* * * * *
[He then assigns reasons for expatiating on the subject of the Achæans,
namely, their attainment of such a degree of power as to be superior to
the Lacedæmonians, and because they were not as well known as they
deserved to be from their importance.
[He then assigns reasons for expatiating on the subject of the Achæans,
namely, their attainment of such a degree of power as to be superior to
the Lacedæmonians, and because they were not as well known as they
deserved to be from their importance.
Strabo
It is
said that the Æginetæ were called Myrmidones, not as the fable accounts
for the name, when the ants were metamorphosed into men, at the time of
a great famine, by the prayer of Æacus; but because by digging, like
ants, they threw up the earth upon the rocks, and were thus made able to
cultivate the ground, and because they lived in excavations
under-ground, abstaining from the use of bricks and sparing of the soil
for this purpose.
Its ancient name was Œnone, which is the name of two of the demi in
Attica, one near Eleutheræ;
“to inhabit the plains close to Œnone, (Œnoe,) and Eleutheræ;”
and another, one of the cities of the Tetrapolis near Marathon, to which
the proverb is applied,
“Œnone (Œnoe? ) and its torrent. ”
Its [CAS. 375] inhabitants were in succession Argives, Cretans,
Epidaurians, and Dorians. At last the Athenians divided the island by
lot among settlers of their own. The Lacedæmonians, however, deprived
the Athenians of it, and restored it to the ancient inhabitants.
The Æginetæ sent out colonists to Cydonia[207] in Crete, and to the
Ombrici. According to Ephorus, silver was first struck as money by
Pheidon. The island became a mart, the inhabitants, on account of the
fertility of its soil, employing themselves at sea as traders; whence
goods of a small kind had the name of “Ægina wares. ”
17. The poet frequently speaks of places in succession as they are
situated;
“they who inhabited Hyria, and Aulis;”[208]
“and they who occupied Argos, and Tiryns,
Hermione, and Asine,
Trœzen, and Eïones. ”[209]
At other times he does not observe any order;
“Schœnus, and Scolus,
Thespeia, and Græa. ”[210]
He also mentions together places on the continent and islands
“they who held Ithaca,
and inhabited Crocyleia,”[211]
for Crocyleia is in Acarnania. Thus he here joins with Ægina Mases,
which belongs to the continent of Argolis.
Homer does not mention Thyreæ, but other writers speak of it as well
known. It was the occasion of a contest between the three hundred
Argives against the same number of Lacedæmonians; the latter were
conquerors by means of a stratagem of Othryadas. Thucydides places
Thyreæ in Cynuria, on the confines of Argia and Laconia. [212]
Hysiæ also is a celebrated place in Argolica; and Cenchreæ, which lies
on the road from Tegea to Argos, over the mountain Parthenius, and the
Creopolus. [213] But Homer was not acquainted with either of these
places, [nor with the Lyrceium, nor Orneæ, and yet they are villages in
the Argian territory; the former of the same name as the mountain there;
the latter of the same name as the Orneæ, situated between Corinth and
Sicyon]. [214]
18. Among the cities of the Peloponnesus, the most celebrated were, and
are at this time, Argos and Sparta, and as their renown is spread
everywhere, it is not necessary to describe them at length, for if we
did so, we should seem to repeat what is said by all writers.
Anciently, Argos was the most celebrated, but afterwards the
Lacedæmonians obtained the superiority, and continued to maintain their
independence, except during some short interval, when they experienced a
reverse of fortune.
The Argives did not admit Pyrrhus within the city. He fell before the
walls, an old woman having let a tile drop from a house upon his head.
They were, however, under the sway of other kings. When they belonged to
the Achæan league they were subjected, together with the other members
of that confederacy, to the power of the Romans. The city subsists at
present, and is second in rank to Sparta.
19. We shall next speak of those places which are said, in the Catalogue
of the Ships, to be under the government of Mycenæ and Agamemnon: the
lines are these:
“Those who inhabited Mycenæ, a well-built city,
and the wealthy Corinth, and Cleonæ well built,
and Orneiæ, and the lovely Aræthyrea,
and Sicyon, where Adrastus first reigned,
and they who inhabited Hyperesia, and the lofty Gonoessa,
and Pellene, and Ægium,
and the whole range of the coast, and those who
lived near the spacious Helice. ”[215]
Mycenæ exists no longer. It was founded by Perseus. Sthenelus succeeded
Perseus; and Eurystheus, Sthenelus. These same persons were kings of
Argos also. It is said that Eurystheus, having engaged, with the
assistance of the Athenians, in an expedition to Marathon against the
descendants of Hercules and Iolaus, fell in battle, and that the
remainder of his body was buried at Gargettus, but his head apart from
it at Tricorythus[216] (Corinth? ), Iolaus having severed it from the
body near the fountain Macaria, close to the chariot-road. The spot
itself has the name of “Eurystheus’-head. ”
Mycenæ then passed into the possession of the Pelopidæ, who had left the
Pisatis, then into that of the Heracleidæ, [CAS. 377] who were also
masters of Argos. But after the sea-fight at Salamis, the Argives,
together with the Cleonæi, and the Tegetæ, invaded Mycenæ, and razed it,
and divided the territory among themselves. The tragic writers, on
account of the proximity of the two cities, speak of them as one, and
use the name of one for the other. Euripides in the same play calls the
same city in one place Mycenæ, and in another Argos, as in the
Iphigeneia,[217] and in the Orestes. [218]
Cleonæ is a town situated upon the road leading from Argos to Corinth,
on an eminence, which is surrounded on all sides by dwellings, and well
fortified, whence, in my opinion, Cleonæ was properly described as “well
built. ” There also, between Cleonæ and Phlius, is Nemea, and the grove
where it was the custom of the Argives to celebrate the Nemean games:
here is the scene of the fable of the Nemean Lion, and here also the
village Bembina. Cleonæ is distant from Argos 120 stadia, and 80 from
Corinth. And we have ourselves beheld the city from the Acrocorinthus.
20. Corinth is said to be opulent from its mart. It is situated upon the
isthmus. It commands two harbours, one near Asia, the other near Italy,
and facilitates, by reason of so short a distance between them, an
exchange of commodities on each side.
As the Sicilian strait, so formerly these seas were of difficult
navigation, and particularly the sea above Maleæ, on account of the
prevalence of contrary winds; whence the common proverb,
“When you double Maleæ forget your home. ”
It was a desirable thing for the merchants coming from Asia, and from
Italy, to discharge their lading at Corinth without being obliged to
double Cape Maleæ. For goods exported from Peloponnesus, or imported by
land, a toll was paid to those who had the keys of the country. This
continued afterwards for ever. In after-times they enjoyed even
additional advantages, for the Isthmian games, which were celebrated
there, brought thither great multitudes of people. The Bacchiadæ, a rich
and numerous family, and of illustrious descent, were their rulers,
governed the state for nearly two hundred years, and peaceably enjoyed
the profits of the mart. Their power was destroyed by Cypselus, who
became king himself, and his descendants continued to exist for three
generations. A proof of the wealth of this family is the offering which
Cypselus dedicated at Olympia, a statue of Jupiter of beaten gold.
Demaratus, one of those who had been tyrant at Corinth, flying from the
seditions which prevailed there, carried with him from his home to
Tyrrhenia so much wealth, that he became sovereign of the city which had
received him, and his son became even king of the Romans.
The temple of Venus at Corinth was so rich, that it had more than a
thousand women consecrated to the service of the goddess, courtesans,
whom both men and women had dedicated as offerings to the goddess. The
city was frequented and enriched by the multitudes who resorted thither
on account of these women. Masters of ships freely squandered all their
money, and hence the proverb,
“It is not in every man’s power to go to Corinth. ”[219]
The answer is related of a courtesan to a woman who was reproaching her
with disliking work, and not employing herself in spinning;
“Although I am what you see, yet, in this short time, I have
already finished three distaffs. ”[220]
21. The position of the city as it is described by Hieronymus, and
Eudoxus, and others, and from our own observation, since its restoration
by the Romans, is as follows.
That which is called the Acrocorinthus is a lofty mountain,
perpendicular, and about three stadia and a half in height. There is an
ascent of 30 stadia, and it terminates in a sharp point. The steepest
part is towards the north. Below it lies the city in a plain of the form
of a trapezium, at the very foot of the Acrocorinthus. The compass of
the city itself was 40 stadia, and all that part which was not protected
by the mountain was fortified by a wall. Even the mountain itself, the
Acrocorinthus, was comprehended within this wall, wherever it would
admit of fortification. As I ascended it, the ruins of the circuit of
the foundation were apparent, which gave a circumference of about 85
stadia. The other sides of the mountain are less steep; hence, however,
it stretches onwards, [CAS. 379] and is visible everywhere. The summit
has upon it a small temple of Venus, and below it is the fountain
Peirene, which has no efflux, but is continually full of water, which is
transparent, and fit for drinking. They say, that from the compression
of this, and of some other small under-ground veins, originates that
spring at the foot of the mountain, which runs into the city, and
furnishes the inhabitants with a sufficient supply of water. There is a
large number of wells in the city, and it is said in the Acrocorinthus
also, but this I did not see. When Euripides says,
“I come from the Acrocorinthus, well-watered on all sides, the
sacred hill and habitation of Venus,”
the epithet “well-watered on all sides,” must be understood to refer to
depth; pure springs and under-ground rills are dispersed through the
mountain; or we must suppose, that, anciently, the Peirene overflowed,
and irrigated the mountain. There, it is said, Pegasus was taken by
Bellerophon, while drinking; this was a winged horse, which sprung from
the neck of Medusa when the head of the Gorgon was severed from the
body. This was the horse, it is said, which caused the Hippocrene, or
Horse’s Fountain, to spring up in Helicon by striking the rock with its
hoof.
Below Peirene is the Sisypheium, which preserves a large portion of the
ruins of a temple, or palace, built of white marble. From the summit
towards the north are seen Parnassus and Helicon, lofty mountains
covered with snow; then the Crissæan Gulf,[221] lying below both, and
surrounded by Phocis, Bœotia, Megaris, by the Corinthian district
opposite to Phocis, and by Sicyonia on the west. * * * *
Above all these are situated the Oneia[222] mountains, as they are
called, extending as far as Bœotia and Cithæron, from the Sceironides
rocks, where the road leads along them to Attica.
22. Lechæum is the commencement of the coast on one side; and on the
other, Cenchreæ, a village with a harbour, distant from the city about
70 stadia. The latter serves for the trade with Asia, and Lechæum for
that with Italy.
Lechæum is situated below the city, and is not well inhabited.
There are long walls of about 12 stadia in length, stretching on each
side of the road towards Lechæum. The sea-shore, extending hence to Pagæ
in Megaris, is washed by the Corinthian Gulf. It is curved, and forms
the Diolcus, or the passage along which vessels are drawn over the
Isthmus to the opposite coast at Schœnus near Cenchreæ.
Between Lechæum and Pagæ, anciently, there was the oracle of the Acræan
Juno, and Olmiæ, the promontory that forms the gulf, on which are
situated Œnoe, and Pagæ; the former is a fortress of the Megarians; and
Œnoe is a fortress of the Corinthians.
Next to Cenchreæ[223] is Schœnus, where is the narrow part of the
Diolcus, then Crommyonia. In front of this coast lies the Saronic Gulf,
and the Eleusiniac, which is almost the same, and continuous with the
Hermionic. Upon the Isthmus is the temple of the Isthmian Neptune,
shaded above with a grove of pine trees, where the Corinthians
celebrated the Isthmian games.
Crommyon[224] is a village of the Corinthian district, and formerly
belonging to that of Megaris, where is laid the scene of the fable of
the Crommyonian sow, which, it is said, was the dam of the Calydonian
boar, and, according to tradition, the destruction of this sow was one
of the labours of Theseus.
