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408 HISTORY OF GKEECE. B. c. Apollonia, of which the god Apollo himself seems to have been recognized as oekist, 1 was founded under similar circum- stances, during the reign of Periander of Corinth, on a maritime plain both extensive and fertile, near the river Aous. two days' journey south of Epidamnus. Both the one and the other of these two cities seem to have flourished, and to have received accession of inhabitants from Triphylia in Peloponnesus, when that country was subdued by the Eleians. Respecting Epidamnus, especially, we are told that it acquired great wealth and population during the century pre- ceding the Peloponnesian war. 2 A few allusions which we find in Aristotle, too brief to afford much instruction, lead us to sup- pose that the governments of both began by being close oligar- chies, under the management of the primitive leaders of the colony, that in Epidamnus, the artisans and tradesmen in the town were considered in the light of slaves belonging to the public, but that in process of time, seemingly somewhat be- fore the Peloponnesian war, intestine dissensions broke up this oligarchy, 3 substituted a periodical senate, with occasional public 1 The rhetor Aristcides pays a similar compliment to Kyzikus, in his Panegyrical Address at that city, the god Apollo had founded it person- ally and directly himself, not through any human oekist, as was the case with other colonies ( Aristeides, Adyof Trept Kvfkou, Or. xvi, p. 414 ; vol. i, p, 384, Dindorf). 2 Thucyd. i, 24. kyiviro p.eyu.'hr) Kal TroAvdvdpunof ; Strabo, vii, p. 316, viii, p. 357 ; Steph. Byz. v, 'Arro^Auvia ; Plutarch, De Sera Numin. Viud. p. 553 ; Pausan. v, 22, 2. Respecting the plain near the site of the ancient Apollonia, Colonel Leake observes : " The cultivation of this noble plain, capable of supplying grain to all Illyria and Epirus, with an abundance of other productions, is con- fined to a few patches of maize near the villages," (Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i, ch. vii, p. 367.) Compare c. ii, p. 70. The country surrounding Durazzo (the ancient Epidamnus) is described by another excellent observer as highly attractive, though now unhealthy. See the valuable topographical work, "Albanicn, Ilumclien, und die Oesterrcichisch-montenegrinische Granze," von Dr. Joseph Milller (Prag. 1844), p. 62. 3 Thucyd. i, 25; Aristot. Polit. ii, 4, 13; iii, 11, 1 ; iv, 3, 8; v, 1, 6; r, 3, 4. The allusions of the philosopher are so brief, as to convey little or no knowledge: see O. Miillcr, Dorians, b. iii, 9, fi ; Tittmann, Griech. Staats- rsrfass. p. 491.