Diodorus Siculus, Library 8-40
Diodorus Siculus, Library Bks 8-32 translated by Charles Henry Oldfather (1887-1954), from the Loeb Classical Library edition of 1933, a text asserted to be in the public domain, nobly digitized by E. Thayer at LacusCurtius.Diodorus Books 33-40 (fragments), a translation assembled, corrected, supplemented and placed on line by Andrew Smith at Attalus.org, drawing on older translations by George Booth (1635-1719, edition of 1814, and Ferdinand Hoefer (1811-1878) (1865), licensed for non-commercial use by kind permission of Andrew Smith. This text has 10862 tagged references to 819 ancient places.
CTS URN: urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001; Wikidata ID: Q672803; Trismegistos: authorwork/130 [Open Greek text in new tab]
§ 8.1.1 Book VIII (Fragmentary)
Since the Eleans were becoming a numerous people and were governing themselves in accordance with law, the Lacedemonians viewed their growing power with suspicion and assisted them in establishing a settled mode of life for the community, in order that they might enjoy the benefits of peace and never experience the activities of war.
§ 8.1.2 And they made the Eleans sacred to the god, with the concurrence of practically the whole Greek world. As a consequence the Eleans took no part in the campaign against Xerxes, but they were relieved of service because of their responsibility for the honour due to the god, and further, in like struggles, when the Greeks were warring among themselves, no state caused them any annoyance, since all Greek states were zealous to preserve the sanctity and inviolability of the land and city. Many generations later, however, the Eleans also began to join in campaigns and to enter upon wars of their own choosing.
§ 8.1.3 The Eleans took no part in the wars in which all the rest of the Greeks shared. In fact, when Xerxes advanced against the Greeks with so many myriads of soldiers, the allies relieved them of service in the field, the leaders instructing them that they would be returning a greater service if they should undertake responsibility for the honour due to the gods.
§ 8.2.1 Nor was she allowed the embraces of a man, even in secret; for no one (Aemulius thought) would ever be so foolish as to exchange the felicities of an entire life for the pleasure of a moment.
§ 8.3.1 Numitor had been deprived of the kingship by his own brother, whose name was Amulius and who was king of the Albans, but when, contrary to his hopes, Numitor recognized his own grandsons, Remus and Romulus, he laid a plot against this same brother to work his death. And the plot worked out: Summoning the herdsmen they marched against the palace, forced their way inside the entrance and slew all who opposed them, and later also Amulius himself.
§ 8.4.1 When these children, Romulus and Remus, who had been exposed in infancy, had attained in the course of time to manhood, they far surpassed all the rest in beauty of body and in strength. Consequently they provided protection for all the herds and flocks, easily repelling those who practised robbery, slaying many of them in their raids and even taking some alive.
§ 8.4.2 In addition to the zeal they displayed in this matters, they were friendly towards all the herdsmen of the region, joining in their gatherings and proving their character, to any who needed their aid, to be modest and sociable. Consequently, since the safety of all hung upon Remus and Romulus, the majority of the people subjected themselves to them and carried out their commands, assembling in whatever place they ordered.
§ 8.5.1 When Remus and Romulus were observing the flight of birds for divination with a view to founding a city, there appeared (to Romulus), as we are told, a favourable omen, and Remus, amazed, said to his brother, "In this city it was happen many a time that clumsy counsels will be followed by a favourable turn of fortune." The fact was that, although Romulus had been too hasty in dispatching the messenger and, on his own part, had been altogether wrong, yet his ignorance had been made right by mere chance.
§ 8.6.1 Romulus, in connection with his founding of Rome, was hastily throwing a ditch about it, to prevent any of his neighbours from attempting to hinder his undertaking. And Remus, angered at his failure to gain the chief place and jealous of the good fortune of his brother, came up to the labourers and belittled their work; for he declared that the ditch was too narrow and that the city would easily fall, since enemies would have no difficulty in getting over it.
§ 8.6.2 But Romulus replied in anger, "I give orders to all citizens to exact vengeance of any man who attempts to get over the ditch." And a second time Remus casts insults at the labourers, and said they were making the ditch too narrow. "Why, enemies will get over it with no trouble. See, I can do it myself, easily." And with these words he leaped over it.
§ 8.6.3 And a certain Celer, one of the labourers, answered him, "I will exact vengeance of the man who jumps over the ditch, even as the king commanded;" and with these words he raised his spade, and striking Remus on the head, slew him.
§ 8.7.1 Polychares, a Messenian of great wealth and conspicuous ancestry, agreed with Euaephnus, a Spartan, to share together the border land.
§ 8.7.2 And when Euaephnus took over the oversight and protection of the flocks and herdsmen, he tried to take advantage of Polychares, but he was found out. The way of it was this: He sold some of the cattle and herdsmen to merchants, on the understanding that they would be taken out of the country, and then alleged that the loss was due to the violent attack of robbers. The merchants, who were going by ship to Sicily, were making their way along the Peloponnesus; and when a storm arose they dropped anchor near the land, whereupon the herdsmen slipped off the boat at night and made their escape, feeling safe in their knowledge of the region.
§ 8.7.3 They then made their way to Messene and revealed to their master all the facts; and Polychares concealed the slaves and then asked his partner to come to him from Sparta.
§ 8.7.4 And when Euaephnus held to his story that some of the herdsmen had been carried off by the robbers and the rest had been killed by them, Polychares produced the men. When Euaephnus saw the men he was struck with consternation, and since his refutation was patent, he turned to entreaties, promising that he would restore the cattle and leaving no word unsaid whereby he might be spared.
§ 8.7.5 And Polychares, in reverence for the obligations of hospitality, made no mention of what the Spartan had done, and sent his son along with him, to receive his dues at his hands. But Euaephnus not only forgot the promises he had made but even slew the youth who had been along with him to Sparta.
§ 8.7.6 At this deed Polychares was so enraged at such acts of lawlessness that he demanded the person of the criminal. The Lacedemonians, however, paid no attention to his demand, but sent the son of Euaephnus to Messene with a reply, to the effect that Polychares should come to Sparta and prefer charges before the ephors and the kings for the wrongs he had suffered. But Polychares, now that he had the opportunity to return like for like, slew the youth and in reprisal plundered the city.
§ 8.8.1 While the dogs were howling and the Messenians were in despair, one of the elders advanced and urged the people to pay no heed to the off-hand pronouncements of the seers. For even in their private affairs, he said, they fall into many errors, by reason of their inability to foresee the future, and in this case, when matters were so involved as only the gods could be expected to know, they, being but men, could not understand them.
§ 8.8.2 He urged the people, therefore, to send a messenger to Delphi. And the Pythia gave them the following answer: They should offer up in sacrifice a maiden from the house of the Aepytidae, any one at all; and if the one on whom the lot fell could not be devoted to the gods, they should sacrifice whatever maiden any father from the same family might freely offer. "If you will do this," the oracle continued, "you will gain the victory in the war and power." . . .
§ 8.8.3 For no honour, great as it might be, appeared in the eyes of the parents of equal weight with the life of their own children, since compassion for one of his own blood stole into each man's heart as he pictured to his mind's eye the slaughter, while at the same time he was filled with misgivings that he should, like a traitor, deliver up his child to certain death.
§ 8.9.1 He rushed headlong into errors unworthy of his fame; for the power of love is mighty to trip up youth, especially such youth as are proud of the strength of their bodies. And this is the reason why the ancient writers of myths have represented Heracles, him who was unconquerable by any others, as being conquered by the might of love.
§ 8.10.1 Archias the Corinthian, being seized with love for Actaeon, first of all dispatched a messenger to the youth, making him marvellous promises; and when he was unable to win him over to act contrary to the honourable principles of his father and to the modesty of the youth himself, he gathered together the greater number of his associates, with the intention of using force on the youth who would not yield to favour or entreaty.
§ 8.10.2 And finally once, when Archias had become drunken in the company of the men he had called together, his passion drove him to such madness that he broke into the house of Melissus and began to carry off the boy by force.
§ 8.10.3 But the father and the other inmates of the house held fast to him, and in the violent struggle which ensued between the two groups the boy was found, without any knowing it, to have given up the ghost while in the arms of his defenders. Consequently, when we reflect upon the strange turn of the affair, we are forced both to pity the fate of the victim and to wonder at the unexpected reversal of fortune. For the boy came to the same manner of death as did he whose very name he bore, since they both lost their lives in similar manner at the hands of those who had aided them most.
§ 8.11.1 Agathocles was chosen to be superintendent of the building of the temple of Athena, and picking out the finest blocks of the hewn stone, he paid for them out of his own means, but making an improper use of the stones he built with them a costly house. And at this act of his, we are told, the deity made itself manifest to men; for Agathocles was struck by lightning and he together with his house was consumed in flames.
§ 8.11.2 The Geomori ruled that his property should be confiscated to the state, although his heirs offered evidence that he had taken no money which belonged to either the sanctuary or the state. The house they consecrated to the goddess and forbade that anyone should enter it, and to this day it is called the House Struck by Lightning.
§ 8.12.1 After this the king, when he had recovered from his wounds, proposed that they hold a trial for the meed of valour. And two men entered the contest, Cleonnis and Aristomenes, each of whom possessed his own peculiar claim to fame.
§ 8.12.2 For Cleonnis had covered the king with his shield when he had fallen and had accounted for the death of eight Spartans who charged against him — two of them were distinguished chieftains — and he had stripped the complete armour from all whom he had slain and given it to his shield-bearers, in order that he might have it as evidence of his valour for the trial. And though he had received many wounds, he had got them all in front, thus providing the fullest proof that he had given way before no one of his foes.
§ 8.12.3 And as for Aristomenes, he had slain five Lacedemonians in the struggle over the body of the king and had stripped their complete armour from the foemen who had set upon him. He had also kept his body free from any wound, and on his way back to the city from the battle he had performed a deed which was deserving of praise.
§ 8.12.4 For Cleonnis lay so weakened by his wounds that he could neither walk without support nor be led by the hand; and Aristomenes, raising him on his shoulders, brought him back to the city, notwithstanding that he was also carrying his own complete armour and that Cleonnis surpassed all other men in size and strength of body.
§ 8.12.5 Such were their resources as they came to the trial for the meed of valour, and the king together with his chief captains took his seat as the law prescribed. Thereupon Cleonnis spoke first and addressed them with the following words:
§ 8.12.6 "Only a brief speech is necessary regarding the meed of valour, since the judges are men who themselves have witnessed the exploits of each of us; and I need only to remind you that, as we both fought against the same foemen on this single occasion and in this single place, it was I who killed the greater number. It is obvious, therefore, that he who, under identical circumstances, was first in the number of foemen he slew is also first in his just claim to the meed of valour.
§ 8.12.7 Furthermore, the bodies of the two of us supply the most manifest proofs where is the superiority, for the one came out of the battle covered with wounds which are in front, while the other, returning as from a festive gathering and not from so fierce a pitched battle as that was, did not experience the might of an enemy's sword.
§ 8.12.8 More fortunate Aristomenes may well be, but he may not justly be judged to be the braver of us two. For it is manifest that the man who endured such lacerations of his body offered himself unsparingly for his fatherland; whereas the man who, in close grips with the enemy and amidst such perils, kept himself unwounded was able to do that only because he shunned hurt to his person.
§ 8.12.9 And so it would be absurd if, before judges who have themselves witnessed the battle, that man shall have the preference who slew a smaller number of the foe and exposed his own body to less danger, before the man who holds first place on both these counts. Furthermore, his carrying a body all worn out by its wounds, and when no further peril threatens, is no indication of bravery, though it does perhaps betoken strength of body. What I have said to you is sufficient; for the contest which you are to decide is one, not of words, but of deeds."
§ 8.12.10 It was now the turn of Aristomenes to speak, and he addressed the judges as follows: "I am astonished that the man who has been saved thinks to strive with his saviour for the meed of valour; for the necessary conclusion is, either that he charges the judges with folly, or that he thinks that the decision will be rendered on the basis of the words spoken now, not of the deeds done then. But it will be shown that Cleonnis is not only inferior to me in bravery, but wholly ungrateful as well. For, omitting to recount his own brave achievements, he set about disparaging my deeds, thrown showing himself to be more grasping for honour than is juts; for from the man to whom he owed the greatest gratitude for saving his life, from him he in his envy has taken away the praise earned by his own noble deeds. I am ready to concede that in the perils encountered in the battle I was fortunate, but I maintain that I showed myself his superior in bravery. If, indeed, I had come off unwounded because I avoided the onslaught of the foe, it would have been more fitting for me to call myself, not fortunate, but cowardly, and not even to plead for the meed of valour, but to have suffered the punishments prescribed by the law. However, since it was while fighting in the front of battle and slaying those who opposed me that I did not suffer what I inflicted on others, the necessary conclusion is that I was not only fortunate but also brave. For if the enemy, in terror, did not dare to face my valour, then am I, whom they feared, deserving of great praise; or else, if they fought with spirit, and yet I slaughtered them as they came on, taking thought at the same time for my body, then am I both courageous and cunning. For the man who, while fighting desperately, meets the threatening danger with calm mind, has a double claim to bravery, that of body and that of soul. And yet these just claims of mine I should plead against other men who are better than my opponent. For when I carried the disabled Cleonnis from the scene of battle to the city, keeping my arms the while, he himself, in my judgment, had acknowledged the justice of my claim. Yet quite possibly, if I had paid no attention to him at that time, he would not now be striving with me for the meed of valour, nor would he be disparaging that great kindness I showed him, by claiming that the great deed I performed was nothing, because by that time the enemy had withdrawn from the field. Who, indeed, does not know that many times armies which have left the battle-field have made it their practice to wheel about and renew the attack, and to win the victory by the use of strategy of this kind? But I have said enough; for I cannot think you have need of further words." 16 After these speeches the judges with one accord gave their votes for Aristomenes.
