Scarphe

Scarphe ( Ancient Greek: Σκάρφη)^[1] or Scarpheia (Σκάρφεια)^[2]^[3] was a town of the Epicnemidian Locrians, mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.^[1] According to Strabo it was 10 stadia from the sea, 30 stadia from Thronium, and a little less from some other place of which the name is lost, probably Nicaea.^[2] Moreover, Scarphe was reported to be occupying the territory of Augeiae, which had disappeared by his time.^[2] It appears from Pausanias that it lay on the direct road from Elateia to Thermopylae by Thronium,^[4] and likewise from Livy, who states that Lucius Quinctius Flamininus marched from Elateia by Thronium and Scarpheia to Heraclea.^[5] It was also the site of the Battle of Scarpheia in 146 BCE. Scarpheia is said by Strabo to have been destroyed by an inundation of the sea ( tsunami) caused by an earthquake^[6] in 426 BCE,^[7] but it must have been afterwards rebuilt, as it is mentioned by subsequent writers down to a late period, including Pliny the Elder,^[8] Ptolemy,^[9] Hierocles,^[10] Stephanus of Byzantium,^[3] and the Geographer of Ravenna.^[11] Scarpheia is also mentioned by Lycophron,^[12] Appian,^[13] and Pausanias.^[14]

It was, together with Thronium, one of the only cities of Epicnemidian Locris that minted coins.

The site of the ancient town is tentatively identified as near Molos.^[15]^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.532.
^ ^a ^b ^c Strabo. Geographica. Vol. 9.4.4-5. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
^ ^a ^b Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
^ Pausanias (1918). "15.3". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
^ Livy. Ab urbe condita Libri [History of Rome]. Vol. 33.3.
^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. 1.3.20. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
^ according to the United States National Geophysical Data Center
^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 4.7.12.
^ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 3.15.11.
^ Hierocles. Synecdemus. Vol. p. 643.
^ Geog. Rav. 4.10.
^ Lycophr. 1147
^ App. Syr. 19
^ Pausanias (1918). "29.3". Description of Greece. Vol. 2. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., 10.1.2.
^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Scarphe". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

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