At Salamis, to return to my subject, there is a temple of Artemis, and
a trophy erected for the victory which Themistocles the son of Neocles
won for the Greeks. There is also a temple to Cychreus. For when the
Athenians were fighting the naval engagement with the Persians it is
said that a dragon was seen in the Athenian fleet, and the oracle
informed the Athenians that it was the hero Cychreus. And there is an
island facing Salamis called Psyttalea, on which they say as many as
400 Persians landed: who after the defeat of Xerxes’ fleet were they
say slain by the Greeks who passed over into Psyttalea. There is not
one statue in the island which is a work of art, but there are some
rude images of Pan made anyhow.
And as you go to Eleusis from Athens, by the way which the Athenians
call the Sacred Way, is the tomb of Anthemocritus, to whom the
Megarians acted most unscrupulously, inasmuch as they killed him though
he came as a herald, to announce to them that henceforth they were not
to cultivate the sacred land. And for this act of theirs the wrath of
the two goddesses[9] still abides, since they are the only Greeks that
the Emperor Adrian was not able to aggrandise. And next to the column
of Anthemocritus is the tomb of Molottus, who was chosen as General of
the Athenians when they crossed over into Eubœa to the aid of Plutarch.
And near this is a village called Scirus for the following reason.
When the people of Eleusis were at war with Erechtheus, a prophet
came from Dodona Scirus by name, who also built at Phalerum the old
temple of Sciradian Athene. And as he fell in battle the Eleusinians
buried him near a mountain torrent, and both the village and torrent
get their name from the hero. And near is the tomb of Cephisodorus,
who was the leader of the people, and especially opposed Philip the
son of Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians. And Cephisodorus got
as allies for the Athenians the Mysian king Attalus, and the Egyptian
king Ptolemy, and independent nations as the Ætolians, and islanders as
the Rhodians and Cretans. And as the succours from Egypt and Mysia and
Crete came for the most part too late, and as the Rhodians (fighting
by sea only) could do little harm to heavy-armed soldiers like the
Macedonians, Cephisodorus sailed for Italy with some of the Athenians,
and begged the Romans to aid them. And they sent them a force and a
general, who so reduced Philip and the Macedonians that eventually
Perseus, the son of Philip, lost his kingdom, and was carried to Italy
as a captive. This Philip was the son of Demetrius: who was the first
of the family who was king of Macedonia, after slaying Alexander the
son of Cassander, as I have before related.