Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/79

 B. viii. c. vii. 4. ACHAIA. 71 short time, Peloponnesus from the existing tyrannies ; thus Argos, Hermion, Phlius, and Megalopolis, the largest of the Arcadian cities, were added to the Achaean body, when they attained their greatest increase of numbers. It was at this time that the Romans, having expelled the Carthaginians from Sicily, undertook an expedition against the Galatse, who were settled about the Po. 1 The Achaeans remained firmly united until Philopoemen had the military command, but their union was gradually dissolved, after the Romans had obtained possession of the whole of Greece. The Ro- mans did not treat each state in the same manner, but per- mitted some to retain their own form of government, and dis- solved that of others. * * * * * [He then assigns reasons for expatiating on the subject of the Achasans, namely, their attainment of such a degree of power as to be superior to the Lacedemonians, and because they were not as well known as they deserved to be from their im- portance.] 2 4. The order of the places which the Achasans inhabited, ac- cording to the distribution into twelve parts, is as follows. Next to Sicyon is Pellene ; ^Egeira, the second ; the third, ^Ega?, with a temple of Neptune ; Bura, the fourth ; then Helice, where the lonians took refuge after their defeat by the Achreans, and from which place they were at last banished ; after Helice are ^Egium, Rhypes, Patrae, and Phara ; then Ole- nus, beside which runs the large river [Peirus ?] ; then Dyme, and Tritseeis. The lonians dwelt in villages, but the Achoeans founded cities, to some of which they afterwards united others transferred from other quarters, as JEgae to JEgeira, (the in- habitants, however, were called .ZEgsei,) and Olenus to Dyme. Traces of the ancient settlement of the Olenii are to be seen between Patrae and Dyme : there also is the famous tem- ple of JEsculapius, distant from Dyme 40, and from Patrae 80 stadia. In Euboea there is a place of the same name with the 1 The expulsion of the Carthaginians from Sicily took place 241 B. c. The war of the Romans against the Cisalpine Gauls commenced 224 B. c., when the Romans passed the Po for the first time. 2 Text abbreviated by the copyist.