Clepsydra

fons.

Evan

mons.

Chironis stabulum.

above mentioned. (Strab. VIII. p. 361. Polyb. VII. 11.) Scylax says Ithome was eighty stadia from the sea. (Peripl. p. 16.)

On the mountain was a spring named Clepsydra, whence water was conveyed to the city. (Pausan. Messen. 21. 23.)

Another summit called Evan separated Messene towards the east from the valley of the Pamisus. (Pausan. Messen. 31.) Its modern name is not mentioned by sir W. Gell, who makes use of the ancient appellation of Evany.

The ruins of Messene are visible, as we learn from the same antiquary, at Maurommati, a small village, with a beautiful source under Ithome in the centre of the ancient city. There are considerable vestiges of the walls and gates. The architrave of one of these is nineteen feet long. It was placed between two towers thirty-three feet distant from each other. These remains, as well as the walls, are composed of magnificent blocks. The latter are in fine preservation, running up mount Ithome, and enclosing a vast extent of ground. The inner gates were divided so as to afford a separate passage for persons on foot, and a road for carriages2.

In the vicinity of Messene was a spot called Chiron's stable, adorned apparently with villas and pleasure-grounds. The Etolians committed some depredations here before the commencement of the Balyra fl. Social war. (Polyb. IV. 4, 1.) The river Balyra,

which flowed about thirty stadia from the Arcadian gate, was said to have derived its name from the lyre of Thamyris, which that poet had thrown into the stream after losing his sight. (Pausan. Messen. 33.) The Balyra, which in modern maps is called Mauro Zoumena, appears to be the most considerable of the numerous branches of the Pamisus.

vicus et fl.

On the road leading from Andania to Cyparissia Electra was the small town of Electra, near which flowed the little river of the same name, and likewise another called Coeus. (Pausan. Messen. 33.) This spot Coeus fl. answers perhaps to the village of Alitouri, where sir W. Gell observed "the ruins of a most singular "ancient bridge resting on piers in the centre at "the junction of two rivers." Beyond Electra, Pausanias notices the ancient town of Dorium, of which Dorium. he saw the ruins near a fountain named Achaia. Achaia (Messen. 33.) Strabo, however, asserts that no such place was known to exist in his day, but that some identified it with an obscure town name Oluris, or Oluris sive Olura, in the Messenian district of Aulon. (VIII. p. 350.) This may have been the spot alluded to by Pausanias. Homer assigned Dorium to the dominions of Nestor, and he has given it additional interest from the calamity which there befell Thamyris.

Καὶ Πτελεὸν, καὶ Ἕλος, καὶ Δώριον· ἔνθα τε Μοῦσαι
Αντόμεναι Θάμυριν τὸν Θρήικα παῦσαν ἀοιδῆς

IL. B. 594.

Hesiod seems to have adopted a different tradition, as he removes the scene of this tale to Dotium in Thessaly. (ap. Steph. Byz. v. ATLOV. Plin. IV. 5.)

a Itiner. of the Morea, p. 58.

fons.

Olura.

Aulon regio et urbs.

Ira.

Amphigenia.

Pau

Aulon was that district of Messenia which bordered on Triphylia and part of Arcadia, being separated from these two provinces by the Neda. sanias seems to place it near the mouth of that river. He notices there a temple and statue of the Aulonian Esculapius. (Messen. 36. Cf. Xen. Hell. III. 2, 18. III. 3, 8. Strab. VIII. p. 350. Steph. Byz. v. Αὐλών.)

Pliny states that the Alpheus was navigable for six miles near the towns of Aulon and Lepreum. (IV. 5.) Higher up the Neda stood Ira, a mountain-fortress, celebrated in the history of the Messenian wars as the last hold whither Aristomenes retreated, and which he so long defended against the enemies of his country. (Rhian. Frag. ap. Pausan. Messen. 17.)

Οὔρεος ἀργεννοῖο περὶ πτύχας ἐστρατόωντο

Χείματά τε ποιάς τε δύω καὶ εἴκοσι πάσας.

(Cf. Strab. VIII. p. 360. Steph. Byz. v. 'Ipá.) We are informed by sir W. Gell, "that there are some "ruins near a village called Kakoletri, on the left "bank of the Neda, which some think those of Ira, "the capital of Messenia in the time of Aristo"menes b."

Amphigenia, a town which, according to Homer, belonged to Nestor,

Καὶ Κυπαρισσήεντα, καὶ ̓Αμφιγένειαν ἔναιον,
Καὶ Πτελεὸν, καὶ Ἕλος

IL. B. 593.

was assigned by some critics to Messenia, (Antimach. ap. Steph. Byz. v. 'Audryéveia,) by others to Triphylia. It was situated near the river Hypsoeis, and possessed a temple of Latona. (Strab. VIII. p. 349.)

b Itiner. of the Morea, p. 84.

Pteleum, founded by a colony from the Thessa- Pteleum. lian city of the same name, had disappeared in Strabo's time; but the site, though deserted and overspread with brambles and briars, still retained the name of Pteleasimum. (VIII. p. 350.)

Helos was regarded by some as a particular dis- Helos. trict near the Alpheus, by others as a town. (Strab. loc. cit. Plin. IV. 5.)

Rhium, which, according to Strabo, was situated Rhium. on the gulf of Thuria, is unknown, (VIII. p. 360. 361. Steph. Byz. v. 'Píov.)

Æthea was apparently a Messenian town, since Æthea. the inhabitants are said to have revolted from Sparta with the Thuriatæ. (Thuc. I. 101.) Stephanus Byz. assigns it to Laconia. (v. Altaía.)

We should perhaps place in Messenia Argyphea, Argyphea. mentioned as a sea-port town by Homer in the hymn to Apollo.

ἡ δὲ πρήσσουσα κέλευθα

̓Αρήνην ἵκανε, καὶ ̓Αργυρέην ερατεινήν.

Stephanus assigns to the same province Mesola, Mesola. (v. Meróλa,) Neris, (v. Nnpis,) and Hyameia, (v. Neris. Υάμεια.)

Hyameia.

SECTION XIX.

LACONIA.

Summary of the Lacedæmonian history from the earliest period to the subjugation of Greece by the Romans-Boundaries of Laconia-Description of the coast and islands-Topography of Sparta-Interior of the province.

FROM the traditions collected by Pausanias it appears that the Leleges were generally regarded as the first inhabitants of Laconia. It is to this ancient race that he traces the foundation of Sparta, and the origin of its earliest sovereigns, (Lacon. 1.) but he has not informed us by what revolution the Tyndaridæ, who were the last princes of the first Laconian dynasty, made way for the house of Pelops in the person of Menelaus, son-in-law, it is true, of Tyndareus, but who could not have succeeded to the crown in right of his wife. We must probably seek for an explanation of this fact in the power and influence obtained by Pelops and Atreus at this early period over nearly the whole peninsula. Thus, while Agamemnon reigned over Argos and Mycene, the domination of his brother Menelaus extended over the whole of Laconia, and a great portion of Messenia. Homer, as Strabo observes, employs the name of Lacedæmon, to denote both the city and the country of which it was the capital. (VIII. p. 367. Cf. Eustath. II. B. 581.)