Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/223

 ARGOS AMPHILOGHICUII. •f the tihoPN is sapportod bj a maariTe Gjdopian MabatntHaOf ftiU in good preservatian, and a con- apienoQa object irain some distance. This Cydopian vmU is a part «f the ranuns of the ancient temple wliBch Funaaiaa saw. On the lowest of the terraces stood the Ueneom bnSt bj Eupolemns. Here Ge- •val Gordon made some ezcavatiotts, and discoTered, amoBg other things, the tail of a peacock in white maiUe. This tarraoe has substractions of regolar HeUenie maaocxy, fbrming a brcastwoik to the base ef the triaai^ towards the plain. The length of the sor&oe ef the hill is abont 250 yards; its grratest bivadth abont half its length. Of tbe two torrents between which the Heraenm steed, the north-western was the Elentherion, and the soath-eastem the Asterion. [See above, p. 201, a.] Paasanias says that the river Astexion had three dangfalersy Enboea, Prosymnai and Acraea. Enboea was the monatain on the lower part of which the Hcfasam stood; Acraea, the height which rose over 9f^SB^ it; and Pmsymna the r^on below it. (Man, veL iL p. 177, seq.; Leake, Pelopan, p. was the haiboor of Argos. f Nacflia.] ARGOS AMPHILOOHICTJM. S07 COIN OF AKOOS. ABGOS AMPHILO'CHIGUM CAa>v« rh 'A/m^ Aexatir : EA, 'Afjtan : Neokhtrt), the chief town tf Ampiukidiia, atoated at the eastern extre- mity of the Ambnciot golf, on the river Inachns. Its lanHmy was called Argoa ('Ap7c(a). Its inha- laid daim to their city having been colo- 6am the celebrated Argos in Peloponnesas, ihsagh the legends of its foondatioa somewhat dif- faed. Aooording to one tndition, Amphilochns, SOB «f Amphiamfls, being diamtisfied with the state of things in Aigos on his letom firam Troy, emi- grated fraoi his native |daoe, and fimnded a dty of dhe same name on the Ambvaciot galf. According le anodfeer tiaditian, it was fnmded by Alcmaeon, who called it aAer his brother Amphilodms. (Thnc a. 68; Stiab. Ik.326; oomp. ApoIIod. iiL7.§7.) Bat w h e th e r the dty owed its origin to aa Argive eoloBy or Dot, we know that the Amphilochi were nganbd as barbarians, or a non-Hellenic race, at the roBimflBeemeBt of the PeloponneBian war, and that shortly bclbre that time the inhabitants of Ai^gos were the only portion of the Amphilochi, who had be- c^se HeDesized. This they owed to some colonists from Ambracia, whom they admitted into the dty to made aloog with them. The Ambradots, how- ever, soon expelled the original inhabitants, and kept the town, with its territory, exdnsively for them- The expelled inhabitants placed themsdves die protection of the Acamanians, and both people appSed to Athens for assistance. The Athe- mans accordingly sent a force under Phonnio, who took Aigos, sold the Ambradots as slaves, and re- aleied the town to the Amphilochians and Acama- laana, both of whom now concluded an alliance with Athens. This event probably happened in the year before the Peloponnesian war, B.C. 432. Two years afterwards (430) the Ambradots, amdons to re- cover the lost town, mardied agunst Argos, bnt were unable to take it, and retired, after laying waste its territory. (Thuc. ii. 68.) In b.c. 426 they made a still more vigwous effort to recover Argos; and as the history of this campaign illus- trates the position of the places in the neighbour- hood of Argos, it requires to be related a little in detail. The Ambradots having recdved the pro> mise of assistauoe from Eurylochns, the Spartan commander, who was then in Aetolia, marched with 3000 hoplites into the territory of Aigos, and cap- tured the fortified hill of Olpae (^OAvai), close upon the Ambracian gulf, 25 stadia (about 3 miles) from Argos itself, "niereupon the Acamanians marched to the protection of Aigos, and took up their pod- tion at a spot called Crenae (K^i'cu), or the Wells, at no great distance from Argos. Meuitime Eury- lochns, with the Pdoponnesian forces, bad marched through Acamania, and had succeeded in join- ing the Ambraciots at Olpae, passing unpercdved between Argos itself and the Acimianian force at Orenae. He then took post at Metropolis (MijTp^iroAis), a place probably NE. of Olpae. Shortly afterwards Demosthenes, who had been in- rited by the Acamanians to take the command of their troops, arrived in the Ambraciot gulf with 20 Athenian ships, and anchored near Olpae. Having disembarked his men, and taken the command, he encamped near Olpae. The two armies were sepa- rated only by a deep ravine: and as the ground was favourable for ambuscade, Demosthenes hid some men in a bushy dell, so that they might attack the rear of the euemy. The stratagem was success- ful, Demosthenes gained a decisive victory, and Eurylochns was slain in the battle. This victory vas followed by another still more striking. The Ambradots at Olpae had some days before sent to Ambrada, to b^ for rdnforcements; and a large Ambradot force had entered the territory of Amphi- lochia about the time when the battle of Olpae was fought. Demosthenes being informed of then- march on the day after the battle, formed a plan to sur- prise them lit a narrow pass above Olpae. At this pass there were two oonspicuons peaks, called respectively the greater and the lesser Idomene (ISo/Acn;). The lesser Idomene seems to have been at the northern entrance of the pass, and the greater Idomene at the southern entrance. Aa it was known that the Ambradots would rest for the night at the lower of the two peaks, ready to march through the pass the next morning, Demosthenes sent forward a detachment to secure the higher peak, and then marched through the pass in the night. The Am- bradots had obtained no intelligence of the defeat of thdr comrades at Olpae, or of the approach of De- mosthenes; they were surprised in their sleep, and put to the sword without any possibili^ of redst- ance. Thucydidee condders the loss of the Ambra- dots to have been the greatest that befell any Gre- cian city during the whde war prior to the peace of Nidas; and he says, that if Demosthenes and the Acamanians had marched against Ambracia at once, the dty must have snirendered without a blow. The Acamanians, however, refused to un- dertake the enterprise, fearing that ^e Athenians might be more troublesome ndgUMurs to them than the Ambradots. On the contrary, they and the Amphilochians now condnded a peace with the Am*