoms during the Late Bronze Age, with significant figures from Greek mythology, such as Achilles and Jason, having ties to the area.
In the 7th century BC, Thessaly became politically organized into cantons dominated by powerful families, leading to the formation of the Thessalian Confederacy, which held varying degrees of political influence in northern Greece. Despite its initial prominence, the region experienced a decline due to internal strife and external pressures, particularly during the Persian Wars. Ultimately, Thessaly fell under the control of Philip II of Macedonia in the late 4th century BC.
The Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC led to the establishment of a new confederacy, and Thessaly's administrative status changed several times under Roman governance. By the time of Diocletian in the late 3rd century AD, Thessaly was recognized as a separate province with its capital at Larissa, reflecting its lasting significance in the ancient world.
Subject Terms
Thessaly (ancient world)
Thessalia
A region of north-eastern Greece, bordering on the Aegean Sea, south of Macedonia and east of Epirus. It consists of two large plains watered by the river Peneus and its tributaries, and surrounded by mountains. Because of this extensive plainland—the most spacious in Greece, originally a lake, as Herodotus states—Thessaly was richer in horses, cattle and grain than any other district of Greece. After an extensive Neolithic culture and gradual participation in the Late Bronze (Mycenaean) Age—reflected in the appearance of a network of little kingdoms in the Iliad's catalog of the Achaeans—the tribe of the Thessali immigrated from Thesprotia (southern Epirus) toward the end of the second millennium BC. According to Greek mythology, as reported by Strabo, the country was at one time called Pyrrhaea, after Pyrrha the wife of Deucalion, and was also known as Haemonia after another legendary figure called Haemon, before taking the name of Thessalia from Haemon's son Thessalus. Jason, leader of the Argonauts, came from Iolcus on the Gulf of Pagasae. Achilles and his Myrmidons were also credited with Thessalian roots.
From the tenth to the eighth centuries the clays and marls of the higher ground were preferred to the alluvial plain for settlements. From the seventh century at latest, within the four cantons of the Thessalian tribal state, dynastic families such as the Aleuadae of Larissa and the Scopadae of Crannon dominated the fertile lowlands—reducing the previous population to the status of serfs (Penestae) or driving them into the hills—and organized a Thessalian Confederacy under an elected military leader (tagos). Its members attended regular celebrations at the sanctuary of Athena Itonia near Pharsalus. The League's political power and centralization was evidently spasmodic, but at some period during the sixth century it became the major power of northern Greece. It is possible, but not certain, that the `Thessalians’ who successfully participated in the First Sacred War (between Delphi and Cirrha, c 595–590) were a federal army, and there is uncertain evidence pointing in the same direction relating to the 560s and 540s. However, the earliest firm evidence for a joint council or assembly dates from 511, when `by common decision,’ according to Herodotus, the Thessalians sent a force to help the Athenian autocrat Hippias.
By this time the Thessalians dominated Boeotia and Phocis. Nevertheless, despite generous patronage of the poets Simonides and Anacreon and Pindar, their country remained isolated and backward; Simonides said they were the only people he had never cheated, because they were too stupid. Moreover, the rivalry of their noble houses—and their adherence, for the most part, to the cause of the invaders during the Persian Wars, when the Tempe pass had to be abandoned as a line of defence (480)—caused a decline that was accelerated by social unrest. From the 420s the main external influence came from Sparta, which founded the colony of Heraclea (in Trachis) on Thessaly's southern borders (426).
Toward the end of the century a powerful state was created by the autocratic rulers of Pherae, who, emerging from prolonged struggles with other Thessalian groups, led by the Aleuadae temporarily unified the country. But it fell easily under the domination of Philip II of Macedonia (359–336), who reorganized the League under his own leadership (as its archon, `ruler’), while conceding its members nominal independence. In 196 the Romans established a new Thessalian confederacy—detached from Macedonian influence, and empowered to issue its own federal coinage—and in 146 associated it loosely with their new province of Macedonia-Achaea. When Achaea was detached by Augustus (31 BC–AD 14) to form a separate province, Thessaly became incorporated in its territory, but in the second century AD was transferred to the province of Macedonia instead. Diocletian (284–305), however, created a separate province of Thessaly, with its capital at Larissa. See alsoDemetrias, Gonnus, Iolcus, Lamia, Larissa, Olympia, Ossa, Pelion, Pharsalus, Pherae.