Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/211

 B. x. c. iv. $ 18, 19. CRETE. 203 Nor did it follow necessarily that, because there were some cities in Crete colonized by Spartans, they should continue to observe Spartan usages, since many of the cities of colonists do not preserve the customs of the mother country ; and there are many cities in Crete, the inhabitants of which are not colonists, and yet have the same usages as those that have re- ceived colonies. 18. Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, he says, was five generations later than Althaemenes, who conducted the colony into Crete. He is said by historians to have been the son of Cissus, who founded Argos l about the same time that Procles was engaged in establishing a colony at Sparta. It is also generally admitted that Lycurgus was the sixth in descent from Procles. 2 Copies do not precede the models, nor mo- dern precede ancient things. The usual kind of dancing practised among the Lacedaemonians, the measures, and the paeans sung according to a certain mood, and many other usages, are called among them Cretan, as if they came from Crete. But among the ancient customs, those relative to the administration of the state have the same designations as in Crete, 3 as the council of Gerontes 4 and that of the Knights, 5 except that in Crete the knights had horses ; whence it is conjectured, that the council of Knights in Crete is more ancient, since the origin of the appellation is preserved. But the Spartan knight did not keep a horse. They who per- form the same functions as the Cosmi in Crete, have the dif- ferent title of Ephori [in Sparta]. The Syssitia, or common meal, is even at present called Andreia among the Cretans ; but among the Spartans they did not continue to call it by its former name, as it is found in the poet Alcman ; " In festivals and in joyous assemblies of the Andreia, it is fit to begin the paean in honour of the guests." 19. The occasion of the journey of Lycurgus to Crete is said by the inhabitants to be as follows. The elder brother of Lycurgus was Polydectes, who, at his death, left his wife pregnant. Lycurgus reigned in place of his brother till the 1 His father, Temenus, was the founder of Argos. See b. viii. 2 There is, however, diversity of opinions on the subject. 3 Aristotle, Politics, b. ii. c. 10, where he compares the Cretan with the Lacedaemonian constitution. 4 r&v yepovTwv.