Elis in 218 B.C.

Elis — Spring 218 BC · The Sacred Land at War.

Elis — the green, well-watered north-western corner of the Peloponnese, and the sacred land of Olympia. Its supreme charge is the sanctuary of Zeus and the Olympic festival, held every fourth year, over which the Eleans preside as the Hellanodikai, judges of the Greeks. Under the protection of the Olympic truce their territory was long held inviolable, and so the Eleans came to live dispersed and unwalled across the richest farming country in the Peloponnese, a populous and prosperous people devoted to the plough rather than the spear. That old immunity has lapsed, and in the Social War Elis stands as the constant ally of Aetolia — the door through which Aetolian raiders pass into the Peloponnese. In 218 BC the price comes due: Philip V of Macedon descends on the country, carries off a vast haul of captives and cattle, and tears Triphylia from Elean hands.

No land in Greece was so blessed by peace as Elis. Because the Eleans kept Olympia and presided over the games of Zeus, the Greeks by ancient consent exempted their territory from war: an army might not march across it in arms. So the Eleans, alone among the Peloponnesians, dispersed into the open countryside, building no walls and fearing no enemy, growing rich on grain and herds and slaves, some families so devoted to farming that for generations none of them ever set foot in a law-court. But quarrels with the Arcadians and Pisatans over Pisa and Lasion forced the Eleans back to arms, and the old immunity was let slip. Now Elis is the firm friend of Aetolia, and pays for it. In 218 BC Philip V marches through the unguarded land, ravaging at will, while the people flee with their wealth to strongholds like Thalamae — and the sacred country learns again the meaning of war.