Geography

​Aegina is both a certain place in Epidauria, and also an island in front of this mainland, which the poet wishes to indicate in the verses recently quoted; wherefore some even write ‘and the island Aegina’ instead of ’and those who held Aegina,’ distinguishing the homonymy. Now that the island is among those which are extremely well-known, what need is there to speak? For from here Aeacus and his descendants are said to come. And this is the island which once held the empire of the sea and disputed for the first prize of valor with the Athenians in the naval battle around Salamis during the Persian War. And the circumference of the island is said to be one hundred and eighty stadia, and it has a homonymous city facing southwest; and Attica, Megaris, and the parts of the Peloponnesus as far as Epidaurus surround it, each being distant about one hundred stadia; and the eastern and southern parts are washed by the sea, namely the Myrtoan and the Cretan; and many small islands lie around near the mainland, and Belbina extending towards the open sea. And its land in depth is earthy, but stony on the surface, especially the plain; wherefore it is all bare, but sufficiently productive of barley. And they say that the Aeginetans were called Myrmidons, not as the myth says, because when a great plague occurred the ants became men at the prayer of Aeacus, but because in the manner of ants they dug up the earth and scattered it upon the rocks, so that they could cultivate it, and lived in the excavations, sparing bricks. And it was called Oenone of old; and Argives, Cretans, Epidaurians, and Dorians colonized it, and later the Athenians distributed the island by lot; but the Lacedaemonians, having taken the island away from the Athenians, restored it to its ancient inhabitants. And the Aeginetans sent colonists both to Cydonia in Crete and to the Ombrici. And Ephorus says that silver was first coined in Aegina by Pheidon; for it became an emporium, because the people, on account of the poverty of the soil, engaged in maritime trade, whence petty wares were called ‘Aeginetan merchandise’.

​And the poet mentions some places in continuous order just as they lie: ‘And those who inhabited Hyria and Aulis,’ and ‘And those who held Argos and Tiryns, and Hermione and Asine, and Troezen and Eionae.’ But at other times not as they are in order: ‘And Schoenus and Scolus, and Thespiae and Graea.’ And he mentions together places on the mainland with the islands: ‘And those who held Ithaca, and inhabited Crocyleia.’ For Crocyleia is among the Acarnanians. And so also now he joined Mases, which is on the Argolic mainland, with Aegina. And Thyreae Homer indeed did not name, but others speak of it constantly; concerning which a contest arose between the Argives and the Lacedaemonians, three hundred against three hundred; and the Lacedaemonians were victorious under the command of Othryades; and Thucydides says that this place is in Cynuria near the border of the Argive and the Laconic territory. And Hysiae also is a well-known place in the Argolic territory, and Cenchreae, which lie on the road from Tegea to Argos through Mount Parthenius. But Homer does not know them.

​Of the cities in the Peloponnesus, the most glorious have been and still are Argos and Sparta, but because they are so much spoken of, there is least need to speak at length about them; for we should seem to say what has been said by everyone. In ancient times indeed Argos was more famous, but later and indeed to the very end the Lacedaemonians surpassed it, and continued to preserve their autonomy, except if they happened to meet with some small setback somewhere. And the Argives did not admit Pyrrhus (but he even fell before the wall, when some old woman, as it seems, threw down a tile from above onto his head), but they came under other kings, and having shared in the league of the Achaeans, they came with them under the authority of the Romans, and now the city stands second in rank after Sparta.