Book 10
5.4
Now although Delos had become so famous, yet the razing of Corinth to the ground by the Romans146 B.C. increased its fame still more; for the importers changed their business to Delos because they were attracted both by the immunity which the temple enjoyed and by the convenient situation of the harbor; for it is happily situated for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival is a kind of commercial affair, and it was frequented by Romans more than by any other people, even when Corinth was still in existence.As many as ten thousand slaves were sold there in one day (14. 5. 2). And when the Athenians took the island they at the same time took good care of the importers as well as of the religious rites. But when the generals of Mithridates, and the tyrantAristion, through the aid of Mithridates, made himself tyrant of Athens in 88 B.C. (cf. 9. 1. 20). who caused it to revolt, visited Delos, they completely ruined it, and when the Romans again got the island, alter the king withdrew to his homeland, it was desolate; and it has remained in an impoverished condition until the present time. It is now held by the Athenians.
5.5
Rheneia is a desert isle within four stadia from Delos, and there the Delians bury their dead;This began in 426 B.C., when “all the sepulchres of the dead in Delos were removed” to Rheneia (Thuc. 3104). for it is unlawful to bury, or even burn, a corpse in Delos itself, and it is unlawful even to keep a dog there. In earlier times it was called Ortygia.
