Sperchiae or Sperchiai () or Spercheiae or Spercheiai (Σπερχείαι) was a fortress in

Ainis Ainis (, , Modern Greek , ) or Aeniania (), was a Regions of ancient Greece, region of ancient Greece located near Lamia (city), Lamia in modern Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece, roughly corresponding to the upper valley of the S ...

ancient Thessaly Thessaly or Thessalia (Attic Greek: , ''Thessalía'' or , ''Thettalía'') was one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece. During the Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean period, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of ...

, which, according to the description of

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

, would seem to have been situated at no great distance from the sources of the

Spercheius The Spercheios (, ''Sperkheiós''), also known as the Spercheus from its Latin name, is a river in Phthiotis in central Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . It was worshipped as a god in the ancient Greek religion and appears in some ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

mentions a place Spercheia between Echinus and Thebes in Phthiotis; and

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

places Sperchios in Doris.

William Smith William, Willie, Will, Bill, or Billy Smith may refer to: Academics * William Smith (Master of Clare College, Cambridge) (1556–1615), English academic * William Smith (antiquary) (c. 1653–1735), English antiquary and historian of University C ...

concludes it probable that these three names indicate the same place. Livy relates that the place was destroyed by the Aetolians in 198 BCE. Sperchiae's site is at a place called Kastrorakhi.

References

Populated places in ancient Thessaly Former populated places in Greece Ainis {{AncientThessaly-geo-stub