He fortified the
Cadmeian land, and transmitted the government to his descendants.
Cadmeian land, and transmitted the government to his descendants.
Strabo
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. The long walls also were
destroyed, first demolished by the Lacedæmonians, and afterwards by the
Romans, when Sylla took the Piræus and the Asty by siege. [305]
16. What is properly the Asty is a rock, situated in a plain, with
dwellings around it. Upon the rock is the temple [CAS. 396] of Minerva,
and the ancient shrine of Minerva Polias, in which is the
never-extinguished lamp; and the Parthenon, built by Ictinus, in which
is the Minerva, in ivory, the work of Pheidias.
When, however, I consider the multitude of objects, so celebrated and
far-famed, belonging to this city, I am reluctant to enlarge upon them,
lest what I write should depart too far from the proposed design of this
work. [306] For the words of Hegesias[307] occur to me;
“I behold the acropolis, there is the symbol of the great
trident;[308] I see Eleusis; I am initiated in the sacred
mysteries; that is Leocorium;[309] this the Theseium. [310] To
describe all is beyond my power, for Attica is the chosen
residence of the gods; and the possession of heroes its
progenitors. ”
Yet this very writer mentions only one of the remarkable things to be
seen in the Acropolis. Polemo Periegetes[311] however composed four
books on the subject of the sacred offerings which were there. Hegesias
is similarly sparing of remarks on other parts of the city, and of the
territory: after speaking of Eleusis, one of the hundred and seventy
demi, to which as they say four are to be added, he mentions no other by
name.
17. Many, if not all the demi, have various fabulous tales and histories
connected with them: with Aphidna is connected the rape of Helen by
Theseus, the sack of the place by the Dioscuri, and the recovery of
their sister; with Marathon, the battle with the Persians; at Rhamnus
was the statue of Nemesis, which, according to some writers, is the work
of Diodotus, according to others, of Agoracritus, the Parian, so well
executed, both as to size and beauty, as to rival the art of Pheidias.
Deceleia was the rendezvous of the Peloponnesians in the Decelic war.
From Phyle Thrasybulus brought back the people to the Piræus, and thence
to the Asty. Thus also much might be told respecting many other places;
the Leocorium, the Theseium, and the Lyceum have their own fables, and
the Olympicum, called also the Olympium, which the king, who dedicated
it, left, at his death, half finished; so also much might be said of the
Academia, of the gardens of the philosophers, of the Odeium,[312] of the
Stoa Pœcile, [or painted Portico,] and of the temples in the city, all
of which contain the works of illustrious artists.
18. The account would be much longer if we were to inquire who were the
founders of the city from the time of Cecrops, for writers do not agree,
as is evident from the names of persons and of places. For example,
Attica,[313] they say, was derived from Actæon; Atthis, and Attica, from
Atthis, the daughter of Cranaus, from whom the inhabitants had the name
Cranaï; Mopsopia from Mopsopus; Ionia from Ion, the son of Xuthus;
Poseidonia and Athenæ, from the deities of that name. We have said, that
the nation of the Pelasgi seem to have come into this country in the
course of their migrations, and were called from their wanderings, by
the Attici, Pelargi, or storks.
19. In proportion as an earnest desire is excited to ascertain the truth
about remarkable places and events, and in proportion as writers, on
these subjects, are more numerous, so much the more is an author exposed
to censure, who does not make himself master of what has been written.
For example, in “the Collection of the Rivers,” Callimachus says, that
he should laugh at the person, who would venture to describe the
Athenian virgins as
“drinking of the pure waters of the Eridanus,”[CAS. 397]
from which even the herds would turn away. There are indeed fountains of
water, pure and fit for drinking, it is said, without the gate called
Diochares, near the Lyceium; formerly also a fountain was erected near
it, which afforded a large supply of excellent water; but if it is not
so at present, is it at all strange, that a fountain supplying abundance
of pure and potable water at one period of time, should afterwards have
the property of its waters altered?
In subjects, however, which are so numerous, we cannot enter into
detail; yet they are not so entirely to be passed over in silence as to
abstain from giving a condensed account of some of them.
20. It will suffice then to add, that, according to Philochorus, when
the country was devastated on the side of the sea by the Carians, and by
land by the Bœotians, whom they called Aones, Cecrops first settled a
large body of people in twelve cities, the names of which were Cecropia,
Tetrapolis, Epacria, Deceleia, Eleusis, Aphidna, (although some persons
write it in the plural number, Aphidnæ,) Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus,
Sphettus, Cephisia [Phalerus]. Again, at a subsequent period, Theseus is
said to have collected the inhabitants of the twelve cities into one,
the present city.
Formerly, the Athenians were governed by kings; they afterwards changed
the government to a democracy; then tyrants were their masters, as
Pisistratus and his sons; afterwards there was an oligarchy both of the
four hundred and of the thirty tyrants, whom the Lacedæmonii set over
them; these were expelled by the Athenians, who retained the form of a
democracy, till the Romans established their empire. For, although they
were somewhat oppressed by the Macedonian kings, so as to be compelled
to obey them, yet they preserved entire the same form of government.
Some say, that the government was very well administered during a period
of ten years, at the time that Casander was king of the Macedonians. For
this person, although in other respects he was disposed to be
tyrannical, yet, when he was master of the city, treated the Athenians
with kindness and generosity. He placed at the head of the citizens
Demetrius the Phalerean, a disciple of Theophrastus the philosopher,
who, far from dissolving, restored the democracy. This appears from his
memoirs, which he composed concerning this mode of government. But so
much hatred and dislike prevailed against anything connected with
oligarchy, that, after the death of Casander, he was obliged to fly into
Egypt. [314] The insurgents pulled down more than three hundred of his
statues, which were melted down, and according to some were cast into
chamber-pots. The Romans, after their conquest, finding them governed by
a democracy,[315] maintained their independence and liberty. During the
Mithridatic war, the king set over them such tyrants as he pleased.
Aristio, who was the most powerful of these persons, oppressed the city;
he was taken by Sylla, the Roman general, after a siege,[316] and put to
death. The citizens were pardoned, and, to this time, the city enjoys
liberty, and is respected by the Romans.
21. Next to the Piræus is the demus Phalereis, on the succeeding line of
coast, then Halimusii, Æxoneis, Alæeis, the Æxonici, Anagyrasii; then
Theoris, Lampesis; Ægilieis, Anaphlystii, Azenieis; these extend as far
as the promontory Sunium. Between the above-mentioned demi is a long
promontory, Zoster,[317] the first after the Æxoneis; then another
promontory after Thoreis, Astypalæa; in the front of the former of these
is an island, Phabra,[318] and of the latter an island, Eleüssa,[319]
opposite the Æxoneis is Hydrussa. About Anaphlystum is the Paneum, and
the temple of Venus Colias. Here, they say, were thrown up by the waves
the last portions of the wrecks of the vessels after the naval
engagement with the Persians near Salamis, of which remains Apollo
predicted,
“The women of Colias shall shudder at the sight of oars. ”
In front of these places lies off, at no great distance, the island
Belbina; and the rampart of Patroclus; but most of these islands are
uninhabited.
22. On doubling the promontory at Sunium, we meet with Sunium, a
considerable demus; then Thoricus, next a demus called Potamus, from
which the inhabitants are called Potamii; next Prasia,[320] Steiria,
Brauron, where is the temple of [CAS. 399] Diana Brauronia, Halæ
Araphenides, where is the temple of Diana Tauropola; then Myrrhinus,
Probalinthus, Marathon, where Miltiades entirely destroyed the army of
Datis the Persian, without waiting for the Lacedæmonians, who deferred
setting out till the full moon. There is laid the scene of the fable of
the Marathonian bull, which Theseus killed.
Next to Marathon is Tricorynthus, then Rhamnus, where is the temple of
Nemesis; then Psaphis, a city of the Oropii. Somewhere about this spot
is the Amphiaraeum, an oracle once in repute, to which Amphiareus fled,
as Sophocles says,
“The dusty Theban soil opened and received him with his
armour, and the four-horse chariot. ”
Oropus has frequently been a subject of contention, for it is situated
on the confines of Attica and Bœotia.
In front of this coast, before Thoricum and Sunium, is the island
Helena; it is rocky and uninhabited, extending in length about 60
stadia, which, they say, the poet mentions in the words, in which
Alexander addresses Helen,
“Not when first I carried thee away from the pleasant
Lacedæmon, across the deep, and in the island Cranaë embraced
thee. ”[321]
For Cranaë, from the kind of intercourse which took place there, is now
called Helena. Next to Helena,[322] Eubœa[323] lies in front of the
following tract of coast. It is long and narrow, and stretching along
the continent like Helena. From Sunium to the southern point of Eubœa,
which is called Leuce Acte,[324] [or, the white coast,] is a voyage of
300 stadia, but we shall speak hereafter of Eubœa.
