6. We may now penetrate somewhat deeper into the obscure traditions of the Cilician cities Mallus, Mopsuestia, and Mopsucrene. In the fables concerning the founding of these towns, Amphilochus and Mopsus are always mentioned together; at the same time that the account of their Argive origin is very much brought into notice. Cicero calls both these prophets on this occasion kings of Argos.(453) Here then we may also assume that soothsayers were brought from the mother-country, and suppose that the prophets of the Amphilochian oracle of Mallus were actually natives of Argos; and although, as will be shown below, the influence of the Clarian worship was also felt,(454) yet the persons who were the real colonisers could only have been a sea-faring people, such as the Rhodians. In consequence, however, of these settlements having been founded at a very early period, when all colonies were as yet entirely dependent upon the oracles, and therefore were always under the direction of prophets, and as an inventive and imaginative spirit was then in full vigour, their true history has been enveloped in a thick cloud of mythological fiction, which we have at least begun to remove.
7. We next proceed to the CORINTHIAN colonies, the geographical situation of which alone affords a remarkable result with regard to the maritime expeditions undertaken by the mother-country. For although Corinth had two harbours, Lechæum in the Crisæan, and Cenchreæ in the Saronic gulf, it it evident that all its colonies were sent out from the western port. They were founded, almost without exception, on the coasts of the Ionian sea; at the entrance of which the Corinthians had, perhaps at a very early period, founded the city of Molycreium.(455) Notwithstanding this, the very first colony from Corinth, the date of which is known within a few years (Olymp. 5. 760-757 B.C.),(456) ventured to cross the Ionian sea, and to found in the most beautiful part of Sicily the renowned city of Syracuse. The founder was Archias a Heraclide, and probably also of the family of the Bacchiadæ;(457) he was followed by Corinthians, chiefly from the borough of Tenea;(458) and on the road was joined by some Dorians from Megara;(459) the expedition was also accompanied by a prophet of the sacred family of Olympia, the Iamidæ, whose descendants flourished at Syracuse in the time of Pindar.(460) It appears, however, that Syracuse at that time borrowed many religious institutions from Olympia, as is proved by the worship of Arethusa, of Artemis Ortygia, and of the Olympian Zeus.(461) These original founders built a town in the island of Ortygia, the name of which can be explained only from the worship of the goddess just mentioned. The lands taken from the aboriginal Sicilians they divided into lots, according to the number of the colonists. For the method universally observed in founding these colonies was, that the adventurers received before-hand a promise of a share in the territory—which also was called a lot. On the occasion of this very settlement, Æthiops, a Corinthian glutton, is said to have sold a promise of this kind to a companion for one honey-cake.(462) Eumelus the Bacchiad, the celebrated poet of Corinth, seems to have been one of these colonists,(463) as he is mentioned in connexion with Archias. Although the _demus_, or populace of the city, chiefly perhaps consisted of inhabitants of various nations, who put themselves under the protection of this colony, and although the territory around was peopled by Sicilian bondsmen, yet in its dialect, and probably for a considerable period in its customs also, Syracuse remained a purely Doric state: as the women in Theocritus say,(464) “_Our origin is Corinthian, and therefore we speak the language of Peloponnesus. For it is permitted, I suppose, to the Dorians to speak Doric._” Hence the Syracusans were so greatly pleased with an ambassador from Lucania, who had learnt to speak Doric in order to address them in their native tongue.(465) Syracuse increased so rapidly in population and power, that seventy years after its foundation it colonized Acræ, and also Enna, situated in the centre of the island; twenty years after this, the town of Casmenæ; and in forty-five more, Camarina. Also some Syracusan(466) fugitives named Myletidæ, together with Chalcideans from Zancle, are said to have founded Himera: hence the dialect there in use was a mixture of Chalcidean and Doric; but the institutions were entirely Chalcidean.