Book 4
8.22
From there they marched two stages, seven parasangs, and reached the sea at Trapezus, an inhabited Greek city on the Euxine Sea, a colony of the Sinopeans in the territory of Colchis. There they remained about thirty days in the villages of the Colchians, and from these as a base plundered Colchis.
8.23
And the Trapezuntians supplied a market for the army, received the Greeks kindly, and gave them oxen, barley-meal, and wine as gifts of hospitality.
8.24
They likewise took part in negotiations with the Greeks in behalf of the near-by Colchians, who dwelt for the most part on the plain, and from these people also the Greeks received hospitable gifts of oxen.
8.25
After this they made ready the sacrifice which they had vowed;See Xen. Anab. 3.2.9. and a sufficient number of oxen had come to them so that they could pay their thank-offerings to Zeus for deliverance, to Heracles for guidance, and to the other gods according as they had vowed. They instituted also athletic games on the mountain side, just where they were encamped; and they chose Dracontius, a Spartan, who had been exiled from home as a boy because he had accidentally killed another boy with the stroke of a dagger, to look out for a race-course and to act as manager of the games.
8.26
When, accordingly, the sacrifice had been completed, they turned over the hidesThe hides of the sacrificial victims, which were to be offered as prizes in the games. Cp. Hom. Il. 10.159. to Dracontius and bade him lead the way to the place he had fixed upon for his race-course. He pointed out the precise spot where they chanced to be standing, and said, This hill is superb for running, wherever you please. How, then, they said, can men wrestle on ground so hard and overgrown as this is? And he replied, The one that is thrown will get hurt a bit more.
