Myscellus, the founder of Croton, was a native of Rhypes. Leuctrum, belonging to the district Rhypis, was a demus of Rhypes. Between these was Patræ, a considerable city, and in the intervening country, at the distance of 40 stadia from Patræ, are Rhium,[259] and opposite to it, Antirrhium.[260] Not long since the Romans, after the victory at Actium, stationed there a large portion of their army, and at [CAS. 387] present it is very well peopled, since it is a colony of the Romans. It has also a tolerably good shelter for vessels. Next is Dyme,[261] a city without a harbour, the most westerly of all the cities, whence also it has its name. It was formerly called Stratos.[262] It is separated from Eleia at Buprasium by the river Larisus,[263] which rises in a mountain, called by some persons Scollis, but by Homer, the Olenian rock. Antimachus having called Dyme Cauconis, some writers suppose that the latter word is used as an epithet derived from the Caucones, who extended as far as this quarter, as I have said before. Others think that it is derived from a river Caucon, in the same way as Thebes has the appellation of Dircæan, and Asopian; and as Argos is called Inachian, and Troy, Simuntis.[264] A little before our time, Dyme had received a colony consisting of a mixed body of people, a remnant of the piratical bands, whose haunts Pompey had destroyed. Some he settled at Soli in Cilicia, and others in other places, and some in this spot. Phara borders upon the Dymæan territory. The inhabitants of this Phara are called Pharenses; those of the Messenian Phara, Pharatæ. In the territory of Phara there is a fountain Dirce, of the same name as that at Thebes. Olenus is deserted. It lies between Patræ and Dyme. The territory is occupied by the Dymæi. Next is Araxus,[265] the promontory of the Eleian district, distant from the isthmus 1000 stadia. CHAPTER VIII. 1. Arcadia is situated in the middle of Peloponnesus, and contains the greatest portion of the mountainous tract in that country. Its largest mountain is Cyllene.[266] Its perpendicular height, according to some writers, is 20, according to others, about 15 stadia. The Arcadian nations, as the Azanes, and Parrhasii, and other similar tribes, seem to be the most ancient people of Greece.[267] In consequence of the complete devastation of this country, it is unnecessary to give a long description of it. The cities, although formerly celebrated, have been destroyed by continual wars; and the husbandmen abandoned the country at the time that most of the cities were united in that called Megalopolis (the Great City). At present Megalopolis itself has undergone the fate expressed by the comic poet; “the great city is a great desert.”