The mountains of Arcadia are no less famed than its rivers. Of these the most remarkable are Mount Cyl lenc, on the confines of Achaia, towering over all the mountains of the Peloponncsus, to the perpendicular height of fifteen to twenty stadia, or about two miles : Erymanthus, the retreat of wild boars : Pholoe, over looking the plains of Olympia ; Lycxus, called also Olympus, on the top of which Jupiter was reared; be sides Stymphalus, Mxnalus, and many others ; all of these names endeared to every scholar from the associa tion of some classical story.
Arcadia was divided into Upper and Lower ; the former on the north, and the latter on the south. Both these districts, especially the southern, contained seve ral famous towns. Megalopolis, the capital, contained a numerous population, collected from the smaller towns, which, being thought untenable in the face of an enemy, were deserted. It was ornamented with mag nificent temples, colossal statues, and an immense edi fice, which contained the ten thousand deputies appoint ed to conduct the affairs of the state. The other cities were Mantinea, of great antiquity, riches and strength ; Tegea, once an asylum to all Greece ; Lycosura, con sidered as the most ancient town in the world ; Pallan tium, Stymphalus, Nonacris, Orchomenus, Clitor, Tel phussa, Herxa, Aliphora, Phegalea, Caphya, Psophis, Thyriea, and Cynxtha, which last was famous for a spring that cured the bite of a mad clog.
The Arcadians, with good reason, traced back their antiquity to the remotest times. They looked upon themselves as the children or the ground, and older than the moon. One thing is certain, that, amidst all the convulsions into which Greece was thrown, the Ar cadians alone remained unconquered and unmixed. Some suppose them to have been a remnant of the Pelasgi; but the most judicious authors consider them as a branch of the Hellenic race. Acccording to these, while the Dorians took possession of the mountainous region of Doris, and the Ionians made themselves masters of At tica; the Eolians, the third branch of the Hellenes, set tled on the mountains of Arcadia. Like all the early nations, they were at first extremely savage, devouring, for their subsistence, the leaves of trees and roots of grass. Their king, Pelasgus, was the first who instruct ed them in something like the arts of life. He taught them to build huts, to cover their bodies, hitherto naked, with the skins of beasts, and to feed on acorns, a species of food which they used for many ages afterwards. The
rearing of cattle soon followed, together with the art of making cheese, oil, and other conveniences of life. Ly caon, the son of Pelasgus, introduced the worship of Jupiter ; but having sacrificed a youth to the new deity, he was changed by the angry god into a wolf. His sons built several towns, into which they collected the people, and introduced them, for the first time, into social life. Thus, in a few generations, the Arcadians, from being in a state of pure nature, became civilized and indus trious, and made considerable progress in husbandry and the necessary arts.
The Arcadians were patient of labour, extremely per tinacious in their enterprises, and regardless of obstacles and dangers. They are praised by Xenophon for their humanity, beneficence, and hospitality. Of these qua lities, their conduct to the excellent Messenians, is an immortal example. 'When the remnant of that unfor tunate nation, under the conduct of the gallant Aristo menes, were forced, by the Lacedxmonians, to abandon their native country; they were received with the utmost tenderness and compassion by the Arcadians ; and when the Messenian general intended, at the head of a chosen band, to make a desperate attempt upon Sparta in the ab sence of its army, numbers of the Arcadian youth, in dignant at the cruelty that provoked the design, insisted on joining him in the enterprise. This purpose was indeed frustrated by the baseness of Aristocrates, the king of Arcadia, who communicated the intelligence to the enemy ; but such was the fury of the people, that they rose unanimously on their king, stoned him to death, and abolished the regal dignity for ever.
'Poetry and music excepted, the Arcadians were not distinguished in any of the liberal arts. Possessing few temptations to commerical enterprise, and naturally at tached to romantic scenes, endeared by every considera tion of nativity, security, and rural enjoyment, the con tented inhabitants continued for many ages, equally strangers to the refinements and to the corruptions of Greece. While surrounding nations enjoyed the luxuries of polished life, and experienced in succession the vicis situdes of barbarism, civilization, degeneracy, and ex tinction, the hardy Arcadians, occupied in repelling hostile inroads, or in tending their flocks and herds amid the animating and picturesque scenery of their mountains, preserved, along with their primeval sim plicity, their native courage and independence.