Paeonia

“ This was effected by the expulsion from Pieria of the Pierians, who afterwards inhabited Phagres and other places under Mount Pangaeus, beyond the Strymon (indeed the country between Pangaeus and the sea is still called the Pierian Gulf) ; of the Bottiaeans, at present neighbours of the Chalcidians, from Bottia, and by the acquisition in Paeonia of a narrow strip along the river Axius extending to Pella and the sea; the district of Mygdonia, between the Axius and the Strymon, being also added by the expulsion of the Edonians. ”

“ After a period of stormy independence, Padua in 1337 fell under the sway of the house of Carrara, who held it till the year 1405, when it was taken by the republic of Venice, with which, in 1797, it passed into the hands of Austria, by the treaty of Campo Formio. In 1866 it was ceded to Napoleon III., and by him transferred to the kingdom of Italy.
Pæones. A powerful Thracian people, who in early times were spread over a great part of Macedonia and Thrace. Their country was called Pæonia. The Pæonian tribes on the lower course of the Strymon were subdued by the Persians, 513 B.C. ”

“ They still remembered the fate of Macedonia, Thrace and Paeonia during the former incursion of the Gauls, and reports were coming in of enormities committed at that very time on the Thessalians. So every man, as well as every state, was convinced that they must either conquer or perish.
10.20.1 Any one who so wishes can compare the number of those who mustered to meet king Xerxes at Thermopylae with those who now mustered to oppose the Gauls. To meet the Persians there came Greek contingents of the following strength. Lacedemonians with Leonidas not more than three hundred ”

“ They worship only Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis; but their kings also specially worship Hermes from whom they claim to be descended. Of this territory Megabyzus subjugated the whole strip, which lay on the sea, to Darius." The Paeonians, who were settled on the Strymon and round Lake Prasias, assembled on their coast to await the attack. But Megabyzus turned into the inland region to the north of Mount Pangaeum, and from that direction fell unexpectedly upon the cities of the Paeonians, which were undefended. ”

“ Pieria, or whether it is not more probable that these barbarous nations43 received from the Greeks their general name of Thracians, with which they had been familiar from early times, are questions which I shall not attempt to determine. Into these nations, however, a large number of Pæonians subsequently penetrated, who had passed over at the time of a very ancient migration of the Teucrians, together with the Mysians.44 To this Pæonian race the Pelagonians, on the banks of the Axius, belonged; who also advanced into Thessaly, as will be shown hereafter. ”

“ Paeans were sung at the festivals of Apollo (especially the Hyacinthia) , at banquets, and later even at public funerals. In later times they were addressed not only to the gods, but to human beings. In this manner the Rhodians celebrated Ptolemy I. of Egypt, the Samians Lysander of Sparta, the Athenians Demetrius, the Delphians Craterus of Macedon. The word “paean” is now used in the sense of any song of joy or triumph.
See A. Fairbanks, “A Study of the Greek Paean.” No. ”

“ But we possess an important work of Paeonius in the Victory found in the German excavations at Olympia, and set up, according to the most probable view, in memory of the battle of Sphacteria (see Greek Art, fig. 36) . It bears the inscription " Dedicated to Olympian Zeus by the Messenians and Naupactians as a tithe of the spoil of their enemies. Paeonius of Mende made the statue, and was a successful competitor in the construction of the gable-figures for the temple." ”

“ The Paionians then were prepared, as I say, to drive off the army of Megabazos when it came against them; but the Persians hearing that the Paionians had gathered their powers and were guarding the entrance which lay towards the sea, directed their course with guides along the upper road; and passing unperceived by the Paionians they fell upon their cities, which were left without men, and finding them without defenders they easily took possession of them. ”

“ In course of time the people of Patrae on their own account crossed into Aetolia; they did this out of friendship for the Aetolians, to help them in their war with the Gauls, and no other Achaeans joined them. But suffering unspeakable disasters in the fighting, and most of them being also crushed by poverty, all with the exception of a few left Patrae, and scattered, owing to their love of agriculture, up and down the country, dwelling in, besides Patrae, the following towns: Mesatis, Antheia, Bolina, Argyra and Arba. ”

