Greek Texts & Translations

That he was the soothsayer of the clan of the Clytidae, Eperastus declares at the end of the inscription: Of the stock of the sacred-tongued Clytidae I boast to be,
Their soothsayer, the scion of the god-like Melampodidae.
For Mantius was a son of Melampus, the son of Amythaon, and he had a son Oicles, while Clytius was a son of Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles. Clytius was the son of Alcmaeon by the daughter of Phegeus, and he migrated to Elis because he shrank from living with his mother's brothers, knowing that they had compassed the murder of Alcmaeon.

Mingled with the less illustrious offerings we may see the statues of Alexinicus of Elis, the work of Cantharus of Sicyon, who won a victory in the boys' wrestling-match, and of Gorgias of Leontini. This statue was dedicated at Olympia by Eumolpus, as he himself says, the grandson of Deicrates who married the sister of Gorgias.

This Gorgias ^note was a son of Charmantides, and is said to have been the first to revive the study of rhetoric, which had been altogether neglected, in fact almost forgotten by mankind. They say that Gorgias won great renown for his eloquence at the Olympic assembly, and also when he accompanied Tisias on an embassy to Athens. Yet Tisias improved the art of rhetoric, in particular he wrote the most persuasive speech of his time to support the claim of a Syracusan woman to a property.

However, Gorgias surpassed his fame at Athens; indeed Jason, the tyrant of Thessaly, placed him before Polycrates, who was a shining light of the Athenian school. Gorgias, they say, lived to be one hundred and five years old. Leontini was once laid waste by the Syracusans, but in my time was again inhabited.

Here too I remember discovering the statue of Anaximenes, who wrote a universal history of ancient Greece, including the exploits of Philip the son of Amyntas and the subsequent deeds of Alexander. His honor at Olympia was due to the people of Lampsacus. Anaximenes bequeathed to posterity the following anecdotes about himself. Alexander, the son of Philip, no meek and mild person but a most passionate monarch, he circumvented by the following artifice.

The people of Lampsacus favoured the cause of the Persian king, or were suspected of doing so, and Alexander, boiling over with rage against them, threatened to treat them with utmost rigor. As their wives, their children, and their country itself were in great danger, they sent Anaximenes to intercede for them, because he was known to Alexander himself and had been known to Philip before him. Anaximenes approached, and when Alexander learned for what cause he had come, they say that he swore by the gods of Greece, whom he named, that he would verily do the opposite of what Anaximenes asked.

Thereupon Anaximenes said, “Grant me, O king, this favour. Enslave the women and children of the people of Lampsacus, raze the whole city even to the ground, and burn the sanctuaries of their gods.” Such were his words; and Alexander, finding no way to counter the trick, and bound by the compulsion of his oath, unwillingly pardoned the people of Lampsacus.

Anaximenes is also known to have retaliated on a personal enemy in a very clever but very ill-natured way. He had a natural aptitude for rhetoric and for imitating the style of rhetoricians. Having a quarrel with Theopompus the son of Damasistratus, he wrote a treatise abusing Athenians, Lacedaemonians and Thebans alike. He imitated the style of Theopompus with perfect accuracy, inscribed his name upon the book and sent it round to the cities. Though Anaximenes was the author of the treatise, hatred of Theopompus grew throughout the length of Greece.

Moreover, Anaximenes was the first to compose extemporary speeches, though I cannot believe that he was the author of the epic on Alexander.

Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival ^note was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans.