Delphi Complete Works of Pausanias

by Pausanias

  [7.5.5] You would be delighted too with the sanctuary of Heracles at Erythrae and with the temple of Athena at Priene, the latter because of its image and the former on account of its age. The image is like neither the Aeginetan, as they are called, nor yet the most ancient Attic images; it is absolutely Egyptian, if ever there was such. There was a wooden raft, on which the god set out from Tyre in Phoenicia. The reason for this we are not told even by the Erythraeans themselves.

  [7.5.6] They say that when the raft reached the Ionian sea it came to rest at the cape called Mesate (Middle) which is on the mainland, just midway between the harbor of the Erythraeans and the island of Chios. When the raft rested off the cape the Erythraeans made great efforts, and the Chians no less, both being keen to land the image on their own shores.

  [7.5.7] At last a man of Erythrae (his name was Phormio) who gained a living by the sea and by catching fish, but had lost his sight through disease, saw a vision in a dream to the effect that the women of Erythrae must cut off their locks, and in this way the men would, with a rope woven from the hair, tow the raft to their shores. The women of the citizens absolutely refused to obey the dream;

  [7.5.8] but the Thracian women, both the slaves and the free who lived there, offered themselves to be shorn. And so the men of Erythrae towed the raft ashore. Accordingly no women except Thracian women are allowed within the sanctuary of Heracles, and the hair rope is still kept by the natives. The same people say that the fisherman recovered his sight and retained it for the rest of his life.

  [7.5.9] There is also in Erythrae a temple of Athena Polias and a huge wooden image of her sitting on a throne; she holds a distaff in either hand and wears a firmament on her head. That this image is the work of Endoeus we inferred, among other signs, from the workmanship, and especially from the white marble images of Graces and Seasons that stand in the open before the entrance. A sanctuary too of Asclepius was made by the Smyrnaeans in my time between Mount Coryphe and a sea into which no other water flows.

  [7.5.10] Ionia has other things to record besides its sanctuaries and its climate. There is, for instance, in the land of the Ephesians the river Cenchrius, the strange mountain of Pion and the spring Halitaea. The land of Miletus has the spring Biblis, of whose love the poets have sung. In the land of Colophon is the grove of Apollo, of ash-trees, and not far from the grove is the river Ales, the coldest river in Ionia.

  [7.5.11] In the land of Lebedus are baths, which are both wonderful and useful. Teos, too, has baths at Cape Macria, some in the clefts of the rock, filled by the tide, others made to display wealth. The Clazomenians have baths (incidentally they worship Agamemnon) and a cave called the cave of the mother of Pyrrhus; they tell a legend about Pyrrhus the shepherd.

  [7.5.12] The Erythraeans have a district called Calchis, from which their third tribe takes its name, and in Calchis is a cape stretching into the sea, and on it are sea baths, the most useful baths in Ionia. The Smyrnaeans have the river Meles, with its lovely water, and at its springs is the grotto, where they say that Homer composed his poems.

  [7.5.13] One of the sights of Chios is the grave of Oenopion, about whose exploits they tell certain legends. The Samians have on the road to the Heraeum the tomb of Rhadine and Leontichus, and those who are crossed in love are wont to go to the tomb and pray. Ionia, in fact, is a land of wonders that are but little inferior to those of Greece.

  THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE, HISTORY

  [7.6.1] VI. When the Ionians were gone the Achaeans divided their land among themselves and settled in their cities. These were twelve in number, at least such as were known to all the Greek world; Dyme, the nearest to Elis, after it Olenus, Pharae, Triteia, Rhypes, Aegium, Ceryneia, Bura, Helice also and Aegae, Aegeira and Pellene, the last city on the side of Sicyonia. In them, which had previously been inhabited by Ionians, settled the Achaeans and their princes.

  [7.6.2] Those who held the greatest power among the Achaeans were the sons of Tisamenus, Daimenes, Sparton, Tellis and Leontomenes; his eldest son, Cometes, had already crossed with a fleet to Asia. These then at the time held sway among the Achaeans along with Damasias, the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes, who on his father’s side was cousin to the sons of Tisamenus. Equally powerful with the chiefs already mentioned were two Achaeans from Lacedaemon, Preugenes and his son, whose name was Patreus. The Achaeans allowed them to found a city in their territory, and to it was given the name Patrae from Patreus.

