Description of Greece

​Another story is also told about Oxylus, that he suspected the sons of Aristomachus, fearing that if they saw that the land of Elis was fertile and thoroughly cultivated throughout, they would no longer wish to give the land to him, and for this reason he led the Dorians through Arcadia and not through Elis. But when Oxylus was eager to take the rule of the Eleans without a fight, Dios did not yield, but made a challenge that they should not risk everything with their entire forces, but that one soldier chosen from each side should fight.

​And somehow this pleased both sides, and those who were put forward for the combat were Degmenus, an Elean archer, and from the Aetolians, Pyraechmes, skilled in the use of the sling. When Pyraechmes won, Oxylus obtained the kingship, and while he permitted the ancient Epeians to remain in possession of their own property in other respects, he introduced the Aetolians to dwell with them upon a redistribution of the land. He also assigned privileges to Dios, and preserved the honors for the other heroes according to ancient custom, and for Augeas the funerary offerings established for him even to my own day.

​It is also said that he persuaded the people from the villages, as many as were not far from the wall, to come down into the city, and by the multitude of its inhabitants made Elis larger and more prosperous in other respects. An oracle also came to him from Delphi to bring in a descendant of Pelops as a co-founder; and Oxylus made the search with haste, and after seeking found Agorius, the son of Damasias, the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes; and he brought him from Helice in Achaea, and along with Agorius a small portion of the Achaeans.

​They say that the name of the wife of Oxylus was Pieria, but they record nothing further about her. And they say that children born to Oxylus were Aetolus and Laias. When Aetolus died before his parents, they buried him, making his tomb in the very gate that leads to Olympia and the sanctuary of Zeus; and they buried him thus in accordance with an oracle, so that the dead body should be neither outside nor inside the city. The gymnasiarch still down to my day makes yearly offerings to Aetolus.

​After Oxylus, Laias the son of Oxylus held the rule. However, I did not find his descendants reigning as kings, and though I know about them, I nevertheless pass them by; for I did not wish to bring my narrative down to private individuals. At a later time, Iphitus, who was by descent from Oxylus, and in age contemporary with Lycurgus who wrote the laws for the Lacedaemonians, arranged the games in Olympia and established again from the beginning the Olympic festival and the sacred truce, which had been discontinued for a period, however long that was; and the reason why the Olympic games were discontinued, I will show in that part of my narrative which concerns Olympia.

​When Greece was then especially being ruined by civil strifes and by a pestilential disease, it occurred to Iphitus to ask the god at Delphi for a release from these evils; and they say that he was commanded by the Pythia that Iphitus himself and the Eleans must renew the Olympic games. Iphitus also persuaded the Eleans to sacrifice to Heracles, whereas before this they had regarded Heracles as their enemy. The inscription at Olympia says that Iphitus was the son of Haemon, but most of the Greeks say that he was the son of Praxonides and not of Haemon; however, the ancient records of the Eleans traced Iphitus back to a father of the same name.

​The Eleans had a share in the war against Ilium, and also in the deeds during the invasion of the Medes into Greece. After overcoming all the dangers that arose for them against the Pisans and Arcadians over the management of the games in Olympia, they joined the Lacedaemonians unwillingly in the invasion of Athenian territory, but not long afterwards they united with the Mantineans and Argives against the Lacedaemonians, bringing the Athenian force also into the alliance.

​During the expedition of Agis into their land and the treachery of Xenias, the Eleans won a victory in a battle around Olympia, and having routed the Lacedaemonians, drove them out of the precinct of the sanctuary; and at a later time, the war was ended for them according to the treaty which I have already shown before in my narrative concerning the Lacedaemonians.

​When Philip the son of Amyntas would not keep his hands off Greece, the Eleans, being worn down by mutual discord, joined the alliance of the Macedonians, but they could not bring themselves to fight against the Greeks at Chaeronea; however, because of their ancient hatred towards them, they joined Philip in his invasion of Lacedaemonian territory, and after the death of Alexander they fought alongside the Greeks against the Macedonians and Antipater.