Megalopolis is the most recent city not only in Arcadia but in all
Greece, except those which have been filled by settlers from Rome in
the changes made by the Roman Empire. And the Arcadians crowded into
it to swell its strength, remembering that the Argives in older days
had run almost daily risk of being reduced in war by the Lacedæmonians,
but when they had made Argos strong by an influx of population then
they were able to reduce Tiryns, and Hysiæ, and Orneæ, and Mycenæ, and
Midea, and other small towns of no great importance in Argolis, and had
not only less fear of the Lacedæmonians but were stronger as regards
their neighbours generally. Such was the idea which made the Arcadians
crowd into Megalopolis. The founder of the city might justly be called
Epaminondas the Theban: for he it was that stirred up the Arcadians
to this colonization, and sent 1,000 picked Thebans, with Parmenes as
their leader, to defend the Arcadians should the Lacedæmonians attempt
to prevent the colonization. And the Arcadians chose as founders of the
colony Lycomedes and Opoleas from Mantinea, and Timon and Proxenus
from Tegea, and Cleolaus and Acriphius from Clitor, and Eucampidas
and Hieronymus from Mænalus, and Possicrates and Theoxenus from
Parrhasium. And the towns which were persuaded by the Arcadians (out
of liking for them and hatred to the Lacedæmonians) to leave their own
native places were Alea, Pallantium, Eutæa, Sumateum, Iasæa, Peræthes,
Helisson, Oresthasium, Dipæa, Lycæa, all these from Mænalus. And of
the Entresii Tricoloni, and Zœtium, and Charisia, and Ptolederma,
and Cnausus, and Parorea. And of the Ægytæ Scirtonium, and Malæa,
and Cromi, and Blenina, and Leuctrum. And of the Parrhasii Lycosura,
and Thocnia, and Trapezus, and Proses, and Acacesium, and Acontium,
and Macaria, and Dasea. And of the Cynuræans in Arcadia Gortys, and
Thisoa near Mount Lycæus, and Lycæatæ, and Aliphera. And of those which
were ranked with Orchomenus Thisoa, and Methydrium, and Teuthis, and
moreover the town called Tripolis, and Dipœna, and Nonacris. And the
rest of Arcadia fell in with the general plan, and zealously gathered
into Megalopolis. The people of Lycæatæ and Tricolonus and Lycosura
and Trapezus were the only Arcadians that changed their minds, and,
as they did not agree to leave their old cities, some of them were
forced into Megalopolis against their will, and the people of Trapezus
evacuated the Peloponnese altogether, all that is that were not killed
by the Arcadians in their fierce anger, and those that got away safe
sailed to Pontus, and were received as colonists by those who dwelt
at Trapezus on the Euxine, seeing that they came from the mother-city
and bare the same name. But the people of Lycosura though they had
refused compliance yet, as they had fled for refuge to their temple,
were spared from awe of Demeter and Proserpine. And of the other towns
which I have mentioned some are altogether without inhabitants in our
day, and others are villages under Megalopolis, as Gortys, Dipœna,
Thisoa near Orchomenus, Methydrium, Teuthis, Calliæ, and Helisson. And
Pallantium was the only town in that day that seemed to find the deity
mild. But Aliphera has continued a town from of old up to this day.
Megalopolis was colonized a year and a few months after the reverse
of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra, when Phrasiclides was Archon at
Athens, in the second year of the 102nd Olympiad, when Damon of
Thuria was victor in the course. And the people of Megalopolis, after
being enrolled in alliance with Thebes, had nothing to fear from the
Lacedæmonians. So they thought. But when the Thebans commenced what is
called the Sacred War and the people of Phocis attacked them, who were
on the borders of Bœotia, and had plenty of money as they had seized
on the temple stores at Delphi, then the Lacedæmonians in their zeal
tried to drive out the people of Megalopolis and the other Arcadians,
but as they stoutly defended themselves, and were openly assisted by
their neighbours, nothing very remarkable happened on either side.
But the hostility between the Arcadians and the Lacedæmonians tended
to increase greatly the power of the Macedonians and Philip the son
of Amyntas, as neither at Chæronea nor again in Thessaly did the
Arcadians fight on the side of the Greeks. And no long time after
Aristodemus seized the chief power in Megalopolis. He was a Phigalian
by race and the son of Artylas, but had been adopted by Tritæus, one
of the leading men in Megalopolis. This Aristodemus, in spite of his
seizing the chief power, was yet called Good man and True. For when he
was in power the Lacedæmonians marched with an army into the district
of Megalopolis under Acrotatus, the eldest of the sons of their king
Cleomenes--I have already given his genealogy and that of all the
kings of Sparta--and in a fierce battle that ensued, in which many
were slain on both sides, the men of Megalopolis were victorious, and
among the Spartans who fell was Acrotatus, who thus lost his chance of
succession. And two generations after the death of Aristodemus Lydiades
seized the chief power: he was of no obscure family, and by nature very
ambitious, (as he showed himself afterwards), and yet a patriot. For he
was very young when he had the chief power, and when he came to years
of discretion he voluntarily abdicated his power, though it was quite
firmly established. And, when the people of Megalopolis joined the
Achæan League, Lydiades was held in such high honour, both by his own
city and by all the Achæans, that his fame was equal to that of Aratus.
And again the Lacedæmonians in full force under the king of the other
family, Agis the son of Eudamidas, marched against Megalopolis, with a
larger and better-equipped army than that which Acrotatus had gathered
together, and defeated the people of Megalopolis who came out to meet
them, and bringing a mighty battering-ram against the walls gave the
tower a strong shake, and the next day hoped to batter it down all
together. But the North Wind was it seems destined to be a benefactor
to all the Greeks, for it shattered most of the Persian ships at the
rocks called Sepiades,[33] and the same Wind prevented the capture of
Megalopolis, for it broke in pieces Agis’ battering-ram by a strong
continuous and irresistible blast. This Agis, whom the North Wind thus
prevented taking Megalopolis, is the same who was driven out of Pellene
in Achaia by the Sicyonians under Aratus[34] and who afterwards died
at Mantinea. And no long time afterwards Cleomenes the son of Leonidas
took Megalopolis in time of peace. And some of the inhabitants bravely
defending their city in the night were driven out, and Lydiades fell in
the action fighting in a manner worthy of his renown: and Philopœmen
the son of Craugis saved about two-thirds of the lads and grown
men, and fled with the women to Messenia. And Cleomenes slew all he
captured, and rased the city to the ground, and burnt it with fire. How
the people of Megalopolis recovered their city, and what they did after
their restoration to it, I shall narrate when I come to Philopœmen. And
the Lacedæmonian nation had no share in the sufferings of the people of
Megalopolis, for Cleomenes had changed the constitution from a kingdom
to an autocracy.
As I have before said, the boundary between the districts of
Megalopolis and Heræa is the source of the river Buphagus, named they
say after the hero Buphagus, the son of Iapetus and Thornax. There is
also a Thornax in Laconia. And they have a tradition that Artemis slew
Buphagus with an arrow at the mountain Pholoe because he attempted her
chastity.
[33] See Herodotus vii. 188, 189.
[34] See Book vii. ch. 7.