Τρίτη 2 Ιουνίου 2009
Δευτέρα 1 Ιουνίου 2009
ΔΙΑΦΟΡΕΣ ΔΙΕΘΝΕΙΣ ΑΝΑΦΟΡΕΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΛΟΓΚΑΝΙΚΟ
Π Ε Ρ Ι Ε Χ Ο Μ Ε Ν Α
1) JOHN HARTLEY
2)Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di
Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 -
1550
3) HistoireHerodotus, Pierre-Henri Larcher
4) THE HISTORY MODERN GREECE,WiTH A VIEW
OF THE GEOGRAPHY,
ANTIQUITIES,ANDPRESENT COND1TION OF
THAT COUNTRY.
5)TRAVELS THE MOREA.
6)Blouet, Abel (Hrsg.) / Ravoisié, Amable (Hrsg.)
Expedition scientifique de Morée: ordonnée
Par le Gouvernement Français ; Architecture,
Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse,
des Cyclades et de l'Attique (Band 2)Paris, 1833
7) TRAVELS IX GREECE AND RUSSIA, WITH AN
EXCURSION TO CRETE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR.
8) Ancienne géographie universelle comparée à la
moderne
9) The History of Modern Greece
10)QUE LE GRAND VESIR ALI PACHA A FAITE
EN 171 5 POUR LA CONQ.UÊTE DE LA MORÉE
11) DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE
ROMAGNE
1) JOHN HARTLEY
SITE
http://books.google.gr/books?lpg=PA347&dq=longanico&pg=PA347&id=SgSF-6w5uZMC&ots=zxGbiL7o9e
RESEARCHES
IN
GREECE
AND
THE LEVANT.
BY
THE REV. JOHN HARTLEY, M.A.
LATE MISSIONARY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
" If the Sun shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
JOBS, VIII. X.
LONDON: SEELEY AND SONS.
1831.
/to.
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.
Map of the Route of the Rev. J. Hartley, on a Visit to the
Apocalyptic Churches to face p. 245
Map of theMorea; with the Routes of the Rev. J. Hartley... p. 376
Agianni has still 80 families: before Ibrahim Pasha's arrival it had 100. We passed by a Turkish tower-like residence about one hour further, in which fifteen Greeks kept Ibrahim Pasha's army at bay for fifteen days; and, last of all, when he was on the point of blowing them up with a mine, they effected their escape to the mountains, in the night. Small towers of this description abound in Greece; and they are frequently mentioned in the Scriptures (Matt. xxi. 33. Luke xiii. 4. xiv. 28 ; and in the Old Testament). Silk is a very important production of the Province of Mistra: before the Revolution, 18,000 okkas were yielded annually; at present, only 7000 or 8000.
I have distributed a considerable number of books in Mistra, and hope to send many more from Napoli : I have also sent books to the villages of this province. In the whole Province of Mistra there are said to be 30,000 souls.
In the evening, I walked up to the Metropolis, to take leave of the Bishop. He pressed me so strongly to spend the night with him, that I could not refuse. My visit afforded me such an opportunity of making known, the Truth as I always highly value. -The Bishop was very inquisitive on religious subjects; and I was enabled to inform him of the most important points of
* " Achmans, with the head of flowing hair."
difference between our respective Churches, with great freedom. The permission, which Protestant Bishops and Clergymen have to marry, appeared extraordinary to him and his attendants: he approved of it, however; and spoke of an Eighth General Council, when the same liberty would be given to themselves. I met with much hospitality and friendship at Mistra; and feel convinced that such amicable intercourse with the Greeks may, by the Divine Blessing, be greatly serviceable to the cause of Truth. If the Greeks are not hindered by their Government, I believe there will soon be a wide and effectual door open amongst them.
Leondari.
April 9,1828—The Bishop, at parting, requested me to write to him. At eight o'clock, started for Leondari. After reaching the Eurotas, we proceeded, for a considerable distance, along its banks: it is beautifully fringed with the Platanus, with poplars, and other trees: villages appear to the left, on the declivities of the mountains. We left the Eurotas at the Village of Georgitza. Here we were overtaken by a very heavy rain, which we were obliged to bear patiently for more than an hour. At length we reached the Mill of Logara, where we found shelter for the night. The Village of Longanico is an hour distant. In the mill, I met with a Caloyer from the Monastery of St. George, which is four hours distant, on the mountains. He could not read; but I sent some Tracts by him to the Hegoumenos. He told us, that the other day a wolf in the neighbourhood had destroyed eighteen sheep. Oh ! that there had been no wolves of another and a worse description in these countries ! But, alas! some of those who have assumed to themselves the office of Christian Teachers must be referred to the number of those of whom St. Paul prophesied, Acts xx. 29—After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing theflor-k.
" Wolves shall succeed for Teachers, grievous wolves. Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven To their own vile advantages shall turn, Of lucre and ambition." *
April 10, 1828—Every thing reminds me that I am in Arcadia: the country all the way to Leondari is enchanting: Nature appears in all her wildness: the whole land, hills, and dales, is a beautiful forest, or rather a natural park. The spaces between the trees are occupied by pasture-grounds, where the shepherds feed their flocks; and they have, invariably, the large crook, which we observe in pictures of shepherds and shepherdesses. At Leondari we find the same desolation which everywhere else marks the steps of Ibrahim Pasha. A few houses have lately been rendered tenantable. I observed several ancient and almost ruined Churches, resembling those near the Castle of Mistra: one of them served as a Mosque before the Revolution: now, again,
* Milton's Paradise Lost, Book xii. 1. 508.
« ΠροηγούμενηContinue »
2)Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550
SITE
http://www.condottieridiventura.it/condottieri/m/0955%20%20%20%20%20%20SIGISMONDO%20PANDOLFO%20MALATESTA%20Di%20Brescia.htm
Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550
1464
Mar.
Venezia
Impero Ottomano
Capitano g.le 400 lance 100 cavalli e 300 fanti
Viene nominato capitano generale in Morea; gli è concessa una provvigione mensile di 300 fiorini ed una condotta di 1200 cavalli. Per la leva delle truppe riceve una prestanza di 80 fiorini per lancia, di 20 fiorini per ogni cavallo leggero e di 3 fiorini per ciascun fante. La ferma è stabilita in due anni. Il cardinale Bessarione ufficia la solenne messa cantata nella basilica di San Marco, alla fine della quale si procede alla consegna delle bandiere e del bastone di comando.
Mag.
Romagna
Incominciano i primi imbarchi per la Morea; da Rimini salpano prima 7 marani e dopo pochi giorni altri 6 carichi di soldati, per un migliaio di cavalli. Altre genti, assoldate nel padovano, sono caricate nei porti di Conche e di Chioggia.
Giu. lug.
Grecia
Si imbarca sulla galea del sopracomito Baldassarre Trevisan con una quarantina di giovani delle più note famiglie di Rimini in qualità di “squadrieri”, in realtà come ostaggi e pegno di fedeltà datigli dai cittadini. La dilazione della sua partenza è dovuta ad una congiura ordita da alcuni fuoriusciti con la connivenza del vescovo di Sessa, governatore pontificio della Romagna. Prima di allontanarsi dall’Italia, il Malatesta manifesta il desiderio che Venezia si interponga sul papa affinché gli siano restituite alcune terre nel contado di Rimini, come promessogli a suo tempo: la risposta è ovviamente negativa. Dopo un viaggio di quattordici giorni, in cui tocca Pescara e Brindisi, attraversa il canale di Otranto e raggiunge il porto di Kalamata. A metà luglio è a Modone. Assale Mitilene per terra e per mare: i turchi hanno la meglio e fra i veneziani sono uccisi il capitano del Golfo Angelo Pesaro ed altri sopracomiti. Il Malatesta ha ai suoi ordini 4000 uomini tra cavalli e fanti, invece dei previsti 3000 cavalli e 5000 fanti. I soldati, che ha a disposizione, hanno il morale basso per il ritardo delle paghe, la mancanza di vettovaglie e di foraggio: inevitabili sono, pertanto, le violenze ai danni della popolazione locale che, spesso, invoca la protezione dei turchi a sua difesa.
Ago.
Grecia
Presto si rende edotto della reale situazione delle sue truppe: non può riprendere le operazioni dal punto in cui le ha lasciate Bertoldo d’Este e cingere di assedio Corinto, perché gli mancano i mezzi necessari; si deve limitare a restaurare la disciplina facendo impiccare una ventina dei colpevoli dei maggiori crimini. Fa imprigionare più di un centinaio di soldati riottosi agli ordini e rispedisce a Venezia in catene alcuni capitani; addestra all’azione le truppe per niente allenate e disposte alle fatiche ed ai disagi della guerra. Alletta, in particolare, i suoi uomini mandandoli a saccheggiare qualche borgata o castello controllato dai turchi; con successive incursioni recupera il braccio di Maina e, con un fortunato colpo di mano, si impadronisce di Misistra, l’antica Sparta, sede del despota della Morea.
Sett.
Grecia
Assedia la rocca di Misistra; l’intervento di Omar bey lo obbliga ad uscire dalla città ed a trincerarsi in un posto vicino con terrapieni, fossati e con vari ostacoli o sbarre, tra alte scarpate di roccia viva. Il Malatesta, inferiore di forze agli avversari, permane costante sulla difensiva e permette ai suoi uomini solo qualche scaramuccia.
Dic.
Grecia
Decide di ripiegare da Misistra, per una serie di concause che vanno dallo scarseggiare di vettovaglie e di munizioni, alle malattie, all’avvicinarsi del freddo ed al rafforzamento dell’esercito nemico, che minaccia di chiudergli le vie del ritorno. Fa trasportare in Italia le ceneri di Giorgio Gemisto Pletone, il filosofo della rinascita pagana e della cultura greca, che saranno inumate a Rimini. Sotto una pioggia battente ed in condizioni climatiche altamente sfavorevoli, effettua la ritirata delle sue milizie per vie inusuali e meno sorvegliate dai turchi. Per strada attacca Patimo, espugna il castello e ne fa a pezzi il presidio; fra le sue truppe, più di metà dei sopravvissuti si ammala di malaria; molti soldati muoiono per il freddo e la fame.
1465
Gen. feb.
Grecia
Si salva a Modone ed anch’egli è affetto dalla malaria. Seguono aspri contrasti con il provveditore Andrea Dandolo, finché costui è revocato dal suo incarico per essere sostituito con Giacomo Barbarigo. La contesa con il Dandolo, d’altra parte, non è nuova, ma risale a dieci anni prima per una relazione sentimentale del Malatesta con la moglie di costui Aritea Malatesta e per il mancato pagamento della dote della donna, nonostante i suoi impegni formali. Si ferma a Napoli di Romania (Nauplia) a curarsi.
Primavera
Sorgono disordini a Rimini, alimentati dalle notizie del suo cattivo stato di salute. Cerca pretesti per lamentarsi della situazione militare e protesta per la mancanza di mezzi per affrontare i turchi in modo adeguato. Guarito, non compie altro che una infruttuosa scorreria verso Corinto. Rapporti conflittuali, peraltro, il Malatesta ha anche con il nuovo capitano generale della flotta Giacomo Loredan.
Lug.
Grecia
Chiede di rientrare in Italia per un breve periodo ed ottiene un netto rifiuto. A Kalamata, dove si trova trincerato da quasi un mese, decide di attaccare nuovamente Misistra : non ne sortisce nulla per la troppa disparità di forze in campo a favore dei turchi. Si sposta a Mantinea, dove sorprende un contingente di 1000 uomini in un accampamento presso la Caritina: sono uccisi e fatti prigionieri molti soldati. Il bottino ascende a 10 padiglioni, 120 cavalli, 600 tra buoi e vacche, 2000 castrati e molti animali tra somari, muli e maiali. Ritorna a Mantinea per la mancanza di foraggio per la cavalleria; contro il parere del Barbarigo, trasferisce il campo a San Sion, Kalamata, Castel Leone presso Corone, e, infine, a La Cosura verso Castelfranco.
Ago.Grecia (ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ 1465 μ.Χ.)
Porta più avanti le sue linee e giunge a Castri nei pressi di Misistra: gli vengono contro 14000 turchi, si ritira a Corone e provvede al rafforzamento dei passi di accesso al braccio di Maina con alcune guarnigioni. Respinge da Longanico le truppe di Omar bey, che hanno iniziato ad assediare il locale castello.
Sett. nov.
Grecia
Ha a sua disposizione solo 1000 uomini fra cavalli e fanti: la maggior parte delle sue truppe, infatti, di fronte agli avversari sembra essersi quasi volatilizzata. L’evoluzione della guerra è tale che il Malatesta perde sempre più la stima dei veneziani; i rettori di Nauplia lo accusano di viltà e di corruzione. Le rimostranze hanno successo, per cui viene accettata la sua richiesta di licenza, nonché la domanda per la riduzione della condotta da due anni a diciotto mesi.
Dic.
Rientra in Italia con 30 o 40 uomini : il resto delle truppe da lui raccolte lascerà la Grecia solo all’arrivo in Morea del nuovo governatore Girolamo Novello.
1466
Gen.
I veneziani trattengono in Grecia i cavalli ancora in buone condizioni ed atti a proseguire nella campagna.
Mar.
Veneto e Romagna
Il Malatesta arriva a Venezia, si portaa Grancona nei colli Berici a trovarvi il genero Carlo di Montone, rientra a Venezia e riceve dal senato un’attestazione di stima per il suo operato in Morea. Non gli è rinnovata la condotta e gli si assicura il saldo delle paghe pregresse, una volta che si siano esaminati tutti i conti. In Romagna.
Apr.
************************************************************************88
Herodotus, Pierre-Henri Larcher
OLYMPE , montagne de la Macédoine & de la Thef- falie, entre la Piérie, contrée de Macédoine, & la Pé- lafgiotide, contrée- de Theffalie. C'eft moins une mon-» tagne qu'une chaîne de montagnes. Les Grecs ne con- noiffant point de montagne plus élevée que l'Olympe , firent de cette montagne la demeure de leurs Dieux. Dans la fuite leurs Poètes, pour les placer plus haut, s'aviferent d'imaginer, fur le modèle de l'Olympe de Theflalie, un autre Olympe attaché par fes bafes à la vente du ciel , & y placèrent la demeure des Dieux : & enfin ce fut le ciel même.- Son nom moderne eft Lâcha, félon la Martiniere. Il y a encore fix montagnes (j) de ce nom; la première en Theffalie, la féconde en Myfie , la troifieme en Cilicie , la quatrième en Elide , la cinquième ea Arcadie , & la fixieme dans Tifle de Cypre. Nous parlerons dans l'article fuivant de l'Olympe Myfien , qui paroît le même que celui de Ci- Jicie , ainfi que celui de Theffalie étoit le même que celui de Macédoine. Celui de l'ifle de Cypre fe nomma actuellement Santa Croce.
fi) Hecodoc. Lib. VII. $. XXII.
U) Thucyd. Lib. IV. $. CIX.
ïi, SchoU Apoll. RlioJ. ad Lib. I. rctf. 598.
OLYMPE MYSIEN , montagne, ou plutôt chaîne de montagnes, qui commençoit près & au nord de la fburce de l'Hermus, & s'étendoit du fud au nord juf- qu'en Bithynie. On l'appelloit Olympe Myfien, parce que fa partie la plus confidérable étoit dans la Myfie , à l'eft de l'Eolide & de la Troade. Cette montagne eft encore actuellement connue fous le même nom.
OLYMPIE, ville d'Elide dans le Péloponnefe, près du fleuve Alphée. Cette ville a été très-célèbre par les oracles qu'y rendoit Jupiter Olympien , dans un temple où Ton voyoit un Jupiter de bronze de la hauteur de dix coudées. Devant le temple étoit un bois d'oliviers, dans lequel étoit le Stade, c'eft-à-dire, le lieu où l'on combattoit à la courfe. Après que les oracles eurent cefie, le temple ne laifia pas de conferver fa gloire: il devint même plus célèbre que jamais, par le concours des peuples qui s'aflembloient pour voir les jeux & pour couronner ceux qui avoient remporté le prix. Tout le monde connoît les jeux Olympiques, qui fe célébroient de quatre ans en quatre ans., & que cette révolution, appellée Olympiade , étoit la manière de compter les années chez les Grecs.
Il paroît par les anciens Auteurs, qu'Olympie fuccéda à la ville de Pife, qu'elles n'étoient pas fur le même terrein , mais dans des lieux très-voifins & à côté di» même bois ; qu'Olympie fe forma des ruines de Pife. On préfume que c'eft le lieu actuellement nommé Rofeo , mais fans aucune autorité. La Martiniere prétend, je ne fais fur quel fondement, qu'on
l'appelle Longanico.
****************************************************
4)HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
THE HISTORY MODERN GREECE, WiTH A VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, AND PRESENT COND1TION OF THAT COUNTRY
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 0 THE HISTORY MODERN GREECE, WiTH A VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, AND PRESENT COND1TION OF THAT COUNTRY. FROM THE LONDON EDITION, a Continuation of Uk ?instor». TO THE PRESENT TIME. .^BOSTON: fUBHSHED BT NATHAN HALE CONGRESS STREET. 1833. HISTORY
From LEONDARI TO MISTRA.
Sir Wrn. Gell and Mr. Dodwell, whom we must now follow in exploring the antiquities of Laconia, reached Mistra by way of Ltondari. This is a large village situated on a rising ground at the southern extremity of the plain of Megalopolis, and was at . that time inhabited by both Greeks and Turks. Though deserted and ruinous, it presented the most picturesque groupes of buildings and trees ; and in and about the village are ancient vestiges which have been supposed to mark the site of Leuktron, the border town of the Spyrtans and Megalopolitans.* The mountain to which it gives name, is in fact the northern point of that range of which Mount Taygetus is the nucleus, and which ends at Cape Matapan. Here, consequently, the roads divide to Mistra eastward and to Kalamata on the west. The castle of Leondari stands on one of its lowest rocks, yet is sufficiently elevated above the plain to command a very extensive and interesting prospect, described by Sir William Gell in very glowing terms. " The variety of arable and pasture land, richly interspersed with villages and the country-houses of Turkish Agas, is encircled with vast forests and open groves of oak; and these are surrounded again with the most picturesque and magnificent mountains, full of natural beauties, and exciting a cloud of classical recollections, unrivalled, except in the vicinity of Athens. In front, on the west, lay Mounts Cerausius and Lycants, where Jupiter was nursed, and Pan was revered. On the summit, human sacrifices are said to have been offered at a period beyond the reach of history. There, the Lycaean games, tho tumple of the great goddess, the Archaic Lycosura on its lofty peak, the feast of Lycaon, the flaming valley of the gods and giants, nnd a thousand other circumstances, rush upon the mind. Below, Megalopolis, founded in vain by Epaminondas to check the power of the Spartans, Philopoemen, the Alpheus, are recalled to the senses or to the imagination. The hope, almost amounting to certainty, thai, !.y looking for any object which once existed, its vestiges would surely be found on some novv lonely eminence, on some rock, or near that fountain in the forest which induced the founders to settle on that parttcular spot, the name of Arcaslia, and its connexion with all that history has related or poets have sung, conspire to render the view from the castle of Leon- dari one of the most interesting and enchanting of the Peloponnesus.
* Leondari (more frequently written by the Greeks Lontare) is mentioned as a large town by a writer in the fifteenth century. The origin of 'In name, which signifies lion, is unknown. .Some have supposed the castle to mark the site of Belomina (Bl^nina or Bl- mm-na,) which others fix at a place called Agia Eirene, where are some interesting remains.
" Nothing can exceed," continues the learned Traveller, " the beauty and variety of the glens and eminences which alternately presented themselves on our route: the prettiest valleys, each watered by its little rivulet, and reminding us perpetually of the parks and pleasure-grounds, which in England are often contrived by art and study, are here produced in endless succession by unaided nature. All the streams flow ultimately into the Al- pheus, having first joined the main river of the valley formed by the mountain of Leondari and Mount Chitnparou. After a gradual ascent for an hour, and passing the village of Limatero on the left, we reached the highest part or head of the valley whence the currents flow to the Alpheus; and at this elevation, the cold was considerably increased. Perhaps this spot was the confine of the Laconian and Arcadian territories; at leust, it seems the natural boundary; and in Greece, the form of the mountain generally decided the extent of the province. There had been a town, either ancient or modern, on the platform or crest, as was proved by the fragments of tiles and pottery on the ground.
" The mountain of Leondari, almost censing on the right, is, after a narrow valley, replaced by another branch of the mass, called Cherasia, the source of many torrents, which accompanied or crossed the track by which we now descended towards Mistra and the Eurotas. Here and there we observed vestiges of the ancient road, and of walls, which had once served to retard the predatory excursions of the rival countries. Still descending for another hour, in a beautiful forest, we passed the ruins of a church, vineyards, and habitations of a modern village, now no longer inhabited. A church, with vestiges of antiquity near it, might perhaps be taken for the site of an ancient temple; and after a ride of two hours and twenty minutes from Leondari, we saw some vestiges of antiquity upon a knoll projecting from Mount Cherasia, and near it, on the right, the site of two temples in a field.
" All this valley is copiously irrigated by rivulets, which produce a most delightful shade, by encouraging the growth of magnificent plane-trees, some of which we observed from six to seven feet in diameter. Soon after, we passed a beautiful fountain and a mined church, the substitute lor the temple which once had adorned it; but these were only the appendages of a city, the walls of which we not long after entered, and which stood upon the sides and base of a pointed and conical hill, called Chelmo or Chelmlna. If I had not promised to avoid all antiquarian discussion, I might, perhaps be inclined to suggest, that possibly Belmina stood here, and that Chelmina might be the remains of the name. The hill of Chelmo, though not high, is so situated in the centre of the valley, that it is seen both from Sparta and Megalopolis. The fields, on quitting these vestiges, seemed to assume a new aspect, and to be better cultivated ; we found also vineyards ; and descending to the bottom of a valley, between the end of Mount Chimparou on the left, and Xerro Bouno, a name now assumed by the range on the right, we found in a little triangular meadow, watered by a brook, a large green tumulus, probably the burying-place of some one hero, or the common sepulchre of many, probably not difficult to be recognised in the page of history. A road here turns off on the left to Tripolitza, falling into the valley of Franco-brysso, Asea, or Anemoduri, which occurs in the route from Leondari.
" On the side of the Xerro Bouno, or the Dry Mountain,. we observed the large village of Longanico, and crossed the rimer of the same name, at its junction with another stream, near the foundations of a temple.
" On an ugly ascent from this spot, we found a derveni, or guard-house, to protect tlie road ; but, as we had not met a single person during the whole journey, we could not help remarking the wretched prospect which the plunderer of travellers must hold out to those who were to gain a support from such a precarious source.
'' At the top of this ascent, we found a large flat table-land, spotted with heaps of stone and stunted wild pear-trees, where we thought we observed the vestiges of a city. Our guides called it Agrapulo Campo, which might be either a corruption from wild pear-trees, or the acropolis of an ancient city. On the descent from this, is the source which might have occasioned the selection of the spot for habitation. It is now known by no distinguishing appellation; for that of Cephalo-brysso, which it bears, is common to any other natural fountain. Here, however, we found the foundations of a temple and other fragments of white marble, and were soon convinced that it was the real fountain of the Eurotas in the valley of Sparta, whether it derived or not its original source from the same mountain with the Alpheus, and sunk in the lake below Anemodouri. The city was probably that called Pellane. The water is clear and excellent, and gushes out of the rock in a considerable stream. A khan now in ruins, has once existed near the spot, founded by some pious Turk, who probably left no. money to support it, or
did not foresee that no khangi could be found to remain in it tn tinies of turbulence, or the prevalence of banditti. A little below the source, the stream joins a river called Platanata, and then assumes the classic name of Ere or Eurotas. After passing two little villages on the left, Partali and Trupes, we came to a fountain with a shade of poplars, now in early leaf; and on the right, after passing the foundations of walls, we observed the ruins of a citadel, rising in terraces that forcibly recalled to our recollections, the town of Characomae, or the Bastions, the ruins which were to be expected in this district. Here we found another khan, which was at that moment tenanted ; but it being only two o'clock, the evening fine, and the .place not offering any particular object of curiosity, while we were impattent to arrive at Sparta, we proceeded on our journey, which we had on that day commenced at nine. On the hill, about a mile on the right, is the large village of Periboglia, a name implying a wall or peribolus, and from that circumstance now used more than x^-ros- for » garden. Possibly, it might originally have some connection with the neighbouring ruins of Characomae.
