Chapter VI.
§ 1. Doric colonies of Argos, Epidaurus, and Trœzen. § 2. Doric league of Asia Minor. § 3. Mythical accounts of the colonization of Halicarnassus, Rhodes, Cos, Nisyrus, Carpathos, and Casos. § 4. Rhodian colonies. § 5 and 6. Legends respecting the foundation of Mallus, Mopsuestia, Mopsucrene, and Phaselis. § 7 and 8. Colonies of Corinth. § 9 and 10. Colonies of Megara. § 11 and 12. Colonies of Sparta.
1. On account of the multiplicity of subjects which it will be now necessary to consider, we shall be compelled to shorten the discussion of several points, and to take for granted many collateral questions, except where we may be encouraged to enter into greater detail by the hope of disclosing fresh fields for the inquiries of others.
It will be the most convenient method to make the mother-states the basis of our arrangement, as these are known with far greater certainty than the dates of the foundation of their respective colonies; by which means we shall also be enabled to take in a regular order those settlements which lie near to, and were connected with, one another.
First, the colonies of Argos, Epidaurus, and Trœzen. We will treat of these together, as they all lie in the same direction, and as the colonies of [pg 113] the two last states more or less recognised the supremacy of Argos, and not unfrequently followed a common leader. These extend as far as the southern extremity of Asia Minor.
The Dorians on the south-western coast of Asia Minor derived their origin, according to Herodotus,[388] from Peloponnesus. And indeed they were generally considered a colony of Argos[389] (from which state Strabo derives Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Cos), led by princes of the Heraclidæ, from whom the noble families of Rhodes—for example, the Eratidæ or Diagoridæ at Ialysus—claimed to be descended.[390] This emigration was considered contemporary, and as having some connexion with the expedition of Althæmenes, the son of Ceisus, from Argos to Crete.[391] Now we know from Herodotus[392] that the Coans, Calydnians, and Nisyrians came from Epidaurus; [pg 114] yet, as is evident from arguments already brought forward, two different expeditions cannot be understood to have taken place. Thus also Ægina was called a colony of Argos as well as of Epidaurus. The account of Herodotus is confirmed by the similarity of the worship of Æsculapius at Cos and at Epidaurus, which was sufficiently great to prove a colonial connexion.[393] We have also a tradition of some sacred missions between Cos and Epidaurus; a ship of the latter is said to have brought a serpent of Æsculapius to the former state.[394] If this is considered as an historical fact, we may, as it appears, deduce more from it than is commonly inferred—viz. that the Doric colonists of Cos, Calydna, &c. remained in Epidaurus a sufficient time before their passage into Asia Minor to adopt the worship of Æsculapius. And since we find that the worship of Æsculapius also prevailed in Cnidos and Rhodes,[395] it may be fairly inferred, that of the inhabitants of these islands a part at least passed through Epidaurus. This is further confirmed by the orator Aristides, who, on the authority of the national tradition, states of the Rhodians, “that from ancient times they had been Dorians, and had had Heraclidæ and Asclepiadæ for their princes.”[396] Thus also there were families of the Asclepiadæ and Heraclidæ at Cos, to the former of which Hippocrates was related on his father's side, to the latter on his mother's.[397] Contemporaneous [pg 115] with this migration from Argos and Epidaurus was that from Trœzen,[398] in which Halicarnassus, the citadel upon the sea (ἁλι-κάρηνον), was founded; which fact also receives confirmation from the similarity of religious worship.[399] And indeed there is reason for believing that it was only one Doric tribe, the Dymanes, which colonized this city,[400] who strengthened themselves by collecting together the earlier inhabitants, the Leleges and Carians.[401]
2. Those towns, however, only which composed the Doric Tripolis of Rhodes (a number which probably originated from the division of the tribes), together with Cnidos, Cos, and Halicarnassus, formed the regular Doric league (before the separation of Halicarnassus called the Hexapolis, afterwards the Pentapolis). The members of this alliance met on the Triopian promontory to celebrate in public national festivals the rites of Apollo and Demeter, which last were of extreme antiquity;[402] its influence in political affairs was however probably very inconsiderable.[403] But, besides those already mentioned, many towns and islands in this district were peopled by Dorians.[404] [pg 116] The small island of Telos, near Triopium, was probably dependent upon Lindos:[405] Nisyrus and Calydna (or Calymna) have been already mentioned; the inhabitants were Epidaurian Dorians, who belonged to the colony of Cos:[406] Carpathus also received some Argive colonists. It is said to have been taken by Ioclus, the son of Demoleon, an Argive by descent.