History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides. The history of the Peloponnesian War, Volume 1-2. Dale, Henry, translator. London: Heinemann and Henry G. Bohn, 1851-1852.

Of the Greeks, on the other hand, some Chalcidians of Euboea first sailed with Thucles as the leader of the colony, and founded Naxos, and built the altar to Apollo [*]( The epithet ἀρχηγέτης, or ἀρχαγέτας as the Dorians wrote the word, was given to Apollo, because the Chalcidian colony had sailed to Sicily by his direction. See Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. V. 80. —Arnold.) Archegetes, which is now outside the city, and on which when any deputies to the games sail from Sicily, they first sacrifice.

Syracuse was founded the next year by Archias, of the family of Hercules at Corinth, after he had first expelled the Sicels from the island; on which, being no longer surrounded with water, the inner city now stands; and at a later period the outer one also was enclosed within the wall, and became populous.

Moreover, Thucles and the Chalcidians from Naxos set out in the fifth year after the founding of Syracuse, and having expelled the Sicels by arms, re—settled Leontini, and after it Catana, the Catanians themselves having chosen Evarchus as their founder.

At the same time Lamis arrived in Sicily with a colony from Megara, and after settling in a place beyond the river Pantacyas, Trotilus by name, and subsequently removing thence, and uniting for a short time with the Chalcidians at Leontini, and being driven out by them, he founded Thapsus, and then he himself died; while the rest, being expelled from Thapsus, effected a settlement at Megara, called the Hyblaean, Hyblo, a Sicel king, having given up the place to them and led them in.

After inhabiting it two hundred and forty—five years, they were expelled from the city and country by Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse. Before their expulsion, however, a hundred years after their settlement, they founded Seliaus, having sent Pamillus for the purpose, who came from Megara, their mother—city, and joined them in founding it.

Gela, again, was founded by Antiphemus from Rhodes, and Entimus from Crete, who led a common colony, in the forty-fifth year after the founding of Syracuse. The name of the city was taken from the river Gelas, but the spot where

the city,
[properly so called,] now stands, and which was first fortified, is named [*]( So named because Antiphemus and his Rhodian companions had principally come from Lindus in Rhodes. See Herod. VII. 153. 2. —Arnold) Lindii. The institutions established amongst them were Dorian.