Kitap 8
3.17
At present I must add some remarks concerning the Caucones in Triphylia. For some writers say, that the whole of the present Elis, from Messenia to Dyme, was called Cauconia. Antimachus calls them all Epeii and Caucones. But some writers say that they did not possess the whole country, but inhabited it when they were divided into two bodies, one of which settled in Triphylia towards Messenia, the other in the Buprasian district towards Dyme, and in the Hollow Elis. And there, and not in any other place, Aristotle considered them to be situated. The last opinion agrees better with the language of Homer, and the preceding question is resolved. For Nestor is supposed to have lived at the Triphyliac Pylus, the parts of which towards the south and the east (and these coincide towards Messenia and Laconia) was the country subject to Nestor, but the Caucones now occupy it, so that those who are going from Pylus to Lacedaemon must necessarily take the road through the Caucones. The temple of the Samian Neptune, and the naval station near it, where Telemachus landed, incline to the west and to the north. If then the Caucones lived there only, the account of the poet must be erroneous. [For, according to Sotades, Minerva enjoins Nestor to send his son with Telemachus in a chariot to Lacedaemon towards the east, while she herself returns back to the west, to pass the night in the vessel; but at sun-rise she sets out to the magnanimous Caucones, to obtain payment of the debt, in a forward direction. How then are we to reconcile these opinions? for Nestor might say, The Caucones are my subjects, and lie directly in the road of persons who are going to Lacedaemon; why then do you not accompany Telemachus and his friends on his journey, but take a road in an opposite direction? Besides, it was natural for one, who was going to recover payment of a debt, and that a considerable sum, as she says, from a people under the command of Nestor, to request some assistance from him in case they should be so unjust, as usually happens, as to refuse to discharge it. But she did not do this.
