DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0416
380 SITUATION OF BASILIS.
round rocky hill, where the vestiges of an ancient city, and some
foundations, composed of large blocks, seem to indicate the site of
Basilis. This city was in ruins in the time of Pausanias;' but it must
have been a place of some importance, if we may judge by the beauty
of its coinage. lAn unique medal of that city is preserved in the
British Museum ; it is a silver tetradrachm of the finest workman-
ship, and represents, on one side, a bearded head covered with the
Phrygian bonnet and a diadem, and supposed to be Dardarios. On
the reverse is a lyre : inscrip. BA2IA.2
Nearer the chain of Lycaeon is a village called Maura, and a tor-
rent-bed named Bathu Rheuma,3 in the vicinity of which we were
informed that flames were sometimes seen to burst from the ground.
It is no doubt the Bathos of Pausanias,* where he affirms that fire
rises from the ground. He places it at ten stadia from Basilis.
As the information which we obtained concerning this curious
spot was not received till after we had quitted Arcadia, we had no
opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the fire, or of comparing
it with the account of Pausanias. In all probability it proceeds
from the carburetted hydrogen, like the fire at Pietramala, in the
Bolognese Apennines, that near Apollonia in Epiros, and in many
other spots in different parts of the world.
In an hour and seven minutes from Kuparissia we reached the
northern extremity of the Megalopolitan plain, and crossed the
Alpheios over a bridge of four arches, forming a singularly pic-
turesque object. The river, which is here narrow but deep, is com-
pressed between rough and precipitous rocks, where it rushes for
some time with accelerated violence.
From the bridge we ascended for twenty-three minutes by a steep
and rocky way, and arrived at Karitena, a town situated on the
northern side of the Alpheios, and apparently peopled with about
1 B. 8. c. 29.
2 See remarks on a coiu of Basilis by Taylor Combe, Esq. Sec. R. S. Director: from the
Archaeologia, vol. 18. 3 Signifying the deep stream. * B. 8. C. 29-
round rocky hill, where the vestiges of an ancient city, and some
foundations, composed of large blocks, seem to indicate the site of
Basilis. This city was in ruins in the time of Pausanias;' but it must
have been a place of some importance, if we may judge by the beauty
of its coinage. lAn unique medal of that city is preserved in the
British Museum ; it is a silver tetradrachm of the finest workman-
ship, and represents, on one side, a bearded head covered with the
Phrygian bonnet and a diadem, and supposed to be Dardarios. On
the reverse is a lyre : inscrip. BA2IA.2
Nearer the chain of Lycaeon is a village called Maura, and a tor-
rent-bed named Bathu Rheuma,3 in the vicinity of which we were
informed that flames were sometimes seen to burst from the ground.
It is no doubt the Bathos of Pausanias,* where he affirms that fire
rises from the ground. He places it at ten stadia from Basilis.
As the information which we obtained concerning this curious
spot was not received till after we had quitted Arcadia, we had no
opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the fire, or of comparing
it with the account of Pausanias. In all probability it proceeds
from the carburetted hydrogen, like the fire at Pietramala, in the
Bolognese Apennines, that near Apollonia in Epiros, and in many
other spots in different parts of the world.
In an hour and seven minutes from Kuparissia we reached the
northern extremity of the Megalopolitan plain, and crossed the
Alpheios over a bridge of four arches, forming a singularly pic-
turesque object. The river, which is here narrow but deep, is com-
pressed between rough and precipitous rocks, where it rushes for
some time with accelerated violence.
From the bridge we ascended for twenty-three minutes by a steep
and rocky way, and arrived at Karitena, a town situated on the
northern side of the Alpheios, and apparently peopled with about
1 B. 8. c. 29.
2 See remarks on a coiu of Basilis by Taylor Combe, Esq. Sec. R. S. Director: from the
Archaeologia, vol. 18. 3 Signifying the deep stream. * B. 8. C. 29-