§ 8.13.1 The Lacedemonians recovered their zeal; for if men have practised manly virtue and bravery from their youth, even though some turn of fortune has humbled them, yet a brief speech will recall them to their sense of duty. On the other hand the Messenians were not second to them in their zeal; nay rather, confiding in their own valour . . .
§ 8.13.2 Since the Lacedemonians were being worsted by the Messenians, they sent to inquire of Delphi. And the priestess made answer to them: 'Tis not alone the deeds of battle thou Shouldst ply at Phoebus' order. Guile it is Whereby the folk doth hold Messene's land, And by the same device as it was gained Shall it be won. The thought is that it is not alone by deeds of strength but by those of craft as well . . .
§ 8.14.1 Pompilius, the Roman king, lived at peace for his entire life. And certain writers state that he was a pupil of Pythagoras, and that he received from him the ordinances he laid down regarding the worship of the gods and was instructed in many other matters; and it was because of this that he became a man of renown and was summoned by the Romans to be their king.
§ 8.15.1 It is not within our power, much as we may wish it, to honour the deity in a worthy manner. Consequently, if we were not ready, according to our ability, to show ourselves grateful, what hope should we have of the life to come, seeing that we transgress against those whom evil-doers may neither elude nor escape? For, to sum up all, it is evident that, with respect to those in whose power are both unending reward and unending punishment, we should see to it that their anger is not aroused and that their favour is everlasting. —
§ 8.15.2 For so great is the difference between the life of the impious and the life of the pious, that though both expect of the deity the fulfilment of their prayers, the former expect the fulfilment of their own, the latter those of their enemies. . . .
§ 8.15.3 In fine, if we give aid to enemies when they flee for refuge to altars, and if we pledge with oaths to hostile foes that we will do them no wrong, what sort of zeal should we show towards the gods themselves, who show kindnesses to the pious not only in this life, but also after death, and who, if we place confidence in the Mysteries, also have ready for them a happy existence and good fame for all eternity? Consequently there is nothing in this life about which we should be so in earnest as concerning the honour due to the gods.
§ 8.15.4 Our conclusion is that bravery and justice and all the other virtues of mankind the other animals also have acquired, but that reverence for the deity in so far transcends all the other virtues as the gods themselves are in all respects superior to mortals.
§ 8.15.5 While reverence for the deity is a desirable thing for men in private life, far more is it appropriate to states; for states, by reason of their nearer approach to immortality, enjoy a nature akin to that of the gods and, in the considerable length of time they endure, they may expect the reward they merit — sovereignty as the reward for reverence, punishment for slighting the divinity.
§ 8.16.1 Deioces, the king of the Medes, despite the great lawlessness which prevailed, practised justice and the other virtues.
§ 8.17.1 Myscellus, an Achaean by birth, went from Rhype to Delphi and inquired of the god concerning the begetting of children. And the Pythia gave him the following answer: Myscellus, too short of back, beloved art thou
Of him, even Apollo, who works afar, And he will give thee children; yet this first
Is his command, Croton the great to found
Amidst fair fields.
And since he did not understand the reference to Croton, the Pythian priestess gave answer a second time: To thee the Far-darter in person now doth speak, And give thou heed. Here lieth the Taphian land, Untouched by plow, and Chalcis there, and there
The home of the Curetes, sacred soil, And there the isles of the Echinades: And on the islands' left a mighty sea. This way thou can'st not miss the Lacinian Head,
Nor sacred Crimise, nor Aesarus' stream.
§ 8.17.2 Although the oracle thus commanded Myscellus to found Croton, he, because of his admiration of the territory of Sybaris, wished to found a city there; whereupon the following oracle was delivered to him. Myscellus, too short of back, in searching things Other than god commands, thou seekest naught But tears. Approve the gift the god doth give.
§ 8.18.1 The Sybarites are slaves to their belly and lovers of luxury. And so great was their devotion to luxury that of the peoples elsewhere their preference was above all for the Ionians and the Tyrrhenians, because they found that the former surpassed the other Greeks, and the latter the other barbarians, in the extravagance of their manner of life.
§ 8.18.2 We are told that a wealthy Sybarite, on hearing some persons say that man had suffered a rupture at the sight of some men working, begged the speaker not to be astounded at that. "For I," he said, "at the mere hearing of it, have suffered a stitch in my side." Of another Sybarite it is told that he remarked after a visit to Sparta that he used to wonder at the bravery of the Spartans, but that now, after witnessing what a frugal and utterly miserable life they led, he could only conclude that they were no better than the lowest of men. "For the most cowardly Sybarite," he said, "would choose to die thrice rather than to endure a life like theirs." The man among them who, we are told, indulged in the greatest luxury was known as Mindyrides.
§ 8.19.1 Mindyrides, men say, surpassed the other Sybarites in luxury. For when Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sikyon, after winning the chariot-race made proclamation that any who purposed to marry his daughter, who was considered a girl of surpassing beauty, should gather at his home, Mindyrides, we are told, set sail from Sybaris in a ship of fifty oars, the rowers being slaves of his own household, some of them fishermen and others fowlers.
§ 8.19.2 And upon his arrival in Sikyon he surpassed, in the equipage his fortune afforded him, not only the rival suitors but also the tyrant himself, although the whole city was participating eagerly in the occasion. And at the dinner which was held after his arrival, when a certain man approached Mindyrides to recline beside him at the table, the latter remarked that he was here in accordance with the proclamation and intended to recline either with the lady or by himself.
§ 8.20.1 The Milesians lived in luxury. And we are told that a Sybarite who had paid them a visit, after he returned to his native city remarked, among other things which he recounted to his fellow-citizens, that in his absence from home he had seen but one free city and that was the city of the Milesians.
§ 8.21.1 The Epeunactae had agreed with Phalanthus that they would rise in revolt in the market-place, as soon as Phalanthus, in full armour, would pull his helmet over his forehead; but a certain man disclosed to the ephors what was going to take place. The majority of the ephors believed that they should put Phalanthus to death, but Agathiadas, who had become a lover of his, stated that if they did this they would plunge Sparta into the greatest civil strife, in which, if they were victorious, they would win a profitless victory, and, if they lost, they would duty destroy their fatherland.
§ 8.21.2 He gave as advice, therefore, that the herald should publicly proclaim that Phalanthus should let his helmet rest as it was. This was done, and the Partheniae gave up the undertaking and began to seek a reconciliation.
§ 8.21.3 The Epeunactae sent envoys to Delphi and inquired of the god if he would give them the territory of Sikyon. And the priestess replied: Fair is the plain 'twixt Corinth and Sikyon; But not a home for thee, though thou wert clad Throughout in bronze. Mark thou Satyrion And Taras' gleaming flood, the harbour on The left, and where the goat catches with joy The salt smell of the sea, wetting the tip Of his gray beard. There build thou Taras firm Within Satyrion's land. When they heard this reply they could not understand it; whereupon the priestess spoke more plainly: Satyrion is my gift to thee wherein To dwell, and the fat land of Taras too, A bane to be to the Iapygian folk.
§ 8.22.1 Hippomenes, the Athenian archon, exacted of his daughter, who had been violated by an unknown person, a punishment which was cruel and extraordinary. He shut her up together with a horse in a small stall, and by keeping the beast without food for some days he forced it, through hunger, to eat the body of the girl who had been thrown to it.
§ 8.23.1 Antiphemus and Entimus, who founded Gela, made inquiry of the Pythian priestess, who gave them the following answer: Entimus and thou, illustrious Craton's son Sagacious, fare ye two forth to Sicele, On her fair soil to dwell, where ye shall build A city, home for men of Crete and Rhodes, E'en Gela, at that sacred river's mouth Whose name it too shall bear.
§ 8.23.2 The Chalcidians, a tenth of whom had been dedicated to Apollo, came to the god to inquire about sending forth a colony, and they received the reply: Where Apsia, most sacred river, falls Into the sea, and as one enters it The female weds the male, a city found Thou there, the land of Auson is thy gift. And they, finding on the banks of the river Apsia a grape-vine entwined about a wild fig-tree, founded there a city.
§ 8.23.3 As he passed by he cried with a loud voice, "Is there anyone who is ready to win immortal glory in exchange for a mortal life Who will be the first to say, 'I give my life for the safety of the commonwealth?'"
§ 8.23.4 Once a worthless fellow, meeting a man on his way to the countryside, asked him whether there was anything unusual taking place in the city. And the fellow was fined by the Locrian magistrates, so intent were they upon the maintenance of justice.
§ 8.24.1 The inhabitants of Sikyon received from the Pythian priestess the oracle that they would be "governed by the scourge" for one hundred years. And when they inquired further who would ply the scourge, she answered the second time that it would be the first man to whom they should hear, after they put ashore, a son had been born. Now it so happened that a cook by the name of Andreas had accompanied the envoys, to have charge of the sacrifices. He was a hired servant of the magistrates, charged with bearing the scourges.
§ 8.25.1 While Tullus Hostilius was king of the Romans, the Albans, viewing with suspicion the rising power of the Romans and wishing to humble them, claimed that the Romans had robbed their territory and sent ambassadors to Rome to demand justice, and, in case the Romans should give them no heed, to declare war.
§ 8.25.2 But Hostilius, the Roman king, learning that the Albans were only seeking a pretext for war, gave orders that his friends should receive the ambassadors and invite them to be their guests; while as for himself, avoiding any meeting with the ambassadors, he sent men to the Albans to make similar demands of them.
§ 8.25.3 This he did in pursuance of an ancient custom, because men of ancient times were concerned about nothing else so much as that the wars they waged should be just ones; for he was cautious lest, if he were unable to discover the men responsible for the robbery and to hand them over to those who demanded them, it should be thought that he was entering upon an unjust war.
§ 8.25.4 But by good fortune his ambassadors to Alba were the first to be refused justice, and they therefore declared war for the thirtieth day following. And the ambassadors of the Albans, therefore, when they presented their demands, received the answer that, since the Albans had been the first to refuse justice, the Romans had declared war upon them. Such, then, was the reason why these two peoples, who enjoyed mutual rights of marriage and of friendship, got at variance with each other.
§ 8.26.1 In former times the Romans, who were by origin Latins, never waged war upon a people without formal announcement; but they would first hurl a spear, as a signal, into the territory of the opposing people, the spear denoting the beginning of the hostilities. After doing this they commenced war upon the people. This is what Diodorus says, as well as every other writer on Latin affairs.
§ 8.27.1 The Spartans, having suffered defeat at the hands of the Messenians, sent to Delphi and asked the god for advice concerning the war. And they were told to get a commander from the Athenians.
§ 8.27.2 The Lacedemonians, under the inspiration of Tyrtaeus, became so eager for battle that, when about to enter the conflict, they wrote their names on little sticks which they fastened to their arms, in order that, if they died, they would not be unidentified by their kinsmen. So ready were they to accept gladly an honourable death, if victory were beyond their grasp.
§ 8.28.1 Terpander, who sang to the cithara, was a native of Methymna. And once, when the Lacedemonians were embroiled in civil strife, an oracle came to them, that they would again be reconciled among themselves if Terpander of Methymna should sing to them to the accompaniment of the cithara. And Terpander did in fact so sing a song to them with an artist's skill, and by his harmonious lay, as Diodorus writes, brought harmony again into their midst. In fact they were entirely changed, and fell to embracing and tearfully kissing one another.
§ 8.29.1 Aristotle, who was also called Battus, wishing to found the city of Cyrene, received an oracle to the following effect: O Battus, thou did'st come about a voice; But Phoebus, even Lord Apollo, sends Thee forth to fair-crowned Libya, there to rule O'er broad Cyrene and enjoy the place Reserved to kings. Barbarian warriors there, Clad in the skins of beasts, will rush against Thee, when thou settest foot on Libyan soil. But pray to Cronus' son, to Pallas who Stirs up the fight, of flashing eyes, withal To Phoebus, ever-young, the son of Zeus, And in thy hand shall lie the victory. And over fair-crowned Libya shalt thou rule Blessed, thou and thy house: Thy guide thereto Is Phoebus Apollo.
§ 8.29.2 For envy by its nature lies in wait for success, and therefore works the destruction of those who are pre-eminent in fame.
§ 8.30.1 Arcesilaus, the king of the Cyrenians, bitterly complaining of his misfortunes, made inquiry of Delphi, and received this reply: The gods were wroth; for the later kings were not ruling after the manner of Battus, the first king. For Battus had contented himself with the appellation alone of king, and had been an equitable ruler, friendly to the people, maintaining the while — the important thing — the honours due to the gods. But the rule of the later kings had taken on more and more the character of tyranny, and they had appropriated to themselves the public revenues and had neglected reverence toward the deity.
§ 8.30.2 For the civil strife which arose among the Cyrenians an arbitrator appeared in the person of Demonax of Mantinea, who was considered to be a man of unusual sagacity and justice. Accordingly he sailed to Cyrene, and receiving from all the stewardship of public affairs, he reconciled the cities on the following conditions.
