Of the history of these two great Achaean cities we unfortunately know very little. Though both were powerful, yet down to the period of 510 B.C., Sybaris seems to have been decidedly the greatest: of its dominion as well as of its much-denounced luxury I have spoken in a former chapter.[1] It was at that time that the war broke out between them which ended in the destruction of Sybaris. It is certain that the Sybaritans were aggressors in the war; but by what causes it had been preceded in their own town, or what provocation they had received, we make out very indistinctly. There had been a political revolution at Sybaris, we are told, not long before, in which a popular leader named Telys had headed a rising against the oligarchical gov ernment, and induced the people to banish five hundred of the leading rich men, as well as to confiscate their properties. Ho had acquired the sovereignty and become despot of Sybaris;[2] and it appears that he, or his rule at Sybaris, was much abhorred at Kroton, since the Krotoniate Philippus, a man of splendid mus- cular form and an Olympic victor, was exiled for having engaged
himself to marry the daughter of Têlys.[3] According to the narrative given by the later Pythagoreans, those exiles, whom Têlys had driven from Sybaris, took refuge at Kroton, and cast themselves as suppliants on the altars for protection. It may well be, indeed, that they were in part Pythagoreans of Sybaris. A body of powerful exiles, harbored in a town so close at hand, naturally inspired alarm, and Têlys demanded that they should be delivered up, threatening war in case of refusal. This demand excited consternation at Kroton, since the military strength of Sybaris was decidedly superior. The surrender of the exiles was much debated, and almost decreed, by the Krotoniates, until
- ↑ See above, vol. iii, chap. xxlL
- ↑ Diodor. xii, 9. Herodotus calls Têlys in one place (
Greek characters) in another (Greek characters) of Sybaris (v, 44) this is not at variance with the story of Diodorns. The story given by Athenæus, out of Heraklcidês Ponticns, respecting
the subversion of the dominion of Telys, cannot be reconciled either with Herodotus or Diodorus (Athenaeus, xii p 522). Dr. Thirhvall supposes the deposition of Têlys to have occurred between the defeat at the Têlys and the capture of Sybaris; but this is inconsistent with the, (illegible text) Herakleidês, and not countenanced by any other evidence
- ↑ Heredot. v, 47.
