Volume 1 — GREECE. (continued 2)

Orchomenos cannot be compared in importance with the two towns just mentioned; it, too, had an independent political existence as a city at an early period, and was distinct from the three Arcadian peoples.

The fourth town on the eastern frontier is Stymphalus, a small place in the extreme corner of the territory of Phlius and Argos. It was situated in a hollow among mountains, on the border of a lake, with subterraneous outlets. Tradition ascribed the construction of these passages to the heroic age, and apparently with great justice. This is one of the many traces which show that Greece must have had a history which went back much farther than the current history, and which is so unintelligible to us, just because we join the poetical traditions of those nations directly to the historical ages. Such is the case, for example, with the Minyans, who are so utterly mysterious to us; but it would be mere infatuation to deny that they once were a great historical people; their subjugation of Thebes, and the numerous other traditions, have a real historical foundation, as is still attested by the ruins of the Boeotian Orchomenos, and by the tunnel carrying off the water of lake Copais. The lake itself may be of volcanic origin; but the tunnel, at all events, has at least been completed by the hand of man. The same is the case with lake Stymphalus, the carrying off of the water from which is ascribed in tradition to Heracles.

Some of the northern towns, as Pheneos, Psophis, and Cynaetha, are ancient but insignificant.

Megalopolis was the most recent among the Arcadian towns, for it was built after the expedition of Epaminondas. He, like many others, saw the great defect of separate and isolated peoples, whose strength was broken, and he was bent upon forming and enlarging several central points which, in the end, necessarily led to a complete division. Hence he conceived the idea of uniting all the Arcadians against the Spartans, for it was not yet clear at the time that Sparta had permanently fallen in the battle of Leuctra. The new city was built by the Arcadians themselves, under the direction of Epaminondas. These late occurrences are enveloped in strange obscurity, for we do not know whether it was intended also to draw the great Arcadian towns, Mantinea, etc., into this κοινὸν βουλευτήριον; this intention, however, was pre-supposed, and hence the undertaking was generally disliked. People looked upon it with distrust; the form prescribed to them was disapproved of, and even if it had not been insisted on, the spirit of independence of those people seemed to suffer in the undertaking. The form, moreover, in which it was intended to carry out the plan seems to have been extremely absurd. The undertaking had been announced as something grand, yet it proved to be ill-devised and useless, and did not by any means succeed as well as had been anticipated. The circumference of Megalopolis was only about five English miles, and in this space it was contemplated to crowd together the inhabitants of more than thirty places, and no one seems to have perceived that such a scheme could not succeed. The Arcadians were country people (αὐτουργοί), whose fields were not tilled by slaves; they would have been obliged to carry on their rustic pursuits at a great distance, which, as they had to live in the city, with civic institutions, was a matter of impossibility. Epaminondas was indeed a great man, but this scheme does him no credit; taking all in all, I do not think that he was as great a man as he is generally believed to have been. The population dispersed, and the coercion employed was felt to be more galling than the Spartan dominion, against which the whole plan was directed. Hence Megalopolis remained the union of only a portion of Arcadia. It had to fight against the Spartans at an early time, and, therefore, threw itself into the arms of Philip, who endeavoured to protect it by a strong frontier on the side of Sparta. After the time of Alexander, in the war of Polysperchon, it suffered severely, and had to sustain a vigorous siege; but the greatest misfortune was its capture by Cleomenes, from which it never recovered. Cleomenes took the town by surprise, because the walls were too extensive for the population, and, therefore, could not be defended; the inhabitants partly fled, and others were put to the sword. From that time Megalopolis, notwithstanding its circumference, had no more importance than an ordinary town of the Achaean confederacy, and was afterwards almost entirely deserted. Polybius was a native of Megalopolis, and although he did all he could to save his native city, it seems yet to have suffered greatly from the Romans after the destruction of Corinth, and then it was justly said Ἐρημία μεγάλη ’στὶν ἡ Μεγάλη πόλις; in the days of Strabo it was completely reduced to the rank of a village. As it had been built at a late period, Megalopolis, like all the towns which arose under the Macedonian dominion, had no great buildings, whence no ruins of it are found.

I might mention also Phigalea, Melaeniae, and other towns, but it is hardly worth while. Phigalea has become celebrated through the well-known sculptures, which are excellent in their way, and belong to the period of archaic art, that is, to the period of the Persian wars and a short time after; they were found in the ruins of a temple, and are now in England.

Elis.

