III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXIX
XXX
XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
XXXIV
XXXV
XXXVI
XXXVII
XXXVIII
XXXIX
XL
XLI
XLII
XLIII
XLIV
XLV
XLVI
XLVII
XLVIII
XLIX
L
LI
LII
LIII
LIV
LV
LVI
LVII
LVIII
LIX
LX
LXI
LXII
LXIII
LXIV
LXV
LXVI
LVII
LVIII
LXIX
LXX
LXXI
LXXII
LXXIII
LXXIV
LXXV
LXXVI
LXXVII
LXXVIII
LXXIX
LXXX
LXXXI
LXXXII
LXXXIII
LXXXIV
LXXXV
LXXXVI
LXXXVII
LXXXVIII
LXXXIX
XC
XCI
XCII
XCIII
XCIV
XCV
XCVI
XCVII
XCVIII
XCIX
C
CI
CII
CIII
CIV
CV
CVI
CVII
CVIII
CIX
CX
CXI
CXII
CXIII
CXIV
CXV
CXVI
CXVII
CXVIII
CXIX
CXX
CXXI
CXXII
CXXIII
CXXIV
CXXV
CXXVI
CXXVII
CXXVIII
CXXIX
CXXX
CXXXI
BOOK I.
I
[Epeus] tempestate distractus a duce suo Nestore Metapontum condidit. Teucer, non receptus a patre Telamone ob segnitiam non vindicatae fratris iniuriae, Cyprum adpulsus cognominem patriae suae Salamina constituit: Pyrrhus, Achillis filius, Epirum occupavit, Phidippus Ephyram in Thesprotia. At rex regum Agamemnon, tempestate in Cretam insulam reiectus, tres ibi urbes statuit, duas a patriae nomine, unam a victoriae memoria, Mycenas, Tegeam, Pergamum. Idem mox scelere patruelis fratris Aegisthi, hereditarium exercentis in eum odium, et facinore uxoris oppressus occiditur. Regni potitur Aegisthus per annos septem. Hunc Orestes matremque, socia consiliorum omnium sorore Electra, virilis animi femina, obtruncat. Factum eius a diis comprobatum spatio vitae et felicitate imperii apparuit; quippe vixit annis nonaginta, regnavit septuaginta. Quin se etiam a Pyrrho Achillis filio virtute vindicavit; nam quod pactae eius Menelai atque Helenae filiae Hermiones nuptias occupaverat, Delphis eum interfecit. Per haec tempora Lydus et Tyrrhenus fratres cum regnarent in Lydia, sterilitate frugum compulsi sortiti sunt, uter cum parte multitudinis patria decederet. Sors Tyrrhenum contigit. Pervectus in Italiam et loco et incolis et mari nobile ac perpetuum a se nomen dedit. Post Orestis interitum filii eius Penthilus et Tisamenus regnavere triennio.
[1] (1) Epeus, separated by a storm from Nestor, his chief, founded Metapontum. Teucer, disowned by his father Telamon because of his laxity in not avenging the wrong done to his brother, was driven to Cyprus and founded Salamis, named after the place of his birth. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, established himself in Epirus; Phidippus in Ephyra in Thesprotia. (2) Agamemnon, king of kings, cast by a tempest upon the island of Crete, founded there three cities, two of which, Mycenae and Tegea, were named after towns in his own country, and the other was called Pergamum in commemoration of his victory.
Agamemnon was soon afterwards struck down and slain by the infamous crime of Aegisthus, his cousin, who still kept up against him the feud of his house, and by the wicked act of his wife. (3) Aegisthus maintained possession of the kingdom for seven years. Orestes slew Aegisthus and his own mother, seconded in all his plans by his sister Electra, a woman with the courage of a man. That his deed had the approval of the gods was made clear by the length of his life and the felicity of his reign, since he lived ninety years and reigned seventy. Furthermore, he also took revenge upon Pyrrhus the son of Achilles in fair fight, for he slew him at Delphi because he had forestalled him in marrying Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen who had been pledged to himself.
(4) About this time two brothers, Lydus and Tyrrhenus, were joint kings in Lydia. Hard pressed by the unproductiveness of their crops, they drew lots to see which should leave his country with part of the population. The lot fell upon Tyrrhenus. He sailed to Italy, and from him the place wherein he settled, its inhabitants, and the sea received their famous and their lasting names.
