Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXIX.

Near the Areopagus is shewn the ship that is made for the procession at the Panathenæa. And this perhaps has been outdone. But the ship at Delos is the finest I have ever heard of, having nine banks of rowers from the decks.

And the Athenians in the townships, and on the roads outside the city, have temples of the gods, and tombs of men and heroes. And not far distant is the Academy, once belonging to a private man, now a gymnasium. And as you go down to it are the precincts of Artemis, and statues of her as Best and Beautifullest: I suppose these titles have the same reference as the lines of Sappho, another account about them I know but shall pass over. And there is a small temple, to which they carry every year on appointed days the statue of Dionysus Eleuthereusis. So many temples to the gods are there here. There are also tombs, first of Thrasybulus the son of Lycus, in all respects one of the most famous of the Athenians either since his day or before him. Most of his exploits I shall pass by, but one thing will be enough to prove my statement. Starting from Thebes with only sixty men he put down the Thirty Tyrants, and persuaded the Athenians who were in factions to be reconciled to one another and live on friendly terms. His is the first tomb, and near it are the tombs of Pericles and Chabrias and Phormio. And all the Athenians have monuments here that died in battle either on land or sea, except those that fought at Marathon. For those have tombs on the spot for their valour. But the others lie on the road to the Academy, and slabs are on their tombs recording the name and township of each. First come those whom the Edoni unexpectedly fell upon and slew in Thrace, when they had made themselves masters of all the country up to Drabescus: and it is said also that hailstones fell on them. And among generals are Leagrus, who had the greatest amount of power committed to him, and Sophanes of Decelea, who slew the Argive Eurybates, (who was helping the Æginetans), the victor in five contests at Nemea. And this is the third army the Athenians sent out of Greece. For all the Greeks by mutual consent fought against Priam and the Trojans: but the Athenians alone sent an army into Sardinia with Iolaus, and again to Ionia, and the third time to Thrace. And before the monument is a pillar with a representation of two cavalry officers fighting, whose names are Melanopus and Macartatus, who met their death contending against the Lacedæmonians and Bœotians, at the border of the Eleonian and Tanagræan territory. And there is the tomb of the Thessalian cavalry who remembered their ancient friendship to Athens, when the Peloponnesians under Archidamas first invaded Attica: they are near the Cretan archers. And again there are tombs of the Athenians, as of Clisthenes, (who made the regulations for the tribes which are observed even now,) and the cavalry who were slain on that day of danger, when the Thessalians brought aid. Here too are the Cleonæi, who came with the Argives into Attica: why they came I shall tell when I come to Argos. Here too is the tomb of the Athenians who fought with the Æginetans before the Persian War. And that was I ween a just decree of the people that, if the Athenians gave a public burial to the slaves, their names should be written on a pillar. And this proves that they behaved well to their masters in the wars. And there are also monuments of other valiant men, who fell fighting in various places: the most illustrious of those that fought at Olynthus, and Melesander (who sailed in his ships up the Mæander in Upper Caria), and those who fell in the war with Cassander, and those Argives who were formerly the allies of the Athenians. This alliance came about (they say) in the following manner. There was an earthquake at Lacedæmon, and the Helots revolted and went to Ithome: and when they revolted the Lacedæmonians sent for aid to the Athenians and others: and they despatched to them picked men under Cimon the son of Miltiades. These the Lacedæmonians sent back moved by suspicion. And the Athenians thought such an outrage insufferable, and, on their return home again, made an offensive and defensive alliance with the Argives, who had always been the enemies of the Lacedæmonians. And afterwards, when a battle between the Athenians and Bœotians and Lacedæmonians was on the eve of taking place at Tanagra, the Argives came to the aid of the Athenians. And when the Argives were having the better of it, night came on and took away the certainty of victory, and the next day the Lacedæmonians won the victory, the Thessalians having betrayed the Athenians. I ought also to mention Apollodorus the leader of the mercenaries, who was an Athenian, but had been sent by Arsites, the satrap of Phrygia near the Hellespont, and had relieved Perinthia, when Philip attacked it with an army. He is buried here, with Eubulus the son of Spintharus, and other men who although they deserved it did not meet with good fortune; some fell conspiring against the tyrant Lachares, and others counselled the seizure of the Piræus when the Macedonians guarded it, but before they could carry out their plan they were informed against by their fellow-conspirators and put to death. Here too are the tombs of those who fell at Corinth: and it was palpably shewn here (and afterwards at Leuctra) by the Deity, that those whom the Greeks call brave were nothing without good fortune, since the Lacedæmonians who had formerly conquered the Corinthians and Athenians, and moreover the Argives and Bœotians, were afterwards so completely routed at Leuctra by the Bœotians alone. And next to the tombs of those that fell at Corinth, some elegiac lines testify that the pillar was erected not only to them, but also to those that died at Eubœa and Chios, as also to some whom it declares were slain in the remote parts of the continent of Asia Minor, and in Sicily. And all the Generals are inscribed on it except Nicias, and the Platæan soldiers and citizens together. Nicias was passed over for the following reason: I give the same account as Philistus, who said that Demosthenes made conditions of surrender for everybody but himself, and when he was taken attempted suicide, whereas Nicias surrendered voluntarily. And so his name was not written on the pillar, as he was shewn to be a willing captive and not a man fit for war. On another pillar are the names of those who fought in Thrace, and at Megara, and when Alcibiades persuaded the Mantinæans and Eleans to revolt from the Lacedæmonians, and those who conquered the Syracusans before Demosthenes came to Sicily. Those also are buried here who fought the naval engagement at the Hellespont, and those who fought against the Macedonians at Chæronea, and those who served with Cleon at Amphipolis, and those who fell at Delium in the territory of the Tanagræans, and those whom Leosthenes led to Thessaly, and those who sailed to Cyprus with Cimon, and those, thirteen only, who with Olympiodorus drove out the Macedonian garrison. And the Athenians say that, when the Romans were fighting against one of their neighbours, they sent a small force to their aid, and certainly afterwards there were five Attic triremes present at the sea-fight between the Romans and Carthaginians. These also have their tomb here. The exploits of Tolmides and his men, and the manner of their death, I have already described: but let any one to whom their memory is dear know that they too lie buried on this road. They too lie here who on the same day won under Cimon a glorious victory both by land and sea. Here too lie Conon and Timotheus, father and son, second only to Miltiades and Cimon in their brilliant feats. Here too lie Zeno the son of Mnaseas, and Chrysippus of Soli, and Nicias the son of Nicomedes, (the best painter of animals in his day,) and Harmodius and Aristogiton who murdered Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus, and the orators Ephialtes, (who did his best to discredit the legislation of the Areopagus,) and Lycurgus the son of Lycophron. This Lycurgus put into the public treasury 6,500 talents more than Pericles the son of Xanthippus got together, and furnished elaborate apparatus for the processions of Athene, and golden Victories, and dresses for 100 maidens, and for war arms and darts, and 400 triremes for naval engagements. And as for buildings he finished the theatre though others began it, and during his term of office built docks at the Piræus, and a gymnasium at the Lyceum. All his silver and gold work Lachares plundered when he was in power: but the buildings remain to this day.