Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

BOOK VII.—ACHAIA.

CHAPTER I.

Now the country between Elis and Sicyonia which borders on the Corinthian Gulf is called in our day Achaia from its inhabitants, but in ancient times was called Ægialus and its inhabitants Ægialians, according to the tradition of the Sicyonians from Ægialeus, who was king of what is now Sicyonia, others say from the position of the country which is mostly on the sea-shore.[1] After the death of Hellen his sons chased their brother Xuthus out of Thessaly, accusing him of having privately helped himself to their father’s money. And he fled to Athens, and was thought worthy to marry the daughter of Erechtheus, and he had by her two sons Achæus and Ion. After the death of Erechtheus he was chosen to decide which of his sons should be king, and, because he decided in favour of Cecrops the eldest, the other sons of Erechtheus drove him out of the country: and he went to Ægialus and there lived and died. And of his sons Achæus took an army from Ægialus and Athens and returned to Thessaly, and took possession of the throne of his ancestors, and Ion, while gathering together an army against the Ægialians and their king Selinus, received messengers from Selinus offering him his only child Helice in marriage, and adopting him as his son and heir. And Ion was very well contented with this, and after the death of Selinus reigned over the Ægialians, and built Helice which he called after the name of his wife, and called the inhabitants of Ægialus Ionians after him. This was not a change of name but an addition, for they were called the Ionian Ægialians. And the old name Ægialus long prevailed as the name of the country. And so Homer in his catalogue of the forces of Agamemnon was pleased to call the country by its old name,

“Throughout Ægialus and spacious Helice.”[2]

And at that period of the reign of Ion when the Eleusinians were at war with the Athenians, and the Athenians invited Ion to be Commander in Chief, death seized him in Attica, and he was buried at Potamos, a village in Attica. And his descendants reigned after him till they and their people were dispossessed by the Achæans, who in their turn were driven out by the Dorians from Lacedæmon and Argos. The mutual feuds between the Ionians and Achæans I shall relate when I have first given the reason why, before the return of the Dorians, the inhabitants of Lacedæmon and Argos only of all the Peloponnese were called Achæans. Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achæus, came to Argos from Phthiotis and became the sons in law of Danaus, Architeles marrying Automate, and Archander Scæa. And that they were sojourners in Argos is shewn very clearly by the name Metanastes (stranger) which Archander gave his son. And it was when the sons of Achæus got powerful in Argos and Lacedæmon that the name Achæan got attached to the whole population. Their general name was Achæans, though the Argives were privately called Danai. And now when they were expelled from Argos and Lacedæmon by the Dorians, they and their king Tisamenus the son of Orestes made the Ionians proposals to become their colonists without war. But the Ionian Court was afraid that, if they and the Achæans were one people, Tisamenus would be chosen as king over both nations for his bravery and the lustre of his race. So the Ionians did not accept the proposals of the Achæans but went to blows over it, and Tisamenus fell in the battle, and the Achæans beat the Ionians, and besieged them in Helice to which they had fled, but afterwards let them go upon conditions. And the Achæans buried the body of Tisamenus at Helice, but some time afterwards the Lacedæmonians, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, removed the remains to Sparta, and the tomb of Tisamenus is now where the Lacedæmonians have their banquetings, at the place called Phiditia. And when the Ionians migrated to Attica the Athenians and their king, Melanthus the son of Andropompus, welcomed them as settlers, in gratitude to Ion and his services to the Athenians as Commander in Chief. But there is a tradition that the Athenians suspected the Dorians, and feared that they would not keep their hands off them, and received the Ionians therefore as settlers rather from their formidable strength than from goodwill to them.

[1] Ægialus (αἰγιαλός) is Greek for sea-shore. In this last view compare the names Pomerania, Glamorganshire.

[2] Iliad, ii. 575.

CHAPTER II.

And not many years afterwards Medon and Nileus, the eldest sons of Codrus, quarrelled as to who should be king over the Athenians, and Nileus said he would not submit to the rule of Medon, because Medon was lame in one of his feet. But as they decided to submit the matter to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess assigned the kingdom to Medon. So Nileus and the other sons of Codrus were sent on a colony, and took with them whatever Athenians wished, and the Ionians formed the largest part of the contingent. This was the third expedition that had started from Greece under different kings and with different peoples. The oldest expedition was that of Iolaus the Theban, the nephew of Hercules, who led the Athenians and people of Thespiæ to Sardinia. And, one generation before the Ionians sailed from Athens, the Lacedæmonians and Minyæ who had been expelled by the Pelasgi from Lemnos were led by Theras the Theban, the son of Autesion, to the island henceforward called Theras after him, but formerly called Calliste. And now thirdly the sons of Codrus were put at the head of the Ionians, though they had no connection with them by race, being as they were Messenians from Pylos as far as Codrus and Melanthus were concerned, and Athenians only on their mother’s side. And the following Greeks took part in this expedition of the Ionians, the Thebans under Philotas, who was a descendant of Peneleus, and the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who were kinsmen of the sons of Codrus. All the Phocians also took part in it (except the people of Delphi), and the Abantes from Eubœa. And to the Phocians the Athenians Philogenes and Damon, the sons of Euctemon, gave ships to sail in, and themselves led them to the colony. And when they had crossed over to Asia Minor, different detachments went to different maritime towns, but Nileus and his contingent to Miletus. The Milesians give the following account of their early history. They say their country was for two generations called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax the Autochthon and Asterius his son, and that, when Miletus put in there with an expedition of Cretans, then the town and country changed its name to Miletus from him. And Miletus and the force with him came from Crete fleeing from Minos the son of Europa. And the Carians, who had settled earlier in the neighbourhood of Miletus, admitted the Cretans to a joint share with them. But now when the Ionians conquered the old inhabitants of Miletus, they slew all the males except those that ran away from the captured city, and married their wives and daughters. And the tomb of Nileus is as you approach Didymi, not far from the gates on the left of the road. And the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didymi are of earlier date than the migration of the Ionians: as also is the worship of the Ephesian Artemis. Not that Pindar in my opinion understood all about the goddess, for he says that the Amazons who fought against Theseus and Athens built the temple to her. Those women from Thermodon did indeed sacrifice to the Ephesian Artemis, as having known her temple of old, when they fled from Hercules and earlier still from Dionysus, and sought refuge there: it was not however built by them, but by Coresus, an Autochthon, and by Ephesus (who was they think the son of the river Cayster, and gave his name to the city of Ephesus). And the Leleges (who form part of Caria) and most of the Lydians inhabited the district. And several people lived near the temple for the purpose of supplication, and some women of the Amazonian race. And Androclus the son of Codrus, who was appointed king of the Ionians that sailed to Ephesus, drove the Leleges and Lydians who dwelt in the upper part of the city out of the district; but of those who lived near the temple no apprehensions were entertained, but they mutually gave and received pledges with the Ionians without any hostilities. Androclus also took Samos from the Samians, and for some time the Ephesians were masters of Samos and the adjacent islands. And after the Samians returned to their own possessions, Androclus assisted the people of Priene against the Carians and, though the Greeks were victorious, fell in the battle. And the Ephesians took up his corpse, and buried it in their own country where the tomb is shewn to this day, on the way from the temple by the Olympiæum to the Magnesian gates. The device on the tomb is a man in full armour.

And the Ionians, when they inhabited Myus and Priene, drove the Carians out from those cities. Cyaretus the son of Codrus colonized Myus, and Priene was colonized by Thebans and Ionians mixed under Philotas, the descendant of Peneleus, and Æpytus the son of Nileus. So Priene, which had been ravaged by Tabalus the Persian, and afterwards by Hiero one of its own citizens, at last became an Ionian city. But the dwellers in Myus left their town in consequence of the following circumstance. In the neighbourhood of Myus is a small bay: this was converted into a marsh by the Mæander filling up the mouth of the bay with mud. And as the water became foul and no longer sea, mosquitoes in endless quantities bred in the marsh, till they compelled the poor people of Myus to leave the place. And they went to Miletus and carried off with them everything they could take and the statues of the gods: and in my time there was at Myus only a temple of Dionysus in white marble. A similar disaster fell upon the Atarnitæ near Pergamum.

CHAPTER III.

The Colophonians also regard the temple and oracle of Apollo at Claros as most ancient, for, while the Carians were still in possession of the country, they say that the first Greeks who came there were Cretans, a large force powerful both by land and sea under Rhacius, and the Carians remained still in possession of most of the country. But when the Argives and Thersander the son of Polynices took Thebes, several captives, and among others Manto were taken to Apollo at Delphi, but Tiresias died on the road not far from Haliartus.[3] And when the god sent them to form a colony they crossed over into Asia Minor, and when they got to Claros the Cretans attacked them and took them before Rhacius. And he, understanding from Manto who they were and their errand, married Manto and made her companions fellow-settlers with him. And Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and Manto, drove out all the Carians altogether. And the Ionians on mutual conditions became fellow-citizens upon equal terms with the Colophonian Greeks. And the kingdom over the Ionians was usurped by their leaders Damasichthon and Promethus the sons of Codrus. And Promethus afterwards slew his brother Damasichthon and fled to Naxos, and died there, and his body was taken home and buried by the sons of Damasichthon: his tomb is at a place called Polytichides. And how Colophon came to be dispeopled I have previously described in my account about Lysimachus: its inhabitants were the only colonists at Ephesus that fought against Lysimachus and the Macedonians. And the tombs of those from Colophon and Smyrna that fell in the battle are on the left of the road to Claros.

Lebedus also was dispeopled by Lysimachus simply to add to the population of Ephesus. It was a place in many respects favoured, and especially for its very numerous and agreeable warm baths near the sea. Originally it was inhabited by the Carians, till Andræmon, the son of Codrus, and the Ionians drove them out. Andræmon’s tomb is on the left of the road from Colophon, after you have crossed the river Calaon.

And Teos was colonized by the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who came with Athamas; he is said to have been a descendant of Athamas the son of Æolus. Here too the Carians were mixed up with the Greeks. And the Ionians were conducted to Teos by Apœcus, the great-great-grandson of Melanthus, who did no harm to either the Orchomenians or Teians. And not many years afterwards came men from Attica and Bœotia, the former under Damasus and Naoclus the sons of Codrus, the latter under the Bœotian Geres, and both these new-comers were hospitably received by Apœcus and the people of Teos.

The Erythræi also say that they came originally from Crete with Erythrus (the son of Rhadamanthys) who was the founder of their city, and when the Lycians Carians and Pamphylians occupied the city as well as the Cretans, (the Lycians being kinsfolk of the Cretans, having originally come from Crete when they fled from Sarpedon, and the Carians having an ancient friendship with Minos, and the Pamphylians also having Greek blood in their veins, for after the capture of Ilium they wandered about with Calchas), when all those that I have mentioned occupied Erythræ, Cleopus the son of Codrus gathered together from all the towns in Ionia various people, whom he formed into a colony at Erythræ.

And the people of Clazomenæ and Phocæa had no cities before the Ionians came to Asia Minor: but when the Ionians arrived a detachment of them, not knowing their way about the country, sent for one Parphorus a Colophonian as their guide, and having built a city under Mount Ida left it not long after, and returned to Ionia and built Scyppius in Colophonia. And migrating of their own accord from Colophonia, they occupied the territory which they now hold, and built on the mainland the town of Clazomenæ. But afterwards from fear of the Persians they crossed over into the island opposite. But in process of time Alexander the son of Philip was destined to convert Clazomenæ into a peninsula, by connecting the island with the mainland by an embankment. Most of the inhabitants of Clazomenæ were not Ionians, but were from Cleonæ and Phlius, and had left those cities when the Dorians returned to the Peloponnese. And the people of Phocæa were originally from the country under Mount Parnassus which is still to our day called Phocis, and crossed over into Asia Minor with the Athenians Philogenes and Damon. And they took territory not by war but on an understanding with the people of Cyme. And as the Ionians would not receive them into the Pan-Ionic confederacy unless they received kings from the descendants of Codrus, they accepted from Erythræ and Teos Deœtes and Periclus and Abartus.

[3] See [Book ix. ch. 33.]

CHAPTER IV.

And the cities of the Ionians in the islands were Samos near Mycale, and Chios opposite Mimas. The Samian Asius, the son of Amphiptolemus, has written in his poems that Phœnix had by Perimede (the daughter of Œneus) Astypalæa and Europe, and that Poseidon had by Astypalæa a son Ancæus, who was king over the Leleges, and married the daughter of the river-god Mæander, her name was Samia, and their children were Perilaus and Enudus and Samos and Alitherses and one daughter Parthenope, who bare Lycomedes to Apollo. Such is the account of Asius in his poems. Those who inhabited Samos at this time received the Ionian colonists rather of necessity than goodwill. The Ionian leader was Procles the son of Pityreus, an Epidaurian as also was a large number of his men, they had been banished from Epidauria by Deiphontes and the Argives, and Procles himself was a descendant of Ion the son of Xuthus. And Androclus and the Ephesians marched against Leogorus the son of Procles, who succeeded his father as king of Samos, and having defeated him in battle drove the Samians out of the island, on the pretext that they had joined the Carians in a plot against the Ionians. Of the Samians that were thus driven out of Samos some took a colony to the island near Thrace, which had been previously known as Dardania, but was henceforth called Samothrace; others under Leogorus built a fort on the mainland opposite at Anæa, and ten years afterwards crossed into Samos, drove out the Ephesians and recovered the island.