" We had not proceeded far, when, on crossing a river, we observed the foundations of a temple on the right, and, in the same direction, the villages of Alevros and Alitea. The traces of the ancient inhabitants seemed now to multiply, and the country to become at the present day more populous. The river which rolled on our left, now entered among the little hills, which seemed to impede its further .passage. On the left, we saw the village Chorithitza, and a white house called Lai, a name which had a sort of Lacedaemonian sound. A peasant passed us, and offered for sale a large brass medal of Sparta, with the club of Hercules on the reverse; but, as he had formed too magnificent an idea of his good fortune in finding it, and asked something quite preposterous, we were obliged to relinquish the purchase, and he to postpone si-ne die the days of his promised affluence. j
" Another great stream from the right adds very much to the volume of the waters of the Ere ; and whatever may be the merits of the original Cephalo-brysso in the summer, most certainly it was entitled, at the time we saw it, to very little honour as the main support of the Eurotas. The glen was now confined to the breadth of the road and the river. Across the flood we observed, on two conical rocks, the churches of St. Georgios and St. Nicola; and, not long after, passed a place, where all further progress had been once prohibited by an ancient fortification at a narrow pass, between the rocks and the river. We passed several islands in the Eurotas ; and before the pass opened into a wider valley, we crossed the ruins of two walls, which shewed, that though the Spartans were so loud in the boast, that their city of Lacedaemon was defended without walls, they had taken very good care to render it on every side difficult of access by distant fortifications.
" In many places we found the road supported by ancient walls of massive blocks; and nothmg could surpass the beauty of the tall oleanders, called by the Greeks rhododaphne, or rose- laurel, and which may possibly be the Laconian roses, which flower twice in the year. We crossed, by a bridge, another river from the right, and saw a cave with steps cut in the rock, near which we found an inscription much defaced. We found other traces of walls of defence, and near the river, two tumuli, one of stones, and the other apparently natural. Here we discovered the little village of Papiote, where we arrived after a ride of seven hours and a half from Leondari."*
From Papiote, a road turns off on the left to the ruins of Sparta, while that to the right leads to Mistra, striking into a little range of hills, and leaving the Eurotas on the left. In a valley on the right, Sir William Gell noticed a ruined aqueduct and a church, and soon after, passed " an aqueduct of the lower ages, consisting of a lofty pier, and two smaller, with an arch." Mount Taygetus here begins to assume a more imposing aspect, " rising in bolder masses to a far greater elevation than the surrounding branches, and then producing a forest of pines, above which are seen the peaks of St. Elias covered with snow. On passing the hills, Mistra presents itself in all its magnificence, so well displayed on the sides of its lofty rock, that every house is visible, rising in gradation one above the other, to the grey towers of the citadel on its summit. The city looks more like the capital of a kingdom, than of the deserted vales of Laconia. The Benaky houses, on a nearer approach, form the most conspicuous portions of the ruins above ; and the mosques, with the dwellings of the rich Turks, beautifully interspersed with trees, add much, by the contrast of their white slender minarets with the dark cypresses, to the picturesque effect below. I know of nothing," adds Sir William, " that exceeds the first sight of Mistra, though a nearer approach destroys the illusion of magnificence which it has excited. We soon crossed a large stream, before which, on the left, were the ruins of a temple, and, not long after,' another river, both rising in Taygetus ; (one of them running from Trupz, a village famous for a cypress-tree of enormous magnitude;) and a few minutes more brought us to the lower houses of Mistra."*
* Narrative, pp. 314—23. In the Itinerary, from Lontari to the Khan of Pcrivolia, 4 h. 57 min. ; from Perivolia to Papiote, 2 h. 37 min.; from Papiote to Mistra, 1 h. 14 min. Total distance from Lontari to .Mistra, eight hours and three-quarters.
MISTRA.
The origin of this place is unknown. There is no reason for supposing it of ancient date, although, as Mr. Dodwell remarks, " it may appear surprising that so strong and advantageous a situation should have been neglected by the Spartans. It must be recollected, however, that, in early times, even their capital was unprotected by walls: they despised all defence except that which arose from the terror of their name and the valour of their arms, and disdained to be indebted for their security to strong walls and artificial ramparts. It is probable that Misithra arose out of the ruins of Sparta, which appear to have been abandoned by the unworthy descendants of the Heraclidae about the time of the Turkish invasion, when they sought, in the rocks and precipices of Taygeton, that protection which they could not find in the low hills and gentle eminences of the Spartan plain.
' Mr. Dodwell appears to have followed a somewhat different route, having proceeded from Lcontari to Agie Basile, a large village which Sir William Gel 1 left on the right. " It occupies the upper part of a hill called Longaniko, which unites the chain of Taygetun and Lycseon. The spot is picturesque, and ample forests furnish it with verdure and shade. It overlooks a fine plain, or rather a deep hollow, bounded by rugged mountains, and beautifully varied with soft hills and green vales." The village of Longaniko, which Sir William Gcll, in his Itinerary, places on a hill to the right of his road, Mr. Dodwell saw in A ealley to the left. At the distance of an hour and a half from Lonturi, this Traveller traversed an ancient site, marked by foundations of walls and ancient bricks, which it took him twenty-five minutes to pass over. Having passed the night at Agie Basile, the next day, in forty-five minutes, he crossed three stre-Stms, which turn some small mills; and in an hour and thirty-five minutes, came to " a fine kephalobrun, or spring, rushing copiously from the ground, and immediately accumulating into a rapid current in the direction of Sparta. This is one of the sources of the Eurotas. The spot has been much ornamented, and several large blocks of stone and foundations are seen scattered about, which perhaps mark the site of the city of Pellana, as the fountain is the Pallanis." Crossing the stream, Mr. Dodwell proceeded on its western side, through a grove of mulberry trees, which abound in the Spartan plain, and leaving the village of Trupe at a short distance on the left, in three quarters of an hour crossed six rivulets, all descending from Taygetus : the last, which is of considerable size, has its source near the village of Kastauia, and is called Kastanias Potamos. They all enter the Eurotas, after a short and rapid course. That river which flowed to the traveller's left, has its left bank supported by a strong ancient wall of considerable length, composed of well- joined irregular polygons. After crossing two other streams, which enter the river, Mr. Dodwell ct.me to some sepulehral caverns, near which he found an ancient inscription ; and not far from this spot are two round hills, in the form of tumuli, but apparently too large to be artificial. Forty minutes from this place, he crossed a stream, and came to the ruins of an aqueduct, formed of arches, and built of Roman brick. The view of these remains, with Taygctas in the back-ground, is pronounced to be one of the grandest and most picturesque in Greece. A short way from the aqueduct, he crossed a rivulet; in forty-six minutes further, a river, supposed to be the Taison ; and in twenty minutes more, reached Mistra, distant six hours from Agie Basile.—Dodwell, vol. ii pp. 398—400. Sir W. Gell, in his Itinerary, makes Mistra only five hours from where he saw " Agios Basili on a high part of Mount Cherasia."
" Misithra was regarded. as one of the strongest places of the Peninsula in the lower ages. The despots of the Morea made it their principal residence; and the despots Thomas and Demetrius, brothers of the last Constantine, took refuge in this strong hold, when the Morea was ravaged by the troops of Mo- hamed II. It was occupied for some time by the Venetians/and finally retaken by the Turks. It is at present (1806) governed by a voivode, and contains nearly 7,000 inhabitants, who are prii,ci- pally Greeks, and carry on a considerable commerce in siik. Several ancient inscriptions and some sculptured and architectural fragments may be seen at Misithra, which have no doubt been brought from Sparta or Amyklai. The sculpture is generally indifferent; out, near the southern extremity of the town, is a marble sarcophagus, now serving as the receptacle of a fountain, which is ornamented with sculpture in a good style, but much defaced by constant friction."*
The best account of Mistra is that which is given by M. Pou- queville, who was there in 1798 : it conveys no very high idea of the Laconian capital, f " Mistra rises in an amphitheatre upon a mountain which faces the east. Exposed thus to the rays of the sun, the heat in summer, not being tempered by the north wind, is insupportable. It is commanded to the west by Mount Taygetus, whence, in the great heats, snow is brought to cool the sherbert and other liquors. The castle stands on the summit of the mountain of Mistra, on a platform of about 500 fathoms in circumference. It is governed by a sardar or commandant, who has under his command some cannoniers. The artillery by which it is defended, consists of about a dozen pieces of cannon, every one of a different calibre. The magazines, if such a name may be given to two or three cellars and half a dozen sheds, have no powder but what the Bey delivers out. and which he purchases in the neighbouring maritime towns for the celebration of the ba'iram and the courban baiiram, and for firing upon some extraordinary occasions. There are no magazines of corn ; funds are wanting to incur an expense of any magnitude ; and I believe that, since the expulsion of the Russians about thirty years ago, this citadel has not been considered as of any importance. The Russians themselves, at the time that they gained possession of Mistra, did not appear to concern themselves much about the citadel. It cannot, indeed, be of any other importance than as it gives the power to overawe the town in case a disposition to revolt should appear there. A mosque, some cisterns of marble, and some wretched habitations, built with the spoils of antiquity, compose the tout ensemble of this citadel. The form of the enclosure is an octagon : it is surrounded with a regular crenated wall, the parapet of which is tolerably broad, but very much in ruins; for the ravages made by time are never repaired, and the Turks themselves have ceased to consider the fortress as impregnable.
* Dodwell, vol. ii. p. 401. The population must be under-rated at 7,000 souk, and M. Pouqueville's estimate is supported by Sir William Gell.
t " It is not very obvious," remarks M. Pouqueville, " whence this name is derived. M. Scrofani tells us that it means toft cheae, which it as good an etymology as if one were to derive iVeufrhAtel from the cheeses of that name. Tiiat of Sparta, tra^rm, describee extremely well the nature of the ground on which it stands, covered with broom "
" In descending from the castle, the eye embraces without difficulty the whole extent of Mistra. The town f- surrounded with walls in a very ruinous state, in which are two gates, where a toll is required of all who enter the town : one is to the north, and leads to the castle; the other is to the east. Two principal streets divide the town, crossing each other almost at right angles. The most considerable, in which are some antique remains, is the street of the market.*....Near the mosque, (built of the ruins of the Aphelion,) is a spacious khan, frequented by a great number of merchants. The metropolitan church of the Christians, ruined by the Albanians, but since restored, merits notice. A metropolitan archbishop officiates there, who is poor as the pastors of the primitive church. The place stands recorded to have been the theatre of the most extraordinary miracles, and the sick are daily brought and laid at the doors, as at the gates of the ancient temples, that those who repair thither for the purpose of worshipping the deity, may indicate to them the remedies by which their health may be restored.f To the south is the Pandanesi, not less devastated by the horrors of the last
* Called by the half-learned natives, Apheteus, from the erroneous notion that Mistra occupies the site of Sparta. Its being the residence of the bishop of Sparta may have given rise to the mistake.
t By this circumlocutorv phrase, M. Pouqueville means, that the papas prescribe for them, or undertake their miraculous cure.
.9M
5)TRAVELS THE MOREA.
http://books.google.gr/books?id=4hsGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA20&ots=sLXnsoiuzJ&dq=longaniko&output=text#c_top
TRAVELS
THE MOREA.
VOL. III.
>".- U »l'l>l A LI., AnOKI/ COUHT, hINNMi STHKLT, i.UKDO.V.
A MAP AND PLANS.
BY
WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE,
F.R.S. ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
MDCCCXXX.
CONTENTS
OF
VOL. III.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LACONIA. — ARCADIA.
Pw
River Phellia.—Pharis.—Brysejj.—Ancient places
on Mount Taygetum.—Ancient topography of the
part of Laconia eastward of the Eurotas.—Paljea,
Geranthr.&, Glympia, Marius, Selinus.—From
Mistra to Periv&lia.—Tomb of Ladas.—Pellana.—
From Periv6lia to Barbitza—Bblemina.—Source of
the Ecrotas.—Of the Passes leading into Laconia.
—Sciritis.— Ium.—Eutjea—From Barbitza toTri-
jM.Iit/,.i.—Temple on Mount Boreium.—Of the sub-
terraneous course of the Rivers Alpheius and Eu-
Rotas 1
CHAPTER XXIV.
ARCADIA.
Military importance of Mantineia.—Approaches to
the Mantinice from the Isthmus.—Roads from
Argos to Mantineia.—The Inert plain.—Course of
the waters in the Mantinice and Tegeatis.—An-
cient military occurrences in the Mantinice ; parti-
cularly the three battles : namely, 1. In the Pelopon-
nesian war, between the Argives and the Lacedaemo-
nians under Agis—2. That in which the ficeotiaus
« ΠροηγούμενηContinue »
LACONIA. ARCADIA.
Hirer Phellia.—Pharis—Bryse/e.—Ancient places on Mount Taygetum.—Ancient topography of the part of LaConia eastward of the Eurotas.—Pal^a, Geranthr.k, Glympia, Marius, Selinus.—From Mistrsi to Periv6lia. —Tomb of Ladas.—Pellana.—From Perivolia to Bar- bitza.—Belemina.—Source of the Eurotas.—Of the Passes leading into Laconia.—Sciritis.—Ibm.—Eut^ea. —From Barbitza to Tripolitza.—Temple on Mount Bo- Reium.—Of the subterraneous course of the Rivers Al- Pheius and Eurotas.
March 25.—I visit again the castle of Mistra, ride up by the direct road, and in descending pass round the hill, which is quite insulated, and then through the great precipitous opening of the Pandeleimona into the southern part of the town, from which this is the shortest and
VOL. III. B
easiest approach to the castle. Nothing can be finer than the scenery of this descent; the steep rocks of the castle hill, the cultivated terraces of Vlakhokhori and Barseniko, and the rocky torrent rushing between the two precipices, present a variety of beautiful contrasts with the rich and extensive view of the plain of Sparta which is seen through the opening.
The elevated district lying in the hollow contained between the highest summits oSTaygetum and the cliffs bordering the plain of Sparta, is noticed by Pausanias in the following passage", which previously describes the road across the plain from Sparta to the place where the road entered the mountain. " In proceeding from the temple of Neptune Gaeauchus toward Tay- getum, there is a heroum of Lacedaemon, son of Taygete, at a place called Alesiae; beyond which, after having crossed the river Phellia near [or beyond] Amyclaeb, and proceeded in the direction of the seac, occurs Pharis, formerly a Laconic city. But the road to the mountain Taygetum turns from the Phellia to the right, In the plain there is a sacred portion" of Jupiter Messapeus; beyond which is situated Bryseae, near the place where the road issues
Pausan. Lacon. c. 20. d ti^m;. The place was
called Messapew. V. Stephan.
jn Mta-trairitn.
out of Taygetum into the plain. Bryseae was formerly a city*; a temple of Bacchus still remains there, with a statue in the open airb, and another statue in the temple, which the women only who perform the secret rites are permitted to see. The summit of Taygetum, called Taletum, rises above Bryseae ; it is said to be sacred to the sun, to which, among other things, horses are here sacrificed: the same religious custom prevails among the Persians. Not far from Taletum is Evoras, which produces wild goats and other wild animals ; indeed, every part of Taygetum affords a chase of goats and hogs, and, in still greater plenty, of stags and bears. The interval between Taletum and Evoras is called Theraec. Not far from the summits of Taygetum there is a temple of Ceres Eleusinia. Lapithaeum is situated fifteen stades from thence. Derrhium is not far from the latter. Here is a statue of Diana Derrhiatis in the open air, and by it a fountain called Anonus. About twenty stades beyond Derrhium is Harpleia, which borders on the plain." d
Pharis was one of the Homeric cities of La- conia, and Strabo agrees with Pausanias in
Tov Taurf.tw xuf'o»» »»fla «-oXi« « The Hunting Place. Tot! U«-,to Bfuinai. d "AfirX!ia, xaOmo»Ta
Bi^ffaiif T' s»ifwro, &C. — TOJ Ti jiov.
Horn. I1. B. v. 583.
placing it in the plain of Sparta. It appears from the preceding extract to have been to the southward of Amyclae and near the Eurotas, data which fix it with great appearance of probability at Vafi6*, where a remarkable height, similar to that of Aia Kyriaki rises from the right bank of the river. I have been informed, since I passed near the site, that some remains are to be seen there of a subterraneous building, similar to those at Mycenae; a circumstance which is in accordance with that of Pharis having chiefly flourished before the Trojan war. The river now called Takhurti, which joins the Eurotas a little above Vafio, being the most considerable stream in the plain, next to the Tiasa, is probably the Phellia; in this case, the words irapa 'Apvic\as, in Pausanias, must have been intended to signify " beyond Amyclae."
Leaving this river on the left, and proceeding in the direction of the highest summit of Tay- getum, we arrive at the position under the cliffs near Sinan Bey and not far from Sklavokhori, where I found a fountain and a sculptured marble, and which thus corresponds exactly with Brysece, if we suppose the peak of St. Elias to be the ancient Taletum. Of this, I think, there can be little doubt, as it cannot be supposed that any but the highest and most conspicuous of the summits would have been in preference held sacred to the sun, or Apollo, who, we know, delighted in lofty mountainsa. Evoras, a word synonymous with the modern Greek Kaloskopi or the Italian Belvedere, was probably the broader summit, nearer to Mistra, now called Paximadhi. It confirms all these points of comparative geography, that the opening behind Sklavokhori is the natural entrance into the upper Taygetum from the parts of the plain about Amyclce and Pharis; it seems evidently therefore to be the place near Bryseae, where the road issued from the mountain.
As to the situation of the Eleusinium, or as to those of Lapithaeum, Derrhium, and Harpleia, it is impossible to give any opinion without examining that elevated valley in detail, more especially as Pausanias leaves doubtful the direction followed by him from the Eleusinium to Harpleia, whether northward or southward. I am inclined to think it was the former, because the finest part of the Taygetic district lies towards the northern end. In this case, Mistra, which is* the natural exit of the mountain at that extremity, may be the site of Harpleia6.
Homer. Hymn, in Apoll. as to the fine position of
b There is another con- Mistra, namely, that it is the
jecture which may be made site of the Messe of Homer,
VOL. III.
The mountainous part of the Laconice, situated eastward of the Eurotas, contained some inland towns, which are thus described by Pau- sanias *. " Geranthrae is situated inland b, from Acriae, at a distance of 120 stades. In the way thither, there is a town called Pahea. Geranthrae was a city before the Heracleidse came into the Peloponnesus ; after that event the Dorians of Sparta expelled the ancient inhabitants, and sent to Geranthraa a colony oftheir own. It is now a portion of the Eleuthero. Lacones. There is a temple and a grove of Mars, in which an annual festival is held, when women are not permitted to enter the grove. The Agora contains sources of water good for drinking0. In the Acropolis there is a temple of Apollo, containing the head of a statue made of ivory, of which the remaining part was destroyed by fire together with the former temple. Marius, another city of the Eleuthero-Lacones, is distant from Geranthrae one hundred stades. Here is a temple of All the Gods standing in a grove in which there are springs of water; there are sources also in the sanctuary* of Diana : in short, there is no place which more abounds in perennial fountains than Marius. Beyond this city" there is another inland townc, called Glyppia ; to another", named Selinus, there is a road of twenty stades from Geranthrae. Such are the inland places above Acriae."e
whose arrangement of the La- Mistrd are not less productive
conic cities seems to place than those of Mezap6 of the
Messe in the xo';X>j AantSa^ut, wild pigeons, which suggest-
or plain of Sparta, rather than ed to Homer the epithet of
at Messa, now Mezap6, in TroXurpvpun applied by him to
the Messeniac Gulf. The in- Messe. See Vol. I. p. 287. scription with the ethnic M/cr- " Pausan. Lacon. c. 22.
is favourable to such a con- ' irifl riv iyoya./
That Geranthrae was situated towards the plain of Sparta is rendered probable by its having shared the fate of Amyclae and Pharis,
when the ancient Achaian inhabitants of these three places were obliged by the Doric possessors of Sparta* to retire from Laconia. I have already remarked, that there are said to be some remains of Hellenic antiquity at Ieraki or Gheraki, for both modes of writing the name are used, the sounds in modern Greek being almost the same. Gheraki occupies a commanding position on the south-western face of the mountain, in a place abounding in water, and it adjoins the ruins of a town of the lower empire. Its distance of eleven geographical miles in direct distance from the site of Acriae, corresponds exactly with the 120 stades of road distance which Pausanias indicates between the two places. The route thither must have passed through or near Apidhia, which may, therefore, stand on the site of Paleeab. 'lepdieiov existed under that name in the fourteenth century, and appears at that time to have been one of the principal places in Laconia 0.
Of the other towns mentioned in the passage of Pausanias under consideration, Glyppia is the only one concerning the situation of which we derive assistance from any other author; for I take it for granted that it was the same as the town of the Glympens'esa, which I have already had occasion to allude to as the place where Lycurgus, in the second year of the Social War, making a forced march from Sparta, defeated the Messenians, who had moved from Tegea through the Argolis, intending to join Philip to the southward of Sparta b. Glympia was at that time included in the Argive community, together with Prasiae, Cyphanta, and Zarax, whence it may be presumed that it was on the eastern face of the mountains, not far from the coast, on which those three maritime towns were situated. It seems probable, moreover, from the incidents attending the march and defeat of the Messenians, that Glympia was not far from the Cynurian passes leading to Sparta, though not absolutely in the Cy- nuria, as Pausanias does not name Glympia, when treating of Thyrea and the neighbouring towns.—To these circumstances, as leading to the position of Glympia, it may be added, that the object of the Messenians having been that of entering the valley of the Eurotas, not at Sparta, but to the southward of that city, it is probable
* Strabo, p. 365. Pausan. third of his forces at Pleia, for
Lacon- c. 2. 22. the purpose of covering the
b This is evidently the same approaches to Gythium by
place which is named Pleia in land. Liv. 1 35. c. 27- The
the text of Livy, and where historian observes, that Pleia
Philopoemen surprised the was situated above Leucac and
camp of Nabis, who was then Acriae (imminet Leucis et
engaged in the siege of Gy- Acrii.s). t,hiuin, and had stationed a c Pachymer, 1. 1. c. 31.
» r>.fp«-iVf. Chapter IV.
» Polyb. 1. 5. c. 20. See
that they had attained, previously to crossing the mountain, some place to the southward of the Tanus, or pass of Kastanitza, which was the direct road to Sellasia and Sparta. Glympia therefore seems to have been about Prast6 or Lenidhi, more probably at the former, as it is nearer to Sparta; for that the distance of Glympia from that city was not very great, may be inferred from the circumstance of Lycurgus having obtained such speedy information of the arrival of the Messenians at Glympia, and having made that sudden attack upon them which frustrated their expedition.
Polichna was another town which appears, from the same historian, to have stood on the maritime side of the eastern ridge of Laconia. About two years before the time of the transaction just alluded to, Lycurgus invaded the Argeia, to which province the eastern coast then belonged, and took Polichna, Prasiaa, Leucae, and Cyphanta, in the first attack ; but Glympia and Zarax he was unable to make himself master of. Leucae I presume to have been the same as the Leuce mentioned by Strabo, and which I suppose to have stood in the plain of Finiki'; the Argives may have been at that time in the temporary possession of it, in consequence of its proximity to Epidaurus Limera, which was Strabo, p. 363. See Chapter VI.
then one of their towns. Polichna, perhaps, was situated at or near the modern Kunupia.
