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Κύρνον. Antiochus (fr. 9, F. H. G. i. 183) says that some of them also went to Massilia; but (see 163 n.) Ἀλαλίαν should be read in that passage for Μασσαλίαν.

περίοικοι: probably the native Corsicans, who appealed to Carthage and Etruria for help.

Τυρσηνοί. The Etruscans were at this time at the height of their power; not improbably they ruled Rome in the sixth century; the Romans, on becoming free, made a treaty with Carthage in 509 B.C. (Polyb. 3. 22). The occupation of Alalia was a direct challenge to the Etruscans, and no doubt it was the common danger from the Greeks which led them to form the commercial treaty with Carthage spoken of by Aristotle (Pol. iii. 9. 6; 1280 a).


A Cadmean victory was a proverb, derived from the mutual slaughter of the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, in the war of ‘the Seven against Thebes’.

ἐμβόλους: acc. of respect; lit. ‘they were bent back as to their beaks’. Cf. 180. 2 ἐλήλαται τοὺς ἀγκῶνας; the great danger to the ancient warship was that, in ramming another, it often disabled itself; cf. especially Thuc. vii. 34. 5, 36. 2-3.

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