[407] Syme also was colonised from Cnidos: of this town we shall make further mention when speaking of the Laconian settlements. The inhabitants of Astypalæa were partly derived from Megara;[408] their Doric origin is attested by the dialect of decrees now extant;[409] and by the same circumstance we are enabled to recognise as a Doric colony Anaphe,[410] which is situated near the Doric islands of Thera, Pholegandros,[411] and Melos; the position of these islands, together forming a chain across the southern part of the Ægæan sea, shows that they were colonized in a connected and regular succession. Myndus, however, upon the mainland had received inhabitants from the same town as Halicarnassus;[412] perhaps Mylasa had also had some connexion with the Dorians.[413] Cryassa in Caria was colonised by inhabitants [pg 117] of the Doric island of Melos.[414] Even Synnada and Noricum, further to the interior in Phrygia, had inhabitants of Doric origin;[415] yet the Spartan settlement in Noricum is a fact which it is difficult to understand; and with regard to the former we are wholly unable to state how the Dorians could have penetrated thus far.
I have now, though not without in some measure forestalling the regular course of these investigations, given an account of all the known cities in this territory which were founded by Dorians of Peloponnesus; and if to these we add the colonies from Rhodes upon the opposite coast of Asia, and the cities of Lycia founded from the island of Crete, in which the Doric dialect was doubtless spoken, we shall have before us a very extensive range of colonies belonging to that race. Some of these were probably dependent upon the more considerable; many on the contrary stood entirely alone, some very early disagreements having, as it appears, separated and estranged them from the league of the six towns.[416] Hence the Calymnians [pg 118] (or Calydnians) at a later period, on the occasion of embarrassing lawsuits, had recourse not to the larger states of the same race, but to the Iasians (who, though a colony from Argos, had afterwards learned the habits and character of the Ionic race by a settlement from Miletus),[417] which nation sent them five judges. This circumstance, however, may be accounted for by a temporary resemblance of their constitutions.[418]
3. Having thus put together the most simple historical accounts respecting the foundation of these Doric cities, we have still to examine the mythical narrations with which they are accompanied, and which were invented by representing the same colonies under different names, and attributing a false antiquity to their establishment. That this was in fact the case is evident from the mythical account which is connected with the colony of Trœzen, viz. “that Anthes and his son Aëtius, ancient princes of the Trœzenians, had in early times founded Halicarnassus.”[419] This tradition, however, contradicts itself, when compared with the additional account in Callimachus,[420] “that Anthes had taken out Dymanes with him;” which was exclusively a civil division of the Dorians. It is therefore far preferable to follow the statement of Pausanias,[421] that the descendants of Aëtius passed over to Halicarnassus and Myndus long after his death. It [pg 119] must not, however, from this circumstance be inferred that these descendants of Aëtius were leaders of the colony, since it was necessary that these should be Doric Heraclidæ. But they were in all probability a family which cultivated the worship of Poseidon in preference to any other, and carried it over with them to the colony. But that a family of this kind, and with it the tradition and name of Anthes, actually prevailed in Halicarnassus, is seen also from the poetical name of the Halicarnassians (Antheadæ.)[422]
There is also a great similarity in the part which Tlepolemus bears in the history of the colonisation of Rhodes. In this case also the mythical hero is represented as coming from Argos,[423] as well as the historical colony, only at an earlier period. But, it may be objected, the colony is related to have come immediately from Epidaurus, and not the hero. We have, however, still an evident trace of mythical genealogies of Rhodes, in which Tlepolemus was represented as immediately connected with the Heraclidæ of Epidaurus. For Pindar celebrates the Diagoridæ as descended on the father's side from Zeus, from Amyntor on the mother's, because both these were the grandfathers of Tlepolemus.[424] Now Deiphontes of Epidaurus was also descended on his mother's side from Amyntor, and was [pg 120] therefore very nearly related to Tlepolemus. We may also probably suppose that there was in this Argive and Epidaurian colony a family which derived itself from Tlepolemus the son of Hercules, by which means the traditions concerning him were connected with this migration.[425] The same want of consistency which we observed above, may here also be perceived in the statement of Homer, that the colony of Tlepolemus was divided into three parts, according to the different races of the settlers;[426] whence it is evident that he was always considered as a Doric prince.
