[17.1] Afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship; [2] for the Pelasgians, too, were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus. They were unfortunate in many ways but particularly in wandering much and in having no fixed abode. For they first lived in the neighbourhood of the Achaean Argos, as it is now called, being natives of the country, according to most accounts. They received their name originally from Pelasgus, their king. [3] Pelasgus was the son of Zeus, it is said, and of Niobê the daughter of Phoroneus, who, as the legend goes, was the first mortal woman Zeus had knowledge of. In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they removed to the country which was then called Haemonia and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Haemonia they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them, after the names of their leaders, Phthiotis, Achaia and Pelasgiotis. After they had remained there five generations, during which they attained to the greatest prosperity while enjoying the produce of the most fertile plains in Thessaly, about the sixth generation they were driven out of it by the Curetes and Leleges, who are now called Aetolians and Locrians, and by many others who lived near Parnassus, their enemies being commanded by Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clymenê, the daughter of Oceanus.
[18.1] And dispersing themselves in their flight, some went to Crete, others occupied some of the islands called the Cyclades, some settled in the region called Hestiaeotis near Olympus and Ossa, others crossed into Boeotia, Phocis and Euboea; and some, passing over into Asia, occupied many places on the coast along the Hellespont and many of the adjacent islands, particularly the one now called Lesbos, uniting with those who composed the first colony that was sent thither from Greece under Macar, the son of Crinacus. [2] But the greater part of them, turning inland, took refuge among the inhabitants of Dodona, their kinsmen, against whom, as a sacred people, none would make war; and there they remained for a reasonable time. But when they perceived they were growing burdensome to their hosts, since the land could not support them all, they left it in obedience to an oracle that commanded them to sail to Italy, which was then called Saturnia. [3] And having prepared a great many ships they set out to cross the Ionian Gulf, endeavouring to reach the nearest parts of Italy. But as the wind was in the south and they were unacquainted with those regions, they were carried too far out to sea and landed at one of the mouths of the Po called the Spinetic mouth. In that very place they left their ships and such of their people as were least able to bear hardships, placing a guard over the ships, to the end that, if their affairs did not prosper, they might be sure of a retreat. [4] Those who were left behind there surrounded their camp with a wall and brought in plenty of provisions in their ships; and when their affairs seemed to prosper satisfactorily, they built a city and called it by the same name as the mouth of the river. These people attained to a greater degree of prosperity than any others who dwelt on the Ionian Gulf; for they had the mastery at sea for a long time, and out of their revenues from the sea they used to send tithes to the god at Delphi, which were among the most magnificent sent by any people. [5] But later, when the barbarians in the neighbourhood made war upon them in great numbers, they deserted the city; and these barbarians in the course of time were driven out by the Romans. So perished that part of the Pelasgians that was left at Spina.
[19.1] Those, however, who had turned inland crossed the mountainous part of Italy and came to the territory of the Umbrians who were neighbours to the Aborigines. (The Umbrians inhabited a great many other part of Italy also and were an exceeding great and ancient people.) At first the Pelasgians made themselves masters of the lands where they first settled and took some of the small towns belonging to the Umbrians. But when a great army came together against them, they were terrified at the number of their enemies and betook themselves to the country of the Aborigines. [2] And these, seeing fit to treat them as enemies, made haste to assemble out of the places nearest at hand, in order to drive them out of the country. But the Pelasgians luckily chanced to be encamped at that time near Cutilia, a city of the Aborigines hard by the sacred lake, and observing the little island circling round in it and learning from the captives they had taken in the fields the name of the inhabitants, they concluded that their oracle was now fulfilled. For this oracle, which had been delivered to them in Dodona and which Lucius Mallius, no obscure man, says he himself saw engraved in ancient characters upon one of the tripods standing in the precinct of Zeus, was as follows:
“Fare forth the Sicels’ Saturnian land to seek,
Aborigines’ Cotylê, too, where floats an isle;
With these men mingling, to Phoebus send a tithe,
And heads to Cronus’ son, and send to the sire a man.”
