[2] As with other Greek toponyms containing the consonantal string -ss-, spellings that drop one 's' exist alongside those that retain both in the ancient literary sources.

[8] Some early historians located it in Thrace, but Geoffrey Kirk has shown that they were confused by a mistake of Strabo, and that the site of Larisa in Troad fits well with the other mentions of the Pelasgians in the Iliad.

As a former member of the Mytilenaean peraia, it is thought that the Greeks who originally settled Larisa were from Mytilene, as was the case with the other Actaean cities.

[14] A corrupt passage of Strabo used to be understood as instead supporting the idea that Larisa and its neighbour to the north Kolonai belonged to the peraia of the island of Tenedos, but scholars now prefer to restore Lesbos in the lacuna.

[19] Beyond the Acheloos lay the territory of Kolonai, which appears to have been in some sort of semi-dependent relationship with Larisa, further increasing the city's revenues.

[21] However, the eminent French epigrapher Louis Robert consistently challenged this view, arguing that Larisa and Hamaxitus remained independent until after the Treaty of Apamea.