“For a great debt was owing in the divine Elis, Namely, four victorious horses.”[94]
But it was not in these, but in the Olympic games, that the victor was crowned, for here they were to contend for a tripod.
After the twenty-sixth Olympiad, the Pisatæ, having recovered their territory, instituted games themselves, when they perceived that these games were obtaining celebrity. But in after-times, when the territory of the Pisatis reverted to the Eleii, the presidency and celebration of the games reverted to them also. The Lacedæmonians too, after the last defeat of the Messenians, co-operated with the Eleii as allies, contrary to the conduct of the descendants of Nestor and of the Arcadians, who were allies of the Messenians. And they assisted them so effectually that all the country as far as Messene was called Eleia, and the name continues even to the present time. But of the Pisatæ, and Triphylii, and Caucones, not even the names remain. They united also Pylus Emathoeis itself with Lepreum in order to gratify the Lepreatæ, who had taken no part in the war. They razed many other towns, and imposed a tribute upon as many as were inclined to maintain their independence.
31. The Pisatis obtained the highest celebrity from the great power of its sovereigns, Œnomaus and his successor Pelops, and the number of their children. Salmoneus is said to have reigned there, and one of the eight cities, into which the Pisatis is divided, has the name of Salmone. For these reasons, and on account of the temple at Olympia, the fame of the country spread everywhere.
We must however receive ancient histories, as not entirely agreeing with one another, for modern writers, entertaining different opinions, are accustomed to contradict them frequently; as for example, according to some writers, Augeas was king of the Pisatis, and Œnomaus and Salmoneus kings of Eleia, while others consider the two nations as one. Still we ought to follow in general what is received as true, since writers are not agreed even upon the derivation of the word Pisatis. Some derive it from Pisa, (Πῖσα,) a city of the same [CAS. 356] name as the fountain, and say that the fountain had that name, as much as to say Pistra, (Πίστρα,) which means Potistra, (ποτίστρα,) or “potable.” The city of Pisa is shown, situated on an eminence between two mountains, which have the same names as those in Thessaly, Ossa and Olympus. Some say, that there was no such city as Pisa, for it would have been one of the eight, but a fountain only, which is now called Bisa, near Cicysium, the largest of the eight cities. But Stesichorus calls the tract of country named Pisa, a city, as the poet calls Lesbos, a city of Macar; and Euripides in the play of Ion says