BOOK IX.

“the great city is a great desert.”

There are rich pastures for cattle, and particularly for horses and asses, which are used as stallions. The race of Arcadian horses, as well as the Argolic and Epidaurian, is preferred before all others. The uninhabited tracts of country in Ætolia and Acarnania are not less adapted to the breeding of horses than Thessaly.

2. Mantinea owes its fame to Epaminondas, who conquered the Lacedæmonians there in a second battle, in which he lost his life.268

This city, together with Orchomenus, Heræa, Cleitor, Pheneus, Stymphalus, Mænalus, Methydrium, Caphyeis, and Cynætha, either exist no longer, or traces and signs only of their existence are visible. There are still some remains of Tegea, and the temple of the Alæan Minerva remains. The latter is yet held in some little veneration, as well as the temple of the Lycæan Jupiter on the Lycæan mountain. But the places mentioned by the poet, as

“Rhipe, and Stratia, and the windy Enispe,”

are difficult to discover, and if discovered, would be of no use from the deserted condition of the country.

3. The mountains of note, besides Cyllene, are Pholoë,269Lycæum,270Mænalus, and the Parthenium,271as it is called, which extends from the territory of Tegea to that of Argos.

4. We have spoken of the extraordinary circumstances relative to the Alpheius, Eurotas, and the Erasinus, which issues out of the lake Stymphalis, and now flows into the Argive country.

Formerly, the Erasinus had no efflux, for the Berethra, which the Arcadians call Zerethra,272had no outlet, so that the city of the Stymphalii, which at that time was situated upon the lake, is now at the distance of 50 stadia.

The contrary was the case with the Ladon, which was at one time prevented running in a continuous stream by the obstruction of its sources. For the Berethra near Pheneum, through which it now passes, fell in in consequence of an earthquake, which stopped the waters of the river, and affected far down the veins which supplied its source. This is the account of some writers.

Eratosthenes says, that about the Pheneus, the river called Anias forms a lake, and then sinks under-ground into certain openings, which they call Zerethra. When these are obstructed, the water sometimes overflows into the plains, and when they are again open the water escapes in a body from the plains, and is discharged into the Ladon273and the Alpheius,274so that it happened once at Olympia, that the land about the temple was inundated, but the lake was partly emptied. The Erasinus275also, he says, which flows by Stymphalus, sinks into the ground under the mountain (Chaon?), and reappears in the Argive territory. It was this that induced Iphicrates, when besieging Stymphalus, and making no progress, to attempt to obstruct the descent of the river into the ground by means of a large quantity of sponges, but desisted in consequence of some portentous signs in the heavens.

Near the Pheneus there is also the water of the Styx, as it is called, a dripping spring of poisonous water, which was esteemed to be sacred.

So much then respecting Arcadia.

5.276Polybius having said, that from Maleæ towards the north as far as the Danube the distance is about 10,000 stadia, is corrected by Artemidorus, and not without reason; for, according to the latter, from Maleæ to Ægium the distance is 1400 stadia, from hence to Cirrha is a distance by sea of 200 stadia; hence by Heraclea to Thaumaci a journey of 500 stadia; thence to Larisa and the river Peneus, 340 stadia; then through Tempe to the mouth of the Peneus, 240 stadia; then to Thessalonica, 660 stadia; then to the Danube, through Idomene, and Stobi, and Dardanii, it is 3200 stadia. According to Artemidorus, therefore, the distance from the Danube to Maleæ would be 6500. The cause of this difference is that he does not give the measurement by the shortest road, but by some accidental route pursued by a general of an army.

It is not, perhaps, out of place to add the founders mentioned by Ephorus, who settled colonies in Peloponnesus after the return of the Heracleidæ; as Aletes, the founder of Corinth; Phalces, of Sicyon; Tisamenus, of cities in Achæa; Oxylus, of Elis, Cresphontes, of Messene; Eurysthenes and Procles, of Lacedæmon; Temenus and Cissus, of Argos; and Agræus and Deïphontes, of the towns about Acte.

SUMMARY.

Continuation of the geography of Greece. A panegyrical account of Athens. A description of Bœotia and Thessaly, with the sea-coast.

1.Havingcompleted the description of Peloponnesus, which we said was the first and least of the peninsulas of which Greece consists, we must next proceed to those which are continuous with it.277

We described the second to be that which joins Megaris to the Peloponnesus [so that Crommyon belongs to Megaris, and not to the Corinthians];278the third to be that which is situated near the former, comprising Attica and Bœotia, some part of Phocis, and of the Locri Epicnemidii. Of these we are now to speak.

