Pausanias, Description of Greece, ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy, 6.18

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[1] There is also a bronze statue of Cratisthenes of Cyrene, and on the chariot stand Victory and Cratisthenes himself. It is thus plain that his victory was in the chariot race. The story goes that Cratisthenes was the son of Mnaseas the runner, surnamed the Libyan by the Greeks. His offerings at Olympia are the work of Pythagoras of Rhēgion.

[2] Here too I remember discovering the statue of Anaximenes, who wrote a universal history of ancient Greece, including the exploits of Philip the son of Amyntas and the subsequent deeds of Alexander. His honor at Olympia was due to the people of Lampsacus. Anaximenes bequeathed to posterity the following anecdotes about himself. Alexander, the son of Philip, no meek and mild person but a most passionate monarch, he circumvented by the following artifice.

[3] The people of Lampsacus favored the cause of the king [basileus] of the Persians [ Persai], or were suspected of doing so, and Alexander, boiling over with rage against them, threatened to treat them with utmost rigor. As their wives, their children, and their country itself were in great danger, they sent Anaximenes to intercede for them, because he was known to Alexander himself and had been known to Philip before him. Anaximenes approached, and when Alexander learned for what cause he had come, they say that he swore by the gods of Greece, whom he named, that he would do the opposite of what Anaximenes asked.

[4] Then Anaximenes said,

“Grant me, O king, this favor. Enslave the women and children of the people of Lampsacus, raze the whole city even to the ground, and burn the sanctuaries of their gods.”

Such were his words, and Alexander, finding no way to counter the trick, and bound by the compulsion of his oath, unwillingly pardoned the people of Lampsacus.

[5] Anaximenes is also known to have retaliated on a personal enemy in a very clever but very ill-natured way. He had a natural aptitude for rhetoric and for imitating the style of rhetoricians. Having a quarrel with Theopompos, the son of Damasistratos, he wrote a treatise abusing Athenians, Lacedaemonians and Thebans alike. He imitated the style of Theopompos with perfect accuracy, inscribed his name upon the book and sent it round to the cities. Though Anaximenes was the author of the treatise, hatred of Theopompos grew throughout the length of Greece.

[6] Moreover, Anaximenes was the first to compose extemporary speeches, though I cannot believe that he was the author of the epic on Alexander. Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival, he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act, he was banished by the Cretans.

[7] The first athletes to have their statues dedicated at Olympia were Praxidamas of Aegina, victorious at boxing at the fifty-ninth Festival, and Rexibios the Opuntian, a competitor at the pankration of the sixty-first Festival. These statues stand near the pillar of Oinomaos and are made of wood, Rexibios of figwood and the Aeginetan of cypress, and his statue is less decayed than the other.

Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .

Current edition Experimental

English (Jones and Ormerod; retranslated Gregory Nagy, CHS, 2018) (OCR draft) (English) (CHS Pausanias Reader retranslation by Gregory Nagy, based on Jones and Ormerod, with marked Greek terms, notes, quotations, and bibliographic attributions preserved.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἑλλάδος Περιηγήσεως Perseus (Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.) — 6.18 focus

[1]
ἔστι δὲ καὶ τοῦ Κυρηναίου Κρατισθένους χαλκοῦν ἅρμα, καὶ Νίκη τε ἐπιβέβηκε τοῦ ἅρματος καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Κρατισθένης. δῆλα μὲν δὴ ὅτι ἵππων γέγονεν αὐτῷ νίκη· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς Μνασέου τοῦ δρομέως, ἐπικληθέντος δὲ ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων Λίβυος, εἴη παῖς ὁ Κρατισθένης. τὰ δὲ ἀναθήματα αὐτῷ τὰ ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν ἐστὶ τοῦ Ῥηγίνου Πυθαγόρου τέχνη.

[2]
ἐνταῦθα καὶ Ἀναξιμένους οἶδα εἰκόνα ἀνευρών, ὃς τὰ ἐν Ἕλλησιν ἀρχαῖα, καὶ ὅσα Φίλιππος ὁ Ἀμύντου καὶ ὕστερον Ἀλέξανδρος εἰργάσατο, συνέγραψεν ὁμοίως ἅπαντα· ἡ δέ οἱ τιμὴ γέγονεν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ παρὰ τῶν Λαμψακηνῶν τοῦ δήμου. ὑπελίπετο δὲ Ἀναξιμένης τοσάδε ἐς μνήμην· βασιλέα γὰρ οὐ τὰ πάντα ἤπιον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα θυμῷ χρώμενον, Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Φιλίππου, τέχνῃ περιῆλθε τοιᾷδε.

