Maximilian Otto Bismarck Caspari and Ernest Arthur Gardner

“ Mantineia is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue of ships, but in early Greek times existed only as a cluster of villages inhabited by a purely agricultural community. In the 6th century it was still insignificant as compared with the neighbouring city of Tegea, and submitted more readily to Spartan overlordship. The political history of Mantineia begins soon after the Persian wars, when its five constituent villages, at the suggestion of Argos, were merged into one city, whose military strength forthwith secured it a leading position in the Peloponnesus. ”

“ The Persians were thereupon driven back into the sea all along the line, and, although the majority regained their ships, no less than 6400 were left dead, as against 192 Athenians. The Persian fleet, of which perhaps a detachment had been sent on before the battle, now sailed round Cape Sunium in order to effect a landing at Phalerum, close by Athens, and with the help of traitors within the walls to take the city by surprise. ”

“ The pedimental groups of the temple represented at the front, the hunt of the Calydonian boar, and, at the back, the battle of Achilles and Telephus. Both subjects were intimately associated with the temple, for Atalanta had dedicated in it the face and tusks of the boar, which had been awarded to her as the first to wound it; and Telephus was the son of Heracles and the priestess Auge. Two heads of heroes and that of the boar were found before 1880; later excavation, in 1883, showed the plan of the temple, which had six columns at front and back, and thirteen at the sides. ”

“ The Persian force had been sent by King Darius to punish the Athenians for previous interferences in Asia and to restore their tyrant Hippias. It was probably by advice of the latter that the generals Datis and Artaphernes landed their troops, numbering perhaps 50,000, at Marathon. The Athenians, on the recommendation of their strategus Miltiades, resolved to meet this force in the open field, and sent out their full levy of 9000 heavy infantry under the polemarch Callimachus. ”

“ In 423 they broke out into open war with the Mantineians, and when the latter rebelled against Sparta and allied themselves with Argos and Athens, the Tegeans stood firmly by Sparta's side: in the decisive battle of Mantineia (418) their troops hadalarge share in the overthrow of the coalition. During the early 4th century before Christ Tegea continued to support Sparta against the Mantineians and other malcontents. ”

“ Within the walls the most conspicuous landmark is the theatre, which, unlike the majority of Greek theatres, consists entirely of an artificial mound standing up from the level plain. Only about a quarter of its original height remains. Its scena is of rather irregular shape, and borders one of the narrow ends of the agora. Close to it are the foundations of several temples, one of them sacred to the hero Podaros. The agora is of unsymmetrical form ”

“ But Miltiades, who had suspected some plot all along, and had lately been warned by a signal on Mt Pentelicus which he interpreted as a message to the Persians, marched back the victorious army in time to defend Athens. ”

“ Acarnania took a prominent part in the national uprising of 1821; it is now joined with Aetolia as a nome. The sites of several ancient towns in Acarnania are marked by well-preserved walls, especially those of Stratus, Oeniadae and Limnaea. ”