Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

“Who hath brought down the pride of many cities.”

And when they were in a far from favourable condition an earthquake came on them, and made the city almost bare of men, and robbed them of many works of art. This earthquake also injured the cities of Caria and Lycia, and the island of Rhodes suffered especially, insomuch that the oracle of the Sibyl about Rhodes was fulfilled.

And as you go from Corinth towards Sicyon you come to the tomb of Messenian Lycus, whoever this Lycus was. For I find no Messenian Lycus that practised in the pentathlum, or carried off the prize at Olympia. This tomb is a mound of earth, and the Sicyonians mostly bury in the following manner. The body they deposit in the ground, and over it a stone slab with pillars on the top, on which are figures, generally like the eagles in the temples. But they write no epitaph, but simply the name of the deceased, not even his parentage, and bid the dead farewell. And next to the tomb of Lycus, when you have crossed over the Asopus, is on the right hand the temple of Olympian Zeus, and a little further on, on the left side of the road, is the tomb of Eupolis the Athenian Comedian. Further on in the direction of the city is the tomb of Xenodice, who died in childbirth: it is unlike the tombs in this part of the country, and has a painting, which is very fine. A little further is the tomb of the Sicyonians, who died at Pellene, and Dyme in Achaia, and at Megalopolis and Sellasia, whose exploits I shall relate fully later on. And they have near the gate a well in a cave, which oozes through the roof of the cave, so it is called the Dripping Well.

And in the present citadel there is a temple to Fortune Dwelling on the Heights, and next it one to the Dioscuri. Both these and the statue of Fortune are of wood. And in the theatre built under the citadel the person represented on the stage-curtain is, they say, Aratus the son of Clinias. And next to the theatre is a temple of Dionysus: the god is fashioned in gold and ivory, and near him some Bacchantes in white stone. These women they say are sacred to Dionysus, and full of Bacchic fury. And the Sicyonians have other statues in a secret place, which one night in every year they bring to the temple of Dionysus from the place called Ornament Room, and they bring them with lighted torches and national Hymns. The leader of the procession is called Baccheus, this functionary was appointed by Androdamas the son of Phlias, and the next in the procession is called Lysius, whom the Theban Phanes brought from Thebes at the bidding of the Pythian Priestess. And Phanes came to Sicyon, when Aristomachus the son of Cleodæus, mistaking the oracle, lost thereby his return to the Peloponnese. And as you go from the temple of Dionysus to the market-place there is a shrine of Artemis Limnæa on the right hand. And that the roof has fallen in is clear to the spectator. But as to the statue of the goddess—for there is none now—the people of Sicyon do not say whether it was carried away to some other place, or how it was destroyed (if destroyed).

And as you enter the market-place is a temple of Persuasion, also without a statue. Persuasion is worshipped by them on the following ground. Apollo and Artemis after slaying Pytho went to Ægialea to purify themselves. But being seized with some panic fear in the place which they now call Fear, they turned aside to Crete to Carmanor, and a pestilence came upon the people at Ægialea, and they were ordered by the seers to propitiate Apollo and Artemis. And they sent 7 lads and 7 maidens to the river Sythas to supplicate Apollo and Artemis, and persuaded by them these deities went to what was then the citadel, and the place they first reached was the temple of Persuasion. A Pageant of all this goes on to this day. On the Festival of Apollo the lads go to the river Sythas, and, after bringing Apollo and Artemis to the temple of Persuasion, take them back again to the temple of Apollo. And that temple is in the middle of the present market-place, and they say it was originally built by Prœtus, because his daughters got cured of madness here. They say also that Meleager hung up in this temple the spear with which he killed the Calydonian boar: here too (they say) are deposited the flutes of Marsyas: for after his awful death the river Marsyas carried them to Mæander, and they turned up again at the Asopus and were landed at Sicyon, and given to Apollo by a shepherd who found them. Of these votive offerings there is no vestige: for they were burnt with the temple. And the temple and statue were re-erected in my time by Pythocles.

CHAPTER VIII.