After the death of Orestes his sons Penthilus and Tisamenus reigned for three years.
II
Tum fere anno octogesimo post Troiam captam, centesimo et vicesimo quam Hercules ad deos excesserat, Pelopis progenies, quae omni hoc tempore pulsis Heraclidis Peloponnesi imperium obtinuerat, ab Herculis progenie expellitur. Duces recuperandi impeii fuere Temenus, Cresphontes, Aristodemus, quorum abavus fuerat. Eodem fere tempore Athenae sub regibus esse desierunt, quarum ultimus rex fuit Codrus, Melanthi filius, vir non praetereundus. Quippe cum Lacedaemonii gravi bello Atticos premerent respondissetque Pythius, quorum dux ab hoste esset occisus, eos futuros superiores, deposita veste regia pastoralem cultum induit, immixtusque castris hostium, de industria rixam ciens, imprudenter interemptus est. Codrum cum morte aeterna gloria, Atheniensis secuta victoria est. Quis eum non miretur, qui iis artibus mortem quaesierit, quibus ab ignavis vita quaeri solet? Huius filius Medon primus archon Athenis fuit. Ab hoc posten apud Atticos dicti Medontidae, sed hic insequentesque archontes usque ad Charopem, dum viverent, eum honorem usurpabant, Peloponnesii digredientes finibus Atticis Megara, mediam Corintho Athenisque urbem, condidere. Ea tempestate et Tyria classis, plurimum pollens mari, in ultimo Hispaniae tractu, in extremo nostri orbis termino, in insula circumfusa Oceano, perexiguo a continenti divisa freto, Gadis condidit. Ab iisdem post paucos annos in Africa Utica condita est. Exclusi ab Heraclidis Orestis liberi iactatique cum variis casibus tum saevitia maris quinto decimo anno sedem cepere circa Lesbum insulam.
[2] (1) About eighty years after the capture of Troy, and a hundred and twenty after Hercules had departed to the gods, the descendants of Pelops, who, during all this time had sway in the Peloponnesus after they had driven out the descendants of Hercules, were again in turn driven out by them. The leaders in the recovery of the sovereignty were Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, the great-great‑grandsons of Hercules.
It was about this time that Athens ceased to be governed by kings. The last king of Athens was Codrus the son of Melanthus, a man whose story cannot be passed over. Athens was hard pressed in war by the Lacedaemonians, and the Pythian oracle had given the response that the side whose general should be killed by the enemy would be victorious. Codrus, therefore, laying aside his kingly robes and donning the garb of a shepherd, made his way into the camp of the enemy, deliberately provoked a qua
rrel, and was slain without being recognized. (2) By his death Codrus gained immortal fame, and the Athenians the victory. Who could withhold admiration from the man who sought death by the selfsame artifice by which cowards seek life? His son Medon was the first archon at Athens. It was after him that the archons who followed him were called Medontidae among the people of Attica. Medon and all the succeeding archons until Charops continued to hold that office for life. The Peloponnesians, when they withdrew from Attic territory, founded Megara, a city midway between Corinth and Athens.
(3) About this time, also, the fleet of Tyre, which controlled the sea, founded in the farthest district of Spain, on the remotest confines of our world, the city of Cadiz, on an island in the ocean separated from the mainland by a very narrow strait. The Tyrians a few years later also founded Utica in Africa.
The sons of Orestes, expelled by the Heraclidae, were driven about by many vicissitudes and by raging storms at sea, and, in the fifteenth year, finally settled on and about the island of Lesbos.
III
Tum Graecia maximis concussa est motibus. Achaei ex Laconica pulsi eas occupavere sedes, quas nunc obtinent; Pelasgi Athenas commigravere, acerque belli iuvenis nomine Thessalus, natione Thesprotius, cum magna civium manu eam regionem armis occupavit, quae nunc ab eius nomine Thessalia appellatur, ante Myrmidonum vocitata civitas. Quo nomine mirari convenit eos, qui Iliaca componentes tempora de ea regione ut Thessalia commemorant. Quod cum alii faciant, tragici frequentissime faciunt, quibus minime id concedendum est; nihil enim ex persona poetae, sed omnia sub eorum, qui illo tempore vixerunt, disserunt. Quod si quis a Thessalo Herculis filio eos appellatos Thessalos dicet, reddenda erit ei ratio, cur numquarn ante hunc insequentem Thessalum ea gens id nominis usurpaverit. Paulo ante Aletes, sextus ab Hercule, Hippotis filius, Corinthum, quae antea fuerat Ephyre, claustra Peloponnesi continentem, in Isthmo condidit. Neque est quod miremur ab Homero nominari Corinthum; nam ex persona poetae et hanc urbem et quasdam Ionum colonias iis nominibus appellat, quibus vocabantur aetate eius, multo post Ilium captum conditae.
