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[21]

From this Pylus and Lepreum to the Messenian Pylus and Coryphasium (a fortress situated on the sea) and to the adjacent island Sphagia,1 the distance is about four hundred stadia; from the Alpheius seven hundred and fifty; and from Chelonatas one thousand and thirty. In the intervening space are both the temple of the Macistian Heracles and the Acidon River. The Acidon flows past the tomb of Iardanus and past Chaa—a city that was once in existence near Lepreum, where is also the Aepasian Plain. It was for the possession of this Chaa, some say, that the war between the Arcadians and Pylians, of which Homer tells us, arose in a dispute; and they think that one should write, “"Would that I were in the bloom of my youth, as when the Pylians and the Arcadians gathered together and fought at the swift-flowing Acidon, beside the walls of Chaa"
2—instead of "Celadon" and "Pheia";3 for this region, they say, is nearer than the other to the tomb of Iardanus and to the country of the Arcadians.

1 Also called Sphacteria (see 8. 4. 2).

2 Hom. Il. 7.133

3 "Celadon" and "Pheia" are the readings of the Homeric text. After the words "beside the walls of Pheia" Homer adds the words "about the streams of Iardanus."

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load focus English (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., 1903)
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