“ The Paionians hearing this received it as a most welcome proposal, and taking with them their children and their women they began a flight to the sea; some of them however were struck with fear and remained in the place where they were. Having come to the coast the Paionians crossed over thence to Chios, and when they were already in Chios there arrived in their track a large body of Persian horsemen pursuing the Paionians. ”

“ A boy like you isn’t easily killed.... No, say rather that you know nothing.”
252 And again the delicate hand moved as if to drop the curtain.
“But I do know something,” Paegnion hastened to reply. “He has, as you say, another name.”
“Who told you so?”
“He himself.”
“What did he say?”
“That I won’t tell.”
“Are you so timid, Paegnion? I thought the Attic boys were braver. Besides, what do you risk by telling me, a woman? I shall never see your master, never have a chance to speak to him—what do you fear?”
Paegnion reflected a moment.
“No!” he cried resolutely, “I dare not! He might find out.” ”

“ From Caria stretched out, like a string of stepping-stones between Asia and Europe, the hundred islets of the Ægean, Cyclades, and Sporades, and others, inviting settlers, and conducting to the large islands of Crete and Euboea, and the shores of Attica and the Peloponnese. It is impossible to trace with any exactness the order in which the Phoenician colonies were founded. A thousand incidental circumstances—a thousand caprices—may have deranged what may be called the natural or geographical order, and have caused the historical order to diverge from it ”

“ Now these are the only women as it seems from whom reverses in war did not take away a relish for danger; for after the capture of Themiscyra by Hercules, and later on after the destruction of the army which they sent against Athens, they yet went to Ilium and fought with the Athenians and other Greeks. And next to the Amazons you may see painted the Greeks at the capture of Ilium, and the kings gathered together on account of Ajax’s violence to Cassandra: and the painting has Ajax himself, and Cassandra among the other captive women. ”

“ When Pausanias found himself thus pressed by the cavalry, he sent a horseman with the following message to the Athenians: “We are menaced, O Athenians, by a battle, the event of which will determine the freedom or slavery of Greece; and in this perplexity you, as well as ourselves, have, in the preceding night, been deserted by our allies. It is nevertheless our determination to defend ourselves to the last, and to render you such assistance as we may be able. ”

“ Thither, in search of high adventure, went all the heroes of Greece, just as they joined the quest of the Golden Fleece, and, in a later day, went to the rescue of Fair Helen in the Trojan War.
For Oeneus, king of Calydon, had neglected the temples of Diana, and she had sent a monstrous boar to lay waste all the fields and farms in the country. The people had never seen so terrible a beast, and they soon wished that they had never offended the goddess who keeps the woods clear of such monsters. ”

“ For Oeniadae lies on the sea-coast, at the juncture of the Acarnanian and Aetolian frontiers, just at the entrance of the Corinthian gulf; and the town faces the sea-coast of Dyme in the Peloponnesus, and is the nearest point to the promontory of Araxus in it; for the intervening sea is not more than a hundred stades across. Looking to these facts he fortified the citadel by itself; and, building a wall round the harbour and dockyards, was intending to connect them with the citadel, employing for the construction the materials brought from Paeanium. ”

“ Among Indian peoples he mentions the Padaioi, concerning whom he furnishes us with a little more detail. The Padaioi were a race of nomads alleged to feed on raw flesh. When any of the tribesmen fell sick they were {280} mercilessly put to death by their most intimate associates, by which expression is perhaps meant their fellow-clansmen. The men were killed by the men, and the women by the women. They sacrificed all who arrived at old age, and feasted upon them. ”

