Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
History
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.
Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Olympiad, in which Dasmon the Corinthian was victor in the stadium, the
Medontidæ at Athens being still in possession of their ten year office,
and at the completion of the fourth year of office of Hippomenes.
CHAPTER XIV.
And the Messenians who had friends at Sicyon and at Argos and amongst
the Arcadians retired to those places, and those of the family of the
priests who performed the mysteries to the Great Goddesses went to
Eleusis. And the multitude dispersed to their several nationalities.
And the Lacedæmonians first razed Ithome to the ground, and afterwards
attacked and captured the other cities. And out of the spoils they set
up to Apollo of Amyclæ some brazen tripods: under the first tripod is
a statue of Aphrodite, and under the second one of Artemis, and under
the third one of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter. These they erected
there. And of the Messenian land they gave to the Asinæi, who had been
ejected by the Argives, the territory by the sea that they still have:
and to the descendants of Androcles, (for Androcles had a daughter and
she had sons, and after the death of Androcles they fled to Sparta),
they gave what is called Hyamea. And the following conditions were
imposed on the Messenians by the Lacedæmonians. First of all they bound
them by oath not to revolt or to attempt any revolutionary movement.
And next they appointed no stated tribute, but they were to bring to
Sparta from the land half its produce. With respect too to the burials
of kings and other people in authority, provision was made that the men
and women in Messenia should wear black raiment, and a punishment was
ordained for those who violated this rule. And as to their exactions
from the Messenians they have been described by Tyrtæus: “As asses
worn out by long continued toil, carrying to their masters from
bitter necessity half of all the fruit the country yields.” And that
necessity was laid on them of mourning for their masters’ deaths he
has manifested in the following lines, “They and their wives together
wailing for their masters, when baneful death seized on any one.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account