4.

We have spoken of the extraordinary circumstances relative to the Alpheius, Eurotas, and the Erasinus, which issues out of the lake Stymphalis, and now flows into the Argive country.

Formerly, the Erasinus had no efflux, for the Berethra, which the Arcadians call Zerethra,272 had no outlet, so that the city of the Stymphalii, which at that time was situated upon the lake, is now at the distance of 50 stadia.

The contrary was the case with the Ladon, which was at one time prevented running in a continuous stream by the obstruction of its sources. For the Berethra near Pheneum, through which it now passes, fell in in consequence of an earthquake, which stopped the waters of the river, and affected far down the veins which supplied its source. This is the account of some writers.

Eratosthenes says, that about the Pheneus, the river called Anias forms a lake, and then sinks under-ground into certain openings, which they call Zerethra. When these are obstructed, the water sometimes overflows into the plains, and when they are again open the water escapes in a body from the plains, and is discharged into the Ladon273 and the Alpheius,274 so that it happened once at Olympia, that the land about the temple was inundated, but the lake was partly emptied. The Erasinus275 also, he says, which flows by Stymphalus, sinks into the ground under the mountain (Chaon?), and reappears in the Argive territory. It was this that induced Iphicrates, when besieging Stymphalus, and making no progress, to attempt to obstruct the descent of the river into the ground by means of a large quantity of sponges, but desisted in consequence of some portentous signs in the heavens.

Near the Pheneus there is also the water of the Styx, as it is called, a dripping spring of poisonous water, which was esteemed to be sacred.

So much then respecting Arcadia.

5.276 Polybius having said, that from Maleæ towards the north as far as the Danube the distance is about 10,000 stadia, is corrected by Artemidorus, and not without reason; for, according to the latter, from Maleæ to Ægium the distance is 1400 stadia, from hence to Cirrha is a distance by sea of 200 stadia; hence by Heraclea to Thaumaci a journey of 500 stadia; thence to Larisa and the river Peneus, 340 stadia; then through Tempe to the mouth of the Peneus, 240 stadia; then to Thessalonica, 660 stadia; then to the Danube, through Idomene, and Stobi, and Dardanii, it is 3200 stadia. According to Artemidorus, therefore, the distance from the Danube to Maleæ would be 6500. The cause of this difference is that he does not give the measurement by the shortest road, but by some accidental route pursued by a general of an army.

It is not, perhaps, out of place to add the founders mentioned by Ephorus, who settled colonies in Peloponnesus after the return of the Heracleidæ; as Aletes, the founder of Corinth; Phalces, of Sicyon; Tisamenus, of cities in Achæa; Oxylus, of Elis, Cresphontes, of Messene; Eurysthenes and Procles, of Lacedæmon; Temenus and Cissus, of Argos; and Agræus and Deïphontes, of the towns about Acte.

[Pg 78]

[CAS. 390]