Farsala in the context of "Enipeas (Thessaly)"

The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in Central Greece. Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the Roman Republic under the command of Pompey. Pompey had the backing of a majority of Roman senators and his army significantly outnumbered the veteran Caesarian legions.

Pressured by his officers, Pompey reluctantly engaged in battle and suffered an overwhelming defeat, ultimately fleeing the camp and his men, disguised as an ordinary citizen. Eventually making his way to Egypt, he was assassinated upon his arrival at the order of Ptolemy XIII.

De Bello Civili (Latin pronunciation: [deː ˈbɛlloː kiːˈwiːliː]; On the Civil War), more commonly referred to as the Pharsalia (Latin: [pʰarˈsaːlia], neuter plural), is a Roman epic poem written by the poet Lucan, detailing the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great. The poem's title is a reference to the Battle of Pharsalus, which occurred in 48 BC near Pharsalus, Thessaly, in Northern Greece. Caesar decisively defeated Pompey in this battle, which occupies all of the epic's seventh book. In the early twentieth century, translator J. D. Duff, while arguing that "no reasonable judgment can rank Lucan among the world's great epic poets", notes that the work is notable for Lucan's decision to eschew divine intervention and downplay supernatural occurrences in the events of the story. Scholarly estimation of Lucan's poem and poetry has since changed, as explained by commentator Philip Hardie in 2013: "In recent decades, it has undergone a thorough critical re-evaluation, to re-emerge as a major expression of Neronian politics and aesthetics, a poem whose studied artifice enacts a complex relationship between poetic fantasy and historical reality."

The Exaltation of the Flower (L'Exaltation de la Fleur) is the modern title given to an early Classical Greek marble fragment of a funerary stele from the 5th century BCE. It was discovered in 1861 by Léon Heuzey and Honoré Daumet at a church in Farsala, Thessaly, Greece. Carved in bas-relief in the severe style, the extant upper fragment of the marble relief stele depicts two women holding what appear to be flowers or other objects. The work is held by the Louvre museum in the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities (inv. Ma 701).

Ormenium (Ancient Greek: Ὀρμένιον) was a town of ancient Thessaly, mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships in Homer's Iliad, along with Hypereia and Asterium, as belonging to Eurypylus. In Greek mythology, it was said to have been founded by Ormenus, the grandson of Aeolus, and was the birthplace of Phoenix (a grandson of Ormenus). Strabo identifies this town with a place in Magnesia named Orminium, situated at the foot of Mt. Pelion near the Pagasaean Gulf, at the distance of 27 stadia from Demetrias, on the road passing through Iolcus, which was 7 stadia from Demetrias and 20 from Orminium. William Martin Leake, however, observes that the Ormenium of Homer can hardly have been the same as the Orminium of Strabo, since it appears from the situation of Asterium that Eurypylus ruled over the plains of Thessaliotis, which are watered by the Apidanus and Enipeus. The questioning of Strabo's equation of Ormenium with Orminium is still the norm among current scholars; some believing that, instead, Ormenium should be close to Pharsalus, in a Mycenaean site in modern Ktouri. Some archaeologists have related it to the remains found on the Goritsa hill. Others point to a site otherwise called Armenium at Petra. While others leave the site as unlocated.

Phylace or Phylake (Ancient Greek: Φυλάκη, [ˌfyˈlaˌkɛː]), was a town and polis (city-state) of Phthiotis in ancient Thessaly. According to Greek mythology, this city was founded by Phylacus. In Ancient Greece, Phylace was a kingdom. Homer writes that this was one of the places subject to Protesilaus, who was the first Greek hero killed in the Trojan War, and the place is frequently mentioned in the Homeric poems. It contained a temple of Protesilaus. Pliny erroneously calls it a town of Magnesia. Strabo describes it as standing between Pharsalus and Phthiotic Thebes, at the distance of about 100 stadia from the latter.

The site of ancient Phylace has traditionally been identified with a low hill at Kitiki (renamed Filaki), in the municipal unit of Filaki. As no inscriptions have been found at this location confirming the identification, it must be regarded as tentative. Another candidate is the hill of Dervisi close to Aerino (formerly Persoufli).

Scotussa or Skotoussa (Ancient Greek: Σκοτοῦσσα or Σκοτοῦσα or Σκοτοτοῦσαι) was a town and polis (city-state) in the region of Pelasgiotis in ancient Thessaly. It was between Pherae and Pharsalus, near the border of Phthiotis, about 20 km (12 mi) to the west of Pherae.

Scotussa shows evidence of human activity from the Neolithic period onwards, including a Mycenaean settlement in the Late Helladic period which persisted into the Early Iron Age. It is not mentioned in Homer, though the geographer Strabo records an early tradition that the oracle of Dodona in Epirus originally came from this place. It was the home city of Polydamas, who won the pankration at the Olympic Games of 408 BCE. Xenophon records that the people of Scotussa, alongside the other peoples of Thessaly, fought against Agesilaus II of Sparta when he marched his forces through the region in 394 BCE. The city was taken by Alexander, tyrant of the nearby city of Pherae, in 367 BCE: it had previously been wealthy, and Alexander massacred its people, putting an end to its prosperity.

Thessaliotis (Ancient Greek: Θεσσαλιῶτις) was one of the four districts into which ancient Thessaly was divided. The others were Pelasgiotis, Histiaeotis, and Phthiotis. Thessaliotis corresponded to the central plain of Thessaly and the upper course of the river Peneius, so called because it was first occupied by the Thessalian conquerors from Epirus. Its major towns were: Pharsalus (the most important), Peirasia, Phyllus, Metropolis, Cierium, Euhydrium, and Thetidium.