And next to the ruins of Nestane is a temple sacred to Demeter, to whom
the Mantineans hold a festival annually. And under Nestane is much of
the plain Argum, and the place called Mæras, which is 10 stades from
the plain. And when you have gone on no great distance you will come
to another plain, in which near the high road is a fountain called
Arne. The following is the tradition of the Arcadians about it. When
Rhea gave birth to Poseidon, the little boy was deposited with the
flocks and fed with the lambs, and so the fountain was called Arne,
(_lamb fountain_). And Rhea told Cronos that she had given birth to
a foal, and gave him a foal to eat up instead of the little boy,
just as afterwards instead of Zeus she gave him a stone wrapt up in
swaddling-clothes. As to these fables of the Greeks I considered them
childish when I began this work, but when I got as far as this book I
formed this view, that those who were reckoned wise among the Greeks
spoke of old in riddles and not directly, so I imagine the fables about
Cronos to be Greek wisdom. Of the traditions therefore about the gods I
shall state such as I meet with.
Mantinea is about 12 stades from this fountain. Mantineus, the son
of Lycaon, seems to have built the town of Mantinea, (which name the
Arcadians still use), on another site, from which it was transferred to
its present site by Antinoe, the daughter of Cepheus the son of Aleus,
who according to an oracle made a serpent (what kind of serpent they
do not record) her guide. And that is why the river which flows by the
town got its name Ophis (_serpent_). And if we may form a judgment
from the Iliad of Homer this serpent was probably a dragon. For when
in the Catalogue of the Ships Homer describes the Greeks leaving
Philoctetes behind in Lemnos suffering from his ulcer,[24] he did not
give the title serpent to the watersnake, but he did give that title to
the dragon whom the eagle dropped among the Trojans.[25] So it seems
probable that Antinoe was led by a dragon.
The Mantineans did not fight against the Lacedæmonians at Dipæa with
the other Arcadians, but in the Peloponnesian war they joined the
people of Elis against the Lacedæmonians, and fought against them,
with some reinforcements from the Athenians, and also took part in
the expedition to Sicily out of friendship to the Athenians. And
some time afterwards a Lacedæmonian force under King Agesipolis, the
son of Pausanias, invaded the territory of Mantinea. And Agesipolis
was victorious in the battle, and shut the Mantineans up in their
fortress, and captured Mantinea in no long time, not by storm, but
by turning the river Ophis into the city through the walls which were
built of unbaked brick. As to battering rams brick walls hold out
better even than those made of stone, for the stones get broken and
come out of position, so that brick walls suffer less, but unbaked
brick is melted by water just as wax by the sun. This stratagem which
Agesipolis employed against the walls of Mantinea was formerly employed
by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, when he was besieging Boges the Mede
and the Persians at Eion on the Strymon. So Agesipolis merely imitated
what he had heard sung of by the Greeks. And when he took Mantinea,
he left part of it habitable, but most of it he rased to the ground,
and distributed the inhabitants in the various villages. The Thebans
after the battle of Leuctra intended to restore the Mantineans from
these villages to Mantinea. But though thus restored they were not
at all faithful to the Thebans. For when they were besieged by the
Lacedæmonians they made private overtures to them for peace, without
acting in concert with the other Arcadians, and from fear of the
Thebans openly entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with
the Lacedæmonians, and in the battle fought on Mantinean territory
between the Thebans under Epaminondas and the Lacedæmonians they ranged
themselves with the Lacedæmonians. But after this the Mantineans and
Lacedæmonians were at variance, and the former joined the Achæan
League. And when Agis, the son of Eudamidas, was king of Sparta they
defeated him in self defence by the help of an Achæan force under
Aratus. They also joined the Achæans in the action against Cleomenes,
and helped them in breaking down the power of the Lacedæmonians. And
when Antigonus in Macedonia was Regent for Philip, the father of
Perseus, who was still a boy, and was on most friendly terms with the
Achæans, the Mantineans did several other things in his honour, and
changed the name of their city to Antigonea. And long afterwards, when
Augustus was about to fight the sea fight off the promontory of Apollo
at Actium, the Mantineans fought on his side, though the rest of the
Arcadians took part with Antony, for no other reason I think than that
the Lacedæmonians were on the side of Augustus. And ten generations
afterwards when Adrian was Emperor, he took away from the Mantineans
the imported name of Antigonea and restored the old name of Mantinea.
[24] Iliad, ii. 721-723.
[25] Iliad, xii. 200-208.