BOHN’S CLASSICAL LIBRARY.

PAUSANIAS’ DESCRIPTION OF GREECE.

PAUSANIAS’

DESCRIPTION OF GREECE,

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

WITH NOTES AND INDEX

BY ARTHUR RICHARD SHILLETO, M.A.,

Sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge.

VOLUME II.

“Pausanias est un homme qui ne manque ni de bon sens ni de bonne foi, mais qui croit ou au moins voudrait croire à ses dieux.” --Champagny.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS,
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1886.

CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Book VII. Achaia 1
VIII. Arcadia 61
IX. Bœotia 151
X. Phocis 219
Index 299

ERRATA.

Volume I. Page 8, line 37, for “Atte” read “Attes.” As vii. 17, 20. (Catullus’ Attis.) Page 150, line 22, for “Auxesias” read “Auxesia.” As ii. 32. Page 165, lines 12, 17, 24, for “Philhammon” read “Philammon.” Page 191, line 4, for “Tamagra” read “Tanagra.” Page 215, line 35, for “Ye now enter” read “Enter ye now.” Page 227, line 5, for “the Little Iliad” read “The Little Iliad.” Page 289, line 18, for “the Babylonians” read “Babylon.”

Volume II. Page 61, last line, for “earth” read “Earth.” Page 95, line 9, for “Camira” read “Camirus.” Page 169, line 1, for “and” read “for.” ---- ---- line 2, for “other kinds of flutes” read “other flutes.” Page 201, line 9, for “Lacenian” read “Laconian.” Page 264, line 10, for “Chilon” read “Chilo.” As iii. 16. Page 268, Note, for “I iad” read “Iliad.”

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.