The temple of Hera in Samos was according to the tradition of some built by the Argonauts, who brought the statue of the goddess from Argos. But the Samians themselves think that the goddess was born in their island on the banks of the river Imbrasus, and under the willow-tree that still grows in the temple of Hera. That this temple could not have been very ancient one naturally infers from the statue, which is by the Æginetan Smilis, the son of Euclides, who was a contemporary of Dædalus, but has not acquired equal renown. For Dædalus, an Athenian of the royal stock called Metionidæ, was most remarkable of all men for his art and misfortunes. For having killed his sister’s son, and knowing the vengeance that awaited him in his country, he became a voluntary exile and fled to Minos and Crete, and made works of art for Minos and his daughters, as Homer has described in the Iliad. But being condemned for treason against Minos, and thrown into prison with his son, he escaped from Crete and went to Inycus, a city of Sicily, to the court of Cocalus, and caused a war between the Sicilians and Cretans, because Cocalus would not give him up at the request of Minos. And so much beloved was he by the daughters of Cocalus for his art, that these ladies entered into a plot against the life of Minos out of favour to Dædalus. And it is plain that his fame extended over all Sicily, and most of Italy. While Smilis, except among the Samians and at Elea, had no fame whatever out of his own country; but he went to Samos, and there he made the statue of Hera.

About Chios Ion the Tragedian has recorded that Poseidon went to that island when it was unoccupied, and had an intrigue there with a Nymph, and when she was in labour some snow fell, and so Poseidon called the boy Chios.[4] By another Nymph he had Agelus and Melas. And in process of time Œnopion sailed to Chios from Crete with his sons Talus and Euanthes and Melas and Salagus and Athamas. And during the reign of Œnopion some Carians came to the island, and the Abantes from Eubœa. And Œnopion and his sons were succeeded by Amphiclus, who came to Chios from Histiæa in Eubœa in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. And Hector the fourth in descent from Amphiclus, (for he too was king of Chios), fought against the Abantes and Carians that were still in the island, and slew some in various battles, and compelled others to leave the island upon conditions of war. And after the Chians had finished the war, then Hector bethought him that he and the Ionians ought to jointly sacrifice to the welfare of the Pan-Ionic league. And Ion says he received the present of a tripod from the community of the Ionians for his prowess. But Ion has not told us how it was the Chians got ranked as Ionians.

[4] The Greek for snow is chion. Hence the paronomasia.

CHAPTER V.

And Smyrna, which was one of the 12 cities of the Æolians, on the site of what they now call the old city, was taken from the Æolians by the Ionians who came from Colophon, but some time afterwards the Ionians admitted its inhabitants to the Pan-Ionic league. But Alexander the son of Philip built the modern Smyrna in consequence of a dream he had. For on his return from hunting on Mount Pagus he went they say to the temple of Nemesis, and there found a well, and a plane-tree in front of the temple growing in the water. And they say he slept under this plane-tree and the goddesses of Nemesis appeared to him and bade him build a town on that site, and remove the people of Smyrna there from the old Smyrna. And the people of Smyrna sent envoys to Claros to consult the oracle in the present conjuncture, and the god gave the following oracular response,

“Thrice happy yea four times happy shall those men be, who shall dwell near Mount Pagus across the sacred Meles.”

So they willingly removed, and they worship two Nemeses instead of one, and they say their mother was Night, but the Athenians who worship Nemesis at Rhamnus say that she was the daughter of Oceanus.

The Ionians have a most magnificent country for the fruits of the earth, and temples such as there are nowhere else, the finest that of Ephesian Artemis for size and opulence, and next two to Apollo not quite finished, one at Branchidæ in Milesia, the other at Claros in Colophonia. Two temples in Ionia were burnt down by the Persians, one of Hera in Samos, and one of Athene in Phocæa. They are still wonderful though the fire has passed upon them. And you would be delighted with the temple of Hercules at Erythræ, and with the temple of Athene at Priene, the latter for the statue of the goddess, the former for its great antiquity. And at Erythræ is a work of art unlike the most ancient of Æginetan or Attic workmanship: its design is perfect Egyptian. It is the wooden raft on which the god sailed from Tyre in Phœnicia, why the people of Erythræ do not say. But to prove that it came into the Ionian sea they say it was moored at the promontory called Mid, which is on the mainland about half-way from the harbour of Erythræ to the island of Chios. And when this raft was at the promontory, the people of Erythræ and the Chians too had no small trouble in trying to get it on shore. At last a native of Erythræ, who got his living from the sea by catching fish, but had lost his eyesight through some disease, Phormio by name, dreamed that the women of Erythræ were to cut off their hair, and that the men making a rope out of this hair were to drag the raft ashore. The women who were citizens wouldn’t hear of it: but all the women who were slaves of Thracian race, or who being free had yet to earn their own living, allowed their hair to be cut off, and so at last the people of Erythræ got the raft to shore. So Thracian women alone are allowed to enter the temple of Hercules, and the rope made of hair is still kept by the people of Erythræ. They also say that the fisherman recovered his sight, and saw for the rest of his life. At Erythræ there is also a temple of Athene Polias, and a huge wooden statue of the goddess seated on a throne, in one hand a distaff in the other a globe. We conjecture it to be by Endœus from several circumstances, especially looking at the workmanship of the statue inside, and the Graces and Seasons in white marble, which used to stand in the open air. The people of Smyrna also had in my time a temple of Æsculapius between the mountain Coryphe and the sea which is unmixed with any other water.

Ionia besides the temples and the salubrity of the air has several other things worthy of record. Near Ephesus is the river Cenchrius, and the fertile Mount Pion, and the well Halitæa. And in Milesia is the well Biblis: of the love passages of Biblis they still sing. And in Colophonia is the grove of Apollo, consisting of ash trees, and not far from the grove the river Ales, the coldest river in Ionia. And the people of Lebedus have baths which are both wonderful and useful to men. The people of Teos also have baths at the promontory Macria, some natural consisting of sea-water that bursts in at a crevice of the rock, others built at wonderful cost. The people of Clazomenæ also have baths. Agamemnon is honoured there. And there is a grotto called the grotto of Pyrrhus’ mother, and they have a tradition about Pyrrhus as a shepherd. The people of Erythræ have also a place called Chalcis, from which the third of their tribes takes its name, where there is a promontory extending to the sea, and some sea baths, which of all the baths in Ionia are most beneficial to men. And the people of Smyrna have the most beautiful river Meles and a cave near its springs, where they say Homer wrote his Poems. The Chians also have a notable sight in the tomb of Œnopion, about whose deeds they have several legends. The Samians too on the way to the temple of Hera have the tomb of Rhadine and Leontichus, which those are accustomed to visit who are melancholy through love. The wonderful things indeed in Ionia are not far short of those in Greece altogether.

CHAPTER VI.

After the departure of the Ionians the Achæans divided their land and lived in their towns, which were 12 in number, and well known throughout Greece. Dyme first near Elis, and then Olenus, and Pharæ, and Tritea, and Rhypes, and Ægium, and Cerynea, and Bura, and Helice, and Ægæ and Ægira, and last Pellene near Sicyonia. In these towns, which had formerly been inhabited by the Ionians, the Achæans and their kings dwelt. And those who had the greatest power among the Achæans were the sons of Tisamenus, Däimenes and Sparton and Tellis and Leontomenes. Cometes, the eldest of Tisamenus’ sons, had previously crossed over into Asia Minor. These ruled over the Achæans as also Damasias (the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes), the brother of Tisamenus. Equal authority to them had Preugenes and his son Patreus from Lacedæmon; who were allowed by the Achæans to build a city in their territory, which was called Patræ after Patreus.

The following were the wars of the Achæans. In the expedition of Agamemnon against Ilium, as they inhabited both Lacedæmon and Argos, they were the largest contingent from Greece. But when Xerxes and the Medes invaded Greece, the Achæans as far as we know did not join Leonidas at the pass of Thermopylæ, nor did they fight under Themistocles and the Athenians in the sea-fights off Eubœa and Salamis, nor were they in either the Lacedæmonian or Athenian list of allies. They were also behind at Platæa: for otherwise they would certainly have been mentioned among the other Greeks on the basement of the statue of Zeus at Olympia.[5] I cannot but think they stayed behind on each of these occasions to save their country, and also after the Trojan War they did not think it befitting that the Lacedæmonians (who were Dorians) should lead them. As they showed long afterwards. For when the Lacedæmonians were at war with the Athenians, the Achæans readily entered into an alliance with the people of Patræ, and were equally friendly with the Athenians. And they took part in the wars that were fought afterwards by Greece, as at Chæronea against Philip and the Macedonians. But they admit that they did not go into Thessaly or take part in the battle of Lamia, because they had not yet recovered from their reverse in Bœotia. And the Custos Rotulorum at Patræ says that the wrestler Chilon was the only Achæan present at the action at Lamia. I know also myself that the Lydian Adrastus fought privately (and not in any concert with the Lydians) for the Greeks. This Adrastus had a brazen effigy erected to him by the Lydians in front of the temple of Persian Artemis, and the inscription they wrote upon it was that he died fighting for the Greeks against Leonnatus. And the pass at Thermopylæ that admitted the Galati was overlooked by all the Peloponnesians as well as by the Achæans: for as the barbarians had no ships, they thought they had nothing to fear from them, if they strongly fortified the Isthmus of Corinth, from Lechæum on the one sea to Cenchreæ on the other.

This was the view at that time of all the Peloponnesians. And when the Galati crossed over into Asia Minor in ships got somewhere or other, then the Greeks were so situated that none of them were any longer clearly the leading state. For as to the Lacedæmonians, their reverse at Leuctra, and the gathering of the Arcadians at Megalopolis, and the vicinity of the Messenians on their borders, prevented their recovering their former prosperity. And the city of the Thebans had been so laid waste by Alexander, that not many years afterwards when they were reduced by Cassander, they were unable to protect themselves at all. And the Athenians had indeed the good will of all Greece for their famous actions, but that was no security to them in their war with the Macedonians.

[5] See Book v. ch. 23.

CHAPTER VII.

The Achæans were most powerful in the days when the Greeks were not banded together, but each looked after their own personal interests. For none of their towns except Pellene had any experience of tyrants at any time. And misfortunes from wars and the plague did not so much touch the Achæans as all the other Greeks. Accordingly what is called the Achæan League was by common consent the design and act of the Achæans. And this League was formed at Ægium because, next to Helice which had been swept away by a flood, it had been the foremost town in Achaia in former times, and was at this time the most powerful. And of the other Greeks the Sicyonians first joined this Achæan League. And next to the Sicyonians some of the other Peloponnesians joined it, some immediately, some rather later: and outside the Isthmus what brought people in was seeing that the Achæan League was becoming more and more powerful. And the Lacedæmonians were the only Greeks that were unfriendly to the Achæans and openly took up arms against them. For Pellene an Achæan town was taken by Agis, the son of Eudamidas, King of Sparta, though he was soon driven out again by Aratus and the Sicyonians. And Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas and grandson of Cleonymus, a king of the other family, when Aratus and the Achæans were gathered together at Dyme against him routed them badly in battle, though he afterwards concluded peace with the Achæans and Antigonus. Antigonus was at this time ruler of the Macedonians, being Regent for Philip, the son of Demetrius, who was quite a boy; he was Philip’s uncle and also stepfather. With him and the Achæans Cleomenes made peace, but soon violated his engagements, and reduced to slavery Megalopolis in Arcadia. And the reverse which the Lacedæmonians met with at Sellasia at the hands of the Achæans and Antigonus was in consequence of Cleomenes’ violation of his word. But Cleomenes we shall mention again when we come to Arcadia. And Philip the son of Demetrius, when he came to age, received the rule over the Macedonians from his stepfather Antigonus, who was glad to surrender it, and inspired great fear in all the Greeks by closely imitating Philip the son of Amyntas, (who was no ancestor of his, but a true despot), as in bribing people to betray their country. And at banquets he would offer the cup of fellowship and kindness filled not with wine but deadly poison, a thing which Philip the son of Amyntas in my opinion never thought of, but to Philip the son of Demetrius poisoning appeared a very trifling crime. And three towns he turned into garrison-towns as points d’appui against Greece, and in his insolence and haughty disregard of the Greeks he called these towns the keys of Greece. One was Corinth in the Peloponnese, the citadel of which he strongly fortified, and for Eubœa and Bœotia and Phocis he had Chalcis near the Euripus, and for Thessaly and Ætolia he garrisoned Magnesia under Mount Pelion. And by perpetual raids and plundering incursions he harassed the Athenians and Ætolians especially. I have mentioned before in my account of Attica the Greeks or barbarians who assisted the Athenians against Philip, and how in consequence of the weakness of their allies the Athenians were obliged to rely on an alliance with Rome. The Romans had sent some soldiers not long before nominally to assist the Ætolians against Philip, but really to spy out what the Macedonians were aiming at. But now they sent an army under the command of Otilius, that was his best known name, for the Romans are not called like the Greeks merely after their father’s name, but have 3 names at least and sometimes more. This Otilius had orders from the Romans to protect the Athenians and Ætolians against Philip. Otilius in all other respects obeyed his orders, but did one thing that the Romans were not pleased at. For he captured and rased to the ground Hestiæa (a town in Eubœa) and Anticyra in Phocis, places which had submitted to Philip simply from necessity. This was I think the reason why the Senate when they heard of it superseded him by Flaminius.