It would be tedious to recite the names of the Demi of Attica in the
inland parts, on account of their number. [325]
23. Among the mountains which are most celebrated, are the Hymettus,
Brilessus, Lycabettus, Parnes, and Corydallus. [326] Near the city are
excellent quarries of Hymettian and Pentelic marble. The Hymettus
produces also the finest honey. The silver mines in Attica were at first
of importance, but are now exhausted. The workmen, when the mines
yielded a bad return to their labour, committed to the furnace the old
refuse and scoria, and hence obtained very pure silver, for the former
workmen had carried on the process in the furnace unskilfully.
Although the Attic is the best of all the kinds of honey, yet by far the
best of the Attic honey is that found in the country of the silver
mines,[327] which they call acapniston, or unsmoked, from the mode of
its preparation.
24. Among the rivers is the Cephissus, having its source from the
Trinemeis, it flows through the plain (where are the Gephyra, and the
Gephyrismi) between the legs or walls extending from the Asty to the
Piræus, and empties itself into the Phalericum. Its character is chiefly
that of a winter torrent, for in the summer time it fails altogether.
Such also, for the most part, is the Ilissus, which flows from the other
side of the Asty to the same coast, from the parts above Agra, and the
Lyceium, and the fountain celebrated by Plato in the Phædrus. So much
then respecting Attica.
CHAPTER II.
1. Next in order is Bœotia. When I speak of this country, and of the
contiguous nations, I must, for the sake of perspicuity, repeat what I
have said before.
We have said, that the sea-coast stretches from Sunium to the north as
far as Thessalonica, inclining a little toward the west, and having the
sea on the east, that parts situated above this shore towards the west
extend like belts[328] parallel to one another through the whole
country. The first of these belts is Attica with Megaris, the eastern
side of which extends [CAS. 400] from Sunium to Oropus, and Bœotia; on
the western side is the isthmus, and the Alcyonian sea commencing at
Pagæ and extending as far as the boundaries of Bœotia near Creusa, the
remaining two sides are formed by the sea-shore from Sunium to the
Isthmus, and the mountain tract nearly parallel with this, which
separates Attica from Bœotia.
The second belt is Bœotia, stretching from east to west from the Eubœan
sea to the Crisæan Gulf, nearly of equal length with Attica, or perhaps
somewhat less; in quality of soil however it greatly surpasses Attica.
2. Ephorus declares the superiority of Bœotia over the bordering nations
not only in this respect, but also because it alone has three seas
adjoining it, and a great number of harbours. At the Crisæan and
Corinthian Gulfs it received the commodities of Italy, Sicily, and
Africa. Towards Eubœa the sea-coast branches off on each side of the
Euripus; in one direction towards Aulis and Tanagrica, in the other, to
Salganeus and Anthedon; on one side there is an open sea to Egypt, and
Cyprus, and the islands; on the other to Macedonia, the Propontis, and
the Hellespont. He adds also that Eubœa is almost a part of Bœotia,
because the Euripus is very narrow, and the opposite shores are brought
into communication by a bridge of two plethra in length. [329]
For these reasons he praises the country, and says, that it has natural
advantages for obtaining supreme command, but that from want of careful
education and learning, even those who were from time to time at the
head of affairs did not long maintain the ascendency they had acquired,
as appears from the example of Epaminondas; at his death the Thebans
immediately lost the supremacy they had just acquired. This is to be
attributed, says Ephorus, to their neglect of learning, and of
intercourse with mankind, and to their exclusive cultivation of military
virtues. It must be added also, that learning and knowledge are
peculiarly useful in dealing with Greeks, but in the case of Barbarians,
force is preferable to reason. In fact the Romans in early times, when
carrying on war with savage nations, did not require such
accomplishments, but from the time that they began to be concerned in
transactions with more civilized people, they applied themselves to
learning, and so established universal dominion.
3. Bœotia was first occupied by Barbarians, Aones, and Temmices, a
wandering people from Sunium, by Leleges, and Hyantes. Then the
Phœnicians, who accompanied Cadmus, possessed it.
He fortified the
Cadmeian land, and transmitted the government to his descendants. The
Phœnicians founded Thebes, and added it to the Cadmeian territory. They
preserved their dominion, and exercised it over the greatest part of the
Bœotians till the time of the expedition of the Epigoni. At this period
they abandoned Thebes for a short time, but returned again. In the same
manner when they were ejected by Thracians and Pelasgi, they established
their rule in Thessaly together with the Arnæi for a long period, so
that all the inhabitants obtained the name of Bœotians. They returned
afterwards to their own country, at the time the Æolian expedition was
preparing at Aulis in Bœotia which the descendants of Orestes were
equipping for Asia. After having united the Orchomenian tract to Bœotia
(for formerly they did not form one community, nor has Homer enumerated
these people with the Bœotians, but by themselves, calling them Minyæ)
with the assistance of the Orchomenians they drove out the Pelasgi, who
went to Athens, a part of which city is called from this people
Pelasgic. The Pelasgi however settled below Hymettus. The Thracians
retreated to Parnassus. The Hyantes founded Hyampolis in Phocis.
4. Ephorus relates that the Thracians, after making treaty with the
Bœotians, attacked them by night, when encamped in a careless manner
during a time of peace. The Thracians when reproached, and accused of
breaking the treaty, replied, that they had not broken it, for the
conditions were “by day,” whereas they had made the attack by night,
whence the common proverb, “a Thracian shuffle. ”
The Pelasgi and the Bœotians also went during the war to consult the
oracle. He cannot tell, he says, what answer was given to the Pelasgi,
but the prophetess replied to the Bœotians that they would prosper by
committing some act of impiety. The messengers sent to consult the
oracle suspecting the prophetess of favouring the Pelasgi on account of
their relationship, (for the temple had originally belonged to the
Pelasgi,) seized the woman, and threw her upon a burning pile,
considering, that whether her conduct had been right or [CAS. 402]
wrong, in either case they were right; for if she had uttered a
deceitful answer she was duly punished; but if not, they had only
complied with the command of the oracle. Those in charge of the temple
did not like to put to death, particularly in the temple, the
perpetrators of this act without a formal judgment, and therefore
subjected them to a trial. They were summoned before the priestesses,
who were also the prophetesses, being the two survivors out of the
three. The Bœotians alleged that there was no law permitting women to
act as judges; an equal number of men were therefore chosen. The men
acquitted; the women condemned. As the votes were equal, those for
acquittal prevailed. Hence at Dodona it is to the Bœotians only that men
deliver oracles. The prophetesses however give a different meaning to
the answer of the oracle, and say, that the god enjoins the Bœotians to
steal the tripods used at home, and to send them annually to Dodona.
This they did, for they were in the habit of carrying away by night some
of the dedicated tripods, which they concealed in their clothes, in
order to convey them clandestinely as offerings to Dodona.
5. After this they assisted Penthilus in sending out the Æolian colony,
and despatched a large body of their own people with him, so that it was
called the Bœotian colony.
A long time afterwards the country was devastated during the war with
the Persians at Platææ. They afterwards so far recovered their power,
that the Thebans, having vanquished the Lacedæmonians in two
battles,[330] disputed the sovereignty of Greece. Epaminondas, however,
was killed, and they were disappointed in their hope of obtaining this
supremacy. They, nevertheless, fought in defence of the Greeks against
the Phocæans, who had plundered their common temple. Reduced by this
war, and by the Macedonians, at the time they invaded Greece, they lost
their city, which was afterwards restored to them, and rebuilt by the
Macedonians themselves, who had razed it. [331] From that period to our
own times their affairs have continued to decline, nor do they retain
the appearance even of a considerable village. Other cities (of Bœotia)
have experienced a similar fate, with the exception of Tanagra and
Thespiæ, which in comparison with Thebes are in a tolerable condition.
6. We are next to make a circuit of the country, beginning at the
sea-coast, opposite Eubœa, which is continuous with that of Attica.
We begin this circuit from Oropus, and the Sacred Harbour,[332] which is
called Delphinium, opposite to which is the ancient Eretria in Eubœa,
having a passage across of 60 stadia. After Delphinium, at the distance
of 20 stadia, is Oropus, and opposite to this is the present
Eretria. [333] There is a passage over to it of 40 stadia.
7. Next is Delium,[334] a place sacred to Apollo, in imitation of that
at Delos. It is a small town of the Tanagræans, at the distance of 30
stadia from Aulis.
To this place the Athenians, after their defeat in battle, fled in
disorder. [335] In the flight, Socrates the philosopher (who having lost
his horse, was serving on foot) observed Xenophon, the son of Gryllus,
upon the ground, fallen from his horse; he raised him upon his shoulders
and carried him away in safety, a distance of many stadia, until the
rout was at an end.
