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For a similar ethnographic summary cf. iv. 37 f. H. is followed by Pausanias (v. 1). For further information on the peoples of Peloponnese cf. ch. 43, and on the Dorians and the Dorian conquest i. 56 nn.

Ἀρκάδες: held to be Pelasgi (cf. i. 146. 1), being autochthonous (ii. 171. 3), as was generally agreed in Greece.

τὸ Ἀχαιϊκόν. For the conquest of the north coast of Peloponnese by the Achaeans when driven out by the Dorians cf. i. 145. 1, vii. 94, and Paus. v. 1; Strabo 383.


Αἰτωλῶν: cf. Strabo 354; Paus. v. 3. 5.

Δρυόπων: cf. ch. 43 and i. 56 n.

Ἑρμιών: commonly called ‘Hermione’. A maritime city opposite the isle of Hydra with two excellent harbours (Paus. ii. 34 f.).

Ασίνη. The old Asine was on the coast (Paus. ii. 36. 4) near Nauplia (Strabo 373), probably at Tolon, five miles south-east of Nauplia. It was destroyed by the Dorian Argives during the first Messenian war, and its Dryopian inhabitants taking refuge with the Spartans were given a new home in the conquered Messenian land on the west coast of the Coronaean Gulf near its southern headland Acritas (cf. Paus. iv. 14. 3, 34. 6 f.). This is the city here meant, Cardamyle lying just across the gulf on the Laconian coast.

Παρωρεῆται: in Triphylia (cf. iv. 148. 4 n.); they were Minyan immigrants from Lemnos (iv. 145 f.).


The meaning seems to be: ‘The Cynurians being autochthonous, appear to be Ionians, and the only ones left in the Peloponnese’ (the Aegialians having been driven out). Pausanias (iii. 2. 2 λέγονται δὲ οἱ Κυνουρεῖς Ἀργεῖοι τὸ ἀνέκαθεν εἶναι, καὶ οἰκιστήν φασιν αὐτῶν Κύνουρον γενέσθαι τοῦ Περσέως) would derive them from the preDorian inhabitants of Argos. It is probable that they belong to the aboriginal population, but there seems no special reason for holding them to be Ionic. H. here as elsewhere (cf. i. 56) makes Ionians a branch of Pelasgi.

Apparently the town Orneae (about thirteen miles north-west of Argos) was reduced by Argos to a status similar to that of the Laconian Perioecic towns under Sparta. Hence all the other Perioeci of Argos were termed Orneatae; cf. the Caerites at Rome. Stein holds that καὶ περίοικοι is an adscript, on the grounds that Cynuria had belonged to Sparta at least since about 550 B. C. (i. 82; Thuc. v. 41), and that the Argive Perioeci, some of whom are said to have been enfranchised (Ar. Pol. 1303 a 8), and who were all, including the Orneatae (Thuc. v. 67), treated as σύμμαχοι (Thuc. v. 47, 77), had been united with Argos (Paus. viii. 27. 1). But περίοικοι may well be an explanation of Ὀρνεᾶται.

ἐκ τοῦ μέσου κατέατο: cf. 22. 2. This implies a condemnation of the Argives; cf. vii. 148 f.

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hide References (10 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (10):
    • Aristotle, Politics, 5.1303a
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.34
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.36.4
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4.14.3
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.1
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.3.5
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.27.1
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.41
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.47
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.67
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