The sacred enclosure near the temple of Persuasion, consecrated to the Roman emperors, was formerly the house of Cleon the king. For Clisthenes the son of Aristonymus, the son of Myro, was king of the Sicyonians in the lower part of the city, but Cleon in what is now the city (i.e. the upper part). In front of this house is a hero-chapel to Aratus, who did the greatest exploits of all the Greeks in his time: and this is what he did. After the death of Cleon there came on those in authority such unbridled lust for power, that Euthydemus and Timoclidas usurped the chief power. These the people afterwards drove out, and put in their place Clinias the father of Aratus: and not many years afterwards Abantidas got the chief power, (after the death of Clinias), and either exiled Aratus, or Aratus retired of his own free will. However the men of the country killed Abantidas, and Pascas his father succeeded him, and Nicocles killed him, and reigned in his room. Against him came Aratus with some Sicyonian refugees and mercenaries from Argos, and slipping by some of the garrison in the darkness (for he made his attack by night), and forcing others back, got inside the walls: and (for by now it was day) leading his men to the tyrant’s house, he made a fierce attack on it. And he took it by storm with no great difficulty, and Nicocles slipt out at a back door and fled. And Aratus granted the Sicyonians isonomy, reconciling them to the refugees, and giving back to the refugees all their houses and goods that had been sold, but not without full compensation to former purchasers. And because all the Greeks were greatly afraid of the Macedonians and Antigonus (the Regent for Philip the son of Demetrius), he forced the Sicyonians, though they were Dorians, into the Achæan league. And forthwith he was chosen commander in chief by the Achæans, and he led them against the Locrians that live at Amphissa, and into the territory of the hostile Ætolians, and ravaged it. And although Antigonus held Corinth with a Macedonian garrison, he dismayed them by the suddenness of his attack, and in a battle defeated and killed many of them, and among others Persæus the head of the garrison, who had been a disciple of Zeno (the son of Mnaseas) in philosophy. And when Aratus had set Corinth free, then the Epidaurians and the Trœzenians who occupy the coast of Argolis, and the Megarians beyond the Isthmus, joined the Achæan league, and Ptolemy also formed an alliance with them. But the Lacedæmonians and Agis (the son of Eudamidas) their king were beforehand with them, and took Pellene by a coup de main, but when Aratus and his army came up they were beaten in the engagement, and evacuated Pellene, and returned home again on certain conditions. And Aratus, as things had prospered so well in the Peloponnese, thought it monstrous that the Piræus and Munychia, and moreover Salamis and Sunium, should be allowed to continue in Macedonian hands, and, as he did not expect to be able to take them by storm, he persuaded Diogenes, who was Governor of these Forts, to surrender them for 150 talents, and of this money he himself contributed one sixth part for the Athenians. He also persuaded Aristomachus, who was king at Argos, to give a democratical form of government to the Argives, and to join the Achæan league. And he took Mantinea from the Lacedæmonians. But indeed all things do not answer according to a man’s wish, since even Aratus was obliged eventually to become the ally of the Macedonians and Antigonus. This is how it happened.

CHAPTER IX.

Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas, and grandson of Cleonymus, when he succeeded to the kingdom in Sparta, imitated Pausanias in desiring to be an autocrat, and not to obey the established laws. And as he was more impetuous than Pausanias, and brave as a lion, he quickly moulded everything to his will by his sagacity and boldness, and took off by poison Eurydamidas, the king of the other royal branch, while quite a lad, and vested the power of the Ephors in his brother Epiclidas, and having put down the power of the Senate, he established instead of them The Great Council of Patronomi (as they were called). And being very ambitious of greater fortunes, and even the supremacy over Greece, he attacked the Achæans first, hoping to have them as allies if he conquered them, and not wishing to give them the chance to hinder his actions. And he attacked them and beat them at Dyme above Patræ, Aratus being in this action the Achæan general, and this defeat it was that compelled Aratus to invite the aid of Antigonus, being afraid for the Achæans, and even for the safety of Sicyon. And Cleomenes having violated his conditions with Antigonus, (having openly acted against the terms of the treaty in other respects, and especially by turning out the inhabitants of Megalopolis,) Antigonus crossed into the Peloponnese, and in concert with the Achæans attacked Cleomenes at Sellasia. And the Achæans were victorious, and Sellasia was enslaved, and Lacedæmon captured. Antigonus and the Achæans then gave back to the Lacedæmonians their old Polity: and of Leonidas’s sons, Epiclidas was killed in battle, and Cleomenes, (who fled to Egypt and received the greatest honours from Ptolemy), was cast into prison subsequently for inciting the Egyptians to revolt. And he escaped out of prison, and caused some trouble at Alexandria: but at last he was taken and committed suicide. And the Lacedæmonians, glad to get rid of Cleomenes, chose to submit to kingly government no longer, but from thenceforth until now had the republican form of government. And Antigonus continued friendly to Aratus, as he had done him many good and splendid services. But when Philip took the government into his own hands, because Aratus did not praise his frequent exhibition of temper to his subjects, and sometimes even checked him in his outbursts, he murdered him, giving him poison when he didn’t expect it. And from Ægium, for here fate took him, they took his body to Sicyon and buried him, and the hero-chapel Arateum is still called after him. And Philip acted in just the same way to Euryclides and Micon, who were Athenians: for them too, (being orators and not unpersuasive with the people), he took off by poison. But poison was it seems destined to bring disaster to Philip himself: for his son Demetrius was poisoned by Perseus, his youngest brother, and so caused his father’s death by sorrow. And I have gone out of my way to give this account, remembering the divine saying of Hesiod, that he who plots mischief for another brings it first on his own pate.[16]

And next to the hero-chapel of Aratus is an altar to Poseidon Isthmius, and rude statues of Milichian Zeus and Tutelary Artemis. Milichian Zeus is in the shape of Pyramid, Artemis in that of a Pillar. Here too has been built a Council Chamber, and a Porch called the Clisthenic from its builder Clisthenes, who built it out of spoil which he took in the war against Cirrha, as an ally of the Amphictyones. And in the part of the market-place which is in the open air there is a Zeus in brass, the work of Lysippus, and near it a golden Artemis. And next is the temple of Lycian (Wolf-god) Apollo, in a very dilapidated condition. When wolves used to devour the flocks so that there was no profit in keeping sheep, Apollo pointed out a certain place where some dry wood lay, and ordered the bark of this wood and flesh to be laid together before the wolves. And this bark killed the wolves immediately they tasted it. This wood is kept stored up in the temple of the Wolf-god: but what tree it is of none of the Sicyonian antiquaries know. And next are some brazen statues, said to be the daughters of Prœtus, but the inscription has other women’s names. There is also a Hercules in brass, by Sicyonian Lysippus. And near it is a statue of Hermes of the Market.