Description of Greece

​The Arcadians related their genealogies in this way when I made diligent inquiries concerning their kings. On the other hand, the collective memories preserved among the Arcadians are, first, the ancient war against Ilium, and second, all the battles they fought against the Lacedaemonians in defense of the Messenians; and they also have a share in the action against the Persians at Plataea.

​Indeed, they campaigned against the Athenians together with the Lacedaemonians and crossed over into Asia with Agesilaus rather by necessity than with goodwill, and they even followed them to Boeotian Leuctra. Their suspicion toward the Lacedaemonians they displayed elsewhere too, and immediately after the disaster of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra they revolted from them to the Thebans. At Chaeronea against Philip and the Macedonians, and later in Thessaly against Antipater, they did not fight alongside the Greeks, yet they certainly did not draw themselves up in opposition to the Greeks either.

​Against the Galatians, they say they did not take part in the danger at Thermopylae because of the Lacedaemonians, lest the Lacedaemonians should ravage their land while those of military age were absent. But the Arcadians participated in the league of the Achaeans most enthusiastically of all the Greeks. As for all the events which occurred to them not in common but privately by individual cities, as I find them, we shall set each of them down in the appropriate place in our account.

​Now there are passes into Arcadia from the Argolid: one by Hysiae and over Mount Parthenium into the Tegean territory, and two others leading to Mantinea, namely through what is called Prinos and through Climax. The latter is wider, and its descent once had steps constructed in it. For those who have crossed the Climax, there is a place called Melangeia, and from there the drinking water for the Mantineans flows down into their city.

​For one who has gone forward from Melangeia, at a distance of about seven stades from the city, there is a spring called that of the Meliastae. These Meliastae perform the orgies of Dionysus, and near the spring is a hall of Dionysus and a sanctuary of Aphrodite Melainis (the Black). The goddess obtained this surname for no other reason than because the intercourses of human beings, unlike those of cattle, do not take place entirely by day, but for the most part in the night.

​The remaining of the roads is narrower than the former and leads through Mount Artemision. Of this mountain I have indeed made mention before, as having a temple and image of Artemis, and also containing the springs of the Inachus. The Inachus, as far as it proceeds along the road through the mountain, is the boundary of the land for the Argives and Mantineans; but having turned its water away from the road, it thenceforth flows down through the Argolid, and for this reason others, as well as Aeschylus, call the Inachus an Argive river.