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ZOE STAMATOPOULOU

Washington University in St. Louis

Inhabitants of Arcadia, the mountainous region in the central part of the PELOPONNESE (BA 58 C2; Müller I, 750–51). Their claim to AUTOCHTHONY, attested already in the Hesiodic corpus (Hes. F160–61 M‐W with Fowler 2013, 84–96 and 103–12), is fully endorsed by Herodotus, who counts the Arcadians among the PELASGIANS (1.146; 2.171; 8.73). While defined by this close connection to their land, the Arcadians also took part in the Greek COLONIZATION of the MEDITERRANEAN. Herodotus mentions their presence in Asia Minor as an argument against the supposed ethnic purity of the Ionian Dodecapolis (1.146); later, he lists the Arcadians among the seven tribes that make up the population of CYPRUS (7.90).

SPARTA’s expansionist policy in the Peloponnese inevitably led to conflicts with Arcadian city‐states. Herodotus narrates extensively Sparta’s repeated attempts to capture TEGEA after annexing MESSENIA (end of seventh century BCE); the Lacedaemonians only succeeded after they recovered ORESTES’ bones from Tegea (1.66–68). Furthermore, when King CLEOMENES took refuge in Arcadia, he was preparing the locals for hostilities against the Spartans; according to Herodotus, this threat led the Spartans to bring Cleomenes back (6.74–75). Finally, two of the five great victories that the Spartans achieved after they employed the famous Iamid seer Teisamenus were against Arcadian CITIES (9.35).

During the PERSIAN WARS, Arcadian cities contributed 2,120 men to the Greek army sent to the THERMOPYLAE (7.202) and participated in the Peloponnesian effort to fortify the ISTHMUS (8.72). Arcadian soldiers also fought at PLATAEA (9.28); most of them were from Tegea, while the Mantineans arrived shortly after the battle (9.77).

SEE ALSO: Ethnicity; Ionians; Mantineia; Peloponnesian League; Teisamenus son of Antiochus