The name Elis is of more recent date than the Trojan times; the town of that name was a recent structure, and the population also is not ancient. The most northern part of Elis was inhabited during the Trojan times by the Epeans; the middle part, Pisatis, extended as far as the Alpheus, and the country south of that river belonged to the Pylian kingdom of Nestor. This division continued to exist at a later period. The Doric name for Elis was Alis, and we should, properly speaking, adopt this pronunciation, which occurs in Plautus’ Prologue to the “Captivi” (vendidit in Alide), and upon all ancient monuments. On coins we find ϜΑΛΕΙΩΝ, which by a strange mistake has been referred to the Faliscans, until at length some English scholar, I think it was Knight, explained it rightly, the nature of the digamma having become clear. The Pisatans were probably Arcadians. Respecting Triphylia, between Pisatis and Messenia, there are strange traditions: in the most ancient of them it is said to have been inhabited by Caucones, itself a mysterious name, which is described by some as signifying a race of Carians; according to others, the country was inhabited by Minyans, who, though they are traced to the Minyans in Lemnos, are perhaps nothing else but Pelasgians, that is, a people likewise belonging to the Arcadians. Afterwards Triphylia always was a part of the ἔθνος Ἀρκαδικόν, although the Arcadians were never united under one strategus. The Epeans were expelled by the Aetolians; the Aetolian Oxylus is said to have accompanied the Dorian Heracleids, to have guided them by way of Naupactus into Achaia, and to have received Elis as a reward for this service. This tradition must be left to stand on its own grounds: certain it is at least that Elis was Aetolian, as the three states were Dorian; but the name of the Aetolians had a different meaning in the early times from that which we attach to it at a later period, and of which I shall speak hereafter.

The history of Elis may be well put together from different documents.⁠[38] The Aetolians ruled in the city as an oligarchy, and even as late as the Peloponnesian war the city appears as sovereign, and the perioeci as subjects; in Aristotle’s Politics, the Aetolian γένη are still described as a body of oligarchs. But this state of things was probably altered even in the course of the Peloponnesian war: the oligarchy was reduced in numbers, and was unable to maintain itself; the commonalty, on the other hand, acquired consistency, and the old citizens were united with the country population. Thus Elis became a compact state, acquiring the extent which we see in our maps, and all the free inhabitants of the country became Eleans. They were divided into twelve tribes, four of which were afterwards lost, together with a portion of the country. Further particulars will be mentioned in connection with the several towns. Elis had coal mines which were worked, but according to Theophrastus, the smiths preferred the Massilian coal.

The original Elis, then, after the Doric migration, comprised only the country of the Epeans; its capital, Elis, was founded by the Aetolians. This town, like the Eleans in general, does not act a brilliant part in history; but it was not insignificant, and was situated in a very fertile and thickly peopled valley, the κοίλη Ἠλις. There is only one other town in Elis proper, Cyllene, the ἐπίνειον for the small fleet of Elis, standing to the capital in the relation of perioeci, similar to that subsisting between Lausanne and Berne.

For a considerable period, Elis was the most peaceable and most undisturbed country in Greece, and was chiefly inhabited by small landed proprietors. Polybius too mentions the long peace, but we cannot say precisely during what period it prevailed, and, at all events, must not extend it too long. The Eleans were involved in the Peloponnesian war no less than all the other Greek states; in earlier times they had even been conquerors. Pisa, situated on the Alpheus, enjoyed great reputation in ancient times, but was destroyed by the Eleans at an early period (about Olymp. 90), and its territory was incorporated with that of Elis. This secured to the Eleans the prostasia at the Olympic games.

All maps have the same mistake, representing Olympia as a town; it was nothing but a place containing the temple of the Olympian Zeus and the localities required for the games, a stadium, theatre, and the like. There never were Olympian citizens, nor a βουλή or a δῆμος; and there exists no ethnic name formed from Olympia. There may have been some inns for strangers, but with the exception of the season of the games, the place was never visited.

Triphylia, in the corner between Pisatis, Messenia and Arcadia, was the third part of the country, though it did not always belong to the Elean territory. Its capital was Lepreon, but it contained a number of small towns besides, one of which was Scillus, where the Spartans gave a house to Xenophon. Triphylia was repeatedly taken by the Arcadians, as in Olymp. 102, when they attempted by force to assume the management of the Olympic games. But as early as Olymp. 96, it had been seized by the Spartans, and for a time remained under their protection. Scylax (Olymp. 106) calls it a part of Arcadia, but afterwards it was again in the possession of the Eleans, until in Olymp. 140 it fell into the hands of Philip III. of Macedonia, who, when his policy required it, gave it up to the Achaeans.

Achaia.

