The area is mostly famous for being the birthplace of the mythical ancient Greek hero Achilles, and the site of a major battle between Roman generals Gaius Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in 48 BC.

The Homeric Phthia of the Mycenaean period, capital of the Kingdom of the Myrmidons and of Peleus, father of Achilles, has sometimes been identified with the later city of Pharsalos (Greek: Φάρσαλος), now Farsala.

A Cyclopean Wall which protected a city still exists today near modern Farsala, as does a vaulted tomb from that period.

This is supported by excavated remains of a fortified site called Xylades near Enipeus, which is located in the easternmost part of the Pharsalian territory.

The Pharsalos of the historic era was built over a hillside of the Narthacius mountains at an elevation of some 160 m, where modern Farsala stands.

The city during the classical period was influential as demonstrated in the influence wielded by the tetrarch Daochos, who ruled from Pharsalos.

[9] In the war between Antiochus III and the Romans, Pharsalus was for a time in the possession of the Syrian monarch; but on the retreat of the latter, it surrendered to the consul Acilius Glabrio in 191 BC.

The Battle of Pharsalus, where Julius Caesar defeated Pompey and changed the course of the Roman Republic forever, took place in 48 BC in the fields of the Pharsalian Plain.

Although the battle of 48 BC is called after Pharsalos, four ancient writers – the author of the Bellum Alexandrinum (48.1), Frontinus (Strategemata 2.3.22), Eutropius (20), and Orosius (6.15.27) – place it specifically at Palaeopharsalos.

It has been suggested[11] that Krini was built on the site of Palaeopharsalos, where the old road south from Larissa emerged from the hills on to the Pharsalian Plain.

The contemporary town has no historical or medieval buildings left as a result of a World War II bombardment and a catastrophic earthquake that struck the area in 1954.