Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/404

 390 STRABO. CASATJB. 260. rages, they strangled them, burnt their bodies, pounded their bones, and cast them into the sea. 1 Ephorus in speaking of the written law of the Locri, which Zaleucus had most judiciously selected from the Cretan, Lacedaemonian, and Areopagite codes, says that Zaleucus was the first to establish this principle, that whereas formerly lawgivers had left it to the judges to award the punishments for the several offences, he established a certain penalty in his laws, thinking that the minds of the judges would not be led to attach the same penal- ties for the same transgressions, which course he considered expedient. He praises him also for having simplified the law of contracts. [He says also] that the Thurians, being desirous to improve [the code of Zaleucus] more than the Locri had done, became more celebrated, but were less judi- cious. 2 For that state is not regulated by the best govern- ment, where they guard against all manner of deceit by their laws, but that wherein they abide by laws simply framed. Plato also has observed that where there are many laws, there there will be law-suits and evil lives, in the same way as, where there are many physicians, there it is likely there is much sickness. 9. There is a certain singular circumstance, respecting grasshoppers, worthy of note. The river Alece 3 divides Rhegium from Locris, flowing through a deep ravine ; those which are in the territory of the Locrians sing, but those on the other side are silent ; and it is thought probable that this is caused by the region being woody, and their membranes being softened by dew do not produce sound ; but those on the Locrian side being sunned, are dry and horny, so that the sound is easily produced by them. The statue of Eunomus the harper having a grasshopper seated on his harp is shown at Locri. Timseus says, that this Eunomus was once contend- ing at the Pythian games and disputed with Aristo of Rhe- gium for the prize, and that Aristo declared that the people 1 Horrid as is the vengeance which the Locri took on these unfortunate victims of a husband's and a father's crimes, it serves to confirm the' accounts of the iniquity and barbarity of a prince, whose mean and im- becile conduct at other times sanctions the notion that his intellect was disordered. 2 We could almost wish to read this passage" rendered them more plausible, but impaired their utility." 3 The ancient Halex.