Book 6
1.15
Next in order comes Metapontium, which is one hundred and forty stadia from the naval station of Heracleia. It is said to have been founded by the Pylians who sailed from Troy with Nestor; and they so prospered from farming, it is said, that they dedicated a golden harvestAn ear, or sheaf, of grain made of gold, apparently. at Delphi. And writers produce as a sign of its having been founded by the Pylians the sacrifice to the shades of the sons of Neleus.Neleus had twelve sons, including Nestor. All but Nestor were slain by Heracles. However, the city was wiped out by the Samnitae. According to Antiochus: Certain of the Achaeans were sent for by the Achaeans in Sybaris and resettled the place, then forsaken, but they were summoned only because of a hatred which the Achaeans who had been banished from Laconia had for the Tarantini, in order that the neighboring Tarantini might not pounce upon the place; there were two cities, but since, of the two, Metapontium was nearerThe other, of course, was Siris. to Taras,The old name of Tarentum. the newcomers were persuaded by the Sybarites to take Metapontium and hold it, for, if they held this, they would also hold the territory of Siris, whereas, if they turned to the territory of Siris, they would add Metapontium to the territory of the Tarantini, which latter was on the very flank of Metapontium; and when, later on, the Metapontians were at war with the Tarantini and the Oenotrians of the interior, a reconciliation was effected in regard to a portion of the land—that portion, indeed, which marked the boundary between the Italy of that time and Iapygia.i.e., the Metapontians gained undisputed control of their city and its territory, which Antiochus speaks of as a “boundary” (cp. 6. 1. 4 and 6. 3. 1). Here, too, the fabulous accounts place Metapontus,The son of Sisyphus. His “barbarian name,” according to Stephanus Byzantinus and Eustathius, was Metabus. and also Melanippe the prisoner and her son Boeotus.One of Euripides’ tragedies was entitled Melanippe the Prisoner; only fragments are preserved. She was the mother of Boeotus by Poseidon. In the opinion of Antiochus, the city Metapontium was first called Metabum and later on its name was slightly altered, and further, Melanippe was brought, not to Metabus, but to Dius,A Metapontian. as is proved by a hero-temple of Metabus, and also by Asius the poet, when he says that Boeotus was brought forth “in the halls of Dius by shapely Melanippe,”Asius Fr. meaning that Melanippe was brought to Dius, not to Metabus. But, as Ephorus says, the colonizer of Metapontium was Daulius, the tyrant of the Crisa which is near Delphi. And there is this further account, that the man who was sent by the Achaeans to help colonize it was Leucippus, and that after procuring the use of the place from the Tarantini for only a day and night he would not give it back, replying by day to those who asked it back that he had asked and taken it for the next night also, and by night that he had taken and asked it also for the next day.
