Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/513

 M. vii. c. vii. 7, 8. EPIRUS. 499 the gulf, over Antony, and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who was present in the engagement. Nicopolis is well peopled, and is improving every day. It has a large territory, and is adorned with the spoils of war. In the suburbs is a sacred enclosure ; part of it is a grove, containing a gymnasium and a stadium, intended for the cele- bration of quinquennial games ; the other part, on a rising ground overhanging the grove, is sacred to Apollo. The Olympian game, called the Actia, 1 is instituted there in honour of Apollo Actius. It is under the superintendence of the Lacedaemonians. The other surrounding settlements are de- pendent on Nicopolis. The Actian games 1 were formerly celebrated in honour of the god by the neighbouring people ; it was a contest in which the victor was crowned ; but Caesar has conferred on it greater honours. 7. After Ambracia follows the Amphilochian Argos, founded by Alcmaeon and his sons. According to Ephorus, Alcmaeon, after the expedition of the Epigoni 2 against Thebes, upon the solicitation of Diomed, accompanied him in his invasion of ^Etolia, and obtained joint possession of this country and of Acarnania. When Agamemnon invited them to come to the siege of Troy, Diomed went, but Alcmaeon remained in Acarnania, founded Argos, and gave it the name Amphilo- chian, after his brother Amphilochus. On the same authority the river Inachus, which flows through the country and emp- ties itself into the bay, received its name from the river in the Argive territory. Thucydides, however, says that Am- philochus himself, upon his return from Troy, dissatisfied with the state of things at Argos, passed over into Acarnania, and having succeeded to the dynasty of his brother, founded the city which is called after his name. 8. The Amphilochians are Epirotae, as also are those nations who inhabit a rugged country situated above and close to the Illyrian mountains, the Molotti, Athamanes, ^Ethices, Tym- phaei, Orestae Paroraei, and Atintanes, some of whom approach nearer to Macedonia, others to the Ionian Gulf. It is said that Orestes possessed the territory Orestias at the time of his flight, after the murder of his mother, and left the country 1 Virg. Mn. iii. 280. 2 Descendants of the seven chiefs vho fought and perished before Thebes. 2 K 2