Book 5
10.3
Its height up to the pediment is sixty-eight feet, its breadth is ninety-five, its length two hundred and thirty. The architect was Libon, a native. The tiles are not of baked earth, but of Pentelic marble cut into the shape of tiles. The invention is said to be that of Byzes of Naxos, who they say made the images in Naxos on which is the inscription:—To the offspring of Leto was I dedicated by Euergus,A Naxian, son of Byzes, who first made tiles of stone.This Byzes lived about the time of Alyattes the Lydian609-560 B.C., when Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, reigned over the Medes.
10.4
At Olympia a gilt caldron stands on each end of the roof, and a Victory, also gilt, is set in about the middle of the pediment. Under the image of Victory has been dedicated a golden shield, with Medusa the Gorgon in relief. The inscription on the shield declares who dedicated it and the reason why they did so. It runs thus:—The temple has a golden shield; from TanagraThe Lacedaemonians and their allies dedicated it,A gift taken from the Argives, Athenians and Ionians,The tithe offered for victory in war.This battle I also mentioned in my history of Attica,See Paus. 1.29. Then I described the tombs that are at Athens.
10.5
On the outside of the frieze that runs round the temple at Olympia, above the columns, are gilt shields one and twenty in number, an offering made by the Roman general Mummius when he had conquered the Achaeans in war, captured Corinth, and driven out its Dorian inhabitants.