CHAPTER VIII.

Flaminius on his arrival immediately defeated the Macedonian garrison at Eretria and plundered the town, and next marched to Corinth which was occupied by Philip’s garrison, and sat down to a regular siege, and sent to the Achæans urging them to come to Corinth with an army, so as to be reckoned the allies of the Romans, and in friendship to the Greeks generally. But the Achæans took it ill that Flaminius and still earlier Otilius had handled so savagely old Greek cities, that had committed no offence against Rome, and were under the Macedonians against their wish. They foresaw also that instead of Philip and the Macedonians they would merely have the Romans as dictators in Greece. But after many speeches from different points of view had been delivered in the council, at last the party friendly to the Romans prevailed, and the Achæans joined Flaminius in the siege of Corinth. And the Corinthians, being thus freed from the Macedonian yoke, at once joined the Achæan League, which indeed they had formerly joined, when Aratus and the Sicyonians drove out the garrison from the citadel of Corinth and slew Persæus, who had been put in command of the garrison by Antigonus. And from that time forward the Achæans were called the allies of the Romans, and were devoted to them at all times, and followed them into Macedonia against Philip, and joined them in an expedition against the Ætolians, and fought on their side against Antiochus and the Syrians.

In fighting against the Macedonians and Syrians the Achæans were animated only by friendship to the Romans: but in fighting against the Ætolians they were satisfying a long-standing grudge. And when the power at Sparta of Nabis, a man of the most unrelenting cruelty, had been overthrown, the Lacedæmonians became their own masters again, and as time went on the Achæans got them into their League, and were very severe with them, and rased to the ground the fortifications of Sparta, which had been formerly run up hastily at the time of the invasion of Demetrius and afterwards of Pyrrhus and the Epirotes, but during the power of Nabis had been very strongly fortified. And not only did the Achæans rase the walls of Sparta, but they prevented their youths from training as Lycurgus had ordained, and made them train in the Achæan way. I shall enter into all this in more detail in my account about Arcadia. And the Lacedæmonians, being sorely vexed with these harassing decrees of the Achæans, threw themselves into the arms of Metellus and his colleagues, who had come on an embassy from Rome, not to try and stir up war against Philip and the Macedonians, for a peace had been previously solemnly concluded between Philip and the Romans, but to try the charges made against Philip either by the Thessalians or the Epirotes. Philip himself indeed and the Macedonian supremacy had actually received a fatal blow from the Romans. For fighting against Flaminius and the Romans on the range of hills called Cynoscephalæ Philip got the worst of it, and having put forth all his strength in the battle got so badly beaten that he lost the greater part of his army, and was obliged by the Roman terms to remove his garrisons from all the Greek towns which he had seized and reduced during the war. The peace indeed with the Romans which he obtained sounded specious, but was only procured by various entreaties and at great expenditure of money. The Sibyl had indeed foretold not without the god the power which the Macedonians would attain to in the days of Philip the son of Amyntas, and how all this would crumble away in the days of another Philip. These are the very words of her oracle—

“Ye Macedonians, that boast in the Argeadæ as your kings, to you Philip as ruler shall be both a blessing and a curse. The first Philip shall make you ruler over cities and people, the last shall lose you all your honour, conquered by men both from the West and East.”

The Romans that overthrew the Macedonian Empire lived in the West of Europe, and Attalus and the Mysian force that cooperated with them may be said to have been Eastern Nations.

CHAPTER IX.

But now Metellus and his colleagues resolved not to neglect the quarrels of the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, so they convened before their council-board the most prominent Achæans, that they might publicly advise them to treat the Lacedæmonians in a kindlier spirit. And the Achæans returned answer that they would give no hearing to them or anyone else, who should approach them on any subject whatever, except they were armed with a decree from the Roman Senate. And Metellus and his colleagues, thinking they were treated by the Achæans with rather too much hauteur, on their return to Rome told the Senate many things against the Achæans which were not all true. And further charges still were brought against the Achæans by Areus and Alcibiades, who were held in great repute at Sparta, but who did not act well to the Achæans: for when they were exiled by Nabis the Achæans had kindly received them, and after the death of Nabis had restored them to Sparta contrary to the wish of the Lacedæmonian people. But now being admitted before the Roman Senate they inveighed against the Achæans with the greatest zeal. And the Achæans on their return from Rome sentenced them to death in their Council. And the Roman Senate sent Appius and some others to put the differences between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians on a just footing. But this embassy was not likely to please the Achæans, inasmuch as in Appius’ suite were Areus and Alcibiades, whom the Achæans detested at this time. And when they came into the council chamber they endeavoured by their words to stir up rather the animosity of the Achæans than to win them over by persuasion. Lycortas of Megalopolis, a man in merit behind none of the Arcadians, and who had friendly relations with Philopœmen upon whom he relied, put forward in his speech the just claims of the Achæans, and at the same time covertly blamed the Romans. But Appius and his suite jeered at Lycortas’ speech, and passed a vote that Areus and Alcibiades had committed no crime against the Achæans, and allowed the Lacedæmonians to send envoys to Rome, thus contravening the previous convention between the Romans and Achæans. For it had been publicly agreed that envoys of the Achæans might go to the Roman Senate, but those states which were in the Achæan League were forbidden to send envoys privately. And when the Achæans sent a counter-embassy to that of the Lacedæmonians, and the speeches on both sides were heard in the Senate, then the Romans despatched Appius and all his former suite as plenipotentiaries between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And they restored to Sparta those that had been exiled by the Achæans, and they remitted the fines of those who had absconded before judgment, and had been condemned in their absence. And they did not remove the Lacedæmonians from the Achæan League, but they ordered that foreign[6] courts were to try capital cases, but all other cases they could themselves try, or submit them to the Achæan League. And the Spartans again built walls all round their city from the foundation. And those Lacedæmonians who were restored from exile meditated all sorts of contrivances against the Achæans, hoping to injure them most in the following way. The Messenians who were concerned in the death of Philopœmen, and who were banished it was thought on that account by the Achæans, these and other exiles of the Achæans they persuaded to go and take their case to Rome. And they went with them and intrigued for their return from exile. And as Appius greatly favoured the Lacedæmonians, and on all occasions went against the Achæans, whatever the Messenian or Achæan exiles wished was sure to come off without any difficulty, and letters were sent by the Senate to Athens and Ætolia, ordering them to restore the Messenians and Achæans to their rights. This seemed the unkindest cut of all to the Achæans, who upon various occasions were treated with great injustice by the Romans, and who saw that all their past services went for nothing, for after having fought against Philip and the Ætolians and Antiochus simply to oblige the Romans, they were neglected for exiles whose lives were far from pure. Still they thought they had better submit. Such was the state of affairs up to this point.

[6] Meaning Roman I take it.

CHAPTER X.

But the most impious of all crimes, the betrayal of one’s country and fellow citizens for gain, was destined to bring about the destruction of the Achæans, a crime that has ever troubled Greece. For in the days of Darius (the son of Hystaspes) king of the Persians the Ionian affairs were ruined by all the Samian captains but eleven treacherously surrendering their ships. And after the subjugation of the Ionians the Medes enslaved Eretria; when those held in highest repute in Eretria played the traitor, as Philagras, the son of Cyneus, and Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus. And when Xerxes went on his expedition to Greece, Thessaly was betrayed by the Aleuadæ, and Thebes was betrayed by Attaginus and Timegenidas, its foremost men. And during the Peloponnesian war Xenias, a native of Elis, endeavoured to betray Elis to the Lacedæmonians and Agis. And those who were called Lysander’s friends never ceased the attempt to betray their countries to Lysander. And in the reign of Philip, the son of Amyntas, one will find that Lacedæmon was not the only one of the Greek cities that were betrayed: the cities of Greece were more ruined through treason than they had been formerly by the plague. But Alexander the son of Philip had very little success indeed by treason. And after the reverse to the Greeks at Lamia Antipater, wishing to cross over with all despatch to the war in Asia Minor, was content to patch up a peace speedily, as it mattered nothing to him whether he left Athens or indeed all Greece free. But Demades and other traitors at Athens persuaded Antipater not to act friendly to the Greeks, and, by frightening the commonalty of the Athenians, they were the means of the introduction into Athens and most other towns of the Macedonian garrisons. What confirms my account is that the Athenians after the reverse in Bœotia did not become subject to Philip, though 1,000 were killed in the action, and 2,000 taken prisoners after: but at Lamia, although only 200 fell, they became slaves of the Macedonians. Thus at no time were wanting to Greece people afflicted with this itch for treason. And the Achæans at this time were made subject to the Romans entirely through the Achæan Callicrates. But the beginning of their troubles was the overthrow of Perseus and the Macedonian Empire by the Romans.

Perseus the son of Philip was originally at peace with the Romans according to the terms of agreement between them and his father Philip, but he violated these conditions when he led an army against Abrupolis, the king of the Sapæans, (who are mentioned by Archilochus in one of his Iambic verses) and dispossessed them, though they were allies of the Romans. And Perseus and the Macedonians having been beaten in war on account of this outrage upon the Sapæans, ten Roman Senators were sent to settle affairs in Macedonia according to the interests of the Romans. And when they came to Greece Callicrates insinuated himself among them, letting slip no occasion of flattering them either in word or deed. And one of them, who was by no means remarkable for justice, was so won over by Callicrates that he was persuaded by him to enter the Achæan League. And he went to one of their general meetings, and said that when Perseus was at war with the Romans the most influential Achæans had furnished him with money, and assisted him in other respects. He bade the Achæans therefore pass a sentence of death against these men: and he said if they would do so, then he would give them their names. This seemed an altogether unfair way of putting it, and those present at the general meeting said that, if any of the Achæans had acted with Perseus, their names must be mentioned first, for it was not fair to condemn them before. And when the Roman was thus confuted, he was so confident as to affirm that all the Achæan Generals were implicated in the charge, for all were friendly to Perseus and the Macedonians. This he said at the instigation of Callicrates. And Xeno rose up next, a man of no small renown among the Achæans, and spoke as follows. “As to this charge, I am a General of the Achæans, and have neither acted against the Romans, nor shewn any good will to Perseus. And I am ready to be tried on this charge before either the Achæan League or the Romans.” This he said in the boldness of a good conscience. But the Roman Senator at once seized the opportunity his words suggested, and sent all whom Callicrates accused of being friendly to Perseus to stand their trial at Rome. Nothing of the kind had ever previously happened to the Greeks. For the Macedonians in the zenith of their power, as under Philip, the son of Amyntas, and Alexander, had never forced any Greeks who opposed them to be sent into Macedonia, but had allowed them to be tried by the Amphictyonic Council. But now every Achæan, however innocent, who was accused by Callicrates, had to go to Rome, so it was decreed, and more than 1,000 so went. And the Romans, treating them as if they had been already condemned by the Achæans, imprisoned them in various towns in Etruria, and, although the Achæans sent various embassies and supplications about them, returned no answer. But 17 years afterwards they released some 300 or even fewer, (who were all that remained in Italy of the 1,000 and more Achæans), thinking they had been punished sufficiently. And all those who escaped either on the journey to Rome in the first instance, or afterwards from the towns to which they had been sent by the Romans, were, if captured, capitally punished at once and no excuse received.

CHAPTER XI.

And the Romans sent another Senator to Greece, Gallus by name, who was sent to arbitrate on the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and the Argives. This Gallus both spoke and acted with much hauteur to the Greeks, and treated the Lacedæmonians and Argives with the greatest contempt possible. For he disdained himself to arbitrate for cities which had attained such great renown, and had fought for their fatherland bravely and lavishly, and had previously submitted their claims to no less an arbitrator than Philip the son of Amyntas, and submitted the decision to Callicrates, the plague of all Greece. And when the Ætolians who inhabit Pleuron came to Gallus, desiring release from the Achæan League, they were allowed by him to send a private embassy to Rome, and the Romans gave their consent to what they asked. The Roman Senate also despatched to Gallus a decree, that he was at liberty to release from the Achæan League as many towns as he liked.