§ 8.31.1 Lucius Tarquinius, the king of the Romans, received a careful rearing, and since he proved to be an eager seeker after knowledge, his virtue made him the object of no little admiration. For when he had attained to manhood, he became associated with the Roman king Ancus Marcius, grew to be a most intimate friend of his, and aided the king in the administration of many affairs of the kingdom. And growing very wealthy, he aided by gifts of money many who were in need, and mingling as he did in friendly fashion with all men, he lived without reproach and was famed for his wisdom.
§ 8.32.1 The Locrians sent to Sparta asking her aid in war. The Lacedemonians, however, hearing of the great military strength of the inhabitants of Croton, replied, as if responding in a perfunctory manner, and as though the Locrians could be saved only in the way they suggested, that they were giving the Locrians for allies the sons of Tyndareus. And the ambassadors, whether under the guidance of the providence of God or because they took the reply as an omen, accepted the aid they proffered, and after they had received favourable signs in a sacrifice, they prepared a couch on their ship for the Dioscori and sailed back to their native land. 3 How (he asked) will the fathers who have accompanied them feel when they, seeing their sons suffering unspeakable torment at the hands of the barbarians, can bring them no aid, and all they can do is to tear their grey hair and make lament to the deaf ears of Fate?
§ 9.1.1 Solon was the son of Execestides and his family was of Salamis in Attica; and in wisdom and learning he surpassed all the men of his time. Being by nature far superior as regards virtue to the rest of men, he cultivated assiduously a virtue that wins applause; for he devoted much time to every branch of knowledge and became practised in every kind of virtue. [2] While still a youth, for instance, he availed himself of the best teachers, and when he attained to manhood he spent his time in the company of the men who enjoyed the greatest influence for their pursuit of wisdom. As a consequence, by reason of his companionship and association with men of this kind, he came to be called one of the Seven Wise Men and won for himself the highest rank in sagacity, not only among the men just mentioned, but also among all who were regarded with admiration. [3] The same Solon, who had acquired great fame by his legislation, also in his conversations and answers to questions as a private citizen became an object of wonder by reason of his attainments in learning. [4] The same Solon, although the city followed the whole Ionian manner of life and luxury and a carefree existence had made the inhabitants effeminate, worked a change in them by accustoming them to practise virtue and to emulate the deeds of virile folk. And it was because of this that Harmodius and Aristogeiton, their spirits equipped with the panoply of his legislation, made the attempt to destroy the rule of the Peisistratidae.
§ 9.2.1 Croesus, the king of the Lydians, who was possessed of great military forces and had purposely amassed a large amount of silver and gold, used to call to his court the wisest men from among the Greeks, spend some time in their company, and then send them away with many presents, he himself having been greatly aided thereby toward a life of virtue. And on one occasion he summoned Solon, and showing him his military forces and his wealth he asked him whether he thought there was any other man more blest than he. [2] And Solon replied, with the freedom of speech customary among lovers of wisdom, that no man while yet living was blest; for the man who waxes haughty over his prosperity and thinks that he has Fortune as his helpmeet does not know whether she will remain with him to the last. Consequently, he continued, we must look to the end of life, and only of the man who has continued until then to be fortunate may we properly say that he is blest. [3] And at a later time, when Croesus had been taken prisoner by Cyrus and was about to be burned upon a great pyre, he recalled the answer Solon had given him. And so, while the fire was already blazing about him, he kept continually calling the name of Solon. [4] And Cyrus sent men to find out the reason for his continual calling of the name of Solon; and on learning the cause Cyrus changed his purpose, and since he believed that Solon's reply was the truth, he ceased regarding Croesus with contempt, put out the burning pyre, saved the life of Croesus, and counted him henceforth as one of his friends. [5] Solon believed that the boxers and short-distance runners and all other athletes contributed nothing worth mentioning to the safety of states, but that only men who excel in prudence and virtue are able to protect their native lands in times of danger.
§ 9.3.1 When there was a dispute about the golden tripod, the Pythian priestess delivered the following oracle: [2] " Miletus' son, dost ask Apollo's will About the tripod? Who is first of all In wisdom, his the tripod is, I say. "But some writers have a different account, as follows: War had broken out among the Ionians, and when the tripod was brought up in their seine by some fishermen, they inquired of the god how they might end the war. And the priestess replied" Never shall cease the war twixt Meropes And Iones, until that golden stand Hephaestus worked with skill ye send away; And it shall come to that man's dwelling-place Who in his wisdom hath foreseen the things That are and likewise things that are to be. " [3] The Milesians, wishing to follow the injunction of the oracle, desired to award the prize to Thales of Miletus. But Thales said that he was not the wisest of all and advised them to send it to another and wiser man. And in this manner the other six of the Seven Wise Men likewise rejected the tripod, and it was given to Solon, who was thought to have surpassed all men in both wisdom and understanding. And Solon advised that it be dedicated to Apollo, since he was wiser than all of them.
§ 9.4.1 Solon, seeing toward the end of his life how Peisistratus, to please the masses, was playing the demagogue and was on the road to tyranny, tried at first by arguments to turn him from his intention; and when Peisistratus paid no attention to him, he once appeared in the Agora arrayed in full armour, although he was already a very old man. [2] And when the people, the sight being so incongruous, flocked to him, he called upon the citizens to seize their arms and at once make an end of the tyrant. But no man paid any attention to him, all of them concluding that he was mad and some declaring that he was in his dotage. Peisistratus, who had already gathered a guard of a few spearmen, came up to Solon and asked him, "Upon what resources do you rely that you wish to destroy my tyranny?" And when Solon replied, "Upon my old age," Peisistratus, in admiration of his common sense, did him no harm.
§ 9.5.1 The man who puts his hands to lawless and unjust deeds may never properly be considered wise.
§ 9.6.1 We are told that the Scythian Anacharsis, who took great pride in his wisdom, once came to Pytho and inquired of the oracle who of the Greeks was wiser than he. And the oracle replied:" A man of Oita, Myson, they report, Is more endowed than thou with prudent brains. "Myson was a Malian and had his home on Mt. Oita in a village called Chenae.
§ 9.7.1 Myson was a man of Malis who dwelt in a village called Chenae, and he spent his entire time in the country and was unknown to most men. He was included among the Seven Wise Men in the place of Periander of Corinth, who was rejected because he had turned into a harsh tyrant.
§ 9.8.1 Solon was curious to see the place where Myson spent his days, and found him at the threshing-floor fitting a handle to a plow. And to make trial of the man Solon said, "Now is not the season for the plow, Myson." "Not to use it," he replied, "but to make it ready."
§ 9.9.1 In the case of Chilon his life agreed with his teaching, a thing one rarely finds. As for the philosophers of our time, for instance, most of them are to be seen uttering the noblest sentiments, but following the basest practices, and the solemnity and sagacity expressed in their pronouncements are refuted when the speakers are put to the proof. But as for Chilon, not to mention the virtue which he displayed in every deed throughout his life, he thought out and expressed many precepts which are worthy of record.
§ 9.10.1 When Chilon came to Delphi he thought to dedicate to the god the firstlings, as it were, of his own wisdom, and engraved upon a column these three maxims: "Know thyself"; "Nothing overmuch"; and the third, "A pledge, and ruin is nigh." Each of these maxims, though short and laconic, displays deep reflection. [2] For the maxim "Know thyself" exhorts us to become educated and to get prudence, it being only by these means that a man may come to know himself, either because it is chiefly those who are uneducated and thoughtless that think themselves to be very sagacious — and that, according to Plato, is of all kinds of ignorance the worst — or because such people consider wicked men to be virtuous, and honest men, on the contrary, to be of no account; for only in this one way may a man know himself and his neighbour — by getting an education and a sagacity that are superior.
§ 9.10.3 Likewise, the maxim "Nothing overmuch" exhorts us to observe due measure in all things and not to make an irrevocable decision about any human affairs, as the Epidamnians once did. This people, who dwelt on the shores of the Adriatic, once quarrelled among themselves, and casting red-hot masses of iron right into the sea they swore an oath that they would never make up their mutual enmity until the masses of iron should be brought up hot out of the sea. And although they had sworn so severe an oath and had taken no thought of the admonition "Nothing overmuch," later under the compulsion of circumstances they put an end to their enmity, leaving the masses of iron to lie cold in the depths of the sea. [4] And as for the maxim "A pledge, and ruin is nigh," some have assumed that by it Chilon was advising against marriage; for among most Greek peoples the agreement to marry is also called a "pledge," and this is confirmed by the common experience of men in that the worst and most numerous ills of life are due to wives. But some writers say that such an interpretation is unworthy of Chilon, because if marriage were destroyed life could not continue, and that he declares that "ruin" is nigh to such pledges as those made in connection with contracts and with agreements on other matters, all of which are concerned with money. As Euripides says: "No pledge I give, observing well the loss Which those incur who of the pledge are fond; And writings there at Pytho say me nay."
§ 9.10.5 But some also say that it is not the meaning of Chilon nor is it the act of a good citizen, not to come to the aid of a friend when he needs help of this kind; but rather that he advises against strong asseverations, against eagerness in giving pledges, and against irrevocable decisions in human affairs, such as the Greeks once made in connection with their victory over Xerxes. For they took oath at Plataea that they would hand down enmity to the Persians as an inheritance even to their children's children, so long as the rivers run into the sea, as the race of men endures, and as the earth brings forth fruit; and yet, despite the binding pledge they had taken against fickle fortune, after a time they were sending ambassadors to Artaxerxes, Xerxes' son, to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance.
§ 9.10.6 Chilon's precepts, though brief, embrace the entire counsel necessary for the best life, since these pithy sayings of his are worth more than all the votive offerings set up in Delphi. The golden bricks of Croesus and other handiwork like them have vanished and were but great incentives to men who chose to lift impious hands against the sanctuary; but Chilon's maxims are kept alive for all time, stored up as they are in the souls of educated men and constituting the fairest treasure, on which neither Phocians nor Gauls would be quick to lay their hands.
§ 9.11.1 Pittacus of Mitylene was not only admired of men for his wisdom, but he was also such a citizen as the island never produced again, nor, in my opinion, could produce in time to come — not until it bears wine both more abundant and more delicious. For he was an excellent law-giver, in his dealings with individual citizens affable and kindly, and he freed his native land from the three greatest evils, from tyranny, civil strife, and war. [2] Pittacus was a man of consequence, gentle and inclined to self-disparagement. Consequently he was regarded by all as a man who, beyond dispute, was perfect in respect of every virtue: for as to his legislation, he showed himself statesmanlike and prudent, as to keeping his plighted faith strictly just, as to his distinction in armed combat, courageous, and as to his greatness of soul in the matter of lucre, having no trace of avarice.
§ 9.12.1 When the inhabitants of Mitylene offered to Pittacus the half of the land for which he had fought in single combat, he would not accept it, but arranged to assign to every man by lot an equal part, uttering the maxim, "The equal share is more than the greater." For in measuring "the greater" in terms of fair dealing, not of profit, he judged wisely; since he reasoned that equality would be followed by fame and security, but greediness by opprobrium and fear, which would speedily have taken away from him the people's gift. [2] Pittacus acted consistently with these principles toward Croesus also, when the latter offered him as much money from his treasury as Pittacus might desire to take. For on that occasion, we are told, in refusing the gift he said that he already had twice as much as he wished. And when Croesus expressed his surprise at the man's freedom from avarice and inquired of him the meaning of his reply, Pittacus said, "My brother died childless and I inherited his estate, which was the equal of my own, and I have experienced no pleasure in having received the extra amount." [3] The poet Alcaeus, who had been a most confirmed enemy of Pittacus and had reviled him most bitterly in his poems, once fell into his hands, but Pittacus let him go free, uttering the maxim: "Forgiveness is preferable to punishment."ConstExc.4, p.285.
§ 9.13.1 The inhabitants of Priene recount that Bias ransomed from robbers some maidens of distinguished families of Messenia and reared them in honour, as if they were his own daughters. And after some time, when their kinsfolk came in search of them, he gave the maidens over to them, asking for neither the cost of their rearing nor the price of their ransom, but on the contrary giving them many presents from his own possessions. The maidens, therefore, loved him as a father, both because they had lived in his home and because he had done so much for them, so that, even when they had departed together with their own families to their native land, they did not forget the kindness they had received in a foreign country. [2] Some Messenian fishermen, when casting their net, brought up nothing at all except a brazen tripod, which bore the inscription, "To the wisest." And they took the tripod out of the sea and gave it to Bias. [3] Bias was a most able speaker, and surpassed in this respect all his contemporaries. But he used his great eloquence far otherwise than do many men; for he employed it, not to gain fees or income, but to give aid to those who were being wronged. Rarely indeed is a thing like this to be found.
§ 9.14.1 It is no great thing to possess strength, whatever kind it is, but to use it as one should. For of what advantage to Milo of Croton was his enormous strength of body? [2] The death of Polydamas, the Thessalian, when he was crushed by the rocks, made clear to all men how precarious it is to have great strength but little sense.
§ 9.15.1 This Polydamas was of the city of Scotussa, and he used to slay lions with his bare hands as if they were sheep and easily outstrip swift-running chariots with winged feet. He also endeavoured to support with his hand the crumbling roof of a cave, as Diodorus the Sicilian recounts the story.
