Page images
PDF
EPUB

called the inhabitants of Ægialus Ionians after him. This was not a change of name but an addition, for they were called the Ionian Egialians. And the old name Egialus long prevailed as the name of the country. And so Homer in his catalogue of the forces of Agamemnon was pleased to call the country by its old name,

"Throughout Egialus and spacious Helice."1

And at that period of the reign of Ion when the Eleusinians were at war with the Athenians, and the Athenians invited Ion to be Commander in Chief, death seized him in Attica, and he was buried at Potamos, a village in Attica. And his descendants reigned after him till they and their people were dispossessed by the Achæans, who in their turn were driven out by the Dorians from Lacedæmon and Argos. The mutual feuds between the Ionians and Achmans I shall relate when I have first given the reason why, before the return of the Dorians, the inhabitants of Lacedæmon and Argos only of all the Peloponnese were called Achæans. Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achæus, came to Argos from Phthiotis and became the sons in law of Danaus, Architeles marrying Automate, and Archander Scoa. And that they were sojourners in Argos is shewn very clearly by the name Metanastes (stranger) which Archander gave his son. And it was when the sons of Achæus got powerful in Argos and Lacedæmon that the name Achæan got attached to the whole population. Their general name was Achæans, though the Argives were privately called Danai. And now when they were expelled from Argos and Lacedæmon by the Dorians, they and their king Tisamenus the son of Orestes made the Ionians proposals to become their colonists without war. But the Ionian Court was afraid that, if they and the Achæans were one people, Tisamenus would be chosen as king over both nations for his bravery and the lustre of his race. So the Ionians did not accept the proposals of the Achæans but went to blows over it, and Tisamenus fell in the battle, and the Acheins beat the Ionians, and besieged them in Helice to which they had fled, but afterwards let them go upon conditions. And the Achmeans buried the body of Tisamenus at Helice, but some Iliad, ii. 675.

1

time afterwards the Lacedæmonians, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, removed the remains to Sparta, and the tomb of Tisamenus is now where the Lacedaemonians have their banquetings, at the place called Phiditia. And when the Ionians migrated to Attica the Athenians and their king, Melanthus the son of Andropompus, welcomed them as settlers, in gratitude to Ion and his services to the Athenians as Commander in Chief. But there is a tradition that the Athenians suspected the Dorians, and feared that they would not keep their hands off them, and received the Ionians therefore as settlers rather from their formidable strength than from goodwill to them.

CHAPTER II.

AND not many years afterwards Medon and Nileus, the

eldest sons of Codrus, quarrelled as to who should be king over the Athenians, and Nileus said he would not submit to the rule of Medon, because Medon was lame in one of his feet. But as they decided to submit the matter to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess assigned the kingdom to Medon. So Nileus and the other sons of Codrus were sent on a colony, and took with them whatever Athenians wished, and the Ionians formed the largest part of the contingent. This was the third expedition that had started from Greece under different kings and with different peoples. The oldest expedition was that of Iolaus the Theban, the nephew of Hercules, who led the Athenians and people of Thespin to Sardinia. And, one generation before the Ionians sailed from Athens, the Lacedæmonians and Minya who had been expelled by the Pelasgi from Lemnos were led by Theras the Theban, the son of Autesion, to the island henceforward called Theras after him, but formerly called Calliste. And now thirdly the sons of Codrus were put at the head of the Ionians, though they had no connection with them by race, being as they were Messenians from Pylos as far as Codrus and Melanthus were concerned, and Athenians only on their mother's side. And the following Greeks took part in this expedition of the Ionians, the Thebans under Philotas, who was a descendant of Penoleus,

