Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
73. Now Peloponnesus is inhabited by seven races; and of these, two are
natives of the soil and are settled now in the place where they dwelt of
old, namely the Arcadians and the Kynurians; and one race, that of the
Achaians, though it did not remove from the Peloponnese, yet removed in
former time from its own land and dwells now in that which was not its
own. The remaining races, four in number, have come in from without,
namely the Dorians, Aitolians, Dryopians and Lemnians. Of the Dorians
there are many cities and of great renown; of the Aitolians, Elis
alone; of the Dryopians, Hermion 42 and Asine, which latter is opposite
Cardamyle in the Laconian land; and of the Lemnians, all the Paroreatai.
The Kynurians, who are natives of the soil, seem alone to be Ionians,
but they have become Dorians completely because they are subject to the
Argives and by lapse of time, being originally citizens of Orneai or
the dwellers in the country round Orneai. 43 Of these seven nations the
remaining cities, except those which I enumerated just now, stood aside
and did nothing; and if one may be allowed to speak freely, in thus
standing aside they were in fact taking the side of the Medes.
74. Those at the Isthmus were struggling with the labour which I have
said, since now they were running a course in which their very being was
at stake, and they did not look to have any brilliant success with their
ships: while those who were at Salamis, though informed of this
work, were yet dismayed, not fearing so much for themselves as for
Peloponnesus. For some time then they spoke of it in private, one
man standing by another, and they marvelled at the ill-counsel of
Eurybiades; but at last it broke out publicly. A meeting accordingly was
held, and much was spoken about the same points as before, some saying
that they ought to sail away to Peloponnesus and run the risk in defence
of that, and not stay and fight for a land which had been captured by
the enemy, while the Athenians, Eginetans and Megarians urged that they
should stay there and defend themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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