The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
There must have been many stories concerning Eurysthenes and Procles
current in ancient times which have not come down to us. There was a
general tradition of their continual discord; and we know that the
military fame of Procles was as great as that of Eurysthenes was
insignificant.(370) There is, however, something peculiarly worthy of
notice in an incidental remark of Cicero,(371) that Procles died a year
before Eurysthenes. Could there have been chronicles of so early a period,
or is it possible that tradition should preserve such precise dates? It is
also a remarkable statement that the wives of both kings were likewise
twin sisters, Lathria and Anaxandra by name, daughters of Thersander king
of the Cleonæans, whose descent we mentioned above.(372) Some great heroic
actions of Soüs(373) (the “violent”), the son of Procles, were also
celebrated in Sparta.(374) It was even said that he had carried on war
against the Cleitorians; and it was related, that in the narrow valley of
Cleitor, when surrounded by enemies, and oppressed by intolerable thirst,
he promised to give up all his conquests, on the condition of himself and
his army being allowed to drink from the fountain: that upon this he
offered the crown to any one who would abstain from drinking, but, no one
being willing to gain it at this price, he moistened himself with water
from the fountain, and departed without drinking.(375) But a Spartan king
would hardly have ventured, even some centuries afterwards, to lead an
army through the hostile territory of Arcadia, to a place at so
considerable a distance as Cleitor, leaving behind so many hollow defiles,
ravines, and mountains.
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