[3] Λαμψακηνῶν τὰ βασιλέως τοῦ Περσῶν φρονησάντων ἢ καὶ αἰτίαν φρονῆσαι λαβόντων, ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἅτε ὑπερζέων ἐς αὐτοὺς 0 τῇ ὀργῇ κακῶν ἠπείλει τὰ μέγιστα ἐργάσασθαι· οἱ δὲ ἅτε θέοντες περὶ γυναικῶν τε καὶ παίδων καὶ αὐτῆς πατρίδος ἀποστέλλουσιν Ἀναξιμένην ἱκετεύειν, Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τε αὐτῷ καὶ ἔτι Φιλίππῳ πρότερον γεγονότα ἐν γνώσει. προσῄει τε ὁ Ἀναξιμένης, καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον, πεπυσμένον καθʼ ἥντινα αἰτίαν ἥκοι, κατομόσασθαί φασιν ἐπονομάζοντα θεοὺς τοὺς Ἑλλήνων ἦ μὴν αὐτοῦ ταῖς δεήσεσιν ὁπόσα ἐστὶν ἐναντία ἐργάσασθαι.

[4] ἔνθα δὴ εἶπεν Ἀναξιμένης· “χαρίσασθαι μοι τήνδε ὦ βασιλεῦ τὴν χάριν, ἐξανδραποδίσασθαι μὲν γυναῖκας καὶ τέκνα Λαμψακηνῶν, καταβαλεῖν δὲ καὶ ἐς ἔδαφος τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν, τὰ δὲ ἱερὰ τῶν θεῶν σφισιν ἐμπρῆσαι” . ὁ μὲν ταῦτα ἔλεγεν, Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ οὔτε πρὸς τὸ σόφισμα ἀντιμηχανήσασθαί τι εὑρίσκων καὶ ἐνεχόμενος τῇ ἀνάγκῃ τοῦ ὅρκου συγγνώμην ἔνεμεν οὐκ ἐθέλων Λαμψακηνοῖς.

[5] φαίνεται δὲ καὶ ἄνδρα ὁ Ἀναξιμένης ἐχθρὸν οὐκ ἀμαθέστατα ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιφθονώτατα ἀμυνάμενος. ἐπεφύκει μὲν αὐτὸς σοφιστὴς καὶ σοφιστῶν λόγους μιμεῖσθαι· ὡς δέ οἱ διαφορὰ ἐς Θεόπομπον ἐγεγόνει τὸν Δαμασιστράτου, γράφει βιβλίον ἐς Ἀθηναίους καὶ ἐπὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις ὁμοῦ καὶ Θηβαίοις συγγραφὴν λοίδορον. ὡς δὲ ἦν ἐς τὸ ἀκριβέστατον αὐτῷ μεμιμημένα, ἐπιγράψας τοῦ Θεοπόμπου τὸ ὄνομα τῷ βιβλίῳ διέπεμπεν ἐς τὰς πόλεις· καὶ αὐτός τε συγγεγραφὼς ἦν καὶ τὸ ἔχθος τὸ ἐς Θεόπομπον ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐπηύξητο.

[6] οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ εἰπεῖν τις αὐτοσχεδίως Ἀναξιμένους πρότερός ἐστιν εὑρηκώς· 0 τὰ ἔπη δὲ τὰ ἐς Ἀλέξανδρον οὔ μοι πιστά ἐστιν Ἀναξιμένην τὸν ποιήσαντα εἶναι.
Σωτάδης δὲ ἐπὶ δολίχου νίκαις Ὀλυμπιάδι μὲν ἐνάτῃ καὶ ἐνενηκοστῇ Κρής, καθάπερ γε καὶ ἦν, ἀνερρήθη, τῇ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ δὲ λαβὼν χρήματα παρὰ τοῦ Ἐφεσίων κοινοῦ Ἐφεσίοις ἐσεποίησεν αὑτόν· καὶ αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῷ ἔργῳ φυγῇ ζημιοῦσιν οἱ Κρῆτες.

