Pausanias: Description of Greece Book 1 - Attica 1-15

[1.1.1] I. On the Greek mainland facing the Cyclades Islands and the Aegean Sea the Sunium promontory stands out from the Attic land. When you have rounded the promontory you see a harbor and a temple to Athena of Sunium on the peak of the promontory. Farther on is Laurium, where once the Athenians had silver mines, and a small uninhabited island called the Island of Patroclus. For a fortification was built on it and a palisade constructed by Patroclus, who was admiral in command of the Egyptian men-of-war sent by Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, to help the Athenians, when Antigonus, son of Demetrius, was ravaging their country, which he had invaded with an army, and at the same time was blockading them by sea with a fleet.1

[1.1.2] The Peiraeus was a parish from early times, though it was not a port before Themistocles became an archon of the Athenians.2 Their port was Phalerum, for at this place the sea comes nearest to Athens, and from here men say that Menestheus set sail with his fleet for Troy, and before him Theseus, when he went to give satisfaction to Minos for the death of Androgeos. But when Themistocles became archon, since he thought that the Peiraeus was more conveniently situated for mariners, and had three harbors as against one at Phalerum, he made it the Athenian port. Even up to my time there were docks there, and near the largest harbor is the grave of Themistocles. For it is said that the Athenians repented of their treatment of Themistocles, and that his relations took up his bones and brought them from Magnesia. And the children of Themistocles certainly returned and set up in the Parthenon a painting, on which is a portrait of Themistocles.

[1.1.3] The most noteworthy sight in the Peiraeus is a precinct of Athena and Zeus. Both their images are of bronze; Zeus holds a staff and a Victory, Athena a spear. Here is a portrait of Leosthenes and of his sons, painted by Arcesilaus. This Leosthenes at the head of the Athenians and the united Greeks defeated the Macedonians in Boeotia and again outside Thermopylae forced them into Lamia over against Oeta, and shut them up there.3 The portrait is in the long portico, where stands a market-place for those living near the sea – those farther away from the harbor have another – but behind the portico near the sea stand a Zeus and a Demos, the work of Leochares. And by the sea Conon4 built a sanctuary of Aphrodite, after he had crushed the Lacedaemonian warships off Cnidus in the Carian peninsula.5 For the Cnidians hold Aphrodite in very great honor, and they have sanctuaries of the goddess; the oldest is to her as Doritis (Bountiful), the next in age as Acraea (Of the Height), while the newest is to the Aphrodite called Cnidian by men generally, but Euploia (Fair Voyage) by the Cnidians themselves.

[1.1.4] The Athenians have also another harbor, at Munychia, with a temple of Artemis of Munychia, and yet another at Phalerum, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary of Demeter. Here there is also a temple of Athena Sciras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown, and of heroes, and of the children of Theseus and Phalerus; for this Phalerus is said by the Athenians to have sailed with Jason to Colchis. There is also an altar of Androgeos, son of Minos, though it is called that of Heros; those, however, who pay special attention to the study of their country's antiquities know that it belongs to Androgeos.

[1.1.5] Twenty stades away is the Coliad promontory; on to it, when the Persian fleet was destroyed, the wrecks were carried down by the waves. There is here an image of the Coliad Aphrodite, with the goddesses Genetyllides (Goddesses of Birth), as they are called. And I am of opinion that the goddesses of the Phocaeans in Ionia, whom they call Gennaides, are the same as those at Colias. On the way from Phalerum to Athens there is a temple of Hera with neither doors nor roof. Men say that Mardonius, son of Gobryas, burnt it. But the image there to-day is, as report goes, the work of Alcamenes.6 So that this, at any rate, cannot have been damaged by the Persians.

[1.2.1] II. On entering the city there is a monument to Antiope the Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was carried of by Peirithous and Theseus, but Hegias of Troezen gives the following account of her. Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon, but could not take it, but Antiope, falling in love with Theseus, who was aiding Heracles in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. Such is the account of Hegias. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia, while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. To Molpadia also there is a monument among the Athenians.

[1.2.2] As you go up from the Peiraeus you see the ruins of the walls which Conon restored after the naval battle off Cnidus. For those built by Themistocles after the retreat of the Persians were destroyed during the rule of those named the Thirty.7 Along the road are very famous graves, that of Menander, son of Diopeithes, and a cenotaph of Euripides. He him self went to King Archelaus and lies buried in Macedonia; as to the manner of his death (many have described it), let it be as they say.

[1.2.3] So even in his time poets lived at the courts of kings, as earlier still Anacreon consorted with Polycrates, despot of Samos, and Aeschylus and Simonides journeyed to Hiero at Syracuse. Dionysius, afterwards despot in Sicily had Philoxenus at his court, and Antigonus,8 ruler of Macedonia, had Antagoras of Rhodes and Aratus of Soli. But Hesiod and Homer either failed to win the society of kings or else purposely despised it, Hesiod through boorishness and reluctance to travel, while Homer, having gone very far abroad, depreciated the help afforded by despots in the acquisition of wealth in comparison with his reputation among ordinary men. And yet Homer, too, in his poem makes Demodocus live at the court of Alcinous, and Agamemnon leave a poet with his wife. Not far from the gates is a grave, on which is mounted a soldier standing by a horse. Who it is I do not know, but both horse and soldier were carved by Praxiteles.

[1.2.4] On entering the city there is a building for the preparation of the processions, which are held in some cases every year, in others at longer intervals. Hard by is a temple of Demeter, with images of the goddess herself and of her daughter, and of Iacchus holding a torch. On the wall, in Attic characters, is written that they are works of Praxiteles. Not far from the temple is Poseidon on horseback, hurling a spear against the giant Polybotes, concerning whom is prevalent among the Coans the story about the promontory of Chelone. But the inscription of our time assigns the statue to another, and not to Poseidon. From the gate to the Cerameicus there are porticoes, and in front of them brazen statues of such as had some title to fame, both men and women.

[2.2.5] One of the porticoes contains shrines of gods, and a gymnasium called that of Hermes. In it is the house of Pulytion, at which it is said that a mystic rite was performed by the most notable Athenians, parodying the Eleusinian mysteries. But in my time it was devoted to the worship of Dionysus. This Dionysus they call Melpomenus (Minstrel), on the same principle as they call Apollo Musegetes (Leader of the Muses). Here there are images of Athena Paeonia (Healer), of Zeus, of Mnemosyne (Memory) and of the Muses, an Apollo, the votive offering and work of Eubulides, and Acratus, a daemon attendant upon Apollo; it is only a face of him worked into the wall. After the precinct of Apollo is a building that contains earthen ware images, Amphictyon, king of Athens, feasting Dionysus and other gods. Here also is Pegasus of Eleutherae, who introduced the god to the Athenians. Herein he was helped by the oracle at Delphi, which called to mind that the god once dwelt in Athens in the days of Icarius.

[1.2.6] Amphictyon won the kingdom thus. It is said that Actaeus was the first king of what is now Attica. When he died, Cecrops, the son-in-law of Actaeus, received the kingdom, and there were born to him daughters, Herse, Aglaurus and Pandrosus, and a son Erysichthon. This son did not become king of the Athenians, but happened to die while his father lived, and the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the most powerful of the Athenians. They say that Cranaus had daughters, and among them Atthis; and from her they call the country Attica, which before was named Actaea. And Amphictyon, rising up against Cranaus, although he had his daughter to wife, deposed him from power. Afterwards he himself was banished by Erichthonius and his fellow rebels. Men say that Erichthonius had no human father, but that his parents were Hephaestus and Earth.

[1.3.1] III. The district of the Cerameicus has its name from the hero Ceramus, he too being the reputed son of Dionysus and Ariadne. First on the right is what is called the Royal Portico, where sits the king when holding the yearly office called the kingship. On the tiling of this portico are images of baked earthenware, Theseus throwing Sciron into the sea and Day carrying away Cephalus, who they say was very beautiful and was ravished by Day, who was in love with him. His son was Phaethon, . . . and made a guardian of her temple. Such is the tale told by Hesiod, among others, in his poem on women.

[1.3.2] Near the portico stand Conon, Timotheus his son and Evagoras9 King of Cyprus, who caused the Phoenician men-of-war to be given to Conon by King Artaxerxes. This he did as an Athenian whose ancestry connected him with Salamis, for he traced his pedigree back to Teucer and the daughter of Cinyras. Here stands Zeus, called Zeus of Freedom, and the Emperor Hadrian, a benefactor to all his subjects and especially to the city of the Athenians.

[1.3.3] A portico is built behind with pictures of the gods called the Twelve. On the wall opposite are painted Theseus, Democracy and Demos. The picture represents Theseus as the one who gave the Athenians political equality. By other means also has the report spread among men that Theseus bestowed sovereignty upon the people, and that from his time they continued under a democratical government, until Peisistratus rose up and became despot.10 But there are many false beliefs current among the mass of mankind, since they are ignorant of historical science and consider trustworthy whatever they have heard from childhood in choruses and tragedies; one of these is about Theseus, who in fact himself became king, and afterwards, when Menestheus was dead, the descendants of Theseus remained rulers even to the fourth generation. But if I cared about tracing the pedigree I should have included in the list, besides these, the kings from Melanthus to Cleidicus the son of Aesimides.

[1.3.4] Here is a picture of the exploit, near Mantinea, of the Athenians who were sent to help the Lacedaemonians.11 Xenophon among others has written a history of the whole war – the taking of the Cadmea, the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, how the Boeotians invaded the Peloponnesus,and the contingent sent to the Lacedacmonians from the Athenians. In the picture is a cavalry battle, in which the most famous men are, among the Athenians, Grylus the son of Xenophon, and in the Boeotian cavalry, Epaminondas the Theban. These pictures were painted for the Athenians by Euphranor, and he also wrought the Apollo surnamed Patrous (Paternal) in the temple hard by. And in front of the temple is one Apollo made by Leochares; the other Apollo, called Averter of evil, was made by Calamis. They say that the god received this name because by an oracle from Delphi he stayed the pestilence which afflicted the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War.12

[1.3.5] Here is built also a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods; the image is by Pheidias.13 Hard by is the council chamber of those called the Five Hundred, who are the Athenian councillors for a year. In it are a wooden figure of Zeus Counsellor and an Apollo, the work of Peisias,14 and a Demos by Lyson. The thesmothetae (lawgivers) were painted by Protogenes15 the Caunian, and Olbiades16 portrayed Callippus, who led the Athenians to Thermopylae to stop the incursion of the Gauls into Greece.17

[1.4.1] IV. These Gauls inhabit the most remote portion of Europe, near a great sea that is not navigable to its extremities, and possesses ebb and flow and creatures quite unlike those of other seas. Through their country flows the river Eridanus, on the bank of which the daughters of Helius (Sun) are supposed to lament the fate that befell their brother Phaethon. It was late before the name “Gauls” came into vogue; for anciently they were called Celts both amongst themselves and by others. An army of them mustered and turned towards the Ionian Sea, dispossessed the Illyrian people, all who dwelt as far as Macedonia with the Macedonians themselves, and overran Thessaly. And when they drew near to Thermopylae, the Greeks in general made no move to prevent the inroad of the barbarians, since previously they had been severely defeated by Alexander and Philip. Further, Antipater and Cassander18 afterwards crushed the Greeks, so that through weakness each state thought no shame of itself taking no part in the defence of the country.

[1.4.2] But the Athenians, although they were more exhausted than any of the Greeks by the long Macedonian war, and had been generally unsuccessful in their battles, nevertheless set forth to Thermopylae with such Greeks as joined them, having made the Callippus I mentioned their general. Occupying the pass where it was narrowest, they tried to keep the foreigners from entering Greece; but the Celts, having discovered the path by which Ephialtes of Trachis once led the Persians, over whelmed the Phocians stationed there and crossed Oeta unperceived by the Greeks.19

[1.4.3] Then it was that the Athenians put the Greeks under the greatest obligation, and although outflanked offered resistance to the foreigners on two sides. But the Athenians on the fleet suffered most, for the Lamian gulf is a swamp near Thermopylae – the reason being, I think, the hot water that here runs into the sea. These then were more distressed; for taking the Greeks on board they were forced to sail through the mud weighted as they were by arms and men.

[1.4.4] So they tried to save Greece in the way described, but the Gauls, now south of the Gates, cared not at all to capture the other towns, but were very eager to sack Delphi and the treasures of the god. They were opposed by the Delphians themselves and the Phocians of the cities around Parnassus; a force of Aetolians also joined the defenders, for the Aetolians at this time were pre-eminent for their vigorous activity. When the forces engaged, not only were thunderbolts and rocks broken off from Parnassus hurled against the Gauls, but terrible shapes as armed warriors haunted the foreigners. They say that two of them, Hyperochus and Amadocus, came from the Hyperboreans, and that the third was Pyrrhus son of Achilles. Because of this help in battle the Delphians sacrifice to Pyrrhus as to a hero, although formerly they held even his tomb in dishonor, as being that of an enemy.

[1.4.5] The greater number of the Gauls crossed over to Asia by ship and plundered its coasts. Some time after, the inhabitants of Pergamus, that was called of old Teuthrania, drove the Gauls into it from the sea. Now this people occupied the country on the farther side of the river Sangarius capturing Ancyra, a city of the Phrygians, which Midas son of Gordius had founded in former time. And the anchor, which Midas found,20 was even as late as my time in the sanctuary of Zeus, as well as a spring called the Spring of Midas, water from which they say Midas mixed with wine to capture Silenus. Well then, the Pergameni took Ancyra and Pessinus which lies under Mount Agdistis, where they say that Attis lies buried.

[1.4.6] They have spoils from the Gauls, and a painting which portrays their deed against them. The land they dwell in was, they say, in ancient times sacred to the Cabeiri, and they claim that they are themselves Arcadians, being of those who crossed into Asia with Telephus. Of the wars that they have waged no account has been published to the world, except that they have accomplished three most notable achievements; the subjection of the coast region of Asia, the expulsion of the Gauls therefrom, and the exploit of Telephus against the followers of Agamemnon, at a time when the Greeks after missing Troy, were plundering the Meian plain thinking it Trojan territory. Now I will return from my digression.