[3] (1) Greece was then shaken by mighty disturbances. The Achaeans, driven from Laconia, established themselves in those localities which they occupy to‑day. The Pelasgians migrated to Athens, and a warlike youth named Thessalus, of the race of the Thesprotians, with a great force of his fellow-countrymen took armed possession of that region, which, after his name, is now called Thessaly. Hitherto it had been called the state of the Myrmidones.
(2) On this account, one has a right to be surprised that writers who deal with the times of the Trojan war speak of this region as Thessaly. This is a common practice, but especially among the tragic poets, for whom less allowance should be made; for the poets do not speak in person, but entirely through mouths of characters who lived in the time referred to. But if anyone insists that the people were named Thessalians from Thessalus the son of Hercules, he will have to explain why this people never adopted the name until the time of this second Thessalus.
(3) Shortly before these events Aletes, the son of Hippotes, descended from Hercules in the sixth generation, founded upon the isthmus the city of Corinth, the key to the Peloponnesus, on the site of the former Ephyre. There is no need for surprise that Corinth is mentioned by Homer, for it is in his own person as poet that Homer calls this city and some of the Ionian colonies by the names which they bore in his day, although they were founded long after the capture of Troy.
IV
Athenienses in Euboea Chalcida et Eretriam colonis occupavere, Lacedaemonii in Asia Magnesiam. Nec multo post Chalcidenses orti, ut praediximus, Atticis Hippocle et Megasthene ducibus Cumas in Italia condiderunt. Huius classis corsum esse directum alii columbae antecedeatis volatu ferunt, alii nocturno aeris sono, qualis Cerealibus sacris cieri solet. Pars horum civium magno post intervallo Neapolim condidit. Utriusque urbis eximia semper in Romanos fides facit eas nobilitate atque amoenitate sua dignissimas. Sed illis diligentior ritus patrii mansit custodia, Cumanos Osca mutavit vicinia. Vires autem veteres earum urbium hodieque magnitudo ostentat moenium. Subsequenti tempore magna vis Graecae iuventutis, abundantia virium, sedes quaeritans in Asiam se effudit. Nam et Iones, duce Ione, profecti Athenis nobilissimam partem regionis maritimae occupavere, quae hodieque appellatur Ionia, urbesque constituere Ephesum, Miletum, Colophona, Prienen, Lebedum, , Clazomenas, Phocaeam, multasque in Aegaeo atque Icario occupavere Myuntem, Erythram insulas, Samum, Chium, Andrum, Tenum, Parum, Delum aliasque ignobiles. 4 Et mox Aeolii eadem profecti Graecia longissimisque acti erroribus non mlnus inlustres obtinuerunt locos clarasque urbes condiderunt, Smymam, Cymen, Larissam, Myrinam Mytilenenque et alias urbes, quae sunt in Lesbo insula.
[4] (1) The Athenians established colonies at Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea, and the Lacedaemonians the colony of Magnesia in Asia. Not long afterwards, the Chalcidians, who, as I have already said, were of Attic origin, founded Cumae in Italy under the leadership of Hippocles and Megasthenes. According to some accounts the voyage of this fleet was guided by the flight of a dove which flew before it; according to others by the sound at night of a bronze instrument like that which is beaten at the rites of Ceres. (2) At a considerably later period, a portion of the citizens of Cumae founded Naples. The remarkable and unbroken loyalty to the Romans of both these cities makes them well worthy of their repute and of their charming situation. The Neapolitans, however, continued the careful observance of their ancestral customs; the Cumaeans, on the other hand, were changed in character by the proximity of their Oscan neighbours. The extent of their walls at the present day serves to reveal the greatness of these cities in the past.
