58.

Myrsilus says that Assus was founded by Methymnæans; but according to Hellanicus it was an Æolian city, like Gargara and Lamponia of the Æolians. Gargara1476 was founded from Assus; it was not well peopled, for the kings introduced settlers from Miletopolis,1477 which they cleared of its inhabitants, so that Demetrius the Scepsian says that, instead of being Æolians, the people became semi-barbarians. In the time of Homer all these places belonged to Leleges, whom some writers represent as Carians, but Homer distinguishes them,

“Near the sea are Carians, and Pæonians with curved bows, Leleges, and Caucones.”1478

The Leleges were therefore a different people from the Carians, and lived between the people subject to Æneas and the Cilicians, as they are called by the poet. After being plundered by Achilles, they removed to Caria, and occupied the country about the present Halicarnassus.