[1.5.1] V. Near to the Council Chamber of the Five Hundred is what is called Tholos (Round House); here the presidents sacrifice, and there are a few small statues made of silver. Farther up stand statues of heroes, from whom afterwards the Athenian tribes received their names. Who the man was who established ten tribes instead of four, and changed their old names to new ones – all this is told by Herodotus.21

[1.5.2] The eponymoi22 – this is the name given to them – are Hippothoon son of Poseidon and Alope daughter of Cercyon, Antiochus, one of the children of Heracles borne to him by Meda daughter of Phylas, thirdly, Ajax son of Telamon, and to the Athenians belongs Leos, who is said to have given up his daughters, at the command of the oracle, for the safety of the commonwealth. Among the eponymoi is Erechtheus, who conquered the Eleusinians in battle, and killed their general, Immaradus the son of Eumolpus. There is Aegeus also and Oeneus the bastard son of Pandion, and Acamas, one of the children of Theseus.

[1.5.3] I saw also among the eponymoi statues of Cecrops and Pandion, but I do not know who of those names are thus honored. For there was an earlier ruler Cecrops who took to wife the daughter of Actaeus, and a later – he it was who migrated to Euboea–son of Erechtheus, son of Pandion, son of Erichthonius. And there was a king Pandion who was son of Erichthonius, and another who was son of Cecrops the second. This man was deposed from his kingdom by the Metionidae, and when he fled to Megara – for he had to wife the daughter of Pylas king of Megara – his children were banished with him. And Pandion is said to have fallen ill there and died, and on the coast of the Megarid is his tomb, on the rock called the rock of Athena the Gannet.

[1.5.4] But his children expelled the Metionidae, and returned from banishment at Megara, and Aegeus, as the eldest, became king of the Athenians. But in rearing daughters Pandion was unlucky, nor did they leave any sons to avenge him. And yet it was for the sake of power that he made the marriage alliance with the king of Thrace. But there is no way for a mortal to overstep what the deity thinks fit to send. They say that Tereus, though wedded to Procne, dishonored Philomela, thereby transgressing Greek custom, and further, having mangled the body of the damsel, constrained the women to avenge her. There is another statue, well worth seeing, of Pandion on the Acropolis.

[1.5.5] These are the Athenian eponymoi who belong to the ancients. And of later date than these they have tribes named after the following, Attalus23 the Mysian and Ptolemy the Egyptian,24 and within my own time the emperor Hadrian,25 who was extremely religious in the respect he paid to the deity and contributed very much to the happiness of his various subjects. He never voluntarily entered upon a war, but he reduced the Hebrews beyond Syria, who had rebelled.26 As for the sanctuaries of the gods that in some cases he built from the beginning, in others adorned with offerings and furniture, and the bounties he gave to Greek cities, and sometimes even to foreigners who asked him, all these acts are inscribed in his honor in the sanctuary at Athens common to all the gods.

[1.6.1] VI. But as to the history of Attalus and Ptolemy, it is more ancient in point of time, so that tradition no longer remains, and those who lived with these kings for the purpose of chronicling their deeds fell into neglect even before tradition failed. Where fore it occurred to me to narrate their deeds also, and how the sovereignty of Egypt, of the Mysians and of the neighboring peoples fell into the hands of their fathers.

[1.6.2] 27 The Macedonians consider Ptolemy to be the son of Philip, the son of Amyntas, though putatively the son of Lagus, asserting that his mother was with child when she was married to Lagus by Philip. And among the distinguished acts of Ptolemy in Asia they mention that it was he who, of Alexander's companions, was foremost in succoring him when in danger among the Oxydracae. After the death of Alexander,28 by withstanding those who would have conferred all his empire upon Aridaeus, the son of Philip, he became chiefly responsible for the division of the various nations into the kingdoms.

[1.6.3] He crossed over to Egypt in person, and killed Cleomenes, whom Alexander had appointed satrap of that country, considering him a friend of Perdiccas, and therefore not faithful to himself; and the Macedonians who had been entrusted with the task of carrying the corpse of Alexander to Aegae, he persuaded to hand it over to him. And he proceeded to bury it with Macedonian rites in Memphis, but, knowing that Perdiccas would make war, he kept Egypt garrisoned. And Perdiccas took Aridaeus, son of Philip, and the boy Alexander, whom Roxana, daughter of Oxyartes, had borne to Alexander, to lend color to the campaign, but really he was plotting to take from Ptolemy his kingdom in Egypt. But being expelled from Egypt, and having lost his reputation as a soldier, and being in other respects unpopular with the Macedonians, he was put to death by his body guard.

[1.6.4] The death of Perdiccas immediately raised Ptolemy to power, who both reduced the Syrians and Phoenicia, and also welcomed Seleucus, son of Antiochus, who was in exile, having been expelled by Antigonus; he further himself prepared to attack Antigonus. He prevailed on Cassander, son of Anti pater, and Lysimachus, who was king in Thrace, to join in the war, urging that Seleucus was in exile and that the growth of the power of Antigonus was dangerous to them all.

[1.6.5] For a time Antigonus pre pared for war, and was by no means confident of the issue; but on learning that the revolt of Cyrene had called Ptolemy to Libya, he immediately reduced the Syrians and Phoenicians by a sudden inroad, handed them over to Demetrius, his son, a man who for all his youth had already a reputation for good sense, and went down to the Hellespont. But he led his army back without crossing, on hearing that Demetrius had been overcome by Ptolemy in battle. But Demetrius had not altogether evacuated the country before Ptolemy, and having surprised a body of Egyptians, killed a few of them. Then on the arrival of Antigonus Ptolemy did not wait for him but returned to Egypt.

[1.6.6] When the winter was over, Demetrius sailed to Cyprus and overcame in a naval action Menelaus, the satrap of Ptolemy, and afterwards Ptolemy him self, who had crossed to bring help. Ptolemy fled to Egypt, where he was besieged by Antigonus on land and by Demetrius with a fleet. In spite of his extreme peril Ptolemy saved his empire by making a stand with an army at Pelusium while offering resistance with warships from the river. Antigonus now abandoned all hope of reducing Egypt in the circumstances, and dispatched Demetrius against the Rhodians with a fleet and a large army, hoping, if the island were won, to use it as a base against the Egyptians. But the Rhodians displayed daring and ingenuity in the face of the besiegers, while Ptolemy helped them with all the forces he could muster.

[1.6.7] Antigonus thus failed to reduce Egypt or, later, Rhodes, and shortly afterwards he offered battle to Lysimachus, and to Cassander and the army of Seleucus, lost most of his forces, and was himself killed, having suffered most by reason of the length of the war with Eumenes. Of the kings who put down Antigonus I hold that the most wicked was Cassander, who although he had recovered the throne of Macedonia with the aid of Antigonus, nevertheless came to fight against a benefactor.