“ And Pandion is said to have fallen ill there and died, and on the coast of the Megarid is his tomb, on the rock called the Skopelos of Athena Aithyia (the Gannet) .
1.5.4 But his children expelled the Metionidae, and returned from banishment at Megara, and Aegeus, as the eldest, became king of the Athenians. But in rearing daughters Pandion was unlucky, nor did they leave any sons to avenge him. And yet it was for the sake of power that he made the marriage alliance with the king of Thrace. But there is no way for a mortal to overstep what the deity thinks fit to send. ”

“ Hear, O King, that dwellest in Pagasae and the city Aesonis, the city called by my father’s name, thou who didst promise me, when I sought thy oracle at Pytho, to show the fulfilment and goal of my journey, for thou thyself hast been the cause of my venture; now do thou thyself guide the ship with my comrades safe and sound, thither and back again to Hellas. Then in thy honour hereafter we will lay again on thy altar the bright offerings of bulls—all of us who return; and other gifts in countless numbers I will bring to Pytho and Ortygia. ”

“ So they sent messengers to Athens to announce the oracle, asking for a man to advise what they must do. The Athenians, who were not anxious either that the Lacedemonians should add to their possessions the best part of Peloponnese without great dangers, or that they themselves should disobey the god, made their plans accordingly. There was a man Tyrtaeus, a teacher of letters, who was considered of poor intellect and was lame in one foot. Him they sent to Sparta. ”

“ But the Athenians on the fleet suffered most, for the Lamian gulf is a swamp near Thermopylae — the reason being, I think, the hot water that here runs into the sea. These then were more distressed; for taking the Greeks on board they were forced to sail through the mud weighted as they were by arms and men.
1.4.4 So they tried to save Greece in the way described, but the Gauls, now south of the Gates, cared not at all to capture the other towns, but were very eager to sack Delphi and the treasures of the god. ”

“ The people have lost all heart. And indeed, if they were all brave as lions, we are hopelessly outnumbered. Pausanias must have as many as forty thousand men outside the city, for every city in the Island [52] except Argos, has sent its contingent; and we could not muster a fourth part of the number, and such troops too! And where is our fleet? At the bottom of the Ægean, or in the arsenals of the enemy. I do not suppose that there are fifty ships, all told, in our docks. ”

“ Consider the Areopagus, and the smoking altars Of the Eumenides, where the Lacedemonians are to be thy suppliants, When hard-pressed in war. Kill them not with the sword, And wrong not suppliants. For suppliants are sacred and holy. 7.25.2 The Greeks were reminded of these words when Peloponnesians arrived at Athens at the time when the Athenian king was Codrus, the son of Melanthus. Now the rest of the Peloponnesian army, on learning of the death of Codrus and of the manner of it, departed from Attica, the oracle from Delphi making them despair of success in the future ”

“ Pausanias mentions a Victory by Paeonius at Olympia, a votive offering of the Messenians for successes gained in war. Portions of the pedestal of this statue with the dedicatory inscription and the artist's signature were found on December 20, 1875, at the beginning of the German excavations, and the mutilated statue itself on the following day (Fig. 143) . A restoration of the figure by a German sculptor (Fig. 144) may be trusted for nearly everything but the face. The goddess is represented in descending flight. ”

“ Of the wars that they have waged no account has been published to the world, except that they have accomplished three most notable achievements; the subjection of the coast region of Asia, the expulsion of the Gauls therefrom, and the exploit of Telephus against the followers of Agamemnon, at a time when the Greeks after missing Troy, were plundering the Meian plain thinking it Trojan territory. ”

“ I began to think that logic had never been taught in Pavia, either at the university or elsewhere. I had met a porter who thought that because a man was half an Englishman he should be called a Greek, and I had met a guide who spelled his name with a Greek letter because his father had killed a man in a wine-shop. ”

“ The original Hellenic inhabitants, relieved of the bonds of servitude, were now placed on an equal footing with the new colonists, partaking of political rights in the city thus freshly re-created under the supremacy of Rome, and soon they grew to imitate the speech and manners of their new masters, so that as an immediate result of the expulsion of the barbaric Samnites and the entry of the progressive Romans, Paestum began to recover a considerable portion of its ancient splendour. ”