And he carried out his orders, and meantime the Athenian people from necessity rather than choice plundered Oropus which was a town subject to them, for the Athenians had been reduced to a greater state of poverty than any of the Greeks by the war with the Macedonians. The Oropians appealed to the Senate at Rome, and they, thinking they had not been treated well, ordered the Sicyonians to levy upon the Athenians a fine proportionate to the harm they had done to the Oropians. The Sicyonians, as the Athenians did not come into court at the time of trial, fined them in their absence 500 talents, but the Roman Senate at the request of the Athenians remitted all the fine but 100 talents. And the Athenians did not pay even this, but by promises and gifts prevailed upon the Oropians to agree, that an Athenian garrison should occupy Oropus, and that the Athenians should have hostages from the Oropians, and if the Oropians should bring any further charges against the Athenians, then the Athenians were to withdraw their garrison, and return their hostages. And no long time elapsed when some of the garrison insulted some of the townsmen of Oropus. They sent therefore envoys to Athens to demand back their hostages, and at the same time to ask the Athenians to take away their garrison according to their agreement. But the Athenians flatly refused, on the plea that the outrage was committed by the garrison and not the Athenian people, they promised however that those in fault should be punished. And the Oropians appealed to the Achæans to help them, but the Achæans refused out of friendship and respect to the Athenians. Then the Oropians promised ten talents to Menalcidas, a Lacedæmonian by birth but serving at this time as General of the Achæans, if he would make the Achæans help them. And he promised half the money to Callicrates, who because of his friendship with the Romans had the greatest influence over the Achæans. And Callicrates responding to the wishes of Menalcidas, it was determined to help the Oropians against the Athenians. And some one announced news of this to the Athenians, and they with all speed went to Oropus, and after plundering whatever they had spared in former raids, withdrew their garrison. And Menalcidas and Callicrates tried to persuade the Achæans who came up too late for help, to make an inroad into Attica: but as they were against it, especially those who had come from Lacedæmon, the army went back again.

CHAPTER XII.

And the Oropians, though no help had come from the Achæans, yet had to pay the money promised to Menalcidas. And he, when he had received his bribe, thought it a misfortune that he would have to share any part of it with Callicrates. So at first he practised putting off the payment of the gift and other wiles, but soon afterwards he was so bold as to deprive him of it altogether. My statement is confirmed by the proverb, “One fire burns fiercer than another fire, and one wolf is fiercer than other wolves, and one hawk flies swifter than another hawk, since the most unscrupulous of all men, Callicrates, is outdone in treachery by Menalcidas.” And Callicrates, who was never superior to any bribe, and had got nothing out of his hatred to Athens, was so vexed with Menalcidas that he deprived him of his office, and prosecuted him on a capital charge before the Achæans, viz. that he had tried to undermine the Achæans on his embassy to Rome, and that he had endeavoured to withdraw Sparta from the Achæan league. Menalcidas in this crisis gave 3 of the talents from Oropus to Diæus of Megalopolis, who had been his successor as General of the Achæans, and now, being zealous in his interest on account of his bribe, was bent on saving Menalcidas in spite of the Achæans. But the Achæans both privately and publicly were vexed with Diæus for the acquittal of Menalcidas. But Diæus turned away their charges against him to the hope of greater gain, by using the following wile as a pretext. The Lacedæmonians had gone to the Senate at Rome about some debateable land, and the Senate had told them to try all but capital cases before the Achæan League. Such was their answer. But Diæus told the Achæans what was not the truth, and deluded them by saying that the Roman Senate allowed them to pass sentence of death upon a Spartan. They therefore thought the Lacedæmonians could also pass sentence of life and death on themselves: but the Lacedæmonians did not believe that Diæus was speaking the truth, and wished to refer the matter to the Senate at Rome. But the Achæans objected to this, that the cities in the Achæan League had no right without common consent to send an embassy privately to Rome. In consequence of these disputes war broke out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians, and the Lacedæmonians, knowing they were not able to fight the Achæans, sent embassies to their cities and spoke privately to Diæus. All the cities returned the same answer, that if their general ordered them to take the field they could not disobey. For Diæus was in command, and he said that he intended to fight not against Sparta but against all that troubled her. And when the Spartan Senate asked who he thought were the criminals, he gave them a list of 24 men who were prominent in Sparta. Thereupon the opinion of Agasisthenes prevailed, a man previously held in good repute, and who for the following advice got still more highly thought of. He persuaded all those men whose names were mentioned to exile themselves from Lacedæmon, and not by remaining there to bring on a war on Sparta, and if they fled to Rome he said they would be soon restored by the Romans. So they departed and were nominally tried in their absence in the Spartan law-courts and condemned to death: but Callicrates and Diæus were sent by the Achæans to Rome to plead against these Spartan exiles before the Senate. And Callicrates died on the road of some illness, nor do I know whether if he had gone on to Rome he would have done the Achæans any good, or been to them the source of greater evils. But Diæus carried on a bitter controversy with Menalcidas before the Senate, not in the most decorous manner. And the Senate returned answer that they would send Ambassadors, who should arbitrate upon the differences between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And the journey of these ambassadors from Rome was somehow taken so leisurely, that Diæus had full time to deceive the Achæans, and Menalcidas the Lacedæmonians. The Achæans were persuaded by Diæus that the Lacedæmonians were directed by the Roman Senate to obey them in all things. While Menalcidas deceived the Lacedæmonians altogether, saying that they had been put by the Romans out of the jurisdiction of the Achæan League altogether.

CHAPTER XIII.

In consequence of these differences with the Lacedæmonians the Achæans made preparations again to go to war with them, and an army was collected against Sparta by Damocritus, who was chosen General of the Achæans at that time. And about the same time an army of Romans under Metellus went into Macedonia, to fight against Andriscus, the son of Perseus and grandson of Philip, who had revolted from the Romans. And the war in Macedonia was finished by the Romans with the greatest despatch. And Metellus gave his orders to the envoys, who had been sent by the Roman Senate to see after affairs in Asia Minor, to have a conference with the leaders of the Achæans before they passed over into Asia Minor, and to forbid them to war against Sparta, and to tell them they were to wait for the arrival from Rome of the envoys who were despatched to arbitrate between them and the Lacedæmonians. They gave these orders to Damocritus and the Achæans, who were beforehand with them and had already marched to Lacedæmon, but when they saw that the Achæans were not likely to pay any attention to their orders, they crossed over into Asia Minor. And the Lacedæmonians, out of spirit rather than from strength, took up arms and went out to meet the enemy in defence of their country, but were in a short time repulsed with the loss in the battle of about 1,000 who were in their prime both in respect to age and bravery, and the rest of the army fled pell mell into the town. And had Damocritus exhibited energy, the Achæans might have pursued those who fled from the battle up to the walls of Sparta: but he called them back from the pursuit at once, and rather went in for raids and plundering than sat down to a regular siege. He was therefore fined 50 talents by the Achæans as a traitor for not following up his victory, and as he could not pay he fled from the Peloponnese. And Diæus, who was chosen to succeed him as General, agreed when Metellus sent a second message not to carry on the war against the Lacedæmonians, but to wait for the arrival of the arbitrators from Rome. After this he contrived another stratagem against the Lacedæmonians: he won over all the towns round Sparta to friendship with the Achæans, and introduced garrisons into them, so as to make them points d’appui against Sparta. And Menalcidas was chosen by the Lacedæmonians as General against Diæus, and, as they were badly off for all supplies of war and not least for money, and as their soil had lain uncultivated, he persuaded them to violate the truce, and took by storm and sacked the town Iasus, which was on the borders of Laconia, but was at this time subject to the Achæans. And having thus stirred up strife again between the Lacedæmonians and the Achæans he was accused by the citizens, and, as he saw no hope of safety from the danger that seemed imminent for the Lacedæmonians, he voluntarily committed suicide by poison. Such was the end of Menalcidas, the most imprudent General of the Lacedæmonians at this crisis, and earlier still the most iniquitous person to the Achæans.

CHAPTER XIV.

At last the envoys, who had been sent from Rome to arbitrate between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, arrived in Greece, among others Orestes, who summoned before him Diæus and the principal people in each city of the Achæans. And when they came to his head-quarters,[7] he disclosed to them all his views, viz. that the Roman Senate thought it just that neither the Lacedæmonians nor Corinth should be forced into the Achæan League, nor Argos, nor Heraclea under Mount Œta, nor the Arcadians of Orchomenus, for they had no connection with the Achæans by ancestry, but had been incorporated subsequently into the Achæan League. As Orestes said this, the principal men of the Achæans would not stay to listen to the end of his speech, but ran outside the building and called the Achæans to the meeting. And they, when they heard the decision of the Romans, immediately turned their fury on all the Spartans who at that time resided at Corinth. And they plundered everyone who they were sure was a Lacedæmonian, or whom they suspected of being so by the way he wore his hair, or by his boots or dress or name, and some who got the start of them, and fled for refuge to Orestes’ head-quarters, they dragged thence by force. And Orestes and his suite tried to check the Achæans from this outrage, and bade them remember that they were acting outrageously against Romans. And not many days afterwards the Achæans threw all the Lacedæmonians whom they had arrested into prison, but dismissed all strangers whom they had arrested on suspicion. And they sent Thearidas and several other prominent Achæans as ambassadors to Rome, who after their departure on meeting on the road some other envoys to settle the Lacedæmonian and Achæan differences, who had been despatched later than Orestes, turned back again. And after Diæus had served his time as General, Critolaus was chosen as his successor by the Achæans; this Critolaus was possessed with a grim unreasoning passion to fight against the Romans, and, as the envoys from Rome to settle the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans had just arrived, he went to Tegea in Arcadia ostensibly to confer with them, but really because he did not want the Achæans summoned to a general meeting, and, while in the hearing of the Romans he sent messengers bidding the commissioners call a general meeting of the Achæans, he privately urged the commissioners not to attend the general meeting. And when the commissioners did not come, then he displayed great guile to the Romans, for he told them to wait for another general meeting of the Achæans that would be held six months later, for he himself said that he could discuss no question privately without the common consent of the Achæans. And the Roman envoys, when they discovered they were being deceived, returned to Rome. And Critolaus collected an army of Achæans at Corinth, and persuaded them to war against Sparta, and also to wage war at once against the Romans. When king and nation undertake war and are unsuccessful, it seems rather the malignity of some divine power than the fault of the originators of the war. But audacity and weakness combined should rather be called madness than want of luck. And this was the ruin of Critolaus and the Achæans. The Achæans were also further incited against the Romans by Pytheas, who was at that time Bœotarch at Thebes, and the Thebans undertook to take an eager part in prosecuting the war. For the Thebans had been heavily punished by the decision of Metellus, first they had to pay a fine to the Phocians for invading Phocis, and secondly to the Eubœans for ravaging Eubœa, and thirdly to the people of Amphissa for destroying their corn in harvest time.

[7] Which were at Corinth, as we see in this chapter a little later.

CHAPTER XV.

And the Romans being informed of all this by the envoys whom they had sent to Greece, and by the letters which Metellus wrote, passed a vote against the Achæans that they were guilty of treason, and, as Mummius had just been chosen consul, they ordered him to lead against them both a naval and land force. And Metellus, directly he heard that Mummius and the army with him had set out against the Achæans, made all haste that he might win his laurels in the campaign first, before Mummius could get up. He sent therefore messengers to the Achæans, bidding the Lacedæmonians and all other cities mentioned by the Romans to leave the Achæan League, and for the future he promised that there should be no anger on the part of the Romans for any earlier disobedience. At the same time that he made this Proclamation he brought his army from Macedonia, marching through Thessaly and by the Lamiac Gulf. And Critolaus and the Achæans, so far from accepting this proclamation which tended to peace, sat down and blockaded Heraclea, because it would not join the Achæan League. But when Critolaus heard from his spies that Metellus and the Romans had crossed the Spercheus, then he fled to Scarphea in Locris, not being bold enough to place the Achæans in position between Heraclea and Thermopylæ, and there await the attack of Metellus: for such a panic had seized him that he could extract no hope from a spot where the Lacedæmonians had so nobly fought for Greece against the Medes, and where at a later date the Athenians displayed equal bravery against the Galati. And Metellus’ army came up with Critolaus and the Achæans as they were in retreat a little before Scarphea, and many they killed and about 1,000 they took alive. But Critolaus was not seen alive after the battle, nor was he found among the dead, but if he tried to swim across the muddy sea near Mount Œta, he would have been very likely drowned without being observed. As to his end therefore one may make various guesses. But the thousand picked men from Arcadia, who had fought on Critolaus’ side in the action, marched as far as Elatea in Phocis, and were received in that town from old kinsmanship; but when the people of Phocis got news of the reverse of Critolaus and the Achæans, they requested these Arcadians to leave Elatea. And as they marched back to the Peloponnese Metellus and the Romans met them at Chæronea. Then came the Nemesis of the Greek gods upon the Arcadians, who were cut to pieces by the Romans, in the very place where they had formerly left in the lurch the Greeks who fought against Philip and the Macedonians.

