Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/21

 INSCRIPTIONS XVll gossiping anecdote, about a workman employed on the Propylaea, and distinguished for his skill and zeal, who had fallen from a height so that his life was despaired of. Plutarch continues : d^ti/AoCvTOS Se tov UepiKXeov'; -q $€o<; ovap (f)av£L(ra crwera^e Oeparreiav rj ^u)fj.(vo^ o TlepiKXrj<i ra^v koi pa8iw9 IdaaTo TOV avOpoiirov' ctti toutw Sc koL to -^akKovv ayaXfjLa Trj<; Yytct'as AOrjva^ av€(TTr)(rev iv aKpOTToXeL -rrapa tov /8w/iov, o? koI TTpoTcpov Tjv, ws Acyot'criv. An inscription upon a pedestal of white marble still remaining in situ probably belonged to this very statue (C. I. A. 335, 'AOrjvaloL ry 'kO-qvaia rrj 'Yytci'a), or at least to the statue which gave rise to Plut- arch's story. Pausanias, i. 29. 7, says that in the battle of Tanagra the Athenians had the assistance of troops not only from Argos (Thuc. i. 107 fin.) but from Cleonae, and that the Cleonaeans who fell were buried in the Cera- micus. Four pieces of a monumental inscription, suiting the date, and containing several Doric names, besides a trace of the word [Tavjaypa, confirm Pausanias' state- ment (C. I. A. 441 and Suppl. ii). Votive inscriptions have been discovered at Olympia which were put up by the Lacedaemonians after the revolt of the Helots in 464; by the Lacedaemonians and their allies to commemorate the victory of Tanagra ; and, on the other side, by the ' Messenians and Naupactians,* together with the statue of Victory by the sculptor Paeonius, to commemorate, according to Pausanias, a victory over the Acarnanians, but, according to the account of the Messenians themselves, their great success at Sphacteria. (See L G. A. 75, Paus. v. 24. 3: L G. A. 26 a, Paus. V. 10. 4: L G. A. 348, Paus. v. 26. i; and cp. Hicks, Manual, pp. 81, 341.) These as well as several other inscriptions bear witness to the general trustworthiness of Pausanias, but point to several inaccuracies in detail on his part or on that of his informant. Two passages of Aristophanes ma}' here be illustrated from inscriptions. In the Scholia on Knights, 969, 'S,p.tKv6r}<; is asserted to have been a Thracian prince. But the occurrence of the