Thirdly, the colony of Cos, Nisyrus, Carpathus, and Casos also possessed leaders or heroic founders, whose expedition is reported to have taken place at a time different from that at which the colony was founded, and is placed back in a remote period, viz. Phidippus and Antiphus, sons of Thessalus the Heraclide, [pg 121] or of Hercules himself. Their origin is derived by the fable from the irruption of Hercules into Cos, where he made pregnant the daughter of Euryphylus; afterwards they are said to have migrated to Ephyra in Thesprotia, and their descendants to have gone from thence to Thessaly, where the Aleuadæ, the most distinguished and the wealthiest family of Larissa, claimed them as ancestors.[427] Again, I do not deny that Heraclide families in exile at Cos derived their origin from both these heroes (it was indeed by this means that the name of Thessalus found its way into the Asclepiad family of Hippocrates); but that these families were born in the island of Cos itself, is evidently a patriotic invention of the Coans. There were, as we have seen, traditions respecting Phidippus and Antiphus in Cos, and also at Ephyra in Thesprotia; which traditions the fables and poems respecting the returns of the heroes from Troy, endeavoured to reconcile, by making Antiphus reach Ephyra, after a series of wanderings, instead of going directly to Cos; a supposition which will not gain many believers. It is also plain from the epigram of Aristotle,[428] that, according to the traditions of Ephyra, that city was considered as the native country, and the domicile of the two heroes; and therefore was in direct opposition to the Coan tradition. Now that a Heraclide family should have gone from Cos to Ephyra in Epirus, is contrary to all other examples of the migrations of Greek races and colonies, and all that we know of the dispersion of Heraclide clans or families. On the other hand, a part of the mythology of Hercules, which appears to be of great antiquity,[429] refers to this Ephyra in Epirus; and [pg 122] it was then quite natural, that with the conquest of Ephyra (a fabulous exploit of Hercules) the origin of a branch of the Heraclidæ should be connected, who then came with the Dorians into Peloponnesus, and by means of the Epidaurian colony to the island of Cos.
4. The favourable situations of these Doric cities on islands and promontories, possessing roadsteads and harbours convenient for maritime intercourse, attracted in early times a considerable number of colonies. It is remarkable that the Rhodians should have founded fewer and less considerable colonies on the coast of Asia Minor than in the countries to the west: for, with the exception of Peræa, which was not till later times dependent on this island, the only Rhodian towns in Asia Minor were Gagæ[430] and Corydalla[431] in Lycia, Phaselis,[432] on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia, and Soli in Cilicia.[433] On the other hand, in Olymp. 16. 4. 713 B.C., according to Thucydides, about the time of their colonising Phaselis, they founded in Sicily the splendid city of Gela, the mother-town of Agrigentum. This colony was sent from Lindus, which furnished its leader Antiphemus (or Deinomenes.)[434] It was accompanied by inhabitants of the [pg 123] small island of Telos;[435] and was at the same time joined by some Cretan emigrants. That however the numbers of those who came from the first-mentioned town predominated, is shown by the original name of the settlement, Λίνδιοι, and by the religion there established. Doric institutions were common to all the founders above mentioned, and were consequently established in their settlements.[436] The connexion and intercourse with those islands continued without interruption; hence it was that, in later times, the family of Phalaris, coming from Astypalæa, found a welcome reception at Agrigentum;[437] and the family of the Emmenidæ, which overthrew Phalaris, had come from the same region, viz. from Thera.[438] Moreover, Parthenope, in the country of the Osci, and Elpiæ, or Salapiæ, in the territory of the Daunians (in the founding of which the inhabitants of Cos had a share), were beyond a doubt settlements of the Rhodians; and indeed this same people penetrated even to Iberia at an early period, and there founded Rhode; and we have also traces of their presence at the mouth of the Rhone.[439] Hence also, perhaps, arose the account of the expedition of Tlepolemus to the Balearic islands; which account, and the statement that Sybaris was [pg 124] founded by him, may be understood merely as mythical expressions for the voyages undertaken by the Rhodians in the western sea.
