SCILLUS
SCILLUS (
Σκιλλοῦς: Eth.
Σκιλλούντιος), a town of Triphylia, a district of Elis, situated 20 stadia south of Olympia. In B.C. 572 the Scilluntians assisted Pyrrhus, king of Pisa, in making war upon the Eleians; but they were completely conquered by the latter, and both Pisa and Scillus were razed to the ground. (
Paus. 5.6.4,
6.22.4.) Scillus remained desolate till about B.C. 392, when the Lacedaemonians, who had a few years previously compelled the Eleians to renounce their supremacy over their dependent cities, colonised Scillus and gave it to Xenophon, then an exile from Athens. Xenophon resided here more than twenty years, but was expelled from it by the Eleians soon after the battle of Leuctra, B.C. 371.
He has left us a description of the place, which he says was situ-ated 20 stadia from the Sacred Grove of Zeus, on the road to Olympia from Sparta, It stood upon the river Selinus, which was also the name of the river flowing by the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and like the latter it abounded in fish and shell-fish. Here Xenophon, from a tenth of the spoils acquired in the Asiatic campaign, dedicated a temple to Artemis, in imitation of the celebrated temple at Ephesus, and instituted a festival to the goddess. Scillus stood amidst woods and meadows, and afforded abundant pasture for cattle; while the neighbouring mountains supplied wild hogs, roebucks, and stags. (
Xen. Anab. 5.3. 7-
13.) When Pausanias visited Scillus five centuries afterwards the temple of Artemis still remained, and a statue of Xenophon, made of Pentelic marble. (
Paus. 5.6.5, seq.; comp. Strab. viii. pp. 344, 387;
Plut. de >Exsil. p. 603.)
There are no remains to identify Scillus, but there can be no doubt that it stood in the woody vale, in which is a small village called
Rasa, and through which flows a river falling into the Alpheius nearly opposite the Cladeus. (Leake,
Morea, vol. ii. p. 213, seq.,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 9; Boblaye,
Recherches, &c. p. 133; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 91.)