[20] [1] When, therefore, the Aborigines advanced with a numerous army, the Pelasgians approached unarmed with olive branches in their hands, and telling them of their own fortunes, begged that they would receive them in a friendly manner to dwell with them, assuring them that they would not be troublesome, since Heaven itself was guiding them into this one particular country according to the oracle, which they explained to them. [2] When the Aborigines heard this, they resolved to obey the oracle and to gain these Greeks as allies against their barbarian enemies, for they were hard pressed by their war with the Sicels. They accordingly made a treaty with the Pelasgians and assigned to them some of their own lands that lay near the sacred lake; the greater part of these were marshy and are still called Velia, in accordance with the ancient form of their language. [3] For it was the custom of the ancient Greeks generally to place before those words that began with a vowel the syllable ου, written with one letter (this was like a gamma, formed by two oblique lines joined to one upright line), as ϝελένη, ϝάναξ, ϝοῖκος, ϝέαρ and many such words. [4] Afterwards, a considerable part of the Pelasgians, as the land was not sufficient to support them all, prevailed on the Aborigines to join them in an expedition against the Umbrians, and marching forth, they suddenly fell upon and captured Croton, a rich and large city of theirs. And using this place as a stronghold and fortress against the Umbrians, since it was sufficiently fortified as a place of defence in time of war and had fertile pastures lying round it, they made themselves masters also of a great many other places and with great zeal assisted the Aborigines in the war they were still engaged in against the Sicels, till they drove them out of their country. [5] And the Pelasgians in common with the Aborigines settled many cities, some of which had been previously inhabited by the Sicels and others which they built themselves; among these are Caere, then called Agylla, and Pisae, Saturnia, Alsium and some others, of which they were in the course of time dispossessed by the Tyrrhenians.
[21.1] But Falerii and Fescennium were even down to my day inhabited by Romans and preserved some small remains of the Pelasgian nation, though they had earlier belonged to the Sicels. In these cities there survived for a very long time many of the ancient customs formerly in use among the Greeks, such as the fashion of their arms of war, like Argolic bucklers and spears; and whenever they sent out an army beyond their borders, either to begin a war or to resist an invasion, certain holy men, unarmed, went ahead of the rest bearing the terms of peace; similar, also, were the structure of their temples, the images of their gods, their purifications and sacrifices and many other things of that nature. [2] But the most conspicuous monument which shows that those people who drove out the Sicels once lived at Argos in the temple of Juno at Falerii, built in the same fashion as the one at Argos; here, too, the manner of the sacrificial ceremonies was similar, holy women served the sacred precinct, and an unmarried girl, called the canephorus or “b
asket-bearer,” performed the initial rites of the sacrifices, and there were choruses of virgins who praised the goddess in the songs of their country. [3] These people also possessed themselves of no inconsiderable part of the Campanian plains, as they are called, which afford not only very fertile pasturage but most pleasing prospects as well, having driven the Auronissi, a barbarous nation, out of part of them. There they built various other cities and also Larisa, encamp they named after their mother-city in the Peloponnesus. [4] Some of these cities were standing even to my day, having often changed their inhabitants. But Larisa has been long deserted and shows to the people of to-day no other sign of its ever having been inhabited but its name, and even this is not generally known. It was not far from the place called Forum Popilii. They also occupied a great many other places, both on the coast and in the interior, which they had taken from the Sicels.
[22.1] The Sicels, being warred upon by both the Pelasgians and the Aborigines, found themselves incapable of making resistance any longer, and so, taking with them their wives and children and such of their possessions as were any other gold or silver, they abandoned all their country to these foes. Then, turning their course southward through the mountains, they proceeded through all the lower part of Italy, and being driven away from every place, they at last prepared rafts at the Strait and, watching for a downward current, passed over from Italy to the adjacent island. [2] It was then occupied by the Sicanians, an Iberian nation, who, fleeing from the Ligurians, had but lately settled there and had caused the island, previously named Trinacria, from its triangular shape, to be called Sicania, after themselves. There were very few inhabitants in it for so large an island, and the greater part of it was as yet unoccupied. Accordingly, when the Sicels landed there they first settled in the western parts and afterwards in several others; and from these people the island began to be called Sicily. [3] In this manner the Sicel nation left Italy, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos, in the third generation before the Trojan war, and in the twenty-sixth year of the priesthood of Alcyonê at Argos. But he says that two Italian expeditions passed over into Sicily, the first consisting of the Elymians, who had been driven out of their country by the Oenotrians, and the second, five years later, of the Ausonians, who fled from the Iapygians. As king of the latter group he names Sicelus, from whom both the people and the island got their name. [4] But according to Philistus of Syracuse the date of the crossing was the eightieth year before the Trojan war and the people who passed over from Italy were neither Ausonians nor Elymians, but Ligurians, whose leader was Sicelus; this Sicelus, he says, was the son of Italus and in his reign the people were called Sicels, [5] and he adds that these Ligurians had been driven out of their country by the Umbrians and Pelasgians. Antiochus of Syracuse does not give the date of the crossing, but says the people who migrated were the Sicels, who had been forced to leave by the Oenotrians and Opicans, and that they chose Straton as leader of the colony. But Thucydides writes that the people who left Italy were the Sicels and those who drove them out the Opicans, and that the date was many years after the Trojan war. Such, then, are the reports given by credible authorities concerning the Sicels who changed their abode from Italy to Sicily.
