DO´TIUS CAMPUS
DO´TIUS CAMPUS (τὸ Δώτιον πεδίον), the name of a plain in Pelasgiotis in Thessaly, situated south of Ossa, along the western side of the lake Boebeis. It is mentioned as the earliest seat of the Aenianes. (Strab. i. p.61, ix. p. 442; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 13.) Hesiod speaks of “twin hills in the Dotian plain opposite to the vine-bearing Amyrus,” said to have been the dwelling-place of Coronis, mother of Aesculapius by Apollo, who put her to death because she had favoured Ischys, son of Eilatus. (Hesiod, ap. Strab. ix. p.442, xiv. p. 647; comp. Hom. Hymn. xv.; Callim. Hymn. in Cer. 25.) Leake identifies this double hill of Hesiod with a very remarkable height, rising like an island out of a plain, about four miles in circumference, and having two summits connected by a ridge: between them is a village called Petra, from which the hill derives its name. The north-eastern summit of the hill is surrounded by foundations of Hellenic walls of remote antiquity. We learn from Pindar that the town on this hill was called LACEREIA (Λακέρεια, Pind. P. 3.59), to which, however, other writers give the name of Dotium (Steph. B. sub voce Δώτιον; Plin. Nat. 4.9. s. 16). (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 420, 447, 451.)