(3) At a slightly later date a great number of young Greeks, seeking new abodes because of an excess of population at home, poured into Asia. The Ionians, setting out from Athens under the leadership of Ion, occupied the best known portion of the sea-coast, which is now called Ionia, and established the cities of Ephesus, Miletus, Colophon, Priene, Lebedus, Myus, Erythra, Clazomenae, and Phocaea, and occupied many islands in the Aegaean and Icarian seas, namely, Samos, Chios, Andros, Tenos, Paros, Delos, and other islands of lesser note. (4) Not long afterwards the Aeolians also set out from Greece, and after long wanderings took possession of places no less illustrious and founded the famous cities of Smyrna, Cyme, Larissa, Myrina, Mytilene, and other cities on the island of Lesbos.
V
Clarissimum deinde Homeri inluxit ingenium, sine exemplo maximum, qui magnitudine operis et fulgore carminum solus appellari poeta meruit; in quo hoc masimum est, quod neque ante illum, quem ipse imitaretur, neque post illum, qui eum imitari posset, inventus est. Neque quemquam alium, cuius operis primus auctor fuerit, in eo perfectissimum praeter Homerum et Archilochum reperiemus. Hic longius a temporibus belli, quod composuit, Troici, quam quidam rentur, abfuit; nam ferme ante annos nongentos quinquaginta floruit, intra mille natus est. Quo nomine non est mirandum, quod saepe illud usurpat “ΟΙΟΙ ΝΥΝ BROTOI EISIN”; hoc enim ut hominum, ita saeculorum notatur differentia. Quem si quis caecum genitum putat, omnibus sensibus orbus est.
[5] (1) Then the brilliant genius of Homer burst upon the world, the greatest beyond compare, who by virtue of the magnitude of his work and the brilliance of his poetry alone deserves the name of poet. (2) His highest claim to greatness is that, before his day, no one was found for him to imitate, nor after his day has one been found to imitate him. Nor shall we find any other poet who achieved perfection in the field in which he was also the pioneer, with the exception of Homer and Archilochus. (3) Homer lived at a period more remote than some people think from the Trojan war of which he wrote; for he flourished only about nine hundred and fifty years ago, and it is less than a thousand since his birth. It is therefore not surprising that he often uses the expression οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν, for by it is denoted the difference, not merely in men, but in ages as well. If any man holds to the view that Homer was born blind, he is himself lacking in all his senses.
VI
Insequenti
tempore imperium Asiaticum ab Assyriis, qui id obtinuerant annis mille septuaginta, translatum est ad Medos, abhinc annos ferme octingentos septuaginta. Quippe Sardanapalum eorum regem mollitiis fluentem et nimium felicem malo suo, tertio et tricensimo loco ab Nino et Semiramide, qui Babylona condiderant, natum, ita ut semper successor regni paterni foret filius, Arbaces Medus imperio vitaque privavit. Ea aetate clarissimus Grai nominis Lycurgus Lacedaemonius, vir generis regii, fuit severissimarum iustissimarumque legum auctor et disciplinae convenientissimae viris, cuius quam diu Sparta diligens fuit, excelsissime floruit. Hoc tractu temporum ante annos quinque et sexaginta quam urbs Romana conderetur, ab Elissa Tyria, quam quidam Dido autumant, Carthago conditur. Circa quod tempus Caranus, vir generis regii, undecimus ab Hercule, profectus Argis regnum Macedoniae occupavit; a quo Magnus Alexander, cum fuerit septimus decimus, iure materni generis Achille auctore, paterni Hercule gloriatus est. Aemilius Sura de annis populi Romani: “Assyrii principes omnium gentium rerum potiti sunt, deinde Medi, postea Persae, deinde Macedones; exinde duobus regibus Philippo et Antiocho, qui a Macedonibus oriundi erant, haud multo post Carthaginem subactam devictis summa imperii ad populum Romanum pervenit. Inter hoc tempus et initium regis Nini Assyriorum, qui princeps rerum potitus est, intersunt anni MDCCCCXCV.”
[6] (1) In the following age — about eight hundred and seventy years ago — the sovereignty of Asia passed to the medes from the Assyrians, who had held it for ten hundred and seventy years. (2) Indeed, it was their king Sardanapalus, a man enervated by luxurious living, whose excess of fortune was his undoing. Thirty-third, in direct succession of father and son, from Ninus and Semiramis, who had founded Babylon, he was deprived alike of his empire and of his life by Arbaces the Mede.
(3) At this time lived Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian, one of the most illustrious personages of Greece, a man of royal descent, the author of legislation most severe and most just, and of a discipline excellently adapted for the making of men. As long as Sparta followed it, she flourished in the highest degree.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 40