Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/837

P H P H (E 801 g vol. X plate I repentant Athenians buried them with public honours and raised a bronze statue to his memory. The chief authorities for the life of Phocion are Diodorus (xvi. 42, 46, 74, xvii. 15, xviii. 18, 64-67) and the biographies of Plutarch and Nepos. (J. G. FR. ) PHOCIS was in ancient times the name of a district of central Greece, between Boeotia on the east and the land of the Ozolian Locrians on the west. It adjoined the Gulf of Corinth on the south, while it was separated on the north from the Malian gulf by the ridge of Mount Cnemis and the narrow strip of territory occupied by the Epi- cnemidian and Opuntian Locrians. In early times, indeed, a slip of Phocian territory extended between these two Locrian tribes to the sea, and the port of Daphnus, opposite to the Cenaean promontory in Euboea, afforded the Phocians an opening in this direction ; but in the time of Strabo Daphnus had ceased to exist, and its territory was incor porated with Locris (Strabo, ix. 3, 1). Phocis was for the most part a rugged and mountainous country. In the centre of it rose the great mountain mass of Parnassus, one of the most lofty in Greece, attaining to the height of 8068 feet, and an underfall of this, Mount Cirphis (4130 feet), sweeps round to the Gulf of Corinth on the south, separating the Gulf of Crissa from that of Anticyra, both of which were included in the Phocian territory. The range of Mount Cnemis on its northern frontier was of less elevation (about 3000 feet), but rugged and difficult of access, while the upper valley or plain of the Cephissus, which intervened between this and the northern slopes of Mount Parnassus, constituted the only consider able tract of fertile and level country comprised within the limits of Phocis. The little basin adjoining the Crisssean gulf, though fertile, was of very limited extent, and the broad valley leading into the interior from thence to Amphissa (now Salona) belonged to the Ozolian Locrians. Besides the Cephissus, the only river in Phocis was the Pleistus, a mere torrent, which rose in Mount Parnassus, and, after flowing past Delphi, descended through a deep ravine to the Crissaean gulf. Phocis possessed great importance in a military point of view, not only from its central position with regard to the other states of northern Greece and its possession of the great sanctuary of Delphi, but from its command of the pass which led from the Malian gulf across Mount Cnemis to Elatea in the valley of the Cephissus, and afforded the only access for an invader who had already passed Thermopylae into Bceotia and Attica. Hence the alarm of the Athenians in 339 when it was suddenly announced that Philip had occupied Elatea. Again, the only practicable communication from Boeotia with Delphi and the western Locrians lay through a narrow pass known as the Schiste Hodos, between Mount Cirphis and the underfalls of Mount Helicon. From this point another deep valley branches off to the Gulf of Anticyra, and the Triodos or junction of the three ways was the spot cele brated in Greek story as the place where CEdipus met and slew his father. The most important city in Phocis after Delphi was Elatea, the position of which has already been described ; next to this came Abre, also in the valley of the Cephissus, near the Boeotian frontier, celebrated for its oracle of Apollo. In the same neighbourhood stood Daulis and Arnbrysus ; while farther south, towards the Corinthian gulf, lay Anticyra, on the gulf of the same name. Crissa, which had been in early times one of the chief cities of Phocis, and had given name to the Crissaean gulf, was de stroyed by order of the Amphictyonic council in 591, and never rebuilt. The other towns of Phocis were places of no importance, and their names scarcely appear in history. The whole extent of Phocis did not exceed half that of Boeotia, hut it was broken up into a number of small townships twenty- two in all forming a confederacy, the deputies of which used to meet in a "synedrion " or council-chamber near Daulis. But from an early period the predominance of Delphi, owing to the influence of its celebrated oracle, threw all the others into the shade. At first (as has been already stated in the article DELPHI) the Phocians were masters of the oracle, and of the town that had grown up on its site ; but after the first Sacred War in 595 B.C., and the destruc tion of Crissa, Delphi became an independent city, and from this period a strong feeling of hostility subsisted between the Delphians and the Phocians. The latter, however, thus deprived of their chief city, sank into a position of insignificance, and played but an unimportant part in the affairs of Greece. During the Persian War of 480 their territory was ravaged by the invader, and several of their small cities destroyed. In the Peloponnesian War they were zealous allies of the Athenians, and for a short time recovered possession of Delphi, which was, however, soon after wrested from them ; and it maintained its independence from the peace of Nicias in 421 till the outbreak of the Sacred War in 357. On this occa sion the Phocians, who had been sentenced by the Amphictyons to the payment of a heavy fine, rose in arms against the decree, which they attributed to the hostile influence of the Thebans, and, under the command of Philomelus, made themselves masters of Delphi, and seized on the sacred treasures of the temple. With the assistance of these resources they were able to maintain the contest, under the command of Onomarchus, Phayllus, and Phalsecus, for a period of ten years, not only against the Thebans and their allies but even after the accession of Philip, king of Macedonia, to the side of their adversaries. This was the only occasion on which the Phocians bore a prominent part in Greek history. After their final defeat by Philip a decree was passed by the Amphictyons, in 346, that all the Phocian towns except Abse should be de stroyed, and the inhabitants dispersed in villages. Notwithstand ing the ruin thus brought upon their country, many of their towns seem to have been subsequently rebuilt, and the Phocians were able to take part with the Athenians in the final struggle for Greek inde pendence at Chreronea, and in the Samian War. Their last appear ance in history was in defence of Delphi against the attack of the Gauls in 279 ; but they still continued to subsist as a separate though obscure people in the days of Strabo. Of the origin of the Phocians as a people we have no information. The earliest traditions connect them with the pre-Hellenic Leleges, as was the case also with the Locrians, and this statement was probably intended to convey the fact that the two nations were tribes of the same race. They first appear under the name of Phocians in the Homeric catalogue as having joined the Greek armament against Troy under the command of the two sons of Iphitus (Iliad, ii. 517), and were restored amongst the ^Eolic division of the northern Greeks. For the ancient geography of Phocis, see Strabo (ix. 3) and Pausanias (x. ). The country and the existing remains of anti quity are described by Dodwell (vol. i. chaps. 6 and 7) and Leake (Northern Greece, vol. ii. ). PHCEBUS (<ot/3os, the bright or pure), a common epithet of APOLLO (q.v.). Artemis in like manner is called Phcebe, and in the Latin poets and their modern followers "Phoebus" and "Phoebe" are often used simply for the sun and the moon respectively. PHOENICIA (Gr. 3>oivi/c?7) forms part of the seaboard of SYRIA (q.v. extending along the Mediterranean (some times called the Phoenician Sea) from the mouth of the Eleutherus in the north to Mount Carmel in the south, a distance of rather more than two degrees of latitude. In early times Phoenicians were settled beyond this district, but for the Persian period Dor may be taken approximately as the limit towards the south. In the north a strip of country on the other side of the Eleutherus (Xahr al-Kebir) was frequently reckoned to Phoenicia. Formed partly by alluvium carried down by perennial streams from the mountains to the east, and fringed by great sand-dunes, thrown up by the sea, Phoenicia is covered by a very fertile vegetable soil. It is only at Eleutherus in the north, and near Acre (Akka) in the south, that this strip of coastland widens out into plains of any extent ; a smaller plain is found at Beirut (Beyrout). For the most part the moun tains approach within not many miles of the coast, or even close to it, leaving only a narrow belt of lowland, which from remote antiquity has been traversed by a caravan- route. To the south of Tyre the cliffs sometimes advance so close to the sea that a passage for the road had to be hewn out of the rocks, as at Scala Tyriorum (Ras an- XVIII. 10 1