And Diæus was again made Commander-in-Chief of the Achæan army, and he imitated the action of Miltiades and the Athenians before Marathon by manumitting the slaves, and made a levy of Achæans and Arcadians in the prime of life from the various towns. And so his army altogether, including the slaves, amounted to 600 cavalry, and 14,000 infantry. Then he displayed the greatest want of strategy, for, though he knew that Critolaus and all the Achæan host had crumbled away before Metellus, yet he selected only 4,000 men, and put Alcamenes at their head. They were despatched to Megara to garrison that town and, should Metellus and the Romans come up, to stop their further progress. And Metellus, after his rout of the Arcadian picked men at Chæronea, had pushed on with his army to Thebes; for the Thebans had joined the Achæans in besieging Heraclea, and had also taken part in the fight near Scarphea. Then the inhabitants, men and women of all ages, abandoned Thebes, and wandered about all over Bœotia, and fled to the tops of the mountains. But Metellus would not allow his men either to set on fire the temples of the gods or to pull down any buildings, or to kill or take alive any of the fugitives except Pytheas, but him, if they should capture him, they were to bring before him. And Pytheas was forthwith found, and brought before Metellus, and executed. And when the Roman army marched on Megara, then Alcamenes and his men were seized with panic, and fled without striking a blow to Corinth, to the camp of the Achæans. And the Megarians delivered up their town to the Romans without a blow struck, and, when Metellus got to the Isthmus, he issued a Proclamation, inviting the Achæans even now to peace and harmony: for he had a strong desire that both Macedonia and Achaia should be settled by him. But this intention of his was frustrated by the folly of Diæus.

CHAPTER XVI.

Meantime Mummius, and with him Orestes, who was first sent from Rome to settle the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, reached the Roman army one morning, took over the command, and sent Metellus and his forces back to Macedonia, and himself waited at the Isthmus till he had concentrated all his forces. His cavalry amounted to 3,500, his infantry to 22,000. There were also some Cretan bowmen, and Philopœmen had brought some soldiers from Attalus, from Pergamus across the Caicus. Mummius placed some of the Italian troops and allies, so as to be an advanced post for all his army, 12 stades in the van. And the Achæans, as this vanguard was left without defence through the confidence of the Romans, attacked them, and slew some, but drove still more back to the camp, and captured about 500 shields. By this success the Achæans were so elated that they attacked the Roman army without waiting for them to begin the battle. But when Mummius led out his army to battle in turn, then the Achæan cavalry, which was opposite the Roman cavalry, ran immediately, not venturing to make one stand against the attack of the enemy’s cavalry. And the infantry, though dejected at the rout of the cavalry, stood their ground against the wedge-like attack of the Roman infantry, and though outnumbered and fainting under their wounds, yet resisted bravely, till 1,000 picked men of the Romans took them in flank, and so turned the battle into a complete rout of the Achæans. And had Diæus been bold enough to hurry into Corinth after the battle, and receive within its walls the runaways from the fight and shut himself up there, the Achæans might have obtained better terms from Mummius, if the war had been lengthened out by a siege. But as it was, directly the Achæans gave way before the Romans, Diæus fled for Megalopolis, exhibiting to the Achæans none of that spirit which Callistratus, the son of Empedus, had displayed to the Athenians. For he being in command of the cavalry in Sicily, when the Athenians and their allies were badly defeated at the river Asinarus, boldly cut his way through the enemy at the head of the cavalry, and, after getting safe through with most of them to Catana, turned back again on the road to Syracuse, and finding the enemy still plundering the camp of the Athenians killed five with his own hand and then expired, himself and his horse having received fatal wounds. He won fair fame both for the Athenians and himself, and voluntarily met death, having preserved the cavalry whom he led. But Diæus after ruining the Achæans announced to the people of Megalopolis their impending ruin, and after slaying his wife with his own hand that she might not become a captive took poison and so died, resembling Menalcidas as in his greed for money so also in the cowardice of his death.

And those of the Achæans who got safe to Corinth after the battle fled during the night, as also did most of the Corinthians. But Mummius did not enter Corinth at first, though the gates were open, as he thought some ambush lay in wait for him within the walls, not till the third day did he take Corinth in full force and set it on fire. And most of those that were left in the city were slain by the Romans, and the women and children were sold by Mummius, as also were the slaves who had been manumitted and had fought on the side of the Achæans, and had not been killed in action. And the most wonderful of the votive offerings and other ornaments he carried off to Rome, and those of less value he gave to Philopœmen, the general of Attalus’ troops, and these spoils from Corinth were in my time at Pergamus. And Mummius rased the walls of all the cities which had fought against the Romans, and took away their arms, before any advisers what to do were sent from Rome. And when they arrived, then he put down all democracies, and appointed chief-magistrates according to property qualifications.[8] And taxes were laid upon Greece, and those that had money were forbidden to have land over the borders, and all the general meetings were put down altogether, as those in Achaia, or Phocis, or Bœotia, or any other part of Greece. But not many years afterwards the Romans took mercy upon Greece, and allowed them their old national meetings and to have land over the borders. They remitted also the fines which Mummius had imposed, for he had ordered the Bœotians to pay the people of Heraclea and Eubœa 100 talents, and the Achæans to pay the Lacedæmonians 200 talents. The Greeks got remission of these fines from the Romans, and a prætor was sent out from Rome, and is still, who is not called by the Romans prætor of all Greece but prætor of Achaia, because they reduced Greece through Achaia, which was then the foremost Greek power. Thus ended the war when Antitheus was Archon at Athens, in the 160th Olympiad, when Diodorus of Sicyon was victor in the course.

[8] That is, wherever Mummius found a democratical form of government, there he established an oligarchy. Cf. Plat. Rep. 550. C. Id. Legg. 698. B.

CHAPTER XVII.

At this time Greece was reduced to extreme weakness, being partially ruined, and altogether reduced to great straits, by the deity. For Argos, which had been a town of the greatest importance in the days of the so-called heroes, lost its good fortune with the overthrow of the Dorians. And the Athenians, who had survived the Peloponnesian War and the plague, and had even lift up their heads again, were not many years later destined to be subdued by the Macedonian power at its height. From Macedonia also came down on Thebes in Bœotia the wrath of Alexander. And the Lacedæmonians were first reduced by Epaminondas the Theban, and afterwards by the war with the Achæans. And when Achaia with great difficulty, like a tree that had received some early injury, grew to great eminence in Greece, then the folly of its rulers stopped its growth. And some time after the Empire of Rome came to Nero, and he made Greece entirely free, and gave to the Roman people instead of Greece the most fertile island of Sardinia. When I consider this action of Nero I cannot but think the words of Plato the son of Aristo most true, that crimes remarkable for their greatness and audacity are not committed by everyday kind of people, but emanate from a noble soul corrupted by a bad bringing up.[9] Not that this gift long benefited Greece. For in the reign of Vespasian, who succeeded Nero, it suffered from intestine discord, and Vespasian made the Greeks a second time subject to taxes and bade them obey the prætor, saying that Greece had unlearnt how to use liberty. Such are the particulars which I ascertained.

The boundaries between Achaia and Elis are the river Larisus (near which river there is a temple of Larissæan Athene), and Dyme, a town of the Achæans, about 30 stades from the Larisus. Dyme was the only town in Achaia that Philip the son of Demetrius reduced in war. And for this reason Sulpicius, the Roman Prætor, allowed his army to plunder Dyme. And Augustus afterwards assigned it to Patræ. In ancient days it was called Palea, but when the Ionians were in possession of it they changed its name to Dyme, I am not quite certain whether from some woman of the district called Dyme, or from Dymas the son of Ægimius. One is reduced to a little uncertainty about the name of the place also by the Elegiac couplet at Olympia on the statue of Œbotas, a native of Dyme, who in the 6th Olympiad was victor in the course, and in the 80th Olympiad was declared by the oracle at Delphi worthy of a statue at Olympia. The couplet runs as follows:

“Œbotas here the son of Œnias was victor in the course, and so immortalized his native place Palea in Achaia.”

But there is no need for any real confusion from the town being called in the inscription Palea and not Dyme, for the older names of places are apt to be introduced by the Greeks into poetry, as they call Amphiaraus and Adrastus the sons of Phoroneus, and Theseus the son of Erechtheus.

And a little before you come to the town of Dyme there is on the right of the way the tomb of Sostratus, who was a youth in the neighbourhood, and they say Hercules was very fond of him, and as he died while Hercules was still among men, Hercules erected his sepulchre and offered to him the first fruits of his hair. There is also still a device and pillar on the tomb and an effigy of Hercules on it. And I was told that the natives still offer sacrifices to Sostratus.

There is also at Dyme a temple of Athene and a very ancient statue, there is also a temple built to the Dindymene Mother and Attes. Who Attes was I could not ascertain it being a mystery. But according to the Elegiac lines of Hermesianax he was the son of Calaus the Phrygian, and was born incapable of procreation. And when he grew up he removed to Lydia, and celebrated there the rites of the Dindymene Mother, and was so honoured that Zeus in jealousy sent a boar among the crops of the Lydians. Thereupon several of the Lydians and Attes himself were slain by this boar: and in consequence of this the Galati who inhabit Pessinus will not touch pork. However this is not the universal tradition about Attes, but there is a local tradition that Zeus in his sleep dropt seed into the ground, and that in process of time there sprang up a Hermaphrodite whom they called Agdistis; and the gods bound this Agdistis and cut off his male privities. And an almond-tree sprang from them and bare fruit, and they say the daughter of the river-god Sangarius took of the fruit. And as she put some in her bosom the fruit immediately vanished, and she became pregnant, and bare a boy, Attes, who was exposed and brought up by a goat. And as the lad’s beauty was more than human, Agdistis grew violently in love with him. And when he was grown up his relations sent him to Pessinus to marry the king’s daughter. And the wedding song was being sung when Agdistis appeared, and Attes in his rage cut off his private parts, and his father in law cut off his. Then Agdistis repented of his action towards Attes: and some contrivance was found out by Zeus so that the body of Attes should not decay nor rot. Such is the most notable legend about Attes.

At Dyme is also the tomb of the runner Œbotas. He was the first Achæan who had won the victory at Olympia, and yet had received no especial reward from his own people. So he uttered a solemn imprecation that no Achæan might henceforth win the victory. And, as one of the gods made it his business to see that the imprecation of Œbotas should be valid, the Achæans learnt why they failed to secure victory at Olympia by consulting the oracle at Delphi. Then they not only conferred other honours upon Œbotas, but put up his statue at Olympia, after which Sostratus of Pellene won the race for boys in the course. And even now the custom prevails amongst the Achæans who intend to compete at Olympia to offer sacrifices to Œbotas, and, if they are victorious, to crown his statue at Olympia.

[9] See Plato Rep. vi. 491. E.

CHAPTER XVIII.

About 40 stades from Dyme the river Pirus discharges itself into the sea, near which river the Achæans formerly had a town called Olenus. Those who have written about Hercules and his doings have not dwelt least upon Dexamenus the king of Olenus, and the hospitality Hercules received at his court. And that Olenus was originally a small town is confirmed by the Elegy written by Hermesianax on the Centaur Eurytion. But in process of time they say the people of Olenus left it in consequence of its weakness, and betook themselves to Piræ and Euryteæ.

About 80 stades from the river Pirus is the town of Patræ, not far from which the river Glaucus discharges itself into the sea. The antiquarians at Patræ say that Eumelus, an Autochthon, was the first settler, and was king over a few subjects. And when Triptolemus came from Attica Eumelus received from him corn to sow, and under his instructions built a town called Aroe, which he so called from tilling the soil. And when Triptolemus had gone to sleep they say Antheas, the son of Eumelus, yoked the dragons to the chariot of Triptolemus, and tried himself to sow corn: but he died by falling out of the chariot. And Triptolemus and Eumelus built in common the town Anthea, which they called after him. And a third city called Mesatis was built between Anthea and Aroe. And the traditions of the people of Patræ about Dionysus, that he was reared at Mesatis, and was plotted against by the Titans there and was in great danger, and the explanation of the name Mesatis, all this I leave to the people of Patræ to explain, as I don’t contradict them. And when the Achæans drove the Ionians out later, Patreus the son of Preugenes and grandson of Agenor forbade the Achæans to settle at Anthea and Mesatis, but made the circuit of the walls near Aroe wider so as to include all that town, and called it Patræ after his own name. And Agenor the father of Preugenes was the son of Areus the son of Ampyx, and Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus, the son of Harpalus, the son of Amyclas the son of Lacedæmon. Such was the genealogy of Patreus. And in process of time the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that went into Ætolia from friendship to the Ætolians, to join them in their war against the Galati. But meeting most serious reverses in battle, and most of them suffering also from great poverty, they left Patræ all but a few. And those who remained got scattered about the country and followed the pursuit of agriculture, and inhabited the various towns outside Patræ, as Mesatis and Anthea and Boline and Argyra and Arba. And Augustus, either because he thought Patræ a convenient place on the coast or for some other reason, introduced into it people from various towns. He incorporated also with it the Achæans from Rhypæ, after first rasing Rhypæ to the ground. And to the people of Patræ alone of all the Achæans he granted their freedom, and gave them other privileges as well, such as the Romans are wont to grant their colonists.