Eudoxus says, that if we imagine a straight line to be drawn towards the east from the Ceraunian Mountains to Sunium, the promontory of Attica, it would leave, on the right hand, to the south, the whole of Peloponnesus, and on the left, to the north, the continuous coast from the Ceraunian

Mountains to the Crisæan Gulf, and the whole of Megaris and Attica. He is of opinion that the shore which extends from Sunium to the Isthmus, would not have so great a curvature, nor have so great a bend, if, to this shore, were not added the parts continuous with the Isthmus and extending to the Hermionic Bay and Acté; that in the same manner the shore, from the Ceraunian Mountains to the Gulf of Corinth, has a similar bend, so as to make a curvature, forming within it a sort of gulf, where Rhium and Antirrhium contracting together give it this figure. The same is the case with the shore about Crissa and the recess, where the Crissæan Sea terminates.279

2. As this is the description given by Eudoxus, a mathematician, skilled in the delineations of figures and the inclinations of places, acquainted also with the places themselves, we must consider the sides of Attica and Megaris, extending from Sunium as far as the Isthmus, to be curved, although slightly so. About the middle of the above-mentioned line280is the Piræus, the naval arsenal of the Athenians. It is distant from Schœnus, at the Isthmus, about 350 stadia; from Sunium 330. The distance from the Piræus to Pagæ281and from the Piræus to Schœnus is nearly the same, yet the former is said to exceed the latter by 10 stadia. After having doubled Sunium, the navigation along the coast is to the north with a declination to the west.

3. Acte (Attica) is washed by two seas; it is at first narrow, then it widens towards the middle, yet it, nevertheless, takes a lunated bend towards Oropus in Bœotia, having the convex side towards the sea. This is the second, the eastern side of Attica.

The remaining side is that to the north, extending from the territory of Oropus towards the west, as far as Megaris, and consists of the mountainous tract of Attica, having a variety of names, and dividing Bœotia from Attica; so that, as I have before remarked, Bœotia, by being connected withtwo seas, becomes the Isthmus of the third peninsula, which we have mentioned before, and this Isthmus includes within it the Peloponnesus, Megaris, and Attica. For this reason therefore the present Attica was called by a play upon the words Acta and Actica, because the greatest part of it lies under the mountains, and borders on the sea; it is narrow, and stretches forwards a considerable length as far as Sunium. We shall therefore resume the description of these sides, beginning from the sea-coast, at the point where we left off.

4. After Crommyon, rising above Attica, are the rocks called Scironides, which afford no passage along the sea-side. Over them, however, is a road which leads to Megara and Attica from the Isthmus. The road approaches so near the rocks that in many places it runs along the edge of precipices, for the overhanging mountain is of great height, and impassable.

Here is laid the scene of the fable of Sciron, and the Pityocamptes, or the pine-breaker, one of those who infested with their robberies the above-mentioned mountainous tract. They were slain by Theseus.

The wind Argestes,282which blows from the left with violence, from these summits is called by the Athenians Sciron.

After the rocks Scironides there projects the promontory Minoa, forming the harbour of Nisæa. Nisæa is the arsenal of Megara, and distant 18 stadia from the city; it is joined to it by walls on each side.283This also had the name of Minoa.

5. In former times the Ionians occupied this country, and were also in possession of Attica, before the time of the building of Megara, wherefore the poet does not mention these places by any appropriate name, but when he calls all those dwelling in Attica, Athenians, he comprehends these also in the common appellation, regarding them as Athenians; so when, in the Catalogue of the Ships, he says,

“And they who occupied Athens, a well-built city,”284

we must understand the present Megarenses also, as having taken a part in the expedition. The proof of this is, that Attica was, in former times, called Ionia, and Ias, and when the poet says,

“There the Bœoti, Iaones,”285

he means the Athenians. But of this Ionia Megaris was a part.

6. Besides, the Peloponnesians and Ionians having had frequent disputes respecting their boundaries, on which Crommyonia also was situated, assembled and agreed upon a spot of the Isthmus itself, on which they erected a pillar having an inscription on the part towards Peloponnesus,

“this is peloponnesus, not ionia;”

and on the side towards Megara,

“this is not peloponnesus, but ionia.”

