Its inhabitants were wild and hardy, and it produced the most celebrated breed of horses in Greece.

It was from Thessaly that the Hellenes commenced their progress over Greece--it was in the kingdoms of Thessaly that the race of Achilles held their sway; but its later history was not calculated to revive the fame of the Homeric hero; it appears to have shared but little of the republican spirit of the more famous states of Greece.

Divided into four districts (Thessaliotis, Pelasgiotis, Phthiotis, and Hestiaeotis), the various states of Thessaly were governed either by hereditary princes or nobles of vast possessions.

An immense population of serfs, or penestae, contributed to render the chiefs of Thessaly powerful in war and magnificent in peace.

Their common country fell into insignificance from the want of a people--but their several courts were splendid from the wealth of a nobility.
XII.