The situation ofMarius seems to be indicated by the name of Marf, in the road from Gheraki over the mountain to Kremasti, which last stands in a lofty situation above the port of Kypa- rissia. Kato Mari, or Lower Mari, so called to distinguish it from an upper village of the same name, is reckoned four hours from Gheraki and three from Kremasti; and four computed hours answer very well to the hundred stades between Geranthrce and Marius.
It is evident, from the words of Pausanias cited above, that Selinus and Marius were situated in different directions from Geranthrae ; if Marius lay eastward, therefore, Selinus was probably to the northward of Gheraki, on the western face of the mountain. Thus situated, the non-occurrence of its name among the places in the possession of the Argives in the time of the tyrant Lycurgus is perfectly accounted for. In the text of Pausanias the distance of Selinus from Geranthrae is only twenty stades, or about two miles and a half; but as such a proximity is very improbable in a country of no great resources, or where, at least, the towns were widely separated, I am inclined to think there is some mistake in the number of stades, and that the remains of Selinus, if any exist, will be found nearer the middle distance between Gheraki and the position of Sellasia, perhaps about Zaraiona.
March 26.—I leave the southern extremity of Mistra this morning at 9-50, and, descending into the mulberry plantations, ride through them till 10.15, when, crossing the northern branch of the Tiasa, we enter the hills on the other side of it,— soon after cross the Cnacion, Trypi6tiko,—and at 10.45, in an uncultivated valley watered by a little stream, cross the ruins of the aqueduct of Sparta, of which one of the piers is here standing, lofty and well built. From hence we cross the range of hills which, branching from Xerovuni, as the part of the Taygetic range near Longastra is called, slopes gradually till it terminates at the northern extremity of Sparta. At 11 descend into the vale of the Eurotas, about four miles above Sparta. The valley of the Eurotas, which is narrow and appears to be often overflowed, is grown with arabostari. Near the summit of the steep height which rises from the opposite or left bank, stands the village of St. John Theologos, at a distance of three miles on our right. At 11.5, Kladha, a small zevgalati, is below it near the river side. At 11.18 we cross over some low hills, leaving the Eurotas flowing through a gorge on our right; but in ten minutes descend again upon
its right bank, where, at the foot of some steep heights which leave only a narrow path between them and the bank, I find an inscribed marble lying by the road side. Here also are the foundations of a Hellenic wall on the edge of the river's bank, and a little beyond it some marks of the ancient road in a rock at the foot of the hill. Above this spot I perceive a cavern in the rocks with two openings, one of which appears to have been fashioned by art; a little beyond it there is a semicircular sepulchral niche, like those at Delphi and other places. The peasants call the place O-tovs $ovpvovs*. Skura, a small zevgalati and tower, stands on the heights on the opposite side of the river. Having halted here ten minutes, we continue to follow the narrow vale of the Eurotas, the road passing upon the foot of the hills which border the western side of the valley, till, at 12.50, we make our meridian halt on the river's bank, at a spot where the ravine opens into an extensive valley. Low rocky eminences here descend to the water; on the opposite side, the foot of a rugged mountain, crowned by two peaked rocks, on each of which stands a chapel, is separated only from the river by a narrow grassy level; where the bank of the river for the length of 200 yards is supported by a Hellenic wall : there remain three or four courses of an irregular species of masonry, nearly approaching to the second order. On the farther side of the meadow some very copious sources issue from the foot of the rocks, and form a stream which joins the river at the southern end of the meadow, where the wall ends. The wall seems to intimate the site of the ancient Pellana, where Pausanias* notices only a temple of ^Esculapius and two fountains", Pellanis and Lanceiac.
a The Ovens.
It may be worth while to trace the route of the Greek traveller all the way hither from Sparta. " Near the walls of that city," he says, " on the road into Arcadia, are a statue of Minerva Pareia, in the open air, and near it a temple of Achilles. Between these and the statue of'^Edo, [Modesty,] which is thirty stades distant from the city, stands the monument of the Horsed, a little beyond which are seven columns, symbolical of the seven planets,—then the temenus of Cranius Stemmatias d,—and the temple of Diana Mysia. The statue of yEdo is said to have been dedicated by Icarius, father-in-law of Ulysses. When Ulysses had set out from Sparta with his bride, Icarius followed his car to this place, entreating his daughter to return and live with him. Ulysses stopped and gave his bride her choice: she replied only by throwing her veil over her face, which Icarius taking for a negative returned to Sparta. Twenty stades farther, the tomb of Ladas is above the road, which here passes very near to the river Eu- rotas. Proceeding towards Pellana occurs the place called Characoma, and then Pellana, formerly a city. One hundred stades beyond the latter is Belemina. There is no place in Laconia more abundantly supplied with water; for besides the Eurotas, which flows near it, Belemina contains perennial fountains."
a Pnusan. Lacon. c. 20, 21. ficed a horse and administered '' -,;,;/.,. an oath of alliance to the c Aay«.ua. suitors of Helene. d 'linsov p»r,pa. Tyndarcus J Apollo Carneius crown- was said to have here sacri- ed ?
The tomb of Ladas having been distant fifty stades from Sparta, at a place where the road touched the bank of the Eurotas, corresponds, both in description and in position, to the pass at 11.28, where I observed marks of the ancient road in the rock, and above it a cavern and sepulchral niche. The latter is probably the tomb of Ladas, for Pausanias describes it as being above the road'. Unfortunately, he does not inform us at what distance beyond this point Pellana stood, nor on which bank of the river. It may be thought, perhaps, that his silence on this head is an argument that it was on the same bank on which he had described the preceding objects, namely, the right; but on the other hand, he does not state on which bank stood Belemina, the next place named by him after Pellana, though it was certainly on the left. In the absence of better authority, I think that the Hellenic wall on the left bank, and the fountains answering to those which he mentions, are strong presumptions that Pellana occupied that position.
At 1.37 we move again :—our road now enters an open country, varied with small hills, which are connected with the last slopes of the range of Xerovuni. We leave the river considerably on the right, flowing near the foot of the heights which inclose the valley to the eastward, and on the side of which, at 1.47, Kouid- hitza * is two miles to the right, in direct distance. At 1.55, cross a large stream, flowing to the Eurotas from the mountain on the left. Here Demiro, a small village, is one mile and a half on the left, in the plain, and Kastri three miles distant in the same direction, on the side of the mountain. The tributary of the Eurotas descends from a rocky gorge, halfway between Kastri and Ghiorghitza, which last is situated on the face of an advanced height of the range of Taygetum, in a very steep and lofty situation. The highest summit of this part of the range is called Korakolithi (Crow-stone), or Malevo, from the Slavonic Male, mountain.
Ghiorghitza is a large Greek village, standing among many gardens and cultivated terraces. At the foot of the same height is situated Peri- volia, inhabited by Turks, and about six Greek families; there is a mosk, and the houses are prettily dispersed amidst large groves of the mulberry and olive. Here we arrive at 2.15, having travelled half an hour after turning out of the direct road to the left. The passage of Mount Korakolithi is not difficult from the villages along its eastern face to those situated in the upper valleys of the river Nedon, which joins the sea at Kala- mata. The best route in this season, and whenever there is snow, is from Kastania to Tzitzova, a distance of three hours : the former is situated behind Kastri, the latter is among olive woods, on the opposite slope of the mountain, three hours distant from Kalamata.. Trypi, Bordh6nia, and Kastritzi, Kastri, situated on the eastern face of Korakolithi, are all mentioned by Phran- za, as having resisted and been taken by Mahomet the Second, in 1460, after he had occupied Mistra. He then proceeded against Lon-
dari and Gardhiki. The annexed is a sketch of the position of the villages on the Messenian side, which I made last year, from the description of my janissary Amus.
JBortffionia
w-
S
o Jfiffra
(Evoras )
Get.
March 27. At 8.30 we move from Periv61ia through the mulberry grounds, with which the village is surrounded for a great distance, and proceed obliquely, to regain the main route. At 9.4, a little beyond a small kalyvia of Ghi- orghitza, pass a fine Kefalo-vrysi, or source of water, issuing from the foot of the rocks, and running rapidly down towards theEurotas, which is here called Iri. Behind this kalyvia there are some remains of the walls of a Hellenic city,
probably those of ^Egys. The entire valley I conceive to have formed the Laconic Tripolis, which bordered on the Megalopolitis *, and of which one of the cities was Pellanab. The other two were probably -#2gys and Belemina. We enter some low hills, among which are plantations of mulberry trees, belonging to Ghior- ghitza. At 9.30 cross another tributary of the Eurotas. At 9.42 pass another copious Kefal6-vrysi, where are some ancient squared blocks, and a small piece of foundation in its place, on the edge of the spring; here are the ruins of a khan. We now begin to ascend some rocky heights, and, having attained the summit, cross a stony plain, and then pass over steep hills of no great height, covered with shrubs. The Eurotas is concealed at some distance to the right in a deep glen, between the two ranges of hills which before inclosed a broad valley, but are now separated only by the river. Those on the eastern side form, as I conceive, the district anciently called Sciritis. K61ina, which is situated among them, may be the site of Ium, or the town of the Iatae, mentioned by Xenophon0. At 10.35, on a summit which rises from the right bank of the river, we arrive at a Derveni- house in ruins, and descend into a narrow val-
Liv. 1. 35. c. 27- c Xenoph. Hellen. 1. 6. c. 5.
" Polyb. 1. 4. c. 81.
C«
ley, watered by a stream from the mountains on our left, where, on the slope, in a situation similar to that of Ghiorghitza and Kastri, is Longaniko, another large Greek village. The part of the Taygetic range above it is well wooded with oak on the middle slopes, and with fir towards the summit. The lower parts are covered with plantations of the vine and mulberry, belonging to Longaniko and Petrina. We descend along the right' bank of the aforesaid stream, and at 10.50 cross it a little above its junction with the Eurotas, which now flows along the western side of Mount Khelmos, in a small valley grown with jnulberries, belonging to Longaniko. Below its junction with the Longaniko stream, the Eurotas turns to the southeast. In the gorge on the left bank of the river, on the foot of Khelm6s, I see Ai Irini * a me- tokhi of the monastery of Saint Nicholas, behind which, as I was informed at Tripolitza by Kyr Ianataki, who is a native of Ghiorghitza, there are some Hellenic ruins; it is said also, that there are vestiges of a Hellenic fortress on the summit of Khelmos, probably part of the same ancient city. Though I cannot perceive any of these remains of antiquity, I have no doubt of the correctness of the information, or that the ruins are those of Belemina; the distance we have travelled from the remains of Pellana agreeing very well with the 100 stades which Fausanias places between the two towns.
Khelmos* is a beautiful round hill, covered above with groves of oak, prinari, wild olive, and a variety of shrubs, and adorned below with some open lawns of pasture, mixed with cultivated ground.
It is said that Captain Nicetas and the only remaining body of the Kleftes, amounting to forty, (a favourite number, and meaning little more than the English word " several",) came the other day to the village of Petrina, and received bread from one of the inhabitants, who, in course, was obliged to join them, or at least to fly, as his head, by the Pasha's order, was by this action forfeited. The thieves went afterwards into the mountain on the west of Londari, where they were attacked by their pursuers, and two or three persons were killed in the action. They have since retired to Mani, and are followed by a body of the Pasha's men, and about 400 armed Greeks from the vilayeti of Londari.
After losing eight minutes, we pass up the valley of the Eurotas, and cross that river at 11.18, a little below a spot where it receives two other streams, one flowing from the part of the mountain between Longaniko and Petrina, another from the northward, from the hills which connect the mountains Khelmos and Tzimbaru*. The junction of these three streams I conceive to have been the position of the Her- m£Eum, near Belcmina, which marked the boundary of Laconia towards the Megalopolitis, as the Herma; on Mount Parnon marked its limits on the side of the Tegeatis and Argeia; for Pausanias describes the former Hermaeum as being "near Belemina "b, and adds that the Arcadians pretended that Belemina had once belonged to them, a circumstance which, no less than the former expression, tends to shew that the Hermaeum was not far from that city. The principal branch of the Eurotas, or that which we crossed, comes from the eastward, down a valley on the northern side of Mount Khelmos. We enter this valley, and soon after, re-crossing the river, halt at 11.38 at a mill, five minutes above which, a stream of water issues from the foot of the rocky mountain on the northern side of the valley. This is the main source of the Iri, or Eurotas. It is immediately joined by a rivulet, from the head of the valley to the eastward, which in summer is very scanty, if not entirely dry. Two miles on this side of Londari is the source of the Kutufarina stream, the most distant south-eastern tributary of the Alpheius ; in summer it is dry, and even at the source water can only be had by sinking jars in
the ground, which, after some time, become filled. The most distant south-western tributary of the Alpheius, as I have before stated, rises at the village of Ghianeus, or Ianeus*, two hours above Londari, in the mountain which lies between.the summits Makryplai and Korakolithi. The river of Ghianeus, joined by some smaller streams, flows through a valley, included between Makryplai and the mountain above Londari, leaves Londari on the right, and joins the other branches of the Alpheius in the plain before that town. I found a man of Ghianeus at the mill near the sources of the Eurotas, who told me that the springs of Ghianeus are very copious, and that they do not fail in summer. This man had fled from his village on account of the excesses committed by the Turks who are in pursuit of the thieves. I have already had occasion to remark, that the river of Ghianeus is probably the Gatheates, and the Kutu- farina the Theius.
Quitting the mill at 12.23, we once more cross the Eurotas, and, leaving the great sources at the foot of the northern mountain, follow the left bank of the torrent or smaller stream from the eastward, until, having again crossed it, we leave it issuing from a narrow vale on the right, and ascend the hills which connect Khelm6s with Tzimbaru. At the village of Kutzinub, where, among many ruins, are a few inhabited huts, we leave the road to Gardhiki on the left, and follow the summits of the heights until we pass over a part of the rocky ridge of Mount Tzimbaru, and see, two miles on the right, the large monastery of Ai Nikola*, not far from the village of Kaltezia. After winding among the rocky heights, and passing over a small elevated plain, we begin to descend towards the plain which extends to Frang6-vrysi.—At 2.48 enter the plain near the small hamlet of Kotrobutzia : this remains a quarter of a mile on the right, and the village of Papari, at the foot of Mount Tzimbaru, a mile on the left,—then crossing the plain so as to leave the marsh which is at the foot of Mount Tzimbaru a mile on the left, we enter some low hills on the opposite side of the plain towards the mountains of the Tegeatis; and in a hollow among steeper heights arrive, at 3£, at the tjiftlik of Barbitza, composed of a few miserable huts with two Turkish pyrghi. In one of these I procure a very tolerable lodging, and not an unwelcome one, as the rain has fallen at intervals all day, with fog and cold, a common condition of the Arcadian climate at this season. The pace of our agoyatic horses yesterday and to-day has been much less than the ordinary pace of my horse.
On quitting Laconia, and especially on quitting it by one of its northern passes, one cannot help reflecting how much the former destiny of this province of Greece, like that of most other countries, depended upon its geographical structure and position. Those natural barriers which marked the limits of the several states of ancient Greece, and which were the real origin of the division of that country into many small independent states, from whence arose all the good and bad effects resulting from the consequent spirit of jealousy and rivalship, are no where more remarkable than in the Laconice. The rugged sea-coast, which forms three-fourths of its outline, combined with the steepness, height, and continuity of the mountains on the land side, gave it that security from hostile invasion which Euripides* characterized by the words oiiac/fj/j'/Xoy Trn\(fi.lois, and which made even Epaminondas, after the battle of Leuctra, hesitate to invade it, although urged by the Arcadians, the men best able to shew how, the difficulties were to be surmountedb. It is to the strength of the frontiers and the comparatively large extent of country inclosed within them, that we must trace the primary cause of the
* Ap. Strabon. p. .366. Oi irifl tai 'Eirafi.ni!»3ai fyuinis
b Oi @r£aroi Jixoioi Lj.h Towtx, W tu' AaxiJaip»»iu» X"fa» $vv
oirTcX%yi'£o»To 5\ or* oucrI^xfeaXiu- IiaWoXo» 'vfoii, DiOuor. 1. I.I.
TO.11 ri Aaxvnr.ri i\fyn(, ii»ai. t- (J3.
Xenuph. Hcllen. 1. 5. c. 5.
Lacedaemonian power. These enabled the people, when strengthened by a rigid military discipline, and put in motion by an ambitious and exclusive spirit, first to triumph over their weaker neighbours of Messenia, by this additional strength to overawe the disunited republics of Arcadia, and at length for centuries to hold an acknowledged military superiority over every other state in Greece.
It is remarkable, that all the principal passes into Laconia lead to one point. This point is Sparta, a fact which shews at once how well the position of that city was chosen for the defence of the province, and how well it was adapted, especially as long as it continued to be un- walled, to maintain a perpetual vigilance and readiness for defence, which are the surest means of offensive success.
The natural openings into the plain of Sparta are only two: one by the upper Eurotas, as the course of that river above Sparta may be termed, the other by its only large branch the CEnus, now the Kelefina, which, as I have already stated, joins the Eurotas opposite to the north-eastern extremity of Sparta. All the natural approaches to Sparta from the northward lead to the one or the other of these two valleys. On the side of Messenia the northerly prolongation of Mount Taygetum, which joins Mount Lyceeum at the
pass of Andania, now the pass of Makryplai, furnishes a continued barrier of the loftiest kind, admitting only of routes easily defensible, and which, whether from the Cromitis of Arcadia to the south-westward of the modern Londari, from the Stenycleric plain, from the plain of the Pamisus, or from Pharae, now Kalamata, all descend into the valley of the upper Eurotas, and conduct to Sparta by Pellana. There was indeed a branch of the last-mentioned route which descended into the Spartan plain at the modern Mistra; and which must have been a very frequented communication between Sparta and the lower part of Messenia ; but, like the other direct passes over Taygetum, it was much more difficult and defensible than those which I have called the natural entrances of the province. The castle of Mistra is an admirable post for the protection of this entrance into the Lacedaemonian valley, though we hear nothing of it in history, probably because the military ascendancy of the Spartans seldom left them any thing to fear on the side of Messenia.
From the south-eastern branch of the plain of Megalopolis, which is watered by the Theius, as well as from the vale of Asea, the routes passed by the foot of Mount Belemina, which thus became an important frontier fortress in that quarter ; after having passed Belemina,
the road led, like those from the Cromitis and from Messenia, to the pass of Pellana. Towards the Tegeatice and Thyreatis, the routes after crossing, in the former direction the rugged and barren country which unites Mount Parnon with the hills bordering the left bank of the upper Eurotas, and in the latter the steep and lofty recesses of Parnon, united on the CEnus near Sellasia. Thus Sellasia was an outwork of Sparta towards the Tegeatis and Argolis, Pellana towards the Megalopolitis and Messenia.
There was an important district in the northern part of Laconia which Pausanias has not noticed, although it gave name to one of the most distinguished bodies of the Lacedaemonian army, and was an important part of the Laconic frontier on the side of Arcadia; its name was Sciritis *. It consisted of the rugged and barren hills rising in one point to a considerable height, which occupy the triangular space contained between the upper Eurotas westward and the passes eastward, through which leads the direct road from Tegea to Sparta by the modern Krya Vrysi, Stenuri, and Krevata Khan, the apex of the triangle being near Sparta and the base towards the valleys of Asea and Tegea.
» Thucyd. 1. 5. c. 33, 67. HelJen. 1. 5. c. 2.—1. 6. c. 5. —Xen. Inst. Cyr. 1. 4. c. 2. —L 7. c. 4.
Diodorus *, in describing the celebrated invasion of Laconia by Epaminondas, when Sparta was insulted for the first time by the presence of a foreign enemy, says, that the invaders divided their army into four bodies, which were ordered to march by four different routes and to meet at Sellasia; the Argives by the direct road from Argos to that place, that is to say, through the Thyreatis ; the second by the passes leading from Tegea to Sparta, or the modern road by the Krya Vrysi and Stenuri of Arakhova; the third by Sciritis; and the fourth, consisting of the Eleians, by valleys of easy access which had been left without defence. The historian omits to specify more particularly the route of the Eleians; but as the direct road from Elis to Sparta ascended the valley of the Al- pheius near Olympia to the sources of its branch the Theius, and from thence descended the Eurotas; as this was the only principal entrance into the Laconice remaining to be named by the historian; and as it is naturally the easiest, and would present little difficulty when not defended at Belemina and Pellana, it seems evidently to have been the route of the Eleians. The Sciritis, we may safely conclude therefore, was the rugged district which I have men-
a Diodor. 1. 15. c. 64. ;
tioned; a conspicuous hill, its highest point, ' which I have before ,had occasion to remark as being near the modern village of Kolina, seems the most probable site of the fortress Ium, which Xenophon, in relating the same events, shews to have been the most important place in Sciritis. The latter historian is less particular than Diodorus in the details of this famous invasion, though the same inference in regard to Sciritis may be deduced from the one as from the other. Xenophon speaks only of one body, separate from the army of the Thebans and their allies, namely, that of the Arcadians, who, he tells us, marched into Laconia by the Sciritis : he makes no mention of the two routes by which the Argives and the Eleians are said, by Diodorus, to have invaded the country; but, having stated that the Thebans had arrived at Mantineia previously to their movement towards Sparta, adds that they entered Laconice by the way of Caryae ; that the Lacedaemonians in Sciritis would have opposed the invaders more effectually by occupying the passes leading to Caryae than by defending the Sciritis; and that the two divisions of the invading army, having met at Caryae, proceeded from thence to take and destroy Sellasia. In saying that the Arcadians who marched through the Sciritis joined the Boaotians from the Tegeatice at Caryae, he seems to me not only to concur with the other authorities as to the situation of the Sciritis, but to confirm also what has already been stated as to the relative positions of Caryae and Sel- lasia.
March 28. The waters in the valley of Bar- bitza make a circuit of the heights, and flow into the valto or marsh which occupies the middle of the plain, and extends to the foot of Mount Tzimbaru. I ride this morning, in a quarter of an hour, from Barbitza to Paputzi*, another tjiftlik with a pyrgo, belonging to an aga of Tripolitza, but smaller than Barbitza. In both places I purchase several good coins from the peasants. I was told at Paputzi that Barbitza was the site of a large Pale6-khora, or ancient town, and the form of the hills above it, with flat rocky summits, countenances the supposition, though I could not perceive any remains of buildings. As to the coins, it was stated that the greater part had been found not at Barbitza, but in the fields near Frang6-vrysi. The tradition as to Barbitza however, is not to be overlooked, when coupled with the strong probability of this having been the position of the town, which possessed the south-eastern side of the basin, of which the northern part belonged to Asea. I am inclined to place the ancient Eutrca at Barbitza. That
Eutaea could not have been at any great distance from this situation, seems evident from Xeno- phon *. When the Mantinenses, taking advantage of the effects of the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, were rebuilding their walls, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, having in vain endeavoured to persuade them to desist, and irritated moreover at the assistance which they were giving at the same moment to the party opposed to the interests of Sparta at Tegea, marched into the Mantinice, at the head of his Lacedaemonians, in conjunction with some Arcadians who had not joined the Arcadic league, formed after the battle of Leuctra. Agesilaus, marching from Sparta, first took possession of Kutivu, a town on the frontier b; here he learnt that all the combatants of the place had gone to A sea, to join the other Arcadians, who were there assembling, for the purpose of assisting the Mantinenses. The next day he marched to Tegea, and on the following, entering the Mantinice, assumed a position under the mountains, to the westward of Mantineia. The Arcadians from Asea followed the same route, and joined the Mantinenses, Agesilaus not having thought it prudent to interrupt them. After remaining five days in the Mantinice, Agesilaus, finding that the enemy were determined not to
* Xenoph. Hellen. 1. 6. c. 5. b 7n>A.i> S^ofov.
engage, began early on the morning of the sixth, after breakfast1, to draw off his army from his position in the plain before the city, to that which he had assumed -on his first arrival; when, none of the Arcadians appearing, he proceeded with all speed to Eutsea, where he arrived late at night". It is clear that Age- silaus, in advancing from Sparta, on this occasion, did not follow the direct road to Te- gea, by Phylace, none of the known places on that road being mentioned by the historian; he must therefore have passed the Laconic frontier, either in the Beleminatis or Sciritis, in either case entering the basin which lies to the northward and eastward of Mount Tzim- baru. Eutaea consequently stood in this valley, not far from the Laconic frontier, and not far also from Asea, as appears both from the circumstance concerning its combatants mentioned by the historian, and from Eutaea having been included with Asea in the division of Arcadia called Maenalia c. The position of Bar- bitza is exactly conformable to these premises ; and its distance from Mantineia, which is about twenty-two English miles by the road, corresponds perfectly with the circumstances of the retreat of Agesilaus.