[7]
πρῶται δὲ ἀθλητῶν ἀνετέθησαν ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν εἰκόνες Πραξιδάμαντός τε Αἰγινήτου νικήσαντος πυγμῇ τὴν ἐνάτην Ὀλυμπιάδα ἐπὶ ταῖς πεντήκοντα καὶ Ὀπουντίου Ῥηξιβίου παγκρατιαστὰς καταγωνισαμένου μιᾷ πρὸς ταῖς ἑξήκοντα Ὀλυμπιάδι· αὗται κεῖνται μὲν αἱ εἰκόνες οὐ πρόσω τῆς Οἰνομάου κίονος, ξύλου δέ εἰσιν εἰργασμέναι, Ῥηξιβίου μὲν συκῆς, ἡ δὲ τοῦ Αἰγινήτου κυπαρίσσου καὶ ἧσσον τῆς ἑτέρας πεπονηκυῖά ἐστιν.

Translations (1)

Description of Greece Perseus (Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece, Volumes 1-4. Jones, W.H.S. (William Henry Samuel), translator; Ormerod, Henry Arderne, translator. London, New York: W. Heinemann, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1918-1935.) — 6.18 focus

[1]
There is also a bronze statue of Cratisthenes of Cyrene , and on the chariot stand Victory and Cratisthenes himself. It is thus plain that his victory was in the chariot-race. The story goes that Cratisthenes was the son of Mnaseas the runner, surnamed the Libyan by the Greeks. His offerings at Olympia are the work of Pythagoras of Rhegium .

[2]
Here too I remember discovering the statue of Anaximenes, who wrote a universal history of ancient Greece , including the exploits of Philip the son of Amyntas and the subsequent deeds of Alexander. His honor at Olympia was due to the people of Lampsacus . Anaximenes bequeathed to posterity the following anecdotes about himself. Alexander, the son of Philip, no meek and mild person but a most passionate monarch, he circumvented by the following artifice.

[3] The people of Lampsacus favoured the cause of the Persian king, or were suspected of doing so, and Alexander, boiling over with rage against them, threatened to treat them with utmost rigor. As their wives, their children, and their country itself were in great danger, they sent Anaximenes to intercede for them, because he was known to Alexander himself and had been known to Philip before him. Anaximenes approached, and when Alexander learned for what cause he had come, they say that he swore by the gods of Greece, whom he named, that he would verily do the opposite of what Anaximenes asked.

[4] Thereupon Anaximenes said, “Grant me, O king, this favour. Enslave the women and children of the people of Lampsacus , raze the whole city even to the ground, and burn the sanctuaries of their gods.” Such were his words; and Alexander, finding no way to counter the trick, and bound by the compulsion of his oath, unwillingly pardoned the people of Lampsacus .

[5] Anaximenes is also known to have retaliated on a personal enemy in a very clever but very ill-natured way. He had a natural aptitude for rhetoric and for imitating the style of rhetoricians. Having a quarrel with Theopompus the son of Damasistratus, he wrote a treatise abusing Athenians, Lacedaemonians and Thebans alike. He imitated the style of Theopompus with perfect accuracy, inscribed his name upon the book and sent it round to the cities. Though Anaximenes was the author of the treatise, hatred of Theopompus grew throughout the length of Greece .

[6] Moreover, Anaximenes was the first to compose extemporary speeches, though I cannot believe that he was the author of the epic on Alexander.
Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival¹ was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans.

[7]
The first athletes to have their statues dedicated at Olympia were Praxidamas of Aegina , victorious at boxing at the fifty-ninth Festival², and Rexibius the Opuntian, a successful pancratiast at the sixty-first Festival³. These statues stand near the pillar of Oenomaus, and are made of wood, Rexibius of figwood and the Aeginetan of cypress, and his statue is less decayed than the other.

New Alexandria Commentaries

Gregory Nagy, Editors: Angelia Hanhardt and Keith DeStone, Web producer: Noel Spencer, Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins, \[\[Noel gives this a separate URN\]\]

Pausanias Description of Greece 6.18

ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy

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