Although those, who wrote on the history of Attica,286differ in many respects, yet those of any note agree in this, that when there were four Pandionidæ, Ægeus, Lycus, Pallas, and Nisus; and when Attica was divided into four portions, Nisus obtained, by lot, Megaris, and founded Nisæa. Philochorus says, that his government extended from the Isthmus to Pythium,287but according to Andron, as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian plain.

Since, then, different writers give different accounts of the division of the country into four parts, it is enough to adduce these lines from Sophocles where Ægeus says,

“My father determined that I should go away to Acte, having assigned to me, as the elder, the best part of the land; to Lycus, the opposite garden of Eubœa; for Nisus he selects the irregular tract of the shore of Sciron; and the rugged Pallas, breeder of giants, obtained by lot the part to the south.”288

Such are the proofs which are adduced to show that Megaris was a part of Attica.

7. After the return of the Heraclidæ, and the partition of the country, many of the former possessors were banished from their own land by the Heraclidæ, and by the Dorians, who came with them, and migrated to Attica. Among these was Melanthus, the king of Messene. He was voluntarily appointedking of the Athenians, after having overcome in single combat, Xanthus, the king of the Bœotians. When Attica became populous by the accession of fugitives, the Heraclidæ were alarmed, and invaded Attica, chiefly at the instigation of the Corinthians and Messenians; the former of whom were influenced by proximity of situation, the latter by the circumstance that Codrus, the son of Melanthus, was at that time king of Attica. They were, however, defeated in battle and relinquished the whole of the country, except the territory of Megara, of which they kept possession, and founded the city Megara, where they introduced as inhabitants Dorians in place of Ionians. They destroyed the pillar also which was the boundary of the country of the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.

8. The city of the Megarenses, after having experienced many changes, still subsists. It once had schools of philosophers, who had the name of the Megaric sect. They succeeded Euclides, the Socratic philosopher, who was by birth a Megarensian, in the same manner as the Eleiaci, among whom was Pyrrhon, who succeeded Phædon, the Eleian, who was also a Socratic philosopher, and as the Eretriaci succeeded Menedemus the Eretrean.

Megaris, like Attica, is very sterile, and the greater part of it is occupied by what are called the Oneii mountains, a kind of ridge, which, extending from the Scironides rocks to Bœotia and to Cithæron, separates the sea at Nisæa from that near Pagæ, called the Alcyonian Sea.

9. In sailing from Nisæa to Attica there lie, in the course of the voyage, five small islands. Then succeeds Salamis, which is about 70, and according to others, 80, stadia in length. It has two cities of the same name. The ancient city, which looked towards Ægina and to the south, as Æschylus has described it;

“Ægina lies towards the blasts of the south:”

it is uninhabited. The other is situated in a bay on a spot of a peninsular form contiguous to Attica. In former times it had other names, for it was called Sciras, and Cychreia, from certain heroes; from the former Minerva is called Sciras; hence also Scira, a place in Attica; Episcirosis, a religious rite; and Scirophorion, one of the months. From Cychreiathe serpent Cychrides had its name, which Hesiod says Cychreus bred, and Eurylochus ejected, because it infested the island, but that Ceres admitted it into Eleusis, and it became her attendant. Salamis was called also Pityussa from “pitys,” the pine tree. The island obtained its renown from the Æacidæ, who were masters of it, particularly from Ajax, the son of Telamon, and from the defeat of Xerxes by the Greeks in a battle on the coast, and by his flight to his own country. The Æginetæ participated in the glory of that engagement, both as neighbours, and as having furnished a considerable naval force. [In Salamis is the river Bocarus, now called Bocalia.]289

10. At present the Athenians possess the island Salamis. In former times they disputed the possession of it with the Megarians. Some allege, that Pisistratus, others that Solon, inserted in the Catalogue of Ships immediately after this verse,

“Ajax conducted from Salamis twelve vessels,”290

the following words,

“And stationed them by the side of the Athenian forces;”

and appealed to the poet as a witness, that the island originally belonged to the Athenians. But this is not admitted by the critics, because many other lines testify the contrary. For why does Ajax appear at the extremity of the line not with the Athenians, but with the Thessalians under the command of Protesilaus;

“There were the vessels of Ajax, and Protesilaus.”291

And Agamemnon, in the Review4of the troops,

“found the son of Peteus, Menestheus, the tamer of horses, standing, and around were the Athenians skilful in war: near stood the wily Ulysses, and around him and at his side, the ranks of the Cephalleni;”292

and again, respecting Ajax and the Salaminii;

“he came to the Ajaces,”293

and near them,

“Idomeneus on the other side amidst the Cretans,”294

not Menestheus. The Athenians then seem to have allegedsome such evidence as this from Homer as a pretext, and the Megarians to have replied in an opposite strain of this kind;

“Ajax conducted ships from Salamis, from Polichna, from Ægirussa, from Nisæa, and from Tripodes,”295

which are places in Megaris, of which Tripodes has the name of Tripodiscium, situated near the present forum of Megara.

