Next to these are natives of Elis that beat all the boys in boxing, Chœrilus by the Olynthian Sthennis, and Theotimus by the Sicyonian Dætondas. Theotimus was the son of Moschion, who joined Alexander the son of Philip in his expedition against Darius and the Persians. And next are two from Elis again, Archidamus who conquered in the four-horse-race, and Eperastus (the son of Theogonus) who was victor in the race in heavy armour. And Eperastus states that he was a seer, and descended from the family of the Clytidæ, at the close of the inscription on his statue.
“I boast to be a seer of the family of the holy-mouthed Clytidæ, of the blood of the godlike descendants of Melampus.”
Mantius was the father of Œcles, and the son of Melampus the son of Amythaon. And Clytius was the son of Alcmæon, the son of Amphiaraus the son of Œcles. And Alcmæon was father of Clytius by the daughter of Phegeus, and he changed his residence to Elis, objecting to live with his mother’s brothers, because he knew that they had contrived the murder of Alcmæon.
And there are some statues interspersed among some not very remarkable votive offerings, as Alexinicus of Elis (by the Sicyonian Cantharus), who won a wrestling prize among the boys, and Gorgias of Leontini, whose statue was placed at Olympia by Eumolpus, great-grandson of Deicrates who had married Gorgias’ sister. So Eumolpus himself tells us. This Gorgias was the son of Carmantides, and is said to have been the first to have practised Rhetoric, which had been altogether neglected and nearly come into desuetude among men. And they say Gorgias was famous for his eloquence at the public festival at Olympia, and went with Tisias on an embassy to the Athenians. Tisias too contributed something to oratory, and most plausibly did he plead in the case of a Syracusan woman touching some money, but Gorgias had still greater fame among the Athenians, and Jason the tyrant in Thessaly put him above Polycrates, who had the highest renown in the schools at Athens. And they say Gorgias lived 105 years. And the town of Leontini, which was dispeopled by the Syracusans, was in my day colonized again.
CHAPTER XVIII.
And there is the brazen chariot of Cratisthenes of Cyrene, and Victory and Cratisthenes on the chariot. Plainly then he won his victory in the chariot race. There is a tradition also that he was the son of Mnaseas the runner, who was surnamed by the Greeks Libyan. And these votive offerings to him at Olympia are by Pythagoras of Rhegium.
Here too I found the statue of Anaximenes, who wrote a History of all Antiquities in Greece, and of the exploits of Philip the son of Amyntas, and afterwards of Alexander. This honour in Olympia he owed to the people of Lampsacus: for the following is recorded about him. He got round Alexander, who was by no means a mild king but excessively passionate, by the following contrivance. The people of Lampsacus having espoused the cause of the king of the Persians, or being thought to have done so by Alexander, he boiled over in anger against them and threatened them with the most condign chastisement. And they in all haste sent Anaximenes to supplicate for their wives and children and country, as he had been well known to Alexander and earlier still to Philip. And Anaximenes went to Alexander, who had learnt the motive of his errand, and had sworn they say by all the gods that he would do exactly contrary to what he entreated. Then Anaximenes said, “O King oblige me with this favour, enslave the women and children at Lampsacus, and raze the whole town to its foundations, and burn the temples of the gods.” This is what he said, and Alexander having no contrivance to meet his cunning, and being compelled by his oath, very unwillingly pardoned the people of Lampsacus. Anaximenes seems also to have known how to punish an enemy very cleverly and exemplarily. He was naturally a sophist and a very good imitator of the arguments of the sophists. And having a quarrel with Theopompus, the son of Damasistratus, he wrote a book full of abuse against the Athenians and Lacedæmonians and Thebans. And as he had imitated his style very accurately, and put the name of Theopompus on the title page, and distributed the book about in various towns, though he himself was really the writer, general odium was stirred up throughout Greece against Theopompus. Nor did any one earlier than Anaximenes practise extempore oratory. But I cannot think that he was author of the verses about Alexander that run in his name.
And Sotades, (who was proclaimed a Cretan, as indeed he was), won the prize in the long course in the 99th Olympiad, but in the next Olympiad, being bribed by the Ephesian people, he registered himself as an Ephesian, and the Cretans exiled him for it.
And the first athletes who had effigies at Olympia were Praxidamas the Æginetan, who won the prize for boxing in the 59th Olympiad, and the Opuntian Rhexibius, who won the prize in the pancratium in the 61st Olympiad. And their effigies are made of wood, Rhexibius’ of figwood, and the Æginetan’s of cypress. This last has suffered less than the other.