Meliboea

1.

An ancient town of Magnesia in Thessaly, mentioned by Homer as one of the places subject to Philoctetes (Il. 2.717). It was situated upon the sea-coast (Hdt. 7.188; Scylax, p. 25; Apollon. 1.592), andis described by Livy (44.13) as situated at the roots of Mt. Ossa, and by Strabo (ix. p.443) as lying in the gulf between Ossa and Pelium. Leake therefore places it near Aghiá (Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 414). Meliboea was taken and plundered by the Romans under Cn. Octavius, B.C. 168. (Liv. xliv 46: Meliboea is also mentioned by Strab. ix. p.436; Steph. B. sub voce Mela, 2.3; Plin. Nat. 4.9. s. 16.)

The Meliboean purple is said by Lucretius (2.499; Verg. A. 5.251) to have derived its name from this town. Many modern writers, however, suppose the name to have come from the small island Meliboea at the mouth of the Orontes in Syria; but there is no reason for this supposition, as the shellfish from which the purple dye is obtained is found in the present day off the coast of Thessaly.

2.

A town of Histiaeotis in Thessaly, is conjectured by Leake to be represented by Voivóda. (Liv. 36.13; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 536.)