302 On the Attic Dionysia. it belonged to Flataea or to Boeotia : Pausanias considers it as part of Attica. But it appears from Thucydides (v. 42) that, according to an ancient treaty between the Athenians and the Boeotians, Panacton was not to be occupied by either people, but to be common ground (firj^erepov^ olkcIv to ywpiov aXXd KOLVi] ve/uLew). If this was the case with Panacton, which lay nearer to Athens than Eleutherse, it was probably so with Eleutherae and its district. The inhabitants must have mi^ grated in a body to Athens, leaving their town to the first occupant. Hence it was not numbered among the Attic demes. The time when the power and hostility of Thebes induced the people of Eleuthera? to throw themselves into the arms of Athens, may therefore have been the half-historical period which intervenes between the Return of the Boeotians from Arne, and that of the Heracleids. We read of a war which arose between the Athenians and Boeotians at this period on account of some disputed ground, the district of (Enoe (Conon 39) or Celsenae (Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 146) of which the former lay not far from Eleutherae. The contest was decided by the wellknown stratagem of the Attic cham- pion Melanthus, who was believed to have been favoured by an apparition of Bacchus, and in consequence to have honoured him under the title of MeXdvatyt^ with the festival 'Airarovpia* This tradition connects itself in a very simple and natural manner with those about Eleutherae and Panacton. After the progress of the Theban power had induced the inhabitants of the latter place to quit their ancient seats, the Thebans took possession of it, and proceeded to make encroachments upon Attica. These were repelled, with the aid of the newly re- ceived god : but Eleutherae and Panacton continued to be debatable ground. If these combinations are well founded, the institution of the Great Dionysia, the latest festival of Bacchus at Athens, will but a little precede the Return of the Heracleids. The reader will readily perceive, that the author's main proposition will be very slightly affected by the success of his endeavours to determine the order and the epochs in which the Attic Dionysia were instituted : and whatever may be
