7.1.1 The land between Elis and Sikyonia, reaching down to the eastern sea, is now called Achaea after the inhabitants, but of old was called Aigialeus and those who lived in it Aegialians. According to the Sikyonians the name is derived from Aigialeus, who was king in what is now Sikyonia; others say that it is from the land, the greater part of which is coast (aigialos).

7.1.2 Later on, after the death of Hellen, Xuthus was expelled from Thessaly by the rest of the sons of Hellen, who charged him with having appropriated some of the ancestral property. But he fled to Athens, where he was deemed worthy to wed the daughter of Erekhtheus, by whom he had sons, Achaios and Ion. On the death of Erekhtheus Xuthus was appointed judge to decide which of his sons should succeed him. He decided that Kekrops, the eldest of them, should be king, and was accordingly banished from the land by the rest of the sons of Erekhtheus.

7.1.3 He reached Aigialos, made his home there, and there died. Of his sons, Achaios with the assistance of allies from Aigialos and Athens returned to Thessaly and recovered the throne of his fathers: Ion, while gathering an army against the people of Aigialos and Selinous their king, received a message from Selinous, who offered to give him in marriage Helike, his only child, as well as to adopt him as his son and successor.

7.1.4 It so happened that the proposal found favor with Ion, and on the death of Selinous he became king of the people of Aigialos. He called the city he founded in Aigialos Helike after his wife, and called the inhabitants Ionians after himself. This, however, was not a change of name, but an addition to it, for the people were named ‘Ionians of Aigialos’. The original name clung to the land even longer than to the people; for at any rate in the list of the allies of Agamemnon, Homer^* Is content to mention the ancient name of the land:

7.1.5 At that time in the reign of Ion the Eleusinians made war on the Athenians, and these having invited Ion to be their leader in the war, he met his death in Attica, his tomb being in the deme of Potamus. The descendants of Ion became rulers of the Ionians, until they themselves as well as the people were expelled by the Achaeans. The Achaeans at that time had themselves been expelled from Lacedaemon and Argos by the Dorians.

7.1.6 The history of the Ionians in relation to the Achaeans I will give as soon as I have explained the reason why the inhabitants of Lacedaemon and Argos were the only Peloponnesians to be called Achaeans before the return of the Dorians. Arkhandros and Arkhiteles, sons of Achaios, came from Phthiōtis to Argos, and after their arrival became sons-in-law of Danaos, Arkhiteles marrying Automate and Arkhandros Scaea. A very clear proof that they settled in Argos is the fact that Arkhandros named his son Metanastes (Settler).

7.1.7 When the sons of Achaios came to power in Argos and Lacedaemon, the inhabitants of these towns came to be called Achaeans. The name Achaeans was common to them; the Argives had the special name of Danai. On the occasion referred to, being expelled by the Dorians from Argos and Lacedaemon, the Achaeans themselves and their king Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, sent heralds to the Ionians, offering to settle among them without warfare. But the kings of the Ionians were afraid that, if the Achaeans united with them, Tisamenus would be chosen king of the combined people because of his manliness and noble lineage.

7.1.8 The Ionians rejected the proposal of the Achaeans and came out to fight them; in the battle Tisamenus was killed, the Ionians were overcome by the Achaeans, fled to Helike, where they were besieged, and afterwards were allowed to depart under a truce. The body of Tisamenus was buried in Helike by the Achaeans, but afterwards at the command of the Delphic oracle the Lacedaemonians carried his bones to Sparta, and in my own day his tomb still existed in the place where the Lacedaemonians take the dinner called Pheiditia.

7.1.9 The Ionians went to Attica, and they were allowed to settle there by the Athenians and their king Melanthos, the son of Andropompus, I suppose for the sake of Ion and his achievements when he was commander-in-chief of the Athenians. Another account is that the Athenians suspected that the Dorians would not keep their hands off them, and received the Ionians to strengthen themselves rather than for any goodwill they felt towards the Ionians.