GI 4456 these goddeffes ten men, who were to preside over the choruses. Thefe chorufes did not infult any male, but the females of the country. The Epidaurians had dances fimilar to these, with other ceremonies which were mysterious. LXXXIV. From the time of their losing these images, the Epidaurians ceafed to obferve their engagements with the Athenians, who fent to remonftrate with them on the occafion. They made reply, that in this respect they were guilty of no injustice, for as long as they poffeffed the images, they had fulfilled all that was expected from them; having lost these, their obligation became void, devolving from them to the Ægineta. On receiving this anfwer, the Athenians fent to Ægina to demand the images, but the Æginetæ denied that the Athenians had any business with them. LXXXV. The Athenians relate, that after this refufal of their demand, they sent the perfons before employed in this business in a veffel to Ægina. As thefe images were made of the wood of Athens, they were commiffioned to carry them away from the place where they stood; but their attempt to fays that the Epidaurians honoured the goddeffes Damia and Auxeria, χοροισι γυναικηϊοισι κερτομοισι, with chorufes of women, that used to abuse and burlefque the women of the country, had called them xogo nainoso, comical choruses, he had said nothing unworthy of a great hiftorian; because those chorufes of women, were much of the fame fort that were afterwards called comical.-Bentley on Phalaris. do do this not prevailing, they endeavoured to remove them with ropes in the midst of their efforts they. were alarmed by an earthquake, and loud claps of thunder; those employed were seized with a madnefs, which caufed them to kill one another; one only furvived, who immediately fled to Phaleros, LXXXVI. The above is the Athenian account. The Æginetæ affirm, that this expedition was not made in a fingle veffel, for the attacks of one, or even of many veffels, they could eafily have repelled, even if they had poffeffed no ships of their own; but they fay that the Athenians invaded them with a powerful fleet; in confequence of which they retired, not choofing to hazard a naval engagement. It is, however, by no means evident, whether they declined a fea-fight from a want of confidence in their own power, or whether they retired voluntarily and from defign. It is certain that the Athenians, meeting with no resistance, advanced to the place where the images ftood, and not able to separate them from their bafes, they dragged them along with ropes; during which, both the figures did what seems incredible to me, whatever it may to others ". They affert, that they "1s Whatever it may to others.]-This is one of the numerous examples in Herodotus, which concur to prove, that the character of credulity, fo univerfally imputed to our hiftorian, ought to be somewhat qualified. For my own part, I am able to recollect very few paffages indeed, where, relating any thing marvellous, or exceeding credibility, he does not at the fame time intimate, in fome form or other, his own fufpicions of the fact.-T. both fell upon their knees, in which attitude they have ever fince remained. Such were the proceedings of the Athenians. The people of Ægina, according to their own account, hearing of the hoftile intentions of the Athenians, took care that the Argives should be ready to affist them. As soon, therefore, as the Athenians landed at Ægina, the Argives were at hand, and unperceived by the enemy, paffed over from Epidaurus to the island, whence intercepting their retreat to their fhips, they fell upon the Athenians; at which moment of time an earthquake happened, accompanied with thun der. LXXXVII. In their relation of the above circumstances, the Æginetæ and the Argives concur. The Athenians acknowledge, that one only of their countrymen returned to Attica; but this man, the Argives fay, was the fole furvivor of a defeat, which they gave the Athenians; whilst these affirm, that he escaped from the vengeance of the divinity, which, however, he did not long elude, for he afterwards perished in this manner : when he returned to Athens, and related at large the deftruction of his countrymen, the wives of thofe who had been engaged in the expedition against Ægina were extremely exafperated that he alone should furvive; they accordingly furrounded the man, and each of them asking for her hufband, they wounded him with the clafps 6 of their garments, till he died. This 116 With the clafps.]-The Greeks called the clafp or buckle This behaviour of their women was to the Athenians more afflicting than the misfortune which preceded it; all however they could do was to make them afterwards affume the Ionian drefs. Before this incident, the women of Athens wore the Doric veft, which much resembles the Corinthian ; that they might have no occafion for clafps, they obliged them to wear linen tunics. with which they fastened their garments, TgOWN, and fometimes Topan; the Latins for the fame thing ufed the word fibula. Various specimens of ancient clafps or buckles may be seen in Montfaucon, the generality of which refemble a bow that is ftrung. Montfaucon rejects the opinion of those who affirm, that the buckles of which various ancient fpecimens were preferved, were only ftyli, or inftruments to write with. The styli," he adds, “were long pins, and much stronger than the pins with which they faftened the buckles anciently." When Julius Cæfar was affaffinated, he defended himself with his ftylus, and thruft it through the arm of Cafca. When the learned Frenchman fays, that the ancient clafps or buckles could not poffibly ferve for offenfive weapons, he probably was not acquainted with the fact here mentioned by Herodotus. An elegant ufe is made by Homer, of.the probability of a wound's being inflicted by a clafp: when Venus, having been wounded by Diomed, retires from the field, Minerva fays farcaftically to Jupiter, Permit thy daughter, gracious Jove, to tell T. . LXXXVIII. It feems reasonable to believe, that this veft was not originally Ionian but Carian: formerly the drefs of the Grecian females was univerfally the fame with what we now call Dorian. It is reported, that the Argives and the Æginetæ, in opposition to the above ordinance of the Athenians, directed their women to wear clafps, almost twice as large as ufual, and ordained thefe to be the particular votive offering made by the women, in the temples of the above divinities. They were fuffered to offer there nothing which was Attic, even the common earthen veffels were prohibited, of which they were allowed to ufe none but what were made in their own country. Such, even to my time, has been the contradictory spirit of the women of Argos and Ægina, with respect to those of Athens, that the former have perfevered in wearing their clafps larger than before. J · LXXXIX. This which I have related, was the origin of the animofity between the people of Athens and Ægina. The latter ftill having in mind the old grievance of the ftatues, readily yielded to the folicitations of the Thebans, and affifted the Boeotians, by ravaging the coafts of Attica. Whilft the Athenians were preparing to revenge the injury, they were warned by a communication from the Delphic oracle, to refrain from all hoftilities with the people of Ægina for the fpace of thirty years at the termination of this period, they were to erect a fane to acus, and might then commence offenfive operations against the Æginete with fuc cefs; |