the battle of the Boeotians against the united Athenians and Spartans, in which Epaminondas fell; 3. the battle of Agis against Antipater, in the unfortunate attempt (Olymp. 112, 2) to restore the liberty of Peloponnesus, while Alexander was engaged in Asia. To these we may add a fourth, the battle of Philopoemen against Machanidas, tyrant of Sparta. The cause of so many battles lies in the importance of the site of the town, in a military point of view, for it is situated in a fertile plain suited for great manoeuvres, on the other side of the passes leading from Arcadia into Argolis, and commands the road which leads by Orchomenos to Corinth. ORCHOMENOS cannot be compared in importance with the two towns just mentioned; it, too, had an independent political existence as a city at an early period, and was distinct from the three Arcadian peoples. The fourth town on the eastern frontier is STYMPHALUS, a small place in the extreme corner of the territory of Phlius and Argos. It was situated in a hollow among mountains, on the border of a lake, with subterraneous outlets. Tradition ascribed the construction of these passages to the heroic age, and apparently with great justice. This is one of the many traces which show that Greece must have had a history which went back much farther than the current history, and which is so unintelligible to us, just because we join the poetical traditions of those nations directly to the historical ages. Such is the case, for example, with the Minyans, who are so utterly mysterious to us; but it would be mere infatuation to deny that they once were a great historical people; their subjugation of Thebes, and the numerous other traditions, have a real historical foundation, as is still attested by the ruins of the Boeotian Orchomenos, and by the tunnel carrying off the water of lake Copais. The lake itself may be of volcanic origin; but the tunnel, at all events, has at least been completed by the hand of man. The same is the case with lake Stymphalus, the carrying off of the water from which is ascribed in tradition to Heracles. Some of the northern towns, as _Pheneos_, _Psophis_, and _Cynaetha_, are ancient but insignificant.