Description of Greece

”Phylas wedded the daughter of famous Iolaus, †... in form like to the Olympians, and she bore him a son, Hippotes, in his halls, and beautiful Thero, like to the rays of the moon. And Thero, falling into the arms of Apollo, bore the mighty strength of horse-taming Chaeron.” And Homer, though knowing, as it seems to me, that they were already called Chaeroneia and Lebadeia, nevertheless used the ancient names for them, just as he also called the river Egypt, and not the Nile.

​And the Chaeroneans have two trophies in their land, which the Romans and Sylla set up after defeating Taxilus and the army of Mithridates. But Philip, the son of Amyntas, set up no trophy either here or for any of the other battles in which he conquered barbarians or even Greeks; for it was not at all customary for the Macedonians to set up trophies.

​For it is said by the Macedonians that Caranus, when reigning in Macedonia, conquered in battle Cisseus, who ruled in the bordering land. And Caranus set up a trophy for the victory according to the laws of the Argives; but they say that a lion coming from Olympus overturned the trophy and vanished, and that Caranus understood in his mind ​that he had not resolved well in entering into irreconcilable enmity with the neighboring barbarians, and that it was necessary to establish that trophies should be set up neither by Caranus himself nor by those who should rule Macedonia afterwards, if they were ever to bring their neighbors into goodwill. And Alexander also bears witness to this story, having set up trophies neither over Darius nor for his Indian victories.

​And as one approaches the city, there is a common grave of the Thebans who died in the struggle against Philip. No inscription indeed is written upon it, but a lion stands on it as a monument; and this would refer especially to the spirit of the men. And the inscription is absent, as it seems to me, because the fortune from the deity did not follow in a manner worthy of their courage.

​Of the gods, the Chaeroneans honor most the sceptre which Homer says Hephaestus made for Zeus, and Hermes, having received it from Zeus, gave to Pelops, and Pelops left it to Atreus, and Atreus to Thyestes, and Agamemnon had it from Thyestes. This sceptre, then, they worship, calling it a Spear. And that there is something more divine about it is shown not least by the glory that shines from it upon men;

​for they say it was found on the borders of themselves and the Panopeans in Phocis, and that together with it the Phocians found gold, but they themselves were glad to have the sceptre instead of gold. And I believe it was carried to Phocis by Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon. No temple has been built for it publicly, but each year the one who is priest keeps the sceptre in his house; and sacrifices are offered to it every day, and a table stands beside it full of all kinds of meats and cakes.