8. Then follows a great harbour, which is called Bathys (or deep
harbour): then Aulis,[336] a rocky spot, and a village of the
Tanagræans, with a harbour capable of containing 50 small vessels. So
that probably the naval station of the [CAS. 403] Greeks was in the
Great Harbour. Near it is the Chalcidic Euripus, to which, from Sunium,
are 70 stadia. On the Euripus, as I have already said, there is a bridge
of two plethra in length;[337] at each end is a tower, one on the side
of Chalcis, the other on the side of Bœotia; and a passage (for the
water) is constructed between them. [338] With regard to the tide of the
Euripus, it is sufficient to say thus much, that according to report, it
changes seven times each day and night; the cause must be investigated
elsewhere.
9. Salganeus is a place situated near the Euripus, upon a height. It has
its name from Salganeus, a Bœotian, who was buried there. He was guide
to the Persians, when they sailed into this passage from the Maliac
Gulf. It is said, that he was put to death before they reached the
Euripus, by the commander of the fleet, Megabates, as a traitor, for
conducting the fleet deceitfully into a narrow opening of the sea,
having no outlet. The Barbarian, however, perceived his mistake, and
regretting what he had done, thought him worthy of burial, because he
had been unjustly put to death.
10. Near Oropus[339] is a place called Graia, the temple also of
Amphiaraus, and the monument of Narcissus the Eretrian, surnamed
Sigelus, (the Silent,) because passers-by keep silence. Some say that
Graia and Tanagra[340] are the same. The territory of Pœmandris,
however, is the same as that of Tanagra. The Tanagræans are also called
Gephyræans. The temple of Amphiaraus was transferred by command of an
oracle to this place from the Thebaic Cnopia.
11. Mycalessus is a village in the Tanagrian district. It lies upon
the road from Thebes to Chalcis. It is called in the Bœotian dialect
Mycalettus. Harma, also, an uninhabited village in the Tanagrian
territory, derives its name from the chariot (ἅρμα) of Amphiaraus, and
is a different place from Harma in Attica, near Phyle,[341] a demus of
Attica bordering upon Tanagra. There the proverb originated,
“When it has lightened through Harma,”
The Pythaïstæ, as they are called, signify, by the order of an oracle,
the occurrence of any lightning when they are looking in the direction
of Harma, and despatch the sacrifice to Delphi whenever it is observed.
They were to keep watch for three months, and for three days and nights
in each month, at the altar of Jupiter Astrapius, or Dispenser of
lightning. This altar is in the wall, between the Pythium and the
Olympium. Respecting the Bœotian Harma, some say, that Amphiaraus fell
in battle out of his chariot, [harma,] near the spot where his temple
now stands, and that the chariot was drawn empty to the place, which
bears the same name [Harma]. [342] Others say, that the chariot of
Adrastus, in his flight, was there dashed in pieces, but that he himself
escaped on his horse Areion. According to Philochorus, his life was
preserved by the inhabitants of the village; in consequence of which
they obtained among the Argives the right of citizenship.
12. On going from Thebes to Argos,[343] on the left hand is Tanagra; and
[near the road] on the right lies Hyria. Hyria now belongs to the
Tanagrian territory, but formerly to the Thebais. Here Hyrieus is fabled
to have lived, and here is the scene of the birth of Orion, which Pindar
mentions in the dithyrambics. It is situated near Aulis. Some persons
say that Hysiæ is called Hyria, which belongs to Parasopia, situated
below Cithæron, near Erythræ, in the inland parts; it is a colony of the
Hyrienses, and was founded by Nycteus, the father of Antiope. There is
also in the Argive territory a village, Hysiæ, the inhabitants of which
are called Hysiatæ. Erythræ in Ionia is a colony of this Erythræ.
Heleon, [CAS. 405] a Tanagrian village, has its name from (Hele) the
marshes there.
13. After Salganeus is Anthedon, a city with a harbour, the last on the
Bœotian coast towards Eubœa, as the poet says,
“Anthedon at the extremity. ”[344]
As we proceed a little farther, there are besides two small towns,
belonging to the Bœotians, Larymna, near which the Cephissus discharges
its waters; and farther above, Halæ, of the same name as the Attic
demus. Opposite to this coast is situated, it is said, Ægæ[345] in
Eubœa, where is the temple of the Ægæan Neptune, of which we have before
spoken. There is a passage across from Anthedon to Ægæ of 120 stadia,
and from the other places much less than this. The temple is situated
upon a lofty hill, where was once a city. Near Ægæ was Orobiæ. [346] In
the Anthedonian territory is the mountain Messapius,[347] which has its
name from Messapus, who when he came into Iapygia called it Messapia.
Here is laid the scene of the fable respecting the Anthedonian Glaucus,
who, it is said, was transformed into a sea-monster. [348]
14. Near Anthedon is a place called Isus, and esteemed sacred, belonging
to Bœotia; it contains remains of a city, and the first syllable of Isus
is short. Some persons are of opinion, that the verse ought to be
written, Ἶσόν τε ζαθέην Ἀνθηδόνα τ’ ἐσχατόωσαν,
“The sacred Isus, and the extreme Anthedon,”
lengthening the first syllable by poetical licence for the sake of the
metre, instead of Νῖσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Nisa;”
for Nisa is not to be found anywhere in Bœotia, as Apollodorus says in
his observations on the Catalogue of the Ships; so that Nisa could not
stand in this passage, unless by Nisa Homer meant Isus, for there was a
city Nisa, in Megaris, from whence Isus was colonized, situated at the
base of Cithæron, but it exists no longer. [349] Some however write
Κρεῦσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Creusa,”
meaning the present Creusa, the arsenal of the Thespieans, situated on
the Crisæan Gulf. Others write the passage Φαράς τε ζαθέας,
“The sacred Pharæ,”
Pharæ is one of the four villages, (or Tetracomiæ,) near Tanagra,
namely, Heleon, Harma, Mycalessus, Pharæ. Others again write the passage
thus, Νῦσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Nysa. ”
Nysa is a village of Helicon.
Such then is the description of the sea-coast opposite Eubœa.
15. The places next in order, in the inland parts, are hollow plains,
surrounded everywhere on the east and west by mountains; on the south by
the mountains of Attica, on the north by those of Phocis: on the west,
Cithæron inclines, obliquely, a little above the Crisæan Sea; it begins
contiguous to the mountains of Megaris and Attica, and then makes a bend
towards the plains, and terminates near the Theban territory.
16. Some of these plains become lakes, by rivers spreading over or
falling into them and then flowing off. Some are dried up, and being
very fertile, are cultivated in every possible way. But as the ground
underneath is full of caverns and fissures, it has frequently happened,
that violent earthquakes have obstructed some passages, and formed
others under-ground, or on the surface, the water being carried off,
either by subterranean channels, or by the formation of lakes and rivers
on the surface. If the deep subterranean passages are stopped up, the
waters of the lakes increase, so as to inundate and cover cities and
whole districts, which become uncovered, if the same or other passages
are again opened. The same regions are thus traversed in boats or on
foot, according [CAS. 405] to circumstances; and the same cities are,
occasionally, on the borders of, or at a distance from, a lake.
17. One of two things took place. The cities either retained their
sites, when the rise of the water was insufficient to overflow the
houses, or they were deserted and rebuilt in some other place, when the
inhabitants, being frequently exposed to danger from their vicinity to
the lake, released themselves from further apprehension, by changing
to a more distant or higher situation. It followed that the cities
thus rebuilt retained the same name. Formerly, they might have had a
name derived from some accidental local circumstance, but now the site
does not correspond with the derivation of the name. For example, it
is probable that Platææ was so called, from πλάτη, or the flat part of
the oar, and Platæans from gaining their livelihood by rowing; but at
present, since they live at a distance from the lake, the name can no
longer, with equal propriety, be derived from this local circumstance.
Helos also, and Heleon, and Heilesium[350] were so called from their
situation close to ἕλη, (Hele,) or marshes; but at present the case is
different with all these places; either they have been rebuilt, or the
lake has been greatly reduced in height by a subsequent efflux of its
waters; for this is possible.
18. This is exemplified particularly in the Cephissus,[351] which fills
the lake Copais. [352] When the increase of the water of that lake was so
great, that Copæ was in danger of being swallowed up, (the city is
mentioned by the poet, and from it the lake had its name,)[353] a
fissure in the ground, which took place not far from the lake, and near
Copæ, opened a subterraneous channel, of about 30 stadia in length, and
received the river, which reappeared on the surface, near Upper Larymna
in Locris; for, as has been mentioned, there is another Larymna, in
Bœotia, on the sea, surnamed the Upper by the Romans. The place where
the river rises again is called Anchoë, as also the lake near it. It is
from this point that the Cephissus begins its course[354] to the sea.