11. Some say, that Salamis is unconnected with Attica, because the priestess of Minerva Polias, who may not eat the new cheese of Attica, but the produce only of a foreign land, yet uses the Salaminian cheese. But this is a mistake, for she uses that which is brought from other islands, that are confessedly near Attica, for the authors of this custom considered all produce as foreign which was brought over sea.

It seems as if anciently the present Salamis was a separate state, and that Megara was a part of Attica.

On the sea-coast, opposite to Salamis, the boundaries of Megara and Attica are two mountains called Cerata, or Horns.296

12. Next is the city Eleusis,297in which is the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and the Mystic Enclosure (Secos),298which Ictinus built,299capable of containing the crowd of a theatre. It was this person that built300the Parthenon in the Acropolis, in honour of Minerva, when Pericles was the superintendent of the public works. The city is enumerated among the demi, or burghs.

13. Then follows the Thriasian plain, and the coast, a demus of the same name,301then the promontory Amphiale,302above which is a stone quarry; and then the passage across the sea to Salamis, of about 2 stadia, which Xerxes endeavoured to fill up with heaps of earth, but the sea-fight and the flight of the Persians occurred before he had accomplished it.

There also are the Pharmacussæ,303two small islands, in the larger of which is shown the tomb of Circe.

14. Above this coast is a mountain called Corydallus, and the demus Corydalleis: then the harbour of Phoron, (Robbers,) and Psyttalia, a small rocky desert island, which, according to some writers, is the eye-sore of the Piræus.

Near it is Atalanta, of the same name as that between Eubœa and the Locri; and another small island similar to Psyttalia; then the Piræus, which is also reckoned among the demi, and the Munychia.

15. The Munychia is a hill in the shape of a peninsula, hollow, and a great part of it excavated both by nature and art, so as to serve for dwellings, with an entrance by a narrow opening. Beneath it are three harbours. Formerly the Munychia was surrounded by a wall, and occupied by dwellings, nearly in the same manner as the city of the Rhodians, comprehending within the circuit of the walls the Piræus and the harbours full of materials for ship-building; here also was the armoury, the work of Philon. The naval station was capable of receiving the four hundred vessels; which was the smallest number the Athenians were in the habit of keeping in readiness for sea. With this wall were connected the legs, that stretched out from the Asty. These were the long walls, 40 stadia in length, joining the Asty304to the Piræus. But in consequence of frequent wars, the wall and the fortification of the Munychia were demolished; the Piræus was contracted to a small town, extending round the harbours and the temple of Jupiter Soter. The small porticoes of the temple contain admirable paintings, the work of celebrated artists, and the hypæthrum, statues. The long walls also were destroyed, first demolished by the Lacedæmonians, and afterwards by the Romans, when Sylla took the Piræus and the Asty by siege.305

16. What is properly the Asty is a rock, situated in a plain, with dwellings around it. Upon the rock is the templeof Minerva, and the ancient shrine of Minerva Polias, in which is the never-extinguished lamp; and the Parthenon, built by Ictinus, in which is the Minerva, in ivory, the work of Pheidias.

When, however, I consider the multitude of objects, so celebrated and far-famed, belonging to this city, I am reluctant to enlarge upon them, lest what I write should depart too far from the proposed design of this work.306For the words of Hegesias307occur to me;

“I behold the acropolis, there is the symbol of the great trident;308I see Eleusis; I am initiated in the sacred mysteries; that is Leocorium;309this the Theseium.310To describe all is beyond my power, for Attica is the chosen residence of the gods; and the possession of heroes its progenitors.”

Yet this very writer mentions only one of the remarkable things to be seen in the Acropolis. Polemo Periegetes311however composed four books on the subject of the sacred offerings which were there. Hegesias is similarly sparing of remarks on other parts of the city, and of the territory: after speaking of Eleusis, one of the hundred and seventy demi, to which as they say four are to be added, he mentions no other by name.

