Editing Battle of Pharsalus (section)

==Location==
The location of the battlefield was for a long time the subject of controversy among scholars. Caesar himself, in his ''[[Commentarii de Bello Civili]]'', mentions few place-names;<ref>''Bellum Civile'' 3.81–98</ref> and although the battle is called after Pharsalos by modern authors, four ancient writers – the author of the ''Bellum Alexandrinum'' (48.1), [[Frontinus]] (''Strategemata'' 2.3.22), [[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]] (20), and [[Orosius]] (6.15.27) – place it specifically at ''Palae''pharsalus ("Old" Pharsalus). [[Strabo]] in his ''Geographica'' (''Γεωγραφικά'') mentions both old and new Pharsaloi, and notes that the Thetideion, the temple to [[Thetis]] south of Scotoussa, was near both. In 198 BC, in the [[Second Macedonian War]], [[Philip V of Macedon]] sacked Palaepharsalos ([[Livy]], ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'' 32.13.9), but left new Pharsalos untouched. These two details perhaps imply that the two cities were not close neighbours. Many scholars, therefore, unsure of the site of Palaepharsalos, followed [[Appian]] (2.75) and located the battle of 48 BC south of the Enipeus or close to Pharsalos (today's [[Pharsala]]).<ref>Map with conjectured locations, ''Annual of the British School at Athens'', No. XXIV, 1921 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30102514?seq=21]</ref> Among the scholars arguing for the south side are Béquignon (1928), Bruère (1951), and Gwatkin (1957).

An increasing number of scholars, however, have argued for a location on the north side of the river. These include Perrin (1885), Holmes (1908), [[F. L. Lucas|Lucas]] (1921), Rambaud (1955), Pelling (1973), Morgan (1983), and Sheppard (2006). John D. Morgan in his definitive "Palae-pharsalus – the Battle and the Town",<ref>''The American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 87, No. 1, Jan. 1983</ref> shows that Palaepharsalus cannot have been at Palaiokastro, as Béquignon thought (a site abandoned c. 500 BC), nor the hill of Fatih-Dzami within the walls of Pharsalus itself, as Kromayer (1903, 1931) and Gwatkin thought; and Morgan argues that it is probably also not the hill of Khtouri (Koutouri), some 7 miles north-west of Pharsalus on the south bank of the Enipeus, as Lucas and Holmes thought, although that remains a possibility. However, Morgan believes it is most likely to have been the hill just east of the village of {{ill|Krini Larisas|lt=Krini|el|Κρήνη Λάρισας|vertical-align=sup}} (Krini Larisas, formerly Driskoli) very close to the ancient highway from Larisa to Pharsalus. This site is some {{convert|6|mi|km|spell=in}} north of Pharsalus, and three miles north of the river Enipeus, and not only has remains dating back to [[Neolithic]] times but also signs of habitation in the 1st century BC and later. The identification seems to be confirmed by the location of a place misspelled "Palfari" or "Falaphari" shown on a medieval route map of the road just north of Pharsalus. Morgan places Pompey's camp a mile to the west of Krini, just north of the village of Avra (formerly Sarikayia), and Caesar's camp some four miles to the east-south-east of Pompey's. According to this reconstruction, therefore, the battle took place not between Pharsalus and the river, as Appian wrote, but between Old Pharsalus and the river.

An interesting side-note on Palaepharsalus is that it was sometimes identified in ancient sources with [[Phthia]], the home of [[Achilles]].<ref>Holmes (1908), p. 275; cf. Strabo, ''Geography'', 9.5.6; [[Little Iliad]] frag. 19; Euripides ''Andromache'' 16ff.</ref> Near Old and New Pharsalus was a [[Thetidium|"Thetideion"]], or temple dedicated to [[Thetis]], the mother of [[Achilles]]. However, [[Phthia]], the kingdom of Achilles and his father [[Peleus]], is more usually identified with the lower valley of the [[Spercheios]] river, much further south.<ref>Allen, T. W. (1906). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/694919 "Μυρμιδόνων Πόλις"]. ''The Classical Review'', Vol. 20, No. 4 (May, 1906), pp. 193–201; cf. p. 196.</ref><ref>[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/phthia-e924400 Phthia] in Brill's New Paully encyclopaedia.</ref>