[1.6.8] After the death of Antigonus, Ptolemy again reduced the Syrians and Cyprus, and also restored Pyrrhus to Thesprotia on the mainland. Cyrene rebelled; but Magas, the son of Berenice (who was at this time married to Ptolemy) captured Cyrene in the fifth year of the rebellion. If this Ptolemy really was the son of Philip, son of Amyntas, he must have inherited from his father his passion for women, for, while wedded to Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, although he had children he took a fancy to Berenice, whom Antipater had sent to Egypt with Eurydice. He fell in love with this woman and had children by her, and when his end drew near he left the kingdom of Egypt to Ptolemy (from whom the Athenians name their tribe) being the son of Berenice and not of the daughter of Antipater.

[1.7.1] VII. This Ptolemy fell in love with Arsinoe, his full sister, and married her, violating herein Macedonian custom, but following that of his Egyptian subjects. Secondly he put to death his brother Argaeus, who was, it is said, plotting against him; and he it was who brought down from Memphis the corpse of Alexander. He put to death another brother also, son of Eurydice, on discovering that he was creating disaffection among the Cyprians. Then Magas, the half-brother of Ptolemy, who had been entrusted with the governorship of Cyrene by his mother Berenice–she had borne him to Philip, a Macedonians but of no note and of lowly origin–induced the people of Cyrene to revolt from Ptolemy and marched against Egypt.

[1.7.2] Ptolemy fortified the entrance into Egypt and awaited the attack of the Cyrenians. But while on the march Magas was in formed that the Marmaridae,a tribe of Libyan nomads, had revolted, and thereupon fell back upon Cyrene. Ptolemy resolved to pursue, but was checked owing to the following circumstance. When he was preparing to meet the attack of Magas, he engaged mercenaries, including some four thousand Gauls. Discovering that they were plotting to seize Egypt, he led them through the river to a deserted island. There they perished at one another's hands or by famine.

[1.7.3] Magas, who was married to Apame, daughter of Antiochus, son of Seleucus, persuaded Antiochus to break the treaty which his father Seleucus had made with Ptolemy and to attack Egypt. When Antiochus resolved to attack, Ptolemy dispatched forces against all the subjects of Antiochus, freebooters to overrun the lands of the weaker, and an army to hold back the stronger, so that Antiochus never had an opportunity of attacking Egypt. I have already stated how this Ptolemy sent a fleet to help the Athenians against Antigonus and the Macedonians, but it did very little to save Athens. His children were by Arsinoe, not his sister, but the daughter of Lysimachus. His sister who had wedded him happened to die before this, leaving no issue, and there is in Egypt a district called Arsinoites after her.

[1.8.1] VIII. It is pertinent to add here an account of Attalus, because he too is one of the Athenian eponymoi. A Macedonian of the name of Docimus, a general of Antigonus, who afterwards surrendered both himself and his property to Lysimachus, had a Paphlagonian eunuch called Philetaerus. All that Philetaerus did to further the revolt from Lysimachus, and how he won over Seleucus, will form an episode in my account of Lysimachus. Attalus, however, son of Attalus and nephew of Philetaerus, received the kingdom from his cousin Eumenes, who handed it over. The greatest of his achievements was his forcing the Gauls to retire from the sea into the country which they still hold.

[1.8.2] After the statues of the eponymoi come statues of gods, Amphiaraus, and Eirene (Peace) carrying the boy Plutus (Wealth). Here stands a bronze figure of Lycurgus,29 son of Lycophron, and of Callias, who, as most of the Athenians say, brought about the peace between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes.30 Here also is Demosthenes, whom the Athenians forced to retire to Calauria, the island off Troezen, and then, after receiving him back, banished again after the disaster at Lamia.

[1.8.3] Exiled for the second time31 Demosthenes crossed once more to Calauria, and committed suicide there by taking poison, being the only Greek exile whom Archias failed to bring back to Antipater and the Macedonians. This Archias was a Thurian who undertook the abominable task of bringing to Antipater for punishment those who had opposed the Macedonians before the Greeks met with their defeat in Thessaly. Such was Demosthenes' reward for his great devotion to Athens. I heartily agree with the remark that no man who has unsparingly thrown himself into politics trusting in the loyalty of the democracy has ever met with a happy death.

[1.8.4] Near the statue of Demosthenes is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two images of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alcamenes, and one of Athena made by a Parian of the name of Locrus. There is also an image of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand images of Heracles, Theseus, Apollo binding his hair with a fillet, and statues of Calades,32 who it is said framed laws33 for the Athenians, and of Pindar, the statue being one of the rewards the Athenians gave him for praising them in an ode.

[1.8.5] Hard by stand statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who killed Hipparchus.34 The reason of this act and the method of its execution have been related by others; of the figures some were made by Critius,35 the old ones being the work of Antenor. When Xerxes took Athens after the Athenians had abandoned the city he took away these statues also among the spoils, but they were afterwards restored to the Athenians by Antiochus.

[1.8.6] Before the entrance of the theater which they call the Odeum (Music Hall) are statues of Egyptian kings. They are all alike called Ptolemy, but each has his own surname. For they call one Philometor, and another Philadelphus, while the son of Lagus is called Soter, a name given him by the Rhodians. Of these, Philadelphus is he whom I have mentioned before among the eponymoi, and near him is a statue of his sister Arsinoe.

[1.9.1] IX. The one called Philometor is eighth in descent from Ptolemy son of Lagus, and his surname was given him in sarcastic mockery, for we know of none of the kings who was so hated by his mother. Although he was the eldest of her children she would not allow him to be called to the throne, but prevailed on his father before the call came to send him to Cyprus. Among the reasons assigned for Cleopatra's enmity towards her son is her expectation that Alexander the younger of her sons would prove more subservient, and this consideration induced her to urge the Egyptians to choose Alexander as king.

[1.9.2] When the people offered opposition, she dispatched Alexander for the second time to Cyprus, ostensibly as general, but really because she wished by his means to make Ptolemy more afraid of her. Finally she covered with wounds those eunuchs she thought best disposed, and presented them to the people, making out that she was the victim of Ptolemy's machinations, and that he had treated the eunuchs in such a fashion. The people of Alexandria rushed to kill Ptolemy, and when he escaped on board a ship, made Alexander, who returned from Cyprus, their king.

[1.9.3] Retribution for the exile of Ptolemy came upon Cleopatra, for she was put to death by Alexander, whom she herself had made to be king of the Egyptians. When the deed was discovered, and Alexander fled in fear of the citizens, Ptolemy returned and for the second time assumed control of Egypt. He made war against the Thebans, who had revolted, reduced them two years after the revolt, and treated them so cruelly that they were left not even a memorial of their former prosperity, which had so grown that they surpassed in wealth the richest of the Greeks, the sanctuary of Delphi and the Orchomenians. Shortly after this Ptolemy met with his appointed fate, and the Athenians, who had been benefited by him in many ways which I need not stop to relate, set up a bronze likeness of him and of Berenice, his only legitimate child.

