Note 560 — Chapter V · ÆTOLO-DORIAN EMIGRATION INTO PELOPONNESUS.—ELIS, LACONIA, AND MESSENIA.

See Mr. Clinton’s Chronological Tables for the year 732 B. C.; O. Müller (in the Chronological Table subjoined to his History of the Dorians) calls this victor, Oxythemis of Korôneia, in Bœotia. But this is inadmissible, on two grounds: 1. The occurrence of a Bœotian competitor in that early day at the Olympic games. The first eleven victors (I put aside Oxythemis, because he is the subject of the argument) are all from western and southern Peloponnesus; then come victors from Corinth, Megara, and Epidaurus; then from Athens; there is one from Thebes in the 41st Olympiad. I infer from hence that the celebrity and frequentation of the Olympic games increased only by degrees, and had not got beyond Peloponnesus in the eighth century B. C. 2. The name Coronæus, Κορωναῖος, is the proper and formal title for a citizen of Korônê, not for a citizen of Korôneia: the latter styles himself Κορωνεύς. The ethnical name Κορωνεὺς, as belonging to Korôneia in Bœotia, is placed beyond doubt by several inscriptions in Boeckh’s collection; especially No. 1583, in which a citizen of that town is proclaimed as victorious at the festival of the Charitesia at Orchomenus: compare Nos. 1587-1593, in which the same ethnical name occurs. The Bœotian Inscriptions attest in like manner the prevalence of the same etymological law in forming ethnical names, for the towns near Korôneia: thus, Chærôneia makes Χαιρωνεὺς; Lebadeia, Λεβαδεὺς; Elateia, Ἐλατεὺς, or Ἐλατειεύς.

The Inscriptions afford evidence perfectly decisive as to the ethnical title under which a citizen of Korôneia in Bœotia would have caused himself to be entered and proclaimed at the Olympic games; better than the evidence of Herodotus and Thucydidês, who both call them Κορωναῖοι (Herodot. v. 79; Thucyd. iv. 93): Polybius agrees with the Inscription, and speaks of the Κορωνεῖς, Λεβαδεῖς, Χαιρωνεῖς (xxvii. 1). O. Müller himself admits, in another place (Orchomenos, p. 480), that the proper ethnical name is Κορωνεύς. The reading of Strabo (ix. p. 411) is not trustworthy: see Grosskurd, ad loc.; compare Steph. Byz. Κορώνεια and Κορώνη.

In regard to the formation of ethnical names, it seems the general rule, that a town ending in η or αι, preceded by a consonant, had its ethnical derivative in αιος; such as Σκιώνη, Τορώνη, Κύμη, Θῆβαι, Ἀθῆναι; while names ending in εια had their ethnicon in ευς, as Ἀλεξάνδρεια, Ἀμάσεια, Σελεύκεια, Λυσιμάχεια (the recent cities thus founded by the successors of Alexander are perhaps the best evidences that can be taken of the analogies of the language), Μελάμπεια, Μελίτεια, in addition to the Bœotian names of towns above quoted. There is, however, great irregularity in particular cases, and the number of towns called by the same name created an anxiety to vary the ethnicon for each: see Stephan. Byz. v. Ἡράκλεια.