When the overflowing of the water ceased, there was also a cessation of
danger to the inhabitants on the banks, but not before some cities had
been already swallowed up. When the outlets were again obstructed,
Crates the Miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the
obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Bœotians being in a
state of insurrection; although, as he himself says, in the letter to
Alexander, many places had been already drained; among these, some
writers supposed was the site of the ancient Orchomenus; others, that of
Eleusis, and of Athens on the Triton. These cities are said to have been
founded by Cecrops, when he ruled over Bœotia, then called Ogygia, but
that they were afterwards destroyed by inundations. It is said, that
there was a fissure in the earth near Orchomenus, that admitted the
river Melas,[355] which flows through the territory of Haliartus, and
forms there a marsh, where the reed grows of which the musical pipe is
made. [356] But this river has entirely disappeared, being carried off by
the subterraneous channels of the chasm, or absorbed by the lakes and
marshes about Haliartus; whence the poet calls Haliartus grassy,
“And the grassy Haliartus. ”[357]
19. These rivers descend from the Phocian mountains, and among them the
Cephissus,[358] having its source at Lilæa, a Phocian city, as Homer
describes it;
“And they who occupied Lilæa, at the sources of
Cephissus. ”[359]
It flows through Elateia,[360] the largest of the cities among the
Phocians, through the Parapotamii, and the Phanoteis, which are also
Phocian towns; it then goes onwards to Chæroneia in Bœotia; afterwards,
it traverses the districts of Orchomenus and Coroneia, and discharges
its waters into the lake Copais. The Permessus and the Olmeius[361]
descend from Helicon, and uniting their streams, fall into the lake
Copais near Haliartus. The waters of other streams likewise discharge
themselves into it. It is a large lake with a circuit of 380
stadia;[362] the outlets are nowhere visible, if we [CAS. 407] except
the chasm which receives the Cephissus, and the marshes.
20. Among the neighbouring lakes are Trephea[363] and Cephissis. Homer
mentions it;
“Who dwelt in Hyla, intent upon amassing wealth, close to the
lake Cephissis;”[364]
for he did not mean to specify the lake Copais, as some suppose, but
that called Hylicus,[365] from the neighbouring village, which is called
Hylæ: nor did he mean Hyda, as some write the passage,
“He lived in Hyda,”
for there is a place of this name in Lydia,
“at the foot of the snowy Tmolus, in the fruitful country of
Hyda;”[366]
and another in Bœotia; he therefore adds to
“behind the lake Cephissis,”
these words,
“near dwelt other Bœotians. ”
For the Copais is of great extent, and not situated in the Theban
district, but the other is small, and filled from the former by
subterraneous channels; it is situated between Thebes[367] and Anthedon.
Homer however makes use of the word in the singular number, sometimes
making the first syllable long by poetical licence, as in the Catalogue,
ἠδ’ Ὕλην καὶ Πετεῶνα,[368] and sometimes shortening it, as in this
instance; Ὅς ῥ’ ἐν Ὗλῃ ναίεσκε; and again, Tychius Σκυτοτόμων ὄχ’
ἄριστος Ὕλῃ ἔνι οἰκία ναίων. [369] Nor do some persons correctly write in
this passage, Ὗδῃ ἔνι,
“In Hyda,”
for Ajax was not to send for his shield from Lydia.
21. [370]The lakes themselves would indicate the order in which the
places stand, and thence it would be easy to perceive that the poet,
when naming them, whether they were places of importance or otherwise,
has observed no order. Indeed it would be difficult in the enumeration
of so many places, obscure for the most part, and situated in the
interior, to preserve a regular order. The sea-coast affords more
convenient means of doing this; the places there are better known, and
the sea affords greater facilities for marking their position. We shall
therefore endeavour to take our point of departure from the sea-coast,
and without further discussion, shall follow the poet in his enumeration
of places; at the same time, taking from other sources whatever may
prove useful to us, but which has been omitted by him. He begins from
Hyria and Aulis, of which we have already spoken.
22. Schœnus[371] is a district of the Theban territory on the road to
Anthedon, distant from Thebes about 50 stadia. A river of the name of
Schœnus flows through it.
23. Scolus[372] is a village belonging to the district of Parasopia
situated at the foot of Cithæron; it is a rugged place, and scarcely
habitable, hence the proverbial saying,
“Neither go yourself, nor follow any one going to Scolus. ”
It is said that Pentheus was brought from thence, and torn in pieces.
There was among the cities near Olynthus another of the name of Scolus.
We have said that in the Heracleian Trachinia there was a village of the
name of Parasopii, beside which runs a river Asopus, and that there is
another river Asopus in Sicyonia, and that the country through which it
flows is called Asopia. There are however other rivers of the same name.
24. The name of Eteonus was changed to that of Scarphe, which belongs to
Parasopia. [Parasopia belongs to the Thebais,] for the Asopus and the
Ismenus flow through the plain in front of Thebes. There is the fountain
Dirce, and also Potniæ, where is laid the fable of Glaucus of Potniæ,
who was torn in pieces near the city by Potnian mares. The Cithæron[373]
terminates not far from Thebes. The Asopus flows by it, and washes the
foot of the mountain, and occasions the Parasopii to be distributed
among several settlements, but all of these bodies of people are subject
to the [CAS. 409] Thebans. (Other writers say, that Scolus, Eteonus,
and Erythræ, are in the district of Platææ, for the Asopus flows past
Platææ, and discharges its waters into the sea near Tanagra. ) In the
Theban territory are Therapnæ and Teumessus, which Antimachus has
extolled in a long poem, enumerating excellencies which it had not;
“There is a small hill exposed to the winds,” &c. :
but the lines are well known.
25. He calls the present place Thespiæ[374] by the name of Thespia, for
there are many names, of which some are used both in the singular and in
the plural number, in the masculine and in the feminine gender, and some
in either one or the other only. It is a city close to Helicon, lying
more to the south. The city itself and Helicon are situated on the
Crisæan Gulf. Thespiæ has an arsenal Creusa, or, as it is also named,
Creusia. In the Thespian territory, in the part lying towards Helicon,
is Ascra,[375] the birth-place of Hesiod. It is on the right of Helicon,
situated upon a lofty and rocky spot, at the distance of about 40 stadia
from Thespiæ. Hesiod has satirized it in verses addressed to his father,
for formerly emigrating (to this place) from Cume in Ætolia, as follows:
“He dwelt near Helicon in a wretched village, Ascra; bad in
winter, in summer intolerable, and worthless at any
season. ”[376]
Helicon is contiguous to Phocis on its northern, and partly on its
western side, as far as the last harbour of Phocis, which is called from
its characteristic situation, Mychus, or the Recess.
Just above this part of the Crisæan Gulf, Helicon, Ascra, Thespiæ, and
its arsenal Creusa, are situated. This is considered as the part of the
Crisæan and of the Corinthian Gulf which recedes most inland. The coast
extends 90 stadia from the recess of the harbour to Creusa, and thence
120 as far as the promontory called Holmiæ. In the most retired part of
the Crisæan Gulf, Pagæ and Œnoa, which I have already mentioned, are
situated.
Helicon, not far distant from Parnassus, rivals it in height[377] and
circumference. Both mountains are covered with snow, and are rocky. They
do not occupy a circuit of ground of great extent. There are, the fane
of the Muses, the Horse-fountain Hippocrene,[378] and the grottoes of
the nymphs, the Leibethrides. Hence it might be conjectured, that
Helicon was consecrated to the Muses, by Thracians, who dedicated also
Pieris, the Leibethrum, and Pimpleia to the same goddesses. The
Thracians were called Pieres, and since their expulsion, the Macedonians
possess these places.
It has been remarked, that the Thracians, (having expelled the Bœotians
by force,) and the Pelasgi, and other barbarous people, settled in this
part of Bœotia.
Thespiæ was formerly celebrated for a statue of Cupid by Praxiteles.
Glycera the courtesan, a native of Thespiæ, received it as a present
from the artist, and dedicated it as a public offering to her
fellow-citizens.
Persons formerly used to repair thither to see the Cupid, where there
was nothing else worth seeing. This city, and Tanagra, alone of the
Bœotian cities exist at present, while of others there remain nothing
but ruins and names.
26. [CAS. 410] After Thespiæ the poet enumerates Graia and Mycalessus,
of which we have before spoken.
He proceeds as before,
“They who lived near Harma, Eilesium, and Erythræ,
And they who occupied Eleon, Hyle, and Peteon. ”[379]
Peteon is a village of the Thebais near the road to Anthedon. Ocalea is
midway between Haliartus,[380] and Alalcomenæ,[381] it is distant from
each 30 stadia. A small river of the same name flows by it. Medeon,
belonging to Phocis, is on the Crisæan Gulf, distant from Bœotia 160
stadia. The Medeon of Bœotia has its name from that in Phocis. It is
near Onchestus, under the mountain Phœnicium,[382] whence it has the
appellation of Phœnicis. This mountain is likewise assigned to the
Theban district, but by others to the territories of Haliartus, as also
Medeon and Ocalea.