17. Many, if not all the demi, have various fabulous tales and histories connected with them: with Aphidna is connected the rape of Helen by Theseus, the sack of the place by the Dioscuri, and the recovery of their sister; with Marathon,the battle with the Persians; at Rhamnus was the statue of Nemesis, which, according to some writers, is the work of Diodotus, according to others, of Agoracritus, the Parian, so well executed, both as to size and beauty, as to rival the art of Pheidias. Deceleia was the rendezvous of the Peloponnesians in the Decelic war. From Phyle Thrasybulus brought back the people to the Piræus, and thence to the Asty. Thus also much might be told respecting many other places; the Leocorium, the Theseium, and the Lyceum have their own fables, and the Olympicum, called also the Olympium, which the king, who dedicated it, left, at his death, half finished; so also much might be said of the Academia, of the gardens of the philosophers, of the Odeium,312of the Stoa Pœcile, [or painted Portico,] and of the temples in the city, all of which contain the works of illustrious artists.

18. The account would be much longer if we were to inquire who were the founders of the city from the time of Cecrops, for writers do not agree, as is evident from the names of persons and of places. For example, Attica,313they say, was derived from Actæon; Atthis, and Attica, from Atthis, the daughter of Cranaus, from whom the inhabitants had the name Cranaï; Mopsopia from Mopsopus; Ionia from Ion, the son of Xuthus; Poseidonia and Athenæ, from the deities of that name. We have said, that the nation of the Pelasgi seem to have come into this country in the course of their migrations, and were called from their wanderings, by the Attici, Pelargi, or storks.

19. In proportion as an earnest desire is excited to ascertain the truth about remarkable places and events, and in proportion as writers, on these subjects, are more numerous, so much the more is an author exposed to censure, who does not make himself master of what has been written. For example, in “the Collection of the Rivers,” Callimachus says, that he should laugh at the person, who would venture to describe the Athenian virgins as

“drinking of the pure waters of the Eridanus,”

from which even the herds would turn away. There are indeed fountains of water, pure and fit for drinking, it is said, without the gate called Diochares, near the Lyceium; formerly also a fountain was erected near it, which afforded a large supply of excellent water; but if it is not so at present, is it at all strange, that a fountain supplying abundance of pure and potable water at one period of time, should afterwards have the property of its waters altered?

In subjects, however, which are so numerous, we cannot enter into detail; yet they are not so entirely to be passed over in silence as to abstain from giving a condensed account of some of them.

20. It will suffice then to add, that, according to Philochorus, when the country was devastated on the side of the sea by the Carians, and by land by the Bœotians, whom they called Aones, Cecrops first settled a large body of people in twelve cities, the names of which were Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Deceleia, Eleusis, Aphidna, (although some persons write it in the plural number, Aphidnæ,) Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia [Phalerus]. Again, at a subsequent period, Theseus is said to have collected the inhabitants of the twelve cities into one, the present city.

Formerly, the Athenians were governed by kings; they afterwards changed the government to a democracy; then tyrants were their masters, as Pisistratus and his sons; afterwards there was an oligarchy both of the four hundred and of the thirty tyrants, whom the Lacedæmonii set over them; these were expelled by the Athenians, who retained the form of a democracy, till the Romans established their empire. For, although they were somewhat oppressed by the Macedonian kings, so as to be compelled to obey them, yet they preserved entire the same form of government. Some say, that the government was very well administered during a period of ten years, at the time that Casander was king of the Macedonians. For this person, although in other respects he was disposed to be tyrannical, yet, when he was master of the city, treated the Athenians with kindness and generosity. He placed at the head of the citizens Demetrius the Phalerean, a disciple of Theophrastus the philosopher, who, far from dissolving, restored the democracy. This appears from hismemoirs, which he composed concerning this mode of government. But so much hatred and dislike prevailed against anything connected with oligarchy, that, after the death of Casander, he was obliged to fly into Egypt.314The insurgents pulled down more than three hundred of his statues, which were melted down, and according to some were cast into chamber-pots. The Romans, after their conquest, finding them governed by a democracy,315maintained their independence and liberty. During the Mithridatic war, the king set over them such tyrants as he pleased. Aristio, who was the most powerful of these persons, oppressed the city; he was taken by Sylla, the Roman general, after a siege,316and put to death. The citizens were pardoned, and, to this time, the city enjoys liberty, and is respected by the Romans.

