The re-establishment of Æpytus may, however, have been effected by the threefold alliance of both the princes and nations of Argos, Sparta, and Messenia, by which they guaranteed their respective rights, an alliance of which Plato has preserved a faint, though undoubted trace, marked out in the spirit of his political philosophy.(387)
From the settlements of the Dorians _within_ Peloponnesus, we now turn to those _without_ that peninsula.
§ 1. Doric colonies of Argos, Epidaurus, and Trœzen. § 2. Doric league of Asia Minor. § 3. Mythical accounts of the colonization of Halicarnassus, Rhodes, Cos, Nisyrus, Carpathos, and Casos. § 4. Rhodian colonies. § 5 and 6. Legends respecting the foundation of Mallus, Mopsuestia, Mopsucrene, and Phaselis. § 7 and 8. Colonies of Corinth. § 9 and 10. Colonies of Megara. § 11 and 12. Colonies of Sparta.
1. On account of the multiplicity of subjects which it will be now necessary to consider, we shall be compelled to shorten the discussion of several points, and to take for granted many collateral questions, except where we may be encouraged to enter into greater detail by the hope of disclosing fresh fields for the inquiries of others.
It will be the most convenient method to make the mother-states the basis of our arrangement, as these are known with far greater certainty than the dates of the foundation of their respective colonies; by which means we shall also be enabled to take in a regular order those settlements which lie near to, and were connected with, one another.
First, the colonies of ARGOS, EPIDAURUS, and TRŒZEN. We will treat of these together, as they all lie in the same direction, and as the colonies of the two last states more or less recognised the supremacy of Argos, and not unfrequently followed a common leader. These extend as far as the southern extremity of Asia Minor.
The Dorians on the south-western coast of Asia Minor derived their origin, according to Herodotus,(388) from Peloponnesus. And indeed they were generally considered a colony of Argos(389) (from which state Strabo derives Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Cos), led by princes of the Heraclidæ, from whom the noble families of Rhodes—for example, the Eratidæ or Diagoridæ at Ialysus—claimed to be descended.(390) This emigration was considered contemporary, and as having some connexion with the expedition of Althæmenes, the son of Ceisus, from Argos to Crete.(391) Now we know from Herodotus(392) that the Coans, Calydnians, and Nisyrians came from Epidaurus; yet, as is evident from arguments already brought forward, two different expeditions cannot be understood to have taken place. Thus also Ægina was called a colony of Argos as well as of Epidaurus. The account of Herodotus is confirmed by the similarity of the worship of Æsculapius at Cos and at Epidaurus, which was sufficiently great to prove a colonial connexion.(393) We have also a tradition of some sacred missions between Cos and Epidaurus; a ship of the latter is said to have brought a serpent of Æsculapius to the former state.(394) If this is considered as an historical fact, we may, as it appears, deduce more from it than is commonly inferred—viz. that the Doric colonists of Cos, Calydna, &c. remained in Epidaurus a sufficient time before their passage into Asia Minor to adopt the worship of Æsculapius. And since we find that the worship of Æsculapius also prevailed in Cnidos and Rhodes,(395) it may be fairly inferred, that of the inhabitants of these islands a part at least passed through Epidaurus. This is further confirmed by the orator Aristides, who, on the authority of the national tradition, states of the Rhodians, “that from ancient times they had been Dorians, and had had Heraclidæ and Asclepiadæ for their princes.”(396) Thus also there were families of the Asclepiadæ and Heraclidæ at Cos, to the former of which Hippocrates was related on his father’s side, to the latter on his mother’s.(397) Contemporaneous with this migration from Argos and Epidaurus was that from Trœzen,(398) in which Halicarnassus, _the citadel upon the sea_ (ἁλι-κάρηνον), was founded; which fact also receives confirmation from the similarity of religious worship.(399) And indeed there is reason for believing that it was only one Doric tribe, the Dymanes, which colonized this city,(400) who strengthened themselves by collecting together the earlier inhabitants, the Leleges and Carians.(401)