Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/83

 B. vin. c. vin. 2. ARCADIA. 75 country. Its largest mountain is Cyllene. 1 Its perpendicular height, according to some writers, is 20, according to others, about 15 stadia. The Arcadian nations, as the Azanes, and Parrhasii, and other similar tribes, seem to be the most ancient people of Greece. 2 In consequence of the complete devastation of this country, it is unnecessary to give a long description of it. The cities, although formerly celebrated, have been destroyed by con- tinual wars ; and the husbandmen abandoned the country at the time that most of the cities were united in that called Megalopolis (the Great City). At present Megalopolis itself has undergone the fate expressed by the comic poet ; " the great city is a great desert." There are rich pastures for cattle, and particularly for horses and asses, which are used as stallions. The race of Arcadian horses, as Veil as the Argolic and Epidaurian, is preferred before all others. The uninhabited tracts of country in jEtolia and Acarnania are not less adapted to the breeding of horses than Thessaly. 2. Mantinea owes its fame to Epaminondas, who conquered the Lacedaemonians there in a second battle, in which he lost his life. 3 This city, together with Orchomenus, Heraea, Cleitor, Phe- neus, Stymphalus, Msenalus, Methydrium, Caphyeis, and Cy- naetha, either exist no longer, or traces and signs only of their existence are visible. There are still some remains of Tegea, and the temple of the Alaean Minerva remains. The latter is yet held in some little veneration, as well as the temple of the Lyceean Jupiter on the Lycsean mountain. But the places mentioned by the poet, as " Rhipe, and Stratia, and the windy Enispe," are difficult to discover, and if discovered, would be of no use from the deserted condition of the country. 1 Now bears the name of Zyria ; its height, as determined by theFrench commission, is 7788 feet above the level of the sea. Smith. 2 The Arcadians called themselves Autochthones, indigenous, and also Proseleni, born before the moon ; hence Ovid speaking of them says, " Luna gens prior ilia fuit." 8 B. c. 371.