Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/209

 B. x. c. iv. 16. CRETE. 201 ans, who accompanied Althcemenes the Argive, and that hence Ulysses speaks of its ninety cities. This account is probable. But others say, that the ten were razed by the enemies of Idomeneus ; but the poet does not say that Crete had a hundred cities at the time of the Trojan war, but in his own age, for he speaks in his own person ; but if the words had been those of some person then living, as those in the Odyssey, where Ulysses says, Crete had ninety cities, they might have been properly understood in this manner. But even if we admit this, the subsequent verses will not be ex- empt from objection. For neither at the time of the expe- dition, nor after the return of Idomeneus, is it probable that these cities were destroyed by his enemies, for the poet says, " but Idomeneus brought back all his companions who had survived the war to Crete ; the sea had not deprived him of any of them ; " J for he would have mentioned such a misfortune. Ulysses in- deed might not have been acquainted with the destruction of these cities, for he had not had any intercourse with any of the Greeks either during or after his wanderings ; but (Nestor), who had been the companion of Idomeneus in the expedition and in his escape from shipwreck, could not be ignorant of what had happened at home during the expedition and before his return. But he must certainly have been aware of what occurred after his return. For if he and all his companions escaped, he returned so powerful that their enemies were not in a position to deprive them of ten cities. Such then is the general description of the country of Crete. 16. With respect to the form of government, which Epho- rus has described at large, it will be sufficient to give a cur- sory account of the principal parts. The law-giver, says Ephorus, seems to lay, as the foundation of his constitution, the greatest good that states can enjoy, namely, liberty ; for it is this alone which makes the property of every kind which a man possesses his own ; in a state of slavery it belongs to the governor, and not to the governed. The liberty also which men enjoy must be guarded. Unanimity ensues, when the dissensions that arise from covetousness and luxury 2 are 1 Od. iii. 191. 2 Sordid avarice and covetousness have taken such hold upon them, that among the Cretans alone, of all nations, nothing in the form of gain is considered dishonourable. Polybius, b. vi.