Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/432

 414 HISTORY OF GREECE. It appear?, however, that the Krotoniates for a long time kept the site of Sybaris deserted, refusing even to allot the territory among the body of their own citizens : from which circumstances, as has been before noticed, the commotion against the Pythago- rean order is said to have arisen. They may perhaps have been afraid of the name and recollections of the city; wherein no large or permanent establishment was ever formed, until Thurii was established by Athens about sixty-five years afterwards. Nevertheless, the name of the Sybarites did not perish. Hav- ing maintained themselves at Laos, Skidros, and elsewhere, they afterwards formed the privileged Old-citizens among the colonists of Thurii ; but misbehaved themselves in that capacity, and were mostly either slain or expelled. Even after that, however, the name of Sybaris still remained on a reduced scale in some portion of the territory. Herodotus recounts what he was told by the Sybarites, and we find subsequent indications of them even as late as Theokritus. The conquest and destruction of the original Sybaris pel haps in 510 B.C. the greatest of all Grecian cities appears to have excited a strong sympathy in the Hellenic world. In Miletus, especially, with which it had maintained intimate union, the grief was so vehement, that all the Milesians shaved their heads in token of mourning. 1 The event happened just at the time of the expulsion of Hippias from Athens, and must have made a sensible revolution in the relations of the Greek cities on Kpufiiv. It was natural that the old deserted bed of the river should be called " the dry Krathis :" whereas, if we suppose that there was only one channel, the expression has no appropriate meaning. For I do not think that any one can be well satisfied with the explanation of Bahr : " Vocatur Crathis hoc loco Zrjpbf siccus, nt qui hieme fluit, sestatis vcro tempore exsic- cattis est : quod adhuc in multis Italise inferioris fluviis observant." I doubt whether this be true, as a matter of fact, respecting the river Krathis ( see mv preceding volume, ch. xxii), but even if the fact were true, the epithet in Bahr's sense has no especial significance for the purpose contemplated by Herodotus, who merely wishes to describe the site of the temple erected by Dorieus. " Near the Krathis," or " near the dry Krathis," would be equivalent expressions, if we adopted Bahr's construction ; whereas to say, " near the deserted channel of the Krathis," would be a good local desig uation. ' Hcrodot. vi, 21.