27.
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. The long walls also were
destroyed, first demolished by the Lacedæmonians, and afterwards by the
Romans, when Sylla took the Piræus and the Asty by siege. [305]
16. What is properly the Asty is a rock, situated in a plain, with
dwellings around it. Upon the rock is the temple [CAS. 396] of Minerva,
and the ancient shrine of Minerva Polias, in which is the
never-extinguished lamp; and the Parthenon, built by Ictinus, in which
is the Minerva, in ivory, the work of Pheidias.
When, however, I consider the multitude of objects, so celebrated and
far-famed, belonging to this city, I am reluctant to enlarge upon them,
lest what I write should depart too far from the proposed design of this
work. [306] For the words of Hegesias[307] occur to me;
“I behold the acropolis, there is the symbol of the great
trident;[308] I see Eleusis; I am initiated in the sacred
mysteries; that is Leocorium;[309] this the Theseium. [310] To
describe all is beyond my power, for Attica is the chosen
residence of the gods; and the possession of heroes its
progenitors. ”
Yet this very writer mentions only one of the remarkable things to be
seen in the Acropolis. Polemo Periegetes[311] however composed four
books on the subject of the sacred offerings which were there. Hegesias
is similarly sparing of remarks on other parts of the city, and of the
territory: after speaking of Eleusis, one of the hundred and seventy
demi, to which as they say four are to be added, he mentions no other by
name.
17. Many, if not all the demi, have various fabulous tales and histories
connected with them: with Aphidna is connected the rape of Helen by
Theseus, the sack of the place by the Dioscuri, and the recovery of
their sister; with Marathon, the battle with the Persians; at Rhamnus
was the statue of Nemesis, which, according to some writers, is the work
of Diodotus, according to others, of Agoracritus, the Parian, so well
executed, both as to size and beauty, as to rival the art of Pheidias.
Deceleia was the rendezvous of the Peloponnesians in the Decelic war.
From Phyle Thrasybulus brought back the people to the Piræus, and thence
to the Asty. Thus also much might be told respecting many other places;
the Leocorium, the Theseium, and the Lyceum have their own fables, and
the Olympicum, called also the Olympium, which the king, who dedicated
it, left, at his death, half finished; so also much might be said of the
Academia, of the gardens of the philosophers, of the Odeium,[312] of the
Stoa Pœcile, [or painted Portico,] and of the temples in the city, all
of which contain the works of illustrious artists.
18. The account would be much longer if we were to inquire who were the
founders of the city from the time of Cecrops, for writers do not agree,
as is evident from the names of persons and of places. For example,
Attica,[313] they say, was derived from Actæon; Atthis, and Attica, from
Atthis, the daughter of Cranaus, from whom the inhabitants had the name
Cranaï; Mopsopia from Mopsopus; Ionia from Ion, the son of Xuthus;
Poseidonia and Athenæ, from the deities of that name. We have said, that
the nation of the Pelasgi seem to have come into this country in the
course of their migrations, and were called from their wanderings, by
the Attici, Pelargi, or storks.
19. In proportion as an earnest desire is excited to ascertain the truth
about remarkable places and events, and in proportion as writers, on
these subjects, are more numerous, so much the more is an author exposed
to censure, who does not make himself master of what has been written.
For example, in “the Collection of the Rivers,” Callimachus says, that
he should laugh at the person, who would venture to describe the
Athenian virgins as
“drinking of the pure waters of the Eridanus,”[CAS. 397]
from which even the herds would turn away. There are indeed fountains of
water, pure and fit for drinking, it is said, without the gate called
Diochares, near the Lyceium; formerly also a fountain was erected near
it, which afforded a large supply of excellent water; but if it is not
so at present, is it at all strange, that a fountain supplying abundance
of pure and potable water at one period of time, should afterwards have
the property of its waters altered?
In subjects, however, which are so numerous, we cannot enter into
detail; yet they are not so entirely to be passed over in silence as to
abstain from giving a condensed account of some of them.
20. It will suffice then to add, that, according to Philochorus, when
the country was devastated on the side of the sea by the Carians, and by
land by the Bœotians, whom they called Aones, Cecrops first settled a
large body of people in twelve cities, the names of which were Cecropia,
Tetrapolis, Epacria, Deceleia, Eleusis, Aphidna, (although some persons
write it in the plural number, Aphidnæ,) Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus,
Sphettus, Cephisia [Phalerus]. Again, at a subsequent period, Theseus is
said to have collected the inhabitants of the twelve cities into one,
the present city.
Formerly, the Athenians were governed by kings; they afterwards changed
the government to a democracy; then tyrants were their masters, as
Pisistratus and his sons; afterwards there was an oligarchy both of the
four hundred and of the thirty tyrants, whom the Lacedæmonii set over
them; these were expelled by the Athenians, who retained the form of a
democracy, till the Romans established their empire. For, although they
were somewhat oppressed by the Macedonian kings, so as to be compelled
to obey them, yet they preserved entire the same form of government.
Some say, that the government was very well administered during a period
of ten years, at the time that Casander was king of the Macedonians. For
this person, although in other respects he was disposed to be
tyrannical, yet, when he was master of the city, treated the Athenians
with kindness and generosity. He placed at the head of the citizens
Demetrius the Phalerean, a disciple of Theophrastus the philosopher,
who, far from dissolving, restored the democracy. This appears from his
memoirs, which he composed concerning this mode of government. But so
much hatred and dislike prevailed against anything connected with
oligarchy, that, after the death of Casander, he was obliged to fly into
Egypt. [314] The insurgents pulled down more than three hundred of his
statues, which were melted down, and according to some were cast into
chamber-pots. The Romans, after their conquest, finding them governed by
a democracy,[315] maintained their independence and liberty. During the
Mithridatic war, the king set over them such tyrants as he pleased.
Aristio, who was the most powerful of these persons, oppressed the city;
he was taken by Sylla, the Roman general, after a siege,[316] and put to
death. The citizens were pardoned, and, to this time, the city enjoys
liberty, and is respected by the Romans.
21. Next to the Piræus is the demus Phalereis, on the succeeding line of
coast, then Halimusii, Æxoneis, Alæeis, the Æxonici, Anagyrasii; then
Theoris, Lampesis; Ægilieis, Anaphlystii, Azenieis; these extend as far
as the promontory Sunium. Between the above-mentioned demi is a long
promontory, Zoster,[317] the first after the Æxoneis; then another
promontory after Thoreis, Astypalæa; in the front of the former of these
is an island, Phabra,[318] and of the latter an island, Eleüssa,[319]
opposite the Æxoneis is Hydrussa. About Anaphlystum is the Paneum, and
the temple of Venus Colias. Here, they say, were thrown up by the waves
the last portions of the wrecks of the vessels after the naval
engagement with the Persians near Salamis, of which remains Apollo
predicted,
“The women of Colias shall shudder at the sight of oars. ”
In front of these places lies off, at no great distance, the island
Belbina; and the rampart of Patroclus; but most of these islands are
uninhabited.
22. On doubling the promontory at Sunium, we meet with Sunium, a
considerable demus; then Thoricus, next a demus called Potamus, from
which the inhabitants are called Potamii; next Prasia,[320] Steiria,
Brauron, where is the temple of [CAS. 399] Diana Brauronia, Halæ
Araphenides, where is the temple of Diana Tauropola; then Myrrhinus,
Probalinthus, Marathon, where Miltiades entirely destroyed the army of
Datis the Persian, without waiting for the Lacedæmonians, who deferred
setting out till the full moon. There is laid the scene of the fable of
the Marathonian bull, which Theseus killed.
Next to Marathon is Tricorynthus, then Rhamnus, where is the temple of
Nemesis; then Psaphis, a city of the Oropii. Somewhere about this spot
is the Amphiaraeum, an oracle once in repute, to which Amphiareus fled,
as Sophocles says,
“The dusty Theban soil opened and received him with his
armour, and the four-horse chariot. ”
Oropus has frequently been a subject of contention, for it is situated
on the confines of Attica and Bœotia.
In front of this coast, before Thoricum and Sunium, is the island
Helena; it is rocky and uninhabited, extending in length about 60
stadia, which, they say, the poet mentions in the words, in which
Alexander addresses Helen,
“Not when first I carried thee away from the pleasant
Lacedæmon, across the deep, and in the island Cranaë embraced
thee. ”[321]
For Cranaë, from the kind of intercourse which took place there, is now
called Helena. Next to Helena,[322] Eubœa[323] lies in front of the
following tract of coast. It is long and narrow, and stretching along
the continent like Helena. From Sunium to the southern point of Eubœa,
which is called Leuce Acte,[324] [or, the white coast,] is a voyage of
300 stadia, but we shall speak hereafter of Eubœa.