and the Minys from Orchomenus, who were kinsmen of the sons of Codrus. All the Phocians also took part in it (except the people of Delphi), and the Abantes from Eubœ. And to the Phocians the Athenians Philogenes and Damon, the sons of Euctemon, gave ships to sail in, and themselves led them to the colony. And when they had crossed over to Asia Minor, different detachments went to different maritime towns, but Nileus and his contingent to Miletus. The Milesians give the following account of their early history. They say their country was for two generations called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax the Autochthon and Asterius his son, and that, when Miletus put in there with an expedition of Cretans, then the town and country changed its name to Miletus from him. And Miletus and the force with him came from Crete fleeing from Minos the son of Europa. And the Carians, who had settled earlier in the neighbourhood of Miletus, admitted the Cretans to a joint share with them. But now when the Ionians conquered the old inhabitants of Miletus, they slew all the males ex-.cept those that ran away from the captured city, and married their wives and daughters. And the tomb of Nileus is as you approach Didymi, not far from the gates on the left of the road. And the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didymi are of earlier date than the migration of the Ionians: as also is the worship of the Ephesian Artemis. Not that Pindar in my opinion understood all about the goddess, for he says that the Amazons who fought against Theseus and Athens built the temple to hor. Those women from Thermodon did indeed sacrifice to the Ephesian Artemis, as having known her temple of old, when they fled from Hercules and earlier still from Dionysus, and sought refuge there: it was not however built by them, but by Coresus, an Autochthon, and by Ephesus (who was they think the son of the river Cayster, and gave his name to the city of Ephesus). And the Leleges (who form part of Caria) and most of the Lydians inhabited the district. And several people lived near the temple for the purpose of supplication, and some women of the Amazonian race. And Androclus the son of Codrus, who was appointed king of the Ionians that sailed to Ephesus, drove the Leleges and Lydians who dwelt in the upper part of the city out of the district; but of those who

lived near the temple no apprehensions were entertained, but they mutually gave and received pledges with the Ionians without any hostilities. Androclus also took Samos from the Samians, and for some time the Ephesians were masters of Samos and the adjacent islands. And after the Samians returned to their own possessions, Androclus assisted the people of Priene against the Carians and, though the Greeks were victorious, fell in the battle. And the Ephesians took up his corpse, and buried it in their own country where the tomb is shown to this day, on the way from the temple by the Olympiæum to the Magnesian gates. The device on the tomb is a mau in full armour.

And the Ionians, when they inhabited Myus and Priene, drove the Carians out from those cities. Cyaretus the son of Codrus colonized Myus, and Priene was colonized by Thebans and Ionians mixed under Philotas, the descendant of Peneleus, and Epytus the son of Nileus. So Priene, which had been ravaged by Tabalus the Persian, and afterwards by Hiero one of its own citizens, at last became an Ionian city. But the dwellers in Myus left their town in consequence of the following circumstance. In the neighbourhood of Myus is a small bay: this was converted into a marsh by the Meander filling up the mouth of the bay with mud. And as the water became foul and no longer sea, mosquitoes in endless quantities bred in the marsh, till they compelled the poor people of Myus to leave the place. And they went to Miletus and carried off with them everything they could take and the statues of the gods: and in my time there was at Myus only a temple of Dionysus in white marble. A similar disaster fell upon the Atarnita near Pergamum.

THE

CHAPTER III.

HE Colophonians also regard the temple and oracle of Apollo at Claros as most ancient, for, while the Carians were still in possession of the country, they say that the first Greeks who came there were Cretans, a large force powerful both by land and sea under Rhacius, and the Carians romained still in possession of most of the country. But

when the Argives and Thersander the son of Polynices took Thebes, several captives, and among others Manto were taken to Apollo at Delphi, but Tiresias died on the road not far from Haliartus. And when the god sent them to form a colony they crossed over into Asia Minor, and when they got to Claros the Cretans attacked them and took them before Rhacius. And he, understanding from Manto who they were and their errand, married Manto and made her companions fellow-settlers with him. And Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and Manto, drove out all the Carians altogether. And the Ionians on mutual conditions became fellow-citizens upon equal terms with the Colophonian Grecks. And the kingdom over the Ionians was usurped by their leaders Damasichthon and Promethus the sons of Codrus. And Promethus afterwards slew his brother Damasichthon and fled to Naxos, and died there, and his body was taken home and buried by the sons of Damasichthon: his tomb is at a place called Polytichides. And how Colophon came to be dispeopled I have previously described in my account about Lysimachus: its inhabitants were the only colonists at Ephesus that fought against Lysimachus and the Macedonians. And the tombs of those from Colophon and Smyrna that fell in the battle are on the left of the road to Claros.

Lebedus also was dispeopled by Lysimachus simply to add to the population of Ephesus. It was a place in many respects favoured, and especially for its very numerous and agreeable warm baths near the sea. Originally it was inhabited by the Carians, till Andraemon, the son of Codrus, and the Ionians drove them out. Andræmon's tomb is on the left of the road from Colophon, after you have crossed the river Calaon.

And Teos was colonized by the Minys from Orchomenus, who came with Athamas; he is said to have been a descendant of Athamas the son of Eolus. Here too the Carians were mixed up with the Greeks. And the Ionians were conducted to Teos by Apocus, the great-great-grandson of Melanthus, who did no harm to either the Orchomenians or Teians. And not many years afterwards came men from Attica and Boeotia, the former under Damasus See Book ix, ch. 33.

« PreviousContinue »