In the Ancient Olympic Games of 648 BCE, Crauxidas the Crannonian (or Craxilas) won the horse race. In the 6th century BCE the most prominent family in the city's political life was the Scopadae, whose numerous flocks and herds grazed in the fertile plain surrounding the city. Diactorides, one of the Scopadae of Crannon, was a suitor for the hand of the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. Simonides of Ceos resided some time at Crannon, under the patronage of the Scopadae; and there was a celebrated story current in antiquity respecting the mode in which the Dioscuri preserved the poet's life when the Scopadae were crushed by the falling in of the roof of a building.