It would be tedious to recite the names of the Demi of Attica in the
inland parts, on account of their number. [325]
23. Among the mountains which are most celebrated, are the Hymettus,
Brilessus, Lycabettus, Parnes, and Corydallus. [326] Near the city are
excellent quarries of Hymettian and Pentelic marble. The Hymettus
produces also the finest honey. The silver mines in Attica were at first
of importance, but are now exhausted. The workmen, when the mines
yielded a bad return to their labour, committed to the furnace the old
refuse and scoria, and hence obtained very pure silver, for the former
workmen had carried on the process in the furnace unskilfully.
Although the Attic is the best of all the kinds of honey, yet by far the
best of the Attic honey is that found in the country of the silver
mines,[327] which they call acapniston, or unsmoked, from the mode of
its preparation.
24. Among the rivers is the Cephissus, having its source from the
Trinemeis, it flows through the plain (where are the Gephyra, and the
Gephyrismi) between the legs or walls extending from the Asty to the
Piræus, and empties itself into the Phalericum. Its character is chiefly
that of a winter torrent, for in the summer time it fails altogether.
Such also, for the most part, is the Ilissus, which flows from the other
side of the Asty to the same coast, from the parts above Agra, and the
Lyceium, and the fountain celebrated by Plato in the Phædrus. So much
then respecting Attica.
CHAPTER II.
1. Next in order is Bœotia. When I speak of this country, and of the
contiguous nations, I must, for the sake of perspicuity, repeat what I
have said before.
We have said, that the sea-coast stretches from Sunium to the north as
far as Thessalonica, inclining a little toward the west, and having the
sea on the east, that parts situated above this shore towards the west
extend like belts[328] parallel to one another through the whole
country. The first of these belts is Attica with Megaris, the eastern
side of which extends [CAS. 400] from Sunium to Oropus, and Bœotia; on
the western side is the isthmus, and the Alcyonian sea commencing at
Pagæ and extending as far as the boundaries of Bœotia near Creusa, the
remaining two sides are formed by the sea-shore from Sunium to the
Isthmus, and the mountain tract nearly parallel with this, which
separates Attica from Bœotia.
The second belt is Bœotia, stretching from east to west from the Eubœan
sea to the Crisæan Gulf, nearly of equal length with Attica, or perhaps
somewhat less; in quality of soil however it greatly surpasses Attica.
2. Ephorus declares the superiority of Bœotia over the bordering nations
not only in this respect, but also because it alone has three seas
adjoining it, and a great number of harbours. At the Crisæan and
Corinthian Gulfs it received the commodities of Italy, Sicily, and
Africa. Towards Eubœa the sea-coast branches off on each side of the
Euripus; in one direction towards Aulis and Tanagrica, in the other, to
Salganeus and Anthedon; on one side there is an open sea to Egypt, and
Cyprus, and the islands; on the other to Macedonia, the Propontis, and
the Hellespont. He adds also that Eubœa is almost a part of Bœotia,
because the Euripus is very narrow, and the opposite shores are brought
into communication by a bridge of two plethra in length. [329]
For these reasons he praises the country, and says, that it has natural
advantages for obtaining supreme command, but that from want of careful
education and learning, even those who were from time to time at the
head of affairs did not long maintain the ascendency they had acquired,
as appears from the example of Epaminondas; at his death the Thebans
immediately lost the supremacy they had just acquired. This is to be
attributed, says Ephorus, to their neglect of learning, and of
intercourse with mankind, and to their exclusive cultivation of military
virtues. It must be added also, that learning and knowledge are
peculiarly useful in dealing with Greeks, but in the case of Barbarians,
force is preferable to reason. In fact the Romans in early times, when
carrying on war with savage nations, did not require such
accomplishments, but from the time that they began to be concerned in
transactions with more civilized people, they applied themselves to
learning, and so established universal dominion.
3. Bœotia was first occupied by Barbarians, Aones, and Temmices, a
wandering people from Sunium, by Leleges, and Hyantes. Then the
Phœnicians, who accompanied Cadmus, possessed it.
He fortified the
Cadmeian land, and transmitted the government to his descendants. The
Phœnicians founded Thebes, and added it to the Cadmeian territory. They
preserved their dominion, and exercised it over the greatest part of the
Bœotians till the time of the expedition of the Epigoni. At this period
they abandoned Thebes for a short time, but returned again. In the same
manner when they were ejected by Thracians and Pelasgi, they established
their rule in Thessaly together with the Arnæi for a long period, so
that all the inhabitants obtained the name of Bœotians. They returned
afterwards to their own country, at the time the Æolian expedition was
preparing at Aulis in Bœotia which the descendants of Orestes were
equipping for Asia. After having united the Orchomenian tract to Bœotia
(for formerly they did not form one community, nor has Homer enumerated
these people with the Bœotians, but by themselves, calling them Minyæ)
with the assistance of the Orchomenians they drove out the Pelasgi, who
went to Athens, a part of which city is called from this people
Pelasgic. The Pelasgi however settled below Hymettus. The Thracians
retreated to Parnassus. The Hyantes founded Hyampolis in Phocis.
4. Ephorus relates that the Thracians, after making treaty with the
Bœotians, attacked them by night, when encamped in a careless manner
during a time of peace. The Thracians when reproached, and accused of
breaking the treaty, replied, that they had not broken it, for the
conditions were “by day,” whereas they had made the attack by night,
whence the common proverb, “a Thracian shuffle. ”
The Pelasgi and the Bœotians also went during the war to consult the
oracle. He cannot tell, he says, what answer was given to the Pelasgi,
but the prophetess replied to the Bœotians that they would prosper by
committing some act of impiety. The messengers sent to consult the
oracle suspecting the prophetess of favouring the Pelasgi on account of
their relationship, (for the temple had originally belonged to the
Pelasgi,) seized the woman, and threw her upon a burning pile,
considering, that whether her conduct had been right or [CAS. 402]
wrong, in either case they were right; for if she had uttered a
deceitful answer she was duly punished; but if not, they had only
complied with the command of the oracle. Those in charge of the temple
did not like to put to death, particularly in the temple, the
perpetrators of this act without a formal judgment, and therefore
subjected them to a trial. They were summoned before the priestesses,
who were also the prophetesses, being the two survivors out of the
three. The Bœotians alleged that there was no law permitting women to
act as judges; an equal number of men were therefore chosen. The men
acquitted; the women condemned. As the votes were equal, those for
acquittal prevailed. Hence at Dodona it is to the Bœotians only that men
deliver oracles. The prophetesses however give a different meaning to
the answer of the oracle, and say, that the god enjoins the Bœotians to
steal the tripods used at home, and to send them annually to Dodona.
This they did, for they were in the habit of carrying away by night some
of the dedicated tripods, which they concealed in their clothes, in
order to convey them clandestinely as offerings to Dodona.
5. After this they assisted Penthilus in sending out the Æolian colony,
and despatched a large body of their own people with him, so that it was
called the Bœotian colony.
A long time afterwards the country was devastated during the war with
the Persians at Platææ. They afterwards so far recovered their power,
that the Thebans, having vanquished the Lacedæmonians in two
battles,[330] disputed the sovereignty of Greece. Epaminondas, however,
was killed, and they were disappointed in their hope of obtaining this
supremacy. They, nevertheless, fought in defence of the Greeks against
the Phocæans, who had plundered their common temple. Reduced by this
war, and by the Macedonians, at the time they invaded Greece, they lost
their city, which was afterwards restored to them, and rebuilt by the
Macedonians themselves, who had razed it. [331] From that period to our
own times their affairs have continued to decline, nor do they retain
the appearance even of a considerable village. Other cities (of Bœotia)
have experienced a similar fate, with the exception of Tanagra and
Thespiæ, which in comparison with Thebes are in a tolerable condition.
6. We are next to make a circuit of the country, beginning at the
sea-coast, opposite Eubœa, which is continuous with that of Attica.
We begin this circuit from Oropus, and the Sacred Harbour,[332] which is
called Delphinium, opposite to which is the ancient Eretria in Eubœa,
having a passage across of 60 stadia. After Delphinium, at the distance
of 20 stadia, is Oropus, and opposite to this is the present
Eretria. [333] There is a passage over to it of 40 stadia.
7. Next is Delium,[334] a place sacred to Apollo, in imitation of that
at Delos. It is a small town of the Tanagræans, at the distance of 30
stadia from Aulis.
To this place the Athenians, after their defeat in battle, fled in
disorder. [335] In the flight, Socrates the philosopher (who having lost
his horse, was serving on foot) observed Xenophon, the son of Gryllus,
upon the ground, fallen from his horse; he raised him upon his shoulders
and carried him away in safety, a distance of many stadia, until the
rout was at an end.
