Description of Greece

Subsequently the Mantineans quarrelled with the Lacedaemonians, and seceded from them to the Achaean League. They defeated Agis, the son of Eudamidas, king of Sparta, in defence of their own country, with the help of an Achaean army under the leadership of Aratus. They also joined the Achaeans in their struggle against Cleomenes and helped to destroy the Lacedaemonian power. Antigonus of Macedonia, who was guardian of Philip, the father of Perseus, before he came of age, was an ardent supporter of the Achaeans, and so the Mantineans, among other honors, changed the name of their city to Antigoneia.

Afterwards, when Augustus was about to fight the naval engagement off the cape of Actian Apollo, the Mantineans fought on the side of the Romans, while the rest of Arcadia joined the ranks of Antonius, for no other reason, so it seems to me, except that the Lacedaemonians favoured the cause of Augustus. Ten generations afterwards, when Hadrian became Emperor, he took away from the Mantineans the name imported from Macedonia, and gave back to their city its old name of Mantineia.

The Mantineans possess a temple composed of two parts, being divided almost exactly at the middle by a wall. In one part of the temple is an image of Asclepius, made by Alcamenes; the other part is a sanctuary of Leto and her children, and their images were made by Praxiteles two generations after Alcamenes. On the pedestal of these are figures of Muses together with Marsyas playing the flute. Here there is a figure of Polybius, the son of Lycortas, carved in relief upon a slab, of whom I shall make fuller mention later on.[*](See Paus. 8.30-48)

The Mantineans have other sanctuaries also, one of Zeus Saviour, and one of Zeus Giver of Gifts, in that he gives good things to men. There is also a sanctuary of the Dioscuri, and in another place one of Demeter and the Maid. Here they keep a fire, taking anxious care not to let it go out. Near the theater I saw a temple of Hera.

Praxiteles made the images Hera is sitting, while Athena and Hera's daughter Hebe are standing by her side. Near the altar of Hera is the grave of Arcas, the son of Callisto. The bones of Arcas they brought from Maenalus, in obedience to an oracle delivered to them from Delphi:—

1. Maenalia is storm-swept, where lies
2. Arcas, from whom all Arcadians are named,
3. In a place where meet three, four, even five roads;
4. Thither I bid you go, and with kind heart
5. Take up Arcas and bring him back to your lovely city.
6. There make Arcas a precinct and sacrifices.