There was a saying, well known in antiquity, of the “silent Amyclæ;” thus called because its citizens had been so often alarmed by the report of the enemy coming, that they at last made a law that no one should give tidings of the enemy’s approach; in consequence of which the town was at length taken.(349) This proverb, and the story on which it was founded, prove the existence of a long and determined contest between the two neighbouring cities. They also confirm the account of Pausanias, that the Dorians in the reign of Teleclus built a temple(350) to Zeus Tropæus, because they had at length, after a tedious and severe struggle, overcome the Achæans of Amyclæ and taken their city. This city of Amyclæ, one of the most ancient and considerable in Peloponnesus, of which there still remains a fort situated upon a rock on the side of mount Taygetus, was therefore so far from being reduced by the Spartans immediately, that it held out until the reign of Teleclus, 278 years after the invasion, a short time before the first Messenian war; and then was only taken after a tedious contest, which, from the proximity of Amyclæ and Sparta, must have been very dangerous to the latter city. Now it is not possible that before this victory Amyclæ and Sparta, distant only 20 stadia (2-1/2 miles) from each other, should have been engaged in constant war, as it must have soon ended in the destruction of one or the other city: their truces and armistices were, however, doubtless interrupted frequently by sudden incursions. The important territory near mount Taygetus belonged at that time to Amyclæ, and all this country was still in the possession of the Achæans, with whom some Minyans from Lemnos, and Cadmean Greeks, known by the name of Ægidæ, had united themselves. This is the territory from which the colonies of Thera, Melos, and Gortyna proceeded; so, according to Pindar, Amyclæ was the point from which the first colonies to Lesbos and Tenedos set out, and also (as may be inferred from other notices) those Achæans who took possession of Patræ.(351)