5. It is, however, a matter even of still greater difficulty to determine the true history of several cities in Asia Minor, which are reported by tradition to have been colonies of Argos, and generally of the greatest antiquity. But it requires nothing short of absolute superstition to believe that Tarsus was founded by Io, or Perseus the Argive,[440] who, with his descendant Hercules, was worshipped in this place as a tutelar deity;[441] or that Mallus, Mopsuestia, Mopsucrene, and Phaselis were founded by Argive soothsayers at the time of the Trojan war.[442] To these may be added Aspendus in Pamphylia, Curium in Cyprus, and even Ione, near Antiochia, in Syria,[443] the founding of which place is attributed to the Argives. For, without considering the period at which the ancient Peloponnesians are represented to have undertaken such distant (and at that time impossible) voyages round the Chelidonian islands, it is most singular that Argos, which is at no time mentioned among the maritime nations of Greece, should have planted upon that one line of coast a series of colonies in so connected an order, and so completely useless to herself. We will therefore venture to advance an hypothesis, to which, though perhaps no complete proofs of it can be adduced, we have still sufficient traces to lead us, viz. [pg 125] that all these towns were colonised from Rhodes; but that, by a form frequently in use, they were led out in the name of Argos, the mother-country of Rhodes, and under the auspices of Argive gods and heroes.[444] In the first place, Argives and Rhodians are mentioned together as founders; as in the instance of Soli, which nevertheless only defended the Rhodians as a sister state before the Roman senate.[445] Of the manner in which heroes were adopted as founders, the city just mentioned furnishes a good instance. For the Argive soothsayer Amphilochus is said to have come hither, who, according to poems that went under the name of Hesiod, had been put to death by Apollo at Soli.[446] The following example gives a still clearer notion of the manner in which these fables were formed. The Rhodians built Phaselis at the same time with Gela (Olymp. 16. 713 B.C.); the founder is called Lacius, whom the Delphian oracle had sent to the east, as it had Antiphemus to the west.[447] Now it is shown in another part of this work[448] that Lacius is a Cretan form for Rhacius; and this was the name of the husband of Manto, and father of Mopsus, the ancient mythical prophet of the temple at Claros. For, leaving no doubt that this person is intended, the tradition also says, that this Mopsus, the son of Rhacius, founded Phaselis:[449] Pamphylia itself is called the [pg 126] daughter of Rhacius and of Manto;[450] and lastly, the same Lacius is represented as a contemporary of Mopsus, and as having been sent out by Manto as a founder at the same time with the latter.[451] The inference that we must draw is, that there was no such individual as Lacius who led the Lindians in person to Phaselis, but that he was merely a mythical being, and represents the Clarian oracle, which seems to have co-operated on this occasion.[452] Those who are versed in the interpretation of mythical narratives will also hence infer, that the same was the case with his contrary, Ἀντιόφημος. In order, however, to give the mother-state, Argos, a share in the mythical account of the foundation of the Pamphylian colonies, it was necessary that Amphilochus, who belonged to the family of the Amythaonidæ, should, together with Calchas, have some connexion with them all; and, in fact, it is not impossible that soothsayers from Argos, who called themselves descendants of this prophet and hero, were procured by the Rhodians for this service.
