Thaumaci

{{Short description|Town and polis (city-state) of Phthiotis in Ancient Thessaly}}

{{distinguish|Thaumacia}}

{{For|founder|Thaumacus (mythology)}}

File:Thessaly.jpg

Thaumaci or Thaumacus ({{langx|grc|Θαυμακοί or Θαυμακός|Thaumakoi/Thaumakos}}), was a town and polis (city-state) of Phthiotis in Ancient Thessaly,{{cite book|author= Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen |title= An inventory of archaic and classical poleis|url= https://archive.org/details/inventoryarchaic00hans |url-access= limited |year= 2004|publisher= Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn= 0-19-814099-1|chapter= Thessaly and Adjacent Regions|pages= [https://archive.org/details/inventoryarchaic00hans/page/n732 716]-717}} was situated on the pass called Coela, on the road from Thermopylae and the Maliac Gulf passing through Lamia. The modern city of Domokos occupies its site.

At this place, says Livy, the traveller, after traversing rugged mountains and intricate valleys, comes suddenly in sight of an immense plain like a vast sea, the extremity of which is scarcely visible. From the astonishment which it excited in the traveller, the city was supposed to have derived its name. It stood upon a lofty and precipitous rock. It was besieged by Philip V of Macedon in 199 BCE; but a reinforcement of Aetolians having made their way into the town, the king was obliged to abandon the siege.{{Cite Livy|32.4.}} Thaumaci was taken by the consul Acilius in the war with Antiochus, 191 BCE.{{Cite Livy|36.14}}{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.434}}{{Cite Stephanus|s.v. Θαυμακία}} The modern town of Domokos occupies the site of Thaumaci,{{Cite Barrington|55}}{{Cite DARE|22752}} and at this place inscriptions were found containing the ancient name. Its situation and prospect are in exact accordance with the description of Livy, who copied from Polybius, an eye-witness. William Martin Leake observes that "at the southern end of the town a rocky point, overtopping the other heights, commands a magnificent prospect of the immense plain watered by the Peneius and its branches."Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 458. The town was Christianised at an early date and a bishopric was set up (see Thaumacensis).