Previous to the Doric migration, Achaia was called Ionia, and as such was divided into twelve towns. All the Ionians, it is said, emigrated on the invasion of the Achaeans, who had obtained from the Lacedaemonians a free departure from Laconia—an account which appears to me very problematical, but which I cannot remove by substituting a better one. On that occasion the Achaeans are reported to have become possessed of the twelve towns. The intentional and artificial character of this division is obvious: when people meet together with a view to satisfy their natural wants, we never find such exact calculations. The Waldstädte in Switzerland were originally three in number, but this number increased more and more, until it amounted to thirteen. The United States of North America have increased from thirteen to twenty-four, and they will increase still more. A design similar to that in Achaia appears in the Doric part of Asia Minor, where we find the number six, and among the Romans we find three tribes and thirty curiae. The Doric immigration corresponds with what we find in Laconia and Messene, and it was probably the same in Argolis. In the same manner arose the twelve Achaean towns, according to a designed division among the Ionians, and the same was preserved under the Achaeans. Helice, on the coast of the Corinthian gulf, was the capital of the Ionians, but whether it occupied the same rank under the Achaeans for any length of time, is unknown. Helice and Olenos are two of the twelve towns which occur in the list of the Achaean towns, and besides them the following ten are mentioned: Patrae, Dyme, Pharae, Tritaea, Leontion, Aegira, Pellene, Aegion, Bura, and Cerynea.⁠[39] We here meet with a difficulty: how is it, that we have the differing lists in Strabo and Pausanias, in which, besides these towns, Aegae and Rhypes are mentioned? The solution of the mystery is this: for the very reason, for which originally twelve towns had been instituted, attempts were made, when two towns perished to supplement the number by introducing two others; hence these last are sometimes mentioned, and sometimes not, the writers themselves not being clear about the matter.

The whole coast sinks rapidly down towards the Corinthian gulf, which itself seems to have been formed by a sinking of the whole ground, which is further indicated by the abrupt descent of the mountains that come down from Arcadia; the props which once supported the ground must have given way. That part of the country is still the seat of violent subterraneous fire, whence Helice was regarded as one of the principal seats of Ποσειδῶν Ἐνοσίχθων, who however could not save it from destruction. Whether Olenos, as Polybius states, likewise perished by an earthquake, or whether he is mistaken on this point, cannot be decided. It certainly was not swallowed up by the sea, like Helice, which sank down with the coast and all its buildings, for ruins of it were seen at a late period. It is very probable, that if the site of Helice could be ascertained, very important antiquities might be brought to light by diving. Eratosthenes was informed on the spot, that, according to the belief of the neighbouring people, the place had not been destroyed by a shock, but that it had simply sunk; they related that a statue which had formerly stood in the market place, was still standing upright in the sea, and that fishermen took care not to entangle their nets in it.

These twelve towns formed a league or confederacy under a common strategus, and of all the Greek confederacies this lasted the longest; but the union was so loose that in the Peloponnesian war Pellene alone joined Sparta, while all the other towns remained neutral, and for a time were even allied with Athens. Afterwards, however, all the Achaeans were in alliance with the Lacedaemonians, though then again Pellene acted independently and by itself. Even at a later period, under Philip and Alexander—the time referred to in the speech περὶ τῶν πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον ξυνθηκῶν, which is printed among those of Demosthenes, but is undoubtedly the work of Hyperides—Pellene still stood aloof. The dissolution of the Achaean state was then very manifest, and lasted, according to Polybius, until Olymp. 126, when the three westernmost towns again formed an alliance among themselves. As early as the reign of Antigonus Gonatas, Achaia, though then a poor and weak country, had formed itself into one state, and that even before Aratus had delivered Sicyon. At the time when this Achaean confederation rose from its tomb, the real seat of government was at Aegion, and Pellene lost its former importance, which may have been partly the consequence of the ravages made during the war of Demetrius Poliorcetes. Aegion became the new rallying point, probably on account of its situation on the Corinthian gulf; hence it acquired an importance which it had never had before. Pellene was situated on a hill of considerable height, the termination of the northern range of the Arcadian mountains, and was accordingly a strong place.

In later times, Patrae was of greater importance as a commercial town; in the earliest ages it is not mentioned as a place of any consequence, though its harbour is beautiful. It acquired its importance, which it retained until its destruction in our own days, at the time when Pompey established a colony there, which was increased by Augustus. Pompey restored it as a maritime town, for it had been destroyed in the Achaean war. He compelled some of the Asiatic pirates to settle there, and Augustus made it a Roman colony, whence, like Corinth, it issued coins with Latin inscriptions. Throughout the middle ages, under Constantine Porphyrogenitus, as well as under the Frankish and Venetian dominion, Patrae was the most flourishing city in all Peloponnesus. The other places are too unimportant to engage our attention.

The coast of Achaia bore the peculiar name of Aegialos. What is said of it in the Homeric Catalogue, remained essentially the same after the destructive immigrations; hence its case was quite different from that of other countries of Peloponnesus, especially the coast of Messenia, where nothing remained except Cyparissia. Its topography also underwent scarcely any change on account of the uniformity of its history: thus the course of events is often marked in the geography of a country.