Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/72

 64 STRABO. CASAUB. 380. which last word was perverted by some through ignorance, and altered to Tegea. Here, it is said, Polybus brought up GEdipus. There seems to be some affinity between the Tenedii and these people, through Tennus, the son of Cycnus, according to Aristotle ; the similarity, too, of the divine honours paid by both to Apollo affords no slight proof of this relationship. 1 23. The Corinthians, when subject to Philip, espoused his party very zealously, and individually conducted themselves so contemptuously towards the Romans, that persons ventured to throw down filth upon their ambassadors, when passing by their houses. They were immediately punished for these and other offences and insults. A large army was sent out under the commaud of Lucius Mummius, who razed the city. 2 The rest of the country, as far as Macedonia, was subjected to the Romans under different generals. The Sicyonii, however, had the largest part of the Corinthian territory. Polybius relates with regret what occurred at the capture of the city, and speaks of the indifference the soldiers showed for works of art, and the sacred offerings of the temples. He says, that he was present, and saw pictures thrown upon the ground, a*nd soldiers playing at dice upon them. Among others, he specifies by name the picture of Bacchus 3 by Aris- teides, (to which it is said the proverb was applied, " Nothing to the Bacchus,") and Hercules tortured in the robe, the gift of Deianeira. 4 This I have not myself seen, but I have seen the picture of the Bacchus suspended in the Demetreium at Rome, a very beautiful piece of art, which, together with the* temple, was lately consumed by fire. The greatest number and the finest of the other offerings in Rome were brought from Cor- inth. Some of them were in the possession of the cities in the neighbourhood of Rome. For Mummius being more 1 According to Pausanias, the Teneates derive their origin from the Trojans taken captive at the island of Tenedos. On their arrival in Pelo- ponnesus, Tenea was assigned to them as a habitation by Agamemnon. 2 B. c. 146. 3 Aristeides of Thebes, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. At a public sale of the spoils of Corinth, King Attains offered so large a price for the painting of Bacchus, that Mummius, although ignorant of art, was attracted by the enormity of the price offered, withdrew the picture, in spite of the protestations of Attalus, and sent, it to Rome. 4 This story forms the subject of the Trachiniae of Sophocles.