cattle, grazing in detached groups, on the plain in the foreground. All the rest consisted of parts of such magnitude, that, in their contemplation, animated nature is forgotten. We think only of that Being who is represented in the immensity of his works, and thereby indulge the same feelings. which first induced the benighted heathens to consider the tops of their mountains as habitations of the most high God."

According to the philosopher Xenagoras, who attempted to measure Ŏlympus, the height of the mountain is about 7000 English feet. A French geometrician, however, says that it is no more than 6512 feet. But in these measurements, no mention is made of a fixed base, to enable the reader to judge of the accuracy of the calculations. Snow is said to lie on certain parts of the mountain during the whole year. The ascent to its utmost top is practicable in the summer season. Near the top is a small Greek chapel, where service is performed once a year; a remarkable contrast to the ancient mythology of the spot. On the eastern side is the monastery of St. Dionysius, the highest habitation on the mountain. The river Peneus, one of the most transparent, gentle, and beautiful streams in the universe, washes the foot of Olympus, dividing it from Ossa, and making a multitude of small islands, covered with shady trees, and adorned with magnificent temples, grottoes, and other stately buildings. The best view of Olympus is from the plain of Pella to the north, or from the city of Salonichi, where its magnitude is so vast, as to fill all the view towards the western side of the Gulf of Thermæ, and to dazzle the eyes of the beholder with the radiance reflected from its snow-clad summit. Although fifty-five miles distant, so enormous is its size as to appear close at hand. The base and sides of the mountain are covered with thick woods of oak, chestnut, beech, and planetree, and the acclivities are clothed with large pine forests, whence it is denominated by Horace, Shadowy Olympus, and by Seneca, Pine-bearing Olympus.

RIVERS.

The principal rivers of Macedonia, are the Panyasus, Apsus, Laus, and Celydnus, which fall into the Adriatic and the Haliacmon, Erigon, Axius, and Strymon, which fall into the Egean Sea: none of these, however, demand particular notice, except the

Strymon. This river is very celebrated in classical story.

There are few, indeed, of the ancient writers who do not make mention of it in their pages. Thus Virgil makes Orpheus sit upon its margin as he lamented his lost Eurydice.

So close in poplar shades, her children gone,

The mother-nightingale laments alone,

Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence,

By stealth conveyed the unfeathered innocence.

At the present day, the Strymon is called, at that part where it empties itself into the Ægean, Golfi di Contessa. According to the poets, a great number of cranes resorted to its margin in the summer time.

The Strymon rises in Thrace, and rolling with a rapid stream almost due south, after a course of seventy miles, it enters that bay which from it was called the Strymonic, by two broad and deep mouths.

Besides these rivers, there are other smaller streams in Macedonia, as the Chidorus, Lydias, Astræus, Pontus, etc. There are also many lakes formed by the overflowing of the Strymon, and the junction of the rivers Axius and Erigon. Near the Candavian mountains, moreover, is a celebrated lake, called the Lake of Prespa, and there are two others; one in the province of Mygdonia, and one near the ancient city of Heraclia Sintica.

CLIMATE, PRODUCTIONS, ETC.

The air of Macedonia is, generally speaking, salubrious, and conducive to longevity. The soil is very fruitful. Anciently, on the sea-coast especially, it produced a rich abundance of corn, wine, and oil. The principal riches of the country, however, were its mines. Most of its mountains

abounded with mineral treasures, whence the Athenians coveted, and fought for its possession. It is said, and his history testifies in part to the assertion, that Philip obtained the empire of Greece by means of his gold.

Macedonia was celebrated in ancient times for an excellent breed of horses, to which the inhabitants paid great attention, 33,000 being kept in the royal stud at Pella.

CHAPTER II.

TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF MACEDONIA.

THE various districts of the country of Macedonia contained a great number of cities and towns. Among them stands conspicuously the ancient Thermæ, afterwards called

THESSALONICA,

by Cassander, in honour of his wife, daughter of king Philip. Thessalonica was situated on the slope of a mountain at the bottom of the Thermaic Gulf. It still is a town of considerable importance, under the abridged name of Salonica, of which Dr. Clarke gives the following description.

