eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

We learn that Tisamenus led the Spartans against the Tegeans, whilst on the other hand
Cleomenes threatened the Spartans with Arkadian support, and the procuring of the bones of
Orestes finally allowed the Spartans to gain the upper hand over Tegea (Histories 9.35; 6.74;
1.66, respectively). The people of Arkadia are also shown fighting alongside other Greeks.
The region’s involvement in the Trojan War has already been mentioned. Of the much later
battle at Thermopylae, Herodotus (7.20) states that a total of 2120 Arkadians fought against
the Persians, five hundred from Tegea, five hundred from Mantinea, one hundred and twenty
from Orchomenos and one thousand from the rest of Arkadia. It is also stated that many
deserted to the Persian side afterwards (8.25), although, “all the Arkadians” were apparently
present to help the rest of the Greek population build a wall across the Isthmus to stop their
common enemy from attacking the Peloponnese (8.72). Arkadians can also be found in
Xenophon’s works the Hellenika and particularly the Anabasis, where we are told that the
Arkadians constituted a significant number of the ‘Ten Thousand’. Not surprisingly from the
contexts in which Arkadia and her inhabitants appear, Arkadians acquired a reputation for
being mercenaries, with perhaps the readiness to be so, encouraged by the limitations of living
in a ‘marginal’ mountainous area (although see Section 2.4 and Roy 1967, 1999, p.346).
Apart from these sources, other works have Arkadia as part of a wider theme and on occasion
as the sole topic. Nevertheless, these are largely fragmentary. Hekataios of Miletos (FGrHist
1 frr 6, 9, 29a, 29b, 6a?), Pherekydes (FrGrHist 3, frr 5, 82a, 135a 156-161), Hellanikos
(FGrHist 4 fr.37), Ariaithos of Tegea (FGrHist 316, frr1, 2a, 2b, 4, 5, 7) and Aristippos
(FGrHist 317 frr 1, 2, 3) are some examples. If more of these works were extant we may
have a different concept of how Arkadia appeared to the ancients, although the fragments that
do exist show a concern for Arkadian mythology and genealogy of mythical ancestors, in
some cases in order to prove the autochthony of Arkadians (e.g. Hellanikos FrGrHist 4 fr.37).
Aristotle’s The Common Constitution of the Arkadians is the only surviving work that deals
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