[1.9.4] After the Egyptians come statues of Philip and of his son Alexander. The events of their lives were too important to form a mere digression in another story. Now the Egyptians had their honors bestowed upon them out of genuine respect and because they were benefactors, but it was rather the sycophancy of the people that gave them to Philip and Alexander, since they set up a statue to Lysimachus also not so much out of goodwill as because they thought to serve their immediate ends.

[1.9.5] This Lysimachus was a Macedonian by birth and one of Alexander's body-guards, whom Alexander once in anger shut up in a chamber with a lion, and afterwards found that he had overpowered the brute. Henceforth he always treated him with respect, and honored him as much as the noblest Macedonians. After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus ruled such of the Thracians, who are neighbors of the Macedonians, as had been under the sway of Alexander and before him of Philip. These would comprise but a small part of Thrace. If race be compared with race no nation of men except the Celts are more numerous than the Thracians taken all together, and for this reason no one before the Romans reduced the whole Thracian population. But the Romans have subdued all Thrace, and they also hold such Celtic territory as is worth possessing, but they have intentionally overlooked the parts that they consider useless through excessive cold or barrenness.

[1.9.6] Then Lysimachus made war against his neighbours, first the Odrysae, secondly the Getae and Dromichaetes. Engaging with men not unversed in warfare and far his superiors in number, he himself escaped from a position of extreme danger, but his son Agathocles, who was serving with him then for the first time, was taken prisoner by the Getae. Lysimachus met with other reverses afterwards, and attaching great importance to the capture of his son made peace with Dromicliaetes, yielding to the Getic king the parts of his empire beyond the Ister, and, chiefly under compulsion, giving him his daughter in marriage. Others say that not Agathocles but Lysimachus himself was taken prisoner, regaining his liberty when Agathocles treated with the Getic king on his behalf. On his return he married to Agathocles Lysandra, the daughter of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, and of Eurydice.

[1.9.7] He also crossed with a fleet to Asia and helped to overthrow the empire of Antigonus.36 He founded also the modern city of Ephesus as far as the coast, bringing to it as settlers people of Lebedos and Colophon, after destroying their cities, so that the iambic poet Phoenix com posed a lament for the capture of Colophon. Mermesianax, the elegiac writer, was, I think, no longer living, otherwise he too would certainly have been moved by the taking of Colophon to write a dirge. Lysimachus also went to war with Pyrrhus, son of Aeacides. Waiting for his departure from Epeirus (Pyrrhus was of a very roving disposition) he ravaged Epeirus until he reached the royal tombs.

[1.9.8] The next part of the story is incredible to me, but Hieronymus the Cardian37 relates that he destroyed the tombs and cast out the bones of the dead. But this Hieronymus has a reputation generally of being biased against all the kings except Antigonus, and of being unfairly partial towards him. As to the treatment of the Epeirot graves, it is perfectly plain that it was malice that made him record that a Macedonian desecrated the tombs of the dead. Besides, Lysimachus was surely aware that they were the ancestors not of Pyrrhus only but also of Alexander. In fact Alexander was an Epeirot and an Aeacid on his mother's side, and the subsequent alliance between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus proves that even as enemies they were not irreconcilable. Possibly Hieronymus had grievances against Lysimachus, especially his destroying the city of the Cardians and founding Lysimachea in its stead on the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonesus.

[1.10.1] X. As long as Aridaeus reigned, and after him Cassander and his sons, friendly relations continued between Lysimachus and Macedon. But when the kingdom devolved upon Demetrius, son of Antigonus, Lysimachus, henceforth expecting that war would be declared upon him by Demetrius, resolved to take aggressive action. He was aware that Demetrius inherited a tendency to aggrandise, and he also knew that he visited Macedonia at the summons of Alexander and Cassander, and on his arrival murdered Alexander himself38 and ruled the Macedonians in his stead.

[1.10.2] Therefore encountering Demetrius at Amphipolis he came near to being expelled from Thrace,39 but on Pyrrhus' coming to his aid he mastered Thrace and afterwards extended his empire at the expense of the Nestians and Macedonians. The greater part of Macedonia was under the control of Pyrrhus himself, who came from Epeirus with an army and was at that time on friendly terms with Lysimachus. When however Demetrius crossed over into Asia and made war on Seleucus, the alliance between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus lasted only as long as Demetrius continued hostilities; when Demetrius submitted to Seleucus, the friendship between Lysimachus and Pyrrhus was broken, and when war broke out Lysimachus fought against Antigonus son of Demetrius and against Pyrrhus himself, had much the better of the struggle, conquered Macedonia and forced Pyrrhus to retreat to Epeirus.

[1.10.3] Love is wont to bring many calamities upon men. Lysimachus, although by this time of mature age and considered happy in respect of his children, and although Agathocles had children by Lysandra, nevertheless married Lysandra's sister Arsinoe. This Arsinoe, fearing for her children, lest on the death of Lysimachus they should fall into the hands of Agathocles, is said for this reason to have plotted against Agathocles. Historians have already related how Arsinoe fell in love with Agathocles, and being unsuccessful they say that she plotted against his life. They say also that Lysimachus discovered later his wife's machinations, but was by this time powerless, having lost all his friends.

[1.10.4] Since Lysimachus, then, overlooked Arsinoe's murder of Agathocles, Lysandra fled to Seleucus, taking with her her children and her brothers, who were taking refuge with Ptolemy and finally adopted this course. They were accompanied on their flight to Seleucus by Alexander who was the son of Lysimachus by an Odrysian woman. So they going up to Babylon entreated Seleucus to make war on Lysimachus. And at the same time Philetaerus, to whom the property of Lysimachus had been entrusted, aggrieved at the death of Agathocles and suspicious of the treatment he would receive at the hands of Arsinoe, seized Pergamus on the Caicus, and sending a herald offered both the property and himself to Seleucus.

[1.10.5] Lysimachus hearing of all these things lost no time in crossing into Asia,40 and assuming the initiative met Seleucus, suffered a severe defeat and was killed. Alexander, his son by the Odrysian woman, after interceding long with Lysandra, won his body and afterwards carried it to the Chersonesus and buried it, where his grave is still to be seen between the village of Cardia and Pactye.

[1.11.1] XI. Such was the history of Lysimachus. The Athenians have also a statue of Pyrrhus. This Pyrrhus was not related to Alexander, except by ancestry. Pyrrhus was son of Aeacides, son of Arybbas, but Alexander was son of Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, and the father of Neoptolemus and Aryblas was Alcetas, son of Tharypus. And from Tharypus to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, are fifteen generations. Now Pyrrhus was the first who after the capture of Troy disdained to return to Thessaly, but sailing to Epeirus dwelt there because of the oracles of Helenus. By Hermione Pyrrhus had no child, but by Andromache he had Molossus, Pielus, and Pergamus, who was the youngest. Helenus also had a son, Cestrinus, being married to Andromache after the murder of Pyrrhus at Delphi.