8. Then follows a great harbour, which is called Bathys (or deep
harbour): then Aulis,[336] a rocky spot, and a village of the
Tanagræans, with a harbour capable of containing 50 small vessels. So
that probably the naval station of the [CAS. 403] Greeks was in the
Great Harbour. Near it is the Chalcidic Euripus, to which, from Sunium,
are 70 stadia. On the Euripus, as I have already said, there is a bridge
of two plethra in length;[337] at each end is a tower, one on the side
of Chalcis, the other on the side of Bœotia; and a passage (for the
water) is constructed between them. [338] With regard to the tide of the
Euripus, it is sufficient to say thus much, that according to report, it
changes seven times each day and night; the cause must be investigated
elsewhere.
9. Salganeus is a place situated near the Euripus, upon a height. It has
its name from Salganeus, a Bœotian, who was buried there. He was guide
to the Persians, when they sailed into this passage from the Maliac
Gulf. It is said, that he was put to death before they reached the
Euripus, by the commander of the fleet, Megabates, as a traitor, for
conducting the fleet deceitfully into a narrow opening of the sea,
having no outlet. The Barbarian, however, perceived his mistake, and
regretting what he had done, thought him worthy of burial, because he
had been unjustly put to death.
10. Near Oropus[339] is a place called Graia, the temple also of
Amphiaraus, and the monument of Narcissus the Eretrian, surnamed
Sigelus, (the Silent,) because passers-by keep silence. Some say that
Graia and Tanagra[340] are the same. The territory of Pœmandris,
however, is the same as that of Tanagra. The Tanagræans are also called
Gephyræans. The temple of Amphiaraus was transferred by command of an
oracle to this place from the Thebaic Cnopia.
11. Mycalessus is a village in the Tanagrian district. It lies upon
the road from Thebes to Chalcis. It is called in the Bœotian dialect
Mycalettus. Harma, also, an uninhabited village in the Tanagrian
territory, derives its name from the chariot (ἅρμα) of Amphiaraus, and
is a different place from Harma in Attica, near Phyle,[341] a demus of
Attica bordering upon Tanagra. There the proverb originated,
“When it has lightened through Harma,”
The Pythaïstæ, as they are called, signify, by the order of an oracle,
the occurrence of any lightning when they are looking in the direction
of Harma, and despatch the sacrifice to Delphi whenever it is observed.
They were to keep watch for three months, and for three days and nights
in each month, at the altar of Jupiter Astrapius, or Dispenser of
lightning. This altar is in the wall, between the Pythium and the
Olympium. Respecting the Bœotian Harma, some say, that Amphiaraus fell
in battle out of his chariot, [harma,] near the spot where his temple
now stands, and that the chariot was drawn empty to the place, which
bears the same name [Harma]. [342] Others say, that the chariot of
Adrastus, in his flight, was there dashed in pieces, but that he himself
escaped on his horse Areion. According to Philochorus, his life was
preserved by the inhabitants of the village; in consequence of which
they obtained among the Argives the right of citizenship.
12. On going from Thebes to Argos,[343] on the left hand is Tanagra; and
[near the road] on the right lies Hyria. Hyria now belongs to the
Tanagrian territory, but formerly to the Thebais. Here Hyrieus is fabled
to have lived, and here is the scene of the birth of Orion, which Pindar
mentions in the dithyrambics. It is situated near Aulis. Some persons
say that Hysiæ is called Hyria, which belongs to Parasopia, situated
below Cithæron, near Erythræ, in the inland parts; it is a colony of the
Hyrienses, and was founded by Nycteus, the father of Antiope. There is
also in the Argive territory a village, Hysiæ, the inhabitants of which
are called Hysiatæ. Erythræ in Ionia is a colony of this Erythræ.
Heleon, [CAS. 405] a Tanagrian village, has its name from (Hele) the
marshes there.
13. After Salganeus is Anthedon, a city with a harbour, the last on the
Bœotian coast towards Eubœa, as the poet says,
“Anthedon at the extremity. ”[344]
As we proceed a little farther, there are besides two small towns,
belonging to the Bœotians, Larymna, near which the Cephissus discharges
its waters; and farther above, Halæ, of the same name as the Attic
demus. Opposite to this coast is situated, it is said, Ægæ[345] in
Eubœa, where is the temple of the Ægæan Neptune, of which we have before
spoken. There is a passage across from Anthedon to Ægæ of 120 stadia,
and from the other places much less than this. The temple is situated
upon a lofty hill, where was once a city. Near Ægæ was Orobiæ. [346] In
the Anthedonian territory is the mountain Messapius,[347] which has its
name from Messapus, who when he came into Iapygia called it Messapia.
Here is laid the scene of the fable respecting the Anthedonian Glaucus,
who, it is said, was transformed into a sea-monster. [348]
14. Near Anthedon is a place called Isus, and esteemed sacred, belonging
to Bœotia; it contains remains of a city, and the first syllable of Isus
is short. Some persons are of opinion, that the verse ought to be
written, Ἶσόν τε ζαθέην Ἀνθηδόνα τ’ ἐσχατόωσαν,
“The sacred Isus, and the extreme Anthedon,”
lengthening the first syllable by poetical licence for the sake of the
metre, instead of Νῖσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Nisa;”
for Nisa is not to be found anywhere in Bœotia, as Apollodorus says in
his observations on the Catalogue of the Ships; so that Nisa could not
stand in this passage, unless by Nisa Homer meant Isus, for there was a
city Nisa, in Megaris, from whence Isus was colonized, situated at the
base of Cithæron, but it exists no longer. [349] Some however write
Κρεῦσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Creusa,”
meaning the present Creusa, the arsenal of the Thespieans, situated on
the Crisæan Gulf. Others write the passage Φαράς τε ζαθέας,
“The sacred Pharæ,”
Pharæ is one of the four villages, (or Tetracomiæ,) near Tanagra,
namely, Heleon, Harma, Mycalessus, Pharæ. Others again write the passage
thus, Νῦσάν τε ζαθέην,
“The sacred Nysa. ”
Nysa is a village of Helicon.
Such then is the description of the sea-coast opposite Eubœa.
15. The places next in order, in the inland parts, are hollow plains,
surrounded everywhere on the east and west by mountains; on the south by
the mountains of Attica, on the north by those of Phocis: on the west,
Cithæron inclines, obliquely, a little above the Crisæan Sea; it begins
contiguous to the mountains of Megaris and Attica, and then makes a bend
towards the plains, and terminates near the Theban territory.
16. Some of these plains become lakes, by rivers spreading over or
falling into them and then flowing off. Some are dried up, and being
very fertile, are cultivated in every possible way. But as the ground
underneath is full of caverns and fissures, it has frequently happened,
that violent earthquakes have obstructed some passages, and formed
others under-ground, or on the surface, the water being carried off,
either by subterranean channels, or by the formation of lakes and rivers
on the surface. If the deep subterranean passages are stopped up, the
waters of the lakes increase, so as to inundate and cover cities and
whole districts, which become uncovered, if the same or other passages
are again opened. The same regions are thus traversed in boats or on
foot, according [CAS. 405] to circumstances; and the same cities are,
occasionally, on the borders of, or at a distance from, a lake.
17. One of two things took place. The cities either retained their
sites, when the rise of the water was insufficient to overflow the
houses, or they were deserted and rebuilt in some other place, when the
inhabitants, being frequently exposed to danger from their vicinity to
the lake, released themselves from further apprehension, by changing
to a more distant or higher situation. It followed that the cities
thus rebuilt retained the same name. Formerly, they might have had a
name derived from some accidental local circumstance, but now the site
does not correspond with the derivation of the name. For example, it
is probable that Platææ was so called, from πλάτη, or the flat part of
the oar, and Platæans from gaining their livelihood by rowing; but at
present, since they live at a distance from the lake, the name can no
longer, with equal propriety, be derived from this local circumstance.
Helos also, and Heleon, and Heilesium[350] were so called from their
situation close to ἕλη, (Hele,) or marshes; but at present the case is
different with all these places; either they have been rebuilt, or the
lake has been greatly reduced in height by a subsequent efflux of its
waters; for this is possible.
18. This is exemplified particularly in the Cephissus,[351] which fills
the lake Copais. [352] When the increase of the water of that lake was so
great, that Copæ was in danger of being swallowed up, (the city is
mentioned by the poet, and from it the lake had its name,)[353] a
fissure in the ground, which took place not far from the lake, and near
Copæ, opened a subterraneous channel, of about 30 stadia in length, and
received the river, which reappeared on the surface, near Upper Larymna
in Locris; for, as has been mentioned, there is another Larymna, in
Bœotia, on the sea, surnamed the Upper by the Romans. The place where
the river rises again is called Anchoë, as also the lake near it. It is
from this point that the Cephissus begins its course[354] to the sea.