[23.1] The Pelasgians, after conquering a large and fertile region, taking over many towns and building others, made great and rapid progress, becoming populous, rich and in every way prosperous. Nevertheless, they did not long enjoy their prosperity, but at the moment when they seemed to all the world to be in the most flourishing condition they were visited by divine wrath, and some of them were destroyed by calamities inflicted by the hand of Heaven, others by their barbarian neighbours; but the greatest part of them were again dispersed through Greece and the country of the barbarians (concerning whom, if I attempted to give a particular account, it would make a very long story), though some few of them remained in Italy through the care of the Aborigines. [2] The first cause of the desolation of their cities seemed to be a drought which laid waste the land, when neither any fruit remained on the trees till it was ripe, but dropped while still green, nor did such of the seed corn as sent up shoots and flowered stand for the usual period till the ear was ripe, nor did sufficient grass grow for the cattle; and of the waters some were no longer fit to drink, others shrank during the summer, and others were totally dried up. [3] And like misfortunes attended the offspring both of cattle and of women. For they were either abortive or died at birth, some by their death destroying also those that bore them; and if any got safely past the danger of the delivery, they were either maimed or defective or, being injured by some other accident, were not fit to be reared. The rest of the people, also, particularly those in the prime of life, were afflicted with many unusual diseases and uncommon deaths. [4] But when they asked the oracle what god or divinity they had offended to be thus afflicted and by what means they might hope for relief, the god replied that, although they had obtained what they desired, they had neglected to pay what they had promised, and that the things of greatest value were still due from them. [5] For the Pelasgians in a time of general scarcity in the land had vowed to offer to Jupiter, Apollo and the Cabeiri tithes of all their future increase; but when their prayer had been answered, they set apart and offered to the gods the promised portion of all their fruits and cattle only, as if their vow had related to them alone. This is the account related by Myrsilus of Lesbos, who uses almost the same words as I do now, except that he does not call the people Pelasgians, but Tyrrhenians, of which I shall give the reason a little later.
[24.1] When they heard the oracle which was brought to them, they were at a loss to guess the meaning of the message. While they were in this perplexity, one of the elders, conjecturing the sense of the saying, told them they had quite missed its meaning it they thought the gods complained of them without reason. Of material things they had indeed rendered to the gods all the first-fruits in the right and proper manner, but of human offspring, a thing of all others the most precious in the sight of the gods, the promised portion still remained due; if, however, the gods received their just share of this also, the oracle would be satisfied. [2] There were, indeed, some who thought that he spoke aright, but others felt that there was treachery behind his words. And when some one proposed to ask the god whether it was acceptable to him to receive tithes of human beings, they sent their messengers a second time, and the god ordered them so to do. Thereupon strife arose among them concerning the manner of choosing the tithes, and those who had the government of the cities first quarrelled among themselves [3] and afterwards the rest of the people held their magistrates in suspicion. And there began to be disorderly emigrations, such as might well be expected from a people driven forth by a frenzy and madness inflicted by the hand of Heaven. Many households disappeared entirely when part of their members left; for the relations of those who departed were unwilling to be separated from their dearest friends and remain among their worst enemies. [4] These, therefore, were the first to migrate from Italy and wander about Greece and many parts of the barbarian world; but after them others had the same experience, and this continued every year. For the rulers in these cities ceased not to select the first-fruits of the youth as soon as they arrived at manhood, both because they desired to render what was due to the gods and also because they feared uprisings on the part of lurking enemies. Many, also, under specious pretences were being driven away by their enemies through hatred; so that there were many emigrations and the Pelasgian nation was scattered over most of the earth.
[25.1] Not only were the Pelasgians superior to many in warfare, as the result of their training in the midst of dangers while they lived among warlike nations, but they also rose to the highest proficiency in seamanship, by reason of their living with the Tyrrhenians; and Necessity, which is quite sufficient to give daring to those in want of a livelihood, was their leader and director in every dangerous enterprise, so that wherever they went they conquered without difficulty. [2] And the same people were called by the rest of t
he world both Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, the former name being from the country out of which they had been driven and the latter in memory of their ancient origin. I mention this so that no one, when he hears poets or historians call the Pelasgians Tyrrhenians also, may wonder how the same people got both these names. [3] Thus, with regard to them, Thucydides has a clear account of the Thracian Actê and of the cities situated in it, which are inhabited by men who speak two languages. Concerning the Pelasgian nation these are his words: “There is also a Chalcidian element among them, but the largest element is Pelasgian, belonging to the Tyrrhenians who once inhabited Lemnos and Athens.” [4] And Sophocles makes the chorus in his drama Inachus speak the following anapaestic verses:
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 3