Tenea is a village of the Corinthian territory, where there was a temple
of Apollo Teneates. It is said that Archias, who equipped a colony for
Syracuse, was accompanied by a great number of settlers from this place;
and that this settlement afterwards flourished more than any others, and
at length had an independent form of government of its own. When they
revolted from the Corinthians, they attached themselves to the Romans,
and continued to subsist when Corinth was destroyed.
An answer of an oracle is circulated, which was returned to an Asiatic,
who inquired whether it was better to migrate to Corinth;
“Corinth is prosperous, but I would belong to Tenea”
which [CAS. 380] last word was perverted by some through ignorance, and
altered to Tegea. Here, it is said, Polybus brought up Œdipus.
There seems to be some affinity between the Tenedii and these people,
through Tennus, the son of Cycnus, according to Aristotle; the
similarity, too, of the divine honours paid by both to Apollo affords no
slight proof of this relationship. [225]
23. The Corinthians, when subject to Philip, espoused his party very
zealously, and individually conducted themselves so contemptuously
towards the Romans, that persons ventured to throw down filth upon their
ambassadors, when passing by their houses. They were immediately
punished for these and other offences and insults. A large army was sent
out under the command of Lucius Mummius, who razed the city. [226] The
rest of the country, as far as Macedonia, was subjected to the Romans
under different generals. The Sicyonii, however, had the largest part of
the Corinthian territory.
Polybius relates with regret what occurred at the capture of the city,
and speaks of the indifference the soldiers showed for works of art, and
the sacred offerings of the temples. He says, that he was present, and
saw pictures thrown upon the ground, and soldiers playing at dice upon
them. Among others, he specifies by name the picture of Bacchus[227] by
Aristeides, (to which it is said the proverb was applied, “Nothing to
the Bacchus,”) and Hercules tortured in the robe, the gift of
Deïaneira. [228] This I have not myself seen, but I have seen the picture
of the Bacchus suspended in the Demetreium at Rome, a very beautiful
piece of art, which, together with the temple, was lately consumed by
fire. The greatest number and the finest of the other offerings in Rome
were brought from Corinth. Some of them were in the possession of the
cities in the neighbourhood of Rome. For Mummius being more brave and
generous than an admirer of the arts, presented them without hesitation
to those who asked for them. [229] Lucullus, having built the temple of
Good Fortune, and a portico, requested of Mummius the use of some
statues, under the pretext of ornamenting the temple with them at the
time of its dedication, and promised to restore them. He did not,
however, restore, but presented them as sacred offerings, and told
Mummius to take them away if he pleased. Mummius did not resent this
conduct, not caring about the statues, but obtained more honour than
Lucullus, who presented them as sacred offerings.
Corinth remained a long time deserted, till at length it was restored on
account of its natural advantages by divus Cæsar, who sent colonists
thither, who consisted, for the most part, of the descendants of
free-men.
On moving the ruins, and digging open the sepulchres, an abundance of
works in pottery with figures on them, and many in brass, were found.
The workmanship was admired, and all the sepulchres were examined with
the greatest care. Thus was obtained a large quantity of things, which
were disposed of at a great price, and Rome filled with Necro-Corinthia,
by which name were distinguished the articles taken out of the
sepulchres, and particularly the pottery. At first these latter were
held in as much esteem as the works of the Corinthian artists in brass,
but this desire to have them did not continue, not only because the
supply failed, but because the greatest part of them were not well
executed. [230]
The city of Corinth was large and opulent at all periods, and produced a
great number of statesmen and artists. For here in particular, and at
Sicyon, flourished painting, and modelling, and every art of this kind.
The soil was not very fertile; its surface was uneven and [CAS. 382]
rugged, whence all writers describe Corinth as full of brows of hills,
and apply the proverb,
“Corinth rises with brows of hills, and sinks into hollows. ”
24. Orneæ has the same name as the river which flows beside it. At
present it is deserted; formerly, it was well inhabited, and contained a
temple of Priapus, held in veneration. It is from this place that
Euphronius, (Euphorius? ) the author of a poem, the Priapeia, applies the
epithet Orneates to the god.
It was situated above the plain of the Sicyonians, but the Argives were
masters of the country.
Aræthyrea[231] is now called Phliasia. It had a city of the same name as
the country near the mountain Celossa. They afterwards removed thence
and built a city at the distance of 30 stadia, which they called
Phlius. [232] Part of the mountain Celossa is the Carneates, whence the
Asopus takes its rise, which flows by Sicyon,[233] and forms the Asopian
district, which is a part of Sicyonia. There is also an Asopus, which
flows by Thebes, and Platæa, and Tanagra. There is another also in
Heracleia Trachinia, which flows beside a village, called Parasopii, and
a fourth at Paros.
Phlius is situated in the middle of a circle formed by Sicyonia, Argeia,
Cleonæ, and Stymphalus. At Phlius and at Sicyon the temple of Dia, a
name given to Hebe, is held in veneration.
25. Sicyon was formerly called Mecone, and at a still earlier period,
Ægiali. It was rebuilt high up in the country about 20, others say,
about 12, stadia from the sea, upon an eminence naturally strong, which
is sacred to Ceres. The buildings anciently consisted of a naval arsenal
and a harbour.
Sicyonia is separated by the river Nemea from the Corinthian territory.
It was formerly governed for a very long period by tyrants, but they
were always persons of mild and moderate disposition. Of these, the most
illustrious was Aratus, who made the city free, and was the chief of the
Achæans, who voluntarily conferred upon him that power; he extended the
confederacy by annexing to it his own country, and the other
neighbouring cities.
Hyperesia, and the cities next in order in the Catalogue of the poet,
and Ægialus,[234] [or the sea-coast,] as far as Dyme, and the borders of
the Eleian territory, belong to the Achæans.
CHAPTER VII.
1. The Ionians, who were descendants of the Athenians, were, anciently,
masters of this country. It was formerly called Ægialeia, and the
inhabitants Ægialeans, but in later times, Ionia, from the former
people, as Attica had the name of Ionia, from Ion the son of Xuthus.
It is said, that Hellen was the son of Deucalion, and that he governed
the country about Phthia between the Peneius and Asopus, and transmitted
to his eldest son these dominions, sending the others out of their
native country to seek a settlement each of them for himself. Dorus, one
of them, settled the Dorians about Parnassus, and when he left them,
they bore his name. Xuthus, another, married the daughter of Erechtheus,
and was the founder of the Tetrapolis of Attica, which consisted of
Œnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
Achæus, one of the sons of Xuthus, having committed an accidental
murder, fled to Lacedæmon, and occasioned the inhabitants to take the
name of Achæans. [235]
Ion, the other son, having vanquished the Thracian army with their
leader Eumolpus, obtained so much renown, that the Athenians intrusted
him with the government of their state. It was he who first distributed
the mass of the people into four tribes, and these again into four
classes according to their occupations, husbandmen, artificers, priests,
and the fourth, military guards; after having made many more regulations
of this kind, he left to the country his own name.
It [CAS. 383] happened at that time that the country had such an
abundance of inhabitants, that the Athenians sent out a colony of
Ionians to Peloponnesus, and the tract of country which they occupied
was called Ionia after their own name, instead of Ægialeia, and the
inhabitants Ionians instead of Ægialeans, who were distributed among
twelve cities.
After the return of the Heracleidæ, these Ionians, being expelled by the
Achæans, returned to Athens, whence, in conjunction with the Codridæ,
(descendants of Codrus,) they sent out the Ionian colonists to
Asia. [236] They founded twelve cities on the sea-coast of Caria and
Lydia, having distributed themselves over the country into as many parts
as they occupied in Peloponnesus. [237]
The Achæans were Phthiotæ by descent, and were settled at Lacedæmon, but
when the Heracleidæ became masters of the country, having recovered
their power under Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, they attacked the
Ionians, as I said before, and defeated them. They drove the Ionians out
of the country, and took possession of the territory, but retained the
same partition of it which they found existing there. They became so
powerful, that, although the Heracleidæ, from whom they had revolted,
occupied the rest of Peloponnesus, yet they defended themselves against
them all, and called their own country Achæa.
From Tisamenus to Ogyges they continued to be governed by kings.
Afterwards they established a democracy, and acquired so great renown
for their political wisdom, that the Italian Greeks, after their
dissensions with the Pythagoreans, adopted most of the laws and
institutions of the Achæans. After the battle of Leuctra the
Thebans[238] committed the disputes of the cities among each other to
the arbitration of the Achæans. At a later period their community was
dissolved by the Macedonians, but they recovered by degrees their former
power. At the time of the expedition of Pyrrhus into Italy they began
with the union of four cities, among which were Patræ and Dyme. [239]
They then had an accession of the twelve cities, with the exception of
Olenus and Helice; the former refused to join the league; the other was
swallowed up by the waves.
2. For the sea was raised to a great height by an earthquake, and
overwhelmed both Helice and the temple of the Heliconian Neptune, whom
the Ionians still hold in great veneration, and offer sacrifices to his
honour. They celebrate at that spot the Panionian festival. [240]
According to the conjecture of some persons, Homer refers to these
sacrifices in these lines,
“But he breathed out his soul, and bellowed, as a bull
Bellows when he is dragged round the altar of the Heliconian
king. ”[241]
It is conjectured that the age[242] of the poet is later than the
migration of the Ionian colony, because he mentions the Panionian
sacrifices, which the Ionians perform in honour of the Heliconian
Neptune in the territory of Priene; for the Prienians themselves are
said to have come from Helice; a young man also of Priene is appointed
to preside as king at these sacrifices, and to superintend the
celebration of the sacred rites. A still stronger proof is adduced from
what is said by the poet respecting the bull, for the Ionians suppose,
that sacrifice is performed with favourable omens, when the bull bellows
at the instant that he is wounded at the altar.
Others deny this, and transfer to Helice the proofs alleged of the bull
and the sacrifice, asserting that these things were done there by
established custom, and that the poet drew his comparison from the
festival celebrated there. Helice[243] was overwhelmed by the waves two
years before the battle of [CAS. 384] Leuctra. Eratosthenes says, that
he himself saw the place, and the ferrymen told him that there formerly
stood in the strait a brazen statue of Neptune, holding in his hand a
hippocampus,[244] an animal which is dangerous to fishermen.
According to Heracleides, the inundation took place in his time, and
during the night. The city was at the distance of 12 stadia from the
sea, which overwhelmed the whole intermediate country as well as the
city. Two thousand men were sent by the Achæans to collect the dead
bodies, but in vain. The territory was divided among the bordering
people. This calamity happened in consequence of the anger of Neptune,
for the Ionians, who were driven from Helice, sent particularly to
request the people of Helice to give them the image of Neptune, or if
they were unwilling to give that, to furnish them with the model of the
temple. On their refusal, the Ionians sent to the Achæan body, who
decreed, that they should comply with the request, but they would not
obey even this injunction. The disaster occurred in the following
winter, and after this the Achæans gave the Ionians the model of the
temple.
Hesiod mentions another Helice in Thessaly.
3. The Achæans, during a period of five and twenty years, elected,
annually, a common secretary, and two military chiefs. Their common
assembly of the council met at one place, called Arnarium, (Homarium, or
Amarium,) where these persons, and, before their time, the Ionians,
consulted on public affairs. They afterwards resolved to elect one
military chief. When Aratus held this post, he took the Acrocorinthus
from Antigonus, and annexed the city as well as his own country to the
Achæan league. [245] He admitted the Megareans also into the body, and,
having destroyed the tyrannical governments in each state, he made them
members, after they were restored to liberty, of the Achæan league. * *
* * * He freed, in a short time, Peloponnesus from the existing
tyrannies; thus Argos, Hermion, Phlius, and Megalopolis, the largest of
the Arcadian cities, were added to the Achæan body, when they attained
their greatest increase of numbers. It was at this time that the Romans,
having expelled the Carthaginians from Sicily, undertook an expedition
against the Galatæ, who were settled about the Po. [246] The Achæans
remained firmly united until Philopœmen had the military command, but
their union was gradually dissolved, after the Romans had obtained
possession of the whole of Greece. The Romans did not treat each state
in the same manner, but permitted some to retain their own form of
government, and dissolved that of others.
