ἔστι δὲ καὶ τοῦ Κυρηναίου Κρατισθένους χαλκοῦν ἅρμα, καὶ Νίκη τε ἐπιβέβηκε τοῦ ἅρματος καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Κρατισθένης. δῆλα μὲν δὴ ὅτι ἵππων γέγονεν αὐτῷ νίκη· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς Μνασέου τοῦ δρομέως, ἐπικληθέντος δὲ ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων Λίβυος, εἴη παῖς ὁ Κρατισθένης. τὰ δὲ ἀναθήματα αὐτῷ τὰ ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν ἐστὶ τοῦ Ῥηγίνου Πυθαγόρου τέχνη.
ἐνταῦθα καὶ Ἀναξιμένους οἶδα εἰκόνα ἀνευρών, ὃς τὰ ἐν Ἕλλησιν ἀρχαῖα, καὶ ὅσα Φίλιππος ὁ Ἀμύντου καὶ ὕστερον Ἀλέξανδρος εἰργάσατο, συνέγραψεν ὁμοίως ἅπαντα· ἡ δέ οἱ τιμὴ γέγονεν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ παρὰ τῶν Λαμψακηνῶν τοῦ δήμου. ὑπελίπετο δὲ Ἀναξιμένης τοσάδε ἐς μνήμην· βασιλέα γὰρ οὐ τὰ πάντα ἤπιον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα θυμῷ χρώμενον, Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Φιλίππου, τέχνῃ περιῆλθε τοιᾷδε.
Λαμψακηνῶν τὰ βασιλέως τοῦ Περσῶν φρονησάντων ἢ καὶ αἰτίαν φρονῆσαι λαβόντων, ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἅτε ὑπερζέων ἐς αὐτοὺς τῇ ὀργῇ κακῶν ἠπείλει τὰ μέγιστα ἐργάσασθαι· οἱ δὲ ἅτε θέοντες περὶ γυναικῶν τε καὶ παίδων καὶ αὐτῆς πατρίδος ἀποστέλλουσιν Ἀναξιμένην ἱκετεύειν, Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τε αὐτῷ καὶ ἔτι Φιλίππῳ πρότερον γεγονότα ἐν γνώσει. προσῄει τε ὁ Ἀναξιμένης, καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον, πεπυσμένον καθʼ ἥντινα αἰτίαν ἥκοι, κατομόσασθαί φασιν ἐπονομάζοντα θεοὺς τοὺς Ἑλλήνων ἦ μὴν αὐτοῦ ταῖς δεήσεσιν ὁπόσα ἐστὶν ἐναντία ἐργάσασθαι.
ἔνθα δὴ εἶπεν Ἀναξιμένης· “χαρίσασθαι μοι τήνδε ὦ βασιλεῦ τὴν χάριν, ἐξανδραποδίσασθαι μὲν γυναῖκας καὶ τέκνα Λαμψακηνῶν, καταβαλεῖν δὲ καὶ ἐς ἔδαφος τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν, τὰ δὲ ἱερὰ τῶν θεῶν σφισιν ἐμπρῆσαι” . ὁ μὲν ταῦτα ἔλεγεν, Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ οὔτε πρὸς τὸ σόφισμα ἀντιμηχανήσασθαί τι εὑρίσκων καὶ ἐνεχόμενος τῇ ἀνάγκῃ τοῦ ὅρκου συγγνώμην ἔνεμεν οὐκ ἐθέλων Λαμψακηνοῖς.
φαίνεται δὲ καὶ ἄνδρα ὁ Ἀναξιμένης ἐχθρὸν οὐκ ἀμαθέστατα ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιφθονώτατα ἀμυνάμενος. ἐπεφύκει μὲν αὐτὸς σοφιστὴς καὶ σοφιστῶν λόγους μιμεῖσθαι· ὡς δέ οἱ διαφορὰ ἐς Θεόπομπον ἐγεγόνει τὸν Δαμασιστράτου, γράφει βιβλίον ἐς Ἀθηναίους καὶ ἐπὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις ὁμοῦ καὶ Θηβαίοις συγγραφὴν λοίδορον. ὡς δὲ ἦν ἐς τὸ ἀκριβέστατον αὐτῷ μεμιμημένα, ἐπιγράψας τοῦ Θεοπόμπου τὸ ὄνομα τῷ βιβλίῳ διέπεμπεν ἐς τὰς πόλεις· καὶ αὐτός τε συγγεγραφὼς ἦν καὶ τὸ ἔχθος τὸ ἐς Θεόπομπον ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐπηύξητο.
οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ εἰπεῖν τις αὐτοσχεδίως Ἀναξιμένους πρότερός ἐστιν εὑρηκώς· τὰ ἔπη δὲ τὰ ἐς Ἀλέξανδρον οὔ μοι πιστά ἐστιν Ἀναξιμένην τὸν ποιήσαντα εἶναι. Σωτάδης δὲ ἐπὶ δολίχου νίκαις Ὀλυμπιάδι μὲν ἐνάτῃ καὶ ἐνενηκοστῇ Κρής, καθάπερ γε καὶ ἦν, ἀνερρήθη, τῇ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ δὲ λαβὼν χρήματα παρὰ τοῦ Ἐφεσίων κοινοῦ Ἐφεσίοις ἐσεποίησεν αὑτόν· καὶ αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῷ ἔργῳ φυγῇ ζημιοῦσιν οἱ Κρῆτες.
πρῶται δὲ ἀθλητῶν ἀνετέθησαν ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν εἰκόνες Πραξιδάμαντός τε Αἰγινήτου νικήσαντος πυγμῇ τὴν ἐνάτην Ὀλυμπιάδα ἐπὶ ταῖς πεντήκοντα καὶ Ὀπουντίου Ῥηξιβίου παγκρατιαστὰς καταγωνισαμένου μιᾷ πρὸς ταῖς ἑξήκοντα Ὀλυμπιάδι· αὗται κεῖνται μὲν αἱ εἰκόνες οὐ πρόσω τῆς Οἰνομάου κίονος, ξύλου δέ εἰσιν εἰργασμέναι, Ῥηξιβίου μὲν συκῆς, ἡ δὲ τοῦ Αἰγινήτου κυπαρίσσου καὶ ἧσσον τῆς ἑτέρας πεπονηκυῖά ἐστιν.
There is also a bronze chariot of Cratisthenes, the Cyrenian : a Victory and a statue of Cratisthenes himself are mounted on the chariot. Clearly his victory was gained in the chariot-race. It is said that he was a son of Mnaseas, the runner, surnamed by the Greeks the Libyan. His offerings in Olympia are works of Pythagoras of Rhegium.
Here, too, I discovered a statue of Anaximenes, who wrote a complete ancient history of Greece, and complete histories of Philip, son of Amyntas, and of Alexander. This honour at Olympia was done him by the people of Lampsacus. The following anecdotes are told of him. He overreached that somewhat stern and extremely passionate monarch, Alexander, son of Philip, by the following artifice. The people of Lampsacus sympathised with the cause of the Persian king, or had at least incurred the imputation of doing so, and accordingly Alexander, boiling over with rage at them, threatened them with the most rigorous treatment. As their wives and children, and their country itself, were in peril, the people of Lampsacus sent Anaximenes to intercede with the king, because Anaximenes was known to him, and had been known to Philip before him. Anaximenes approached the king, and when Alexander learned on what errand he had come, he is said to have sworn by the gods of Greece, naming them, that he would assuredly do the opposite of whatever Anaximenes asked for. Thereupon Anaximenes said: ‘Grant me this favour, O king: enslave the women and children of the people of Lampsacus, raze the whole city to the ground, and set fire to the sanctuaries of their gods.’ So spoke Anaximenes; and Alexander finding no way of eluding the artifice, and bound by the stringency of his oath, reluctantly pardoned the people of Lampsacus.
Anaximenes is further known to have taken a very clever but very ill-natured revenge upon a personal enemy of his. He was himself a born rhetorician, with a knack of imitating other people’s style. So having quarrelled with Theopompus, son of Damasistratus, he wrote a book in abuse of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, and Thebans, in exactly the style of Theopompus, and published it in his name. In this way, though Anaximenes was the real author of the book, Theopompus was hated up and down Greece. Anaximenes was the first who practised the art of speaking extemporaneously. But I cannot believe he was the author of the epic on Alexander.
Sotades won the long race in the ninety-ninth Olympiad, and was proclaimed as a Cretan, as in fact he was; but in the next Olympiad he was bribed by the Ephesian community to accept the citizenship of Ephesus. For this he was punished with exile by the Cretans.
The first statues of athletes dedicated at Olympia were those of Praxidamas, an Aeginetan, who won the boxing-match in the fifty-ninth Olympiad, and Rexibius, an Opuntian, victor in the pancratium in the sixty-first Olympiad. These statues stand not far from the pillar of Oenomaus: they are made of wood; that of Rexibius is of fig-wood; that of the Aeginetan is of cypress-wood, and is less decayed than the other.