21. Next to the Piræus is the demus Phalereis, on the succeeding line of coast, then Halimusii, Æxoneis, Alæeis, the Æxonici, Anagyrasii; then Theoris, Lampesis; Ægilieis, Anaphlystii, Azenieis; these extend as far as the promontory Sunium. Between the above-mentioned demi is a long promontory, Zoster,317the first after the Æxoneis; then another promontory after Thoreis, Astypalæa; in the front of the former of these is an island, Phabra,318and of the latter an island, Eleüssa,319opposite the Æxoneis is Hydrussa. About Anaphlystum is the Paneum, and the temple of Venus Colias. Here, they say, were thrown up by the waves the last portions of the wrecks of the vessels after the naval engagement with the Persians near Salamis, of which remains Apollo predicted,

“The women of Colias shall shudder at the sight of oars.”

In front of these places lies off, at no great distance, the island Belbina; and the rampart of Patroclus; but most of these islands are uninhabited.

22. On doubling the promontory at Sunium, we meet with Sunium, a considerable demus; then Thoricus, next a demus called Potamus, from which the inhabitants are called Potamii; next Prasia,320Steiria, Brauron, where is the temple of

Diana Brauronia, Halæ Araphenides, where is the temple of Diana Tauropola; then Myrrhinus, Probalinthus, Marathon, where Miltiades entirely destroyed the army of Datis the Persian, without waiting for the Lacedæmonians, who deferred setting out till the full moon. There is laid the scene of the fable of the Marathonian bull, which Theseus killed.

Next to Marathon is Tricorynthus, then Rhamnus, where is the temple of Nemesis; then Psaphis, a city of the Oropii. Somewhere about this spot is the Amphiaraeum, an oracle once in repute, to which Amphiareus fled, as Sophocles says,

“The dusty Theban soil opened and received him with his armour, and the four-horse chariot.”

Oropus has frequently been a subject of contention, for it is situated on the confines of Attica and Bœotia.

In front of this coast, before Thoricum and Sunium, is the island Helena; it is rocky and uninhabited, extending in length about 60 stadia, which, they say, the poet mentions in the words, in which Alexander addresses Helen,

“Not when first I carried thee away from the pleasant Lacedæmon, across the deep, and in the island Cranaë embraced thee.”321

For Cranaë, from the kind of intercourse which took place there, is now called Helena. Next to Helena,322Eubœa323lies in front of the following tract of coast. It is long and narrow, and stretching along the continent like Helena. From Sunium to the southern point of Eubœa, which is called Leuce Acte,324[or, the white coast,] is a voyage of 300 stadia, but we shall speak hereafter of Eubœa.

It would be tedious to recite the names of the Demi of Attica in the inland parts, on account of their number.325

23. Among the mountains which are most celebrated, are the Hymettus, Brilessus, Lycabettus, Parnes, and Corydallus.326Near the city are excellent quarries of Hymettian and Pentelic marble. The Hymettus produces also the finest honey. The silver mines in Attica were at first of importance, but are now exhausted. The workmen, when the mines yieldeda bad return to their labour, committed to the furnace the old refuse and scoria, and hence obtained very pure silver, for the former workmen had carried on the process in the furnace unskilfully.

Although the Attic is the best of all the kinds of honey, yet by far the best of the Attic honey is that found in the country of the silver mines,327which they call acapniston, or unsmoked, from the mode of its preparation.

24. Among the rivers is the Cephissus, having its source from the Trinemeis, it flows through the plain (where are the Gephyra, and the Gephyrismi) between the legs or walls extending from the Asty to the Piræus, and empties itself into the Phalericum. Its character is chiefly that of a winter torrent, for in the summer time it fails altogether. Such also, for the most part, is the Ilissus, which flows from the other side of the Asty to the same coast, from the parts above Agra, and the Lyceium, and the fountain celebrated by Plato in the Phædrus. So much then respecting Attica.

1.Nextin order is Bœotia. When I speak of this country, and of the contiguous nations, I must, for the sake of perspicuity, repeat what I have said before.