* T»«ii a^Krrviroirivyfj.cft<. e Pausan. Aroul. C. 2J- b xaivif u ji-'t.-i o4/.^u>. VOL. III. O
,1 leave Paputzi at 8, and proceeding among the low heights which are the termination of'the mountains on the east, soon perceive the Paleo-kastro of Frangovrysi through an opening in these hills. Leaving the fountain and khan of Frang6vrysi about a mile on the left, and taking a road to the right of that by which I approached Tri- politza last year, we continue to skirt the hills on the eastern side of the valley, until we ascend them, after having halted five minutes in the plain. At 9-7 arrive at the summit of the pass of Mount Kravari, from whence the road begins to descend towards the plains of Pallantium and Tegea. The pass is a natural opening in the rocky heights of the mountain. Just in this spot, by the road side, I find the ruins of a temple, of which the foundations still remain, together with several fragments of Doric columns, formed of the same rock as the mountain itself. Some of the flutings measure three inches and two-thirds, some four inches. Of the diameter of the column I could not obtain a good measurement. There cannot, I think, be any doubt that these are remains of the temple said to have been dedicated by Ulysses to Minerva Soteira and Neptune, after his return home from Troy; for Pau- sanias describes it as situated on the summit of Mount Boreium, in the road from Asea to the Choma, or Dyke, where the road to Pallantium diverged from that of Tegea. Even without the existence of the temple, the natural pass would be sufficient to assure us that the ancient road crossed the mountain exactly in this spot. The description of Pausanias seems to shew, that the temple was nearly in the same condition in his time as it is now: the secluded situation, which has been little frequented as a road since Tripolitza became the chief town in this part of the Morea, has probably tended to preserve the remains.
At 9.18 descend from the temple of Soteira, through a ravine of Mount Boreium, into a part of the plain of Pallantium, about a mile to the left of the Katavothra of the Taki, and over against the village of Birbati, which stands on the side of the rocky ridge of Thana. In the descent I left another ravine on the right at 9J-, along which ascends the road to Manari, a small village, not far distant. On the opposite side of the Taki, on the face of the mountain, appears the large village of Kerasia. After crossing the plain of Pallantium we mount the heights of Thana, and at 10.25, leaving that village half a mile on the right, on the summit of the ridge, descend into the great plain, and enter Tripolitza by the Mistra Gate. The plain was very muddy and rugged, and the paved road over it execrable. It is said that many ancient coins are found at Thana; if this be correct, it seems to indicate that it was the site of Pallantium.
The head of Nicetas is brought in to-day, and exhibited at the tree at the Serai, with another head, and an arm. They belonged to some robbers who were lately killed at the mills behind Kalamata, when others, to the number of twenty, escaped to Mani; a servant of Nicetas was brought in alive.
It would require a minute examination of the locality in different seasons of the year, either to verify or to contradict, with certainty, the description which Strabo and Pausanias have given of the singularities attending the origin and incipient course of the rivers Alpheius andEurotas; I regret extremely, therefore, that I have had no opportunity of examining the plains of Aseaand Tegea in the middle of summer, when the direction of the waters through the marshes, and the structure of the katav6thra might have been apparent; I have little doubt, however, that a part of the ancient belief respecting these rivers was erroneous. Strabo * says, " The Alpheius and Eurotas flow from the same place ; it is a town b of the Megalopolitis, called Asea, where are two fountains near each other : from these
Strabo, p. 343.
issue the two rivers, which, passing underground for a distance of several stades, re-appear again, and flow, the one to the Laconice, the other to the Pisatis. The Eurotas renews its stream at the beginning of the Bleminatis, passes by Sparta, and then through a long narrow valley, towards that Helos of which the poet speaks ; it there falls into the sea, between Gythium, which is the port of Sparta, and Acriae. The Alpheitis, after receiving the Ladon and Erymanthus, and others of smaller note, passes by Phrixa, and through the Pisatis and Triphylia, and by Olym- pia, and falls into the Sicilian sea, between Pheia and Pitane V
The words of Pausaniasb are these, "The Alpheius is of a very different nature from other rivers, for it often conceals itself in the earth, and rises again. First of all, flowing from Phy- lace and the Symbola, it descends under ground to the Tegeatic plain c j then, breaking forth again in the Asaea, it mixes its waters with those of the Eurotas. After having been again concealed by a subterraneous channel, it once more emerges in the place which the
An error perhaps for Epi- some imperfection or omission
here in the text, for the b Pausan. Arcad. c. 54. words do not correctly de- c if T» iriJio» xariSv To Ttyi- scribe the reality. There is, perhaps,
Arcadians call Pegae % [the Fountains] : from thence, passing through the Pisaean land, and by Olympia, it joins the sea towards" Cyl- lene, the port of the Eleii. Nor does the agitation of the Adriatic impede its course, but flowing through this great and tempestuous sea, it reaches the island Ortygia, and preserving its name Alpheius, is there mixed with the fountain Arethusa." In describing the road from Megalopolis to Tegea c the same traveller thus again speaks of the head of this river: "The source of the Alpheius is not more than five stades distant from Asea, and is not far from the road d: that of the Eurotas is by the road-side e. The water of the Eurotas mixes with that of the Alpheius, and they flow together in a common channel for nearly twenty stades, after which they pass through a subterraneous chasm, and emerge again, the Eurotas in the Laconice, the Alpheius at the fountains f in the Megalopolitis."
It is singular that Pausanias, who delighted so much in Greek superstition, has not taken any notice of a fable, relating to the common origin of the two rivers, which is reported by Strabo ; namely, that if two chaplets, dedicated to the Alpheius and Eurotas, were thrown into the stream near Asea, each would re-appear at the sources of the river to which it was destined'. Though Strabo evidently disbelieved this story, it accords exactly with the assertion of Pausanias, as to the union of the waters from the two fountains, and their course in a common channel. It accords also with the actual state of the two sources at Frang6vrysi, (in truth there are three,) which form a single stream below the ruins of Asea, crossing a plain of two miles in breadth, and turning some mills, before the river joins the marsh. To call one of the branches of the united stream the Eurotas, and the other the Alpheius, was a mere effect of the Grecian love of fiction j but the assertion contained in the latter of the two passages of Pausanias may be more worthy of examination, namely, that, after entering a chasm, the two streams separated in the body of the mountain, one making its appearance in the Laconice, (near Belemina, according to Strabo,) the other at the Pegae of the Megalopolitis. To me it appeared that there is (as Pausanias indicates) only one chasm or katav6thra at the eastern foot of Mount Tzimbaru, although on the opposite side of the mountain there are two copious sources, which have the appearance of emissories, one contributing largely to the Alpheius, the other still more so to the Eurotas,—the former, which is at Marmara, near Rhapsomati, is evidently the ancient Pegse, the latter, which is at the mill to the northward of Mount Khelmos, may be not improperly called the source of the Eurotas. It certainly is possible that the united waters from the valleys which contain Papari, Barbitza, and Frang6vrysi, although they enter the katav6thra of Tzimbaru in one stream, may separate into two in the body of the mountain ; but before credence can be given to such a singularity in the origin of two large rivers, flowing afterwards in opposite directions, it would be desirable to examine the foot of the mountain near the katav6thra, in the middle of summer, when the lake is very low, in order to be satisfied that there are not two chasms, one absorbing the streams from the hills around Barbitza, the other those from Frangovrysi. Such an examination cannot be, and never could have been, a very easy task, nor, if two zerethra exist, could the fact have been very generally known to the ancient Greeks, so that a fable, as in so many other similar instances, might have been easily propagated upon the subject by the hierarchy. I must repeat, however, that I could not discover any external appearance of two openings, although such caverns or chasms are generally very conspicuous, and easily recognized at a distance. Polybius, a native writer, and one who was not so likely to be led astray by fable as Pausanias, seems not to have had any idea of the Eurotas having passed through Mount Tzimbaru, but only the Alpheius. In criticising an historian of Rhodes, who had misrepresented the position of Lycoa, Polybius says that the Alpheius had a subterraneous course of ten stades, that, re-appearing, it then crossed the Megalopolitan territory, a distance of 200 stades, and that after having received the Lusius it flowed by Lycoa*, where it was deep and impassable b.
nivai more pro- d ,, ,,».«.
, ' oA*yo» oitro .pk ooov.
' D y- ' ira" aii-r,n rr,i aSo».
b »*if- ' Pauiutn. A read. c. 44.
As to the torrent of Gdhani, which, issuing from the north-western extremity of the marsh, passes through a gorge in the ridge of Tzimbaru, and joins the stream of Pegce in the Megalo- politis near Rhapsomati, I was convinced, both by inquiries and actual inspection, that it had very little connection with the discharge of the perennial fountains of Frangovrysi, being nothing more than a torrent which is dry during a great part of the year, and carries off only the superficial waters of the lake when they are at the highest, being a bountiful provision of nature to prevent the whole plain from being submerged in the winter. Without denying that there are great singularities in the two rivers, the simple fact seems to be, that the highest and most distant sources, both of the Alpheius and Eurotas, are on the western face of the same great summit, anciently called Parnon, and now Malevo of St. Peter's, not far from the villages of V6rvena and Arakhova. The Alpheius rises from several rivulets near the former place, receives at the Symbola the source of Krya Vrysi, (called by Pausanias the source of the Alpheius,) and under the modern name of Sa- randap6tamo flows to a katavothra on the southern side of Mount Cresium. It is probable that the spring to the eastward of Frang6vrysi, which was the reputed source of the Alpheius, is the emissory of the Saranda; that the spring at the khan of Frangovrysi, or reputed source of the Eurotas, is the emissory of the stream of the Taki; and that the united river formed by these, together with a third rivulet from under the walls of Asea, which probably had a more western origin, having passed through Mount Tzimbaru, reappears at Marmara.
* Not Lycoa, but Lycaea, Chapter XVIII. if I am right in my remarks b racrsXuf a£aT°,- xai £a^s as to those two places. See (Ca6i;- ?) I'olyb. 1. 16. c. 17-
In the neighbourhood of Arakhova, on the
face of the same great ridge which gives rise to the most distant south-eastern tributary of the Alpheius, is formed the northern feeder of the CEnus, or principal branch of the Eurotas, while the waters near the Stenuri of Arakhova, on the modern Derveni from Tripolitza to Mistra, taking a western direction, constitute the stream which unites with the great source of the Eurotas at the mill in the valley of Khelm6s. As to that source, I am not aware of any stream of which it can be the emissory, unless, as I have already hinted, it should be found to be derived from the waters about Barbitza, entering a separate katavothra in the same plain, or unless the singularity of a separation of the river of Asea in the body of the mountain, as believed by the ancients, should prove to be true. The interesting inquiry therefore for future travellers will be the origin of the sources at the mill near Khelm6s, the direction of the waters around Barbitza, and the conformation of the katavothra of Mount Tzimbaru.
CHAPTER XXIV.
ARCADIA.
Military importance of Mantineia.—Approaches to the Mantinice from the Isthmus.—Roads from Argos to Mantineia.—The Inert plain—Course of the waters in the Mantinice and Tegeatis.—Ancient military occurrences in the Mantinice ; particularly the three battles : namely, 1. In the Peloponnesian war, between the Argives and the Lacedaemonians under Agis.—2. That in which the Boeotians under Epaminondas were opposed to the Lacedaemonians and Athenians.—3. Between the forces of the Achaian league under Philopoemen and the Lacedaemonians under Machanidas.
There is no district in Greece which more frequently presents itself to notice in ancient history than the plain of Tripolitza. Placed on the frontier of Arcadia towards the Isthmus of Corinth, defended on that side by strong passes, and occupied by the two leading cities of the province, it was by these circumstances the chief cause and support of the union, independence, and tranquillity which Arcadia continued to enjoy until Athens, Thebes, and Sparta having become so powerful as to involve all Greece in their quarrels, the rivalry of Tegea and Man- tineia, which may have been of salutary effect in the earlier and better times of the confederacy, tended only to the admission of foreign influence and the ruin of all the smaller towns of Arcadia.
The plain of Tripolitza is by far the greatest of that cluster of valleys in the center of the Peloponnesus, each of which is so closely shut in by the intersecting mountains, that no outlet is afforded to the waters but through the mountains themselves. Of these valleys, which comprehended the districts of Stymphalus, Pheneus, Alea, Asea, Eutaea, Pallantium, Tegea, Manti- neia, Orchomenus, and Caphyae, those of the five cities last mentioned may be considered in a military sense to have formed one and the same plain, the Orchomenia being separated from the Mantinice only by a low narrow ridge. This great interior valley is about twenty-five English miles in length from Caphyae northward to Mount Cresium of the Tegeatis southward, with a breadth varying from one mile to eight. In the middle of its length, and in one of the narrowest parts as to breadth, stood the city of Mantineia in the lowest part of the plain, a position which shews at once the importance of the Mantinice and why this district was so often the scene of great military operations.
There are three lines of access from the Argolis into the Mantinico-Tegeatic plain, which, although they all traverse steep and lofty ridges, yet presenting less difficulty than any other paths that can be chosen, have in all ages been the roads into that great interior basin. The only other approaches to Mantineia from the Isthmus were by Orneae and Orchomenus; neither of these was less difficult than the roads from the Argeia, and the latter was very circuitous. The three roads from Argos are thus described by Pausanias*.
" Besides that entrance into Arcadia from the Argeia, which leads from Hysiae, over the mountain Parthenium, into the Tegeatice, there are two roads which conduct to Mantineia, one by Prinus and the other by Climax b. Of these two the latter is the wider, and takes its name from steps which were formerly cut in the descent 0. After having passed the Climax there is a place called Melangeiad, from whence water for drinking descends into the city of the Man- tinenses. Beyond Melangeia, seven statIcs distant from the city, is the fountain of the Me- liastae, who perform the orgies of Bacchus; at the fountain there is a temple of Bacchus and another of Venus, surnamed Melanis. The road Prinus is narrower than the former, and leads through Artemisium, concerning which mountain I have already remarked *, that it contains a temple and statue of Diana, and the fountains of the Inachus ; the water, as it passes along the road, is the boundary between the Argives and Man- tinenses, but after turning away from the road it flows entirely through the Argeia, whence it is called an Argive river by vEschylus and others. Having crossed the Artemisium, a plain of the Mantinenses will receive you, which is justly called 'Apyov [the Inert plainJ, for the rain-water which falls from the mountains causes it to remain uncultivatedb, and would even make it a lake, did not the water disappear in a chasm of the earth, after passing through which, it comes forth again at Deine, towards the place called Genethlium of Argolis, where fresh water rises in the sea. The Mantinenses have & mountain on the left of the inert plain, where are vestiges of the village of Nestane and of the camp of Philip, (son of Amyntas,) for they say that Philip encamped at this Nestane, and from him they name the neighbouring fountain Philippium. Beyond the ruins of Nestane there is a much venerated temple of Ceres, where the
* Pausan. Arcad. c. 6, 7, 8. called because the road led
b Six. rifi'»ov xaXoiipi»if xai through a forest, or grove, of
Sia KAilicaxos. the holly-leaved ilex. c Prinus was probably so
*. Pausan. 1. 2. c. 25. See Chapter XX.
Mantinenses hold a yearly festival; below Nes- tane is the field of Maera", which is a part of the inert plain ; from thence extends, for a distance often stades, the opening which leads out of the inert plain. Proceeding a little farther you will descend into another plain, where, near the road side, is the fountain called Arne. From this place the city of the Mantinenses is about two (or twelve) stadesb distant."
Besides the two approaches to Mantineia from the Climax and Prinus, Pausanias describes six other roads which led from that city, namely, 1. the direct road to Tegea. 2. A branch to the left of it, quitting the former at the temple of Neptune, distant seven stades from the city. 3. The road to Pallantium. 4. The road through the plain of Alcimedon to Methydrium. —And two roads to Orchomenus. Concerning the road to Methydrium I have already had occasion to offer some remarks ; those of Orchomenus will be a subject of future examination. As the three others concur with the Prinus and Climax in illustrating the topography of the Mantinic plain, which was so often the scene of military operations, I shall here insert the description of them from Pausanias % although the reference will in one or two particulars be a repetition of a part of the third Chapter of this work.
* X?i(
This temple of Neptune, as I have already remarked, was, according to Polybius, seven stades distant from the city *. It consisted, in the time of Pausanias, of a modern building, which had been erected by the Emperor Hadrian to inclose and protect the remains of an oaken edifice, said to have been the work of Tropho- nius and Agamedes, and which was one of the few specimens, if not the only specimen then existing in the Peloponnesus, of a temple built of that material. It was forbidden to all unprivileged persons to enter the Posidium; and Hadrian, when he erected the new building,
Polyb. 1. 11. c. 14.—See Chapter III. VOL. III. E
maintained its sanctity with such rigour, that the workmen employed were not allowed to touch any part of the remains of the ancient structure, nor even to see the interior of it; nor was Pau- sanias himself allowed to enter the temple.
" Beyond the temple of Neptune, on the road to Tegea, there was a trophy of stone erected in honour of the victory gained [by the Manti- nenses] over Agis and the Lacedaemonians, beyond which the road entered a forest of oaks called Pelagus; the boundary between the Mantinenses and Tegeatas was a round altar in the road. On turning to the left, out of the road to Tegea, at the temple of Neptune, there occurred, at the end of five stades, the tumuli of the daughters of Pelias % twenty stades distant from which, was the place called the Phcezi; the monument of the Phcezi was low, and surrounded with a basisb. The road then became narrowc, and there was a monument said to be that of Areithous, who, from his club, was named Coryneta."
* The daughters of Pelias of Pelias, the names Aste-
were induced, by the arts of ropeia and Antinoe. Pausan.
Medeia, to put their father to Attic, c. J8. — Apollodorus
death at lolcus, from whence makes the number of the
they had fled to the Mantinice. daughters three, and gives
Micon, who had represented different names. Apollod. 1. 1.
some parts of the Argonautic c. 9, 10. story in a painting in the b Tijif^o^i»o» xpirTh. temple of the Dioscuri at c This remark alludes to
Athens, had written under its being the place described
the figures of the daughters by Homer, by the words
" In the way which led from Mantineia to Pallantium, at the distance of thirty stades, the wood Pelagus was near the road. Here stood the tomb of Epaminondas, who was buried on the spot where he fell. The place to which he was carried out of the action, and from whence he witnessed the victory of his army before he died, was thenceforth called Scope."
It may be inferred from the circumstance last mentioned, that Scope was a rising ground, a circumstance which I think identifies it with the point of the Maenalian range three miles south of Mantineia, as I have stated in the former journey. After remarking that the temple of Jupiter Charmon was one stade beyond the tomb of Epaminondas, Pausanias, in allusion to the forest which covered a part of the neighbouring plain, observes, that " the woods of Arcadia contain diverse kinds of oak, namely, the broad leaved oak, the phagus, and that of which the bark, called Phellus by the lonians, is so light, that it serves for buoys to anchors, and for floats to the nets of fishermen."*
Zr»r.» I. MS, in the speech P" «*a
e Xt Ti ' It no A
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6)Blouet, Abel (Hrsg.) / Ravoisié, Amable (Hrsg.)Expedition scientifique de Morée: ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français ; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique (Band 2)
Paris, 1833
http://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/blouet1833/0107/ocr?sid=578e0cb1ce31e54325d186f5545bec8c
ROUTE DE SINANO A LÉONDARI.Après avoir traversé un ruisseau, ou plutôt un fossé, qui, selon quelques voyageurs, forme l'enceintede Mégalopolis, et près duquel est uoe fontaine, on arrive, en se dirigeant vers le sud, dans une plainecouverte en grande partie de chênes, et après laquelle on traverse le Mégalo-Potamo, grand fleuve,autrement l'Alphée. Sur une montagne, à droite, on voit des restes assez considérables de constructionsdu moyen âge. Psamari est le nom qu'on donne à cet endroit. Au bas coule le Xérillo, torrent formé parles eaux qui tombent des montagnes, à l'est desquelles est situé Léondari : on n'y arrive qu'après avoirgravi une montée assez rapide. Cette ville est dans une position tout à fait pittoresque; et, malgré l'étatde destruction où l'avaient laissée les guerres que les Français venaient de faire cesser, nous pûmesencore en admirer le bel aspect et surtout le caractère très-remarquable de ses fabriques. Nous y vîmesune petite église grecque entourée de beaux cyprès. C'était auparavant une mosquée, dont on avaitdémoli le minaret. A l'ouest, sur la montagne, se trouve le vieux château de Psamari.Bien que quelques voyageurs modernes indiquent Léondari comme étant sur l'emplacement de l'an¬cienne Leuctres de Laconie, nous n'y avons rencontré aucune trace d'antiquité*.ROUTE DE LEONDARI A LA SOURCE DE L'EUROTAS.Une fois qu'on est sorti de Léondari par une partie de voie pavée, on passe auprès d'énormes rochersnommés Asprilata, afin de suivre la route au sud-est, sur le versant d'une montagne boisée. A gaucheest une belle et riche vallée; sur la montagne, une chapelle à saint Nicolo, et dans la vallée, le petitvillage de Limatéro, arrosé par plusieurs ruisseaux ; puis une chapelle en ruine au milieu de chênesverts , et plus loin une fontaine également ombragée de chênes. Après avoir rencontré un torrent,on aperçoit, à droite, une montagne conique faisant partie du mont Léondari, et sur le sommetde laquelle est une chapelle appelée Bouraïkos; à gauche, près d'un vallon cultivé et, en grande partie,planté de vignes, le village de Pétrina, que traversent plusieurs ruisseaux ou torrents. La vue se porte■alors, d'un côté, sur le mont Kérasia, au-dessous duquel est le village de Ciparissia; et de l'autre, surles restes d'une ville antique, dont l'enceinte , presque entièrement détruite , couronne la cime très-élevée du mont Chelmos.. On y trouve des assises de constructions irrégulières, sur lesquelles sontles murs d'une fortification vénitienne du moyen âge. On arrive ensuite dans une plaine entourée demoutagnes boisées et traversée par un ruisseau que bordent de grands peupliers : elle est cultivée etplantée de mûriers et d'oliviers. A gauche, près de la rivière Longaniko, est un tumulus, puis un ruis¬seau, sur le bord duquel se voit un tombeau turc; et plus loin, Zacaria Derveni, pirgo, dans une gorgeétroite. Après avoir monté à travers des collines arrondies et couvertes de lentisques, de myrtes et delauriers roses, on arrive sur un plateau appelé Agrapido Campo , où sont les vestiges d'une ville.Quantité de débris s'offrent aux regards : des pierres sont amoncelées en forme de tumulus, etcependant ces ruines ne paraissent pas être des restes de constructions antiques. Enfin, lorsqu'on estdescendu de ce plateau, on entre dans une vallée où se trouve une source abondante appelée Réphalo-Vrissi : c'est celle qui forme la rivière Éré, anciennement l'Eurotas.Cette source est au pied d'une montagne dont le caractère est assez remarquable. La route passesur un quartier de rocher au pied duquel surgissent paisiblement les eaux limpides du fleuve. A côté,* DISTANCE DE SINANO A LEONDARI.En sortant du village, à 5 minutes de l'église, un ruisseau ou fossé, et une fontaine. A 48 m., une petite rivière. A 16 m., le Mégalo-Potamo (l'Alphée). A 57 m., deux citernes, puis une montée. A 4 m., à droite, un ravin, et au-dessus, des ruines de château sur unemontagne. A 6 m,, Léondari.Distance totale, 1 heures 16 minutes.