[1.11.2] Helenus on his death passed on the kingdom to Molossus, son of Pyrrhus, so that Cestrinus with volunteers from the Epeirots took possession of the region beyond the river Thyamis, while Pergamus crossed into Asia and killed Areius, despot in Teuthrania, who fought with him in single combat for his kingdom, and gave his name to the city which is still called after him. To Andromache, who accompanied him, there is still a shrine in the city. Pielus remained behind in Epeirus, and to him as ancestor Pyrrhus, the son of Aeacides, and his fathers traced their descent, and not to Molossus.

[1.11.3] Down to Alcetas, son of Tharypus, Epeirus too was under one king. But the sons of Alcetas after a quarrel agreed to rule with equal authority, remaining faithful to their compact; and afterwards, when Alexander, son of Neoptolemus, died among the Leucani, and Olympias returned to Epeirus through fear of Antipater, Aeacides, son of Arybbas, continued in allegiance to Olympias and joined in her campaign against Aridaeus and the Macedonians, although the Epeirots refused to accompany him.

[1.11.4] Olympias on her victory behaved wickedly in the matter of the death of Aridaeus, and much more wickedly to certain Macedonians, and for this reason was considered to have deserved her subsequent treatment at the hands of Cassander; so Aeacides at first was not received even by the Epeirots because of their hatred of Olympias, and when after wards they forgave him, his return to Epeirus was next opposed by Cassander. When a battle occurred at Oeneadae between Philip, brother of Cassander, and Aeacides, Aeacides was wounded and shortly after met his fate.41

[1.11.5] The Epeirots accepted Alcetas as their king, being the son of Arybbas and the elder brother of Aeacides, but of an uncontrollable temper and on this account banished by his father. Immediately on his arrival he began to vent his fury on the Epeirots, until they rose up and put him and his children to death at night. After killing him they brought back Pyrrhus, son of Aeacides. No sooner had he arrived than Cassander made war upon him, while he was young in years and before he had consolidated his empire. When the Macedonians attacked him, Pyrrhus went to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, in Egypt. Ptolemy gave him to wife the half-sister of his children, and restored him by an Egyptian force.

[1.11.6] The first Greeks that Pyrrhus attacked on becoming king were the Corcyraeans. He saw that the island lay off his own territory, and he did not wish others to have a base from which to attack him. My account of Lysimachus has already related how he fared, after taking Corcyra, in his war with Lysimachus, how he expelled Demetrius and ruled Macedonia until he was in turn expelled by Lysimachus, the most important of his achievements until he waged war against the Romans,

[1.11.7] being the first Greek we know of to do so. For no further battle, it is said, took place between Aeneas and Diomedes with his Argives. One of the many ambitions of the Athenians was to reduce all Italy, but the disaster at Syracuse42 prevented their trying conclusions with the Romans. Alexander, son of Neoptolemus, of the same family as Pyrrhus but older, died among the Leucani before he could meet the Romans in battle.

[1.12.1] XII. So Pyrrhus was the first to cross the Ionian Sea from Greece to attack the Romans.43 And even he crossed on the invitation of the Tarentines. For they were already involved in a war with the Romans, but were no match for them unaided. Pyrrhus was already in their debt, because they had sent a fleet to help him in his war with Corcyra, but the most cogent arguments of the Tarentine envoys were their accounts of Italy, how its prosperity was equal to that of the whole of Greece, and their plea that it was wicked to dismiss them when they had come as friends and suppliants in their hour of need. When the envoys urged these considerations, Pyrrhus remembered the capture of Troy, which he took to be an omen of his success in the war, as he was a descendant of Achilles making war upon a colony of Trojans.

[1.12.2] Pleased with this proposal, and being a man who never lost time when once he had made up his mind, he immediately proceeded to man war ships and to prepare transports to carry horses and men-at-arms. There are books written by men of no renown as historians, entitled “Memoirs.” When I read these I marvelled greatly both at the personal bravery of Pyrrhus in battle, and also at the forethought he displayed whenever a contest was imminent. So on this occasion also when crossing to Italy with a fleet he eluded the observation of the Romans, and for some time after his arrival they were unaware of his presence; it was only when the Romans made an attack upon the Tarentines that he appeared on the scene with his army, and his unexpected assault naturally threw his enemies into confusion.

[1.12.3] And being perfectly aware that he was no match for the Romans, he prepared to let loose against them his elephants. The first European to acquire elephants was Alexander, after subduing Porus and the power of the Indians; after his death others of the kings got them but Antigonus more than any; Pyrrhus captured his beasts in the battle with Demetrius. When on this occasion they came in sight the Romans were seized with panic, and did not believe they were animals.

[1.12.4] For although the use of ivory in arts and crafts all men obviously have known from of old, the actual beasts, before the Macedonians crossed into Asia, nobody had seen at all except the Indians themselves, the Libyans, and their neighbours. This is proved by Homer, who describes the couches and houses of the more prosperous kings as ornamented with ivory, but never mentions the beast; but if he had seen or heard about it he would, in my opinion have been much more likely to speak of it than of the battle between the Dwarf-men and cranes.44

[1.12.5] Pyrrhus was brought over to Sicily by an embassy of the Syracusans. The Carthaginians had crossed over and were destroying the Greek cities, and had sat down to invest Syracuse, the only one now remaining. When Pyrrhus heard this from the envoys he abandoned Tarentum and the Italiots on the coast, and crossing into Sicily forced the Carthaginians to raise the siege of Syracuse. In his self-conceit, although the Carthaginians, being Phoenicians of Tyre by ancient descent, were more experienced sea men than any other non-Greek people of that day, Pyrrhus was nevertheless encouraged to meet them in a naval battle, employing the Epeirots, the majority of whom, even after the capture of Troy, knew no thing of the sea nor even as yet how to use salt. Witness the words of Homer in the Odyssey:– Nothing they know of ocean, and mix not salt with their victuals. Hom. Od. 11.122

[1.13.1] XIII. Worsted on this occasion Pyrrhus put back with the remainder of his vessels to Tarentum. Here he met with a serious reverse, and his retirement, for he knew that the Romans would not let him depart without striking a blow, he contrived in the following manner. On his return from Sicily and his defeat, he first sent various dispatches to Asia and to Antigonus, asking some of the kings for troops, some for money, and Antigonus for both. When the envoys returned and their dispatches were delivered, he summoned those in authority, whether Epeirot or Tarentine, and without reading any of the dispatches declared that reinforcements would come. A report spread quickly even to the Romans that Macedonians and Asiatic tribes also were crossing to the aid of Pyrrhus. The Romans, on hearing this, made no move, but Pyrrhus on the approach of that very night crossed to the headlands of the mountains called Ceraunian.

[1.13.2] After the defeat in Italy Pyrrhus gave his forces a rest and then declared war on Antigonus, his chief ground of complaint being the failure to send reinforcements to Italy. Overpowering the native troops of Antigonus an his Gallic mercenaries he pursued them to the coast cities, and himself reduced upper Macedonia and the Thessalians. The extent of the fighting and the decisive character of the victory of Pyrrhus are shown best by the Celtic armour dedicated in the sanctuary of Itonian Athena between Pherae and Larisa, with this inscription on them:–

[1.13.3]

      Pyrrhus the Molossian hung these shields
      taken from the bold Gauls as a gift to Itonian
      Athena, when he had destroyed all the host
      of Antigonus. 'Tis no great marvel. The
      Aeacidae are warriors now, even as they were of old.

