Description of Greece

​To one who has crossed the Anigrus and is traveling along the straight road to Olympia, there is not far on the right of the road a high place and upon it the city of Samia. In this place they say that Polysperchon, an Aetolian man, used it as a stronghold against the Arcadians.

​As for the ruins of Arene, neither any of the Messenians nor of the Eleans could clearly point them out to me; but various and conflicting opinions exist about it for those who wish to conjecture, and to me those seemed to speak most persuasively who believe that Samicum was called Arene in still more ancient times, even in the age of the heroes. And these also cited verses from those in the Iliad: “And there is a certain river Minyeius emptying into the sea, near Arene.”

​These ruins are very close to the Anigrus. And though one might dispute whether Samicum was named Arene, the Arcadians agree that the ancient name of the river Anigrus was Minyeius. One might also believe that the Neda became the boundary for the Eleans against Messenia near the sea at the same time as the return of the Heracleidae to the Peloponnese.

​After crossing the Anigrus, as you travel further through a country for the most part rather sandy and having wild pine trees, you will see behind you on the left the ruins of Scillus. Scillus was indeed one of the cities in Triphylia; but at the time of the war between the Pisans and the Eleans, the Scilluntians were allies of the Pisans and openly hostile to the Eleans, and for this reason the Eleans destroyed them.

​Later, the Lacedaemonians cut off Scillus from Elea and gave it to Xenophon, the son of Grylus, who was already an exile from Athens. Xenophon was banished by the Athenians on the ground that, having taken part in the expedition with Cyrus, who was most hostile to their democracy, he was fighting against the King of the Persians, who was friendly to them. For Cyrus, while residing in Sardis, spent money on ships for Lysander, the son of Aristocritus, and the Lacedaemonians. In return for these things Xenophon was exiled, and having settled in Scillus, he built a sacred precinct, a sanctuary, and a temple to Ephesian Artemis.

​Scillus also provides hunting of wild beasts, wild boars and deer; and through the territory of Scillus flows the river Selinus. The Elean guides said that the Eleans recovered Scillus again, and that Xenophon, because he had received the land from the Lacedaemonians, was tried in the Olympic council, but having obtained pardon from the Eleans, he lived without fear in Scillus. Indeed, a little distance from the sanctuary a monument was shown, and on the tomb there is an image of stone from the quarries of Pentelicus; and those who live nearby say that it is the tomb of Xenophon.

​On the road to Olympia, before crossing the Alpheius, there is a mountain, to one coming from Scillus, steep with high cliffs; the mountain is named Typaeum. It is the law for the Eleans to cast down from this mountain any women who are caught having come to the Olympic games, or even at all having crossed the Alpheius on the days forbidden to them. They say, however, that no woman has ever been caught, except only Callipateira; although there are some who call this same woman Pherenice and not Callipateira.

​She, when her husband had died beforehand, having disguised herself in every way as a male trainer, brought her son to Olympia to compete; and when Peisirodus was winning, Callipateira, as she leaped over the barrier within which they keep the trainers enclosed, became exposed. When it was discovered that she was a woman, they let her go unpunished, showing respect to her father, her brothers, and her son—for Olympic victories belonged to them all—but they made a law for the future that trainers should enter the contest naked.