Note 39 — Chapter II
Reading edition
We have retained this story in the text for its intrinsic beauty, and regret being obliged to say that it is entirely false. It has been shown by Bentley to be inconsistent with Herodotus and Thucydides, and is tacitly rejected by Clinton. Zancle was taken by the Samians, b.c. 494, at the suggestion of Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium; who afterwards expelled the Samians, and filling the city with men of various nations, called it Messene, being himself of Messenian descent.