These shields then are here, but the bucklers of the Macedonians themselves he dedicated to Dodonian Zeus. They too have an inscription:–

      These once ravaged golden Asia, and brought
      slavery upon the Greeks. Now ownerless
      they lie by the pillars of the temple of Zeus,
      spoils of boastful Macedonia.

  Pyrrhus came very near to reducing Macedonia entirely, but,

[1.13.4] being usually readier to do what came first to hand, he was prevented by Cleonymus. This Cleonymus, who persuaded Pyrrhus to abandon his Macedonian adventure and to go to the Peloponnesus, was a Lacedaemonian who led an hostile army into the Lacedaemonian territory for a reason which I will relate after giving the descent of Cleonymus. Pausanias, who was in command of the Greeks at Plataea,45 was the father of Pleistoanax, he of Pausanias, and he of Cleombrotus, who was killed at Leuctra fighting against Epaminondas and the Thebans. Cleombrotus was the father of Agesipolis and Cleomenes, and, Agesipolis dying without issue, Cleomenes ascended the throne.

[1.13.5] Cleomenes had two sons, the elder being Acrotatus and the younger Cleonymus. Now Acrotatus died first; and when afterwards Cleomenes died, a claim to the throne was put forward by Areus son of Acrotatus, and Cleonymus took steps to induce Pyrrhus to enter the country. Before the battle of Leuctra46 the Lacedaemonians had suffered no disaster, so that they even refused to admit that they had yet been worsted in a land battle. For Leonidas, they said, had won the victory,47 but his followers were insufficient for the entire destruction of the Persians; the achievement of Demosthenes and the Athenians on the island of Sphacteria48 was no victory, but only a trick in war.

[1.13.6] Their first reverse took place in Boeotia, and they afterwards suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Antipater and the Macedonians.49 Thirdly the war with Demetrius50 came as an unexpected misfortune to their land. Invaded by Pyrrhus and seeing a hostile army for the fourth time, they arrayed themselves to meet it along with the Argives and Messenians who had come as their allies. Pyrrhus won the day, and came near to capturing Sparta without further fighting, but desisted for a while after ravaging the land and carrying off plunder.51 The citizens prepared for a siege, and Sparta even before this in the war with Demetrius had been fortified with deep trenches and strong stakes, and at the most vulnerable points with buildings as well.

[1.13.7] Just about this time, while the Laconian war was dragging on, Antigonus, having recovered the Macedonian cities, hastened to the Peloponnesus being well aware that if Pyrrhus were to reduce Lacedaemon and the greater part of the Peloponnesus, he would not return to Epeirus but to Macedonia to make war there again. When Antigonus was about to lead his army from Argos into Laconia, Pyrrhus himself reached Argos. Victorious once more he dashed into the city along with the fugitives, and his formation not unnaturally was broken up.

[1.13.8] When the fighting was now taking place by sanctuaries and houses, and in the narrow lanes, between detached bodies in different parts of the town, Pyrrhus left by himself was wounded in the head. It is said that his death52 was caused by a blow from a tile thrown by a woman. The Argives however declare that it was not a woman who killed him but Demeter in the likeness of a woman. This is what the Argives themselves relate about his end, and Lyceas, the guide for the neighborhood, has written a poem which confirms the story. They have a sanctuary of Demeter, built at the command of the oracle, on the spot where Pyrrhus died, and in it Pyrrhus is buried.

[1.13.9] I consider it remarkable that of those styled Aeacidae three met their end by similar heaven-sent means; if, as Homer says, Achilles was killed by Alexander, son of Priam, and by Apollo, if the Delphians were bidden by the Pythia to slay Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and if the end of the son of Aeacides was such as the Argives say and Lyceas has described in his poem. The account, how ever, given by Hieronymus the Cardian is different, for a man who associates with royalty cannot help being a partial historian. If Philistus was justified in suppressing the most wicked deeds of Dionysius, because he expected his return to Syracuse, surely Hieronymus may be fully forgiven for writing to please Antigonus.

[1.14.1] XIV. So ended the period of Epeirot ascendancy. When you have entered the Odeum at Athens you meet, among other objects, a figure of Dionysus worth seeing. Hard by is a spring called Enneacrunos (Nine Jets), embellished as you see it by Peisistratus. There are cisterns all over the city, but this is the only fountain. Above the spring are two temples, one to Demeter and the Maid, while in that of Triptolemus is a statue of him. The accounts given of Triptolemus I shall write, omitting from the story as much as relates to Deiope.

[1.14.2] The Greeks who dispute most the Athenian claim to antiquity and the gifts they say they have received from the gods are the Argives, just as among those who are not Greeks the Egyptians compete with the Phrygians. It is said, then, that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by Pelasgus into his home, and that Chrysanthis, knowing about the rape of the Maid, related the story to her. Afterwards Trochilus, the priest of the mysteries, fled, they say, from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor, came to Attica and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two children, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. That is the account given by the Argives. But the Athenians and those who with them . . . know that Triptolemus, son of Celeus, was the first to sow seed for cultivation.

[1.14.3] Some extant verses of Musaeus, if indeed they are to be included among his works, say that Triptolemus was the son of Oceanus and Earth; while those ascribed to Orpheus (though in my opinion the received authorship is again incorrect) say that Eubuleus and Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that because they gave Demeter information about her daughter the sowing of seed was her reward to them. But Choerilus, an Athenian, who wrote a play called Alope, says that Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was the daughter of Amphictyon, while the father of Triptolemus was Rarus, of Cercyon, Poseidon. After I had intended to go further into this story, and to describe the contents of the sanctuary at Athens, called the Eleusinium, I was stayed by a vision in a dream. I shall therefore turn to those things it is lawful to write of to all men.

[1.14.4] In front of this temple, where is also the statue of Triptolemus, is a bronze bull being led as it were to sacrifice, and there is a sitting figure of Epimenides of Cnossus,53 who they say entered a cave in the country and slept. And the sleep did not leave him before the fortieth year, and afterwards he wrote verses and purified Athens and other cities. But Thales who stayed the plague for the Lacedaemonians was not related to Epimenides in any way, and belonged to a different city. The latter was from Cnossus, but Thales was from Gortyn, according to Polymnastus of Colophon, who com posed a poem about him for the Lacedaemonians.

[1.14.5] Still farther of is a temple to Glory, this too being a thank-offering for the victory over the Persians, who had landed at Marathon. This is the victory of which I am of opinion the Athenians were proudest; while Aeschylus, who had won such renown for his poetry and for his share in the naval battles before Artemisium and at Salamis, recorded at the prospect of death nothing else, and merely wrote his name, his father's name, and the name of his city, and added that he had witnesses to his valor in the grove at Marathon and in the Persians who landed there.