And in the citadel of Patræ is the temple of Laphrian Artemis: the goddess has a foreign title, and the statue also is foreign. For when Calydon and the rest of Ætolia was dispeopled by the Emperor Augustus, that he might people with Ætolians his city of Nicopolis near Actium, then the people of Patræ got this statue of Laphrian Artemis. And as he had taken many statues from Ætolia and Acarnania for his city Nicopolis, so he gave to the people of Patræ various spoils from Calydon, and this statue of Laphrian Artemis, which even now is honoured in the citadel of Patræ. And they say the goddess was called Laphrian from a Phocian called Laphrius, the son of Castalius and grandson of Delphus, who they say made the old statue of Artemis. Others say that the wrath of Artemis against Œneus fell lighter upon the people of Calydon when this title was given to the goddess. The figure in the statue is a huntress, and the statue is of ivory and gold, and the workmanship is by Menæchmus and Soidas. It is conjectured that they were not much later than the period of Canachus the Sicyonian or the Æginetan Callon. And every year the people of Patræ hold the festival called Laphria to Artemis, in which they observe their national mode of sacrifice. Round the altar they put wood yet green in a circle, and pile it up about 16 cubits high. And the driest wood lies within this circle on the altar. And they contrive at the time of the festival a smooth ascent to the altar, piling up earth so as to form a kind of steps. First they have a most splendid procession to Artemis, in which the virgin priestess rides last in a chariot drawn by stags, and on the following day they perform the sacrificial rites, which both publicly and privately are celebrated with much zeal. For they place alive on the altar birds good to eat and all other kinds of victims, as wild boars and stags and does, and moreover the young of wolves and bears, and some wild animals fully grown, and they place also upon the altar the fruit of any trees that they plant. And then they set fire to the wood. And I have seen a bear or some other animal at the first smell of the fire trying to force a way outside, some even actually doing so by sheer strength. But they thrust them back again into the blazing pile. Nor do they record any that were ever injured by the animals on these occasions.

CHAPTER XIX.

And between the temple of Laphria and the altar is the sepulchre of Eurypylus. Who he was and why he came into this country I shall relate, when I have first described the condition of things when he came into these parts. Those of the Ionians who dwelt at Aroe and Anthea and Mesatis had in common a grove and temple of Artemis Triclaria, and the Ionians kept her festival annually all night long. And the priestess of the goddess was a maiden, who was dismissed when she married. They have a tradition that once the priestess of the goddess was one Comætho, a most beautiful maiden, and that Melanippus was deeply in love with her, who in all other respects and in handsomeness of appearance outdid all of his own age. And as Melanippus won the maiden’s love as well, he asked her in marriage of her father. It is somehow common to old age to be in most respects the very antipodes to youth, and especially in sympathy with love, so that Melanippus, who loved and was beloved, got no encouragement either from his own parents or from the parents of Comætho. And it is evident from various other cases as well as this that love is wont to confound human laws, and even to upset the honour due to the gods, as in this case, for Melanippus and Comætho satisfied their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis, and afterwards made the temple habitually their bridal-chamber. And forthwith the wrath of Artemis came on the people of the country, their land yielded no fruit, and unusual sicknesses came upon the people, and the mortality was much greater than usual. And when they had recourse to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess laid the blame on Melanippus and Comætho, and the oracle ordered them to sacrifice to Artemis annually the most handsome maiden and lad. It was on account of this sacrifice that the river near the temple of Triclaria was called Amilichus (Relentless): it had long had no name. Now all these lads and maidens had done nothing against the goddess but had to die for Melanippus and Comætho, and they and their relations suffered most piteously. I do not put the whole responsibility for this upon Comætho and Melanippus, for to human beings alone is love felt worth life. These human sacrifices are said to have been stopped for the following reason. The oracle at Delphi had foretold that a foreign king would come to their country, and that he would bring with him a foreign god, and that he would stop this sacrifice to Artemis Triclaria. And after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks shared the spoil, Eurypylus the son of Euæmon got a chest, in which there was a statue of Dionysus, the work some say of Hephæstus, and a gift of Zeus to Dardanus. But there are two other traditions about this chest, one that Æneas left it behind him when he fled from Ilium, the other that it was thrown away by Cassandra as a misfortune to any Greek who found it. However this may be, Eurypylus opened the chest and saw the statue, and was driven out of his mind by the sight. And most of his time he remained mad, though he came to himself a little at times. And being in that condition he did not sail to Thessaly, but to Cirrha and the Cirrhæan Gulf; and he went to Delphi and consulted the oracle about his disorder. And they say the oracle told him, where he should find people offering a strange sacrifice, to dedicate his chest and there dwell. And the wind drove Eurypylus’ ships to the sea near Aroe, and when he went ashore he saw a lad and maiden being led to the altar of Artemis Triclaria. And he saw at once that the oracle referred to this sacrifice, the people of the place also remembered the oracle, seeing a king whom they had never before seen, and as to the chest they suspected that there was some god in it. And so Eurypylus got cured of his disorder, and this human sacrifice was stopped, and the river was now called Milichus (Mild). Some indeed have written that it was not the Thessalian Eurypylus to whom what I have just recorded happened, but they want people to think that Eurypylus (the son of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus), who accompanied Hercules to Ilium, received the chest from Hercules. The rest of their tradition is the same as mine. But I cannot believe that Hercules was ignorant of the contents of this chest, or that if he knew of them he would have given the chest as a present to a comrade. Nor do the people of Patras record any other Eurypylus than the son of Euæmon, and to him they offer sacrifices every year, when they keep the festival to Dionysus.

CHAPTER XX.

The name of the god inside the chest is Æsymnetes. Nine men, who are chosen by the people for their worth, look after his worship, and the same number of women. And one night during the festival the priest takes the chest outside the temple. That night has special rites. All the lads in the district go down to the Milichus with crowns on their heads made of ears of corn: for so used they in old time to dress up those whom they were leading to sacrifice to Artemis. But in our day they lay these crowns of ears of corn near the statue of the goddess, and after bathing in the river, and again putting on crowns this time of ivy, they go to the temple of Æsymnetes. Such are their rites on this night. And inside the grove of Laphrian Artemis is the temple of Athene called Pan-Achæis, the statue of the goddess is of ivory and gold.

And as you go to the lower part of the city you come to the temple of the Dindymene Mother, where Attes is honoured. They do not show his statue, but there is one of the Mother wrought in stone. And in the market-place there is a temple of Olympian Zeus, he is on his throne and Athene is standing by it. And next Olympian Zeus is a statue of Hera, and a temple of Apollo, and a naked Apollo in brass, and sandals are on his feet, and one foot is on the skull of an ox. Alcæus has shown that Apollo rejoices especially in oxen in the Hymn that he wrote about Hermes, how Hermes filched the oxen of Apollo, and Homer still earlier than Alcæus has described how Apollo tended the oxen of Laomedon for hire. He has put the following lines in the Iliad into Poseidon’s mouth.

“I was drawing a spacious and handsome wall round the city of the Trojans, that it might be impregnable, while you, Phœbus, were tending the slow-paced cows with the crumpled horns.”[10]

That is therefore one would infer the reason why the god is represented with his foot on the skull of an ox. And in the market-place in the open air is a statue of Athene, and in front of it is the tomb of Patreus.

And next to the market-place is the Odeum, and there is a statue of Apollo there well worth seeing, it was made from the spoil that the people of Patræ got, when they alone of the Achæans helped the Ætolians against the Galati. And this Odeum is beautified in other respects more than any in Greece except the one at Athens: that excels this both in size and in all its fittings, it was built by the Athenian Herodes in memory of his dead wife. In my account of Attica I passed that Odeum over, because that part of my work was written before Herodes began building it. And at Patræ, as you go from the market-place where the temple of Apollo is, there is a gate, and the device on the gate consists of golden effigies of Patreus and Preugenes and Atherion, all three companions and contemporaries. And right opposite the market-place at this outlet is the grove and temple of Artemis Limnatis. While the Dorians were already in possession of Lacedæmon and Argos, they say that Preugenes in obedience to a dream took the statue of Artemis Limnatis from Sparta, and that the trustiest of his slaves shared with him in the enterprize. And that statue from Lacedæmon they keep generally at Mesoa, because originally it was taken by Preugenes there, but when they celebrate the festival of Artemis Limnatis, one of the servants of the goddess takes the old statue from Mesoa to the sacred precincts at Patræ: in which are several temples, not built in the open air, but approached by porticoes. The statue of Æsculapius except the dress is entirely of stone, that of Athene is in ivory and gold. And in front of the temple of Athene is the tomb of Preugenes, to whom they offer funereal rites as to Patreus annually, at the time of the celebration of the feast to Artemis Limnatis. And not far from the theatre are temples of Nemesis and Aphrodite: their statues are large and of white marble.

[10] Iliad, xxi. 446-448.

CHAPTER XXI.

In this part of the city there is also a temple to Dionysus under the title of Calydonian: because the statue of the god was brought from Calydon. And when Calydon was still inhabited, among other Calydonians who were priests to the god was one Coresus, who of all men suffered most grievously from love. He was enamoured of the maiden Callirhoe, but in proportion to the greatness of his love was the dislike of the maiden to him. And as by all his wooing and promises and gifts the maiden’s mind was not in the least changed, he went as a suppliant to the statue of Dionysus. And the god heard the prayer of his priest, and the Calydonians forthwith became insane as with drink, and died beside themselves. They went therefore in their consternation to consult the oracle at Dodona: for those who dwell on this mainland, as the Ætolians and their neighbours the Acarnanians and Epirotes, believe in the oracular responses they get from doves and the oak there. And they were oracularly informed at Dodona that it was the wrath of Dionysus that had caused this trouble, which would not end till Coresus either sacrificed to Dionysus Callirhoe or somebody who should volunteer to die instead of her. And as the maiden found no means of escape, she fled to those who had brought her up, but obtaining no aid from them, she had nothing now left but to die. But when all the preliminary sacrificial rites that had been ordered at Dodona had taken place, and she was led to the altar as victim, then Coresus took his place as sacrificial priest, and yielding to love and not to anger slew himself instead of her. And when she saw Coresus lying dead the poor girl repented, and, moved by pity and shame at his fate, cut her own throat at the well in Calydon not far from the harbour, which has ever since been called Callirhoe after her.

And near the theatre is the sacred enclosure of some woman who was a native of Patræ. And there are here some statues of Dionysus of the same number and name as the ancient towns of the Achæans, for the god is called Mesateus and Antheus and Aroeus. These statues during the festival of Dionysus are carried to the temple of Æsymnetes, which is near the sea on the right as you go from the market-place. And as you go lower down from the temple of Æsymnetes there is a temple and stone statue to Recovery, originally they say erected by Eurypylus when he recovered from his madness. And near the harbour is a temple of Poseidon, and his statue erect in white stone. Poseidon, besides the names given to him by poets to deck out their poetry, has several local names privately given to him, but his universal titles are Pelagæus and Asphalius and Hippius. One might urge several reasons why he was called Hippius, but I conjecture he got the name because he was the inventor of riding. Homer at any rate in that part of his Iliad about the horse-races has introduced Menelaus invoking this god in an oath.

“Touch the horses, and swear by the Earth-Shaker Poseidon that you did not purposely with guile retard my chariot.”[11]

And Pamphus, the most ancient Hymn-writer among the Athenians, says that Poseidon was “the giver of horses and ships with sails.” So he got the name Hippius probably from riding and for no other reason.

Also at Patræ not very far from that of Poseidon are temples of Aphrodite. One of the statues a generation before my time was fished up by some fishermen in their net. There are also some statues very near the harbour, as Ares in bronze, and Apollo, and Aphrodite. She has a sacred enclosure near the harbour, and her statue is of wood except the fingers and toes and head which are of stone. At Patræ there is also a grove near the sea, which is a most convenient race-course, and a most salubrious place of resort in summer time. In this grove there are temples of Apollo and Aphrodite, their statues also in stone. There is also a temple of Demeter, she and Proserpine are standing, but Earth is seated. And in front of the temple of Demeter is a well, which has a stone wall on the side near the temple, but there is a descent to it outside. And there is here an unerring oracle, not indeed for every matter, but in the case of diseases. They fasten a mirror to a light cord and let it down into this well, poising it so as not to be covered by the water, but that the rim of the mirror only should touch the water. And then they look into the mirror after prayer to the goddess and burning of incense. And it shews them whether the sick person will die or recover. Such truth is there in this water. Similarly very near Cyaneæ in Lycia is the oracle of Apollo Thyrxis, and the water there shows anyone looking into the well whatever he wants to see. And near the grove at Patræ are two temples of Serapis, and in one of them the statue of the Egyptian Belus. The people of Patræ say that he fled to Aroe from grief at the death of his sons, and that he shuddered at the name of Argos, and was still more afraid of Danaus. There is also a temple of Æsculapius at Patræ above the citadel and near the gates which lead to Mesatis.

