Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/401

Rh §147), though Pindar places it in the neighbourhood of Thebes. (Pyth. ix. 137; comp. Anton. Lib. l. c.; Herod, ix. 27; Eurip. Heracl.) After the battle, the Heracleidae entered Peloponnesus, and maintained themselves there for one year. But a plague, which spread over the whole peninsula, compelled them (with the exception of Tlepolemus, who went to Rhodes) to return to Attica, where, for a time, they again settled in the Attic tetrapolis. From thence, however, they proceeded to Aegimius, king of the Dorians, about the river Peneius, to seek protection. (Apollod. ii. 8. §2; Strab. ix. p. 427.) Diodorus (iv. 51) does not mention this second stay in Attica, and he represents only the descendants of Hyllus as living among the Dorians in the country assigned to Heracles by Aegimius: others again do not notice this first expedition into Peloponnesus (Pherecyd. ''ap. Anton. Lib''. l. c.), and state that Hyllus, after the defeat of Eurystheus, went with the other Heracleidae to Thebes, and settled there at the Electrian gate. The trndition then goes on to say that Aegimius adopted Hyllus, who, after the lapse of three years, in conjunction with a band of Dorians, undertook an expedition against Atreus, who, having married, a daughter of Eurystheus, had become king of Mycenae and Tiryns. They marched across the Corinthian isthmus, and first met Echemus of Tegea, who fought for the interest of the Pelopidae, the principal opponents of the Heracleidae. Hyllus fell in single combat with Echemus, and according to an agreement which the two had entered into, the Heracleidae were not to make any further attempt upon the peninsula within the next fifty years. They accordingly went to Tricorythus, Avhere they were allowed by the Athenians to take up their abode. During the period which now followed (ten years after the death of Hyllus), the Trojan war took place; and thirty years after the Trojan war Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, again invaded Peloponnesus; and about twenty years later Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, undertook the fourth expedition. But both heroes fell. Not quite thirty years after Aristomachus (that is, about 80 years after the destruction of Troy), the Heracleidae prepared for a great and final attack. Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, the sons of Aristomachus, after having received the advice of an oracle, built a fleet on the Corinthian gulf; but this fleet was destroyed, because Hippotes, one of the Heracleidae, had killed Camus, an Acarnanian soothsayer; and Aristodemus was killed by a flash of lightning. (Apollod. ii. 8. §2; Paus. iii. 1. §5.) An oracle now ordered them to take a three-eyed man for their commander. He was found in the person of Oxylus, the son of Andraemon. The expedition now successfully sailed from Naupactus towards Rhion in Peloponnesus. (Paus. viii. 5. §4). Oxylus, keeping the invaders away from his own kingdom of Elis, led them through Arcadia. Cresphontes is said to have married the daughter of the Arcadian king, Cypselus, and Polycaon Euaechme, the daughter of Hyllus. Thebans, Trachinians, and Tyrrhenians, are further said to have supported the Heracleidae and Dorians. (Paus. iv. 3. §4, viii. 5. §4; Schol. ad Soph. Aj. 17; Eurip. Phoen. 1386; Pind. Pyth. v. 101, Isthm. vii. 18.) Being thus strongly supported in various ways, the Heracleidae and Dorians conquered Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, who ruled over Argos. Mycenae, and Sparta. (Apollod. l. c.; Paus. v. 3; Polyaen. i. 9.) The conquerors now succeeded without difficulty, for many of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus spontaneously opened their gates to them, and other places were delivered up to them by treachery. (Paus. ii. 4. §3, iii. 13. §2, iv. 3. §3, v. 4. §1; Strab. viii. p. 365.) They then distributed the newly acquired possessions among themselves by lot: Temenus obtained Argos; Procles and Eurystheus, the twin sons of Aristodemus, Lacedaemon; and Cresphontes, Messenia.

Such are the traditions about the Heracleidae and their conquest of Peloponnesus. The comparatively late period to which these legends refer is alone sufficient to suggest that we have not before us a purely mythical story, but that it contains a genuine historical substance, notwithstanding the various contradictions contained in the accounts. But a critical examination of the different traditions belongs to a history of Greece, and we refer the reader to Müller's Dorians, book i, chap. 3; Thirlwall, ''Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 282, &c., 8vo edit.; Bernardi ten Haar, Commentatio praemio ornata, qua respubl. ad quaestionem: Enarrentur Heraclidarum incursiones in Peloponnesum earumque causae atque effectus exponantur'', Groningen, 1830.

2em

 HERACLEIDES. 1. A citizen of Mylasa in Caria, who commanded the Carian Greeks in their successful resistance to the arms of Persia after the revolt of Aristagoras, B. C. 498. The Persian troops fell into an ambuscade which had been prepared for them, and were cut to pieces, together with their generals, Daurises, Amorges, and Sisimaces. (Herod, v. 121.)

2. A Syracusan, son of Lysimachus, was one of the three generals appointed by the Syracusans, after the first defeat they suffered from the Athenians on their arrival in Sicily, B. C. 415. His colleagues were Hermocrates and Sicanus, and they were invested with full powers, the late defeat being justly ascribed by Hermocrates to the too great number of the generals, and their want of sufficient control over their troops. (Thuc. vi. 73; Diod. xiii. 4.) They were deposed from their command in the following summer, on account of their failure in preventing the progress of the Athenian works. Of the three generals appointed in their place, one was also named Heracleides. (Thuc. vi. 103.)

3. A Syracusan, son of Aristogenes, was one of the commanders of the Syracusan squadron sent to co-operate with the Lacedaemonians and their allies. He joined Tissaphernes at Ephesus just in time to take part in the defeat of the Athenians under Thrasyllus, B. C. 409. (Xen. Hell. i. 2. §8, &c.)

4. A Syracusan, who held the chief command of the mercenary forces under the younger Dionysius. (Diod. xvi. 6; Plut. Dion, 32.) We have little information as to the causes which led to his exile from Syracuse, but it may be inferred, from an expression of Plutarch (Dion, 12), that he was suspected of conspiring with Dion and others to overthrow the tyrant: and it seems clear that he must have fled from Syracuse either at the same time with Dion and Megacles, or shortly afterwards. Having joined the other exiles in the Peloponnesus, he co-operated with Dion in his preparations for the overthrow of Dionysius, and the liberation of Syracuse, but did not accompany him when he actually sailed, having remained behind 