Thronium

THRO´NIUM(Θρόνιον: Eth. Θρόνιος, Θρονίτης, Θρονιεύς).

1. The chief town of the Locri Epicnemidii, situated 20 stadia from the coast and 30 stadia from Scarpheia, upon the river Boagrius, which is described by Strabo as sometimes dry, and sometimes flowing with a stream two plethra in breadth. (Strab. 9. p. 436.) It is mentioned by Homer, who speaks of it as near the river Boagrius. ( Il. 2.533.) It was at one time partly destroyed by an earthquake. (Strab. 1. p. 60.) At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 431) Thronium was taken by the Athenians. (Thuc. 2.26; Diod. 12.44.) In the Sacred War it was taken by Onomarchus, the Phocian general, who sold its inhabitants into slavery, and hence it is called by Scylax a Phocian city. (Diod. 16.33; Aesch. de Fals. Leg. p. 45, 33; Scylax, p. 23.) (Thronium is also mentioned by Plb. 9.41, 17.9; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 264; Liv. 32.5, 6, 33.3, 35.37, 36.20; Paus. 5.22.4; Lycophr. 1148; Ptol. 3.15.7; Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 12; Steph. B. s. v.) The site of Thronium was ascertained by Meletius who found above the village Románi, at a place named Paleókastro, where some remains of the city still exist, a dedicatory inscription of the council and demus of the Thronienses. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 177, 178.)


2. A town in Greek Illyria in the neighbourhood of Amantia [AMANTIA], said to have been founded after the Trojan War by the Abantes of Euboea and the inhabitants of the Locrian Thronium. It was taken at an early period by the inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Apollonia, and annexed to their territory, as appears from an epigram inscribed on a dedicatory offering of the Apolloniatae at Olympia. (Paus. 5.22. § § 3, 4.)