Forty distinct Arcadian townships,[479] from all sides
of this centre, were persuaded to join the new community. Ten were
from the Mænalii, eight from the Parrhasii, six from the Eutresii,
three great sections of the Arcadian name, each an aggregate of
villages. Four little townships, occupying a portion of the area
intended for the new territory, yet being averse to the scheme, were
constrained to join; but in one of them, Trapezus, the aversion was
so strong, that most of the inhabitants preferred to emigrate, and
went to join the Trapezuntines in the Euxine Sea (Trebizond), who
received them kindly. Some of the leading Trapezuntines were even
slain by the violent temper of the Arcadian majority. The walls of
the new city enclosed an area of fifty stadia in circumference (more
than five miles and a half); while an ample rural territory was also
gathered around it, extending northward as much as twenty-four miles
from the city, and conterminous on the east with Tegea, Mantinea,
Orchomenus, and Kaphyæ,—on the west with Messênê,[480] Phigalia, and
Heræa.
[478] Thucyd. ii, 15. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ Θησεὺς ἐβασίλευσε, γενόμενος μετὰ
τοῦ ξυνετοῦ καὶ δυνατὸς, etc.
[479] Diodor. xv, 72.
[480] Pausan. viii, 27; viii, 35, 5. Diodor. xv, 63.
See Mr. Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, Appendix, p. 418, where
the facts respecting Megalopolis are brought together and
discussed.
It is remarkable that though Xenophon (Hellen. v, 2, 7) observes
that the capture of Mantinea by Agesipolis had made the
Mantineans see the folly of having a river run through their
town,—yet in choosing the site of Megalopolis, this same feature
was deliberately reproduced: and in this choice the Mantineans
were parties concerned.
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