Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/399

 B. vi. c. i. 6. ITALY. THE BRUTTII. GRECIAN CITIES. 385 norum] to Rhegium, where the strait begins to widen, is a hundred [stadia] as you advance in a direction towards the exterior and eastern sea, which is called the sea of Sicily. 6. Rhegium l was founded by certain Chalcidenses, who, as they say, were decimated as an offering to Apollo in a time of scarcity, by order of an oracle, and afterwards removed hither from Delphi, taking with them certain others from home. As Antiochus says, the Zancloeans sent for the Chalcidenses, and appointed Antimnestus chief over them. Certain fugi- tives of the Messenians of Peloponnesus accompanied this colony, who had been compelled to fly by those who refused to give satisfaction to the Lacedaemonians for the violation 2 of the virgins at Limnre, whom they had abused when attend- ing the religious festival, and had slain those who assisted them. However when the fugitives had removed to Macistus, they sent to the oracle complaining against Apollo and Diana for suffering these 'things to happen notwithstanding they so greatly honoured them, and inquiring how the devoted might be saved. Apollo commanded to send them with the Chalci- denses to Rhegium, and to be grateful, therefore, to his sister Diana for that they were not lost but saved, as they should not be destroyed with their country, which would be annihilated shortly after by the Spartans. 3 They acted in accordance with the oracle, and thus it was that the rulers of the Rhegini were all of Messenian race until the time of Anaxilaus. Antiochus asserts that anciently the whole of this dis- trict was inhabited by Sicilians and Morgetes ; and that they 1 Now Reggio, one of the most celebrated and flourishing cities of Magna Grecia, founded about 696 years B. c. Cato affirms that it was once in the possession of the Aurunci. The connexion which subsisted between Rhegium and the Chalcidian colonies in Sicily, induced its inha- bitants to take part with the Athenians in their first hostilities against the Syracusans and Locrians. In the great Sicilian expedition, the Rhe- gians observed a strict neutrality. While the Athenian fleet was moored in their roads, they refused to admit the army within their walls, which therefore encamped near the temple of Diana outside the town. Rhe- gium subsequently pursued a similar policy, and suffered severely under tyrants, but the Roman senate at length freed the unfortunate citizens. 3 Strabo here alludes to the crime which was perpetrated in the reign of Teleclus, about 811 years before the Christian era. The division of the Messenians into two parties, the one wishing and the other refusing to give satisfaction, lasted about 150 years. See book vi. cap. iii. 3. 3 It was taken by the Lacedaemonians about B. c. 668. VOL. i. 2 c