Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/75

 B. vni. c. vn. 1. ACHAI A. 67 he extended the confederacy by annexing to it his own coun- try, and the other neighbouring cities. Hyperesia, and the cities next in order in the Catalogue of the poet, and JEgialus, 1 [or the sea-coast,] as far as Dyme, and the borders of the Eleian territory, belong to the Achaeans. CHAPTER VII. 1. THE lonians, who were descendants of the Athenians, were, anciently, masters of this country. It was formerly called ^gialeia, and the inhabitants ^Egialeans, but in later times, Ionia, from the former people, as Attica had the name of Ionia, from Ion the son of Xuthus. It is said, that Hellen was the son of Deucalion, and that he governed the country about Phthia between the Peneius and Asopus, and transmitted to his eldest son these dominions, sending the others out of their native country to seek a settle- ment each of them for himself. Dorus, one of them, settled the Dorians about Parnassus, and when he left them, they bore his name. Xuthus, another, married the daughter of Erech- theus, and was the founder of the Tetrapolis of Attica, which consisted of CEnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus. Achaeus, one of the sons of Xuthus, having committed an accidental murder, fled to Lacedgemori, and occasioned the in- habitants to take the name of Achseans. 2 Ion, the other son, having vanquished the Thracian army with their leader Eumolpus, obtained so much renown, that the Athenians intrusted him with the government of their state. It was he who first distributed the mass of the people into four tribes, and these again into four classes according to their occupations, husbandmen, artificers, priests, and the fourth, military guards ; after having made many more regu- lations of this kind, he left to the country his own name. 1 ./Egialus was the most ancient name of Achaia, and was given to it on account of the greater number of cities being situated upon the coast. The Sicyonians, however, asserted that the name was derived from one of their kings named ^Egialeus. 2 The story is narrated differently in Pausanias, b. vii. c. 1. F 2