6. We may now penetrate somewhat deeper into the obscure traditions of the Cilician cities Mallus, Mopsuestia, and Mopsucrene. In the fables concerning the founding of these towns, Amphilochus and Mopsus are always mentioned together; at the same time that the account of their Argive origin is very [pg 127] much brought into notice. Cicero calls both these prophets on this occasion kings of Argos.[453] Here then we may also assume that soothsayers were brought from the mother-country, and suppose that the prophets of the Amphilochian oracle of Mallus were actually natives of Argos; and although, as will be shown below, the influence of the Clarian worship was also felt,[454] yet the persons who were the real colonisers could only have been a sea-faring people, such as the Rhodians. In consequence, however, of these settlements having been founded at a very early period, when all colonies were as yet entirely dependent upon the oracles, and therefore were always under the direction of prophets, and as an inventive and imaginative spirit was then in full vigour, their true history has been enveloped in a thick cloud of mythological fiction, which we have at least begun to remove.
7. We next proceed to the Corinthian colonies, the geographical situation of which alone affords a remarkable result with regard to the maritime expeditions undertaken by the mother-country. For although Corinth had two harbours, Lechæum in the Crisæan, and Cenchreæ in the Saronic gulf, it it evident that all its colonies were sent out from the western port. They were founded, almost without exception, on the coasts of the Ionian sea; at the entrance of which the Corinthians had, perhaps at a very early period, founded the city of Molycreium.[455] Notwithstanding this, the very first colony from Corinth, the date of which is known within a few years (Olymp. 5. 760-757 B.C.),[456] ventured to cross the [pg 128] Ionian sea, and to found in the most beautiful part of Sicily the renowned city of Syracuse. The founder was Archias a Heraclide, and probably also of the family of the Bacchiadæ;[457] he was followed by Corinthians, chiefly from the borough of Tenea;[458] and on the road was joined by some Dorians from Megara;[459] the expedition was also accompanied by a prophet of the sacred family of Olympia, the Iamidæ, whose descendants flourished at Syracuse in the time of Pindar.[460] It appears, however, that Syracuse at that time borrowed many religious institutions from Olympia, as is proved by the worship of Arethusa, of Artemis Ortygia, and of the Olympian Zeus.[461] These original founders built a town in the island of Ortygia, the name of which can be explained only from the worship of the goddess just mentioned. The lands taken from the aboriginal Sicilians they divided into lots, according to the number of the colonists. For the method universally observed in founding these colonies was, that the adventurers received before-hand a promise of a share in the territory—which also was called a lot. On the occasion of this very settlement, Æthiops, a Corinthian glutton, is said to have [pg 129] sold a promise of this kind to a companion for one honey-cake.[462] Eumelus the Bacchiad, the celebrated poet of Corinth, seems to have been one of these colonists,[463] as he is mentioned in connexion with Archias. Although the demus, or populace of the city, chiefly perhaps consisted of inhabitants of various nations, who put themselves under the protection of this colony, and although the territory around was peopled by Sicilian bondsmen, yet in its dialect, and probably for a considerable period in its customs also, Syracuse remained a purely Doric state: as the women in Theocritus say,[464] “Our origin is Corinthian, and therefore we speak the language of Peloponnesus. For it is permitted, I suppose, to the Dorians to speak Doric.” Hence the Syracusans were so greatly pleased with an ambassador from Lucania, who had learnt to speak Doric in order to address them in their native tongue.[465] Syracuse increased so rapidly in population and power, that seventy years after its foundation it colonized Acræ, and also Enna, situated in the centre of the island; twenty years after this, the town of Casmenæ; and in forty-five more, Camarina. Also some Syracusan[466] fugitives named Myletidæ, together with Chalcideans from Zancle, are said to have founded Himera: [pg 130] hence the dialect there in use was a mixture of Chalcidean and Doric; but the institutions were entirely Chalcidean.
