The boundary between the territories of Lacedaemon and Tegea is the river Alpheius. Its water begins in Phylace, and not far from its source there flows down into it another water from springs that are not large, but many in number, whence the placeit shows in Ortygia, before Syracuse, that it is the Alpheius, and unites its water with Arethusa.
The straight road from Tegea to Thyrea and to the villages its territory contains can show a notable sight in the tomb of Orestes, the son of Agamemno advancing ten stades you come to a sanctuary of Pan, by which is an oak, like the sanctuary sacred to Pan.
The road from Tegea to Argos is very well suited for carriages, in fact a first-rate highway. On the road come first a temple and image of Asto be sacred to Pan. Crossing the peak of the mountain you are within the cultivated area, and reach the boundary between Tegea and Argos; it is near Hysiae in Argolis.These are the divisions of the Peloponnesus, the cities in the divisions, and the
racles at Thebes. The tripod has as its inscription:—Echembrotus of Arcadia dedicated this pleasant gift to HeraclesWhen he won a victory at the games of the Amphictyons,Singing for the Greeks tunes and lamentations.In this way the competition in singing to the flute was dropped. But they added a chariot-race, and Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, was proclaimed victor in the chariot-race.
At the eighth Pythian Festival they added a contest for harpists playing without singing; Agelaus of Tegea was crowned. At the twenty-third Pythian Festival they added a race in armour. For this Timaenetus of Phlius won the laurel, five Olympiads after Damaretus of Heraea was victorious. At the forty-eighth Pythian Festival they established a race for two-horse chariots, and the chariot won of Execestides the Phocian. At the fifth Festival after this they yoked foals to a chariot, and the chariot of Orphondas of Thebes came in first.
The pancratium for boys, a race for a chariot drawn by two
Pindar, Olympian (ed. Diane Arnson Svarlien),
Olympian 10For Hagesidamus of Western LocriBoys' Boxing476 B.C. (search)
cles divided the gifts of war and sacrificed the finest of them, and how he established the four years' festival with the first Olympic games and its victories.Who won the first garland, with the skill of his hands or feet or chariot, setting the boast of victory in his mind and achieving it with his deeds?
In the foot race the best at running the straight coursewith his feet was the son of Licymnius, Oeonus, who had come from Midea at the head of an army. In wrestling, Echemus won glory for Tegea. And the prize in boxing was won by Doryclus, who lived in the city of Tiryns. And in the four-horse chariot
the victor was Samos of Mantinea, the son of Halirhothius. Phrastor hit the mark with the javelin. Niceus sent the stone flying from his circling arm beyond all the others, and his fellow soldiers raised a sudden burst of loud cheering.The lovely light of the moon's beautiful face lit up the evening
and in the delightful festivities the whole precinct rang with a song in praise of vic
Pindar, Nemean (ed. Diane Arnson Svarlien),
Nemean 10For Theaeus of ArgosWrestling?444 B. C. (search)
right, if I were a kinsman of Thrasyclusand Antias, not to veil the light in my eyes. For this horse-breeding city of Proetus has flourished with so many victories in the glens of Corinth, and four times from the men of Cleonae.
And from Sicyon they returned with silver wine-goblets, and from Pellana with soft wool cloaks around their shoulders.But it is impossible to give a full reckoning of their countless prizes of bronze—for it would require long leisure to number them—which Cleitor and Tegea and the upland cities of the Achaeans and Mount Lycaeon set by the racecourse of Zeus for men to win with the strength of their feet and hands.
But since Castorand his brother Polydeuces came to Pamphaës to receive a hospitable welcome, it is no wonder that it is innate in their race to be good athletes; since the Dioscuri, guardians of spacious Sparta, along with Hermes and Heracles, administer the flourishing institution of the games, and they care very much for just men. Indeed, the race
adult males to death, and making
slaves of the women and children, gave the land for the Plataeans to live
in.
She also brought back the Delians to Delos, moved by her misfortunes in the
field and by the commands of the god at Delphi.
Meanwhile the Phocians and Locrians commenced hostilities.
The Corinthians and Argives being now in alliance, went to Tegea to bring
about its defection from Lacedaemon, seeing that if so considerable a state
could be persuaded to join, all Peloponnese would be with them.
But when the Tegeans said that they would do nothing against Lacedaemon,
the hitherto zealous Corinthians relaxed their activity, and began to fear
that none of the rest would now come over.
Still th
Orchomenos thus secured, the allies now consulted as to which of the
remaining places they should attack next.
The Eleans were urgent for Lepreum; the Mantineans for Tegea; and the Argives and Athenians giving their support to the Mantineans,
the Eleans went home in a rage at their not having voted for Lepreum; while the rest of the allies made ready at Mantinea for going against
ing places they should attack next.
The Eleans were urgent for Lepreum; the Mantineans for Tegea; and the Argives and Athenians giving their support to the Mantineans,
the Eleans went home in a rage at their not having voted for Lepreum; while the rest of the allies made ready at Mantinea for going against
Tegea, which a party inside had arranged to put into their hands.
At this juncture arrived word from their
friends in Tegea that unless they speedily appeared, Tegea would go over
from them to the Argives and their alliesTegea would go over
from them to the Argives and their allies, if it had not gone over already.
Upon this news a force marched out from Lacedaemon, of the Spartans and
Helots and all their people, and that instantly and upon a scale never
Orestheum in Maenalia, they directed the Arcadians in their
league to follow close after them to Tegea, and going on themselves as far
as Orestheum, from thence sent back the sixth part of the Spartan of the oldest and youngest men, to guard their homes, and with
the rest of their army arrived at Tegea; where their Arcadian allies soon after joined them.
Meanwhile they sent to Corinth, to the Boe
Such was the battle, as nearly as possible as
I have described it; the greatest that had occurred for a very long while among the Hellenes,
and joined by the most considerable states.
The Lacedaemonians took up a position in front of the enemy's dead, and
immediately set up a trophy and stripped the slain; they took up their own dead and carried them back to Tegea, where they
buried them, and restored those of the enemy under truce.
The Argives, Orneans, and Cleonaeans had seven hundred killed; the Mantineans two hundred, and the Athenians and Aeginetans also two
hundred, with both their generals.
On the side of the Lacedaemonians, the allies did not suffer any loss worth
speaking of: as to the Lacedaemonians themselves it was difficul
While the battle was impending, Pleistoanax,
the other king, set out with a reinforcement composed of the oldest and
youngest men, and got as far as Tegea, where he heard of the victory and
went back again.
The Lacedaemonians also sent and turned back the allies from Corinth and
from beyond the Isthmus, and returning themselves dismissed their allies,
and kept the Carnean holidays, which happened to be at that time.
The imputations cast upon them by the Hellenes at the time, whether of
cowardice on account of the disaster in the island, or of mismanagement and
slowness generally, were all wiped out by this single action: fortune, it
was thought, might have humbled them, but the men themselves w
Summer now came to an end.
In the first days of the next winter, when the Carnean holidays were over,
the Lacedaemonians took the field, and arriving at Tegea sent on to Argos
proposals of accommodation.
They had before had a party in the town desirous of overthrowing the
democracy; and after the battle that had been fought, these were now far more in a
position to persuade the people to listen to terms.
Their plan was first to make a treaty with the Lacedaemonians, to be
followed by an alliance, and after this to fall upon the commons.
Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, the Argive Proxenus, accordingly arrived at
Argos with two proposals from Lacedaemon, to regulate the conditions of war
