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Greek city of Pharsalos in Thessaly
Bronze 21mm (8.98 grams) Struck circa 300-200 B.C.
Reference: BCD Thessaly I, lot 1294; BCD Thessaly II, lot 671.1-2
Helmeted head of Athena facing three quarters to the left.
Helmeted cavalryman charging right on horseback, brandishing flail upon which bird perches.
One of the more important towns of Thessaly, Pharsalos was built on the northern slopes of Mt. Narthakios. It was the scene of Caesar’s famous victory over Pompey in 48 B.C.
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 Athena or Athene (Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in Greek mythology. Minerva, Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias (“Athena of the city”). Athens and Athena bear etymologically connected names.
Farsala (Greek: Φάρσαλα), known in Antiquity as Φάρσαλος, Pharsalos or Pharsalus, is a city in southern Thessaly, in Greece. Farsala is located in the southern part of Larissa Prefecture, and is one of its largest cities. The city is linked with GR-3, the old highway linking Larissa and Lamia and is also accessed by GR-30 linking Karditsa and Volos. The GR-1/E65 and E75 superhighway runs to the east of the city. Several mountain ranges lie to the South, while the Thessalian Plain lies to the North, some hills to the East and the Farsalian Fields in the central part. Farsala is located SE of Karditsa, S of Larissa, W of Volos and N of Lamia.
The area is an economic and agricultural centre of the province. The population are mainly rural especially with cotton production and breeding, one of the many are in local production units in agricultural production as well as clothing and textile industries. Farsala is famous for its distinctive halva. The population (2006) is about 13,500. The population in 1981 was 7,094, in 1991 8,413 and in 2001 9,801.
Ancient Pharsalos
The Homeric Phthia of the Mycenaean period, capital of the Kingdom of the Myrmidons and of Peleus, father of Achilles, has sometimes been identified with the later city of Farsalos (Greek: Φάρσαλος), now Pharsala. A Cyclopean Wall which protected a city still exists today near modern Pharsala, as does a vaulted tomb from that period.
The Pharsalos of the historic era was built over a hillside of the Narthacius mountains at an elevation of some 160 m, where modern Pharsala stands. It was one of the main cities in Thessaly and was the capital of the Phthian tetrarch. In the Persian Wars it sided with the Athenians. A distinctive tribe of the city was that of Echecratidon. In the early-4th century BC, the city was a part of the Thessalian Commons. Later, it joined the Macedonian Kingdom under Philip II. The area became a theatre of war where the Aetolians and the Thessalians clashed with the Macedonians, especially during the Second and the Third Macedonian Wars. After the defeat of the Macedonian Kingdom, Pharsalos and the whole area became a part of the Roman Republic. The whole area suffered great destruction during the Roman Civil War. The Battle of Pharsalus took place in 48 BC in the fields of the Pharsalian Plain, where Julius Caesar defeated Pompey.
The geographer Strabo speaks of two towns, Old Pharsalos (Palaepharsalos) and Pharsalos, existing in historical times. His statement (9.5.6) that the Thetideion, the temple to Thetis south of Skotoussa, was “near both the Pharsaloi, the Old and the New”, seems to imply that Palaepharsalos was not itself close by Pharsalos. Although the battle of 48 BC is called after Pharsalos, four ancient writers – the author of the Bellum Alexandrinum (48.1), Frontinus (Strategemata 2.3.22), Eutropius (20), and Orosius (6.15.27) – place it specifically at Palaepharsalos. In 198 B.C. Philip V had sacked Palaepharsalos (Livy 32.13.9). If that town had been close to Pharsalos he would have sacked both, and Livy would have written “Pharsalus” instead of “Palaepharsalus”. The British scholar F. L. Lucas demonstrated (Annual of the British School at Athens, No. XXIV, 1919-21) that the battle of 48 BC must have been fought north of the Enipeus, near modern-day Krini; and John D. Morgan in “Palae-pharsalus – the Battle and the Town” (The American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 87, No. 1, Jan. 1983), suggests that Krini is built on the site of Palaepharsalos, where the old road south from Larissa emerged from the hills on to the Pharsalian Plain.
Thessaly was home to extensive Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures around 6000-2500 BC (see Cardium Pottery, Dimini and Sesklo). Mycenaean settlements have also been discovered, for example at the sites of Iolcos, Dimini and Sesklo (near Volos). In Archaic and Classical times, the lowlands of Thessaly became the home of baronial families, such as the Aleuadae of Larissa or the Scopads of Crannon. In the 4th century BC Jason of Pherae transformed the region into a significant military power, recalling the glory of Early Archaic times. Shortly after, Philip II of Macedon was appointed Archon of Thessaly, and Thessaly was thereafter associated with the Macedonian Kingdom for the next centuries. Thessaly later became part of the Roman Empire as part of the province of Macedonia.
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