§ 9.16.1 After the people of Cirrha had been besieged for a long time because they had attempted to plunder the oracle, some of the Greeks returned to their native cities, but others of them inquired of the Pythian priestess and received the following response:" Ye shall not seize and lay in ruins the tower Of yonder city, before the plashing wave Of dark-eyed Amphitrite inundates My sacred precinct, here on these holy cliffs. "
§ 9.17.1 It should be known that Solon lived in Athens in the period of the tyrants before the Persian wars, and that Draco lived forty-seven years before him, as Diodorus says.
§ 9.18.1 The sculptor Perilaus made a brazen bull for Phalaris the tyrant to use in punishing his own people, but he was himself the first to make trial of that terrible form of punishment. For, in general, those who plan an evil thing aimed at others are usually snared in their own devices.
§ 9.19.1 This Phalaris burned to death Perilaus, the well-known Attic worker in bronze, in the brazen bull. Perilaus had fashioned in bronze the contrivance of the bull, making small sounding pipes in the nostrils and fitting a door for an opening in the bull's side and this bull he brings as a present to Phalaris. And Phalaris welcomes the man with presents and gives orders that the contrivance be dedicated to the gods. Then that worker in bronze opens the side, the evil device of treachery, and says with inhuman savagery, "If you ever wish to punish some man, O Phalaris, shut him up within the bull and lay a fire beneath it; by his groanings the bull will be thought to bellow and his cries of pain will give you pleasure as they come through the pipes in the nostrils." When Phalaris learned of this scheme, he was filled with loathing of the man and says, "Come then, Perilaus, do you be the first to illustrate this; imitate those who will play the pipes and make clear to me the working of your device." And as soon as Perilaus had crept in, to give an example, so he thought, of the sound of the pipes, Phalaris closes up the bull and heaps fire under it. But in order that the man's death might not pollute the work of bronze, he took him out, when half-dead, and hurled him down the cliffs. This tale about the bull is recounted by Lucian of Syria, by Diodorus, by Pindar, and countless others beside them.
§ 9.20.1 Solon the law-giver once entered the assembly and urged the Athenians to overthrow the tyranny before it became all-powerful. And when no man paid attention to him, he put on his full armour and appeared in the Agora, although an old man, and calling upon the gods as witnesses he declared that by word and deed, so far as in him lay, he had brought aid to the fatherland when it was in peril. But since the populace did not perceive the design of Peisistratus, it turned out that Solon, though he spoke the truth, was disregarded.
§ 9.20.2 And it is said that Solon also predicted the approaching tyranny to the Athenians in elegiac verse: "From cloud is born the might of snow and hail And from bright lightning's flash the thunder comes. And from great men a city finds its doom; The people in their ignorance have bowed In slavery to a monarch's single rule. For him who puts too far from shore 'tis hard The harbour later on to make; but now At once one needs must think of everything."
§ 9.20.3 And later, when the tyranny was already established, he said:" If now you suffer grievous things because Of your own cowardice, charge not this fate Unto the gods' account; for you yourselves Exalted these men's power by giving them A guard, and on this count have you put on The yoke of evil slavery. Each by each With fox's steps you move, but meeting all Together trifling judgement do you show. For to man's tongue and shifty word you look, But to the deed he does you ne'er give heed."
§ 9.20.4 Peisistratus urged Solon to hold his peace and to share with him in the advantages arising from the tyranny. And when he could find no means to change Solon's purpose, but saw in fact that he was ever more and more aroused and steadfastly threatening to bring him to punishment, he asked him upon what resources he relied in his opposition to his designs. And we are told that Solon replied, "Upon my old age." [Herodotus, who lived in the time of Xerxes, gives this account: After the Assyrians had ruled Asia for five hundred years they were conquered by the Medes, and thereafter no king arose for many generations to lay claim to supreme power, but the city-states, enjoying a regimen of their own, were administered in a democratic fashion; finally, however, after many years a man distinguished for his justice, named Cyaxares, was chosen king among the Medes. He was the first to try to attach to himself the neighbouring peoples and became for the Medes the founder of their universal empire; and after him each of his successive descendants extended the kingdom by adding a great deal of the adjoining country, until the reign of Astyages, who was conquered by Cyrus and the Persians. We have for the present given only the most important of these events in summary and shall later give a detailed account of them one by one when we come to the periods in which they fall; for it was in the second year of the Seventeenth Olympiad, according to Herodotus, that Cyaxares was chosen king of the Medes.]. [When Astibaras, the king of the Medes, died of old age in Ecbatana, his son Aspandas, whom the Greeks call Astyages, succeeded to the throne. And when he had been defeated by Cyrus the Persian, the kingdom passed to the Persians. Of them we shall give a detailed and exact account at the proper time.]
§ 9.21.1 Cyrus became king of the Persians in the opening year of the Fifty-fifth Olympiad, as may be found in the Library of Diodorus and in the histories of Thallus and Castor and Polybius and Phlegon and all others who have used the reckoning by Olympiads. For all these writers agree as to the date.
§ 9.22.1 Cyrus, the son of Cambyses and Mandane, the daughter of Astyages who was king of the Medes, was pre-eminent among the men of his time in bravery and sagacity and the other virtues; for his father had reared him after the manner of kings and had made him zealous to emulate the highest achievements. And it was clear that he would take hold of great affairs, since he revealed an excellence beyond his years.
§ 9.23.1 When Astyages, the king of the Medes, had been defeated and was in disgraceful flight, he vented his wrath upon his soldiers; and he displaced all who had been assigned positions of command, appointing others in their stead, and he picked out all who were responsible for the flight and put them to the sword, thinking that by punishing them in that way he could force the rest to show themselves brave fighters in times of danger, since he was a cruel man and, by nature, hard. Nevertheless, the people were not dismayed at the harsh treatment he meted out; on the contrary, every man, hating his violent and lawless manner, yearned for a change of affairs. Consequently there were gatherings of small groups and seditious conversations, the larger number exhorting one another to take vengeance on him.
§ 9.24.1 Cyrus, we are told, was not only a courageous man in war, but he was also considerate and humane in his treatment of his subjects. And it was for this reason that the Persians called him Father.
§ 9.25.1 Croesus was once building ships of war, we are told, with the intention of making a campaign against the islands. And Bias, or Pittacus, who happened to be visiting Lydia at the time and was observing the building of the ships, was asked by the king whether he had heard of any news among the Greeks. And when he was given the reply that all the islanders were collecting horses and were planning a campaign against the Lydians, Croesus is said to have exclaimed, "Would that some one could persuade the islanders to fight against the Lydians on horseback!" For the Lydians are skilled horsemen and Croesus believed that they would come off victorious on land.
§ 9.25.2 Whereupon Pittacus, or Bias, answered him, "Well, you say that the Lydians, who live on the mainland, would be eager to catch islanders on the land; but do you not suppose that those who live on the islands have prayed the gods that they may catch Lydians on the sea, in order that, in return for the evils which have befallen the Greeks on the mainland, they may avenge themselves at sea on the man who has enslaved their kinsmen?" Croesus, in admiration of this reply, changed his purpose at once and stopped building the ships.
§ 9.26.2 Croesus used to send for the most distinguished wise men from Greece, to display to them the magnitude of his felicity, and would honour with rich gifts those who lauded his good fortune. And he also sent for Solon as well as for such others as enjoyed the greatest fame for their love of wisdom, wishing to have the witness of these men set the seal of approval upon his own felicity.
§ 9.26.1 And there came to him Anacharsis the Scythian and Bias and Solon and Pittacus, to whom he showed the highest honour at banquets and at his council, and he displayed his wealth before them and the magnitude of his own power.
§ 9.26.3 Now in those days men of learning sought brevity of speech. And Croesus, after he had displayed to the men the felicity of his kingdom and the multitude of the peoples subject to him, asked Anacharsis, who was older than the other men of wisdom, "Whom do you consider to be the bravest of living beings?" He replied, "The wildest animals; for they alone willingly die in order to maintain their freedom."
§ 9.26.4 And Croesus, believing that he had erred in his reply, and that a second time he would give an answer to please him, asked him, "Whom do you judge to be the most just of living beings?" And Anacharsis again answered, "The wildest animals; for they alone live in accordance with nature, not in accordance with laws; since nature is a work of God, while law is an ordinance of man, and it is more just to follow the institutions of God than those of men."
§ 9.26.5 Then Croesus, wishing to make Anacharsis appear ridiculous, inquired of him, "And are the beasts, then, also the wisest?" And Anacharsis agreed that they were, adding this explanation: "The peculiar characteristic of wisdom consists in showing a greater respect to the truth which nature imparts than to the ordinance of the law." And Croesus laughed at him and the answers he had given, as those of one coming from Scythia and from a bestial manner of living.
§ 9.27.1 And Croesus asked Solon who of all living beings he had seen enjoyed the most felicitous life, thinking that Solon would by all means concede this distinction to him. But Solon replied, "I cannot justly apply this term to anyone, since I have not seen the end of life of anyone still living; for until that time no one may properly be considered to be blest. For it often happens that those who have been regarded before then as blest of Fortune all their lives have at the very close of their lives fallen upon the greatest misfortunes." [2] The king then said, "Do you not judge me to be the wealthiest?" And Solon made the same reply, explaining that not those who have the greatest possessions, but those who consider wisdom to be the most valuable of all possessions, are to be regarded as the wealthiest; and that wisdom, seeing that there is nothing which can be balanced against it, confers upon those who value it highly, and upon them alone, a wealth which is the greatest and most secure.
§ 9.27.3 Croesus then asked Bias whether, in his opinion, Solon had answered correctly or had erred. And he replied, "Correctly; for he wishes to make his decision after he has seen the possessions you have in yourself, whereas up to now he has seen only the possessions which lie about you; and it is through the former, not the latter, that men have felicity." The king said, "But even if you do not give first honour to wealth in gold, at least you see my friends, so great a multitude as no other man possesses." But Bias answered, "Even the number of friends is uncertain because of your good fortune." [4] And Croesus, we are told, asked Pittacus, "What is the best form of government you have seen?" And he replied, "That of the painted wood," referring to the laws.
§ 9.28.1 Aesop flourished in the same period of time as the Seven Wise Men, and he remarked once, "These men do not know how to act in the company of a ruler; for a man should associate with rulers either as little as possible, or with the best grace possible."
§ 9.29.1 Adrastus, a man of Phrygia, while out hunting with Atys, as he was called, the son of the Lydian king, Croesus, unwittingly struck and killed the boy while hurling his spear at a boar. And although he had slain the boy unwittingly, he declared that he did not deserve to live; consequently he urged the king not to spare his life, but to slay him at once upon the tomb of the dead youth. [2] Croesus at first was enraged at Adrastus for the murder, as he considered it, of his son, and threatened to burn him alive; but when he saw that Adrastus was ready and willing to give his life in punishment for the dead boy, he thereupon abandoned his anger and gave up his thought of punishing the slayer, laying the blame upon his own fortune and not upon the intent of Adrastus. Nevertheless Adrastus, on his own initiative, went to the tomb of Atys and slew himself upon it.
§ 9.30.1 Phalaris, seeing a multitude of doves being pursued by a single hawk, remarked, "Do you observe, sirs, how fear will make so great a multitude flee before a single pursuer? And yet if they should summon the courage to turn about, they would easily overcome their pursuer." (But it was Phalaris himself who was falsifying; for the victory was won by courage and not by superiority of numbers.) And as a result of this speech Phalaris lost his dominion, as it is recorded in the section "On the Succession of Kings."
§ 9.31.1 When Croesus was taking the field against Cyrus the Persian, he made inquiry of the oracle. And the answer ran:" If Croesus crosses Halys, a mighty realm Will he destroy. "He received and interpreted the ambiguous answer of the oracle in the light of his own purpose and so came to grief. [2] Croesus inquired a second time whether he was to enjoy a rule of long duration. And the oracle spoke the following verses:" The day a mule becomes the king of Medes, Then, tender-footed Lydian, do thou flee Along the pebbly bed of Hermus, nor Abide, nor be ashamed a coward to be. "By a "mule" Cyrus was meant, because his mother was a Mede and his father a Persian.
§ 9.31.3 Cyrus, the king of the Persians, appeared with all his host at the passes of Cappadocia and sent messengers to Croesus both to spy out his power and to declare to him that Cyrus would forgive his previous misdeeds and appoint him satrap of Lydia, provided he presented himself at Cyrus' court and acknowledged, as others did, that he was his slave. But Croesus answered the messengers that it would be more fitting if Cyrus and the Persians should submit to be the slaves of Croesus, reminding them that theretofore they had been slaves of the Medes and that he had never yet taken orders from another.
§ 9.32.1 Croesus, the king of the Lydians, under the guise of sending to Delphi, dispatched Eurybatus of Ephesus to the Peloponnesus, having given him money with which to recruit as many mercenaries as he could from among the Greeks. But this agent of Croesus went over to Cyrus the Persian and revealed everything to him. Consequently the wickedness of Eurybatus became a by-word among the Greeks, and to this day whenever a man wishes to cast another's knavery in his teeth he calls him a Eurybatus.
§ 9.33.1 Although evil men may avoid for the moment punishment at the hands of those whom they have wronged, yet the evil report of them is preserved for all time and punishes them so far as possible even after death. [2] We are told that Croesus, on the eve of his war with Cyrus, dispatched ambassadors to Delphi to inquire by what means it would be possible for his son to speak; and that the Pythian priestess replied:" O thou of Lydian stock, o'er many king, Thou great fool Croesus, never wish to hear Within thy halls the much-desired sound Of thy son speaking. Better far for thee That he remain apart; for the first words He speaks shall be upon a luckless day."
