39°30′02″N22°18′09″E / 39.50051°N 22.30245°E /39.50051; 22.30245

Cranon (Ancient Greek:Κρανών) orCrannon (Κραννών) was a town andpolis (city-state)^[1] ofPelasgiotis, inancient Thessaly, situated southwest ofLarissa, and at the distance of 100stadia fromGyrton, according toStrabo.^[2] Spelling differs among the sources: Κράννων and ῂ Κράννωνοϛ;^[3] Κραννών,^[4] Κράννουν,^[5] and Κράννουϛ.^[6] To the west it bounded with the territory ofAtrax and to the east with that ofScotussa. To the south the ridges of the Revenia separated it from the valley of the riverEnipeus.^[7]

Its most ancient name is said to have beenEphyra (Ὲφύρη or Ὲφύρα), so called prior to the arrival of theThessalians;^[6] andHomer, in his account of the wars of the Ephyri and Phlegyae, is supposed by the ancient commentators to have meant the people afterwards called Crannonians and Gyrtonians respectively.^[8][9][10]Pindar likewise speaks of the Crannonii under the name of Ephyraei.^[11]

In theAncient Olympic Games of 648 BCE,Crauxidas the Crannonian (or Craxilas) won the horse race.^[12] In the6th century BCE the most prominent family in the city's political life was theScopadae,^[13] whose numerous flocks and herds grazed in the fertile plain surrounding the city.^[14] Diactorides, one of the Scopadae of Crannon, was a suitor for the hand of the daughter ofCleisthenes of Sicyon.^[15]Simonides of Ceos resided some time at Crannon, under the patronage of the Scopadae; and there was a celebrated story current in antiquity respecting the mode in which theDioscuri preserved the poet's life when the Scopadae were crushed by the falling in of the roof of a building.^[16]

In the first year of thePeloponnesian War (431 BCE) the Crannonians, together with some of the other Thessalians, sent troops to the assistance of theAthenians.^[17] In 394 BCE they are mentioned as allies of theBoeotians, who molestedSpartan kingAgesilaus II in his march through Thessaly on his return from Asia.^[18]

In 369 BCE theAleuadae conspired with the inhabitants ofLarissa to overthrow thetyrantAlexander of Pherae. They convinced theking of MacedonAlexander II to help them. While the tyrant was busy with the recruitment of troops, Alexander II presented himself with his army in Larissa and seized the city. He then took theacropolis and, afterwards Cranon was won for his cause,^[19] and Alexander II presumably established a garrison at Cranon. That garrison was probably withdrawn as was a similar one fromLarissa whenPelopidas at the head of theBoeotian forces invited by the Thessalians arrived to liberate their cities and overthrow the tyranny of Alexander of Pherae.^[20]

After theBattle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), thePhocians fought inLamia and in theBattle of Crannon againstAntipater and his army.^[21] This wasthe decisive battle of theLamian War betweenMacedon andAthens with its allies.

In 191 BCE, Crannon was taken bySelecuid kingAntiochus III.^[22] It is mentioned again in the war withPerseus of Macedon.^[23]Catullus speaks of it as a declining place in his time (first century BCE): "Deseritur Scyros: linquunt Phthiotica Tempe, Cranonisque domos, ac moenia Larissaea."^[24] Its name occurs inPliny.^[25]

In astele of the first century BCE, an inscription related to a certain Polixenus, son of Minomachus, appears in an act of emancipation at Cranon as astrategos and as a manumitor. As he liberates aslave in this city and the inscription does not specify his ethnicity,Bruno Helly deduces that he was from Cranon,^[26] contradicting the opinion ofFriedrich Stählin,^[27] who claimed that "no strategoi of Thessaly originating in Cranon are found."

The firstepigraphic reference to thepolis of the Cranionians (πόλις Κραννουνίων) is in an honorific decree of the 3rd century BCE.^[28]

There are ruins of Cranon at a place called Palealarissa, in the modern municipal unit ofKrannonas.^[29][30]

At an indeterminate date Cranon was a walled and fortified city, but almost nothing is known about the urban centre and theacropolis, except for a possible temple ofAthena Polias erected on it.^[31] There were also temples ofAesclepius,Apollo,Poseidon andZeus.^[32] The city minted silver coins in the fifth century BCE (480-400 BCE) and bronze coins in the fourth century BCE.Drachmas, tetrobols, triobols,obols and hemiobols of theAeginan type have been preserved, with the legend ΚΡΑ or ΚΡΑΝ or ΚΡΑΝΟ.^[33]

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Cranon".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.