[6] Like the people of Halicarnasus,1 Cnidus, and Cos, the Rhodians are of Doric origin. Some of the Dorians, who founded Megara after the death of Codrus, remained there; others associated themselves with the colony which went to Crete under the conduct of Althæmenes the Argive; the rest were distributed at Rhodus, and among the cities just mentioned. But these migrations are more recent than the events re- lated by Homer. For Cnidus and Halicarnasus were not then in existence. Rhodes and Cos existed, but were inhabited by Heracleidæ. Tlepolemus, when he attained manhood, “‘slew the maternal uncle of his father, the aged Licymnius. He immediately built ships, and, collecting a large body of people, fled away with them:’2” and adds afterwards— “‘after many sufferings on the voyage, he came to Rhodes; they settled there according to their tribes, in three bodies:’” and mentions by name the cities then existing3— “‘Lindus, Ialysus, and the white Cameirus,’” the city of the Rhodians not being yet founded. Homer does not here mention Dorians by name, but means Æolians and Bœotians, since Hercules and Licymnius lived in Bœotia. If however, as others relate, Tlepolemus set out from Argos and Tiryns, even so the colony would not be Dorian, for it was settled before the return of the Heracleidæ. And of the Coans also Homer says— “‘their leaders were Pheidippus and Antiphus, two sons of Thessalus the King, an Heracleid;’4” and these names designate rather an Æolian than a Dorian origin.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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