8. The other Corinthian colonies, as has been already remarked, were all situated to the east of the Ionian sea. The nearest of these are, besides their colony of Molycreium, Chalcis in Ætolia,[467] and Solium in Acarnania;[468] further on, we find that Ambracia was in very early times founded by Corinth,[469] and accordingly was governed by a brother of Periander;[470] by the influence of this settlement Amphilochian Argos changed its language and customs for those of the Greeks.[471] Anactorium was founded by the Corinthians, under the command of Periander, in conjunction with the Corcyræans. At the same time, and in connexion with the same persons, they occupied the island of Leucadia;[472] to the possession of which, however, the Corcyræans, as they were at that [pg 131] time subject to Corinth, had no just claim; and Themistocles unquestionably did wrong in attributing any such right to them;[473] the Leucadians also always remained firm to their real parent-state. Next comes Corcyra itself, the founding of which by Chersicrates the Bacchiad[474] is represented as having been a secondary branch of the colony sent to Syracuse;[475] but it had at a very early period set itself up as a rival to the mother-state in the Ionian sea, whose ancient power had been probably broken before the Persian war. On the opposite coast lay Epidamnus, which city was chiefly founded by Corcyræans, but under the command of Phalius, the son of Eratocleides, a Corinthian Heraclide, whom the Corcyræans, according to the ancient colonial law, had sent for, together with some of his countrymen (in Olymp. 38. 2. 629 B.C. according to Eusebius), and were afterwards strengthened by emigrants from Dyspontium in Pisatis.—Lastly, Gylax, a Corinthian, together with 200 of his own countrymen, and a greater number of Corcyræans, founded Apollonia in the time of Periander. Here ends the list of Corinthian colonies, which formed a strong and continuous chain along the coast; and thus even the barbarians of the interior, especially the [pg 132] Epirots of Thesprotia, were forced to maintain a perpetual connexion with Corinth:[476] hence also the kings of the Lyncestæ in Macedonia esteemed it an honour to derive their origin from the Bacchiadæ.[477] At a still further distance lay the island of Issa, which was colonized from Syracuse.[478] Corcyra, however, possessed settlements as far as the Flanatian gulf.[479] From these facts it is evident that there was a time when Corinth predominated in these seas; and by means of Corcyra and Ambracia, and other towns, ruled over many nations of barbarians. But the loss of Corcyra, which had been at war with its mother-state in the 28th Olympiad (about 668 B.C.),[480] even before the time of Periander (though it was for a short time again reduced to subjection by the enterprising Cypselidæ), was an incurable wound for Corinth. The other colonies, however, showed a remarkable obedience to her.[481] It was not till after the loss of their maritime dominion in these quarters (an event which had nevertheless taken place before the Persian war) that the Corinthians appear to have founded Potidæa on the opposite side of Greece in Chalcidice, which colony they sought to retain in their power by continually interfering in its internal administration, and for this purpose sent thither every year magistrates named Epidemiurgi.[482]
9. Megara, on the other hand, was induced by its situation to send even its first colonies to the opposite [pg 133] side of Greece on the Thracian coast. Thus in Olymp. 17. 3. 710 B.C. it founded Astæus in Bithynia;[483] afterwards Chalcedon, on the entrance of the Bosporus[484] in Olymp. 26. 2. 675 B.C. (according to Eusebius); and 17 years later (Olymp. 30. 3. 658 B.C.) Byzantium in a more favoured spot, opposite to Chalcedon.[485] The Argives also had a share in the foundation of this town; for which fact we may trust the general assertion of Hesychius of Miletus, that his circumstantial and fabulous history of the early times of this city was derived from ancient poets and historians. For the transmission of the worship of Here (whose temple both at Byzantium and Argos was on the citadel),[486] and the traditions concerning Io, the attendant of the Argive Here, confirm in a manner which does not admit of a doubt, the pretensions of Argos to a share in this colony. Io, who was represented with horns on her forehead, is said to have here produced to Zeus a daughter, Ceroëssa the “Horned” by name (which is, however, only a different name for Io herself), who being suckled by the nymph Semestra, afterwards brought forth Byzas.