DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4326#0009
4 CNIDUS.
called the Doric Hexapolis, until Halicarnassus was excluded from a participation in the festival,
and from any political advantages which may have accompanied it, in consequence of a Halicar-
nassian having carried home his prize, a brazen tripod, which the law required him to dedicate to
the god in the sanctuary at Triopium. From this period the confederacy assumed the name of the
Doric Pentapolis.* Cnidus had already become so populous in the seventh century b. c. that it sent
out colonies to Italy, Sicily, the Ionian sea, and the Adriatic. At Corcyra the Cnidian colonists were
probably united with their Dorian brethren from Corinth. In Sicily they founded Motya, on an
island between Cape Lilybceum and Mount Eryx, but were soon dispossessed by the Carthagi-
nians. In the Liparaean islands the Cnidian colony was more flourishing and permanent, having
been able to maintain the independence of those islands against the naval power of the Tyrrhe-
nians^ the most formidable in Italy. It was not long after the Doric colonization of Corcyra,
that a joint expedition of the same race under a Corinthian leader proceeded from Corcyra to
colonize Dyrrhachium ;| and it was probably about the same time that Cnidians proceeding from
Corcyra into the Adriatic occupied Corcyra Nigra {MsKolwol Keqxvqx) now Melida.$
In arts and letters the rustic or warlike Dorians were slower in attaining eminence than the
Greeks of ^Eolic or Ionic race. It was particularly in the Asiatic Ionia that Greek literature made
the greatest progress, and had already advanced to historical compositions in prose, while the
Doric dialect was used only in lyric poetry. Hence Herodotus, and the physicians of Cos, though
natives of Dorian cities, wrote in the Ionic dialect; and Cnidus is not recorded, in early times, to
have produced either philosopher, poet or historian. Molis, Ionia and the adjacent islands, con-
tinued to maintain their eminence in literature, until the fall of Croesus, who after having governed a
large portion of the half-Greek people of the interior provinces, had become at length the recognized
sovereign or conqueror of all Asia Minor, with the exception of some of the maritime districts to
the south. From the time when the Persians under Cyrus spread their power and influence over those
countries, and invaded the liberties of the Greek cities of the western coast, a decline took place
in the refinements of that part of Greece: Athens, where Peisistratus was opportunely placed to
encourage the change, became the favourite abode of the Muses, and the cities of Asia whether of
^Eolic, Ionic or Doric origin, were brought nearly to the same level in literature and the arts.
Cnidus preserved its independence until vEolis and Ionia had been subdued, when together with
the other Carian cities it was summoned to submit to Cyrus, by the Mede who commanded his
forces, and whose name the Greeks had converted into Harpagus. In Lycia, the city Xanthus
determined on resistance; in Caria, those of Pedasa, Caunus and Cnidus ; the two former con-
fiding in the strength of their position, Cnidus in that which it might derive from making the
Bybassian peninsula an island, by excavating a trench across an isthmus of five stades in breadth.
But the people had not sufficient energy for the undertaking : soon disheartened by the difficulty of
* Herodot. i. 144.
f Antioch. Syracus. ap. Pausan. Phoc. 11, 3.—Diodor. v.
9.—Strabo, p. 275.
J Thucyd. i. 24.—Strabo, p. 316.— Diodor. xii. 30.
§ Strabo, p. 315. — Scymn. ap. Geog. Gr. min. ii. p.
25. Huds.—Corcyra Melsena cognominata cum Gnidiorum
oppido. Plin. H. N. iii. 26 (30).
called the Doric Hexapolis, until Halicarnassus was excluded from a participation in the festival,
and from any political advantages which may have accompanied it, in consequence of a Halicar-
nassian having carried home his prize, a brazen tripod, which the law required him to dedicate to
the god in the sanctuary at Triopium. From this period the confederacy assumed the name of the
Doric Pentapolis.* Cnidus had already become so populous in the seventh century b. c. that it sent
out colonies to Italy, Sicily, the Ionian sea, and the Adriatic. At Corcyra the Cnidian colonists were
probably united with their Dorian brethren from Corinth. In Sicily they founded Motya, on an
island between Cape Lilybceum and Mount Eryx, but were soon dispossessed by the Carthagi-
nians. In the Liparaean islands the Cnidian colony was more flourishing and permanent, having
been able to maintain the independence of those islands against the naval power of the Tyrrhe-
nians^ the most formidable in Italy. It was not long after the Doric colonization of Corcyra,
that a joint expedition of the same race under a Corinthian leader proceeded from Corcyra to
colonize Dyrrhachium ;| and it was probably about the same time that Cnidians proceeding from
Corcyra into the Adriatic occupied Corcyra Nigra {MsKolwol Keqxvqx) now Melida.$
In arts and letters the rustic or warlike Dorians were slower in attaining eminence than the
Greeks of ^Eolic or Ionic race. It was particularly in the Asiatic Ionia that Greek literature made
the greatest progress, and had already advanced to historical compositions in prose, while the
Doric dialect was used only in lyric poetry. Hence Herodotus, and the physicians of Cos, though
natives of Dorian cities, wrote in the Ionic dialect; and Cnidus is not recorded, in early times, to
have produced either philosopher, poet or historian. Molis, Ionia and the adjacent islands, con-
tinued to maintain their eminence in literature, until the fall of Croesus, who after having governed a
large portion of the half-Greek people of the interior provinces, had become at length the recognized
sovereign or conqueror of all Asia Minor, with the exception of some of the maritime districts to
the south. From the time when the Persians under Cyrus spread their power and influence over those
countries, and invaded the liberties of the Greek cities of the western coast, a decline took place
in the refinements of that part of Greece: Athens, where Peisistratus was opportunely placed to
encourage the change, became the favourite abode of the Muses, and the cities of Asia whether of
^Eolic, Ionic or Doric origin, were brought nearly to the same level in literature and the arts.
Cnidus preserved its independence until vEolis and Ionia had been subdued, when together with
the other Carian cities it was summoned to submit to Cyrus, by the Mede who commanded his
forces, and whose name the Greeks had converted into Harpagus. In Lycia, the city Xanthus
determined on resistance; in Caria, those of Pedasa, Caunus and Cnidus ; the two former con-
fiding in the strength of their position, Cnidus in that which it might derive from making the
Bybassian peninsula an island, by excavating a trench across an isthmus of five stades in breadth.
But the people had not sufficient energy for the undertaking : soon disheartened by the difficulty of
* Herodot. i. 144.
f Antioch. Syracus. ap. Pausan. Phoc. 11, 3.—Diodor. v.
9.—Strabo, p. 275.
J Thucyd. i. 24.—Strabo, p. 316.— Diodor. xii. 30.
§ Strabo, p. 315. — Scymn. ap. Geog. Gr. min. ii. p.
25. Huds.—Corcyra Melsena cognominata cum Gnidiorum
oppido. Plin. H. N. iii. 26 (30).