§ 9.33.3 A man should bear good fortune with moderation and not put his trust in the successes such as fall to human beings, since they can take a great shift with a slight turn of the scale. [4] After Croesus had been taken prisoner and the pyre had been quenched, when he observed that the city was being plundered and that much silver and gold, besides everything else, were being carried off, he asked Cyrus, "What are the soldiers doing?" Cyrus laughingly replied, "They are making plunder of your wealth"; whereupon Croesus said, "Not so, by Zeus, but of yours; for Croesus has no longer a thing of his own." And Cyrus, impressed by his words, at once changed his purpose, and putting a stop to the plundering of the soldiers he took the possessions of the inhabitants of Sardis for the Royal Treasury.
§ 9.34.1 Cyrus, believing Croesus to be a pious man because a rainstorm had burst forth and quenched the flame, and calling to mind the reply of Solon, kept Croesus at his side in a position of honour. He gave him a place also in his council, believing him to be a person of sagacity by reason of his having associated with many men of learning and wisdom.
§ 9.35.1 Harpagus had been appointed commander on the sea by Cyrus the Persian, and when the Greeks of Asia sent an embassy to Cyrus for the purpose of making a treaty of friendship with him, Harpagus remarked to them that what they were doing was very much like a former experience of his own. [2] Once when he wished to marry he had asked a girl's father for the hand of his daughter. At first, however, her father decided that he was not worthy to marry his daughter and betrothed her to a man of higher position, but later, observing that Harpagus was being honoured by the king, he offered him his daughter; but he replied that he would no longer have her as his wife, but would consent to take her as a concubine.
§ 9.35.3 By such words he pointed out to the Greeks that formerly, when Cyrus had urged them to become friends of the Persians, they had been unwilling, but now, after matters had taken a different turn and they were anxious to agree upon relations of friendship, Cyrus would make no terms with them as with allies, but he would receive them as slaves if they would throw themselves upon the good-faith of the Persians.
§ 9.36.1 When the Lacedemonians learned that the Greeks of Asia were in peril, they sent a message to Cyrus stating that the Lacedemonians, being kinsmen of the Greeks of Asia, forbade him to enslave the Greek cities. And Cyrus, marvelling at such words, remarked that he would judge of their valour when he should send one of his own slaves to subdue Greece. [2] When the Lacedemonians were setting out to conquer Arcadia, they received the following oracle:" Arcadia dost thou demand of me? A high demand, nor will I give it thee. For many warriors, acorn-eaters all, Dwell in Arcadia, and they will ward Thee off. Yet for my part I grudge thee not. Tegea's land, smitten with tripping feet, I'll give to thee, wherein to dance and plot The fertile plain with measuring-line for tilth."
§ 9.36.3 The Lacedemonians sent to Delphi to inquire in what place the bones of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, were buried. And the oracle replied in this wise:" A certain Tegea there is of Arcady In a smooth and level plain, where two winds blow Before a stern necessity, to stroke Comes answering stroke, and bane is heaped on bane. There the life-giving earth holds fast the son Of Agamemnon; bring thou him thence and then The overlord of Tegea thou shalt be. "It was a smithy that was referred to, and the oracle means by the two winds the bellows, signifying by "stroke" the anvil and the hammers, and by "bane heaped on bane," the iron upon iron; for iron is called a "bane" because the discovery of it has worked to the hurt of mankind. [4] It is better to die, than to live and witness yourself and your kinsmen meeting misfortune as bad as death.
§ 9.37.1 Once when the daughter of Peisistratus was carrying the sacred basket in procession and she was thought to excel all others in beauty, a young man stepped up and with a superior air kissed the maiden. The girl's brothers, on learning what had been done, were incensed at the youth's insolence, and leading him to their father they demanded that he be punished. But Peisistratus laughingly said, "What shall we do then to those who hate us, if we heap punishments on those who love us?"
§ 9.37.2 Once when Peisistratus was journeying through the country he saw a man on the slopes of Hymettus working in a field where the soil was exceedingly thin and stony. And wondering at the man's zeal for the work, he sent some of his company to inquire of him what return he got from working ground like that. [3] And when the men had carried out the command, the farmer replied that he got from the field only grievous pains; but he did not care, since he gave the tenth part of them to Peisistratus. And the ruler, on hearing the reply, laughed, and made the field exempt from taxation, whence arose the proverb, Even spasms give tax-exemption.
§ 10.1.1 Servius Tullius, on the occasion of the uprising of Tarquinius, came into the Senate, and when he saw the extent of the intrigue against him, he did no more than to say, "What presumption, O Tarquinius, is this?" Tarquinius replied, "Nay, what presumption is yours, who, though slave and son of a slave, have presumed to rule as king over the Romans, and who, although the leadership my father had belongs to me, have illegally taken from me the rule to which you in no single respect have a claim?" With these words he rushed at Tullius, and seizing him by the arm he hurled him down the steps. Tullius picked himself up and, limping from the fall, endeavoured to flee, but was put to death.
§ 10.2.1 Servius Tullius, the king of the Romans, enjoyed a rule of forty-four years, successfully establishing not a few institutions in the commonwealth by virtue of his own high character.
§ 10.3.1 When Thericles was archon in Athens in the Sixty-first Olympiad, Pythagoras, the philosopher, was generally recognized, having already far advanced in learning; for if there is any man of those who have cultivated learning deserving of a place in history, it is he. By birth he was a Samian, though some men say that he was a Tyrrhenian.
§ 10.3.2 And there was such persuasion and charm in his words that every day almost the entire city turned to him, as to a god present among them, and all men ran in crowds to hear him. Not only in eloquence of speech did he show himself great, but he also displayed a character of soul which was temperate and constituted a marvellous model of a life of modesty for the youth to emulate. Whoever associated with him he converted from their ways of extravagance and luxury, whereas all men, because of their wealth, were giving themselves over without restraint to indulgence and an ignoble dissipation of body and soul. 4 Pythagoras, learning that his old teacher Pherecydes lay ill in Delos and was at the point of death, set sail from Italy to Delos. There he took care of the old man for a considerable time and made every effort to bring the aged man safely through his malady. And when Pherecydes was overcome by his advanced years and the severity of the disease, Pythagoras made every provision for his burial, and after performing the accustomed rites for him, as a son would for his father, he returned to Italy. 5 Whenever any of the companions of Pythagoras lost their fortune, the rest would divide their own possessions with them as with brothers. Such a disposition of their property they made, not only with their acquaintances who passed their daily lives with them, but also, speaking generally, with all who shared in their projects.
§ 10.4.1 Cleinias of Tarentum, who was a member of the order of which we have spoken, learning that Prorus of Cyrene had lost his fortune because of a political upheaval and was completely impoverished, went over from Italy to Cyrene with sufficient funds and restored to Prorus his fortune, although he had never seen the man before and knew no more of him than that he was a Pythagorean.
§ 10.4.2 Of many others also it is recorded that they have done something of this kind. And it was not only in the giving away of money that they showed themselves so devoted to their friends, but they also shared each other's dangers on occasions of greatest peril.
§ 10.4.3 So, for example, while Dionysius was tyrant and a certain Phintias, a Pythagorean, who had formed a plot against the tyrant, was about to suffer the penalty for it, he asked Dionysius for time in which to make such disposition as he wished of his private affairs; and he said that he would give one of his friends as surety for his death.
§ 10.4.4 And when the ruler expressed his wonder whether such a friend was to be found as would take his place in prison, Phintias called upon one of his acquaintances, a Pythagorean philosopher named Damon, who without hesitation came forward at once as surety for his death.
§ 10.4.5 Now there were some who expressed approval of so great a love for one's friends, whereas some charged the surety with rashness and folly. And at the appointed hour all the people ran together, anxious to learn whether the man who had provided a surety for himself would keep faith.
§ 10.4.6 When the hour drew close and all were giving up hope, Phintias unexpectedly arrived on the run at the last moment, just as Damon was being led off to his fate. Such a friendship was in the eyes of all men a thing of wonder, and Dionysius remitted the punishment of the condemned man, urging the two men to include himself as a third in their friendship.
§ 10.5.1 The Pythagoreans also insisted upon a very great exercise of the memory, setting up the following way of giving it practice. They would not arise from their beds until they had frankly disclosed to one another everything they had done the day before, beginning with early dawn and closing with the evening. And if they had the time and more leisure than usual, they would add to their account what they had done on the third day past, the fourth, and even earlier days. This practice they followed to gain knowledge and judgement in all matters and experience in the ability to call many things to mind.
§ 10.5.2 The Pythagoreans trained themselves in the exercise of self-control in the following manner. They would have prepared for them everything which is served up at the most brilliant banquets, and would gaze upon it for a considerable time; then, after through mere gazing they had aroused their natural desires with a view to their gratification, they would command the slaves to clear away the tables and would at once depart without having tasted of what had been served.
§ 10.6.1 Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls and considered the eating of flesh as an abominable thing, saying that the souls of all living creatures pass after death into other living creatures. And as for himself, he used to declare that he remembered having been in Trojan times Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, who was slain by Menelaus.
§ 10.6.2 We are told that once, when Pythagoras was sojourning in Argos, he saw a shield from the spoils of Troy fastened by nails to the wall and wept. And when the Argives inquired of him the cause of his grief, he replied that he himself had carried this shield in the land of Troy when he was Euphorbus.
§ 10.6.3 And when all were incredulous and judged him to be mad, he replied that he would give them convincing evidence that what he had said was so; for on the inner side of the shield there had been inscribed in ancient characters "of Euphorbus." At this surprising answer all said to take down the shield, and on the inner side in fact was found the inscription.
§ 10.6.4 Callimachus once said about Pythagoras that of the problems of geometry some he discovered and certain others he was the first to introduce from Egypt to the Greeks, in the passage where he writes: This Phrygian Euphorbus first for men Found out, who taught about triangle shapes And scalenes, aye and a circle in seven lengths, And taught full abstinence from tasting flesh Of living things; but all would not to this Give heed.
§ 10.7.1 Pythagoras urged his followers to cultivate the simple life, since extravagance, he maintained, ruins not only the fortunes of men but their bodies as well. For most diseases, he held, come from indigestion, and indigestion, in turn, from extravagance.
§ 10.7.2 Many men were also persuaded by him to eat uncooked food and to drink only water all their life long, in order to pursue what is in truth the good. And yet, as for the men of our day, were one to suggest that they refrain for but a few days from one or two of the things which men consider to be pleasant, they would renounce philosophy, asserting that it would be silly, while seeking for the good which is unseen, to let go that which is seen. 3 And whenever it becomes necessary to court the mob or to meddle in affairs which are none of their business, they have the time for it and will let nothing stand in their way; whereas, whenever it becomes necessary to bestir themselves about education and the repairing of character, they reply that the matter is not opportune for them, the result of it all being that they busy themselves when they have no business and show no concern when they are concerned. 4 We are told that Archytas of Tarentum, who was a follower of Pythagoras, once became angry with his slaves because of some serious offences; but when he recovered from his rage, he said to them, "You would not have got off without punishment after such misconduct, had I not lost my temper."
§ 10.8.1 The Pythagoreans laid the greatest store upon constancy toward one's friends, believing as they did that the loyalty of friends is the greatest good to be found in life.
§ 10.8.2 A man may consider that the greatest and most marvellous thing about the Pythagoreans was the cause of their loyalty to their friends. What indeed were the habits, what the manner of their practices, or the powerful arguments which enabled them to inculcate such a disposition in all who joined their common manner of life? Many outsiders, being eager to know the cause, expended great effort on the endeavour, but no man of them was ever able to learn it. The reason why their system of instruction for this purpose was kept inviolate was that the Pythagoreans made it a fundamental tenet to put nothing on this subject in writing, but to carry their precepts only in their memory.
§ 10.9.1 Pythagoras, in addition to his other injunctions, commanded his pupils rarely to take an oath, and, when they did swear an oath, to abide by it under any circumstances and to bring to fulfilment whatever they have sworn to do; and that they should never reply as did Lysander the Laconian and Demades the Athenian, the former of whom once declared that boys should be cheated with dice and men with oaths, and Demades affirmed that in the case of oaths, as in all other affairs, the most profitable course is the one to choose, and that it was his observation that the perjurer forthwith continued to possess the things regarding which he had taken the oath, whereas the man who had kept his oath had manifestly lost what had been his own. For neither of these men looked upon the oath, as did Pythagoras, as a firm pledge of faith, but as a bait to use for ill-gotten gain and deception.
§ 10.9.2 Pythagoras commanded his pupils rarely to take an oath, and when they did swear an oath, to abide by it under every circumstance.
§ 10.9.3 The same Pythagoras, in his reflections upon the pleasures of love, taught that it was better to approach women in the summer not at all, and in the winter only sparingly. For in general he considered every kind of pleasure of love to be harmful, and believed that the uninterrupted indulgence in them is altogether weakening and destructive.