[487] Thence the fable of the cow swimming over the sea became peculiar to this place.[488] In other respects the combinations [pg 134] of religious ceremonies as found at Byzantium, almost exactly resembled that which existed in Megara. Nay, so carefully did the Byzantians, though far removed from their mother-state, preserve the remembrance of it, that they carried over almost all the names of their native country and the neighbouring region. We find on the coast a temple of Poseidon, whose son was named Byzas; also of Demeter and Cora; the Scironian rocks, an Isthmian promontory, with the tomb of Hipposthenes a Megarean hero, the temple of Apollo on the high promontory of Metopum; also an altar of Saron, a pretended hero, whose name referred to the Saronic gulf.[489] Thus Byzantium was never estranged from its Peloponnesian ancestors, although it adopted a large number of additional colonists,[490] and ruled over Thracian subjects. Moreover, the prevailing dialect, which occurs in some public decrees still extant, remained for a long time Doric.[491] The Byzantians, together with the Chalcedonians, either at the time of the expedition of Darius against the Scythians, or of the Ionic revolt, founded Mesambria on the Pontus,[492] which some consider as a colony of Megara. The Megareans had also founded Selymbria even before the settlement of Byzantium,[493] and probably carried on from this place a war with [pg 135] the Samians at Perinthus,[494] when that island was still governed by Geomori, before the time of Polycrates. Moreover, the Megareans had a large share in the founding of Heraclea on the Pontus; for although they were strengthened by some Tanagræans from Bœotia, their numbers so predominated that this city was in general considered as Doric.[495]
10. Megara, however, at the same time founded some very considerable colonies to the west, viz., in Sicily. It will be sufficient to state in general terms that Hybla in Sicily was a Megarean colony, established in the 13th Olympiad (about 728 B.C.), and was even called Megara.[496] It probably kept up a constant intercourse with the mother-state; since [pg 136] Theognis, who was a Megarean from Sicily, according to Plato, dwelt nevertheless for a long time in the Megara near Athens, to which state many of his poems refer.[497] The founding of the small town of Trogilus, and of the more important city of Thapsos, preceded the building of Megara. A century later, some inhabitants of Megara founded Selinus in the neighbourhood of that part of the island, which town was in early times held by the Phœnicians, in later times by the Carthaginians.
11. The colonies of Sparta, which still remain to be considered, were more numerous than would be expected of a state so averse to maritime affairs. In the history of the migrations of the Heraclidæ, we find introduced the colonies of Thera, Melos, Gortyna, and Cyrene; which, although for the sake of honour they recognised Sparta as their mother-state, had been in fact founded by Achæans, Minyans, and Ægidæ, who dwelt at that time in a state of almost entire independence in a district of Laconia.[498] All these states, however, retained the Doric name; and Cyrene, though even the founders married Libyan women,[499] [pg 137] always preserved to the utmost of its power the institutions, customs, and language of its mother-country.[500] The founding of Cnidos also took place at an early period, and was generally ascribed to the Lacedæmonians.[501] The leader of the colony was, according to Diodorus, one Hippotes.[502] Syme also was at that time peopled from Cnidos.[503] The principal religion of this city, that of Aphrodite[504] (who was here worshipped in a three-fold capacity), was without doubt the same as that which existed at Cythera, having been carried over by the Lacedæmonian colonists. The splendid city of Cnidos, protected toward the east by an Acropolis, which both its Cyclopian architecture[505] and fabulous history prove to have existed before the time of the Dorians, was situated on a neck of land, with a harbour on each side, one of which was among the largest in Greece. Thus fitted by nature for commerce, Cnidos also founded colonies of its own, among which Lipara, established (in Olymp. 50, about 580 B.C.) upon one of the Æolian islands under the direction of descendants of Hippotes,[506] overcame the Etruscans in several wars, and adorned Delphi with offerings [pg 138] of victory.[507] Another colony from Cnidos, remarkable chiefly for its distance from the mother-country, is Black-Corcyra, on the coast of Illyria. Lacedæmon herself, however, is said to have sent out colonies to Phrygia, Pisidia, and Cyprus. In the former country, Pisistratus, a Spartan, is said to have founded Noricum near Celænæ on the river Marsyas.