* * * * *
[He then assigns reasons for expatiating on the subject of the Achæans,
namely, their attainment of such a degree of power as to be superior to
the Lacedæmonians, and because they were not as well known as they
deserved to be from their importance. ][247]
4. The order of the places which the Achæans inhabited, according to the
distribution into twelve parts, is as follows. Next to Sicyon is
Pellene; Ægeira, the second; the third, Ægæ, with a temple of Neptune;
Bura, the fourth; then Helice, where the Ionians took refuge after their
defeat by the Achæans, and from which place they were at last banished;
after Helice are Ægium, Rhypes, Patræ, and Phara; then Olenus, beside
which runs the large river [Peirus? ]; then Dyme, and Tritæeis. The
Ionians dwelt in villages, but the Achæans founded cities, to some of
which they afterwards united others transferred from other quarters, as
Ægæ to Ægeira, (the inhabitants, however, were called Ægæi,) and Olenus
to Dyme.
Traces of the ancient settlement of the Olenii are to be seen between
Patræ and Dyme: there also is the famous temple of Æsculapius, distant
from Dyme 40, and from Patræ 80 stadia.
In Eubœa there is a place of the same name with the [CAS. 386] Ægæ
here, and there is a town of the name of Olenus in Ætolia, of which
there remain only vestiges.
The poet does not mention the Olenus in Achaia, nor many other people
living near Ægialus, but speaks in general terms;
“along the whole of Ægialus, and about the spacious Helice. ”[248]
But he mentions the Ætolian Olenus in these words;
“those who occupied Pleuron and Olenus. ”[249]
He mentions both the places of the name of Ægæ; the Achæan Ægæ in these
terms,
“who bring presents to Helice, and to Ægæ. ”[250]
But when he says,
“Ægæ, where his palace is in the depths of the sea,
There Neptune stopped his coursers,”[251]
it is better to understand Ægæ in Eubœa; whence it is probable the Ægæan
Sea had its name. On this sea, according to story, Neptune made his
preparations for the Trojan war.
Close to the Achæan Ægæ flows the river Crathis,[252] augmented by the
waters of two rivers, and deriving its name from the mixture of their
streams. To this circumstance the river Crathis in Italy owes its name.
5. Each of these twelve portions contained seven or eight demi, so great
was the population of the country.
Pellene,[253] situated at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea, is a
strong fortress. There is also a village of the name of Pellene, whence
they bring the Pellenian mantles, which are offered as prizes at the
public games. It lies between Ægium[254] and Pellene. But Pellana, a
different place from these, belongs to the Lacedæmonians, and is
situated towards the territory of Megalopolitis.
Ægeira[255] is situated upon a hill. Bura is at the distance from the
sea-coast of about 40 stadia. It was swallowed up by an earthquake. It
is said, that from the fountain Sybaris which is there, the river
Sybaris in Italy had its name.
Æga (for this is the name by which Ægæ is called) is not now inhabited,
but the Ægienses occupy the territory. Ægium, however, is well
inhabited. It was here, it is said, that Jupiter was suckled by a goat,
as Aratus also says,
“the sacred goat, which is said to have applied its teats to
the lips of Jupiter. ”[256]
He adds, that,
“the priests call it the Olenian goat of Jupiter,”
and indicates the place because it was near Olenus. There also is
Ceryneia, situated upon a lofty rock. This place, and Helice, belong to
the Ægienses,[257] and the Ænarium, [Homarium,] the grove of Jupiter,
where the Achæans held their convention, when they were to deliberate
upon their common affairs.
The river Selinus flows through the city of the Ægienses. It has the
same name as that which was beside Artemisium at Ephesus, and that in
Elis, which has its course along the spot, that Xenophon[258] says he
purchased in compliance with the injunction of an oracle, in honour of
Artemis. There is also another Selinus in the country of the Hyblæi
Megarenses, whom the Carthaginians expelled.
Of the remaining Achæan cities, or portions, Rhypes is not inhabited,
but the territory called Rhypis was occupied by Ægienses and Pharians.
Æschylus also says somewhere,
“the sacred Bura, and Rhypes struck with lightning. ”
Myscellus, the founder of Croton, was a native of Rhypes. Leuctrum,
belonging to the district Rhypis, was a demus of Rhypes. Between these
was Patræ, a considerable city, and in the intervening country, at the
distance of 40 stadia from Patræ, are Rhium,[259] and opposite to it,
Antirrhium. [260] Not long since the Romans, after the victory at Actium,
stationed there a large portion of their army, and at [CAS. 387]
present it is very well peopled, since it is a colony of the Romans. It
has also a tolerably good shelter for vessels. Next is Dyme,[261] a city
without a harbour, the most westerly of all the cities, whence also it
has its name. It was formerly called Stratos. [262] It is separated from
Eleia at Buprasium by the river Larisus,[263] which rises in a mountain,
called by some persons Scollis, but by Homer, the Olenian rock.
Antimachus having called Dyme Cauconis, some writers suppose that the
latter word is used as an epithet derived from the Caucones, who
extended as far as this quarter, as I have said before. Others think
that it is derived from a river Caucon, in the same way as Thebes has
the appellation of Dircæan, and Asopian; and as Argos is called
Inachian, and Troy, Simuntis. [264]
A little before our time, Dyme had received a colony consisting of a
mixed body of people, a remnant of the piratical bands, whose haunts
Pompey had destroyed. Some he settled at Soli in Cilicia, and others in
other places, and some in this spot.
Phara borders upon the Dymæan territory. The inhabitants of this Phara
are called Pharenses; those of the Messenian Phara, Pharatæ. In the
territory of Phara there is a fountain Dirce, of the same name as that
at Thebes.
Olenus is deserted. It lies between Patræ and Dyme. The territory is
occupied by the Dymæi. Next is Araxus,[265] the promontory of the Eleian
district, distant from the isthmus 1000 stadia.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Arcadia is situated in the middle of Peloponnesus, and contains the
greatest portion of the mountainous tract in that country. Its largest
mountain is Cyllene. [266] Its perpendicular height, according to some
writers, is 20, according to others, about 15 stadia.
The Arcadian nations, as the Azanes, and Parrhasii, and other similar
tribes, seem to be the most ancient people of Greece. [267]
In consequence of the complete devastation of this country, it is
unnecessary to give a long description of it. The cities, although
formerly celebrated, have been destroyed by continual wars; and the
husbandmen abandoned the country at the time that most of the cities
were united in that called Megalopolis (the Great City). At present
Megalopolis itself has undergone the fate expressed by the comic poet;
“the great city is a great desert. ”
There are rich pastures for cattle, and particularly for horses and
asses, which are used as stallions. The race of Arcadian horses, as well
as the Argolic and Epidaurian, is preferred before all others. The
uninhabited tracts of country in Ætolia and Acarnania are not less
adapted to the breeding of horses than Thessaly.
2. Mantinea owes its fame to Epaminondas, who conquered the
Lacedæmonians there in a second battle, in which he lost his life. [268]
This city, together with Orchomenus, Heræa, Cleitor, Pheneus,
Stymphalus, Mænalus, Methydrium, Caphyeis, and Cynætha, either exist no
longer, or traces and signs only of their existence are visible. There
are still some remains of Tegea, and the temple of the Alæan Minerva
remains. The latter is yet held in some little veneration, as well as
the temple of the Lycæan Jupiter on the Lycæan mountain. But the places
mentioned by the poet, as
“Rhipe, and Stratia, and the windy Enispe,”
are difficult to discover, and if discovered, would be of no use from
the deserted condition of the country.
3. [CAS. 389] The mountains of note, besides Cyllene, are Pholoë,[269]
Lycæum,[270] Mænalus, and the Parthenium,[271] as it is called, which
extends from the territory of Tegea to that of Argos.
4. We have spoken of the extraordinary circumstances relative to the
Alpheius, Eurotas, and the Erasinus, which issues out of the lake
Stymphalis, and now flows into the Argive country.
Formerly, the Erasinus had no efflux, for the Berethra, which the
Arcadians call Zerethra,[272] had no outlet, so that the city of the
Stymphalii, which at that time was situated upon the lake, is now at the
distance of 50 stadia.
The contrary was the case with the Ladon, which was at one time
prevented running in a continuous stream by the obstruction of its
sources. For the Berethra near Pheneum, through which it now passes,
fell in, in consequence of an earthquake, which stopped the waters of the
river, and affected far down the veins which supplied its source. This
is the account of some writers.
Eratosthenes says, that about the Pheneus, the river called Anias forms
a lake, and then sinks under-ground into certain openings, which they
call Zerethra. When these are obstructed, the water sometimes overflows
into the plains, and when they are again open the water escapes in a
body from the plains, and is discharged into the Ladon[273] and the
Alpheius,[274] so that it happened once at Olympia, that the land about
the temple was inundated, but the lake was partly emptied. The
Erasinus[275] also, he says, which flows by Stymphalus, sinks into the
ground under the mountain (Chaon? ), and reappears in the Argive
territory. It was this that induced Iphicrates, when besieging
Stymphalus, and making no progress, to attempt to obstruct the descent
of the river into the ground by means of a large quantity of sponges,
but desisted in consequence of some portentous signs in the heavens.
Near the Pheneus there is also the water of the Styx, as it is called, a
dripping spring of poisonous water, which was esteemed to be sacred.
So much then respecting Arcadia.
5. [276] Polybius having said, that from Maleæ towards the north as far
as the Danube the distance is about 10,000 stadia, is corrected by
Artemidorus, and not without reason; for, according to the latter, from
Maleæ to Ægium the distance is 1400 stadia, from hence to Cirrha is a
distance by sea of 200 stadia; hence by Heraclea to Thaumaci a journey
of 500 stadia; thence to Larisa and the river Peneus, 340 stadia; then
through Tempe to the mouth of the Peneus, 240 stadia; then to
Thessalonica, 660 stadia; then to the Danube, through Idomene, and
Stobi, and Dardanii, it is 3200 stadia. According to Artemidorus,
therefore, the distance from the Danube to Maleæ would be 6500. The
cause of this difference is that he does not give the measurement by the
shortest road, but by some accidental route pursued by a general of an
army.
It is not, perhaps, out of place to add the founders mentioned by
Ephorus, who settled colonies in Peloponnesus after the return of the
Heracleidæ; as Aletes, the founder of Corinth; Phalces, of Sicyon;
Tisamenus, of cities in Achæa; Oxylus, of Elis, Cresphontes, of Messene;
Eurysthenes and Procles, of Lacedæmon; Temenus and Cissus, of Argos; and
Agræus and Deïphontes, of the towns about Acte.
BOOK IX. [CAS. 390]
SUMMARY.
Continuation of the geography of Greece. A panegyrical account
of Athens. A description of Bœotia and Thessaly, with the
sea-coast.
CHAPTER I.
1. Having completed the description of Peloponnesus, which we said was
the first and least of the peninsulas of which Greece consists, we must
next proceed to those which are continuous with it. [277]
We described the second to be that which joins Megaris to the
Peloponnesus [so that Crommyon belongs to Megaris, and not to the
Corinthians];[278] the third to be that which is situated near the
former, comprising Attica and Bœotia, some part of Phocis, and of the
Locri Epicnemidii. Of these we are now to speak.