And the women at Patræ are twice as numerous as the men, and devoted to Aphrodite if any women are. And most of them get their living by the flax that grows in Elis, which they make into nets for the hair and other parts of dress.

[11] Iliad, xxiii. 584, 5.

CHAPTER XXII.

And Pharæ, a town in Achaia, is reckoned with Patræ since the days of Augustus, and the road to Pharæ from Patræ is about 150 stades, and from the sea to the mainland about 70 stades. And the river Pierus flows near Pharæ, the same river I think which flows by the ruins of Olenus, and is called Pirus by the men who live near the sea. Near the river is a grove of plane-trees, most of them hollow from old age, and of such a size that whoever chooses can eat and sleep inside them.[12] The circuit of the market-place is large at Pharæ according to ancient custom, and in the middle of the market-place is a stone statue of bearded Hermes; it is on the ground, no great size, and of square shape. And the inscription on it says that it was an offering of the Messenian Simylus. It is called Hermes of the Market-place, and near it is an oracle. And before the statue is a hearth made of stone, and some brazen lamps are fastened with lead to the hearth. He that wants to consult the oracle of the god comes at eventide and burns some frankincense on the hearth, and when he has filled the lamps with oil and lit them, he lays on the altar on the right of the statue the ordinary piece of money, a brass coin, and whispers his question whatever it is in the ear of the statue of the god. Then he departs from the market-place and stops up his ears. And when he has gone a little distance off he takes his hands from his ears, and whatever he next hears is he thinks the oracular response. The Egyptians have a similar kind of oracle in the temple of Apis. And at Pharæ the water is sacred, Hermes’ well is the name they give to it, and the fish in it they do not catch, because they think them sacred to the god. And very near the statue are 30 square stones, which the people of Pharæ venerate highly, calling each by the name of one of the gods. And in early times all the Greeks paid to unhewn stones, and not statues, the honours due unto the gods. And about 15 stades from Pharæ is a grove of Castor and Pollux. Bay trees chiefly grow in it, and there is neither temple in it nor any statues. The people of the place say the statues were removed to Rome. And in the grove at Pharæ is an altar of unhewn stones. But I could not learn whether Phares, the son of Phylodamia, the daughter of Danaus, or some one of the same name was the founder of the town.

And Tritea, also a town of Achaia, is built in the interior of the country, and reckoned with Patræ by Imperial order. The distance from Pharæ to Tritea is about 120 stades. And before you get to it there is a tomb in white stone, well worth seeing in other respects and not least for the paintings on it, which are by Nicias. There is a throne of ivory and a young and good-looking woman seated on it, and a maid is standing by with a sun-shade. And a young man without a beard is standing up clad in a tunic, with a scarlet cloak over the tunic. And near him is a servant with some javelins, driving some hunting dogs. I could not ascertain their names; but everybody infers that they are husband and wife buried together. The founder of Tritea was some say Celbidas, who came from Cumæ in the Opic land, others say that Ares had an intrigue with Tritea the daughter of Triton, who was a priestess of Athene, and Melanippus their son when he was grown up built the town, and called it after the name of his mother. At Tritea there is a temple to what are called the Greatest Gods, their statues are made of clay: a festival is held to them annually, like the festival the Greeks hold to Dionysus. There is also a temple of Athene, and a stone statue still to be seen: the old statue was taken to Rome according to the tradition of the people of Tritea. The people of the place are accustomed to sacrifice both to Ares and Tritea.

These towns are at some distance from the sea and well inland: but as you sail from Patræ to Ægium you come to the promontory of Rhium, about 50 stades from Patræ, and 15 stades further you come to the harbour of Panormus. And about as many stades from Panormus is what is called the wall of Athene, from which to the harbour of Erineus is 90 stades’ sail along the coast, and 60 to Ægium from Erineus, but by land it is about 40 stades less. And not far from Patræ is the river Milichus, and the temple of Triclaria (with no statue) on the right. And as you go on from Milichus there is another river called Charadrus, and in summer time the herds that drink of it mostly breed male cattle, for that reason the herdsmen keep all cattle but cows away from it. These they leave by the river, because both for sacrifices and work bulls are more convenient than cows, but in all other kinds of cattle the female is thought most valuable.

[12] See the wonderful account of Pliny. Nat. Hist. xii. 1.

CHAPTER XXIII.

And next to the river Charadrus are some ruins not very easy to trace of the town of Argyra, and the well Argyra on the right of the high road, and the river Selemnus that flows into the sea. The local account is that Selemnus was a handsome youth who fed his flocks here, and they say the sea-nymph Argyra was enamoured of him, and used to come up from the sea and sleep with him. But in a short time Selemnus lost all his good looks, and the Nymph no longer came to visit him, and Aphrodite turned the poor lad Selemnus, who was deprived of Argyra and dying for love, into a river. I tell the tale as the people of Patræ told it me. And when he became a river he was still enamoured of Argyra, (as the story goes about Alpheus that he still loved Arethusa,) but Aphrodite at last granted him forgetfulness of Argyra. I have also heard another tradition, viz. that the water of the Selemnus is a good love-cure both for men and women, for if they bathe in this water they forget their love. If there is any truth in this tradition, the water of Selemnus would be more valuable to mankind than much wealth.

And at a little distance from Argyra is the river called Bolinæus, and a town once stood there called Bolina. Apollo they say was enamoured of a maiden called Bolina, and she fled from him and threw herself into the sea, and became immortal through his favour. And there is a promontory here jutting out into the sea, about which there is a tradition that it was here that Cronos threw the sickle into the sea, with which he had mutilated his father Uranus, so they call the promontory Drepanum (sickle). And a little above the high road are the ruins of Rhypæ, which is about 30 stades from Ægium. And the district round Ægium is watered by the river Phœnix and another river Miganitas, both of which flow into the sea. And a portico near the town was built for the athlete Strato, (who conquered at Olympia on the same day in the pancratium and in the wrestling), to practise in. And at Ægium they have an ancient temple of Ilithyia, her statue is veiled from her head to her toes with a finely-woven veil, and is of wood except the face and fingers and toes, which are of Pentelican marble. One of the hands is stretched out straight, and in the other she holds a torch. One may symbolize Ilithyia’s torches thus, that the throes of travail are to women as it were a fire. Or the torches may be supposed to symbolize that Ilithyia brings children to the light. The statue is by the Messenian Damophon.

And at no great distance from the temple of Ilithyia is the sacred enclosure of Æsculapius, and statues in it of Hygiea and Æsculapius. The iambic line on the basement says that they were by the Messenian Damophon. In this temple of Æsculapius I had a controversy with a Sidonian, who said that the Phœnicians had more accurate knowledge generally about divine things than the Greeks, and their tradition was that Apollo was the father of Æsculapius, but that he had no mortal woman for his mother, and that Æsculapius was nothing but the air which is beneficial for the health of mankind and all beasts, and that Apollo was the Sun, and was most properly called the father of Æsculapius, because the Sun in its course regulates the Seasons and gives health to the air. All this I assented to, but was obliged to point out that this view was as much Greek as Phœnician, since at Titane in Sicyonia the statue of Æsculapius was called Health, and that it was plain even to a child that the course of the sun on the earth produces health among mankind.

At Ægium there is also a temple to Athene and another to Hera, and Athene has two statues in white stone, but the statue of Hera may be looked upon by none but women, and those only the priestesses. And near the theatre is a temple and statue of beardless Dionysus. There are also in the market-place sacred precincts of Zeus Soter, and two statues on the left as you enter both of brass, the one without a beard seemed to me the older of the two. And in a building right opposite the road are brazen statues of Poseidon, Hercules, Zeus, and Athene, and they call them the Argive gods, because the Argive tradition says they were made at Argos, but the people of Ægium say it was because the statues were deposited with them by the Argives. And they say further that they were ordered to sacrifice to these statues every day: and they found out a trick by which they could sacrifice as required, but without any expense by feasting on the victims: and eventually these statues were asked back by the Argives, and the people of Ægium asked for the money they had spent on the sacrifices first, so the Argives (as they could not pay this) left the statues with them.

CHAPTER XXIV.

At Ægium there is also near the market-place a temple in common to Apollo and Artemis, and in the market-place is a temple to Artemis alone dressed like a huntress, and the tomb of Talthybius the herald. Talthybius has also a monument erected to him at Sparta, and both cities perform funeral rites in his honour. And near the sea at Ægium Aphrodite has a temple, and next Poseidon, and next Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and fourthly Zeus Homagyrius (the Gatherer). There are statues too of Zeus and Aphrodite and Athene. And Zeus was surnamed Homagyrius, because Agamemnon gathered together at this place the most famous men in Greece, to deliberate together in common how to attack the realm of Priam. Agamemnon has much renown generally, but especially because with the army that accompanied him first, without any reinforcements, he sacked Ilium and all the surrounding cities. And next to Zeus Homagyrius is the temple of Pan-Achæan Demeter. And the sea-shore at Ægium, where these temples just described are, furnishes abundantly water good to drink from a well. There is also a temple to Safety, the statue of the goddess may be seen by none but the priests, but the rites are as follows. They take from the altar of the goddess cakes made after the fashion of the country and throw them into the sea, and say that they send them to Arethusa in Syracuse. The people at Ægium have also several brazen statues as Zeus as a boy, and Hercules without a beard, by Ageladas the Argive. Priests are chosen annually for these gods, and each of the statues remains in the house of the priest. And in older times the most beautiful boy was chosen as priest to Zeus, and when their beards grew then the priest’s office passed to some other beautiful boy. And Ægium is the place where the general meeting of the Achæans is still held, just as the Amphictyonic Council is held at Thermopylæ and Delphi.

As you go on you come to the river Selinus, and about 40 stades from Ægium is a place called Helice near the sea. It was once an important city, and the Ionians had there the most holy temple of Poseidon of Helice. The worship of Poseidon of Helice still remained with them, both when they were driven by the Achæans to Athens, and when they afterwards went from Athens to the maritime parts of Asia Minor. And the Milesians as you go to the well Biblis have an altar of Poseidon of Helice before their city, and similarly at Teos the same god has precincts and an altar. Even Homer has written of Helice, and of Poseidon of Helice.[13] And later on the Achæans here, who drove some suppliants from the temple and slew them, met with quick vengeance from Poseidon, for an earthquake coming over the place rapidly overthrew all the buildings, and made the very site of the city difficult for posterity to find. Previously in earthquakes, remarkable for their violence or extent, the god has generally given previous intimation by signs. For either continuous rain or drought are mostly wont to precede their approach: and in winter the air is hotter, and in summer the disk of the sun is misty and has a different colour to its usual colour, being either redder or slightly inclining to black. And the springs are generally deficient in water, and gusts of wind sweeping over the district uproot the trees, and in the sky are meteors with flames of fire, and the appearance of the stars is unusual and excites consternation in the beholders, and moreover vapours and exhalations rise up out of the ground. And many other indications does the god give in the case of violent earthquakes. And earthquakes are not all similar, but those who have paid attention to such things from the first or been instructed by others have been able to recognize the following phenomena. The mildest of them, if indeed the word mildness is applicable to any of them, is when simultaneously with the first motion of the earth and with the rocking of buildings to their foundation a counter motion restores them to their former position. And in such an earthquake you may see pillars nearly rooted up falling into their places again, and walls that gaped asunder joining again: and beams that slipped out of their fittings slipping back again: so too in the pipes of conduits, if any pipe bursts from the pressure of water, the broken parts weld together again better than any workmen could adjust them. Another kind of earthquake destroys everything within its range, and, on whatever it spends its force, forthwith batters it down, like the military engines employed in sieges. But the most deadly kind of earthquake may be recognized by the following concomitants. The breath of a man in a long-continued fever comes thicker and with much effort, and this is marked in other parts of the body, but especially by feeling the pulse. Similarly this kind of earthquake they say undermines the foundations of buildings, and makes them rock to and fro, like the effect produced by the burrowing of moles in the earth. And this is the only kind of earthquake that leaves no trace in the earth of previous habitation. This was the kind of earthquake that rased Helice to the ground. And they say another misfortune happened to the place in the winter at the same time. The sea encroached over much of the district and quite flooded Helice with water: and the grove of Poseidon was so submerged that the tops of the trees alone were visible. And so the god suddenly sending the earthquake, and the sea encroaching simultaneously, the inundation swept away Helice and its population. A similar catastrophe happened to the town of Sipylus which was swallowed up by a landslip. And when this landslip occurred in the rock water came forth, and became a lake called Saloe, and the ruins of Sipylus were visible in the lake, till the water pouring down hid them from view. Visible too are the ruins of Helice, but not quite as clearly as formerly, because they have been effaced by the action of the sea.