  [7.6.3] The wars of the Achaeans were as follow. In the expedition of Agamemnon to Troy they furnished, while still dwelling in Lacedaemon and Argos, the largest contingent in the Greek army. When the Persians under Xerxes attacked Greece the Achaeans it is clear had no part in the advance of Leonidas to Thermopylae, nor in the naval actions fought by the Athenians with Themistocles off Euboea and at Salamis, and they are not included in the Laconian or in the Attic list of allies.

  [7.6.4] They were absent from the action at Plataea, for otherwise the Achaeans would surely have had their name inscribed on the offering of the Greeks at Olympia. My view is that they stayed at home to guard their several fatherlands, while because of the Trojan war they scorned to be led by Dorians of Lacedaemon. This became plain in course of time. For when later on the Lacedaemonians began the war with the Athenians, the Achaeans were eager for the alliance with Patrae, and were no less well disposed towards Athens.

  [7.6.5] Of the wars waged afterwards by the confederate Greeks, the Achaeans took part in the battle of Chaeroneia against the Macedonians under Philip, but they say that they did not march out into Thessaly to what is called the Lamian war, for they had not yet recovered from the reverse in Boeotia. The local guide at Patrae used to say that the wrestler Chilon was the only Achaean who took part in the action at Lamia.

  [7.6.6] I myself know that Adrastus, a Lydian, helped the Greeks as a private individual, although the Lydian commonwealth held aloof. A likeness of this Adrastus in bronze was dedicated in front of the sanctuary of Persian Artemis by the Lydians, who wrote an inscription to the effect that Adrastus died fighting for the Greeks against Leonnatus.

  [7.6.7] The march to Thermopylae against the army of the Gauls was left alone by all the Peloponnesians alike; for, as the barbarians had no ships, the Peloponnesians anticipated no danger from the Gauls, if only they walled off the Corinthian Isthmus from the sea at Lechaeum to the other sea at Cenchreae.

  [7.6.8] This was the policy of all the Peloponnesians at this time. But when the Gauls had somehow crossed in ships to Asia, the condition of the Greeks was as follows. No Greek state was preeminent in strength. For the Lacedaemonians were still prevented from recovering their former prosperity by the reverse at Leuctra combined with the union of the Arcadians at Megalopolis and the settlement of Messenians on their border.

  [7.6.9] Thebes had been brought so low by Alexander that when, a few years later, Cassander brought back her people, they were too weak even to hold their own. The Athenians had indeed the goodwill of Greece, especially for their later exploits, but they never found it possible to recover from the Macedonian war.

  [7.7.1] VII. When the Greeks no longer took concerted action, but each state acted for itself alone, the Achaeans enjoyed their greatest power. For except Pellene no Achaean city had at any time suffered from tyranny, while the disasters of war and of pestilence touched Achaia less than any other part of Greece. So we have what was called the Achaean League, and the Achaeans had a concerted policy and carried out concerted actions.

  [7.7.2] As a place of assembly they resolved to have Aegium, for, after Helice had been swallowed up by the sea, Aegium from of old surpassed in reputation the other cities of Achaia, while at the time it enjoyed great power. Of the remaining Greeks the Sicyonians were the first to join the Achaean League, and after the Sicyonians there entered it yet other Peloponnesians, some forthwith and others after an interval. Some too who lived outside the Isthmus were persuaded to join the Achaean League by its unbroken growth in power.

  [7.
7.3] Alone among the Greeks the Lacedaemonians were the bitter enemies of the Achaeans and openly carried on war against them. Pellene, a city of the Achaeans, was captured by Agis, the son of Eudamidas, who was king at Sparta; but he was immediately driven out by the Sicyonians under Aratus. Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas, the son of Cleonymus, king of the other royal house, won a decisive victory at Dyme over the Sicyonians under Aratus, who attacked him, and afterwards concluded a peace with the Achaeans and Antigonus.

  [7.7.4] This Antigonus at the time ruled over the Macedonians, being the guardian of Philip, the son of Demetrius, who was still a boy. He was also a cousin of Philip, whose mother he had taken to wife. With this Antigonus then and the Achaeans Cleomenes made peace, and immediately broke all the oaths he had sworn by reducing to slavery Megalopolis, the city of the Arcadians. Because of Cleomenes and his treachery the Lacedaemonians suffered the reverse at Sellasia, where they were defeated by the Achaeans under Antigonus. In my account of Arcadia I shall again have occasion to mention Cleomenes.