58)sont quelques pierres d'une construction antique, dont deux seulement sont en place; rien n'indiqueà quel monument ces pierres pouvaient appartenir *.ROUTE DE LA SOURCE DE L'EUROTAS A MISTRA.En prenant la route au sud-est, on trouve le hameau de Géorgitsi : à gauche, sur un plateau, sontles restes d'une fortification moderne; à droite s'étend la chaîne du Taygète; à l'est, le mont Méné-laïon, et au milieu, une plaine qui se termine au golfe de Laconie. Tout ce paysage, presque entiè¬rement dépourvu d'arbres, est d'un aspect sévère, et remplit l'âme d'une sorte de tristesse. Mais onarrive bientôt à une autre plaine cultivée et plantée de mûriers, en sortant de laquelle il faut traverserun ruisseau; à droite se trouve le village de Périvolia, et au-dessus, le bourg de Rastania. Quand onest parvenu au bord de l'Eurotas, il faut longer son cours dans une gorge assez resserrée, au milieu derochers couverts de platanes, de lentisques, de térébinthes et de lauriers roses. Les lauriers étaient enfleurs lors de notre excursion, le 3 juillet, et répandaient une odeur des plus suaves. Sur le chemin,sont plusieurs parties de route pavée, des plantations de mûriers, et une ruine d'aqueduc construiten blocage fait avec des cailloux du fleuve. Toutes ces vallées qui se succèdent sont environnées depetites montagnes couvertes de verdure, mais sans aucun arbre, tandis que dans le bas, au contraire,les champs sont cultivés, couverts de mûriers, et coupés par des bosquets de myrtes, de lentisques,de térébinthes et de lauriers roses. Nous vîmes encore plusieurs fragments d'aqueducs du moyen âge ;et au-dessus, sur un rocher, un fragment de construction hellénique irrégulière. En sortant du défilé,on entre dans une plaine où l'on prend la route de Tripolitza : puis, laissant à gauche le village de Papioti,et en montant sur une colline, on aperçoit, dans la vallée, une ruine d'aqueduc, dont la partiebasse, en blocage, paraît être antique; la partie supérieure, en brique, est du moyen âge : au-dessouscoule un ruisseau. Du haut d'une montagne, on découvre dans un très-beau point de vue la ville deMistra, dont la citadelle est bâtie sur un rocher très-élevé, détaché du Taygète. A gauche, près d'unerivière, est une ruine de temple antique en pierre : il y a même encore en place le bas d'unecolonne presque toute ruinée, d'environ i mètre 3o centimètres de diamètre. Enfin, après avoir tra¬versé plusieurs rivières et plusieurs petits ruisseaux, nous nous trouvâmes dans un champ d'oliviers,qui est à l'entrée de Mistra **.MISTRA.Mistra est une ville moderne. Quelques voyageurs ont cru qu'elle était la même que l'ancienne Sparte ;mais comment a-t-on pu reconnaître la cité de Lycurgue dans une ville dont l'architecture n'offrequ'un mélange confus du genre oriental, du style gothique, grec et italien ? Il est plutôt probableque Mistra doit son origine aux Français, et qu'elle fut fondée trois ans après leur premier débarque-* DISTANCE DE LÉONDARI A LA SOURCE DE L'EUROTAS.A 27 minutes de Léondari, un ravin. A 7 m., à droite, la chapelle de Saint-Nicolo; à gauche, le village de Limatéro. A 18 m., àgauche, une chapelle ruinée. A jo m., une fontaine. A l3 m., un torrent. A l5 m., à droite, sur une montagne conique, la chapelle appeléeBouraïkos. A 37 m., à gauche, le village de Pétrina. A /5 m., un ruisseau, et à droite, le mont Kérasia. A 8 m., à droite, le village deCiparissia. A 8 m., on aperçoit, à gauche, la cime du mont Chelmos. A 36 m., à gauche, dans la vallée, un tumulus en terre, et larivière Longaniko. A 16 m., un tombeau turc; à gauche, Zacaria Derveni, pirgo. A 38 m., Agrapido Campo. A 26 m., Képhalo-Vrissi(source de l'Eurotas).Distance totale, 5 heures 4 minutes.** DISTANCE DE LA SOURCE DE l'eUROTAS A MISTRA.A 4i minutes, le hameau de Géorgitsi. A 47 m., un ruisseau. Le village de Périvolia. A 4l m., l'Eurotas. A 19m., un torrent. A 5 m.,ruine d'un aqueduc. A 4 m., source. A 11 m., une fontaine. A 4o m., on traverse une rivière sur un pont. A 12 m., on entre dans tamontagne. A 12 m., on trouve la route do Tripolitza. A 28 m., on laisse, à gauche, le village de Papioti. A 1 o m., ruines d'un aqueduc. A4 m., une fontaine. A 18 m., vue de Mistra. A t4 m., ruine d'un temple antique, près d'une rivière. A 20 m., une rivière. A 3 m., unechapelle.- A 6 m., une rivière et un pont. A l3 m., Mistra.Distance totale, 5 heures 48 minutes.
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168 TRAVELS IN GREECE AND RUSSIA. the sunshine, and stretching off to the blue Lycaean Moun tains, which girdled it with a splendid belt, the valley of the Alpheus. Dense copses of shrubbery, studded with gnarled oak trees, covered the mountain sides; the blue crocus and pale star-flower spangled the sunny banks; fresh grain-fields and meadows of sprouting turf bright ened the immense valley, and the red roofs of towns, with cypresses rising from their midst, dotted it here and there. Away to the right was Karytena, the rock-fortress of Colo- cotroni; in front Sinanu, on the site of ancient Megalo polis ; and to the left, at the entrance of a defile command ing the road to Sparta, Leondari. Descending to the floor of the valley, we rode over the oozy turf to Sinanu, a scattering town, with broad, grassy streets. We met many shepherds in shaggy sheepskin capotes and with long crooks in their hands. The people came in a body to the dirty little cafe where we halted, in order to stare at us. Three or four spruce young palikars offered to accompany us to the theatre of Megalopolis, which is about half a mile to the north of the town. As Fran9ois had told them that I spoke both ancient and modern Greek, they plied me with questions the whole way, and I was sorely troubled to keep up my reputation for scholarship. These people were almost entirely of Slavonic blood, which is no doubt the predominating element in Greece. Groups of villagers sat in the sun happy Arcadians! and skilfully explored each other s heads. Both Sinanu and Leondari were very rich places under the Turks, but are now miserably poor, or seem to be so. The country Greeks hide their money, and are therefore often richer than they appear. CHAPTER XVI. TOUR DAYS AMONG THE SPARTANS. LEONDARI, where we passed the night, is on the frontier of Sparta, but still in Arcadia. Here Alpheus, from his " glacier cold " on Taygetus, rushes down the hills in pur suit of his Dorian Arethusa. Here is still the rural paradise of ancient Greece, with its pure air, its sweet waters, its seclusion and peace but alas ! the people. We overlooked long tracts of oak forests nothing but oak some ancient trunks, gnarled and hoary with a thousand years, and younger woods covering the gently-rounded knolls. The morning was divinely clear and brilliant, but cold, with a thin sheet of ice on standing water. In an hour and a half, after threading scattering groves of oak and ilex, we passed a low bar connecting Taygetus with Mena3lus on the north, and this, as I rightly guessed, was the water-shed between the Alpheus and the Eurotas the boundary of Sparta. In the splendor of the day, every feature of the landscape had its clearest form and its richest coloring, and from the beds of daisy and crocus at our feet to the snowy pyramids 170 TRAVELS IN GREECE AND RUSSIA. of Taygetus, high above us, everything spoke of life and of Spring. There is a village called Longaniko, in a very wild position, high up under the very crest of the moun tain, which supplies the Morea with physicians. The boys are even sent to France and Germany to complete their studies. During the day we met with numbers of peasants, driving asses laden with bundles of young mulberry and olive trees, from the nurseries of Sparta. There was re freshing evidence of improvement, in the amount of new ground brought under cultivation. As we approached Sparta, the road descended to the banks of the Eurotas. Traces of the ancient w r alls which restrained the river still remain in places, but, in his shifting course, he has swept the most of them away, and spread his gravelly deposits freely over the bottoms inclosed be tween the spurs of the hills. The clumps of poplar, willow, and sycamore which lined the stream, and the thickets of blackberry, mastic, ilex, and arbutus through which our road wound, gave the scenery a charmingly wild and rural aspect. The hills deposits of alluvium left by the pre- Adamite floods took the most remarkable forms, showing regular terraces, cones, pyramids, and bastions, as they fell off towards the river. Towards evening we saw, at a dis tance, the white houses of modern Sparta, and presently some indications of the ancient city. At first, the remains of terraces and ramparts, then the unmistakable Hellenic walls, and, as the superb plain of the Eurotas burst upon us, stretching, in garden-like beauty, to the foot of the abrupt hills, over which towered the sun-touched snows of Taygetus, we saw, close on our right, almost
8) Ancienne géographie universelle comparée à la moderne .
http://books.google.gr/books?id=-6sBAAAAYAAJ&lpg=RA7-PA579&ots=odi4coZjGQ&dq=longanico&pg=RA7-PA579&output=text
Mantinea ou Antigonia, l'une des premières villes d'Arcadie, étoit entourée d'un mur de briques ; mais , Agis ayant détourné le cours d'une rivière, et l'ayant dirigé contre ce mur, il en fit tomber une partie, er se rendit maître de la place. Les rois de Macédoine , qui la possédèrent, la firent nommer Antigone, du nom du père de Persée. Mais l'empereur Adrien lui restitua son premier nom. Elle est fameuse par la mort d'Epaminondas, qui fut tué, après avoir défait Jes Sparliates ; il commandoit les Thébains. Philopémen battit les Arcadiens , et tua Machinadas j tyran de Sparte , auprès de Mantinée. Quelques modernes l'appellent Mandi; mais elle n'a pas changé de nom dans la carte de Sanson ; c'est une petite ville, à quinze lieues: au nord de Lacédémone.
Stymphalc est sur un lac et un 6euve de son nomt L'empereur Adrien fit venir les eaux , qui abreuvent cette ville, jusqu'à Corinthe. Quelques modernes la nomment Vulsi i Niger veut que ce soit Longanico. La première opinion est la plus probable; Vuià est au pied du mont Poglise, sur la rivière d'Erariso, qui sort d'un lac* . . '
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9) The History of Modern Greece
http://books.google.gr/books?id=grTLYRfcIA4C&lpg=PA239&ots=zW5OldXBeX&dq=longanico&pg=PA239&output=text
" The mountain of Leondari, almost censing on the right, is, after a narrow valley, replaced by another branch of the mass, called Cherasia, the source of many torrents, which accompanied or crossed the track by which we now descended towards Mistra and the Eurotas. Here and there we observed vestiges of the ancient road, and of walls, which had once served to retard the predatory excursions of the rival countries. Still descending for another hour, in a beautiful forest, we passed the ruins of a church, vineyards, and habitations of a modern village, now no longer inhabited. A church, with vestiges of antiquity near it, might perhaps be taken for the site of an ancient temple; and after a ride of two hours and twenty minutes from Leondari, we saw some vestiges of antiquity upon a knoll projecting from Mount Cherasia, and near it, on the right, the site of two temples in a field.
" All this valley is copiously irrigated by rivulets, which produce a most delightful shade, by encouraging the growth of magnificent plane-trees, some of which we observed from six to seven feet in diameter. Soon after, we passed a beautiful fountain and a mined church, the substitute lor the temple which once had adorned it; but these were only the appendages of a city, the walls of which we not long after entered, and which stood upon the sides and base of a pointed and conical hill, called Chelmo or Chelmlna. If I had not promised to avoid all antiquarian discussion, I might, perhaps be inclined to suggest, that possibly Belmina stood here, and that Chelmina might be the remains of the name. The hill of Chelmo, though not high, is so situated in the centre of the valley, that it is seen both from Sparta and Megalopolis. The fields, on quitting these vestiges, seemed to assume a new aspect, and to be better cultivated ; we found also vineyards ; and descending to the bottom of a valley, between the end of Mount Chimparou on the left, and Xerro Bouno, a name now assumed by the range on the right, we found in a little triangular meadow, watered by a brook, a large green tumulus, probably the burying-place of some one hero, or the common sepulchre of many, probably not difficult to be recognised in the page of history. A road here turns off on the left to Tripolitza, falling into the valley of Franco-brysso, Asea, or Anemoduri, which occurs in the route from Leondari.
" On the side of the Xerro Bouno, or the Dry Mountain,. we observed the large village of Longanico, and crossed the rimer of the same name, at its junction with another stream, near the foundations of a temple.
" On an ugly ascent from this spot, we found a derveni, or guard-house, to protect tlie road ; but, as we had not met a single person during the whole journey, we could not help remarking the wretched prospect which the plunderer of travellers must hold out to those who were to gain a support from such a precarious source.'' At the top of this ascent, we found a large flat table-land, spotted with heaps of stone and stunted wild pear-trees, where we thought we observed the vestiges of a city. Our guides called it Agrapulo Campo, which might be either a corruption from wild pear-trees, or the acropolis of an ancient city. On the descent from this, is the source which might have occasioned the selection of the spot for habitation. It is now known by no distinguishing appellation; for that of Cephalo-brysso, which it bears, is common to any other natural fountain. Here, however, we found the foundations of a temple and other fragments of white marble, and were soon convinced that it was the real fountain of the Eurotas in the valley of Sparta, whether it derived or not its original source from the same mountain with the Alpheus, and sunk in the lake below Anemodouri. The city was probably that called Pellane. The water is clear and excellent, and gushes out of the rock in a considerable stream. A khan now in ruins, has once existed near the spot, founded by some pious Turk, who probably left no. money to support it, or
JOURNAL
10)DE LA CAMPAGNE QUE LE GRAND VESIR ALI PACHA A FAITE EN 171 5 POUR LA CONQ.UÊTE DE LA MORÉE
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Le 1 8 au matin, le Capitan Pacha amena d^z le
Kiaya du Grand Vesir M. Vicenzo Pasta, Provediteur
extraordinaire de la place, et une cinquantaine d'of-
ficiers avec luy. Le Kiaya les envoya tous chez le
Mugzur Aga , qui les fit mettre à la chaisne, attachez
par le col comme des criminels. Ce même jour le Grand
Vesir donna une veste d'hermine à Sari Ahmed Pacha,
Beiglerbeig de Romélie, et une autre semblable à Turk
Ahmed Pacha, Beiglerbeig d'Anatolie , et les déclara
Seraskers, le premier pour aller faire le siège de Sainte-
Maure, et l'autre celuy de Napoli de Malvasie ; le Grand
Vesir déclara aussi qu'il iroit à Misistra ou ancienne
Sparte, pour estre à portée de cette place, qui n'en est
éloignée que d'environ dix-huit lieues. Il permit aux
Gouverneurs Vénitiens des Forts de Kelefa et deZamata
de se retirer ou bon leur sembleroit avec leurs garni-
sons, et le Capitan Pacha fut chargé de leur fournir les
batimens nécessaires pour cela. Dans le fort de Kelefa,
il y avoit soixante-deux pièces de canons, et dans celui
de Zamata dix-neuf, avec vingt pierriers de fonte.
Le 20, M. Pasta, avec tous les autres officiers, fu-
rent embarquez sur l'Armée Navale, avec ordre au
Capitan Pacha de les faire passer à Consple; s'ils
avoient demeurés plus longtems chez le Mugzur Aga,
ils seroient morts de misère, car on les y laissoit man-
quer de pain et d'eau.
— 51 —
Le 21 au matin, les Beiglerbeigs de Romelie et
d'Anatob'e partirent du camp de Modon pour aller
chacun au lieu de sa destination. Le Beiglerbeig de
Romelie avoit ordre de prendre avec luy les troupes
qui avoient servi au siège de Castel sous les ordres
du Serasker Moustafa Pacha, auquel le Grand Vesir
avoit ordonné de se rendre auprez de sa personne
L'aprez midy PAga des janissaires partit pour aller à
Misistra.
Le 22«, le Grand Vesir, avec l'armée, partit du
camp de Modon et alla à celuy de Handrino , où il
séjourna le 23 et le 24; le 25 on alla à Nissi, le 26 à
Lakos, et le 27 il campa auprez de Londari, toujours
dans les mêmes lieux où l'on avoit campé en allant à
Modon.
Le 28 , on prit sur la droite en marchant vers le
midy, on passa une montagne assez haute, et aprez
avoir marché pendant quatre heures dans un beau va-
Ion, on campa en un lieu qu'on appelle Longanico,
où est la source de la rivière Iris, qui se jette dans le
golfe de Colochina.
Le 29, aprez deux heures de marche dans un assez
beau pays, on campa auprez d'un ruisseau, à un lieu
que l'on appelle Sapolivado.
Le 30, on marcha pendant quatre heures dans un
beau pays de plaine, où il y a de tems en tems quel-
ques colines qui forment ensuite un défilé assez long ;
on fut obligé de passer plusieurs fois l'Iris , qui ser-
11)DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNE
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Auche il denaro era spedito con eccessivi ritardi e in
4nantità sempre assai inferiore ai bisogni ijiìi urgenti.
Il malcontento fra le truppe, che per stare a campo e
^vivere dovevano pur spendere e comperare a caro prezzo
ogni cosa di cui abbisognavano, era fortissimo e più di
una volta si abbandonarono a gravi disordini. Di questo
uno ebbe a registrare nei suoi dispacci lo stesso provve-
ditore Barbarigo: alla fine di giugno gli si presentarono
circa 300 fanti, gridando con male imprecazioni e minacce
che volevano denari e che morivano di fame. Il prudente
l>rovveditore con buone promesse in parte li quietò; ma
altri dimostranti si diressero verso la marina, posero a
sacco la roba che era nelle barche e tentarono di far vela
e scappare. Quando il provveditore e Sigismondo fecero
venire alla loro presenza i capi dei ribelli, si sentirono
dire da Francesco da Tiano che il fatto spiacevole era
avvenuto a sua insaputa, « che V era vero die questi suo
fanti et homeni (V arme ogni zorno li era o a la gola,
(ìigando che i se moriva da fame e che in octo mesi i have-
vano havuto page do et meza^ et chel voleva esser pagato
ogni mese, s' el doveva servir, altramente i fosse data licentia
che se n'anderia con Dio et ch^ eV aveva conquistato questo
luogo de la Mantegna (Man tinca) ala.,.. Signoria et luto
questo Brazo (sic) de Maina conservato, che non tanto dinari
ha habudo, ma pur una bona letera ne da la Illustris-
Hima Signoria ne da gentilhomo de Yeniexia, et mortoli
ri fiolo et lino fradello eh' el non ne havea più, consumatn
tuta la compagnia, et luti i denari porta con lui, remavo
nudo et era vechio et cognosceva fin quatro anni r andava
u la maza et moriria da fame; lui non h ave va ne terre,
ne possessione ne mai have de tante suo fatiche et honi por-
tamenti facti in questa provintia da la.... Signoria alcun
merito et eh' el haveva mandato el suo cancellier a la Se-
renità.... (del doge) per haver licentia et non voleva più star
in questo paexe ». Questo riferì il Barbarigo in un suo
dispaccio dalla Morea e disse di aver cercato di calmare
r esasperazione del capo squadra e dei suoi commilitoni;
SIGISMONDO PANDOLFO MXF.ATKSTA IN MdMKA 255
raccomandò })0Ì al doge di })i'ov vedere con zelo a tanti
bisogni « et non roylia — aggiunse — buttar questo mìo
scritto dieiro le spalle, perchè V importa più Ite per r aren-
tura altri non stima> » (/;.
In queste condizioni era la compagnia di un uomo d'arme
come Francesco da Tiano, del quale molte volte la Signoria
aveva avuto V occasione di far gii elogi ("). Che dire di
molti stratioti greci e albanesi, i quali pur avevano ser-
vita la Signoria chi per due chi per tre anni « de bando » ?
si capisce perchè questi fossero cattivi soldati, « zentaia
vile et spaventada..., che il solo nome de Turchi (/li meteno
in fuga C). Alla scarsezza di genti, di denari si aggiungeva
la carestia di ogni cosa necessaria al vivere e al combat-
tere, di vettovaglie, di strami e di munizioni, cosicché
(V) Sathas, op. cit , VI, pp. 15-16. Ancorii sulle pessime condizioni
della compagnia di Francesco da Tiano e degli altri conestabili si
leggono dettagliate notizie nei dispacci del Barbarigo. Ibid , VI, 3, 9.
16, 17, 18, 24, 37, 41, 45, 47, ecc.
(^) Lo stesso Barbarigo scriveva al doge che Francesco da Tiano :
« he homo d'assai et hasse portado in questa provintia lùrilmente et è
molto reputado sì in le gente d' arme come ne le gente del paese ».
Sathas, VI, 3. Consimile elogio si legge nelle deliberazioni del Senato
che lo riguardano. Senato Mar., reg. 7, e. 204 (16 novembre 1464^.
Senato Secreti, 22, e. 102 (3 luglio 1465).
(3) Su questi stratioti, Greci e Albanesi, molte notizie si ricavano
dai detti dispacci del Barbarigo. Cfr. Sathas, VI. 14, 18-19, 20. 28, 34,
36, 40, 53, 57, 59, 65, ecc. Pochi vediamo lodati come valentuomini:
i conti Comino e Megara fratelli (ibid., pp 12, 14, 19, 23, 26, 31, 53),
Nicolò Bocali e fratelli (ibid., VI, pag. 49), Epifanio Giada e Crocon-
dilo, fratelli, deputati alla difesa del castello di Vardogna presso
Misistra (ibid., VI, pp. 29, 33, 40-41, 48, 49, 60), Alessio Pietro e Gigni
Bua (ibid., VI, 1, 29, 60), Nicolò e i due Michele Balli, uno detto il
Grande, l'altro Drimi (ibid, VI, pp. 5, 6, 9-10, 11, 12, 14, 18-39, 29,
39, 40, 41. 45, 49, 50, 58-59, 60, 63, ecc.), i cosidetti Bosichei (Pelle-
grino Bosichio e tìglio) del Catatìgo Grande (ibid., VI. pp. 51 60),
Isacco protostatore della Morea preposto alla Zacomia (ibid., I, p. 249;
VI, pp. 14, 29, 60), Giovanni Gavala, podestà di Longanico libid, VI,
p. 49), Ballabano pascià di Chiaramonte. Senato Mar., reg. 8, e. 9
(4 febbraio 1465).
1256 R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER. LE UOMAGNE
« ehi le volesse comprar con dinari ancJior le non se po-
triano liaver » (').. Tante imprevidenze e tante necessità
furono estremamente acuite dalla peste terribile che nella
j)rimavera pervase le terre occupate dalle genti venete e
€01 suo dispaccio dell' 11 luglio: Heri mattina questo illustre
.signore vene ad me et dixime che tuti i suoi erano stati
Jidelissimi servitori de la V. I. S et che lui tre volte era
.stato capitan di quella et che sempre Vliaveva servito con
umore et fede grandissima et massimamente in questa
Amorea, dove V aveva messo tuto il suo spirito ad operare
(1) Sathas, vi, pp. 8, 11, 14, 22, 24-25, 27, 28-30, ecc.