"The walls of Salonica give a very remarkable appearance to the town, and cause it to be seen at a great distance, being white-washed; and, what is still more extraordinary, they are also painted. They extend in a semicircular manner from the sea, enclosing the whole of the buildings within a peribolus, or circuit of five or six miles; but a great part of the space within the walls is void. It is one of the few remaining cities which has preserved the ancient form of its fortifications; the mural turrets yet standing, and the walls that support them being entire. Their antiquity is perhaps unknown; for although they have been ascribed to the Greek emperors, it is very evident that they were constructed in two distinct periods of time; the old Cyclopean masonry remaining in the lower parts of them, surmounted by an upper structure of brickwork. The latter part only may properly be referred to the time of the Greek emperors, being also characterized by the method of building, which then became very general, of mixing broken columns and fragments of the early Grecian architecture and sculpture confusedly among the work. Like all the ancient and modern cities of Greece,

its wretched aspect within is forcibly contrasted with the beauty of its external appearance, rising in a theatrical form upon the side of a hill, surrounded with plantations of cyprus and other evergreens and shrubs. The houses are generally built of unburned bricks, and for the most part they are little better than so many hovels. The citadel stands in the higher part of the semicircular range from the shore, and there is a bastion, with a battery, at either extremity towards the sea, but no fosse on the outside of the walls."

There are many magnificent ruins of antiquity at Salonica. Among these may be enumerated, a citadel, or castle, which is the old Greek citadel, or Acropolis; a triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius; the colossal torso of a female statue, supposed to be that of the wife of Cassander; a triumphal arch of Augustus; another of Constantine; a rotunda built after the manner of the pantheon at Rome; an ancient temple of the Thermaan Venus; the ancient church of St. Sophia, corresponding with the cathedral church of that name at Constantinople; a magnificent Corinthian propylæum of a large enclosed space, supposed to have been the hippodrome; a tumulus without the walls of the city; many shafts of ancient columns; and several marble soroi, which are now used as cisterns.

The ancient importance of Thessalonica may be gathered from St. Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. i. 8, where the apostle speaks of the faith of the Thessalonians being "spread abroad;" upon which Grotius remarks, that many merchants traded from Thessalonica to all parts of Greece; whence they had more than usually favourable opportunities of making known their own conversion, and of promulgating the truths of the gospel. Christianity flourished exceedingly in Thessalonica, in the days of the apostle Paul, as may be discerned in his two epistles addressed to the Thessalonians.

At the present day, the corn, cotton, wool, bees' wax, and silk of all Macedonia are exported from Salonica, which is a proof of the advantages of its situation. It is the seat of a pasha, and has a very large population. A considerable portion of this population consists of Jews, and Dr. Clarke conceives he can trace from the two epistles to the Thessalonians, and from the Acts of the Apostles, that the Jews in the time of St. Paul were similar to those he found there when he visited that city at the beginning of the present century.

PELLA.

This city was anciently called Bunomis, or Bunomia. It was situated at the mouth of the river Actius, in the district of Bottiæa. It is rendered famous by its being the place at which Philip was educated, and the birth-place of Alexander, and also for having in its neighbourhood the tomb of Euripides, the Grecian tragic poet. The town was greatly enlarged and beautified by Philip, traces of which may still be seen at Alakilesseh, with which it is identified.

BEREA.

Berea was about thirty-five miles west of Thessalonica. It is said to have been built by Macedo, who gave it the name of his daughter Berea. In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul speaks highly of the Bereans. They received the gospel "with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so," Acts xvii. 11; a noble example for mankind to follow in all generations.

PYDNA.

This city was situated between the mouth of the rivers Haliacmon and Lydius, in the district of Pieria. It was called Cydna by some writers, and Citron by others. At the present day, it is known by the name of Kidros. It was for some time in the possession of the Athenians, but it was afterwards taken by Philip and given to Olynthus. It was in this city that Cassander massacred Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, with his wife Roxana, and his son Alexander Ægus. The famous victory, also, which Paulus Æmilius gained over Perseus was fought in the vicinity of this city.

EDESSA.

Edessa, anciently called Egea, was situated in the district of Æmathia, on the Via Egnatia, thirty miles west of Pella. In the earliest ages, it was the capital of the Macedonian kingdom; and when it had ceased to be the royal residence, it continued to be the burial place of the Macedonian kings. In the days of Livy, it was a city of considerable

note.