Description of Greece

​At that time, after the Ionians had departed, the Achaeans divided the land of the Ionians among themselves and settled in their cities. These were twelve in number, just as many as were known to the whole Greek world: Dyme first, towards Elis; and after it Olenus, Pharae, Triteia, Rhypes, Aegium, Cerynea, and Bura; and in addition to these, Helice, Aegae, Aegeira, and Pellene, the last towards Sicyonia. Into these cities, which had previously been inhabited by the Ionians, the Achaeans and their kings settled.

​Those who possessed the greatest power among the Achaeans were the sons of Tisamenus: Daimenes, Sparton, Tellis, and Leontomenes; but Cometes, the eldest of the sons of Tisamenus, had already previously crossed over by ship to Asia. These, then, at that time held sway among the Achaeans, as did Damasias, the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes, who was a cousin on his father’s side to the sons of Tisamenus. Preugenes and his son, whose name was Patreus, Achaeans from Lacedaemon, were equal in influence to those already mentioned; and they were permitted by the Achaeans to build a city in the territory, and the city was named after Patreus.

​The military history of the Achaeans was as follows. At the time of the expedition of Agamemnon against Ilium, while they still inhabited Lacedaemon and Argos, they formed the largest part of the Greek force. But during the invasion of Greece by Xerxes and the Medes, the Achaeans are not shown to have shared in the expedition of Leonidas to Thermopylae, nor to have fought at sea with the Athenians and Themistocles off Euboea and at Salamis, nor does any Lacedaemonian or Attic catalogue of allies contain them.

​They were also too late for the action at Plataea; for it is obvious that, had they taken part, the Achaeans too would have been inscribed on the offering of the Greeks at Olympia. It seems to me that they remained behind, each saving their own homelands, and at the same time, because of the affair at Troy, they disdained to have Lacedaemonian Dorians as their leaders. They showed this also in course of time; for when the Lacedaemonians later engaged in the war against the Athenians, the Achaeans were eager for the alliance for the Patreans, and they were no less well-disposed towards the Athenians.

​Of the wars waged subsequently by the Greek confederacy, the Achaeans took part in the one at Chaeronea against Philip and the Macedonians, but they say they did not march into Thessaly for the so-called Lamian War, because they had not yet recovered from the disaster in Boeotia. However, the local guide of the Patreans asserted that Chilon the wrestler was the only Achaean to take part in the action around Lamia.

​I myself know of a Lydian man, Adrastus, who privately and not on behalf of the Lydian state came to the aid of the Greeks; and the Lydians dedicated a bronze image of this Adrastus in front of the sanctuary of Persian Artemis, and wrote an inscription stating that Adrastus died fighting against Leonnatus on behalf of the Greeks.

​The expedition to Thermopylae against the army of the Galatians was likewise neglected by all the Peloponnesians; for since the barbarians had no ships, they hoped that they would have nothing to fear from them if they walled off the Isthmus of the Corinthians from the sea at Lechaeum to the other sea at Cenchreae.

​This, then, was the plan of all the Peloponnesians at that time; but when the Galatians had crossed over by ship in some way or other to Asia, the affairs of the Greeks were in this state: no one any longer stood at the head of the Greek nation by virtue of strength. For the Lacedaemonians were prevented from recovering their former prosperity by the disaster at Leuctra, and at the same time by the Arcadians who had assembled at Megalopolis and the Messenians who lived next to them.

​As for the Thebans, Alexander had so desolated their city that, when they were brought back not many years later by Cassander, they were not even capable of preserving their own territory. As for the Athenians, though they possessed the greatest goodwill from the Greek world on account of their subsequent deeds, they were never allowed to rest from the war with the Macedonians.