(2) Sulla peste in Moiea vedi un cenno nel registro 8 dei voi. Senato
Mar. e. 35. alla data 5 agosto 1465 e nei dispacci di Gerardo Colli
al Duca di Milano. Pot. est. Venera (Venezia, 28 maggio e 21 giugno
1465).
(») Sathas , VI. pp. 4, 5. 6, 8, 14-19, 36, 40, 44, 53, 59.
SIGISMnNiKi l'AMxiMn M Al.ATKSTA IN MnHKA liò «
€hc la y. I. S. ohteìuja sua intcìitionc, la qua/ chossa noìi
per satisfar a la Sua Signoria; ma secondo V intender
mio el se vede rimasto con sì pocha gent et de si facta
iionditione cliel non he possibile el possa monstrar la faza
al nemico, ne fare alcunn chossa sia de suo honore, ma li
ìonvien stare a le de^'exe ad custodia d le forteze, che f orsi .'mentendosi più forte materia proposito. Serenissimo principe, V € necessario che la Y. I. S. el conforti per suo letere et proveda de gente in questo paese et fazi sì facta provisione se possa resister agli inimici in ogni caxo et die questo .signore pigli ardire et crescali F animo ad fare de le chosse Ma de honore et utile del stado vostro, che stando cussi se .sta con vergogna non picola et intravegnando alchuna chossa de ciuesto signore, i facti de la Celsitudine Yostra non pas- trano bene per mancharli el governo, perchè ([uesto signore he rimasto con Francesco da Othiano (sic) ne altri e' è che Ma da conto (*). Sapendo che la Signoria di Venezia non sarebbe stata
al Barbarigo, ai primi d'agosto il Malatesta fece prova
(^) Sathas, vi. pag. 20. Pof. est. Venezia (Venezia, 9 agosto 1465),
a. Colli al Duca: Senato *S'ecr., 22, e. 109 (8 agosto 1465). La Signoria
a 8igif«.inon(lo tributa elogi per l'audace fatto d'arme, ma gli racco-
manda vivamente di non esporre troppo la sua persona ai rischi di
simili imprese, essendo la conservazione della di lui esistenza molto
importante nelle necessità presenti della. Repubblica in INIorea.
SIGISMONDO l'AMXil.Fd MAI .ATESTA IN MoHEA iNll
<\[ portare più iiniaiizi le sue forze e condusse le ueuti a <*ampo a Castri a 10 ininlia da Misistra, luogo ricco di strami. ^la tosto che ebbe sicuro avviso che i Turchi di Omar erano ])iìi di 1(),(M)() e che a questi eraìio per a
La Siguoria, sia che badasse alle rimostranze dei suoi
vai)i)reseiitaiiti nella 3Ioi'ea, sia che considerasse Sigi-
smondo comandante ormai esautorato troppo mal visto,
s' indusse a concedergli la chiesta licenza; gii trovò subito
un sostituto nel valente condottiero (rirolamo Novello Al-
legri da Verona, che già V anno innanzi aveva con onore
militato al servizio di Venezia in Morea e che era ritor-
nato da più mesi in Italia, per ristabilirsi dalla malattia
avuta durante l' inverno (^).
A Venezia si disse pure che a Sigismondo era stata
concessa la licenza tanto richiesta anche per una ragione
politica di non poco momento, già prospettata dallo stesso
signore di Eimini, cioè perchè potesse personalmente sal-
vaguardare il suo dominio e impedire che, morendo Ma-
latesta Novello, suo fratello, la signoria di Cesena pas-
sasse alla Chiesa o al figlio suo Robert) (-).
Comunque sia, riservandoci di dire - inh innanzi dei
tatti, che seguirono al decesso del Signore di Cesena, in-
torno al 25 novembre da lettere del suo Mario tto Sigi-
smondo fu avvisato che la Signoria gii aveva concesso-
licenza di ritornare in Italia, rimettendo all' arbitrio e
giudizio del provveditore di Morea e del capitano gene-
rale del mare la convenienza di lasciar partire il Malatesta
e la scelta del momento opportuno. Venezia aveva in-
fatti stabilito che volendo (^>ro libitu), come più volte
(^) »S'e». Secr., 22. e. 123' (14 novembre 1465;. Poi, est. Venezia
Venezia 13 e 17 settembre 1465), G. Colli ni Duca. Intorno al nuovo
condottiero per la Morea, Girolamo da Verona v. ancora Senato Terra,
reg. 5, e. 137 (23 settembre 1465) e Satha.s, VI, 2, 5, 7, 53, 64, 66.
83. Pare però che questo condottiero non abbia potuto assumere il
comando conferitogli e che il conestabile Francesco da Tiano sia
stato in sua vece fatto governatore ujuhernator) delle genti venete
della Morea.
(*l Così scriveva il Colli al Duca di Milano il 25 novembre 14(i5
da Venezia. Loc. cit., ad a. Cfr. anche Sathas, VI, pp. 32-33, 43.
f3) Sathas, VI, pp. 65-66. Senato Secr.. 22, e. 123'- (21 novembre 1465)»
e. 125 (4 dicembre 1465).
Sir.lS.MdXno l'AMXil 1(1 M AI.Ari'.SlN l\ MdllKA 2()5
iivev«a chiesto, Sigismondo potesse lasciare la Morea; par-
tisse solo con oO o 40 al [)iù «lei suoi senza al
(M Seu. Secr. 22 e. 125 li dicembre lJ-65^. Snlle tristi condizioiii
delle genti e dei cavalli di Sigismondo vedi la relazione fatta dal
Barbarigo al doge. 8athas, VI, pp. 7-t, 75, 78, 79, 82, 85, 87.
(-) Sathas, vi, pp. 65-66. Nel medesimo dispaccio il Barbarigo
scrive: « (Sigismondo) liame mandato adimandare quelo indicava al
mio parere, se la, Serenità Vostra el remandaria diedro an no ; rispnsi
che de gnesto non li saperla dire, perchè qnesto sfera in arhitrio. .. de
la V. S. e che non sapeva indicar simel cosse ».
(3) Senato Secr.. 22, e. 125 (4 dicembre 1465). Sathas, VI, pp. 71,
72, 8], 87.
l'6(> U. DEPUTAZIONI-: DI STORIA PATUIA PIAI I.E ROM ACNE
bai'igo, perchè cioè in tanta indigenza questi volle trat-
tenere parte delle paglie per conto della farina, delle biave
e del pane biscotto ai medesimi forniti. Era tale il mal -
contento e la disperazione delle milizie, che il provvedi-
tore temeva per la sua stessa esistenza; in ogni dispaccio
egli denotava queste tristi necessità, chiedendo in nome
degli interessi e dell' onore della Kepubblic.i, in nome
deir umanità adeguati provvedimenti : « io non credo —
egli scriveva al doge — che la Y. S. voli che queste gente
suo nude, crude e mal conditìonate vadino con Turchi i)er
necessità; i son pur cristiani, i son venuti a servir de qui
per amor primo de Dio, poi de la V. S. ; se non li vien
provisto, dubito faranno qualche scandalo » (/). A Venezia
di tante lamentele si faceva jjoco o nessun conto, come
se non fossero in gioco il prestigio e 1' utile dello Stato:
« da settembre in qua io ho scripto — così in una lettera
del Barbarigo da Modone in data del 12 settembre —
a la Y. I. S. j)iii de 40 lettere, molte de le qua! sono im-
portantissime circa a questa impresa.... et parmi die per la
importantia sua et etiam per mio contento merilariano
qualche risposta, acciò io savesse e intendesse quello ho a
seguire e a che muodo me havesse a governar in questa im-
presa, etiam aciò possa comprender e cognoscer s' el mio
servir è grato a la Y. I. S., da la qual flnhora de alcuna
de quelle non ho avuto risposta ». L' 8 gennaio 140G il
I>arbarigo annuncia al doge che là in Morea si muore di
fame e che dal momento che egli non si induce a prov-
vedere a tante impellenti necessità, come piovveditore fa
appello al Consiglio dei Dieci (^). Non avendo né denari
ne viveri da distribuire alle truppe tanto bisognose di
(^) li Barbarico ricevette da Venezia solo 8000 ducati invece di
10,000 .strettamente necessari in ottobre (1465) e alla line del febbraio
diceva di non aver avuto altro denaro da Venezia. Sathas, VI, pp. 53, 55,
pp. 76, 90. Sulle pessime condizioni delle genti venete quasi in ogni
dispaccio si fa parola : v. ibid , pp. 41, 44, 48-49, 50, 53-58, 66-68, 72,
76, 77. 82, 86 ecc.
v'-; Ibid.. VI. pp. 74, 78-79.
SIGISM(iMM) l'ANOOLFO MAI.ATESTA IN .M(»MKA LMIT
soccorso, le esortava alla pazienza, aiiiiuiiciaiKlo clic sta-
vauo per venire navi da \'enczìa, le quali avrebbero por-
tato quanto occorreva; ma più navi approdarono da \'e-
iiezia ai i)orti della ]\[orea senza addurre quanto si aspet-
tava (').
Quasi ogni giorno, ora un concstabile, ora un altre»,
chiedeva insistentemente di essere esonerato djilla ferma
e dagli obblighi con Venezia e di esser lasciato libero di
ritornare in Italia; con quante buone i)arole e con quanta
sagacia l'abile e zelante provveditore seppe impedire il
dissolvimento delF esercito veneto nella Morea! (*) come
furono messi a dura prova il forte animo e la consumata
esperienza di lui! più volte, anch' e_li, vinto dalla tristezza
e dallo sconforto, chiese con fiere espressioni di essere re-
vocato dalla carica. Il 21 ottobre 1465 mandò a Venezia
il sopracomito Andrea da Mosto con speciale istruzione
circa quello che doveva riferire al doge sulle necessità
dell'impresa e nella chiusa della medesima egli volle fosse
dichiarato in forma chiara e netta che se a Venezia si
voleva instere nella guerra e provvedere come gli conve-
niva, egli « con V anima e col corpo » avrebbe servita la
Eepubblica, ma se si continuava a temporeggiare, come
tino allora « et tegnirne asediati in questi lochi de Modon,
Coron et Napoli, non liavendo eì modo de uscir a la cam-
pagna, ex nunc — egli scrive — io mandaro a refuttar
M delibero de non sta ree, perchè non delibero che in futurum
mai se possa dir: in tempo de Ja-omo Barba rigo se perse
la Morea over Modon et Coron ».
In termini risoluti, il 18 febbraio 14()(>, egli rivolse al
doge la domanda del suo richiamo « pertanto perchè
redo e cognosco el mio star a questa impresa esser frusta e
di nisuno profitto al stato de la Y. S., perchè non è possi-
bile se possa far ne utele, stantibus terminis, etiam per uscir
da queste insidie, molestie et affani, sopplico a la V. I. S.
i^) Ibid., VI, pag. 90.
(2) Ibid , VI. pp. 73, 82, 89.
1,'(Ì8 R- DEPUTAZIUNE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNE
se degni concedermi licentia de veynir a Veniexia a repa-
triay e quest > adimando de siìignlar gratia a la V. E. » (^).
I/iiìteliee provveditore iuvece circa sei mesi doj^o veniva
inovtalmente ferito per luauo dei Turclii, contro i quali
aveva accompagnato l' esercito veneto al riacquisto di
Patrasso (-).
Il Malatesta arrivò, come sembra, a Venezia il marzo.
Dopo qualche giorno di sosta, andò a Grancona nei Colli
Iberici a trovare il suo genero Carlo Fortebracci condot-
tiero veneto, là di stanza con le sue genti (^). Ritornò
quindi a Venezia; là era ancora il 18 marzo^ anzi in
(piel giorno il Senato deliberò, in conformità alle specifìclie
domande avanzate da lui, fosse risjjosto press' a i^oco in
simili termini: la Signoria, lieta di quanto poteva ridon-
dare a di lui vantaggio, lo avrebbe raccomandato al papa
e con lui lo stato e i beni col medesimo animo come se
avesse a tutelare gli interessi stessi di Venezia; la sua
ferma e ogni suo obbligo essendo lì n iti, la Signoria lo
(M Sathas vi, pp. 57, 70. 74, 86.
C') Ibid., I, pag. 258; VI, pp. 100-101. Sabellico, pag. 890.
(3) Cronaca di Anonimo Veronese, pag. 230. Sigismondo cercò di
assicurarsi l'aiuto del genero, quando si fosse presentata l'occasione
di ricorrere alle armi, per rivendicare i suoi presunti diritti? Questa
domanda ci è suggerita così dalla conoscenza delle pratiche tentate
nei mesi seguenti dal Signore di Rimini per il ricupero del suo stato^
come da una notizia, sia pure riferentesi a ciò che si tramò a Rimini
diciotto mesi innanzi: chi ce la fornisce è l'ambasciatore milanese
presso la Signoria di Venezia in un dispaggio del 27 agosto 14(55
(Fot. est. Venezia): Ho veduto — egli scrive al Duca di Milano — una
lettera scrive messer lacomo Del Borr/o da Bimini. dove prega Io ami-
cum che dicha a la Signoria che, havendo adiiito, lui recupererà tutto
lo stato del Sig. Sit/ismondo, occupato per Santa (liiesa e per lo nepote
de papa Pio (Antonio Piccolomini) perchè ha intendimento in diete
terre»; il Dal Borgo chiede 100 uomini d'arme della compagnia del
conte Carlo da Montone: la Signoria non gli ha ancora risposto, né
credo gli concederà: questa cosa. Da Malatesta Novello nel novem-
bre 1465 il Fortebracci, richiesto di aiuto d'armati, aveva risposto
favorevolmente, salvo il consenso di Venezia. Ibid (Venezia. 21 no-
vembre 1465). Tt. Colli al Duca.
SIGISMnMMi l'AMKil.lO MAI.ATKSTA IN .M
avrebbe sempre ben volentieri raecoiiiandato anche ;i
(jualsiasi si^uuoria o i)riiicipe, alla
sioni studiatamente gentili, che la Signoria era rimasta
ben soddisfatta dei di lui servigi e che era impossibile
porre freno alle lingue malediche; per la ({ual cosa esser
opportuno che colla sua saviezza egli desse retta al giu-
dizio dalla medesima espressogli e non alle ciarle del volgo.
Circa le paghe, di cui egli era in credito, lo si assi-
curò eli'.' sarebbero state prese precise informazioni e
quanto i)rima sarebbe stato soddisfatto di ciò che doveva
avere; non ditVerisse, per (piesto, il suo ritorno a Kimini
e lasciasse a A^enezia un suo messo per regolare detti
conti ().
La mancata offerta di rinnovamento dtdla ferma, il
riliuto di inquisire sulla veridicità delle accuse ebbero si-
curamente « savor di forte agrume >^ mal celato dalle
benevole assicurazioni, dalle melliflue attestazioni.
(') Seuato Secreti. 22, e. 142' (18 marzo 1464). Questa deliberazione
ebbe voti favorevoli 110, coutrarii 2, incerti 3. Il 17 marzo 1466 il
Colli scriveva a Bianca Maria Sforza, reggente il ducato di Milano:
« EI signor Sigismondo è jjur qua ... sjjerava aver qrandi cose dopo la
morte del nostro duca (Francesco Sforza): ma me pare che ogni giorno
si faccia manco stima di lui et dice che /'è reducto a tanto e.itremo
de povertà che s' e? va a Rimino li hìrogna andar a V hostaria per non
haver niente in casa; ha facto dire a la Signoria che lo voglia spa-
^are e che li dica un bel si o uno bel no, perchè non lo vagliando, la
Signoria Sua andarci a Eoma dal papa ». Pot. e.^t. Venezia.
1 7( R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNE
rotrà poi sembrare strano lo zelo della N'eueta 8i-
;u noria di sollecitare 8igisiuondo a ritornare nel suo stato,
l'redianio che questo premesse a Venezia, ma non perchè
considerasse il Signore di Eimini persona affatto sgradita,
ma per gravi motivi politici. Per comprenderli, gioverà
conoscere in quali condizioni versava lo stato malatestiano,
quando Sigismondo stava i>er rientrarvi, dopo quasi venti
mesi di assenza, e aver i>resenti gli avvenimenti che negli
ultimi mesi là si erano svolti.
Koberto Malatesta, come si è detto, contrariamente
alla volontà del x>adre suo Sigismondo, aveva rifiutato le
offerte di soldo fattegli da Venezia e si era condotto col
di duecento anni mantenuti. Poiché i signori di Eimini
Isotta e Sallustio non avevano ne autorità ne mezzi ade-
guati da far valere, per contendere 1' acquisto di Cesena
a Roberto, e non si poteva lì per lì far venire Sigismondo
ilalla Morea, alcuni maggiorenti di Venezia caldeggiarono
l'acquisto del dominio cesenate alla morte di Novello, ma
1 Cfr. pag. 248 nota 2.
(2) Bibl. Ambr., Carte fiforz., cit. (Milano, 21 agosto 1465). Il Dnca
ad Agostino Rossi suo oratore a Roma.
SIGISMONDO l'ANPoi.FO MAI.ATF.STA IN MOHF.A L*71
altri 111 dissuasero, [>reveden(l<> <'li»' tal<' intento sarebbe stato aspramente contrastato, non solo dallo Sforza, ma anche dai Fiorentini e dalla S. Scdc^; dai Fiorentini, che detestavano i progressi veneti in l\omagna e alla lor volta ambivano di allaruarsi verso (luella fertile regione e s[»e- ravano di poter di là intaccare V intangibile dominio ve- neto snir Adriatico; dalla S. 8e
modo ai Veneziani o ad, altri di pescare nel torbido; si
limitò a ricordare al papa che Roberto bramava di aver
4j nello stato e che dallo zio ne aveva avuto promessa di
cessione; ma in pari tempo aveva promesso al papa, sia
pure a parole, le sue genti d' arme di Romagna in caso
di bisogno, e lo aveva esortato a far appello alle potenze
Pot. est. Venezia (Venezia, 12 settemare 1475), C4. Colli al Duca.
Pot. est. Venezia (Venezia, 26 agosto 1465), G Colli al Duca.
Pot. est. Piminì (Cesena, 7 settembre 1465), Koberto Malatesta
-il Sagiamoro Sagramori (autografo).
S1(.IS.\[()M)(> l'AMMU.Id MAI.ATKSTA IN .\(»HKA L'T,")
•
della Chiesa; altri, per trar profitto dai dissidi non si
facevano scrupolo di favorire le ambizioni ben note di
vicine signorie {~), come il podestà di Cesena, che ebbe la
impudenza di tentar la consegna della città ai Veneziani,
atìidando (così si legge in una deliberazione del Ve-
neto Senato) le chiavi di quella al podestà veneto di Cer-
via, prestando e facendo prestare dai suoi seguaci il giu-
ramento di fedeltà alla Signoria di Venezia; tutto (piesto
{è ovvio) per speranza o i)er certezza di lauti personali
compensi (^). Alla line, sia che fossero allettati dalle pro-
messe del giovane, sia che pensassero per tal via di gua-
dagnar tempo, i Cesenati si indussero a gridar loro si-
gnore Roberto ^lalatesta. Questi già si era aftrettato a
inandar a Roma persona di sua fiducia, Francesco da Pia-
gnano, per impetrare dal papa che lasciasse a lui, suo fi-
glioccio, il dominio cesenate o parte di (piesto; ma poiché
aveva motivo di dubitare che non sarebbe stèito compia-
Carte Sfoì-::€Sche. Z, 219 sap. dell* Ambrosiana: (Milano. 21 ago-
sto 1465). Il Duca al suo oratore a Roma Agostino Rossi. Ibid., (Roma,
'22 agosto 1165). Agostino Rossi al Duca: «A la parte che io procuri
ehe non vi siano chieste le vostre genti di Bomagna, farò come vuole
V. E., benché il papa me habhia detto esser avvisato che noti gli hixo-
gnaranno perchè el Signor 2Ialatesta (di Cesena) è guarito ».
Arch di St. di Milano, Fot. est. Eimini (Cesena, 26 novembre 1165).
Roberto Malatesta al Duca di Milano.
Arch. di >St. di Venezia, Sen. Secr., 22, e. 121 (28 novembre 1165).
274 n. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAONF.
cinto e sapeva di non aver ai suoi ordini genti d'arme^
tranne le poche assoldate dallo zio i)er guardia della città
e delle altre terre del dominio e le medesime forze non
interamente disj^oste a seguirlo per varie ovvie ragioni^
mandò al duca Francesco Sforza per aiuto e per consigli
(riuliano suo cancelliere (^); altra i)ersona fidata Pier An-
tonio Angelino mandò a Venezia ad offrire la conferma
dei capitoli dalla Serenissima già da tempo concordati
con Malatesta Novello e a chiedere insieme appoggio
l)resso il papa o, quando avesse questo ostile, il permesso
che Carlo Fortebracci venisse con le sue genti ad aiutarlo
a mantenere la signoria acquistata (^); incaricò altri di
continuare le pratiche coi Fiorentini, sia per avere denaro
e altri mezzi, con cui sostenersi o addirittura a ceder loro
i suoi presunti diritti C).
Alla notizia della morte di Malatesta Novello e delle
assidue pratiche di Eoberto Malatesta e dei Veneziani,
Paolo II non ebbe che un pensiero, di attuare finalmente
la devoluzione del dominio cesenate alla S. Sede; alle genti
della Chiesa accampate poco lungi da Cesena, a Eonco-
freddo e a Longiano sotto il comando di Federico di Mon-
te 'eltro, diede ordine di muovere contro il ribelle o contro
chiuncpie lo sostenesse. L' impresa riuscì più agevole di
quello che si potesse j)revedere: le genti pontificie cor-
sero fin quasi presso le mura della città e si prepararono
a darle 1' assalto, ove la resa presto non si compisse (^).
Il fermo proposito del papa di salvaguardare così i diritti
della S. Sede, calmarono le velleità dei contendenti: i Fio-
rentini, che da Calcata avevano mandato a Cesena dietro
richiesta di Iloberto Malatesta 500 fanti, si affrettarono
(M Gl'ekrieki da Gubbio, pag. 81. Fot. est. Bimini (Cesena, 26 no-
vembre 1465). Roberto Malatesta al Duca.
(-) Fot. est. Venezia (Venezia, 21 novembre 1465). G. Colli al Duca.
Senato Secr., 22, e. 124 (28 novembre 1465).
(2) Cfr. disp. del Colli, di cui alla nota preced.
Fot. est. Bimini (26 noveml)re 1465) Roberto Malatesta al Duca
dicembre si arrendessero e
s' impegnò a consegnare la rocca di Cesena ai pontilici,
perchè il papa largì buoni inatti a lui e ai Cesenati. (j)iiesti
sarebbero posti, con s^jeciali privilegi e favori sotto il
diretto dominio della Chiesa; così quei di Bertinoro. Ro-
berto ebbe per se a titolo di vicario temporale della Chiesa,
Meldola, il vicariato di Sarsina e altre minori terre; ebbe
la metà delle munizioni della rocca di Cesena, o meglio
2500 ducati, loro valore corrispondente, e insieme una
provvigione annua di 3000 ducati. Alla vedova di ]Mala-
testa Novello, Violante di Montefeltro fu lasciato il pos-
(1) Fot. est. Eoma (Roiua, 6 e 9 dicembre 14(55) rispettivamente
Giust. Gavitello al Duoa. Agostino Rossi al Duca.