When the overflowing of the water ceased, there was also a cessation of
danger to the inhabitants on the banks, but not before some cities had
been already swallowed up. When the outlets were again obstructed,
Crates the Miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the
obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Bœotians being in a
state of insurrection; although, as he himself says, in the letter to
Alexander, many places had been already drained; among these, some
writers supposed was the site of the ancient Orchomenus; others, that of
Eleusis, and of Athens on the Triton. These cities are said to have been
founded by Cecrops, when he ruled over Bœotia, then called Ogygia, but
that they were afterwards destroyed by inundations. It is said, that
there was a fissure in the earth near Orchomenus, that admitted the
river Melas,[355] which flows through the territory of Haliartus, and
forms there a marsh, where the reed grows of which the musical pipe is
made. [356] But this river has entirely disappeared, being carried off by
the subterraneous channels of the chasm, or absorbed by the lakes and
marshes about Haliartus; whence the poet calls Haliartus grassy,
“And the grassy Haliartus. ”[357]
19. These rivers descend from the Phocian mountains, and among them the
Cephissus,[358] having its source at Lilæa, a Phocian city, as Homer
describes it;
“And they who occupied Lilæa, at the sources of
Cephissus. ”[359]
It flows through Elateia,[360] the largest of the cities among the
Phocians, through the Parapotamii, and the Phanoteis, which are also
Phocian towns; it then goes onwards to Chæroneia in Bœotia; afterwards,
it traverses the districts of Orchomenus and Coroneia, and discharges
its waters into the lake Copais. The Permessus and the Olmeius[361]
descend from Helicon, and uniting their streams, fall into the lake
Copais near Haliartus. The waters of other streams likewise discharge
themselves into it. It is a large lake with a circuit of 380
stadia;[362] the outlets are nowhere visible, if we [CAS. 407] except
the chasm which receives the Cephissus, and the marshes.
20. Among the neighbouring lakes are Trephea[363] and Cephissis. Homer
mentions it;
“Who dwelt in Hyla, intent upon amassing wealth, close to the
lake Cephissis;”[364]
for he did not mean to specify the lake Copais, as some suppose, but
that called Hylicus,[365] from the neighbouring village, which is called
Hylæ: nor did he mean Hyda, as some write the passage,
“He lived in Hyda,”
for there is a place of this name in Lydia,
“at the foot of the snowy Tmolus, in the fruitful country of
Hyda;”[366]
and another in Bœotia; he therefore adds to
“behind the lake Cephissis,”
these words,
“near dwelt other Bœotians. ”
For the Copais is of great extent, and not situated in the Theban
district, but the other is small, and filled from the former by
subterraneous channels; it is situated between Thebes[367] and Anthedon.
Homer however makes use of the word in the singular number, sometimes
making the first syllable long by poetical licence, as in the Catalogue,
ἠδ’ Ὕλην καὶ Πετεῶνα,[368] and sometimes shortening it, as in this
instance; Ὅς ῥ’ ἐν Ὗλῃ ναίεσκε; and again, Tychius Σκυτοτόμων ὄχ’
ἄριστος Ὕλῃ ἔνι οἰκία ναίων. [369] Nor do some persons correctly write in
this passage, Ὗδῃ ἔνι,
“In Hyda,”
for Ajax was not to send for his shield from Lydia.
21. [370]The lakes themselves would indicate the order in which the
places stand, and thence it would be easy to perceive that the poet,
when naming them, whether they were places of importance or otherwise,
has observed no order. Indeed it would be difficult in the enumeration
of so many places, obscure for the most part, and situated in the
interior, to preserve a regular order. The sea-coast affords more
convenient means of doing this; the places there are better known, and
the sea affords greater facilities for marking their position. We shall
therefore endeavour to take our point of departure from the sea-coast,
and without further discussion, shall follow the poet in his enumeration
of places; at the same time, taking from other sources whatever may
prove useful to us, but which has been omitted by him. He begins from
Hyria and Aulis, of which we have already spoken.
22. Schœnus[371] is a district of the Theban territory on the road to
Anthedon, distant from Thebes about 50 stadia. A river of the name of
Schœnus flows through it.
23. Scolus[372] is a village belonging to the district of Parasopia
situated at the foot of Cithæron; it is a rugged place, and scarcely
habitable, hence the proverbial saying,
“Neither go yourself, nor follow any one going to Scolus. ”
It is said that Pentheus was brought from thence, and torn in pieces.
There was among the cities near Olynthus another of the name of Scolus.
We have said that in the Heracleian Trachinia there was a village of the
name of Parasopii, beside which runs a river Asopus, and that there is
another river Asopus in Sicyonia, and that the country through which it
flows is called Asopia. There are however other rivers of the same name.
24. The name of Eteonus was changed to that of Scarphe, which belongs to
Parasopia. [Parasopia belongs to the Thebais,] for the Asopus and the
Ismenus flow through the plain in front of Thebes. There is the fountain
Dirce, and also Potniæ, where is laid the fable of Glaucus of Potniæ,
who was torn in pieces near the city by Potnian mares. The Cithæron[373]
terminates not far from Thebes. The Asopus flows by it, and washes the
foot of the mountain, and occasions the Parasopii to be distributed
among several settlements, but all of these bodies of people are subject
to the [CAS. 409] Thebans. (Other writers say, that Scolus, Eteonus,
and Erythræ, are in the district of Platææ, for the Asopus flows past
Platææ, and discharges its waters into the sea near Tanagra. ) In the
Theban territory are Therapnæ and Teumessus, which Antimachus has
extolled in a long poem, enumerating excellencies which it had not;
“There is a small hill exposed to the winds,” &c. :
but the lines are well known.
25. He calls the present place Thespiæ[374] by the name of Thespia, for
there are many names, of which some are used both in the singular and in
the plural number, in the masculine and in the feminine gender, and some
in either one or the other only. It is a city close to Helicon, lying
more to the south. The city itself and Helicon are situated on the
Crisæan Gulf. Thespiæ has an arsenal Creusa, or, as it is also named,
Creusia. In the Thespian territory, in the part lying towards Helicon,
is Ascra,[375] the birth-place of Hesiod. It is on the right of Helicon,
situated upon a lofty and rocky spot, at the distance of about 40 stadia
from Thespiæ. Hesiod has satirized it in verses addressed to his father,
for formerly emigrating (to this place) from Cume in Ætolia, as follows:
“He dwelt near Helicon in a wretched village, Ascra; bad in
winter, in summer intolerable, and worthless at any
season. ”[376]
Helicon is contiguous to Phocis on its northern, and partly on its
western side, as far as the last harbour of Phocis, which is called from
its characteristic situation, Mychus, or the Recess.
Just above this part of the Crisæan Gulf, Helicon, Ascra, Thespiæ, and
its arsenal Creusa, are situated. This is considered as the part of the
Crisæan and of the Corinthian Gulf which recedes most inland. The coast
extends 90 stadia from the recess of the harbour to Creusa, and thence
120 as far as the promontory called Holmiæ. In the most retired part of
the Crisæan Gulf, Pagæ and Œnoa, which I have already mentioned, are
situated.
Helicon, not far distant from Parnassus, rivals it in height[377] and
circumference. Both mountains are covered with snow, and are rocky. They
do not occupy a circuit of ground of great extent. There are, the fane
of the Muses, the Horse-fountain Hippocrene,[378] and the grottoes of
the nymphs, the Leibethrides. Hence it might be conjectured, that
Helicon was consecrated to the Muses, by Thracians, who dedicated also
Pieris, the Leibethrum, and Pimpleia to the same goddesses. The
Thracians were called Pieres, and since their expulsion, the Macedonians
possess these places.
It has been remarked, that the Thracians, (having expelled the Bœotians
by force,) and the Pelasgi, and other barbarous people, settled in this
part of Bœotia.
Thespiæ was formerly celebrated for a statue of Cupid by Praxiteles.
Glycera the courtesan, a native of Thespiæ, received it as a present
from the artist, and dedicated it as a public offering to her
fellow-citizens.
Persons formerly used to repair thither to see the Cupid, where there
was nothing else worth seeing. This city, and Tanagra, alone of the
Bœotian cities exist at present, while of others there remain nothing
but ruins and names.
26. [CAS. 410] After Thespiæ the poet enumerates Graia and Mycalessus,
of which we have before spoken.
He proceeds as before,
“They who lived near Harma, Eilesium, and Erythræ,
And they who occupied Eleon, Hyle, and Peteon. ”[379]
Peteon is a village of the Thebais near the road to Anthedon. Ocalea is
midway between Haliartus,[380] and Alalcomenæ,[381] it is distant from
each 30 stadia. A small river of the same name flows by it. Medeon,
belonging to Phocis, is on the Crisæan Gulf, distant from Bœotia 160
stadia. The Medeon of Bœotia has its name from that in Phocis. It is
near Onchestus, under the mountain Phœnicium,[382] whence it has the
appellation of Phœnicis. This mountain is likewise assigned to the
Theban district, but by others to the territories of Haliartus, as also
Medeon and Ocalea.
27.
