Description of Greece

The city of Aliphera has received its name from Alipherus, the son of Lycaon, and there are sanctuaries here of Asclepius and Athena; the latter they worship more than any other god, saying that she was born and bred among them. They also set up an altar of Zeus Lecheates (In child-bed), because here he gave birth to Athena. There is a stream they call Tritonis, adopting the story about the river Triton.

The image of Athena is made of bronze, the work of Hypatodorus, worth seeing for its size and workmanship. They keep a general festival in honor of some god or other; I think in honor of Athena. At this festival they sacrifice first to Fly-catcher, praying to the hero over the victims and calling upon the Fly-catcher. When they have done this the flies trouble them no longer.

On the road from Heraea to Megalopolis is Melaeneae. It was founded by Melaeneus, the son of Lycaon; in my time it was uninhabited, but there is plenty of water flowing over it. Forty stades above Melaeneae is Buphagium,and here is the source of the Buphagus, which flows down into the Alpheius. Near the source of the Buphagus is the boundary between Megalopolis and Heraea.

Megalopolis is the youngest city, not of Arcadia only, but of Greece, with the exception of those whose inhabitants have been removed by the accident of the Roman domination. The Arcadians united into it to gain strength, realizing that the Argives also were in earlier times in almost daily danger of being subjected by war to the Lacedaemonians, but when they had increased the population of Argos by reducing Tiryns, Hysiae, Orneae, Mycenae, Mideia, along with other towns of little importance in Argolis, the Argives had less to fear from the Lacedaemonians, while they were in a stronger position to deal with their vassal neighbors.