Eudoxus says, that if we imagine a straight line to be drawn towards the
east from the Ceraunian Mountains to Sunium, the promontory of Attica,
it would leave, on the right hand, to the south, the whole of
Peloponnesus, and on the left, to the north, the continuous coast from
the Ceraunian Mountains to the Crisæan Gulf, and the whole of Megaris
and Attica. He is of opinion that the shore which extends from Sunium to
the Isthmus, would not have so great a curvature, nor have so great a
bend, if, to this shore, were not added the parts continuous with the
Isthmus and extending to the Hermionic Bay and Acté; that in the same
manner the shore, from the Ceraunian Mountains to the Gulf of Corinth,
has a similar bend, so as to make a curvature, forming within it a sort
of gulf, where Rhium and Antirrhium contracting together give it this
figure. The same is the case with the shore about Crissa and the recess,
where the Crisæan Sea terminates. [279]
2. As this is the description given by Eudoxus, a mathematician, skilled
in the delineations of figures and the inclinations of places,
acquainted also with the places themselves, we must consider the sides
of Attica and Megaris, extending from Sunium as far as the Isthmus, to
be curved, although slightly so. About the middle of the above-mentioned
line[280] is the Piræus, the naval arsenal of the Athenians. It is
distant from Schœnus, at the Isthmus, about 350 stadia; from Sunium 330.
The distance from the Piræus to Pagæ[281] and from the Piræus to Schœnus
is nearly the same, yet the former is said to exceed the latter by 10
stadia. After having doubled Sunium, the navigation along the coast is
to the north with a declination to the west.
3. Acte (Attica) is washed by two seas; it is at first narrow, then it
widens towards the middle, yet it, nevertheless, takes a lunated bend
towards Oropus in Bœotia, having the convex side towards the sea. This
is the second, the eastern side of Attica.
The remaining side is that to the north, extending from the territory of
Oropus towards the west, as far as Megaris, and consists of the
mountainous tract of Attica, having a variety of names, and dividing
Bœotia from Attica; so that, as I have before remarked, Bœotia, by being
connected with [CAS. 391] two seas, becomes the Isthmus of the third
peninsula, which we have mentioned before, and this Isthmus includes
within it the Peloponnesus, Megaris, and Attica. For this reason
therefore the present Attica was called by a play upon the words Acta
and Actica, because the greatest part of it lies under the mountains,
and borders on the sea; it is narrow, and stretches forwards a
considerable length as far as Sunium. We shall therefore resume the
description of these sides, beginning from the sea-coast, at the point
where we left off.
4. After Crommyon, rising above Attica, are the rocks called Scironides,
which afford no passage along the sea-side. Over them, however, is a
road which leads to Megara and Attica from the Isthmus. The road
approaches so near the rocks that in many places it runs along the edge
of precipices, for the overhanging mountain is of great height, and
impassable.
Here is laid the scene of the fable of Sciron, and the Pityocamptes, or
the pine-breaker, one of those who infested with their robberies the
above-mentioned mountainous tract. They were slain by Theseus.
The wind Argestes,[282] which blows from the left with violence, from
these summits is called by the Athenians Sciron.
After the rocks Scironides there projects the promontory Minoa, forming
the harbour of Nisæa. Nisæa is the arsenal of Megara, and distant 18
stadia from the city; it is joined to it by walls on each side. [283]
This also had the name of Minoa.
5. In former times the Ionians occupied this country, and were also in
possession of Attica, before the time of the building of Megara,
wherefore the poet does not mention these places by any appropriate
name, but when he calls all those dwelling in Attica, Athenians, he
comprehends these also in the common appellation, regarding them as
Athenians; so when, in the Catalogue of the Ships, he says,
“And they who occupied Athens, a well-built city,”[284]
we must understand the present Megarenses also, as having taken a part
in the expedition. The proof of this is, that Attica was, in former
times, called Ionia, and Ias, and when the poet says,
“There the Bœoti, Iaones,”[285]
he means the Athenians. But of this Ionia Megaris was a part.
6. Besides, the Peloponnesians and Ionians having had frequent disputes
respecting their boundaries, on which Crommyonia also was situated,
assembled and agreed upon a spot of the Isthmus itself, on which they
erected a pillar having an inscription on the part towards Peloponnesus,
“THIS IS PELOPONNESUS, NOT IONIA;”
and on the side towards Megara,
“THIS IS NOT PELOPONNESUS, BUT IONIA. ”
Although those, who wrote on the history of Attica,[286] differ in many
respects, yet those of any note agree in this, that when there were four
Pandionidæ, Ægeus, Lycus, Pallas, and Nisus; and when Attica was divided
into four portions, Nisus obtained, by lot, Megaris, and founded Nisæa.
Philochorus says, that his government extended from the Isthmus to
Pythium,[287] but according to Andron, as far as Eleusis and the
Thriasian plain.
Since, then, different writers give different accounts of the division
of the country into four parts, it is enough to adduce these lines from
Sophocles where Ægeus says,
“My father determined that I should go away to Acte, having
assigned to me, as the elder, the best part of the land; to
Lycus, the opposite garden of Eubœa; for Nisus he selects the
irregular tract of the shore of Sciron; and the rugged Pallas,
breeder of giants, obtained by lot the part to the
south. ”[288]
Such are the proofs which are adduced to show that Megaris was a part of
Attica.
7. After the return of the Heraclidæ, and the partition of the country,
many of the former possessors were banished from their own land by the
Heraclidæ, and by the Dorians, who came with them, and migrated to
Attica. Among these was Melanthus, the king of Messene. He was
voluntarily [CAS. 393] appointed king of the Athenians, after having
overcome in single combat, Xanthus, the king of the Bœotians. When
Attica became populous by the accession of fugitives, the Heraclidæ were
alarmed, and invaded Attica, chiefly at the instigation of the
Corinthians and Messenians; the former of whom were influenced by
proximity of situation, the latter by the circumstance that Codrus, the
son of Melanthus, was at that time king of Attica. They were, however,
defeated in battle and relinquished the whole of the country, except the
territory of Megara, of which they kept possession, and founded the city
Megara, where they introduced as inhabitants Dorians in place of
Ionians. They destroyed the pillar also which was the boundary of the
country of the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.
8. The city of the Megarenses, after having experienced many changes,
still subsists. It once had schools of philosophers, who had the name of
the Megaric sect. They succeeded Euclides, the Socratic philosopher, who
was by birth a Megarensian, in the same manner as the Eleiaci, among
whom was Pyrrhon, who succeeded Phædon, the Eleian, who was also a
Socratic philosopher, and as the Eretriaci succeeded Menedemus the
Eretrean.
Megaris, like Attica, is very sterile, and the greater part of it is
occupied by what are called the Oneii mountains, a kind of ridge, which,
extending from the Scironides rocks to Bœotia and to Cithæron, separates
the sea at Nisæa from that near Pagæ, called the Alcyonian Sea.
9. In sailing from Nisæa to Attica there lie, in the course of the
voyage, five small islands. Then succeeds Salamis, which is about 70,
and according to others, 80, stadia in length. It has two cities of the
same name. The ancient city, which looked towards Ægina and to the
south, as Æschylus has described it;
“Ægina lies towards the blasts of the south:”
it is uninhabited. The other is situated in a bay on a spot of a
peninsular form contiguous to Attica. In former times it had other
names, for it was called Sciras, and Cychreia, from certain heroes; from
the former Minerva is called Sciras; hence also Scira, a place in
Attica; Episcirosis, a religious rite; and Scirophorion, one of the
months. From Cychreia the serpent Cychrides had its name, which Hesiod
says Cychreus bred, and Eurylochus ejected, because it infested the
island, but that Ceres admitted it into Eleusis, and it became her
attendant. Salamis was called also Pityussa from “pitys,” the pine tree.
The island obtained its renown from the Æacidæ, who were masters of it,
particularly from Ajax, the son of Telamon, and from the defeat of
Xerxes by the Greeks in a battle on the coast, and by his flight to his
own country. The Æginetæ participated in the glory of that engagement,
both as neighbours, and as having furnished a considerable naval force.
[In Salamis is the river Bocarus, now called Bocalia. ][289]
10. At present the Athenians possess the island Salamis. In former times
they disputed the possession of it with the Megarians. Some allege, that
Pisistratus, others that Solon, inserted in the Catalogue of Ships
immediately after this verse,
“Ajax conducted from Salamis twelve vessels,”[290]
the following words,
“And stationed them by the side of the Athenian forces;”
and appealed to the poet as a witness, that the island originally
belonged to the Athenians. But this is not admitted by the critics,
because many other lines testify the contrary. For why does Ajax appear
at the extremity of the line not with the Athenians, but with the
Thessalians under the command of Protesilaus;
“There were the vessels of Ajax, and Protesilaus. ”[291]
And Agamemnon, in the Review[4] of the troops,
“found the son of Peteus, Menestheus, the tamer of horses,
standing, and around were the Athenians skilful in war: near
stood the wily Ulysses, and around him and at his side, the
ranks of the Cephalleni;”[292]
and again, respecting Ajax and the Salaminii;
“he came to the Ajaces,”[293]
and near them,
“Idomeneus on the other side amidst the Cretans,”[294]
not Menestheus. The Athenians then seem to have alleged [CAS. 394] some
such evidence as this from Homer as a pretext, and the Megarians to have
replied in an opposite strain of this kind;
“Ajax conducted ships from Salamis, from Polichna, from
Ægirussa, from Nisæa, and from Tripodes,”[295]
which are places in Megaris, of which Tripodes has the name of
Tripodiscium, situated near the present forum of Megara.
11. Some say, that Salamis is unconnected with Attica, because the
priestess of Minerva Polias, who may not eat the new cheese of Attica,
but the produce only of a foreign land, yet uses the Salaminian cheese.
But this is a mistake, for she uses that which is brought from other
islands, that are confessedly near Attica, for the authors of this
custom considered all produce as foreign which was brought over sea.
It seems as if anciently the present Salamis was a separate state, and
that Megara was a part of Attica.
On the sea-coast, opposite to Salamis, the boundaries of Megara and
Attica are two mountains called Cerata, or Horns. [296]
12. Next is the city Eleusis,[297] in which is the temple of the
Eleusinian Ceres, and the Mystic Enclosure (Secos),[298] which Ictinus
built,[299] capable of containing the crowd of a theatre. It was this
person that built[300] the Parthenon in the Acropolis, in honour of
Minerva, when Pericles was the superintendent of the public works. The
city is enumerated among the demi, or burghs.
13. Then follows the Thriasian plain, and the coast, a demus of the same
name,[301] then the promontory Amphiale,[302] above which is a stone
quarry; and then the passage across the sea to Salamis, of about 2
stadia, which Xerxes endeavoured to fill up with heaps of earth, but the
sea-fight and the flight of the Persians occurred before he had
accomplished it.
There also are the Pharmacussæ,[303] two small islands, in the larger
of which is shown the tomb of Circe.
14. Above this coast is a mountain called Corydallus, and the demus
Corydalleis: then the harbour of Phoron, (Robbers,) and Psyttalia, a
small rocky desert island, which, according to some writers, is the
eye-sore of the Piræus.
Near it is Atalanta, of the same name as that between Eubœa and the
Locri; and another small island similar to Psyttalia; then the Piræus,
which is also reckoned among the demi, and the Munychia.
15. The Munychia is a hill in the shape of a peninsula, hollow, and a
great part of it excavated both by nature and art, so as to serve for
dwellings, with an entrance by a narrow opening. Beneath it are three
harbours. Formerly the Munychia was surrounded by a wall, and occupied
by dwellings, nearly in the same manner as the city of the Rhodians,
comprehending within the circuit of the walls the Piræus and the
harbours full of materials for ship-building; here also was the armoury,
the work of Philon. The naval station was capable of receiving the four
hundred vessels; which was the smallest number the Athenians were in the
habit of keeping in readiness for sea. With this wall were connected the
legs, that stretched out from the Asty. These were the long walls, 40
stadia in length, joining the Asty[304] to the Piræus. But in
consequence of frequent wars, the wall and the fortification of the
Munychia were demolished; the Piræus was contracted to a small town,
extending round the harbours and the temple of Jupiter Soter. The small
porticoes of the temple contain admirable paintings, the work of
celebrated artists, and the hypæthrum, statues.
said that the Æginetæ were called Myrmidones, not as the fable accounts
for the name, when the ants were metamorphosed into men, at the time of
a great famine, by the prayer of Æacus; but because by digging, like
ants, they threw up the earth upon the rocks, and were thus made able to
cultivate the ground, and because they lived in excavations
under-ground, abstaining from the use of bricks and sparing of the soil
for this purpose.
Its ancient name was Œnone, which is the name of two of the demi in
Attica, one near Eleutheræ;
“to inhabit the plains close to Œnone, (Œnoe,) and Eleutheræ;”
and another, one of the cities of the Tetrapolis near Marathon, to which
the proverb is applied,
“Œnone (Œnoe? ) and its torrent. ”
Its [CAS. 375] inhabitants were in succession Argives, Cretans,
Epidaurians, and Dorians. At last the Athenians divided the island by
lot among settlers of their own. The Lacedæmonians, however, deprived
the Athenians of it, and restored it to the ancient inhabitants.
The Æginetæ sent out colonists to Cydonia[207] in Crete, and to the
Ombrici. According to Ephorus, silver was first struck as money by
Pheidon. The island became a mart, the inhabitants, on account of the
fertility of its soil, employing themselves at sea as traders; whence
goods of a small kind had the name of “Ægina wares. ”
17. The poet frequently speaks of places in succession as they are
situated;
“they who inhabited Hyria, and Aulis;”[208]
“and they who occupied Argos, and Tiryns,
Hermione, and Asine,
Trœzen, and Eïones. ”[209]
At other times he does not observe any order;
“Schœnus, and Scolus,
Thespeia, and Græa. ”[210]
He also mentions together places on the continent and islands
“they who held Ithaca,
and inhabited Crocyleia,”[211]
for Crocyleia is in Acarnania. Thus he here joins with Ægina Mases,
which belongs to the continent of Argolis.
Homer does not mention Thyreæ, but other writers speak of it as well
known. It was the occasion of a contest between the three hundred
Argives against the same number of Lacedæmonians; the latter were
conquerors by means of a stratagem of Othryadas. Thucydides places
Thyreæ in Cynuria, on the confines of Argia and Laconia. [212]
Hysiæ also is a celebrated place in Argolica; and Cenchreæ, which lies
on the road from Tegea to Argos, over the mountain Parthenius, and the
Creopolus. [213] But Homer was not acquainted with either of these
places, [nor with the Lyrceium, nor Orneæ, and yet they are villages in
the Argian territory; the former of the same name as the mountain there;
the latter of the same name as the Orneæ, situated between Corinth and
Sicyon]. [214]
18. Among the cities of the Peloponnesus, the most celebrated were, and
are at this time, Argos and Sparta, and as their renown is spread
everywhere, it is not necessary to describe them at length, for if we
did so, we should seem to repeat what is said by all writers.
Anciently, Argos was the most celebrated, but afterwards the
Lacedæmonians obtained the superiority, and continued to maintain their
independence, except during some short interval, when they experienced a
reverse of fortune.
The Argives did not admit Pyrrhus within the city. He fell before the
walls, an old woman having let a tile drop from a house upon his head.
They were, however, under the sway of other kings. When they belonged to
the Achæan league they were subjected, together with the other members
of that confederacy, to the power of the Romans. The city subsists at
present, and is second in rank to Sparta.
19. We shall next speak of those places which are said, in the Catalogue
of the Ships, to be under the government of Mycenæ and Agamemnon: the
lines are these:
“Those who inhabited Mycenæ, a well-built city,
and the wealthy Corinth, and Cleonæ well built,
and Orneiæ, and the lovely Aræthyrea,
and Sicyon, where Adrastus first reigned,
and they who inhabited Hyperesia, and the lofty Gonoessa,
and Pellene, and Ægium,
and the whole range of the coast, and those who
lived near the spacious Helice. ”[215]
Mycenæ exists no longer. It was founded by Perseus. Sthenelus succeeded
Perseus; and Eurystheus, Sthenelus. These same persons were kings of
Argos also. It is said that Eurystheus, having engaged, with the
assistance of the Athenians, in an expedition to Marathon against the
descendants of Hercules and Iolaus, fell in battle, and that the
remainder of his body was buried at Gargettus, but his head apart from
it at Tricorythus[216] (Corinth? ), Iolaus having severed it from the
body near the fountain Macaria, close to the chariot-road. The spot
itself has the name of “Eurystheus’-head. ”
Mycenæ then passed into the possession of the Pelopidæ, who had left the
Pisatis, then into that of the Heracleidæ, [CAS. 377] who were also
masters of Argos. But after the sea-fight at Salamis, the Argives,
together with the Cleonæi, and the Tegetæ, invaded Mycenæ, and razed it,
and divided the territory among themselves. The tragic writers, on
account of the proximity of the two cities, speak of them as one, and
use the name of one for the other. Euripides in the same play calls the
same city in one place Mycenæ, and in another Argos, as in the
Iphigeneia,[217] and in the Orestes. [218]
Cleonæ is a town situated upon the road leading from Argos to Corinth,
on an eminence, which is surrounded on all sides by dwellings, and well
fortified, whence, in my opinion, Cleonæ was properly described as “well
built. ” There also, between Cleonæ and Phlius, is Nemea, and the grove
where it was the custom of the Argives to celebrate the Nemean games:
here is the scene of the fable of the Nemean Lion, and here also the
village Bembina. Cleonæ is distant from Argos 120 stadia, and 80 from
Corinth. And we have ourselves beheld the city from the Acrocorinthus.
20. Corinth is said to be opulent from its mart. It is situated upon the
isthmus. It commands two harbours, one near Asia, the other near Italy,
and facilitates, by reason of so short a distance between them, an
exchange of commodities on each side.
As the Sicilian strait, so formerly these seas were of difficult
navigation, and particularly the sea above Maleæ, on account of the
prevalence of contrary winds; whence the common proverb,
“When you double Maleæ forget your home. ”
It was a desirable thing for the merchants coming from Asia, and from
Italy, to discharge their lading at Corinth without being obliged to
double Cape Maleæ. For goods exported from Peloponnesus, or imported by
land, a toll was paid to those who had the keys of the country. This
continued afterwards for ever. In after-times they enjoyed even
additional advantages, for the Isthmian games, which were celebrated
there, brought thither great multitudes of people. The Bacchiadæ, a rich
and numerous family, and of illustrious descent, were their rulers,
governed the state for nearly two hundred years, and peaceably enjoyed
the profits of the mart. Their power was destroyed by Cypselus, who
became king himself, and his descendants continued to exist for three
generations. A proof of the wealth of this family is the offering which
Cypselus dedicated at Olympia, a statue of Jupiter of beaten gold.
Demaratus, one of those who had been tyrant at Corinth, flying from the
seditions which prevailed there, carried with him from his home to
Tyrrhenia so much wealth, that he became sovereign of the city which had
received him, and his son became even king of the Romans.
The temple of Venus at Corinth was so rich, that it had more than a
thousand women consecrated to the service of the goddess, courtesans,
whom both men and women had dedicated as offerings to the goddess. The
city was frequented and enriched by the multitudes who resorted thither
on account of these women. Masters of ships freely squandered all their
money, and hence the proverb,
“It is not in every man’s power to go to Corinth. ”[219]
The answer is related of a courtesan to a woman who was reproaching her
with disliking work, and not employing herself in spinning;
“Although I am what you see, yet, in this short time, I have
already finished three distaffs. ”[220]
21. The position of the city as it is described by Hieronymus, and
Eudoxus, and others, and from our own observation, since its restoration
by the Romans, is as follows.
That which is called the Acrocorinthus is a lofty mountain,
perpendicular, and about three stadia and a half in height. There is an
ascent of 30 stadia, and it terminates in a sharp point. The steepest
part is towards the north. Below it lies the city in a plain of the form
of a trapezium, at the very foot of the Acrocorinthus. The compass of
the city itself was 40 stadia, and all that part which was not protected
by the mountain was fortified by a wall. Even the mountain itself, the
Acrocorinthus, was comprehended within this wall, wherever it would
admit of fortification. As I ascended it, the ruins of the circuit of
the foundation were apparent, which gave a circumference of about 85
stadia. The other sides of the mountain are less steep; hence, however,
it stretches onwards, [CAS. 379] and is visible everywhere. The summit
has upon it a small temple of Venus, and below it is the fountain
Peirene, which has no efflux, but is continually full of water, which is
transparent, and fit for drinking. They say, that from the compression
of this, and of some other small under-ground veins, originates that
spring at the foot of the mountain, which runs into the city, and
furnishes the inhabitants with a sufficient supply of water. There is a
large number of wells in the city, and it is said in the Acrocorinthus
also, but this I did not see. When Euripides says,
“I come from the Acrocorinthus, well-watered on all sides, the
sacred hill and habitation of Venus,”
the epithet “well-watered on all sides,” must be understood to refer to
depth; pure springs and under-ground rills are dispersed through the
mountain; or we must suppose, that, anciently, the Peirene overflowed,
and irrigated the mountain. There, it is said, Pegasus was taken by
Bellerophon, while drinking; this was a winged horse, which sprung from
the neck of Medusa when the head of the Gorgon was severed from the
body. This was the horse, it is said, which caused the Hippocrene, or
Horse’s Fountain, to spring up in Helicon by striking the rock with its
hoof.
Below Peirene is the Sisypheium, which preserves a large portion of the
ruins of a temple, or palace, built of white marble. From the summit
towards the north are seen Parnassus and Helicon, lofty mountains
covered with snow; then the Crissæan Gulf,[221] lying below both, and
surrounded by Phocis, Bœotia, Megaris, by the Corinthian district
opposite to Phocis, and by Sicyonia on the west. * * * *
Above all these are situated the Oneia[222] mountains, as they are
called, extending as far as Bœotia and Cithæron, from the Sceironides
rocks, where the road leads along them to Attica.
22. Lechæum is the commencement of the coast on one side; and on the
other, Cenchreæ, a village with a harbour, distant from the city about
70 stadia. The latter serves for the trade with Asia, and Lechæum for
that with Italy.
Lechæum is situated below the city, and is not well inhabited.
There are long walls of about 12 stadia in length, stretching on each
side of the road towards Lechæum. The sea-shore, extending hence to Pagæ
in Megaris, is washed by the Corinthian Gulf. It is curved, and forms
the Diolcus, or the passage along which vessels are drawn over the
Isthmus to the opposite coast at Schœnus near Cenchreæ.
Between Lechæum and Pagæ, anciently, there was the oracle of the Acræan
Juno, and Olmiæ, the promontory that forms the gulf, on which are
situated Œnoe, and Pagæ; the former is a fortress of the Megarians; and
Œnoe is a fortress of the Corinthians.
Next to Cenchreæ[223] is Schœnus, where is the narrow part of the
Diolcus, then Crommyonia. In front of this coast lies the Saronic Gulf,
and the Eleusiniac, which is almost the same, and continuous with the
Hermionic. Upon the Isthmus is the temple of the Isthmian Neptune,
shaded above with a grove of pine trees, where the Corinthians
celebrated the Isthmian games.
Crommyon[224] is a village of the Corinthian district, and formerly
belonging to that of Megaris, where is laid the scene of the fable of
the Crommyonian sow, which, it is said, was the dam of the Calydonian
boar, and, according to tradition, the destruction of this sow was one
of the labours of Theseus.
Tenea is a village of the Corinthian territory, where there was a temple
of Apollo Teneates. It is said that Archias, who equipped a colony for
Syracuse, was accompanied by a great number of settlers from this place;
and that this settlement afterwards flourished more than any others, and
at length had an independent form of government of its own. When they
revolted from the Corinthians, they attached themselves to the Romans,
and continued to subsist when Corinth was destroyed.