§ 10.9.4 It is told of Pythagoras that once, when he was asked by someone when he should indulge in the pleasures of love, he replied, "When you wish not to be master of yourself." The Pythagoreans divided the life of mankind into four ages, that of a child, a lad, a young man, and an old man; and they said that each one of these had its parallel in the changes which take place in the seasons in the year's course, assigning the spring to the child, the autumn to the man, the winter to the old man, and the summer to the lad. 6 The same Pythagoras taught that when men approach the gods to sacrifice, the garments they wear should be not costly, but only white and clean, and that likewise they should appear before the gods with not only a body clean of every unjust deed but also a soul that is undefiled. 7 Pythagoras declared that prudent men should pray to the gods for good things on behalf of imprudent men; for the foolish are ignorant of what in life is in very truth the good. 8 Pythagoras used to assert that in their supplications men should pray simply for "all good things," and not name them singly, as, for example, power, strength, beauty, wealth, and the like; for it frequently happens that any one of these works to the utter ruin of those who receive them in reply to their desire. And this may be recognized by any man who has reflected upon the lines in The Phoenician Maidens of Euripides which give the prayer of Polyneices to the gods, beginning Then, gazing Argos-ward, and ending Yea, from this arm, may smite my brother's breast. For Polyneices and Eteocles thought that they were praying for the best things for themselves, whereas in truth they were calling down curses upon their own heads. 9 During the time that Pythagoras was delivering many other discourses designed to inculcate the emulation of a sober life and manliness and perseverance and the other virtues, he received at the hands of the inhabitants of Croton honours the equal of those accorded to the gods.
§ 10.10.1 Pythagoras called the principles he taught philosophia or love of wisdom, but not sophia or wisdom. For he criticized the Seven Wise Men, as they were called, who lived before his time, saying that no man is wise, being human, and many a time, by reason of the weakness of his nature, has not the strength to bring all matters to a successful issue, but that he who emulates both the ways and the manner of life of a wise man may more fittingly be called a "lover of wisdom."
§ 10.10.2 Although both Pythagoras himself and the Pythagoreans after his time made such advancement and were cause of so great blessings to the states of Greece, yet they did not escape the envy which besmirches all noble things. Indeed there is no noble thing among men, I suppose, which is of such a nature that the long passage of time works it no damage or destruction.
§ 10.11.1 A certain inhabitant of Croton, Cylon by name, the foremost citizen in wealth and repute, was eager to become a Pythagorean. But since he was a harsh man and violent in his ways, and both seditious and tyrannical as well, he was rejected by them. Consequently, being irritated at the order of the Pythagoreans, he formed a large party and never ceased working against them in every way possible both by word and by deed.
§ 10.11.2 Lysis, the Pythagorean, came to Thebes in Boeotia and became the teacher of Epaminondas; and he developed him, with respect to virtue, into a perfect man and became his father by adoption because of the affection he had for him. And Epaminondas, because of the incitements toward perseverance and simplicity and every other virtue which he received from the Pythagorean philosophy, became the foremost man, not only of Thebes, but of all who lived in his time.
§ 10.12.1 To recount the lives of men of the past is a task which presents difficulties to writers and yet is of no little advantage to society as a whole. For such an account which clearly portrays in all frankness their evil as well as their noble deeds renders honour to the good and abases the wicked by means of the censures as well as the praises which appropriately come to each group respectively. And the praise constitutes, one may say, a reward of virtue which entails no cost, and the censure is a punishment of depravity which entails no physical chastisement.
§ 10.12.2 And it is an excellent thing for later generations to bear in mind, that whatever is the manner of life a man chooses to live while on this earth, such is the remembrance which he will be thought worthy of after his death; this principle should be followed, in order that later generations may not set their hearts upon the erection of memorials in stone which are limited to a single spot and subject to quick decay, but upon reason and the virtues in general which range everywhere upon the lips of fame. Time, which withers all else, preserves for these virtues an immortality, and the further it may itself advance in age, the fresher the youth it imparts to them.
§ 10.12.3 And what we have said is clearly exemplified in the case of these men who have been mentioned; for though they were of the distant past, all mankind speaks of them as if they were alive today.
§ 10.13.1 Cyrus, the king of the Persians, after he had reduced the land of the Babylonians and the Medes, was encompassing in his hopes all the inhabited world. For now that he had subdued these powerful and great nations he thought that there was no king or people which could withstand his might; since of those who are possessed of irresponsible power, some are wont not to bear their good fortune as human beings should.
§ 10.14.1 Cambyses was by nature half-mad and his powers of reasoning perverted, and the greatness of his kingdom rendered him much the more cruel and arrogant.
§ 10.14.2 Cambyses the Persian, after he had taken Memphis and Pelusium, since he could not bear his good fortune as men should, dug up the tomb of Amasis, the former king of Egypt. And finding his mummified corpse in the coffin, he outraged the body of the dead man, and after showing every despite to the senseless corpse, he finally ordered it to be burned. For since it was not the practice of the natives to consign the bodies of their dead to fire, he supposed that in this fashion also he would be giving offence to him who had been long dead.
§ 10.14.3 When Cambyses was on the point of setting out upon his campaign against Ethiopia, he dispatched a part of his army against the inhabitants of Ammon, giving orders to its commanders to plunder and burn the oracle and to make slaves of all who dwelt near the shrine.
§ 10.15.1 After Cambyses, the king of the Persians, had made himself lord of all Egypt, the Libyans and Cyrenaeans, who had been allies of the Egyptians, sent presents to him and declared their willingness to obey his every command.
§ 10.16.1 Polycrates the tyrant of the Samians, used to dispatch triremes to the most suitable places and plunder all who were on the seas, and he would return the booty which he had taken only to those who were allies of his. And to those of his companions who criticized this practice he used to say that all his friends would feel more grateful to him by getting back what they had lost than by having lost nothing in the first place.
§ 10.16.2 Unjust deeds, as a general thing, carry in their train a retribution which exacts appropriate punishments of the wrongdoers. Every act of kindness, since attended by no regret, bears goodly fruit in the praise of those who benefit therefrom; for even if not all the recipients repay the kindness, at least some one of them, it sometimes happens, makes payment on behalf of all. 4 Certain Lydians, who were fleeing from the domineering rule of the satrap Oroetes, took ship to Samos, bringing with them many possessions, and became suppliants of Polycrates. And at first he received them kindly, but after a little time he put them all to the sword and confiscated their possessions.
§ 10.17.1 Thettalus, the son of Peisistratus, was wise enough to renounce the tyranny, and since he strove after equality, he enjoyed great favour among the citizens of Athens; but the other sons, Hipparchus and Hippias, being violent and harsh men, maintained a tyranny over the city. They committed many other acts of lawlessness against the Athenians, and Hipparchus, becoming enamoured of a youth of extraordinary beauty, because of that got into a dangerous situation. . . .
§ 10.17.2 Now the attack upon the tyrants and the earnest desire to achieve the freedom of the fatherland were shared in by all the men mentioned above; but the unyielding steadfastness of soul amid the tortures and the stout courage to endure cruel pains were shown by Aristogeiton alone, who, in the most fearful moments, maintained two supreme virtues, fidelity to his friends and vengeance on his enemies. Aristogeiton made it clear to all men that nobility of soul is able to prevail over the greatest agonies of the body.
§ 10.18.1 When Zeno the philosopher was suffering the agonies of the torture because of the conspiracy he had entered into against the tyrant Nearchus and was being asked by Nearchus who his fellow conspirators were, he replied, "Would that I were as much the master of my body as I am of my tongue!"
§ 10.18.2 When Zeno's native city was being ground down by the tyranny of Nearchus, Zeno formed a conspiracy against the tyrant. But he was found out, and when he was asked by Nearchus, while suffering the agonies of the torture, who his fellow conspirators were, he replied, "Would that I were as much the master of my body as I am of my tongue!"3 And when the tyrant made the torture more and more severe, Zeno still withstood it for a while; and then, being eager to be rid at last of the agony and at the same time to be revenged upon Nearchus, he devised the following plan. 4 During the greatest intensity of the torture, pretending that his spirit was yielding to his bodily pains, he cried out, "Relax it! I will tell the whole truth." And when they did so, he asked Nearchus to come near and listen to him privately, asserting that many matters he was about to disclose would best be kept secret. 5 When the tyrant came up to him readily and placed his ear close to Zeno's lips, Zeno took the tyrant's ear into his mouth and sank his teeth into it. And when the attendants quickly approached and applied every torment to make Zeno relax his hold, he held on all the tighter. 6 Finally, being unable to shake the fortitude of the man, they stabbed him to death that they might in this way break the hold of his teeth. By this device Zeno got release from the agonies he was suffering and exacted of the tyrant the only punishment within his grasp. [Many generations later Dorieus the Lacedemonian came to Sicily, and taking back the land founded the city of Heracleia. Since the city grew rapidly, the Carthaginians, being jealous of it and also afraid that it would grow stronger than Carthage and take from the Phoenicians their sovereignty, came up against it with a great army, took it by storm, and razed it to the ground. But this affair we shall discuss in detail in connection with the period in which it falls.]
§ 10.19.1 When men make definite pronouncements on certain matters, saying that they can never possibly be brought to pass, their words usually are followed by a kind of retribution which exposes the weakness which is the lot of mankind.
§ 10.19.2 When Megabyzus, who was also called Zopyrus and was a friend of King Darius, had scourged himself and mutilated his countenance, because he had resolved to become a deserter and betray Babylon to the Persians, we are told that Darius was deeply moved and declared that he would rather have Megabyzus whole again, if it were possible, than bring ten Babylons under his power, although his wish could not be achieved.
§ 10.19.3 The Babylonians chose Megabyzus to be their general, being unaware that the benefaction he would render them would be a kind of bait to entice them to the destruction which was soon to follow.
§ 10.19.4 The successful turn of events constitutes a sufficient proof of what has been predicted.
§ 10.19.5 After Darius had made himself master of practically the whole of Asia, he desired to subdue Europe. For since the desires he entertained for further possessions were boundless and he had confidence in the greatness of the power of Persia, he was set upon embracing in his power the inhabited world, thinking it to be a disgraceful thing that the kings before his time, though possessing inferior resources, had reduced in war the greatest nations, whereas he, who had forces greater than any man before him had ever acquired, had accomplished no deed worthy of mention.
§ 10.19.6 When the Tyrrhenians were leaving Lemnos, because of their fear of the Persians, they claimed that they were doing so because of certain oracles, and they gave the island over to Miltiades. The leader of the Tyrrhenians in this affair was Hermon, and as a result presents of this kind have from that time been called "gifts of Hermon."
§ 10.20.1 Sextus, the son of Lucius Tarquinius (Superbus), the king of the Romans, left and came to the city of Collatia, as it was called, and stopped at the home of Lucius Tarquinius, a cousin of the king, whose wife was Lucretia, a woman of great beauty and virtuous in character. And Lucretia's husband being with the army in camp, the guest, awakening, left his bed-room during the night and set out to the wife who was sleeping in a certain chamber.
§ 10.20.2 And suddenly taking his stand at the door and drawing his sword, he announced that he had a slave all ready for slaughter, and that he would slay her together with the slave, as having been taken in adultery and having received at the hand of her husband's nearest of kin the punishment she deserved. Therefore, he continued, it would be the wiser thing for her to submit to his desires without calling out, and as a reward for her favour she would receive great gifts and be his wife and become queen, exchanging the hearth of a private citizen for the first place in the state.
§ 10.20.3 Lucretia, panic-stricken at so unexpected a thing and fearing that men would in truth believe that she had been slain because of adultery, made no outcry at the time. But when the day came and Sextus departed, she summoned her kinsmen and asked them not to allow the man to go unpunished who had sinned against the laws both of hospitality and of kinship. As for herself, she said, it was not proper for the victim of a deed of such wanton insolence to look upon the sun, and plunging a dagger into her breast she slew herself.
§ 10.21.1 In connection with the violation of Lucretia by Sextus and her suicide because of the wrong done her, we do not believe it would be right to leave no record of the nobility of her choice. For the woman who renounced life of her own will in order that later generations might emulate her deed we should judge to be fittingly worthy of immortal praise, in order that women who choose to maintain the purity of their persons altogether free from censure may compare themselves with an authentic example.
§ 10.21.2 Other women, indeed, even when such an act as this on their part is known, conceal what has been done, as a means of avoiding the punishment which is meted out for guilty acts; but she made known to the world what had been done in secret and then slew herself, leaving in the end of her life her fairest defence.
§ 10.21.3 And whereas other women advance a claim for pardon in matters done against their will, she fixed the penalty of death for the outrage done to her by force, in order that, even if one should wish to defame her, he should not have it in his power to condemn her choice as having been made of her own free will.
§ 10.21.4 For since men by nature prefer slander to praise, she cut the ground from under the accusation men who love to find fault might raise; for she considered it to be shameful that anyone could say that while her husband, to whom she was wedded in accordance with the laws, was still living, she had had relations with another man, contrary to the laws, and shameful also that she who had been involved in an act for which the laws decree the penalty of death upon the guilty should cling to life any longer. And so she chose by a brief anticipation of death, a debt that in any case she owed to nature, to exchange disgrace for the highest approval.
§ 10.21.5 Consequently, not only did she win immortal glory in exchange for mortal life through her own act of virtue, but she also impelled her kinsmen and all the people to exact implacable punishment from those who had committed this lawless act against her.
§ 10.22.1 King Lucius Tarquinius ruled in a tyrannical and violent fashion and made it his practice to slay the wealthy citizens among the Romans, advancing false charges against them in order to appropriate their possessions. Consequently Lucius Junius (Brutus), since he was an orphan and the wealthiest of all the Romans, for both these reasons viewed with mistrust Tarquin's grasping ambition; and because he was the king's nephew and therefore close to him on every occasion, he acted the part of a stupid person, his purpose being both to avoid arousing envy because of any ability of his, and at the same time to observe, without rousing suspicion, whatever was taking place and to watch for the favourable moment to strike at the royal power.