Quale dissenso ci sia stato a Venezia tra i maggiorenti circa
la questione di Cesena è reso manifesto dalle deliberazioni prese o
dalle proposte respinte in quei giorni dal Senato; tra i favorevoli
all'impresa, che dapprima almeno erano, pare, i più, si contavano i
Savi del Consiglio Nicolò Tron, Vittore Cappello e dei Savi di Terra-
ferma Candian BoUani, Vitale Landò e Lorenzo Moro: contrari si
mostrarono Andrea Bernardo, Matteo Vitturi procuratori e Girolamo
Barbari 20 savio del Consiglio. Giacomo Moro savio di Terraferma,
Andrea Contariui procuratore e Andrea Vendramin. Senato Secr. .22,
e. 123t - 124 e carta bambagina aggiunta alla e. pergamenacea 125
(25, 28 e 30 novembre 1465). Discorrendo coli' ambasciatore milanese
Colli, il doge naturalmente diceva sempre intorno alla questione di
Cesena: « noi non si volemo impalare », pur non tacendo che a Venezia
si preferiva che Cesena rimanesse ai Malatesti. Pare che a Venezia
non si volessero alla fine altre brighe col papa, che si mostrava tanto
risoluti) : proprio in quei giorni la Signoria aveva chiesto al papa la
tratta di 100,000 stala di frumento dalle terre della Chiesa e non aveva
avuto che buone parole: là si temeva che la questione di Cesena
ostacolasse questa concessione. Poi. est. Veneda (Venezia, 25 novembre
e 8 dicembre 1465). G. Colli al Duca.
270 R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA ^ER LE ROMAGNE
sesso di Gualdo, la metà delle massarizie e 1000 ducati
r anno « delT entrata di Cervia » .
r Veneziani furono assai meravigliati che Eoberto, il
(juale, poco innanzi, si era detto disposto « a lassare la
vita » piuttosto che perdere il dominio di Cesena, avesse
ceduto sì presto al papa e alle sue genti ])ontifìcie; na-
turalmente non celarono il loro malcontento e turbamento;
temevano per Rimi ni, che essi volevano per le note ra-
ioni conservatji ai Malatesti, temevano per Cervia e Raveuna, che essi occupavano, ad onta dei diritti del hi S. Sede; a Venezia erano ben noti i propositi annessio- nisti, che si andavano formando nel Collegio dei Cardinali e che bene erano sostenuti, specialmente contro Venezia, da Paolo II (■). Per questi motivi alla fine' di novembre l-Lih), quando si ebbe notizia dell' attività delle genti della Chiesa, il Senato Veneto fu invitato a deliberare nuove provvigioni per la difesa di Rimini: invio delle barche armate della riviera della Morea, spedizione di 500 stala di frumento (^1 Ardi. Mimicip. di Cesena, busta 12, n. IO. Bolla originale di Paolo II esortante i Cesenati a ritornare sotto il dominio pontificio (26 nov. 1465): n. IL Nuova esortazione simile alla precedente (4 di- cembro 1464 1: n ]2. Bolla di Paolo II concedente che nell'anniver- sario della sj)ontanea dedizione dei Cesenati alla Chiesa si corra un pallio in Bertinoro del valore di 25 fiorini a s^iese della Camera Apo- stolica (1'^ gennaio 1466) : n. 13. Bolla concistoriale originale di Paolo IT. dichiarante esser Cesena e Bertinoro jjoste sotto l' immediato dominio della S. Sede. Arch. Segr. Vat., Eeg. Vat. 545 e. 119'-120, 121, 121'-123. Bolle di Paolo II in favore dei Cesenati rispettivamente sotto le date 17, 13, 21 gennaio 1466. In favore di Roberto ibìd. e. 71-72 (25 gen- naio 1466): in favore di Bertinoro, ibid e. 67-68 e 69 (17 e 13 gennaio 1466). Cfr, . Theiner, Codex diplomaticus domimi temporalif>
S. Sedis, III, pag. 400: Zippel, Vita di Paolo II, in Ristampa Mura-
i^otiana. i>ag. 132. nota 2: Gambalunga di Rimini, Schede Garampi.
ad annum : Guerrieri da Gubbio, op. cit , pp. 80-81 : Cronaca di Ano-
nimo Veronese, cit.. pp. 229-230; Zazzkri. Storia di Cesena, ecc., pp. 360
e »egg.; Tonini, Storia di Bimini, V. pp. 307-308.
Tot. est. Vene-io (Venezia. 13 dicembre 1465). G. Colli al Duca.
SK.ISMnNlHi P.Wrxil.Kd M AI.ATESTA IN .M
di Sante rogato il 15 maggio 1464, voi. cit., e. 104-105), il
conestabile di fanti Francesco di Simone altrimenti detto
Fumarelli di Castel Penne nel Montefeltro (Arcli. detto, Atti
Rodolfo Paponi, voi. degli a. 1463-1468, e. 19, 20 maggio 1464)
e Marino di Giacomo da Cicognara (Arch. detto, Atti di Bar-
tolo di Sante, voi. cit., e. 53, 28 maggio 1464). Andò in Morea,
con Sigismondo anche Giacomo Rossi, figlio di Pier Maria,
conte di S. Secondo Parmense ? Vedasi la lettera diretta sul
conto di costui dal Duca di Milano al Malatesta il 29 mag-
gio 1464. (Bibl. ^az. di Parigi, Caì'te Sforzesche^ cod. 1590,
e. 200). Il Duca Francesco Sforza chiede nuovamente e insi-
stentemente a Sigismondo che voglia cassare dal suo stipendio
e cacciare dalle sue terre, come dietro sua richiesta fecero
altri signori e signorie d' Italia, quali la Signoria di Venezia^
il Duca di Modena e il marchese di Mantova, il detto Gia-
como Rossi da Parma, imputato di aver fatto ammazzare Pier-
l^aolo del fu Cattabriga, squadriero sforzesco, di aver poscia
presa la moglie dell'ucciso per sua consorte; per avere una
sollecita risposta lo Sforza manda al \Iahitesta la lettera per
mezzo di uno speciale cavallaro.
SK.IS.MiiMiii PA.Minl.ln .\l AI.ATKSTA IN .M
APPENDICE 11. L.
Bibl. Nazionale di l'arigi, Carte Sforzesche^ cod. 15ÌKI, e. .sr
:Sijiismon(l(> P. M. al Doge di Venezia sulla presa di Misistra
(10 agosto 146-1:) (copia mandata al Duca di Milano).
(Litere) Capitanei nostri general is in Peloponneso.
111. me Princeps et excellentissime Domine Domine mi sin-
gularissime post debitam commendationem etc. Per una altra
fo advisata la V. 111. ma S. de la deliberatione ])resa d(^ andare
a campo a la cita del Mixistra et benché la ce iiaresse grande
imprexa a le gente che havevamo poche et le altre raxone
«cripte, per exequire questo ce partimo de sotto a Pidima et
venemo verso una terra che se chiama Londari, terra de li
inimici, che altra via non se xjoteva fare che quella per li
sinistri camini. L* inimici turchi ce erano aprovo circa a deci
miglia cum lo suo camx)o et lì non volimo alogiare, benché
fosse giornata competente al campo et ciascuno pensasse sì
tìmici come inimici che allogiassimo lì. Aspetato tucto el
nostro campo, che durava la fila cerca cinque o sei iniglia per
le vie strecte et ardue et più ancora remontamo a cavallo
«en(;a altro fìrmarse et temo in quello medesimo dì un'altra
giornata de campo, allogiando ad hora una de nocte sempre
tenendo la via radente la montagna del Mixistra, che n agior
-dubio non se poteva bavere per dieta impresa, comò secre-
tamente intra nui, la magniflcentia del providitore et mi,
pariamo et concludemo chel penserò ce reusiva de dieta im-
prera, purché mitissimo el nostro esercito tra me^o el campo
de li ini nici et la via del Mixistra, acochè non potessero li
inimici prendere prima el logiamento de Mixistra de nui, che
prendendolo el nostro andare era dubiosissimo et indarno per
•dieta impresa. Vedendo li capitanei de li nostri inimici che
prendevamo tal via et tenevamo tali modi, subito ce foreno
le spalle et donde nui ce levassimo quasi de lì a tre o
quatro bore loro giongevaro (!) cum le suo gente. La seconda
giornata ce levamo de doe ore inanti giorno et giongemo qui
ti la cita del ]\Iixistra circha ale XXIII bore inanti che i
l'indicata polemica.
Xel proemio, così cauta, con largo movimento, della
sua Forlì:
Urbs est Italiae romano a sanguine ducta
Inclyta, quae Livi jactans et nomeu et arma
Nobilitate viget, populique ad bella freqneutis
Claruit et claret unnc multus splendor in armis.
Artibus haec belli gaudet, j ustissima nec non
Ingenti capitur dileetae pacis amore.
Sic alacris pubes dum belli tempora poscunt
Induit arma lubens ; verum si liorrentia Martis
Tela silent, j)opulus pacis profusus in artes
Legibus aptatur concors, studiisque Minervae
lutentus simul, ac oj)erum dulcedine captus
Bella moram indicit, jugiter longa ocia tollens.
ivv. 25-36).
Il LiTTA, loc cit., ha l'indicazione di un'opera di autore ano-
nimo, che sarebbe stata, credo, preziosa per questo intendimento r
Vita di Giacomo Boucompagni duca di Sora, Napoli. 1637: ma l'ho
cercata invano in alcune delle maggiori Biblioteche del Regno.
I lustri antichi e moderni della città di Forlì, Forlì, 1757.
pp. 196-'7.
(3) La raccolta, non numerata, x>orta il titolo: Auf. Xumai car-
mina : si contano 39 comi^onimenti — alcuni dei quali molto lunghi —
in due soli metri: esametri e distici. È scritta in tempi diversi, un
po' alla lesta ed ha qualche correzione interlineare e marginale : senza
dubbio, di mano dell' autore. Poiché presenta un tipo generale di
carattere identico a quello de! codice delle Deche, anche questo è da
ritenere autografo.
DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNE
lu un'altra responsio ad uu amico parla di se stesso e
delle sue fatiche poetiche, ina con accento dei tutto acca-
4leniico e indeterminato. Un altisonante tnmuìus celebra
IJrnnoro Zampeschi, signore di Forlimpopoli, che chiuse,
8i può dire, la serie degli avventurosi e forti condottieri
d'armi romagnoli ('). Lo riporto per l'importanza storica
lie può avere. lìi ohitìi ili. mi Brinioris Zampeschi . Inclyta. quae quondaiii victis horrenda fiiernnt Hostibus. et tumulo pendere tela vides, Enses, miicrones, galeas et sanguine tinctos Hostili clypeos, munera Martis erant. Cinxerat infantem his pueruiu GradlA^i.s et ultra Ingenium dederat. bellica dona, ferox. Sic bellatorem strenuum, sic Martis aUiinnuni Exurgens vidit Phoebus et inde cadens. Eximiam cuius virtutem Elienus et Ister Xovere et magni Cretica regna Ioyìs. Aspice et insignes lauri duplicesque coronas, Altera Musarum muuera sacra novem. Mars dederat primas et primos ille triumphos; Addidit has Phoebus, dum cumularet opus. Praestantes belli at laudes invidit uterque Et pacis: Virtus bine sua vieta jacet. Haec jacet in terris, sed spiritus incolit astra Praemia virtutis jam sibi multa sumens. * T carmi latini del Xumai rispecchiano appieno le vir tiiosità letterarie del tempo: frequente uso della mito- logia, larga ed accorta imitazione dei modelli classici, verso armonioso e ben congegnato. ^la vera e forte poesia Cfr, VriccHiAXZANj. Historia di Forlimpopoli con varie revolu- tioni del V altre città di Tioma(jua, Rimini, 1647, i)arte II, p. 306; Ko- SETTi, Forlimpopoli e dintorni, Milano, 1900, 2.'' ed., pp. 100-101. Lo Zampeschi, morto nel 1578, fu agli stipendi di parecchi principi ita- liani, ma più a lungo di Venezia. LA PHIMA1)E1.1.E « HISToF^IARlM DF-CADES » l)[ IF.AVKi MKiNlMi 2S7 non è (li certo. Ki;li, del resto, niodestMiiieiite così (licliiiira ad un anìieo: « la mia musa Non dedit excelsos.... consceudere niontes ; 8at mihi prò asceusii sit non indiguti volimtas. Fra le opere prineìi)ali del Biondo, la Roma triumphans^ Roma instaurata, V Italia illustrata furono tradotte, invero molto pedestremente, da Lucio Fauno (') da Gaeta. Quanto alle Historiarum Decades^ è risaputo che Pio 1 1\ il quale le apprezzava molto ma ne lamentava la rozzezza, volle ridurre e compendiare (-) i primi XX libri. La sua pulita ed elegante Ahhreviatio (-) fu volgarizzata dallo stesso Lucio Fauno, il (puile anche compendiò poi in ita- liano i rimanenti libri delle Decades. Di queste, mancava (piindi la versione del testo integrale. 8' accinse a farlo il Xumai, ma sifermì) alla prima Djc'c. Xon correda l' opera sua di alcuna introduzione, di- chiarazione o nota; mantiene regolarmente la divisione in libri fatta dal Biondo e segue il testo passo passo, in maniera scrupolosa. vSe ne scosta, in un modo o in un altro, nei pochissimi luoghi che riporto. (V) ClT. Gr AESSE, Tre-sor. I, 442. Le traduzioni furono poi ripubbli- cate più volte. Il Fauno scrisse anche di antichità romane: cfr. Tìka- BOSCHi, op. cit., VII, 856; Catalogo ragionato dei libri dUirte e dWm- tichità posseduti dal conte Cicognara, Pisa, 1821, II, 190. (2) Cfr. YoiGT, Enea Silvio de'' Piccolomini als Papst Pius der ziveite nnd seine Zeitalter^ voi. II, Berlin, 1862, pp. 321-'2. Egli nota con ra- gione che i pregi formali della prosa di Enea Silvio non compensano il danno sostanziale di un troppo magro compendio; tanto più, pos- siamo aggiungere, che il lavoro originario è densissimo di notizie e (li fatti strettamente fra loro collegati. (3) La prima edizione, 1481, è descritta dall' Audiffredi, Cata- logus, pp. 247-'8, il quale però non la ritiene romana. Nelle ristampe. V Abbreviatio prese anche il titolo di Epitome Becadum Pdondi; cfr. Panzer, Annales, XI, 385; Graesse, op. cit.. I. 27. 288 R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE RO.MAGNE ]Sel libro III, p. 35, il Biondo (/) ! ueDclo di enumerare i lavori ed i ristami compiuti da Teodorico a Eavenua, scrive: « Aquaeductum quoque ejusdem civitatis, cuius nullum extat vestigium instauravit ». Queste parole, forse per una pura svista materiale, non compaiono tradotte in alcun modo. Si racconta, nel lib. Y, p. 5(S, 1' episodio del cittadino romano Presidio, che, derubato d'una si)ada preziosa dai soldati di Costantino, chiede giustizia a Be- lisario. E tralasciato nella versione il breve periodo, in cui Presidio si duole che i suoi ripetuti lamenti siano ri- masti inascoltati e che la spada sia tuttora in potere dei raj)inatori. Invece, a proposito della lotta fra i Goti e Belisario che difendeva Roma, mentre il testo latino (lib. VI, p. 81) reca : « Xe liostes per noctem adirent, tribulos ante portas « frequentes jecerunt » leggesi nella versione: «Et perchè « i nemici non potessero la notte accostarsi sparsero in- « nanzi alle jjorte in grandissima quantità tribuli di ferro, « che è una macchina picciola fatta a posta in forma trian- « golare acuta, che gettata in terra resta sempre con uno « spontone che guarda in su e si caccia ne i piedi agii « huomini o a' cavalli ». Il traduttore ha ritenuto opportuno spiegare ampia- mente la parola trihuli; sarebbe stata più acconcia una nota. Altra aggiunta al testo, nel lib. VII, }>. 03.
I tentativi fatti da Giovanni Faga, che combatteva
contro Teja, per stringere d'assedio Cesena durante la sta-
g:ione invernale riuscirono vani; ciò, in causa della straor-
dinaria (piantità di neve caduta, « quae diutissime pressit
Vi Mi servo della seguente edizione: Biondi Flava forUvieusis
Hi sto ria rum ah incUuatione Bomanoriim libri XXXI, Basileae^ per
M. Frobenium et X. Episcopium^ anno MDLIX. Le Decades hanno
numerazione propria, ma l' edizione comprende le opere principali
del Biondo, che sono elencate insieme nel frontispizio generale; qui
leggiamo non Histor. libri, ma Histor. Decades, che è il titolo più
comunemente usato.
I.A IniMA DEl.I.K <( HISTnHIAHr.M DECADKS » DI IlANK» HKtMto 2S<) « teiTaiii, ut (rothormn exeicitiis tMjiios culiiiLs t*alainis(iiir « tectoruni sustentare co<»ereiitnr, pabulo ubi([ue rji\il)us « obruto ». Il Nninai: « La neve stette orau tempo a par- « tirsi, iu modo che seuclo coperte tutte le eami)a*iue nr « si trovando da dar uiaugiare i\ cavalli, furono sforzati « dargli di (pielle paglie che si adoj)rano jier coprire i ca- « panni iu Ivoniagna ». La si)iegazione della frase lulmis calamisque tectorum non è fuori di luogo. Aspra e contorta è la locuzione latina
storico che seppe portare luce e ordine in avvenimenti
tenebrosi e iutricatissimi, acquista nell'espressione un ca-
rattere fortemente personale. Il Xuniai, il (juale afferma
e-
cades. In uno studio, molto confuso e superficiale, di I. Panella, Il
Binascimento e Forum Flavii Biondi in « La Eomagna ». a. IT. 1905,
y. 112. si alìerma che il Biondo « si è dimenticato di T. Livio per
« Plinio e del primo non conserva che la Aveste del pensiero e la for-
« mosa rotondità della locuzione latina ». È già molto discutibile che
proprio una formosa rotondità si ammiri nell' elocuzione liviana. ma
■che essa abbellisca 1' ossuta prosa del Biondo nego affatto.
n. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNE
sei'o ». Il traduttore, sciolta male 1' abbreviazione della stampa, legge pennisit invece di promisit e ne cava fuori un concesse. Ma poiché il senso non corre, tenta di rimediare sop])rimendo le sìgnitìcative parole atque etiam hrevi e in- troducendo nn poter: un imbroglio aggiunto ad uiì altro! Nello stesso libro lo storico descrive 1' attacco feroce di Attila alle terre del litorale veneto ed in particolare ad A(]uileia. Osserva da ultimo come alcuni scrittori af- fermano che gli Unni penetrarono nella città, quando gli abitanti erano già riusciti a rifugiarsi a Grado: « Quod « si veruni fuisse concedetur gloria carebit mulier nomine « Digna » la quale, per sfuggire alla libidine della solda- tesca, si gettò nel Xatisone. Il sostantivo di persona, Digna, diventa un aggettivo per il Xumai, che ha questa frase: « II che se fu vero, resta priva di una gran gloria una donna degna di gran nome ». Lib. I, p. 3: Magnani incli- iiationem imperii dignitas ... in Halarici et deinde in jduri- mis barbarorum colluvionibus tacere coepit. Lib. Ili, p. 38: Sanctus Ecclesiae doctor Gregorius ....scribit solitarium magnae virtutis virum ....qua die de- fanctus est Ravennae Theo- doricus, Gotbo cuidam nobili tunc dixisse visam a se Theo- dorici regis animain quae a Joanne Rom. pontifice et Sym- inacho, quos per id temporis occiderat, in ollam Vulcani mergendam portarent. Lib. Ili, p. 43: Quae alluxit ob adventum Belisarii ducis praeclari et viri certe optimi spes libertatis, per imperato- La dignità dello Imperio romano ....commenzò a decli- nare fra le inundationì di Alarico e di molti altri bar- bari. S. Gregorio dottor della Chiesa scrive che solitario huomo di gran santità ....il medesimo giorno che Teodo- rico morì in Ravenna disse a un òerto gentilhuomo Gotto, che allora si trovava con lui, di ha ver veduto P anima del re Teodorico, da Giov. pon- tefice e da Simaco, che egli in quel tempo havea fatto morire, esser portata a sepe- lire ne]V olla di Vulcano. Quella speranza di libertà che nella venuta di Belisario rarissimo capitano et vera- mente huomo da bene lustrò I,A PRIMA DKLLE « HISTORIARIM DKCADES » DI MAN in BIONDO 1^91 ris Justiniani a variti «in atque I so cordi ani in contrari nm sue- I cessit. Nam et libertas oninino perdita et l^rbs intiis extra- ; (ue diruta ac desolata, ad stupendam calami tatem est perducta. • Lib. IV, p. 41 : Co>>imur
praefari nliqua...
Lib. IV, pag. 50; Haec
nioles Imperatoris Adriani
sepulclirum fuit, eximio ac
magnificenti ssimo opere con-
fectum.
Lib. Vili, p. 101: ....fece-
runt iter Longobardi per pa-
tentem malo nostro portam,
qua e ab ipso conditi orbis
initio relieta fuisse videtur
barba ris ad Italiae invasio-
uem.
ibid.: Louginus ad illud
[latus Cesareae quae fuit civi-
tas Ravennam interetclassen-
se oppidum sita] fossam val-
lumque cespi ti cium a di e cit.
Lib. X, p. 132: Macharius
autem pertinax et nimis diu
Patribus resistens, non solum
est dignitate privatus sed
simul cum mortuis Sergio,
Pyrrlio, Paulo et Petro, eju-
sdem haereseos auctoribus
Satanae traditus ad extre-
mumque cum aliquot perfi-
di ae compi icibus Romam re-
legatus.
alquanto successe tutto in
contrario ])er l'avarizia et
dappocaggine di (liustiniano
iiiil)eratore. Perciocché «4 la
libertà si estinse all'atto et
liOma dentro et di fuori mi-
nata et desolata, si ridusse
in una stupenda calamità.
Siamo forzati fare alcune
prefazioni...
Questa mole fu il sepolcro
di Adriano imperatore fatto
con superba e magnifica spesa.
Presero i Longobardi la
via per la porta, che per no-
stro male sta sempre aperta,
la quale dal principio della
fabrica del mondo pare che
scoperta fosse lasciata a bar-
bari per poter facilmente
entrare a travagliare l'Italia.
Longino fece fare [al lato
di Cesarea] una fossa ed un
bastione di lotti.
Ma Machario [vescovo di
Antiochia, eresiarca monote-
lita] mentre ostinatamente
s'indura a far con quei Padri
longo contrasto, fu della di-
gnità privato et con Sergio,
Pirro, Paolo autori della me-
desima beresia già morti, coìi-
dennato alle pene dello Inferno
e scomunicato et all' ultimo con
alcuni complici della medesi-
ma Ueresia confinato i)i Roma.
10
li. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATllIA I KR LE IlO:MAGNE
eiiza istituire iiu confronto analitico fra questi passi,
basti notare che per l'italiano la frase inundationi di Ala-
rico e di molti altri harhari e olla per cratere usato così
senza alcun trapasso o senza attenuazione, riescono inam-
missibili; lo stesso dicasi, per altro rispetto, di una spe-
ranza che lustra e di una calamità stupenda. Il praefari
aliqua è cosa ben diversa dal fare alcune lìrefazioni. La
solenne e grave osservazione del Biondo sulle mai vietate
Alpi è sciupata dalle parole principio della fahrica del
mondo e dallo scoperta riferito a porta. I lotti, che signi -
ticano, con uso tolto dal dialetto, pezzi di terra sempli-
cemente, non rendono V idea (essenziale per il proposito
deir autore) di zolle con radici ed erbe, racchiusa nel ce-
spiticium. E il rapido ed energico Satanae traditus è vol-
tato molto male colla locuzione condennato alle pene dello
Inferno e scomunicato.
Sarebbe difficile rinvenire altri errori fondamentali o
altre improprietà e incongruenze tanto gravi, da tradire
addirittura il senso dell'originale; molto facile invece mo-
strare come V evidente sforzo di purezza e di eleganza dal
Xumai compiuto, sia rimasto vano. Si sente la fatica del-
l' oi)era, nella quale procede guidato ben più da una cauta
continua riflessione, che da sicuro buon gusto e da una
profonda conoscenza e pratica della lingua italiana.