[13] Hom. Iliad, ii. 575; viii. 203; xx. 404.

CHAPTER XXV.

One may learn not only from this ruin of Helice but also from other cases that the vengeance of heaven for outrages upon suppliants is sure. Thus the god at Dodona plainly exhorted men to respect suppliants. For to the Athenians in the days of Aphidas came the following message from Zeus at Dodona.

“Think of the Areopagus and the smoking altars of the Eumenides, for you must treat as suppliants the Lacedæmonians conquered in battle. Slay them not with the sword, harm not suppliants. Suppliants are inviolable.”

This the Greeks remembered when the Peloponnesians came to Athens, in the reign of Codrus the son of Melanthus. All the rest of the Peloponnesian army retired from Attica, when they heard of the death of Codrus and the circumstances attending it. For they did not any longer expect victory, as Codrus had devoted himself in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. But some of the Lacedæmonians got stealthily into the city by night, and at daybreak perceived that their friends had retired, and, as the Athenians began to muster against them, fled for safety to the Areopagus and to the altars of the goddesses called the August.[14] And the Athenians allowed the suppliants to depart scot-free on this occasion, but some years later the authorities destroyed the suppliants of Athene, those of Cylo’s party who had occupied the Acropolis, and both the murderers and their children were considered accursed by the goddess. Upon the Lacedæmonians too who had killed some suppliants in the temple of Poseidon at Tænarum came an earthquake so long-continued and violent, that no house in Lacedæmon could stand against it. And the destruction of Helice happened when Asteus was Archon at Athens, in the 4th year of the 101st Olympiad, in which Damon of Thuria was victor. And as there were none left remaining at Helice the people of Ægium occupied their territory.

And next to Helice, as you turn from the sea to the right, you will come to the town of Cerynea, built on a hill above the high-road. It got its name either from some local ruler or from the river Cerynites, which rises in Arcadia in the Mountain Cerynea, and flows through the district of those Achæans, who came from Argolis and dwelt there through the following mischance. The fort of Mycenæ could not be captured by the Argives owing to its strength, (for it had been built by the Cyclopes as the wall at Tiryns also), but the people of Mycenæ were obliged to evacuate their city because their supplies failed, and some of them went to Cleonæ, but more than half took refuge with Alexander in Macedonia, who had sent Mardonius the son of Gobryas on a mission to the Athenians, and the rest went to Cerynea, and Cerynea became more powerful through this influx of population, and more notable in after times through this coming into the town of the people of Mycenæ. And at Cerynea is a temple of the Eumenides, built they say by Orestes. Whatever wretch, stained with blood or any other defilement, comes into this temple to look round, he is forthwith driven frantic by his fears. And for this reason people are not admitted into this temple indiscriminately. The statues of the goddesses in the temple are of wood and not very large: but the statues of some women in the vestibule are of stone and artistically carved: the natives say that they are some priestesses of the Eumenides.

And as you return from Cerynea to the high road, and proceed along it no great distance, the second turn to the right from the sea takes you by a winding road to Bura, which lies on a hill. The town got its name they say from Bura the daughter of Ion, the Son of Xuthus by Helice. And when Helice was totally destroyed by the god, Bura also was afflicted by a mighty earthquake, so that none of the old statues were left in the temples. And those that happened to be at that time away on military service or some other errand were the only people of Bura preserved. There are temples here to Demeter, and Aphrodite, and Dionysus, and Ilithyia. Their statues are of Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. Demeter is robed. There is also a temple to Isis.

And as you descend from Bura to the sea is the river called Buraicus, and a not very big Hercules in a cave, surnamed Buraicus, whose oracular responses are ascertained by dice on a board. He that consults the god prays before his statue, and after prayer takes dice, plenty of which are near Hercules, and throws four on the board. And on every dice is a certain figure inscribed, which has its interpretation in a corresponding figure on the board. It is about 30 stades from this temple of Hercules to Helice by the direct road. And as you go on your way from the temple of Hercules you come to a perennial river, that has its outlet into the sea, and rises in an Arcadian mountain, its name is Crathis as also the name of the mountain, and from this Crathis the river near Croton in Italy got its name. And near the Crathis in Achaia was formerly the town Ægæ, which they say was eventually deserted from its weakness. Homer has mentioned this Ægæ in a speech of Hera,

“They bring you gifts to Helice and Ægæ,”[15]

plainly therefore Poseidon had gifts equally at Helice and Ægæ. And at no great distance from Crathis is a tomb on the right of the road, and on it you will find a rather indistinct painting of a man standing by a horse. And the road from this tomb to what is called Gaius is 30 stades: Gaius is a temple of Earth called the Broad-breasted. The statue is very ancient. And the woman who becomes priestess remains henceforth in a state of chastity, and before she must only have been married once. And they are tested by drinking bull’s blood, whoever of them is not telling the truth is detected at once and punished. And if there are several competitors, the woman who obtains most lots is appointed priestess.

[14] A euphemism for the Eumenides.

[15] Iliad, viii. 203.

CHAPTER XXVI.

And the seaport at Ægira (both town and seaport have the same name) is 72 stades from the temple of Hercules Buraicus. Near the sea there is nothing notable at Ægira, from the port to the upper part of the town is 12 stades. In Homer[16] the town is called Hyperesia, the present name was given to it by the Ionian settlers for the following reason. A hostile band of Sicyonians was going to invade their land. And they, not thinking themselves a match for the Sicyonians, collected together all the goats in the country, and fastened torches to their horns, and directly night came on lit these torches. And the Sicyonians, who thought that the allies of the Hyperesians were coming up, and that this light was the campfires of the allied force, went home again: and the Hyperesians changed the name of their city because of these goats, and at the place where the goat that was most handsome and the leader of the rest had crouched down there they built a temple to Artemis the Huntress, thinking that this stratagem against the Sicyonians would not have occurred to them but for Artemis. Not that the name Ægira prevailed at once over Hyperesia. Even in my time there are still some who call Oreus in Eubœa by its old name of Hestiæa. At Ægira there is a handsome temple of Zeus, and his statue in a sitting posture in Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. The head and fingers and toes are of ivory, and the rest is wood gilt and richly variegated. There is also a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess which is of modern art. A maiden is priestess, till she grows to a marriageable age. And the old statue that stands there is, according to the tradition of the people at Ægira, Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon: and if they state what is correct, the temple must originally have been built to Iphigenia. There is also a very ancient temple of Apollo, ancient is the temple, ancient are the gables, ancient is the statue of the god, which is naked and of great size. Who made it none of the natives could tell: but whoever has seen the Hercules at Sicyon, would conjecture that the Apollo at Ægira was by the same hand as that, namely by Laphaes of Phlius. And there are some statues of Æsculapius in the temple in a standing position, and of Serapis and Isis apart in Pentelican marble. And they worship most of all Celestial Aphrodite: but men must not enter her temple. But into the temple of the Syrian goddess they may enter on stated days, but only after the accustomed rites and fasting. I have also seen another building in Ægira, in which there is a statue of Fortune with the horn of Amalthea, and next it a Cupid with wings: to symbolize to men that success in love is due to chance rather than beauty. I am much of the opinion of Pindar in his Ode that Fortune is one of the Fates, and more powerful than her sisters. And in this building at Ægira is a statue of a man rather old and evidently in grief, and 3 women are taking off their bracelets, and there are 3 young men standing by, and one has a breastplate on. The tradition about him is that he died after fighting most bravely of all the people of Ægira against the Achæans, and his brothers brought home the news of his death, and his sisters are stripping off their bracelets out of grief at his loss, and the people of the place call the old man his father Sympathetic, because he is clearly grieving in the statue.

And there is a direct road from Ægira starting from the temple of Zeus over the mountains. It is a hilly road, and about 40 stades bring you to Phelloe, not a very important place, nor inhabited at all when the Ionians still occupied the land. The neighbourhood of Phelloe is very good for vine-growing, and in the rocky parts are trees and wild animals, as wild deer and wild boars. And if any places in Greece are well situated in respect of abundance of water, Phelloe is one of them. And there are temples to Dionysus and Artemis, the goddess is in bronze in the act of taking a dart out of her quiver, and Dionysus’ statue is decorated with vermilion. As you go down towards the seaport from Ægira and forward a little there is, on the right of the road, a temple of Artemis the Huntress, where they say the goat crouched down.

And next to Ægira is Pellene: the people of Pellene are the last of the Achæans near Sicyon and Argolis. Their town was called according to their own tradition from Pallas who they say was one of the Titans, but according to the tradition of the Argives from the Argive Pellen, who was they say the son of Phorbas and grandson of Triopas. And between Ægira and Pellene there is a town subject to Sicyon called Donussa, which was destroyed by the Sicyonians, and which they say is mentioned by Homer in his Catalogue of Agamemnon’s forces in the line,

“And those who inhabited Hyperesia and steep Donoessa.”

Il. ii. 573.

But when Pisistratus collected the verses of Homer, that had been scattered about and had to be got together from various quarters, either he or some of his companions in the task changed the name inadvertently.[17] The people of Pellene call their seaport Aristonautæ. To it from Ægira on the sea is a distance of 120 stades, and it is half this distance to Pellene from the seaport. The name Aristonautæ was given they say to their seaport because the Argonauts put in at the harbour.

[16] Iliad, ii. 573.

[17] To Gonoessa, the reading to be found in modern texts of Homer.

CHAPTER XXVII.

And the town of Pellene is on a hill which is very steep in its topmost peak, (indeed precipitous and therefore uninhabited), and is built upon its more level parts not continuously, but is cut as it were into two parts by the peak which lies between. And as you approach Pellene you see a statue of Hermes on the road called Dolios (wily), he is very ready to accomplish the prayers of people: it is a square statue, the god is bearded and has a hat on his head. On the way to the town there is also a temple of Athene made of the stone of the country, her statue is of ivory and gold by they say Phidias, who earlier still made statues of Athene at Athens and Platæa. And the people of Pellene say that there is a shrine of Athene deep underground under the base of her statue, and that the air from it is damp and therefore good for the ivory. And above the temple of Athene is a grove with a wall built round it to Artemis called the Saviour, their greatest oath is by her. No one may enter this grove but the priests, who are chiefly chosen out of the best local families. And opposite this grove is the temple of Dionysus called the Lighter, for when they celebrate his festival they carry torches into his temple by night, and place bowls of wine all over the city. At Pellene there is also a temple of Apollo Theoxenius, the statue is of bronze, and they hold games to Apollo called Theoxenia, and give silver as a prize for victory, and the men of the district contend. And near the temple of Apollo is one of Artemis, she is dressed as an archer. And there is a conduit built in the market-place, their baths have to be of rain-water for there are not many wells with water to drink below the city, except at a place called Glyceæ. And there is an old gymnasium chiefly given up to the youths to practise in, nor can any be enrolled as citizens till they have arrived at man’s estate. Here is the statue of Promachus of Pellene, the son of Dryon, who won victories in the pancratium, one at Olympia, three at the Isthmus, and two at Nemea, and the people of Pellene erected two statues to him, one at Olympia, and one in the gymnasium, the latter in stone and not in brass. And it is said that in the war between Corinth and Pellene Promachus slew most of the enemy opposed to him. It is said also that he beat at Olympia Polydamas of Scotussa, who contended a second time at Olympia, after coming home safe from the King of the Persians. But the Thessalians do not admit that Polydamas was beaten, and they bring forward to maintain their view the line about Polydamas,

“O Scotoessa, nurse of the invincible Polydamas.”

However the people of Pellene hold Promachus in the highest honour. But Chæron, though he won two victories in wrestling, and 4 at Olympia, they do not even care to mention, I think because he destroyed the constitution of Pellene, receiving a very large bribe from Alexander the son of Philip to become the tyrant of his country. At Pellene there is also a temple of Ilithyia, built in the smaller half of the town. What is called Poseidon’s chapel was originally a parish room, but is not used in our day, but it still continues to be held sacred to Poseidon, and is under the gymnasium.

And about 60 stades from Pellene is Mysæum, the temple of Mysian Demeter. It was built they say by Mysius an Argive, who also received Demeter into his house according to the tradition of the Argives. There is a grove at Mysæum of all kinds of trees, and plenty of water springs up from some fountains. And they keep the feast here to Demeter 7 days, and on the third day of the feast the men withdraw from the temple, and the women perform there alone during the night their wonted rites, and not only are the men banished but even male dogs. And on the following day, when the men return to the temple, the women and men mutually jest and banter one another. And at no great distance from Mysæum is the temple of Æsculapius called Cyros, where men are healed by the god. Water too flows freely there, and by the largest of the fountains is a statue of Æsculapius. And some rivers have their rise in the hills above Pellene: one of them, called Crius from the Titan Crius, flows in the direction of Ægira.... There is another river Crius which rises at the mountain Sipylus and is a tributary of the Hermus. And on the borders between Pellene and Sicyonia is the river Sythas, the last river in Achaia, which has its outlet in the Sicyonian sea.