§ 10.23.1 The people of Sybaris who took the field with three hundred thousand men against the inhabitants of Croton and had entered upon an unjust war, were completely unsuccessful; and since they were not shrewd enough to bear their prosperity, they left their own destruction as a sufficient warning example that men should be on their guard far more in times of their own good fortunes than of their afflictions.
§ 10.24.1 Diodorus says with respect to Herodotus, "We have made this digression, not so much out of any desire to criticize Herodotus, as to show by examples that tales of wonder are wont to prevail over tales of truth."
§ 10.24.2 It is fitting that bravery be honoured, even when it is shown by women.
§ 10.24.3 The Athenians made a clever use of their victory, and after defeating the Boeotians and Chalcidians, they at once after the battle made themselves masters of the city of Chalcis. And as a tenth part of the booty won from the Boeotians they dedicated a bronze chariot on the Acropolis, inscribing upon it the following elegiac lines: Having conquered the tribes of Boeotia and those of Chalcis Midst the labours of war, sons of Athenians quenched Insolence high in dark bonds of iron; and taking the ransom's Tithe set up here these mares, vowed unto Pallas their god.
§ 10.25.1 The Persians learned from the Greeks the burning of sanctuaries, repaying those who had been the first to offend justice with the same wanton act. When the Carians were becoming exhausted in their struggles with the Persians, they made inquiry respecting an alliance, whether they should take the Milesians to be their allies. And the oracle replied: Of old Miletus' sons were mighty men. 3 But the terror which lay close at hand caused them to forget their former rivalry with one another and compelled them to man the triremes with all speed. 4 Hecataeus, the Milesian, whom the Ionians dispatched as an ambassador, asked what cause Artaphernes had to put no faith in them. And when Artaphernes replied that he was afraid that they would harbour resentment because of the injuries they had received during their defeat, Hecataeus said, "Well then, if suffering ill treatment has the effect of creating bad faith, receiving kind treatment will surely cause our cities to be well disposed toward the Persians." And Artaphernes, approving the statement, restored to the cities their laws and laid upon them fixed tributes according to their ability to pay.
§ 10.26.1 The hatred which those who possessed citizenship held for the commons, though it had been concealed up to this time, now burst forth in full force, when it found the occasion. And because of their jealous rivalry they freed the slaves, preferring rather to share freedom with their servants than citizenship with the free.
§ 10.27.1 Datis, the general of the Persians and a Mede by descent, having received from his ancestors the tradition that the Athenians were descendants of Medus, who had established the kingdom of Media, sent a message to the Athenians declaring that he was come with an army to demand the return of the sovereignty which had belonged to his ancestors; for Medus, he said, who was the oldest of his own ancestors, had been deprived of the kingship by the Athenians, and removing to Asia had founded the kingdom of Media.
§ 10.27.2 Consequently, he went on to say, if they would return the kingdom to him, he would forgive them for this guilty act and for the campaign they had made against Sardis; but if they opposed his demand, they would suffer a worse fate than had the Eretrians.
§ 10.27.3 Miltiades, voicing the decision reached by the ten generals, replied that according to the statement of the envoys it was more appropriate for the Athenians to hold the mastery over the empire of the Medes than for Datis to hold it over the state of the Athenians; for it was a man of Athens who had established the kingdom of the Medes, whereas no man of Median race had ever controlled Athens. Datis, on hearing this reply, made ready for battle.
§ 10.28.1 Hippocrates, the tyrant of Gela, after his victory over the Syracusans, pitched his camp in the sanctuary of Zeus. And he seized the person of the priest and certain Syracusans who were in the act of taking down the golden dedications and removing in particular the robe of the statue of Zeus in the making of which a large amount of gold had been used.
§ 10.28.2 And after sternly rebuking them as temple-robbers, he ordered them to return to the city, but he himself did not touch the dedications, since he was intent upon gaining a good name and he thought not only that one who had commenced a war of such magnitude should commit no sin against the deity, but also that he would set the commons at variance with the administrators of the affairs of Syracuse, because men would think the latter were ruling the state to their own advantage and not to that of all the people nor on the principle of equality.
§ 10.28.3 Theron of Acragas in birth and wealth, as well as in the humanity he displayed towards the commons, far surpassed not only his fellow citizens but also the other Sicilian Greeks.
§ 10.29.1 Gelon of Syracuse cried out in his sleep, for he was dreaming that he had been struck by lightning, and his dog, when he noticed that he was crying out immoderately, did not stop barking until he awakened him. Gelon was also once saved from death by a wolf. As a boy he was seated in a school and a wolf came and snatched away the tablet he was using. And while he was chasing after the wolf itself and his tablet too, the school was shaken by an earthquake and crashed down from its very foundations, killing every one of the boys together with the teacher. Historians, like Timaeus, Dionysius, Diodorus, and also Dio, celebrate the number of the boys, which amounted to more than one hundred. The precise number I do not know.
§ 10.30.1 Cimon, the son of Miltiades, when his father had died in the state prison because he was unable to pay in full the fine, in order that he might receive his father's body for burial, delivered himself up to prison and assumed the debt.
§ 10.30.2 Cimon, who was ambitious to take part in the conduct of the state, at a later time became an able general and performed glorious deeds by virtue of his personal bravery.
§ 10.31.1 Cimon, as certain writers say, was the son of Miltiades, but according to others his father was known as Stesagoras. And he had a son Callias by Isodice. And this Cimon was married to his own sister Elpinice as Ptolemy was at a later time to Berenice, and Zeus to Hera before them, and as the Persians do at the present time. And Callias pays a fine of fifty talents, in order that his father Cimon may not suffer punishment because of his disgraceful marriage, that, namely, of brother with sister. The number of those who write about this it would be a long task for me to recount; for the multitude of those who have written about it is boundless, such as the comic poets and orators and Diodorus and others.
§ 10.32.1 Themistocles, the son of Neocles, when a certain wealthy person approached him to find out where he could find a wealthy son-in-law, advised him not to seek for money which lacked a man, but rather a man who was lacking in money. And when the inquirer agreed with this advice, Themistocles counselled him to marry his daughter to Cimon. This was the reason, therefore, for Cimon becoming a wealthy man, and he was released from prison, and calling to account the magistrates who had shut him up he secured their condemnation. [The preceding Book, which is the tenth of our narrative, closed with the events of the year just before the crossing of Xerxes into Europe and the formal deliberations which the general assembly of the Greeks held in Corinth on the alliance between Gelon and the Greeks.]
§ 10.33.1 When all the Greeks, at the time Xerxes was about to cross over into Europe, dispatched an embassy to Gelon to discuss an alliance, and when he answered that he would ally himself with them and supply them with grain, provided that they would grant him the supreme command either on the land or on the sea, the tyrant's ambition for glory in his demanding the supreme command thwarted the alliance; and yet the magnitude of the aid he could supply and the fear of the enemy were impelling them to share the glory with Gelon.
§ 10.34.1 For though the supremacy which the Persians enjoy entails, for the satisfaction of cupidity, the gifts they require, yet a tyrant's greed does not overlook even any small gain.
§ 10.34.2 For the surest guardian of safety is mistrust.
§ 10.34.3 Now children, when they are being ill treated, turn for aid to their parents, but states turn to the peoples who once founded them.
§ 10.34.4 A tyrant's greed does not rest satisfied with what he possesses, but it yearns after the property of others and is never sated.
§ 10.34.5 As for those whose character will oppose his domination, he will not, when the opportunity offers, allow them to become powerful.
§ 10.34.6 For you are descendants of those men who have bequeathed to glory their own virtues, deathless after their death.
§ 10.34.7 For as the reward for the alliance it is not money he requires, which one can often see despised by even the lowest man in private life when he has once gained wealth, but praise and glory, to gain which noble men do not hesitate to die; for the reward which glory offers is to be preferred above silver.
§ 10.34.8 For the inheritance which the Spartans receive from their fathers is not wealth, as is the case with all other men, but an eagerness to die for the sake of liberty, so that they set all the good things which life can offer second to glory.
§ 10.34.9 Let us not in our eagerness for mercenary troops throw away our own citizen forces, and, in reaching for what is unseen, lose our mastery of that which is in sight.
§ 10.34.10 I deny that I am dismayed at the magnitude of the Persians' armaments; for valour decides the issue of war, not numbers.
§ 10.34.11 For the inheritance they have received from their fathers is to live their own lives, and to die in response to their country's need. 12 Why should we fear the gold with which they deck themselves out as they go into battle, as women deck themselves for marriage, since as a result victory will bring us the prize not only of glory, but of wealth? For valour fears not gold, which cold steel has ever taken captive, but the military skill of the leaders. 13 For every army which exceeds the proper proportion carries in itself its undoing in almost every case. For before the serried ranks have heard the command we shall have anticipated them in obtaining our objectives. #Uncertain [And last of all, many generations later, the people of the Siceli crossed over in a body from Italy into Sicily and made their home in the land which had been abandoned by the Sicani. And since the Siceli steadily grew more avaricious and kept ravaging the land which bordered on theirs, frequent wars arose between them and the Sicani, until at last they struck covenants and set up boundaries of their territory, upon which they had agreed. With regard to these matters we shall give a detailed account in connection with the appropriate period of time.]
§ 0.1.1 Unplaced Fragments: Diodorus, however, recognizes a distinction between them, when he speaks of Sicani and Siceli.
§ 0.1.2 Diodorus, when he speaks somewhere in the first ten Books about both Siceli and Sicani, recognizes a distinction, as I have already said, between Sicelus and Sicanus.
§ 0.3.1 And the Palladium of Athena was like this we have mentioned, three cubits tall, made of wood, having fallen from heaven, men say, in Pesinous in Phrygia, and Diodorus and Dio say that the region received its name from this event. 1 And Diodorus records that a certain peak of the Alps, which has the appearance of being the highest part of the entire range, is called by the natives the "Ridge of Heaven."
§ 11.1.1 The preceding Book, which is the tenth of our narrative, closed with the events of the year just before the crossing of Xerxes into Europe and the formal deliberations which the general assembly of the Greeks held in Corinth on the alliance between Gelon and the Greeks; and in this Book we shall supply the further course of the history, beginning with the campaign of Xerxes against the Greeks, and we shall stop with the year which precedes the campaign of the Athenians against Cyprus under the leadership of Cimon.
§ 11.1.2 Calliades was archon in Athens, and the Romans made Spurius Cassius and Proculus Verginius Tricostus consuls, and the Eleians celebrated the Seventy-fifth Olympiad, that in which Astylus of Syracuse won the "stadion." It was in this year that king Xerxes made his campaign against Greece, for the following reason.
§ 11.1.3 Mardonius the Persian was a cousin of Xerxes and related to him by marriage, and he was also greatly admired by the Persians because of his sagacity and courage. This man, being elated by pride and at the height of his physical vigour, was eager to be the leader of great armaments; consequently he persuaded Xerxes to enslave the Greeks, who had ever been enemies of the Persians.
§ 11.1.4 And Xerxes, being won over by him and desiring to drive all the Greeks from their homes, sent an embassy to the Carthaginians to urge them to join him in the undertaking and closed an agreement with them, to the effect that he would wage war upon the Greeks who lived in Greece, while the Carthaginians should at the same time gather great armaments and subdue those Greeks who lived in Sicily and Italy.
§ 11.1.5 In accordance, then, with their agreements, the Carthaginians, collecting a great amount of money, gathered mercenaries from both Italy and Liguria and also from Galatia and Iberia; and in addition to these troops they enrolled men of their own race from the whole of Libya and of Carthage; and in the end, after spending three years in constant preparation, they assembled more than three hundred thousand foot-soldiers and two hundred war vessels.
§ 11.2.1 Xerxes, vying with the zeal displayed by the Carthaginians, surpassed them in all his preparations to the degree that he excelled the Carthaginians in the multitude of peoples at his command. And he began to have ships built throughout all the territory along the sea that was subject to him, both Egypt and Phoenicia and Cyprus, Cilicia and Pamphylia and Pisidia, and also Lycia, Caria, Mysia, the Troad, and the cities on the Hellespont, and Bithynia, and Pontus.
§ 11.2.2 Spending a period of three years, as did the Carthaginians, on his preparations, he made ready more than twelve hundred warships. 2 He was aided in this by his father Darius, who before his death had made preparations of great armaments; for Darius, after Datis, his general, had been defeated by the Athenians at Marathon, had continued to be angry with the Athenians for having won that battle. But Darius, when already about to cross over against the Greeks, was stopped in his plans by death, whereupon Xerxes, induced both by the design of his father and by the counsel of Mardonius, as we have stated, made up his mind to wage war upon the Greeks.
§ 11.2.3 Now when all preparations for the campaign had been completed, Xerxes commanded his admirals to assemble the ships at Cyme and Phocaea, and he himself collected the foot and cavalry forces from all the satrapies and advanced from Susa. And when he had arrived at Sardis, he dispatched heralds to Greece, commanding them to go to all the states and to demand of the Greeks water and earth.
§ 11.2.4 Then, dividing his army, he sent in advance a sufficient number of men both to bridge the Hellespont and to dig a canal through Athos at the neck of the peninsula, in this way not only making the passage safe and short for his forces but also hoping by the magnitude of his exploits to strike the Greeks with terror before his arrival. Now the men who had been sent to make ready these works completed them with dispatch, because so many labourers cooperated in the task.