We have said, that the sea-coast stretches from Sunium to the north as far as Thessalonica, inclining a little toward the west, and having the sea on the east, that parts situated above this shore towards the west extend like belts328parallel to one another through the whole country. The first of these belts is Attica with Megaris, the eastern side of which extendsfrom Sunium to Oropus, and Bœotia; on the western side is the isthmus, and the Alcyonian sea commencing at Pagæ and extending as far as the boundaries of Bœotia near Creusa, the remaining two sides are formed by the sea-shore from Sunium to the Isthmus, and the mountain tract nearly parallel with this, which separates Attica from Bœotia.

The second belt is Bœotia, stretching from east to west from the Eubœan sea to the Crisæan Gulf, nearly of equal length with Attica, or perhaps somewhat less; in quality of soil however it greatly surpasses Attica.

2. Ephorus declares the superiority of Bœotia over the bordering nations not only in this respect, but also because it alone has three seas adjoining it, and a great number of harbours. At the Crisæan and Corinthian Gulfs it received the commodities of Italy, Sicily, and Africa. Towards Eubœa the sea-coast branches off on each side of the Euripus; in one direction towards Aulis and Tanagrica, in the other, to Salganeus and Anthedon; on one side there is an open sea to Egypt, and Cyprus, and the islands; on the other to Macedonia, the Propontis, and the Hellespont. He adds also that Eubœa is almost a part of Bœotia, because the Euripus is very narrow, and the opposite shores are brought into communication by a bridge of two plethra in length.329

For these reasons he praises the country, and says, that it has natural advantages for obtaining supreme command, but that from want of careful education and learning, even those who were from time to time at the head of affairs did not long maintain the ascendency they had acquired, as appears from the example of Epaminondas; at his death the Thebans immediately lost the supremacy they had just acquired. This is to be attributed, says Ephorus, to their neglect of learning, and of intercourse with mankind, and to their exclusive cultivation of military virtues. It must be added also, that learning and knowledge are peculiarly useful in dealing with Greeks, but in the case of Barbarians, force is preferable to reason. In fact the Romans in early times, when carrying on war with savage nations, did not require such accomplishments, but from the time that they began to be concerned in transactions with more civilized people, they applied themselves to learning, and so established universal dominion.

3. Bœotia was first occupied by Barbarians, Aones, and Temmices, a wandering people from Sunium, by Leleges, and Hyantes. Then the Phœnicians, who accompanied Cadmus, possessed it. He fortified the Cadmeian land, and transmitted the government to his descendants. The Phœnicians founded Thebes, and added it to the Cadmeian territory. They preserved their dominion, and exercised it over the greatest part of the Bœotians till the time of the expedition of the Epigoni. At this period they abandoned Thebes for a short time, but returned again. In the same manner when they were ejected by Thracians and Pelasgi, they established their rule in Thessaly together with the Arnæi for a long period, so that all the inhabitants obtained the name of Bœotians. They returned afterwards to their own country, at the time the Æolian expedition was preparing at Aulis in Bœotia which the descendants of Orestes were equipping for Asia. After having united the Orchomenian tract to Bœotia (for formerly they did not form one community, nor has Homer enumerated these people with the Bœotians, but by themselves, calling them Minyæ) with the assistance of the Orchomenians they drove out the Pelasgi, who went to Athens, a part of which city is called from this people Pelasgic. The Pelasgi however settled below Hymettus. The Thracians retreated to Parnassus. The Hyantes founded Hyampolis in Phocis.

4. Ephorus relates that the Thracians, after making treaty with the Bœotians, attacked them by night, when encamped in a careless manner during a time of peace. The Thracians when reproached, and accused of breaking the treaty, replied, that they had not broken it, for the conditions were “by day,” whereas they had made the attack by night, whence the common proverb, “a Thracian shuffle.”

The Pelasgi and the Bœotians also went during the war to consult the oracle. He cannot tell, he says, what answer was given to the Pelasgi, but the prophetess replied to the Bœotians that they would prosper by committing some act of impiety. The messengers sent to consult the oracle suspecting the prophetess of favouring the Pelasgi on account of their relationship, (for the temple had originally belonged to the Pelasgi,) seized the woman, and threw her upon a burning pile, considering, that whether her conduct had been right orwrong, in either case they were right; for if she had uttered a deceitful answer she was duly punished; but if not, they had only complied with the command of the oracle. Those in charge of the temple did not like to put to death, particularly in the temple, the perpetrators of this act without a formal judgment, and therefore subjected them to a trial. They were summoned before the priestesses, who were also the prophetesses, being the two survivors out of the three. The Bœotians alleged that there was no law permitting women to act as judges; an equal number of men were therefore chosen. The men acquitted; the women condemned. As the votes were equal, those for acquittal prevailed. Hence at Dodona it is to the Bœotians only that men deliver oracles. The prophetesses however give a different meaning to the answer of the oracle, and say, that the god enjoins the Bœotians to steal the tripods used at home, and to send them annually to Dodona. This they did, for they were in the habit of carrying away by night some of the dedicated tripods, which they concealed in their clothes, in order to convey them clandestinely as offerings to Dodona.

