Greek Texts & Translations

THE Ionians, who were descendants of the Athenians, were, anciently, masters of this country. It was formerly called Aegialeia, and the inhabitants Aegialeans, but in later times, Ionia, from the former people, as Attica had the name of Ionia, from Ion the son of Xuthus.

It is said, that Hellen was the son of Deucalion, and that he governed the country about Phthia between the Peneins and Asopus, and transmitted to his eldest son these dominions, sending the others out of their native country to seek a settlement each of them for himself. Dorus, one of them, settled the Dorians about Parnassus, and when he left them, they bore his name. Xuthus, another, married the daughter of Erechtheus, and was the founder of the Tetrapolis of Attica, which consisted of Oenoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.

Achaeus, one of the sons of Xuthus, having committed an accidental murder, fled to Lacedaemon, and occasioned the inhabitants to take the name of Achaeans. ^note

Ion, the other son, having vanquished the Thracian army with their leader Eumolpus, obtained so much renown, that the Athenians intrusted him with the government of their state. It was he who first distributed the mass of the people into four tribes, and these again into four classes according to their occupations, husbandmen, artificers, priests, and the fourth, military guards; after having made many more regulations of this kind, he left to the country his own name.