  [7.7.5] When Philip, the son of Demetrius, reached man’s estate, and Antigonus without reluctance handed over the sovereignty of the Macedonians, he struck fear into the hearts of all the Greeks. He copied Philip, the son of Amyntas, who was not his ancestor but really his master, especially by flattering those who were willing to betray their country for their private advantage. At banquets he would give the right hand of friendship offering cups filled not with wine but with deadly poison, a thing which I believe never entered the head of Philip the son of Amyntas, but poisoning sat very lightly on the conscience of Philip the son of Demetrius.

  [7.7.6] He also occupied with garrisons three towns to be used as bases against Greece, and in his insolent contempt for the Greek people he called these cities the keys of Greece. To watch Peloponnesus Corinth was fortified with its citadel; to watch Euboea, the Boeotians and the Phocians, Chalcis on the Euripus; against the Thessalians themselves and the Aetolian people Philip occupied Magnesia at the foot of Mount Pelium. The Athenians especially and the Aetolians he harried with continual attacks and raids of bandits.

  [7.7.7] Already, in my account of Attica I have described the alliances of Greeks and barbarians with the Athenians against Philip, and how the weakness of their allies urged the Athenians to seek help from Rome. A short time before, the Romans had sent a force ostensibly to help the Aetolians against Philip, but really more to spy on the condition of Macedonia.

  [7.7.8] At the appeal of Athens the Romans despatched an army under Otilius, to give him the name by which he was best known. For the Romans differ from the Greeks in their being called, not by the names of their fathers, but by three names at least, if not more, given to each man. Otilius had received orders from the Romans to protect Athenians and Aetolians from war with Philip.

  [7.7.9] Otilius carried out his orders up to a point, but displeased the Romans in certain of his acts. Hestiaea in Euboea and Anticyra in Phocis, which had been compelled to submit to Philip, he utterly destroyed. It was, I think, for this reason that the senate, when they heard the news, sent Flamininus to succeed Otilius in his command.

  [7.8.1] VIII. On his arrival Flamininus sacked Eretria, defeating the Macedonians who were defending it. He then marched against Corinth, which was held by Philip with a garrison, and sat down to besiege it, while at the same time he sent to the Achaeans and bade them come to Corinth with an army, if they desired to be called allies of Rome and at the same time to show their goodwill to Greece.

  [7.8.2] But the Achaeans greatly blamed Flamininus himself, and Otilius before him, for their savage treatment of ancient Greek cities which had done the Romans no harm, and were subject to the Macedonians against their will. They foresaw too that the Romans were coming to impose their domination both on Achaeans and on the rest of Greece, merely in fact to take the place of Philip and the Macedonians. At the meeting of the League many opposite views were put forward, but at last the Roman party prevailed, and the Achaeans joined Flamininus in besieging Corinth.

  [7.8.3] On being delivered from the Macedonians the Corinthians at once joined the Achaean League; they had joined it on a previous occasion, when the Sicyonians under Aratus drove all the garrison out of Acrocorinth, killing Persaeus, who had been placed in command of the garrison by Antigonus. Hereafter the Achaeans were called allies of the Romans, and in all respects right zealous allies they proved themselves to be. They followed the Romans to Macedonia against Philip; they took part in the campaign against the Aetolians; thirdly they fought side by side with the Romans against the Syrians under Antiochus.

  [7.8.4] All that the Achaeans did against the Macedonians or the host of the Syrians they did because of their friendship to the Romans; but against the Aetolians they had a long standing private quarrel to settle. When the tyranny of Nabis in Sparta was put down, a tyranny marked by extreme ferocity, the affairs of Lacedaemon at once caught the attention of the Achaeans.

  [7.8.5] At this time the Achaeans brought the Lacedaemonians into the Achaean confederacy, exacted from them the strictest justice, and razed the walls of Sparta to the ground. These had been built at haphazard at the time of the invasion of Demetrius, and afterwards of the Epeirots under Pyrrhus, but under the tyranny of Nabis they had been strengthened to the greatest possible degree of safety. So the Achaeans destroyed the walls of Sparta, and also repealed the laws of Lycurgus that dealt with the training of the youths, at the same time ordering the youths to be trained after the Achaean method.

  [7.8.6] I shall treat of this more fully in my account of Arcadia. The Lacedaemonians, deeply offended by the ordinances of the Achaeans, fled to Metellus and the other commissioners who had come from Rome. They had come, not at all to bring war upon Philip and the Macedonians, as peace had already been made between Philip and the Romans, but to judge the charges brought against Philip by the Thessalians and certain Epeirots.

  [7.8.7] In actual fact Philip himself and the Macedonian ascendancy had been put down by the Romans; Philip fighting against the Romans under Flamininus was worsted at the place called Dog’s Heads, where in spite of his desperate efforts Philip was so severely defeated in the encounter that he lost the greater part of his army and agreed with the Romans to evacuate all the cities in Greece that he had captured and forced to submit.

  [7.8.8] By prayers of all sorts, however, and by vast expenditure he secured from the Romans a nominal peace. The history of Macedonia, the power she won under Philip the son of Amyntas, and her fall under the later Philip, were foretold by the inspired Sibyl. This was her oracle:–

  [7.8.9]

  Ye Macedonians, boasting of your Argive kings,

  To you the reign of a Philip will be both good and evil.

  The first will make you kings over cities and peoples;

  The younger will lose all the honor,

  Defeated by men from west and east.

  Now those who destroyed the Macedonian empire were the Romans, dwelling in the west of Europe, and among the allies fighting on their side was Attalus . . . who also commanded the army from Mysia, a land lying under the rising sun.

  [7.9.1] IX. On the occasion to which I referred Metellus and the other commissioners resolved not to overlook the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans, and asked the officers of the League to summon the Achaeans to a meeting, so that they might receive all together instructions to be gentler in their treatment of Lacedaemon. The officers replied that they would call a meeting of the Achaeans neither for them nor for anyone else who had not a decree of the Roman senate approving the proposal for which the assembly was to be held. Metellus and his colleagues, thinking that the conduct of the Achaeans was very insolent, on their arrival at Rome made before the senate many accusations against the Achaeans, not all of which were true.

  [7.9.2] More accusations still against the Achaeans were made by Areus and Alcibiadas, Lacedaemonians of great distinction at Sparta but ungrateful to the Achaeans. For the Achaeans gave them a welcome when exiled by Nabis, and
on the tyrant’s death restored them to Sparta against the will of the Lacedaemonian people. On this occasion, therefore, they too arose and attacked the Achaeans with great vehemence before the senate; accordingly, the Achaeans, at a meeting of their League, passed sentence of death upon them.

  [7.9.3] The Roman senate sent Appius and other commissioners to arbitrate between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans. The mere sight of Appius and his colleagues was sure to be displeasing to the Achaeans, for they brought with them Areus and Alcibiadas, detested by the Achaeans at that time beyond all other men. The commissioners vexed the Achaeans yet more when they came to the assembly and delivered speeches more angry than conciliatory.

  [7.9.4] But Lycortas of Megalopolis, than whom no man was more highly esteemed among the Arcadians, and whose friendship with Philopoemen had given him something of his spirit, set forth the case for the Achaeans in a speech suggesting that the Romans were somewhat to blame. But Appius and his colleagues greeted the speech of Lycortas with jeers, acquitted Areus and Alcibiadas of any offence against the Achaeans, and permitted the Lacedaemonians to send an embassy to Rome. Such permission was a contravention of the agreement between the Romans and the Achaeans, which allowed the Achaeans as a body to send a deputation to the Roman senate but forbade any city of the Achaean League to send a deputation privately.

  [7.9.5] A deputation of the Achaeans was sent to oppose the Lacedaemonians, and after speeches had been delivered by both sides before the senate, the Romans again despatched the same commissioners, Appius and his former colleagues in Greece, to arbitrate between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans. This commission restored to Sparta those whom the Achaeans had exiled, and they remitted the penalties inflicted by the Achaeans on those who had fled before their trial and had been condemned in their absence. The Lacedaemonian connection with the Achaean League was not broken, but foreign courts were established to deal with capital charges; all other charges were to be submitted for judgment to the Achaean League. The circuit of the city walls was restored by the Spartans right from the foundations.