An answer of an oracle is circulated, which was returned to an Asiatic,
who inquired whether it was better to migrate to Corinth;
“Corinth is prosperous, but I would belong to Tenea”
which [CAS. 380] last word was perverted by some through ignorance, and
altered to Tegea. Here, it is said, Polybus brought up Œdipus.
There seems to be some affinity between the Tenedii and these people,
through Tennus, the son of Cycnus, according to Aristotle; the
similarity, too, of the divine honours paid by both to Apollo affords no
slight proof of this relationship. [225]
23. The Corinthians, when subject to Philip, espoused his party very
zealously, and individually conducted themselves so contemptuously
towards the Romans, that persons ventured to throw down filth upon their
ambassadors, when passing by their houses. They were immediately
punished for these and other offences and insults. A large army was sent
out under the command of Lucius Mummius, who razed the city. [226] The
rest of the country, as far as Macedonia, was subjected to the Romans
under different generals. The Sicyonii, however, had the largest part of
the Corinthian territory.
Polybius relates with regret what occurred at the capture of the city,
and speaks of the indifference the soldiers showed for works of art, and
the sacred offerings of the temples. He says, that he was present, and
saw pictures thrown upon the ground, and soldiers playing at dice upon
them. Among others, he specifies by name the picture of Bacchus[227] by
Aristeides, (to which it is said the proverb was applied, “Nothing to
the Bacchus,”) and Hercules tortured in the robe, the gift of
Deïaneira. [228] This I have not myself seen, but I have seen the picture
of the Bacchus suspended in the Demetreium at Rome, a very beautiful
piece of art, which, together with the temple, was lately consumed by
fire. The greatest number and the finest of the other offerings in Rome
were brought from Corinth. Some of them were in the possession of the
cities in the neighbourhood of Rome. For Mummius being more brave and
generous than an admirer of the arts, presented them without hesitation
to those who asked for them. [229] Lucullus, having built the temple of
Good Fortune, and a portico, requested of Mummius the use of some
statues, under the pretext of ornamenting the temple with them at the
time of its dedication, and promised to restore them. He did not,
however, restore, but presented them as sacred offerings, and told
Mummius to take them away if he pleased. Mummius did not resent this
conduct, not caring about the statues, but obtained more honour than
Lucullus, who presented them as sacred offerings.
Corinth remained a long time deserted, till at length it was restored on
account of its natural advantages by divus Cæsar, who sent colonists
thither, who consisted, for the most part, of the descendants of
free-men.
On moving the ruins, and digging open the sepulchres, an abundance of
works in pottery with figures on them, and many in brass, were found.
The workmanship was admired, and all the sepulchres were examined with
the greatest care. Thus was obtained a large quantity of things, which
were disposed of at a great price, and Rome filled with Necro-Corinthia,
by which name were distinguished the articles taken out of the
sepulchres, and particularly the pottery. At first these latter were
held in as much esteem as the works of the Corinthian artists in brass,
but this desire to have them did not continue, not only because the
supply failed, but because the greatest part of them were not well
executed. [230]
The city of Corinth was large and opulent at all periods, and produced a
great number of statesmen and artists. For here in particular, and at
Sicyon, flourished painting, and modelling, and every art of this kind.
The soil was not very fertile; its surface was uneven and [CAS. 382]
rugged, whence all writers describe Corinth as full of brows of hills,
and apply the proverb,
“Corinth rises with brows of hills, and sinks into hollows. ”
24. Orneæ has the same name as the river which flows beside it. At
present it is deserted; formerly, it was well inhabited, and contained a
temple of Priapus, held in veneration. It is from this place that
Euphronius, (Euphorius? ) the author of a poem, the Priapeia, applies the
epithet Orneates to the god.
It was situated above the plain of the Sicyonians, but the Argives were
masters of the country.
Aræthyrea[231] is now called Phliasia. It had a city of the same name as
the country near the mountain Celossa. They afterwards removed thence
and built a city at the distance of 30 stadia, which they called
Phlius. [232] Part of the mountain Celossa is the Carneates, whence the
Asopus takes its rise, which flows by Sicyon,[233] and forms the Asopian
district, which is a part of Sicyonia. There is also an Asopus, which
flows by Thebes, and Platæa, and Tanagra. There is another also in
Heracleia Trachinia, which flows beside a village, called Parasopii, and
a fourth at Paros.
Phlius is situated in the middle of a circle formed by Sicyonia, Argeia,
Cleonæ, and Stymphalus. At Phlius and at Sicyon the temple of Dia, a
name given to Hebe, is held in veneration.
25. Sicyon was formerly called Mecone, and at a still earlier period,
Ægiali. It was rebuilt high up in the country about 20, others say,
about 12, stadia from the sea, upon an eminence naturally strong, which
is sacred to Ceres. The buildings anciently consisted of a naval arsenal
and a harbour.
Sicyonia is separated by the river Nemea from the Corinthian territory.
It was formerly governed for a very long period by tyrants, but they
were always persons of mild and moderate disposition. Of these, the most
illustrious was Aratus, who made the city free, and was the chief of the
Achæans, who voluntarily conferred upon him that power; he extended the
confederacy by annexing to it his own country, and the other
neighbouring cities.
Hyperesia, and the cities next in order in the Catalogue of the poet,
and Ægialus,[234] [or the sea-coast,] as far as Dyme, and the borders of
the Eleian territory, belong to the Achæans.
CHAPTER VII.
1. The Ionians, who were descendants of the Athenians, were, anciently,
masters of this country. It was formerly called Ægialeia, and the
inhabitants Ægialeans, but in later times, Ionia, from the former
people, as Attica had the name of Ionia, from Ion the son of Xuthus.
It is said, that Hellen was the son of Deucalion, and that he governed
the country about Phthia between the Peneius and Asopus, and transmitted
to his eldest son these dominions, sending the others out of their
native country to seek a settlement each of them for himself. Dorus, one
of them, settled the Dorians about Parnassus, and when he left them,
they bore his name. Xuthus, another, married the daughter of Erechtheus,
and was the founder of the Tetrapolis of Attica, which consisted of
Œnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
Achæus, one of the sons of Xuthus, having committed an accidental
murder, fled to Lacedæmon, and occasioned the inhabitants to take the
name of Achæans. [235]
Ion, the other son, having vanquished the Thracian army with their
leader Eumolpus, obtained so much renown, that the Athenians intrusted
him with the government of their state. It was he who first distributed
the mass of the people into four tribes, and these again into four
classes according to their occupations, husbandmen, artificers, priests,
and the fourth, military guards; after having made many more regulations
of this kind, he left to the country his own name.
It [CAS. 383] happened at that time that the country had such an
abundance of inhabitants, that the Athenians sent out a colony of
Ionians to Peloponnesus, and the tract of country which they occupied
was called Ionia after their own name, instead of Ægialeia, and the
inhabitants Ionians instead of Ægialeans, who were distributed among
twelve cities.
After the return of the Heracleidæ, these Ionians, being expelled by the
Achæans, returned to Athens, whence, in conjunction with the Codridæ,
(descendants of Codrus,) they sent out the Ionian colonists to
Asia. [236] They founded twelve cities on the sea-coast of Caria and
Lydia, having distributed themselves over the country into as many parts
as they occupied in Peloponnesus. [237]
The Achæans were Phthiotæ by descent, and were settled at Lacedæmon, but
when the Heracleidæ became masters of the country, having recovered
their power under Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, they attacked the
Ionians, as I said before, and defeated them. They drove the Ionians out
of the country, and took possession of the territory, but retained the
same partition of it which they found existing there. They became so
powerful, that, although the Heracleidæ, from whom they had revolted,
occupied the rest of Peloponnesus, yet they defended themselves against
them all, and called their own country Achæa.
From Tisamenus to Ogyges they continued to be governed by kings.
Afterwards they established a democracy, and acquired so great renown
for their political wisdom, that the Italian Greeks, after their
dissensions with the Pythagoreans, adopted most of the laws and
institutions of the Achæans. After the battle of Leuctra the
Thebans[238] committed the disputes of the cities among each other to
the arbitration of the Achæans. At a later period their community was
dissolved by the Macedonians, but they recovered by degrees their former
power. At the time of the expedition of Pyrrhus into Italy they began
with the union of four cities, among which were Patræ and Dyme. [239]
They then had an accession of the twelve cities, with the exception of
Olenus and Helice; the former refused to join the league; the other was
swallowed up by the waves.
2. For the sea was raised to a great height by an earthquake, and
overwhelmed both Helice and the temple of the Heliconian Neptune, whom
the Ionians still hold in great veneration, and offer sacrifices to his
honour. They celebrate at that spot the Panionian festival. [240]
According to the conjecture of some persons, Homer refers to these
sacrifices in these lines,
“But he breathed out his soul, and bellowed, as a bull
Bellows when he is dragged round the altar of the Heliconian
king. ”[241]
It is conjectured that the age[242] of the poet is later than the
migration of the Ionian colony, because he mentions the Panionian
sacrifices, which the Ionians perform in honour of the Heliconian
Neptune in the territory of Priene; for the Prienians themselves are
said to have come from Helice; a young man also of Priene is appointed
to preside as king at these sacrifices, and to superintend the
celebration of the sacred rites. A still stronger proof is adduced from
what is said by the poet respecting the bull, for the Ionians suppose,
that sacrifice is performed with favourable omens, when the bull bellows
at the instant that he is wounded at the altar.
Others deny this, and transfer to Helice the proofs alleged of the bull
and the sacrifice, asserting that these things were done there by
established custom, and that the poet drew his comparison from the
festival celebrated there. Helice[243] was overwhelmed by the waves two
years before the battle of [CAS. 384] Leuctra. Eratosthenes says, that
he himself saw the place, and the ferrymen told him that there formerly
stood in the strait a brazen statue of Neptune, holding in his hand a
hippocampus,[244] an animal which is dangerous to fishermen.
According to Heracleides, the inundation took place in his time, and
during the night. The city was at the distance of 12 stadia from the
sea, which overwhelmed the whole intermediate country as well as the
city. Two thousand men were sent by the Achæans to collect the dead
bodies, but in vain. The territory was divided among the bordering
people. This calamity happened in consequence of the anger of Neptune,
for the Ionians, who were driven from Helice, sent particularly to
request the people of Helice to give them the image of Neptune, or if
they were unwilling to give that, to furnish them with the model of the
temple. On their refusal, the Ionians sent to the Achæan body, who
decreed, that they should comply with the request, but they would not
obey even this injunction. The disaster occurred in the following
winter, and after this the Achæans gave the Ionians the model of the
temple.
Hesiod mentions another Helice in Thessaly.
3. The Achæans, during a period of five and twenty years, elected,
annually, a common secretary, and two military chiefs. Their common
assembly of the council met at one place, called Arnarium, (Homarium, or
Amarium,) where these persons, and, before their time, the Ionians,
consulted on public affairs. They afterwards resolved to elect one
military chief. When Aratus held this post, he took the Acrocorinthus
from Antigonus, and annexed the city as well as his own country to the
Achæan league. [245] He admitted the Megareans also into the body, and,
having destroyed the tyrannical governments in each state, he made them
members, after they were restored to liberty, of the Achæan league. * *
* * * He freed, in a short time, Peloponnesus from the existing
tyrannies; thus Argos, Hermion, Phlius, and Megalopolis, the largest of
the Arcadian cities, were added to the Achæan body, when they attained
their greatest increase of numbers. It was at this time that the Romans,
having expelled the Carthaginians from Sicily, undertook an expedition
against the Galatæ, who were settled about the Po. [246] The Achæans
remained firmly united until Philopœmen had the military command, but
their union was gradually dissolved, after the Romans had obtained
possession of the whole of Greece. The Romans did not treat each state
in the same manner, but permitted some to retain their own form of
government, and dissolved that of others.
