Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/299

 t040 HELOS. anthon mention that the stagnant pools at the month of the river abounded in fijih, which were said to be so tame that they would eat out of the hand, in the same manner as was aflerwaxds not unconmion in the fishponds of the Romans. (Apollodor. op. Steph* By*. ▼/EAwpos ; Athenaeus, viii. p. 331 ; Plin. zuiL 2. S.7.) It was on the banks of the Heloms, at a spot called determined, that the Syracasans were defeated by Hippocrates, tyrant of Geb^ in a great battle. (Herod, rii. 154 ; Pind. Nwu ix. 95 ; and Schol. udhe,) [E.H.B.] HELOS (t^*EXos), the name of several towns in Greece, so called from their vicinity to marslies. 1 . A town of Laconia, situated east of the month of the Eurotas, close to the sea, in a plain which, though marshy near the coast, is described by Po- lybins as the most fertile part of Laconia. (Polyb. V. 19.) In the earliest times it appears to have been the chief town on the coast, as Amydae was in the interior; for these two places are mentioned to- gether by Homer (//. ii. 584, Hymn, m ApoU. 410). HeloB is said to have been founded by Heleius, the youngest son of Perseus. Ou its conquest by the Dorians its inhabitants were reduced to sUvery ; and, according to a ocNnmon o|union in antiquity, their name became the general designation of the Spartan bondsmen, but the name of these sUves («lX«rr€f) probably signified captives*, and was derived from the root of khtuf. (Pans. iii. 20. § 6: the account dif- fers a little in Strab. viii. p. 365, and Athen. vi. p. 265, c; but on the etymology of the word Helots, see Diet of Ant. p. 591.) In the time of Strabo Helos was only a village; and when it was visited by Pausanias, it was in ruiiu. (Strab. viii. p. 363; Paus. iii. 22. § 3: Helos is also mentioned by Thuc. iv. 54 ; Xen. //eU. vi. 5. § 32 ; Steph. B. t, v.) Leake conjectures that Helos may have stood at Priniko^ si oe this place is distant from 7Vt nisa, the ancient Trinasus, about 80 stadia, which, accofding to Pausanias, was the distance between these two places; but we learn from the French Commission that Prbuho contains only ruins of the middle ages, and that there are some Hellenic remains a little more to the east near JBtsoni, which is therefore pro- bably the site of Hetos. The name of Helos is still given to the plain of the lower Eurotas. (Leakey Morea, vol. L p. 230; BobUye, Jiecherches, p. 94; Curtius, Pehpormetotf y(A, ii. p. 289.) 2. A town belonging to Nestor, mentioned by Homer, was placed by some ancient critics on the Alpheius, and by others on the Alorian marsh, where was a sanctuary dedicated by the Arcadians to Ar- temis; but its position is quite uncertain. . (Horn. //. iL 594; Strab. viii. p. 350; Plin. iv. 5. s.7.) 3. Near Megalopolis. [Mkoalopolis.] HELVECO'NAE (AiAouaf«v€s,Ptol. ii. 1 1. § 17), a tribe of the north of Germany, on the west of the Vistula, between the Rugii and Burgundiones. Ac- cording to Tacitus (Gemi. 43), the Helveconae were one of the bravest tribes of the Lygii. [L. S.] . HELVE'TII ('EAou^TTwi, 'EKfi^riot), a Celtic people who in Caesar's time occupied the country between the Jura on the west, the Rhone and Leman lake on the south, and the Rhine on the east and north. Caesar (B, G, i. 2) gives the dimensions of their country, as they were reported to him, and probably the dimensions are not fiir wrong if we take the measurements in the right directions. [Galua, p. 951.3 Cluverius and others would correct these HELVETIL numbers, which shows a want of judgment. C says notlung, for he knew nothing, of the sonthoa limit of the Helvetii east of the Lonan lake. There is no evidence in his work that the HelTcCii in bit time occupied any of the mountainous part of Swit- zerknd. They seem to have occupied hillj tncU and plains, but not mountains or high moanUm valleys. Strabo (p. 292) makes the Bbacti bonier on a small part of the lake of Cotutam^ and the Helvetii and the Vuxielici on the huger pari of it The words are ambiguoos, and may spply both to the south or Swiss side of the lake, and to the novth or Geranan side ; and so some people interpret him. Strabo obeervra that the Helvetii and Vindelid in- habit mountain plains (^poireBia), by which be means elevated levels and hilly tracts, but net mountams. The part which Strabo ^ 208) calls the Helvetian pUins is the country north of the Leman hdce. The.Rhaeti and the Norid, he aay, dwell right up to the mountain passes, and over them into Italy. There was a tradition that the Helvetii were once m Germany. Tadtua {Gtrma^ c. 28) thinks that this is probable ; and he fixes the German resklence of the Helvetii between the Her- cynia Silva, the Rhine, and the Moenns (Main) : he supposed the Boii to have occupied the parts b^eod, further north and east But it seeim that the Germans had driven the Helvetii back, for in Caesar'a time the Rhine was the frontier, and the two natioiia were continually fighting on it. If we aaanme that Caesar's Helvetii extended to the sooth side of the loke ofConstam, from the eastern extremity of the Lenaa Uke, we may suppose their country not to bate comprised any part south of the hdces of Thnn and Luzem. This will leave room enough for them. The Jura, which Ptolemy (ii. 9. § 5) calb Jorassv {'lovpMra6s%&nd Strabo names *lovpdurios and 'lipus, separated the Helvetii from the SequanL Tbe Jura of Caesar extends from the north bank of the Khott in a N E. direction, leaving on the east the basins of the Leman Uke and the lakes of NeufchaUl and Bu That part of the Jura which is bounded on the by the basina of the lakes of Neufckatel and M has for its western boundary the valley of the Dubis {Doube). From the neighbourhood of SoUaknrm {Soleure) a branch of Uie Jum runs into the angle between the junction of the Rhine and the Aar. The Jura is a mass of limest4»ie, coiiaidting of parallel ranges, which fonn longitudinal baaana. The Dole, north of Geneva, is about 5500 feet; and the Rectdet, which lies further south, is still higher. Caesar {B, G. i. 6) knew of only one paas firam the country of the Helvetii into the coontiy of the Sequani, which pass is SW. of Geneva, where the Jura abuts on the Rhone, leaving only a narrow rtnd between the mountains and the river. At present there are several passes over the Jura : one called the Bole, leads from Nyon on the lake of Gmevn to Besan^on on the Doubt f the OrbeUdaute leads from Yverdun to PontarUer in France ; the pa&s called La Cluzette ; the pus of the Pierre Pertmt ; and the pass of the JmmenthaL Ptolemy *s de^rip- tion of the position of the Helvetii is not exact. Alter fixing the position of the Lingoncs, be says : '* and after the mountain which lies next to them, which is called Jurassus, are the Helvetii along the river Rliine." The Ungones bordered on the Toi^ea. The country of the Helvetii was divided into four districts or Paye (pagi), and they had twelve towns and 400 viUages. (Caes. B. G. i. 12, 27.) Caesar has mentioned the names of two pagi. the Tignzinns
 * Ap^T T^5. the precipe locality of which cannot be