Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/78

 70 STRABO. CASAUB. 384. Leuctra. Eratosthenes says, that he himself saw the place, and the ferrymen told him that there formerly stood in the strait a brazen statue of Neptune, holding in his hand a hip- pocampus, 1 an animal which is dangerous to fishermen. According to Heracleides, the inundation took place in his time, and during the night. The city was at the distance of 12 stadia from the sea, which overwhelmed the whole inter- mediate country as well as the city. Two thousand men were sent by the Achasans to collect the dead bodies, but in vain. The territory was divided among the bordering people. This calamity happened in consequence of the anger of Neptune, for the lonians, who were driven from Helice, sent particularly to request the people of Helice to give them the image of Neptune, or if they were unwilling to give that, to furnish them with the model of the temple. On their refusal, the lonians sent to the Achaean body, who decreed, that they should comply with the request, but they would not obey even this injunction. The disaster occurred in the following winter, and after this the Achaeans gave the lonians the model of the temple. Hesiod mentions another Helice in Thessaly. 3. The Achaeans, during a period of five and twenty years, elected, annually, a common secretary, and two military chiefs. Their common assembly of the council met at one place, called Arnarium, (Homarium, or Amarium,) where these persons, and, before their time, the lonians, consulted on public affairs. They afterwards resolved to elect one military chief. When Aratus held this post, he took the Acrocorinthus from Anti- gonus, and annexed the city as well as his own country to the Achasan league. 2 He admitted the Megareans also into the body, and, having destroyed the tyrannical governments in each state, he made them members, after they were restored to liberty, of the Achaean league. * * * * * He freed, in a 1 The Syngathus Hippocampus of Linnaeus, from 'LTTTTOQ, a horse, and , a caterpillar. It obtained its name from the supposed resemblance of its head to a horse and of its tail to a caterpillar. From this is de rived the fiction of sea-monsters in attendance upon the marine deities. It is, however, but a small animal, abundant in the Mediterranean. The head, especially when dried, is like that of a horse. Pliny, b. xxxii. c. 911. ^Elian, De Nat. Anim. b. xiv. c. 20. '-' This distinguished man was elected general of the Achaean League, B. c. 245.