* * * * *
[He then assigns reasons for expatiating on the subject of the Achæans,
namely, their attainment of such a degree of power as to be superior to
the Lacedæmonians, and because they were not as well known as they
deserved to be from their importance. ][247]
4. The order of the places which the Achæans inhabited, according to the
distribution into twelve parts, is as follows. Next to Sicyon is
Pellene; Ægeira, the second; the third, Ægæ, with a temple of Neptune;
Bura, the fourth; then Helice, where the Ionians took refuge after their
defeat by the Achæans, and from which place they were at last banished;
after Helice are Ægium, Rhypes, Patræ, and Phara; then Olenus, beside
which runs the large river [Peirus? ]; then Dyme, and Tritæeis. The
Ionians dwelt in villages, but the Achæans founded cities, to some of
which they afterwards united others transferred from other quarters, as
Ægæ to Ægeira, (the inhabitants, however, were called Ægæi,) and Olenus
to Dyme.
Traces of the ancient settlement of the Olenii are to be seen between
Patræ and Dyme: there also is the famous temple of Æsculapius, distant
from Dyme 40, and from Patræ 80 stadia.
In Eubœa there is a place of the same name with the [CAS. 386] Ægæ
here, and there is a town of the name of Olenus in Ætolia, of which
there remain only vestiges.
The poet does not mention the Olenus in Achaia, nor many other people
living near Ægialus, but speaks in general terms;
“along the whole of Ægialus, and about the spacious Helice. ”[248]
But he mentions the Ætolian Olenus in these words;
“those who occupied Pleuron and Olenus. ”[249]
He mentions both the places of the name of Ægæ; the Achæan Ægæ in these
terms,
“who bring presents to Helice, and to Ægæ. ”[250]
But when he says,
“Ægæ, where his palace is in the depths of the sea,
There Neptune stopped his coursers,”[251]
it is better to understand Ægæ in Eubœa; whence it is probable the Ægæan
Sea had its name. On this sea, according to story, Neptune made his
preparations for the Trojan war.
Close to the Achæan Ægæ flows the river Crathis,[252] augmented by the
waters of two rivers, and deriving its name from the mixture of their
streams. To this circumstance the river Crathis in Italy owes its name.
5. Each of these twelve portions contained seven or eight demi, so great
was the population of the country.
Pellene,[253] situated at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea, is a
strong fortress. There is also a village of the name of Pellene, whence
they bring the Pellenian mantles, which are offered as prizes at the
public games. It lies between Ægium[254] and Pellene. But Pellana, a
different place from these, belongs to the Lacedæmonians, and is
situated towards the territory of Megalopolitis.
Ægeira[255] is situated upon a hill. Bura is at the distance from the
sea-coast of about 40 stadia. It was swallowed up by an earthquake. It
is said, that from the fountain Sybaris which is there, the river
Sybaris in Italy had its name.
Æga (for this is the name by which Ægæ is called) is not now inhabited,
but the Ægienses occupy the territory. Ægium, however, is well
inhabited. It was here, it is said, that Jupiter was suckled by a goat,
as Aratus also says,
“the sacred goat, which is said to have applied its teats to
the lips of Jupiter. ”[256]
He adds, that,
“the priests call it the Olenian goat of Jupiter,”
and indicates the place because it was near Olenus. There also is
Ceryneia, situated upon a lofty rock. This place, and Helice, belong to
the Ægienses,[257] and the Ænarium, [Homarium,] the grove of Jupiter,
where the Achæans held their convention, when they were to deliberate
upon their common affairs.
The river Selinus flows through the city of the Ægienses. It has the
same name as that which was beside Artemisium at Ephesus, and that in
Elis, which has its course along the spot, that Xenophon[258] says he
purchased in compliance with the injunction of an oracle, in honour of
Artemis. There is also another Selinus in the country of the Hyblæi
Megarenses, whom the Carthaginians expelled.
Of the remaining Achæan cities, or portions, Rhypes is not inhabited,
but the territory called Rhypis was occupied by Ægienses and Pharians.
Æschylus also says somewhere,
“the sacred Bura, and Rhypes struck with lightning. ”
Myscellus, the founder of Croton, was a native of Rhypes. Leuctrum,
belonging to the district Rhypis, was a demus of Rhypes. Between these
was Patræ, a considerable city, and in the intervening country, at the
distance of 40 stadia from Patræ, are Rhium,[259] and opposite to it,
Antirrhium. [260] Not long since the Romans, after the victory at Actium,
stationed there a large portion of their army, and at [CAS. 387]
present it is very well peopled, since it is a colony of the Romans. It
has also a tolerably good shelter for vessels. Next is Dyme,[261] a city
without a harbour, the most westerly of all the cities, whence also it
has its name. It was formerly called Stratos. [262] It is separated from
Eleia at Buprasium by the river Larisus,[263] which rises in a mountain,
called by some persons Scollis, but by Homer, the Olenian rock.
Antimachus having called Dyme Cauconis, some writers suppose that the
latter word is used as an epithet derived from the Caucones, who
extended as far as this quarter, as I have said before. Others think
that it is derived from a river Caucon, in the same way as Thebes has
the appellation of Dircæan, and Asopian; and as Argos is called
Inachian, and Troy, Simuntis. [264]
A little before our time, Dyme had received a colony consisting of a
mixed body of people, a remnant of the piratical bands, whose haunts
Pompey had destroyed. Some he settled at Soli in Cilicia, and others in
other places, and some in this spot.
Phara borders upon the Dymæan territory. The inhabitants of this Phara
are called Pharenses; those of the Messenian Phara, Pharatæ. In the
territory of Phara there is a fountain Dirce, of the same name as that
at Thebes.
Olenus is deserted. It lies between Patræ and Dyme. The territory is
occupied by the Dymæi. Next is Araxus,[265] the promontory of the Eleian
district, distant from the isthmus 1000 stadia.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Arcadia is situated in the middle of Peloponnesus, and contains the
greatest portion of the mountainous tract in that country. Its largest
mountain is Cyllene. [266] Its perpendicular height, according to some
writers, is 20, according to others, about 15 stadia.
The Arcadian nations, as the Azanes, and Parrhasii, and other similar
tribes, seem to be the most ancient people of Greece. [267]
In consequence of the complete devastation of this country, it is
unnecessary to give a long description of it. The cities, although
formerly celebrated, have been destroyed by continual wars; and the
husbandmen abandoned the country at the time that most of the cities
were united in that called Megalopolis (the Great City). At present
Megalopolis itself has undergone the fate expressed by the comic poet;
“the great city is a great desert. ”
There are rich pastures for cattle, and particularly for horses and
asses, which are used as stallions. The race of Arcadian horses, as well
as the Argolic and Epidaurian, is preferred before all others. The
uninhabited tracts of country in Ætolia and Acarnania are not less
adapted to the breeding of horses than Thessaly.
2. Mantinea owes its fame to Epaminondas, who conquered the
Lacedæmonians there in a second battle, in which he lost his life. [268]
This city, together with Orchomenus, Heræa, Cleitor, Pheneus,
Stymphalus, Mænalus, Methydrium, Caphyeis, and Cynætha, either exist no
longer, or traces and signs only of their existence are visible. There
are still some remains of Tegea, and the temple of the Alæan Minerva
remains. The latter is yet held in some little veneration, as well as
the temple of the Lycæan Jupiter on the Lycæan mountain. But the places
mentioned by the poet, as
“Rhipe, and Stratia, and the windy Enispe,”
are difficult to discover, and if discovered, would be of no use from
the deserted condition of the country.
3. [CAS. 389] The mountains of note, besides Cyllene, are Pholoë,[269]
Lycæum,[270] Mænalus, and the Parthenium,[271] as it is called, which
extends from the territory of Tegea to that of Argos.
4. We have spoken of the extraordinary circumstances relative to the
Alpheius, Eurotas, and the Erasinus, which issues out of the lake
Stymphalis, and now flows into the Argive country.
Formerly, the Erasinus had no efflux, for the Berethra, which the
Arcadians call Zerethra,[272] had no outlet, so that the city of the
Stymphalii, which at that time was situated upon the lake, is now at the
distance of 50 stadia.
The contrary was the case with the Ladon, which was at one time
prevented running in a continuous stream by the obstruction of its
sources. For the Berethra near Pheneum, through which it now passes,
fell in, in consequence of an earthquake, which stopped the waters of the
river, and affected far down the veins which supplied its source. This
is the account of some writers.
Eratosthenes says, that about the Pheneus, the river called Anias forms
a lake, and then sinks under-ground into certain openings, which they
call Zerethra. When these are obstructed, the water sometimes overflows
into the plains, and when they are again open the water escapes in a
body from the plains, and is discharged into the Ladon[273] and the
Alpheius,[274] so that it happened once at Olympia, that the land about
the temple was inundated, but the lake was partly emptied. The
Erasinus[275] also, he says, which flows by Stymphalus, sinks into the
ground under the mountain (Chaon? ), and reappears in the Argive
territory. It was this that induced Iphicrates, when besieging
Stymphalus, and making no progress, to attempt to obstruct the descent
of the river into the ground by means of a large quantity of sponges,
but desisted in consequence of some portentous signs in the heavens.
Near the Pheneus there is also the water of the Styx, as it is called, a
dripping spring of poisonous water, which was esteemed to be sacred.
So much then respecting Arcadia.
5. [276] Polybius having said, that from Maleæ towards the north as far
as the Danube the distance is about 10,000 stadia, is corrected by
Artemidorus, and not without reason; for, according to the latter, from
Maleæ to Ægium the distance is 1400 stadia, from hence to Cirrha is a
distance by sea of 200 stadia; hence by Heraclea to Thaumaci a journey
of 500 stadia; thence to Larisa and the river Peneus, 340 stadia; then
through Tempe to the mouth of the Peneus, 240 stadia; then to
Thessalonica, 660 stadia; then to the Danube, through Idomene, and
Stobi, and Dardanii, it is 3200 stadia. According to Artemidorus,
therefore, the distance from the Danube to Maleæ would be 6500. The
cause of this difference is that he does not give the measurement by the
shortest road, but by some accidental route pursued by a general of an
army.
It is not, perhaps, out of place to add the founders mentioned by
Ephorus, who settled colonies in Peloponnesus after the return of the
Heracleidæ; as Aletes, the founder of Corinth; Phalces, of Sicyon;
Tisamenus, of cities in Achæa; Oxylus, of Elis, Cresphontes, of Messene;
Eurysthenes and Procles, of Lacedæmon; Temenus and Cissus, of Argos; and
Agræus and Deïphontes, of the towns about Acte.
BOOK IX. [CAS. 390]
SUMMARY.
Continuation of the geography of Greece. A panegyrical account
of Athens. A description of Bœotia and Thessaly, with the
sea-coast.
CHAPTER I.
1. Having completed the description of Peloponnesus, which we said was
the first and least of the peninsulas of which Greece consists, we must
next proceed to those which are continuous with it. [277]
We described the second to be that which joins Megaris to the
Peloponnesus [so that Crommyon belongs to Megaris, and not to the
Corinthians];[278] the third to be that which is situated near the
former, comprising Attica and Bœotia, some part of Phocis, and of the
Locri Epicnemidii. Of these we are now to speak.