[1.14.6] Above the Cerameicus and the portico called the King's Portico is a temple of Hephaestus. I was not surprised that by it stands a statue of Athena, be cause I knew the story about Erichthonius. But when I saw that the statue of Athena had blue eyes I found out that the legend about them is Libyan. For the Libyans have a saying that the Goddess is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and for this reason has blue eyes like Poseidon.

[1.14.7] Hard by is a sanctuary of the Heavenly Aphrodite; the first men to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Ascalon in Palestine; the Phoenicians taught her worship to the people of Cythera. Among the Athenians the cult was established by Aegeus, who thought that he was childless (he had, in fact, no children at the time) and that his sisters had suffered their misfortune because of the wrath of Heavenly Aphrodite. The statue still extant is of Parian marble and is the work of Pheidias. One of the Athenian parishes is that of the Athmoneis, who say that Porphyrion, an earlier king than Actaeus, founded their sanctuary of the Heavenly One. But the traditions current among the Parishes often differ altogether from those of the city.

[1.15.1] XV. As you go to the portico which they call painted, because of its pictures, there is a bronze statue of Hermes of the Market-place, and near it a gate. On it is a trophy erected by the Athenians, who in a cavalry action overcame Pleistarchus, to whose command his brother Cassander had entrusted his cavalry and mercenaries. This portico contains, first, the Athenians arrayed against the Lacedaemonians at Oenoe in the Argive territory.54 What is depicted is not the crisis of the battle nor when the action had advanced as far as the display of deeds of valor, but the beginning of the fight when the combatants were about to close.

[1.15.2] On the middle wall are the Athenians and Theseus fighting with the Amazons. So, it seems, only the women did not lose through their defeats their reckless courage in the face of danger; Themiscyra was taken by Heracles, and afterwards the army which they dispatched to Athens was destroyed, but nevertheless they came to Troy to fight all the Greeks as well as the Athenians them selves. After the Amazons come the Greeks when they have taken Troy, and the kings assembled on account of the outrage committed by Ajax against Cassandra. The picture includes Ajax himself, Cassandra and other captive women.

[1.15.3] At the end of the painting are those who fought at Marathon; the Boeotians of Plataea and the Attic contingent are coming to blows with the foreigners. In this place neither side has the better, but the center of the fighting shows the foreigners in flight and pushing one another into the morass, while at the end of the painting are the Phoenician ships, and the Greeks killing the foreigners who are scrambling into them. Here is also a portrait of the hero Marathon, after whom the plain is named, of Theseus represented as coming up from the under-world, of Athena and of Heracles. The Marathonians, according to their own account, were the first to regard Heracles as a god. Of the fighters the most conspicuous figures in the painting are Callimachus, who had been elected commander-in-chief by the Athenians, Miltiades, one of the generals, and a hero called Echetlus, of whom I shall make mention later.

[1.15.4] Here are dedicated brazen shields, and some have an inscription that they are taken from the Scioneans and their allies,55 while others, smeared with pitch lest they should be worn by age and rust, are said to be those of the Lacedaemonians who were taken prisoners in the island of Sphacteria.56

[1.16.1] XVI. Here are placed bronze statues, one, in front of the portico, of Solon, who composed the laws for the Athenians,57 and, a little farther away, one of Seleucus, whose future prosperity was foreshadowed by unmistakable signs. When he was about to set forth from Macedonia with Alexander, and was sacrificing at Pella to Zeus, the wood that lay on the altar advanced of its own accord to the image and caught fire without the application of a light.

On the death of Alexander, Seleucus, in fear of Antigonus, who had arrived at Babylon, fled to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, and then returned again to Babylon. On his return he overcame the army of Antigonus and killed Antigonus himself, afterwards capturing Demetrius, son of Antigonus, who had advanced with an army.

[1.16.2] After these successes, which were shortly followed by the fall of Lysimachus, he entrusted to his son Antiochus all his empire in Asia, and himself proceeded rapidly towards Macedonia, having with him an army both of Greeks and of foreigners. But Ptolemy, brother of Lysandra, had taken refuge with him from Lysimachus; this man, an adventurous character named for this reason the Thunderbolt, when the army of Seleucus had advanced as far as Lysimachea, assassinated Seleucus, allowed the kings to seize his wealth,58 and ruled over Macedonia until, being the first of the kings to my knowledge to dare to meet the Gauls in battle, he was killed by the foreigners.59 The empire was recovered by Antigonus, son of Demetrius.

[1.16.3] I am persuaded that Seleucus was the most righteous, and in particular the most religious of the kings. Firstly, it was Seleucus who sent back to Branchidae for the Milesians the bronze Apollo that had been carried by Xerxes to Ecbatana in Persia. Secondly, when he founded Seleucea on the river Tigris and brought to it Babylonian colonists he spared the wall of Babylon as well as the sanctuary of Bel, near which he permitted the Chaldeans to live.

1. c. 267-263 B.C.
2. 493 B.C.
3. 323 B.C.
4. fl. c. 350 B.C.
5. 394 B.C.
6. fl. 440-400 B.C.
7. 404-403 B.C.
8. Antigonus surnamed Gonatas became king of Macedonia in 283 B.C.
9. Evagoras was a king of Salamis in Cyprus, who reigned from about 410 to 374 B.C. He favoured the Athenians, and helped Conon to defeat the Spartan fleet off Cnidus in 394 B.C.
10. 560-527 B.C.

11. 362 B.C.
12. 430 B.C.
13. 490-432 B.C.
14. The dates of these artists are unknown.
15. A contemporary of Alexander the Great.
16. An unknown painter.
17. 279 B.C.
18. Antipater and Cassander were successors of Alexander the Great.
19. 480 B.C.
20. A legend invented to explain the name “Ancyra,” which means anchor.

21. See v. 66 and 69. The reform took place in 508 B.C.
22. That is, “those after whom others are named.”
23. This king of Pergamus visited Athens in 200 B.C. in the company of the Roman ambassadors, and was treated with every mark of respect by the Athenians.
24. It is uncertain to which of the many kings of Egypt called by this name Pausanias refers.
25. 117-138 A.D.
26. 132 A.D.
27. The account which follows deals with the troubled period which came after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The generals Antigonus, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander quarrelled over the division of the empire.
28. 323 B.C.
29. An Athenian orator who did great service to Athens when Demosthenes was trying to stir up his countrymen against Philip of Macedon.
30. c. 448 B.C.

31. 323 B.C.
32. Nothing more is known of this person.
33. Or “tunes.”
34. 514 B.C.
35. fl. c. 445 B.C.
36. 302 B.C.
37. fl. 20-300 B.C.
38. 294 B.C.
39. 288 B.C.
40. 281 B.C.

41. 313 B.C.
42. 413 B.C.
43. 280 B.C.
44. Hom. Il. 3.3f.
45. 479 B.C.
46. 371 B.C.
47. 480 B.C.
48. 425 B.C.
49. 330 B.C.
50. 295 B.C.

51. 272 B.C.
52. 272 B.C.
53. fl. c. 600 B.C.
54. Date unknown.
55. 421 B.C.
56. 425 B.C.
57. 594 B.C.
58. 281 B.C.
59. 280 B.C.