“Chalcis on the sea-coast, and the rocky Calydon,”[572]
and another in the present Eleian territory;
“they passed along Cruni, and the rocky Chalcis,”[573]
speaking of Telemachus and his companions, when they left Nestor to return to their own country.
10. Some say, that the Eretrians were a colony from Macistus in Triphylia, under the conduct of Eretrieus; others, that they came from Eretria, in Attica, where now a market is held. There is an Eretria also near Pharsalus. In the Eretrian district there was a city, Tamynæ, sacred to Apollo. The temple (which was near the strait) is said to have been built by Admetus, whom the god, according to report, served a year[574] for hire.
Eretria,[575] formerly, had the names of Melaneïs and Arotria. The village Amarynthus, at the distance of 7 stadia from the walls, belongs to it.
The Persians razed the ancient city, having enclosed with multitudes the inhabitants, according to the expression of Herodotus,[576] in a net, by spreading the Barbarians around the walls. The foundations are still shown, and the place is called ancient Eretria. The present city is built near it.
The power which the Eretrians once possessed, is evinced by a pillar which was placed in the temple of Diana Amarynthia. There is an inscription on it to this effect, that their processions upon their public festivals consisted of three thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots. They were masters, besides other islands, of Andros, Tenos, and Ceos. They received colonists from Elis, whence their frequent use of the letter R, (ρ,)[577] not only at the end, but in the middle of words, which exposed them to the raillery of comic writers.
Œchalia,[578] a village, the remains of a city destroyed by Hercules, belongs to the district of Eretria. It has the same name as that in Trachinia, as that near Tricca,[579] as that in Arcadia, (which later writers call Andania,) and as that in Ætolia near the Eurytanes.
11. At present Chalcis[580] is allowed, without dispute, to hold the first rank, and is called the capital of the Eubœans. Eretria holds the second place. Even in former times these cities had great influence both in war and peace, so that they afforded to philosophers an agreeable and tranquil retreat. A proof of this is the establishment at Eretria of the school of Eretrian philosophers, disciples of Menedemus; and at an earlier period the residence of Aristotle[581] at Chalcis, where he also died.