[508] Selge in Pisidia is generally considered by the ancients to have been a Lacedæmonian colony, and we frequently find on coins of a late date this origin recognised. The representative of the state is Hercules the Doric hero: moreover, the free spirit, the bravery, and the good laws of the Selgæans (although the reverse is sometimes attributed to them) were derived from their mother-state.[509] The wrestling youths in the act of grasping one another (ἀκροχειριζόμενοι) represented on their coins, bespeak a love for gymnastic exercises. It should, however, be remembered, that the founders of this colony were, according to a more exact statement, Amyclæans,[510] i.e. fugitive Periœci, who perhaps had [pg 139] passed through Cnidos in their way to these districts. It appears that the Selgæans founded Sagalassus,[511] which city is styled on its coins The Lacedæmonian. Perhaps Praxander went at the same time from Therapne in Laconia, with Cephas of Olenus (both Achæans by birth) to the island of Cyprus, where they founded Lapathus and Ceronia.[512]
12. But the most celebrated of all the Lacedæmonian colonies, and which really proceeded from Sparta, was Tarentum. The history of its origin is buried in fable, in the accounts of the first Messenian war; the accompanying circumstances will be mentioned below. The leader of this colony was Phalanthus, son of Aratus, a Heraclide.[513] Taras, on the other hand, is called the son of Poseidon, because this colony carried over the worship of that deity from Tænarum to Italy. These emigrants also brought with them other religious rites, as for instance the worship of Hyacinthus;[514] likewise many names from their native country, as that of the Eurotas, which they gave to the river Galæsus.[515] But the fruitful and luxuriant [pg 140] territory to which they had moved, its soft and voluptuous climate, and the commerce, for which Tarentum was well situated,[516] and always open (although it never carried it on in an active manner), helped to engender that effeminacy of character, which gave countenance to the fable of the founders having been the sons of unmarried women (παρθενίαι). Still, amidst all its degeneracy, Tarentum retained a certain degree of dependence on its mother-country: at the foundation of Heraclea the Tarentines allowed Cleandridas a Spartan to be one of the original colonists.[517] The friendship, moreover, of the Cnidians with the Tarentines,[518] as well as that with the Cyreneans, was founded on the recognition of a common origin. The colony of Croton (Olymp. 19. 2. 703 B.C., according to Eusebius) consisted indeed of Achæans, who came partly from the maritime town of Rhypæ,[519] and partly from Laconia:[520] it must, however, have been established under the authority of the Doric state of Sparta, since Apollo and Hercules, the Doric god and hero, were here worshipped with especial honour;[521] the early constitution was also Doric; and although in general we are not to look for truth in the poetry of Ovid, yet in this instance we may credit his statement that Myscellus the founder was a Heraclide.[522] In like manner the Locrians, who (in Olymp. 24. 2. 683 B.C.) founded Locri, must have procured Spartans as leaders,[523] since (as their coins also show) they paid particular [pg 141] honours to the Dioscuri, in time of distress in war the statues of these gods having been sent to them from Sparta, as being a people of the same origin;[524] and even in the Peloponnesian war they still adhered to the cause of Sparta.[525] Of a nature wholly different were the rapid and transitory settlements of Dorieus the son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, which this noble adventurer founded in Sicily and Libya; when, scorning to submit to a worthless brother, and confiding in his own strength, he hoped to obtain by conquest a kingdom in a distant country.[526] Finally, the Lyctians of Crete and other inhabitants of this island called themselves colonists of Sparta. In all probability many of the ancient Doric cities of this country received fresh settlers from Lacedæmon; which state, at the beginning of the Olympiads[527] in the time of Alcamenes, and even during the life of Lycurgus,[528] exercised a very considerable influence upon the internal affairs of Crete.
Having taken a view of the Doric settlements without Peloponnesus, we now return to the history [pg 142] of that peninsula, which we will divide into two periods, namely, before and after the 40th Olympiad, or the year 620 B.C.