Tuttavia merita lode, perchè ha tradotto con una fe-
deltà, salvo pochissime eccezion , costante, ed è riuscito,
dopo tutto, a darci una prosa generalmente chiara e deco-
rosa. Tratto tratto, fonde insieme brevi periodi del Biondo ;
più spesso ne spezza altri, molto lunghi e complessi. Ot-
tiene, in tal modo, una narrazione, che, se pure meno co-
lorita e meno forte del latino, ha un'andatura regolare e
abbastanza sostenuta. Il Fauno è sciolto e trascurato; si
ha 1' imi)ressione frequente che abbia tradotto con fretta
e negligenza. Tale impressione non si riceve scorrendo le
pagine del Xumai. Si accinse al lavoro con molta serietà
e con preparazione non insufficiente; lo condusse a ter-
mine con cura e zelo.
l.A PRIMA DKLI.K « HISToHlAHlM DPXADES » DI KI.AVMi BIONDO 2U'
Come testiiiìonitiiiza, per quel tanto di ^^iiisti/ia cui il
buon Xuniai ha diritto, faeeianio (ualehe riscontro.
Lib. II, p. 19: Etius... Bur-
g'imdioues totiens protìioa-
verat, ut brevi eos aut Gal-
lis piilsurus, aut ad interue-
cioueui caesurus videretur.
Sed tantos undique Imperio
imminere labores intelligens,
l)acem illis dolensinoestusque
xìoncessit. Xec tamen propte-
rea remisit Yalentinianus re-
cipiendae Africae intentio-
neui, qui Sisulfo quem liabe-
ret praestantissimum ducem
illi praefecto muneri exerci-
tuDi magno sumptu maxima-
que diligentia reparavit.
Lib. III, p. 34: Et post
trauslatum a Constantino in
Thraciam Imperi um, magi-
stratus sunt primum Raven-
uae constituti, quorum munus
fuit mutuas Romanis Costan-
tino poi itanisque communita-
tes alternatim curare; profuit
tamem amplitudini suae plu-
rimum Eomanorum Im perii
agitatio, quod imperatores re-
gesve aut duces plurimi, prout
upra ostendimus, illam aut
inhabitaverunt, aut magis
praesidiis tenuerunt, ut nulli
dubium esse debeat, quin ja-
ctis tamdiu tantis opulentiae
fundamentis magnum fecerit
additamentum Theodorici pa-
atam urbem Romani Italiam- Ktio ... liavea tante volte rotto i Burgundioni, die in poco tempo era o per cac- ciarli dalla Pranza o per estinguerli affatto; ma inten- dendo che da tutte le bande allo imperio sovrastavano tanti affanni, con suo gran dolore et ramarico fece Y)ace con essi. Non per questo \;\- lentiniano si perde d'animo di poter recuperar l'Africa, il quale spedito Sisulfo guer- rier prestantissimo per capi- tano di quella impresa, rifece con gran spesa e con gran- dissima diligenza lo esercito. E doppo che Costantino trasportò in Tracia lo imi)erio, fu ordinato un magistrato, il quale dovesse ressedere in Ravenna, perchè havesse ad bavere cura di procurar a" Romani et a Costantinopoli- tani vicendevolmente le loro communi tadi. Furono perciò di gran giovamento alla gran- dezza sua i disturbi ch'hebbe lo imperio romano, poicbè molti imperatori et regi et capitani grandi, sì come hab- biamo dimostrato, o andarono ad b abitarvi, o la tennero guardata con gran presidii, in modo che non può restare in dubbio appresso di alcuno, che in tanto tempo ha vendo l.'t)4 K. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNi: que legeutis , mora tanto tempore illic facta; quando (jiiidem praeter aedem beati Martini de qua diximus colu- mnis marmoreis cum ab urbe exPalatioPintiano, tum etiam aliunde avectis, Ravennam ])rinceps praedictus ornavit, qui aquaeductum quoque eju- sdem civitatis, cuius nullum extat vestigium instauravit; prospexit etiam prudentissi- mus princeps Tiieodoricus ex- ternarum gentium, a quibus solis tunc sibi in Italiam ti- mendum fuit, iiTui)tionibus; et Herulis post occisum Odoa- crem, ut ostendimus, conser- vatis, novum regem consti- tuit, cuius nomen non expri- mit Cassiodorus: quem regem cum suis Herulis in extremis Italiae partibus, apud Augu- stam Praetoriam et sub Alpi- bus Apenninoque habitare perni issum ipse Theodoricus in fllium adoptavit. Lib. V, p. (55: Absurde ....dicitur tot armatorum mil- Ira [Burgundionum et Franco- rum] esu bovinarum carnium et aquae Padi potu ita con- dato principio a i fundamentJ delle sue ricchezze, la longa stanza eh' ivi fece Teodorico mentre governò Koma et Ita- lia, non gli facesse una gran- de aggiunta. Perciocché oltra la chiesa di S. Martino, della quale babbi amo parlato di sopra, ornata di collonne di marmo, il medesimo Principe abellì Ravenna di marmi con- duttivi et da Costantinopoli, et da Koma levati dal Palaz- zo Pinciano et fatti anco portar d' altri luoghi (). Prov- vide ancora il prudentissimo Principe Teodorico alle inun- dationi delle genti esterne Et doppo la morte di Odoa- cre havendo come habbiamo mostrato salvato il resto de gli Eruli, creò loro un novo re il cui nome non esprime Cassiodoro. 11 quale re, con- cessogli di poter habitare nelle estreme parti d'Italia appresso Augusta Pretoria et sotto l'Alpi et ne i monti dello Appennino, fu da Teo- dorico adottato per figlio. Pare anco gran gofferia a dire che tante migliaia di huomini, per haver mangiati» carne di bue e bevuto l'acqua del Po, cadessero in tanta (') La versione non lia, come .si è già accennato, le parole sul- r acquedotto. I.A PRIMA DKI.I.K
« HISTdinAiU M DECADES » DI II.AVln BKiNIxi l".»."» tabuisse, ut post parta in de -castrisliostiuin victoriam liaiid secus qiiam in aere t'iimus vento agitatus validissimo ex Italia aufiigerint, neniiiie ex- turbante. Aperte autem dicit iluido Ravennas sacerdos, Burgundiones Francosque qui Liguriam prò Theodebaldo tenebant, mercede a Gothis <;onductosMediolanensis urbis obsidioni interfuisse; et postea quando Belisarium viderunt Italia ferme omni potitum obsidere Vitigitem in Raven- na, proprio prospicientes pe- ri culo fa visse Gothis et sese ita castris Belisarii ostendisse. •ut ab eo fuerint viribns re- pellendi. Harum rerum veri- tas apud quos sit, illorum judicio linquimus, qui parum ornate a veteribus scripta non fastidiunt, quosque potius laborando investigandoque, si cut nos feci m US, veri tate m •cognoscere, quam torpescendo ignorare delectabit. iufermitade, che doppo haver havuto vittoria de nimici, senza. esser cacciati da alcimi si dileguassero d'Italia, come se fossero stati di fumo a nii gagliardissimo vento. (ìuido sacerdote di Ravenna dice apertamente i Burgognoni et i Franchi, che tenevano la Liguria per Teobaldo, essere stati allo assedio di Milano stipendiati da' Gotti, et quan- do poi viddero Belisario, im- padronitosi di tutta Italia, bavere assediato Vitigite in Ravenna, per provedere al proprio pericolo, haver dataiuto a Gotti et che tali si fecero conoscere allo esercito di Belisario, che egli per de- fendersi hebbe bisogno di adoperare le forze sue. Qual sia la verità di tutto questo lo lascio al giudicio di quelli, che non hanno in fastidio di leggere quello, che da gli antichi è stato poco ornata- mente scritto et che si piglia - ranno piacere con fatica et con stento, come ho fatto io, investigare la verità, più presto che stando in ocio far professione di ignoranza. La semplice lettura di questi luoghi mi sembra eonferaiiare con evidenza quanto sopra ho esposto. Tirando le somme, troviamo che la versione del for- ivese, se data alle stampe, avrebbe utilmente e non inde- IMÌG H. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNK egnaiiieute contribuito a ditfoiidere la notizia e 1' uso della 4raiide>a ben giusto quindi che, accanto al nome del
l)iìi fortunato Lucio Fauno, il riduttore e traduttore uffi-
ciale, fosse posto anche ({uello di Antonio Xumai.
Filippo Cavicchi
ATTI
DELLA
R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA
PER LE PROVINCIE DI ROMAGNA
SUNTI DELLE LETTURE
Anno A(M^a(lemi(ro 1917-191S
VII. TORNATA — 26 maggio 1918
Il socio prof. Lino Sighinolfl legge una memoria intitolata
])a Copernico a Galileo^ nella quale piìi specialmente intende
presentare e illustrare alcuni documenti inediti sopra i due
personaggi. Premesse alcune notizie sulla condizione degli
studi astronomici in Italia e a Bologna nel sec. XV e notato
come in ogni j)rogre8So scientifico grande parte avesse semi>re
questa città, o ricordata la prima critica edizione della Cosmo-
grafia di Tolomeo fatta in Bologna nel 1477 dal tipografo
Domenico Lapi^ il disserente passa ad illustrare il primo dei
documenti inediti, che è rappresentato da un atto di procura
che il 20 ottobre 1497 Niccolò Copernico mandava a Kolm in
Germania i^er prendere possesso del canonicato a cui era stato
promosso poco i)rima. Copernico venne a Bologna al comin-
ciare dell'anno accademico 1496 e si inscrisse in diritto cano-
nico, prendendo dimora in parrocchia di S. Salvatore e non
si mosse da Bologna se non nel 1500 quando ebbe finito il
corso degli studi intrapresi. Il secondo docuuiento porta la
data del 18 giugno 1499 e in esso Niccolò Copernico e il fra-
tello Andrea sono citati come testimoni in un atto di procura.
In questo tempo Niccolò è ricordato col titolo di « magister »,
mentre è studente « in utroque iure »; Andrea non è canonico,
ma studente come il fratello. Esaminando il valore e l'esten'
1 9S R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGM-J
sioiie dell* appellativo e tenuti presenti i ricordi di Copernico
e la testimonianza del Retico. il socio forinnla l'ipotesi che
il titolo di «ma^ister» conseguito da Copernico a Bologna
possa riferirsi alle arti e alla filosofìa, vale a dire anche al-
l'astronomia e che maestro suo di astronomia fosse Domenico
Maria da Novara Conseguenza necessaria sarebbe quella che
nella scuola bolognese e anche altrove in Italia, dove il culto
delle dottrine tolomaiche e pitagoriche era in onore, Coper-
nico trovò non ignoti ne trascurati i principii fondamentali
e ipotetici di quel sistema a cui Galileo per antonomasia
attribuì primo il nome di copernicano.
Il terzo documento comunicato dal disserente è una lettera
del card. Antonio Barberini, in data 2 luglio 1633, con la
quale espone i noti precedenti del processo, e della sentenza
e abiura di Galileo, accompagna copia affinchè l'inquisitore
di Bologna la notitìchi a tutti i professori di filosofìa e di
matematica « perchè sajìendo egli in che modo si è trattato
con il detto Galileo comprendino la gravità dell'errore da
lui commesso per evitarlo insieme con la pena che cadendovi
sarebbero per ricevere ».
Nella memoria che ha i)er titolo Bei lettori dello Studio
bolognese nella lìrima metà del secolo XY, il \)voi. Giuseppe
Zaoli, pubblicando alcuni rotuli a complemento della grande
opera del Dallari, mette in risalto la loro importanza per la
nuova luce che ne viene a un periodo oscuro dello Studio.
Lo vStùdio ridotto a miserevoli condizioni per la trascuratezza
del Cossa. potè proseguire nel suo rifiorimento, prima per i
favori illuminati di Martino V e di Niccolò Albergati in intimi
rapporti col Filelfo e il Poggio, e poi per l'opera di Euge-
nio IV, non estraneo al grande movimento intellettuale della
rinascenza, di Niccolò Y eletto scrittore ed umanista degno
discepolo dell'Albergati da cui volle prendere il nome, e del
cardinal Bessarione legato in Bologna. Dai documenti pro-
dotti dallo Zaoli molto si trae di ciò che si riferisce agli
uomini, ai lettori e alle discipline in un periodo pieno del
y)iù vivo interesse.
ATTI '2*M)
Vili. TOKNATA — IO giugno 1018
Col titolo «Notizia sullo sca\'o aiclieol()*;ico di Via Riz-
zoli » il presidente prof. Ghirardiiii esi)one coinè, demolendosi
nel lato orientale di Via Rizzoli quella parte dell' ultimo
gruppo di case, la cui area era destinata all'allargamento
della via stessa, (comparvero avanzi di un muro fatto di massi
di selenite, dj^r/OSto da nord a sud, che formava la fondazione
ilella pacete divisoria delle case segnate coi numeri mappali
764, 765. Il riferente fece premure all'ufìtìcio tecnico munici-
pale percnè desse modo, con un piccolo sterro intorno a quel
muro, di vederne meglio la natura, poi riconosciuta la neces-
sità di una pili larga e profonda indagine, l'assunse egli stesso
a spese della Sopraintendeuza archeologica. L'indagine, per
quanto assai limitata nel tempo e nello spazio da urgenti
ragioni edilizie, condusse a risultati di ragguardevole inte-
resse. Aperta a oriente del muro una trincea lunga quasi 10
metri, larga circa 2%, si potè constatare che il muro si ap-
profondiva sotto il suolo fino a 4 metri circa, che nell'area
scavata il terreno smosso dai 3 ai 4 metri di profondità con-
teneva numerosissime stoviglie romane frammentarie, alcune
delle quali penetravano sotto il muro medesimo. Il quale cosi
in modo irrefragabile si dimostrava non poter essere stato
innalzato nell'età romana: cosa del resto risultante ad evi-
denza dal modo irregolare della sua costruzione e dal fatto
€he i massi di selenite che lo componevano non erano stati
messi in opera per la prima vòlta, ma erano stati raffazzo-
nati da costruzioni anteriori.
Se e quale rapporto esso i^ossa avere col primo recinto
medievale di Bologna che, come è noto, doveva passare in
quelle vicinanze, e in cui si apriva la vetusta porta Rave-
gnana, non è lecito sino ad ora affermare; soltanto osserva il
Ohirardini che lo spessore del muro è tale da non parer suf-
ficiente per una muraglia di cinta, sia pure rafforzata da
terrapieno. Sarà ad ogni modo prudente astenersi da recisi
giudizi e attendere la demolizione del caseggiato ancora in
piedi a sud della via Rizzoli, la quale ci metterà in grado
NKLLi G. — Pietro da Ponte. Estratto dall'Archivio Storico Lom-
Ijardo, Anno XLV, fase. I.
Centenario (Per il primo) della Commissione Centrale di Beneficenza
in Milano fondatrice ed amministratrice della Cassa di Rispar-
mio delle Prov. Lomb. e gestioni annesse 1816-1916.
Franciosi Pietro — Dell'antica questione de' confini fra le Comu-
nità di Verucchio e di Sammarino. San Marino, 1918, in-8.
Pregni Gicseppr — Di cose antiche di Alessandria della Paglia. Mo-
dena, 1918, in-8.
» Antichità etrusche di Corneto Tarquinia. Modena, 1918 in-8.
» Delle quattro bestie di Dante. Modena, 1918, in-8.
» Nella città degli Asinelli e dei Garisendi. Modena, 1918, in-8
» Fra il Ticino ed il Lago Maggiore, Modena, 1918, in-8.
PUBBLICAZIONI MV-y
Gamirrini Gian Fkanc. — Petrarca e la scoix'ihi «h'il* AmnicM. Con-
ferenza. Arezzo, 1H18, iii-4.
SoKBELLi Albano — Gli studeuti bolo^tcuesi per Gioaccliino Murat r
per r indipendenza italiana nel 1815. Bologna, 191S, in-S.
» La drammatica fni»a di Antonio Morandi dalle carceri di Vene-
zia. Roma. 1918. in-8.
Verrua Pietro — L'eloipienza di Lucio Marineo Siculo Pisa, 19L').
in-4
Vitali Dario — Ina escursione scientitìca da Macerata Feltria la
Carpegna. Impressioni e ricordi. Fano, 1918, in-8.
Martello ili). Voce del cuore. Anno III. N. 271, 279, 285. 286. 287.
Zaccagnini Guido — Maghinardo da Susinana ed il Comune di Bolo-
gna. Bologna. 191'S, in-S.
Classe III. Pnbblicazioni periodiche
e serie di istituti storici
(pervenute in cambio)
• ITALIA
Acireale — E. Accademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti degli Zelanti.
Rendiconti e Memorie. Memorie della Classe di Scienze.
Serie III, voi. J, 1916-1917.
Ancona — lì. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le provincie Marchi-
giane: Atti e Memorie. 3. Serie Voi. II.
Aquila — R. Deputazione di Storia Patria Abruzzese: Bollettino.
S. III, voi. VII e Vili.
Bergamo — Ateneo di scienze, lettere ed arti. Atti. Voi. XXV.
Bologna — L'Archiginnasio. Anno 1918.
— Annuario della R Università. Anno scolastico 1915-1916.
— R. Commissione pei Testi di Lingua: Collezione di opere inedite
o rare Rime inedite del cinquecento a cura di Lod. Frati.
Brescia — Commentari dell'Ateneo. 1917
- Brixia sacra. Bollettino bimestrale di studi e documenti per la
Storia patria ecclesiastica bresciana A. IX.
Castelfiorentino — Miscellanea storica della Valdelsa. N. 74.
Catania — Archivio storico per la Sicilia Orientale. A. XIV.
Faenza — «Faenza» Bollettino del Museo Internazionale delle Cera-
miche in Faenza. A. VI.
Ferrara — Deputazione di Storia Patria ferrarese: Atti. Voi. XXII.
Firenze — R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le provincie di Toscana.
Archivio Storico Italiano, 1917.
— Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze: Bollettino delle pubblicazioni
italiane. A. 1918. N. 205, 206, 207 e Indice 1917.
304 R. DEPUTAZIONE DI STORIA PATRIA PER LE ROMAGNK
Firenze — Società Dantesca italiana. Bollettino N. S.. Voi. XXIV.
— Rassegna della Letteratura geografica. A. IV,
— Arcliivum Franciscanum historicum.
Foligno — Archivio per la storia ecclesiastica delT Umbria. A. IV.
Forlì — La Romagna. A. XITI.
Genova — Società Ligure di Storia Patria: Atti. Voi. XI, Vili e App.
Orottaferrata — Roma e l'Oriente criptoferratense. N. 82-86.
Lecce — Rivista storica Salentina. A. XII.
Lodi — Archivio storico per la città e comuni del circondario di Lodi.
A. XXXVII.
Milano — Società Storica Lombarda: Archivio Storico Lombardo, 1918.
Modena — R. Deputazione di storia patria modenese. Atti e Memorie
per le provincie Modenesi. A. 1918, S. V. Voi. X
Napoli — Società Africana d'Italia: Bollettino. 1918.
Padova — Accademia scientifica Veneto -Trentino- Istriana : Atti.
Voi. IX.
Palermo — Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria: Archivio storico
.siciliano. N. S. A. XLII.
— Documenti per servire alla Storia di Sicilia S. II. Voi. IX.
Parma — Deputazione di Storia Patria. Archivio storico. X. S.
Voi. XVII.
Pavia — Società pavese di Storia Patria: Bollettino. A. XVII.
Perugia — Società Umbra di Storia Patria: Bollettino. A. XXII. f. 2-3.
Ravenna — Felix Ravenna: Bollettino Storico romagnolo, f. 26 e 27.
Roma — Istituto storico italiano: Bollettino, N. 35, 36, 37.
— R. Accademia dei Lincei. Rendiconti, 1918 S. V. Voi. XXVII.
— R. Società Romana di Storia Patria: Archivio 1918, fase 159-160.
— Rivista Geografica Italiana. A. 1918.
— Società Dante Alighieri per la lingua e la cultura italiana fuori
del Regno, N. 45, 46
— Bollettino delle Opere moderne straniere acquistate dalle Biblio-
teche pubbliche governative del Regno d'Italia. A. 1918.
— Rivista di storia critica delle Scienze Mediche e Naturali. A. IX.
— Rassegna storica del Risorgimento. A. V.
— Biblioteca Vaticana. Studi e Testi. Voi 31.
San Marino — «Museum» Bollettino della Biblioteca Museo ed Ar-
chivio governativi e dello « Studio Sammarinese », 1918. A. II.
Siena — Commissione di Storia Patria: Bollettino. A. XXXV.
Torino — R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Pie-
monte e Lombardia: Miscellanea di storia ital.. t XXXXVIII.
— Rivista Storica Italiana. A, 1918.
— Bollettino storico bibliografico subalpino. A. 1917.
— Società Nazionale per la storia del Risorgimento: Bollettino. A. VI.
— Il Risorgimento italiano. Nuova serie pubblicata dalla Società
storica subalpina. A. X. N.
PUBBLICAZIONI 3(K5
ToRRK Pellice — Société d'histoire Vaiidoise: Bulletin. X. 88.
Udine — Società storica Friulana Memorie. A. XT.
Venezia — lì. Istituto Veneto: Atti. 1917.
— Ateneo veneto. A. 1917.
— R. Deputazione di Storia Patria: Miscellanea di Storia Veneta,
S. 3, t. XI.
— Nuovo Archivio Veneto. A. 1918. V. XXXIV. p. 2.
Vercelli — Arcliivio della Società Vercellese di Storia ed Arte. A. X.
Verona — Madonna Verona, Periodico, f. 87. 88.
ESTERO
FRANCIA — Parigi - Revue historique. 1916.
Parigi - Société nationale des Antiquaires de France: Bulletin
1917. Tr. I.
.SVIZZERA — Bellinzona - Bollettino storico della Svizzera ira-
liana, 1916.
SPAGNA ~ Madrid - Archivo Ibero-Americano. A. V. f. XXIX.
Barcellona - Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Annuari 1913-14. Voi. V.
p. 2"^
ZuRiCH - Mitteilungen der Antiquarischen GesellscLaft. Voi. XXV II.
p. 2^
AMERICA — Washington - Smithsonian Institution: Annua! Report
of the Board of Regens, 1916.
Baltimore - Johns Hopkins University Study. Serie XXXVI.
f. 1. 2, 3.
MEMBBI E SOCI DEFUNTI
DURANTE L'ANNO 1918
SOCI CORRISPONDENTI
Gabotto prof. Ferdinando
PelleCtRini prof. Giuseppe
INDICE
DELLE MATERIE CONTENUTE NEL PRESENTE VOLUME
Elenco dei soci Pag*, v
Lanzoni F. : Alcune correzioni nel catalogo episco-
I)ale di Forlì » 1
Ghirardini G.; Un quesito concernente il Nettuno
di Gian Bologna » 7
Palmieri A. : Le strade medievali fra Bologna e
la Toscana » 17
Zaccagnini G.: Magliinardo da Susinana ed il Co-
mune di Bologna » 52
SoRBELLi A.: Necrologio: Pietro da Ponte ... » 14G
— Atti della Deputazione : Sunti delle letture,
Anno accademico 1917-1918 » 147
Gekola G. : Alcune considerazioni sulla Basilica
Ursiana » 163
FoEATTi A.: Michelangelo a Bologna (Appunti critici) » 191
SoRANZo G. : Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in
Morea e le vicende del suo dominio. ... » 211
Cavicchi F. : La prima dell' « Historiarum decades »
di Flavio Biondo volgarizzata da A. Numai » 281
SoRBELLi A.: Atti della Deputazione: Sunti delle
letture, Anno accademico 1917-1918 ... » 297
Elenco delle pubblicazioni pervenute alla li. Depu-
tazione durante Tanno accademico 1917-18 . » 302
Membri e soci defunti » 305
DG Deputazione di storia patria
975 per le province di Romagna
R7D47 Atti e memorie
ser* 4
V. 8
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