Eudoxus says, that if we imagine a straight line to be drawn towards the
east from the Ceraunian Mountains to Sunium, the promontory of Attica,
it would leave, on the right hand, to the south, the whole of
Peloponnesus, and on the left, to the north, the continuous coast from
the Ceraunian Mountains to the Crisæan Gulf, and the whole of Megaris
and Attica. He is of opinion that the shore which extends from Sunium to
the Isthmus, would not have so great a curvature, nor have so great a
bend, if, to this shore, were not added the parts continuous with the
Isthmus and extending to the Hermionic Bay and Acté; that in the same
manner the shore, from the Ceraunian Mountains to the Gulf of Corinth,
has a similar bend, so as to make a curvature, forming within it a sort
of gulf, where Rhium and Antirrhium contracting together give it this
figure. The same is the case with the shore about Crissa and the recess,
where the Crisæan Sea terminates. [279]
2. As this is the description given by Eudoxus, a mathematician, skilled
in the delineations of figures and the inclinations of places,
acquainted also with the places themselves, we must consider the sides
of Attica and Megaris, extending from Sunium as far as the Isthmus, to
be curved, although slightly so. About the middle of the above-mentioned
line[280] is the Piræus, the naval arsenal of the Athenians. It is
distant from Schœnus, at the Isthmus, about 350 stadia; from Sunium 330.
The distance from the Piræus to Pagæ[281] and from the Piræus to Schœnus
is nearly the same, yet the former is said to exceed the latter by 10
stadia. After having doubled Sunium, the navigation along the coast is
to the north with a declination to the west.
3. Acte (Attica) is washed by two seas; it is at first narrow, then it
widens towards the middle, yet it, nevertheless, takes a lunated bend
towards Oropus in Bœotia, having the convex side towards the sea. This
is the second, the eastern side of Attica.
The remaining side is that to the north, extending from the territory of
Oropus towards the west, as far as Megaris, and consists of the
mountainous tract of Attica, having a variety of names, and dividing
Bœotia from Attica; so that, as I have before remarked, Bœotia, by being
connected with [CAS. 391] two seas, becomes the Isthmus of the third
peninsula, which we have mentioned before, and this Isthmus includes
within it the Peloponnesus, Megaris, and Attica. For this reason
therefore the present Attica was called by a play upon the words Acta
and Actica, because the greatest part of it lies under the mountains,
and borders on the sea; it is narrow, and stretches forwards a
considerable length as far as Sunium. We shall therefore resume the
description of these sides, beginning from the sea-coast, at the point
where we left off.
4. After Crommyon, rising above Attica, are the rocks called Scironides,
which afford no passage along the sea-side. Over them, however, is a
road which leads to Megara and Attica from the Isthmus. The road
approaches so near the rocks that in many places it runs along the edge
of precipices, for the overhanging mountain is of great height, and
impassable.
Here is laid the scene of the fable of Sciron, and the Pityocamptes, or
the pine-breaker, one of those who infested with their robberies the
above-mentioned mountainous tract. They were slain by Theseus.
The wind Argestes,[282] which blows from the left with violence, from
these summits is called by the Athenians Sciron.
After the rocks Scironides there projects the promontory Minoa, forming
the harbour of Nisæa. Nisæa is the arsenal of Megara, and distant 18
stadia from the city; it is joined to it by walls on each side. [283]
This also had the name of Minoa.
5. In former times the Ionians occupied this country, and were also in
possession of Attica, before the time of the building of Megara,
wherefore the poet does not mention these places by any appropriate
name, but when he calls all those dwelling in Attica, Athenians, he
comprehends these also in the common appellation, regarding them as
Athenians; so when, in the Catalogue of the Ships, he says,
“And they who occupied Athens, a well-built city,”[284]
we must understand the present Megarenses also, as having taken a part
in the expedition. The proof of this is, that Attica was, in former
times, called Ionia, and Ias, and when the poet says,
“There the Bœoti, Iaones,”[285]
he means the Athenians. But of this Ionia Megaris was a part.
6. Besides, the Peloponnesians and Ionians having had frequent disputes
respecting their boundaries, on which Crommyonia also was situated,
assembled and agreed upon a spot of the Isthmus itself, on which they
erected a pillar having an inscription on the part towards Peloponnesus,
“THIS IS PELOPONNESUS, NOT IONIA;”
and on the side towards Megara,
“THIS IS NOT PELOPONNESUS, BUT IONIA. ”
Although those, who wrote on the history of Attica,[286] differ in many
respects, yet those of any note agree in this, that when there were four
Pandionidæ, Ægeus, Lycus, Pallas, and Nisus; and when Attica was divided
into four portions, Nisus obtained, by lot, Megaris, and founded Nisæa.
Philochorus says, that his government extended from the Isthmus to
Pythium,[287] but according to Andron, as far as Eleusis and the
Thriasian plain.
Since, then, different writers give different accounts of the division
of the country into four parts, it is enough to adduce these lines from
Sophocles where Ægeus says,
“My father determined that I should go away to Acte, having
assigned to me, as the elder, the best part of the land; to
Lycus, the opposite garden of Eubœa; for Nisus he selects the
irregular tract of the shore of Sciron; and the rugged Pallas,
breeder of giants, obtained by lot the part to the
south. ”[288]
Such are the proofs which are adduced to show that Megaris was a part of
Attica.
7. After the return of the Heraclidæ, and the partition of the country,
many of the former possessors were banished from their own land by the
Heraclidæ, and by the Dorians, who came with them, and migrated to
Attica. Among these was Melanthus, the king of Messene. He was
voluntarily [CAS. 393] appointed king of the Athenians, after having
overcome in single combat, Xanthus, the king of the Bœotians. When
Attica became populous by the accession of fugitives, the Heraclidæ were
alarmed, and invaded Attica, chiefly at the instigation of the
Corinthians and Messenians; the former of whom were influenced by
proximity of situation, the latter by the circumstance that Codrus, the
son of Melanthus, was at that time king of Attica. They were, however,
defeated in battle and relinquished the whole of the country, except the
territory of Megara, of which they kept possession, and founded the city
Megara, where they introduced as inhabitants Dorians in place of
Ionians. They destroyed the pillar also which was the boundary of the
country of the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.
8. The city of the Megarenses, after having experienced many changes,
still subsists. It once had schools of philosophers, who had the name of
the Megaric sect. They succeeded Euclides, the Socratic philosopher, who
was by birth a Megarensian, in the same manner as the Eleiaci, among
whom was Pyrrhon, who succeeded Phædon, the Eleian, who was also a
Socratic philosopher, and as the Eretriaci succeeded Menedemus the
Eretrean.
Megaris, like Attica, is very sterile, and the greater part of it is
occupied by what are called the Oneii mountains, a kind of ridge, which,
extending from the Scironides rocks to Bœotia and to Cithæron, separates
the sea at Nisæa from that near Pagæ, called the Alcyonian Sea.
9. In sailing from Nisæa to Attica there lie, in the course of the
voyage, five small islands. Then succeeds Salamis, which is about 70,
and according to others, 80, stadia in length. It has two cities of the
same name. The ancient city, which looked towards Ægina and to the
south, as Æschylus has described it;
“Ægina lies towards the blasts of the south:”
it is uninhabited. The other is situated in a bay on a spot of a
peninsular form contiguous to Attica. In former times it had other
names, for it was called Sciras, and Cychreia, from certain heroes; from
the former Minerva is called Sciras; hence also Scira, a place in
Attica; Episcirosis, a religious rite; and Scirophorion, one of the
months. From Cychreia the serpent Cychrides had its name, which Hesiod
says Cychreus bred, and Eurylochus ejected, because it infested the
island, but that Ceres admitted it into Eleusis, and it became her
attendant. Salamis was called also Pityussa from “pitys,” the pine tree.
The island obtained its renown from the Æacidæ, who were masters of it,
particularly from Ajax, the son of Telamon, and from the defeat of
Xerxes by the Greeks in a battle on the coast, and by his flight to his
own country. The Æginetæ participated in the glory of that engagement,
both as neighbours, and as having furnished a considerable naval force.
[In Salamis is the river Bocarus, now called Bocalia. ][289]
10. At present the Athenians possess the island Salamis. In former times
they disputed the possession of it with the Megarians. Some allege, that
Pisistratus, others that Solon, inserted in the Catalogue of Ships
immediately after this verse,
“Ajax conducted from Salamis twelve vessels,”[290]
the following words,
“And stationed them by the side of the Athenian forces;”
and appealed to the poet as a witness, that the island originally
belonged to the Athenians. But this is not admitted by the critics,
because many other lines testify the contrary. For why does Ajax appear
at the extremity of the line not with the Athenians, but with the
Thessalians under the command of Protesilaus;
“There were the vessels of Ajax, and Protesilaus. ”[291]
And Agamemnon, in the Review[4] of the troops,
“found the son of Peteus, Menestheus, the tamer of horses,
standing, and around were the Athenians skilful in war: near
stood the wily Ulysses, and around him and at his side, the
ranks of the Cephalleni;”[292]
and again, respecting Ajax and the Salaminii;
“he came to the Ajaces,”[293]
and near them,
“Idomeneus on the other side amidst the Cretans,”[294]
not Menestheus. The Athenians then seem to have alleged [CAS. 394] some
such evidence as this from Homer as a pretext, and the Megarians to have
replied in an opposite strain of this kind;
“Ajax conducted ships from Salamis, from Polichna, from
Ægirussa, from Nisæa, and from Tripodes,”[295]
which are places in Megaris, of which Tripodes has the name of
Tripodiscium, situated near the present forum of Megara.
11. Some say, that Salamis is unconnected with Attica, because the
priestess of Minerva Polias, who may not eat the new cheese of Attica,
but the produce only of a foreign land, yet uses the Salaminian cheese.
But this is a mistake, for she uses that which is brought from other
islands, that are confessedly near Attica, for the authors of this
custom considered all produce as foreign which was brought over sea.
It seems as if anciently the present Salamis was a separate state, and
that Megara was a part of Attica.
On the sea-coast, opposite to Salamis, the boundaries of Megara and
Attica are two mountains called Cerata, or Horns. [296]
12. Next is the city Eleusis,[297] in which is the temple of the
Eleusinian Ceres, and the Mystic Enclosure (Secos),[298] which Ictinus
built,[299] capable of containing the crowd of a theatre. It was this
person that built[300] the Parthenon in the Acropolis, in honour of
Minerva, when Pericles was the superintendent of the public works. The
city is enumerated among the demi, or burghs.
13. Then follows the Thriasian plain, and the coast, a demus of the same
name,[301] then the promontory Amphiale,[302] above which is a stone
quarry; and then the passage across the sea to Salamis, of about 2
stadia, which Xerxes endeavoured to fill up with heaps of earth, but the
sea-fight and the flight of the Persians occurred before he had
accomplished it.
There also are the Pharmacussæ,[303] two small islands, in the larger
of which is shown the tomb of Circe.
14. Above this coast is a mountain called Corydallus, and the demus
Corydalleis: then the harbour of Phoron, (Robbers,) and Psyttalia, a
small rocky desert island, which, according to some writers, is the
eye-sore of the Piræus.
Near it is Atalanta, of the same name as that between Eubœa and the
Locri; and another small island similar to Psyttalia; then the Piræus,
which is also reckoned among the demi, and the Munychia.
15. The Munychia is a hill in the shape of a peninsula, hollow, and a
great part of it excavated both by nature and art, so as to serve for
dwellings, with an entrance by a narrow opening. Beneath it are three
harbours. Formerly the Munychia was surrounded by a wall, and occupied
by dwellings, nearly in the same manner as the city of the Rhodians,
comprehending within the circuit of the walls the Piræus and the
harbours full of materials for ship-building; here also was the armoury,
the work of Philon. The naval station was capable of receiving the four
hundred vessels; which was the smallest number the Athenians were in the
habit of keeping in readiness for sea. With this wall were connected the
legs, that stretched out from the Asty. These were the long walls, 40
stadia in length, joining the Asty[304] to the Piræus. But in
consequence of frequent wars, the wall and the fortification of the
Munychia were demolished; the Piræus was contracted to a small town,
extending round the harbours and the temple of Jupiter Soter. The small
porticoes of the temple contain admirable paintings, the work of
celebrated artists, and the hypæthrum, statues.
