Arcadia
（
Ἀρκαδία). A country in the middle of the Peloponnesus,
surrounded on all sides by mountains, the Switzerland of Greece. The Acheloüs, the
greatest river of the Peloponnesus, rises in Arcadia. The northern and eastern parts of the
country were barren and unproductive; the western and southern were more fertile, with
numerous valleys where corn was grown. The Arcadians regarded themselves as the most ancient
people in Greece: the Greek writers call them indigenous and Pelasgians. They were chiefly
employed in hunting and in the tending of cattle, whence their worship of Pan, who was
especially the god of Arcadia, and of Artemis. They were passionately fond of music, and
cultivated it with success. The Arcadians experienced fewer changes than any other people in
Greece, and retained possession of their country upon the conquest of the rest of the
Peloponnesus by the Dorians. After the Second Messenian War the different towns became
independent republics, of which the most important were Mantinea, Tegea, Orchomenus, Psophis,
and Pheneus. Like the Swiss, the Arcadians frequently served as mercenaries. The
Lacedaemonians made many attempts to obtain possession of parts of Arcadia, but these attempts
were finally frustrated by the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371); and in order to resist all future
aggressions on the part of Sparta, the Arcadians, upon the advice of Epaminondas, built the
city of Megalopolis. They subsequently joined the Achaean League, and finally became subject
to the Romans.