5. After this they assisted Penthilus in sending out the Æolian colony, and despatched a large body of their own people with him, so that it was called the Bœotian colony.

A long time afterwards the country was devastated during the war with the Persians at Platææ. They afterwards so far recovered their power, that the Thebans, having vanquished the Lacedæmonians in two battles,330disputed the sovereignty of Greece. Epaminondas, however, was killed, and they were disappointed in their hope of obtaining this supremacy. They, nevertheless, fought in defence of the Greeks against the Phocæans, who had plundered their common temple. Reduced by this war, and by the Macedonians, at the time they invaded Greece, they lost their city, which was afterwards restored to them, and rebuilt by the Macedonians themselves, who had razed it.331From that period to our owntimes their affairs have continued to decline, nor do they retain the appearance even of a considerable village. Other cities (of Bœotia) have experienced a similar fate, with the exception of Tanagra and Thespiæ, which in comparison with Thebes are in a tolerable condition.

6. We are next to make a circuit of the country, beginning at the sea-coast, opposite Eubœa, which is continuous with that of Attica.

We begin this circuit from Oropus, and the Sacred Harbour,332which is called Delphinium, opposite to which is the ancient Eretria in Eubœa, having a passage across of 60 stadia. After Delphinium, at the distance of 20 stadia, is Oropus, and opposite to this is the present Eretria.333There is a passage over to it of 40 stadia.

7. Next is Delium,334a place sacred to Apollo, in imitation of that at Delos. It is a small town of the Tanagræans, at the distance of 30 stadia from Aulis.

To this place the Athenians, after their defeat in battle, fled in disorder.335In the flight, Socrates the philosopher (who having lost his horse, was serving on foot) observed Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, upon the ground, fallen from his horse; he raised him upon his shoulders and carried him away in safety, a distance of many stadia, until the rout was at an end.

8. Then follows a great harbour, which is called Bathys (or deep harbour): then Aulis,336a rocky spot, and a village of the Tanagræans, with a harbour capable of containing 50 small vessels. So that probably the naval station of theGreeks was in the Great Harbour. Near it is the Chalcidic Euripus, to which, from Sunium, are 70 stadia. On the Euripus, as I have already said, there is a bridge of two plethra in length;337at each end is a tower, one on the side of Chalcis, the other on the side of Bœotia; and a passage (for the water) is constructed between them.338With regard to the tide of the Euripus, it is sufficient to say thus much, that according to report, it changes seven times each day and night; the cause must be investigated elsewhere.

9. Salganeus is a place situated near the Euripus, upon a height. It has its name from Salganeus, a Bœotian, who was buried there. He was guide to the Persians, when they sailed into this passage from the Maliac Gulf. It is said, that he was put to death before they reached the Euripus, by the commander of the fleet, Megabates, as a traitor, for conducting the fleet deceitfully into a narrow opening of the sea, having no outlet. The Barbarian, however, perceived his mistake, and regretting what he had done, thought him worthy of burial, because he had been unjustly put to death.

10. Near Oropus339is a place called Graia, the temple also of Amphiaraus, and the monument of Narcissus the Eretrian, surnamed Sigelus, (the Silent,) because passers-by keep silence. Some say that Graia and Tanagra340are the same. The territory of Pœmandris, however, is the same as that of Tanagra. The Tanagræans are also called Gephyræans. The temple of Amphiaraus was transferred by command of an oracle to this place from the Thebaic Cnopia.

11. Mycalessus is a village in the Tanagrian district. It lies upon the road from Thebes to Chalcis. It is called in the Bœotian dialect Mycalettus. Harma, also, an uninhabited village in the Tanagrian territory, derives its name from thechariot (ἅρμα) of Amphiaraus, and is a different place from Harma in Attica, near Phyle,341a demus of Attica bordering upon Tanagra. There the proverb originated,

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