In addition to this he says that Nabis on returning from Messene quitted it by the gate leading to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a>.
This is absurd, for between Messene and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> lies <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megalopolis&groupId=745&placeId=1360">Megalopolis</a>, so that none of the gates can possibly be called the gate leading to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> by the Messenians.
There is, however, a gate they call the Tegean gate, by which Nabis did actually retire, and Zeno, deceived by this name, supposed that <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> was in the neighbourhood of Messene.
This is not the case, but between <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a> and the territory of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> lie <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Laconia&groupId=662&placeId=1211">Laconia</a> and the territory of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megalopolis&groupId=745&placeId=1360">Megalopolis</a>.
And last of all we are told that the Alpheius immediately below its source disappears and runs for a considerable distance under ground, coming to the surface again near <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lycoa in Arcadia&groupId=712&placeId=1306">Lycoa in Arcadia</a>.
The fact is that the river at no great distance from its source passes underground for about ten stades and afterwards on emerging runs through the territory of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megalopolis&groupId=745&placeId=1360">Megalopolis</a>, being at first of small volume but gradually increasing, and after traversing a that territory in full view for two hundred stades reaches Lycoa, having now been joined by the Lusius and become quite impassable, and rapid . . .
I think, however, that all the instances I have mentioned are errors indeed but admit of some explanation and excuse. Some of them are due to ignorance, and those concerning the sea battle are due to patriotic sentiment.
Have we then any more valid reason for finding fault with Zeno? Yes: because he is not for the most part so much concerned with inquiry into the facts and proper treatment of his material, as with elegance of style, a quality on which he, like several other famous authors, often shows that he prides himself.
My own opinion is that we should indeed bestow care and concern on the proper manner of reporting events — for it is evident that this is no small thing but greatly contributes to the value of history — but we should but we should not regard this as the first and leading object to be aimed at by sober-minded men.
Not at all: there are, I think, other excellences on which an historian who has been a practical statesman should rather pride himself.
Walbank Commentary