§ 11.2.5 And the Greeks, when they learned of the great size of the Persian armaments, dispatched ten thousand hoplites into Thessaly to seize the passes of Tempe; Synetus commanded the Lacedemonians and Themistocles the Athenians. These commanders dispatched ambassadors to the states and asked them to send soldiers to join in the common defence of the passes; for they eagerly desired that all the Greek states should each have a share in the defence and make common cause in the war against the Persians.
§ 11.2.6 But since the large number of the Thessalians and other Greeks who dwelt near the passes had given the water and earth to the envoys of Xerxes when they arrived, the two generals despaired of the defence at Tempe and returned to their own soil.
§ 11.3.1 And now it will be useful to distinguish those Greeks who chose the side of the barbarians, in order that, incurring our censure here, their example may, by the obloquy visited upon them, deter for the future any who may become traitors to the common freedom.
§ 11.3.2 The Aenianians, Dolopians, Melians, Perrhaebians, and Magnetans took the side of the barbarians even while the defending force was still at Tempe, and after its departure the Achaeans of Phthia, Locrians, Thessalians, and the majority of the Boeotians went over to the barbarians.
§ 11.3.3 But the Greeks who were meeting in congress at the Isthmus voted to make the Greeks who voluntarily chose the cause of the Persians pay a tithe to the gods, when they should be successful in the war, and to send ambassadors to those Greeks who were neutral to urge them to join in the struggle for the common freedom.
§ 11.3.4 Of the latter, some joined the alliance without reservation, while others postponed any decision for a considerable time, clinging to their own safety alone and anxiously waiting for the outcome of the war; the Argives, however, sending ambassadors to the common congress, promised to join the alliance if the congress would give them a share in the command.
§ 11.3.5 To them the representatives declared plainly that, if they thought it a more terrible thing to have a Greek as general than a barbarian as master, they would do well to remain neutral, but if they were ambitious to secure the leadership of the Greeks, they should, it was stated, first have accomplished deeds deserving of this leadership and then strive for such an honour. After these events, when the ambassadors sent by Xerxes came to Greece and demanded both earth and water, all the states manifested in their replies the zeal they felt for the command freedom.
§ 11.3.6 When Xerxes learned that the Hellespont had been bridged and the canal had been dug through Athos, he left Sardis and made his way toward the Hellespont; and when he had arrived at Abydus, he led his army over the bridge into Europe. And as he advanced through Thrace, he added to his forces many soldiers from both the Thracians and neighbouring Greeks.
§ 11.3.7 When he arrived at the city called Doriscus, he ordered his fleet to come there, and so both arms of his forces were gathered into one place. And he held there also the enumeration of the entire army, and the number of his land forces was over eight hundred thousand men, while the sum total of his ships of war excelled twelve hundred, of which three hundred and twenty were Greek, the Greeks providing the complement of men and the king supplying the vessels. All the remaining ships were listed as barbarian; and of these the Egyptians supplied two hundred, the Phoenicians three hundred, the Cilicians eighty, the Pamphylians forty, the Lycians the same number, also the Carians eighty, and the Cyprians one hundred and fifty.
§ 11.3.8 Of the Greeks the Dorians who dwelt off Caria, together with the Rhodians and Coans, sent forty ships, the Ionians, together with the Chians and Samians, one hundred, the Aeolians, together with the Lesbians and Tenedans, forty, the peoples of the region of the Hellespont, together with those who dwelt along the shores of the Pontus, eighty, and the inhabitants of the islands fifty; for the king had won over to his side the islands lying within the Cyanean Rocks and Triopium and Sunium.
§ 11.3.9 Triremes made up the multitude we have listed, and the transports for the cavalry numbered eight hundred and fifty, and the triaconters three thousand. Xerxes, then, was busied with the enumeration of the armaments at Doriscus.
§ 11.4.1 The Greeks who were in assembly, when word came to them that the Persian forces were near, took action to dispatch the ships of war with all speed to Artemisium in Euboea, recognizing that this place was well suited for meeting the enemy, and a considerable body of hoplites to Thermopylae to forestall them in occupying the passes at the narrowest part of the defile and to prevent the barbarians from advancing against Greece; for they were eager to throw their protection inside of Thermopylae about those who had chosen the cause of the Greeks and to do everything in their power to save the allies.
§ 11.4.2 The leader of the entire expedition was Eurybiades the Lacedemonian, and of the troops sent to Thermopylae the commander was Leonidas the king of the Spartans, a man who set great store by his courage and generalship. Leonidas, when he received the appointment, announced that only one thousand men should follow him on the campaign.
§ 11.4.3 And when the ephors said that he was leading altogether too few soldiers against a great force and ordered him to take along a larger number, he replied to them in secret, "For preventing the barbarians from getting through the passes they are few, but for the task to which they are now bound they are many."
§ 11.4.4 Since this reply proved riddle-like and obscure, he was asked again whether he believed he was leading the soldiers to some paltry task. Whereupon he replied, "Ostensibly I am leading them to the defence of the passes, but in fact to die for the freedom of all; and so, if a thousand set forth, Sparta will be the more renowned when they have died, but if the whole body of the Lacedemonians take the field, Lacedemon will be utterly destroyed, for not a man of them, in order to save his life, will dare to turn in flight."
§ 11.4.5 There were, then, of the Lacedemonians one thousand, and with them three hundred Spartiates, while the rest of the Greeks who were dispatched with them to Thermopylae were three thousand.
§ 11.4.6 Leonidas, then, with four thousand soldiers advanced to Thermopylae. The Locrians, however, who dwelt in the neighbourhood of the passes had already given earth and water to the Persians, and had promised that they would seize the passes in advance; but when they learned that Leonidas had arrived at Thermopylae, they changed their minds and went over to the Greeks.
§ 11.4.7 And there gathered at Thermopylae also a thousand Locrians, an equal number of Melians, and almost a thousand Phocians, as well as some four hundred Thebans of the other party; for the inhabitants of Thebes were divided against each other with respect to the alliance with the Persians. Now the Greeks who were drawn up with Leonidas for battle, being as many in number as we have set forth, tarried in Thermopylae, awaiting the arrival of the Persians.
§ 11.5.1 Xerxes, after having enumerated his armaments, pushed on with the entire army, and the whole fleet accompanied the land forces in their advance as far as the city of Acanthus, and from there the ships passed through the place where the canal had been cut into the other sea expeditiously and without loss.
§ 11.5.2 But when Xerxes arrived at the Gulf of Melis, he learned that the enemy had already seized the passes. Consequently, having joined to his forces the armament there, he summoned his allies from Europe, a little less than two hundred thousand men; so that he now possessed in all not less than one million soldiers exclusive of the naval contingent.
§ 11.5.3 And the sum total of the masses who served on the ships of war and who transported the food and general equipment was not less than that of those we have mentioned, so that the account usually given of the multitude of the men gathered together by Xerxes need cause no amazement; for men say that the unfailing rivers ran dray because of the unending stream of the multitude, and that the seas were hidden by the sails of the ships. However this may be, the greatest forces of which any historical record has been left were those which accompanied Xerxes.
§ 11.5.4 After the Persians had encamped on the Spercheius River, Xerxes dispatched envoys to Thermopylae to discover, among other things, how the Greeks felt about the war with him; and he commanded them to make this proclamation: "King Xerxes orders all to give up their arms, to depart unharmed to their native lands, and to be allies of the Persian; and to all Greeks who do this he will give more and better lands than they now possess."
§ 11.5.5 But when Leonidas heard the commands of the envoys, he replied to them: "If we should be allies of the king we should be more useful if we kept our arms, and if we should have to wage war against him, we should fight the better for our freedom if we kept them; and as for the lands which he promises to give, the Greeks have learned from their fathers to gain lands, not by cowardice, but by valour."
§ 11.6.1 The king, on hearing from his envoys the replies of the Greeks, sent for Demaratus, a Spartan who had been exiled from his native land and taken refuge with him, and with a scoff at the replies he asked the Laconian, "Will the Greeks flee more swiftly than my horses can run, or will they dare to face such armaments in battle?"
§ 11.6.2 And Demaratus, we are told, replied, "You yourself are not unacquainted with the courage of the Greeks, since you use Greek forces to quell such barbarians as revolt. So do not think that those who fight better than the Persians to maintain your sovereignty, will risk their lives less bravely against the Persians to maintain their own freedom." But Xerxes with a scoff at him ordered Demaratus to stay by his side in order that he might witness the Lacedemonians in flight.
§ 11.6.3 Xerxes with his army came against the Greeks at Thermopylae. And he put the Medes in front of all the other peoples, either because he preferred them by reason of their courage or because he wished to destroy them in a body; for the Medes still retained a proud spirit, the supremacy which their ancestors had exercised having only recently been overthrown.
§ 11.6.4 And he also designated together with the Medes the brothers and sons of those who had fallen at Marathon, believing that they would wreak vengeance upon the Greeks with the greatest fury. The Medes, then, having been drawn up for battle in the manner we have described, attacked the defenders of Thermopylae; but Leonidas had made careful preparation and massed the Greeks in the narrowest part of the pass.
§ 11.7.1 The fight which followed was a fierce one, and since the barbarians had the king as a witness of their valour and the Greeks kept in mind their liberty and were exhorted to the fray by Leonidas, it followed that the struggle was amazing.
§ 11.7.2 For since the men stood shoulder to shoulder in the fighting and the blows were struck in close combat, and the lines were densely packed, for a considerable time the battle was equally balanced. But since the Greeks were superior in valour and in the great size of their shields, the Medes gradually gave way; for many of them were slain and not a few wounded. The place of the Medes in the battle was taken by Cissians and Sacae, selected for their valour, who had been stationed to support them; and joining the struggle fresh as they were against men who were worn out they withstood the hazard of combat for a short while, be as they were slain and pressed upon by the soldiers of Leonidas, they gave way.
§ 11.7.3 For the barbarians used small round or irregularly shaped shields, by which they enjoyed an advantage in open fields, since they were thus enabled to move more easily, but in narrow places they could not easily inflict wounds upon an enemy who were formed in close ranks and had their entire bodies protected by large shields, whereas they, being at a disadvantage by reason of the lightness of their protective armour, received repeated wounds.
§ 11.7.4 At last Xerxes, seeing that the entire area about the passes was strewn with dead bodies and that the barbarians were not holding out against the valour of the Greeks, sent forward the picked Persians known as the "Immortals," who were reputed to be pre-eminent among the entire host for their deeds of courage. But when these also fled after only a brief resistance, then at last, as night fell, they ceased from battle, the barbarians having lost many dead and the Greeks a small number.
§ 11.8.1 On the following day Xerxes, now that the battle had turned out contrary to his expectation, choosing from all the peoples of his army such men as were reputed to be of outstanding bravery and daring, after an earnest exhortation announced before the battle that if they should storm the approach he would give them notable gifts, but if they fled the punishment would be death.
§ 11.8.2 These men hurled themselves upon the Greeks as one mighty mass and with great violence, but the soldiers of Leonidas closed their ranks at this time, and making their formation like a wall took up the struggle with ardour. And so far did they go in their eagerness that the lines which were wont to join in the battle by turns would not withdraw, but by their unintermitted endurance of the hardship they got the better and slew many of the picked barbarians.
§ 11.8.3 The day long they spent in conflict, vying with one another; for the older soldiers challenged the fresh vigour of the youth, and the younger matched themselves against the experience and fame of their elders. And when finally even the picked barbarians turned in flight, the barbarians who were stationed in reserve blocked the way and would not permit the picked soldiers to flee; consequently they were compelled to turn back and renew the battle.
§ 11.8.4 While the king was in a state of dismay, believing that no man would have the courage to go into battle again, there came to him a certain Trachinian, a native of the region, who was familiar with the mountainous area. This man was brought into the presence of Xerxes and undertook to conduct the Persians by way of a narrow and precipitous path, so that the men who accompanied would get behind the forces of Leonidas, which, being surrounded in this manner, would be easily annihilated.
§ 11.8.5 The king was delighted, and heaping presents upon the Trachinian he dispatched twenty thousand soldiers with him under cover of night. But a certain man among the Persians named Tyrrhastiadas, a Cymaean by birth, who was honourable and upright in his ways, deserting from the camp of the Persians in the night came to Leonidas, who knew nothing of the act of the Trachinian, and informed him.
§ 11.9.1 The Greeks, on hearing of this, gathered together about the middle of the night and conferred about the perils which were bearing down on them. And although some declared that they should relinquish the pass at once and make their way in safety to the allies, stating that any who remained in the place could not possibly come off with their lives, Leonidas, the king of the Lacedemonians, being eagerly desirous to win both for himself and for the Spartans a garland of great glory, gave orders that the rest of the Greeks should all depart and win safety for themselves, in order that they might fight together with the Greeks in the battles which still remained; but as for the Lacedemonians, he said, they must remain and not abandon the defence of the pass, for it was fitting that those who were the leaders of Hellas should gladly die striving for the meed of honour.
§ 11.9.2 Immediately, then, all the rest departed, but Leonidas together with his fellow citizens performed heroic and astounding deeds; and although the Lacedemonians were but few (he detained only the Thespiaeans) and he had all told not more than five hundred men, he was ready to meet death on behalf of Hellas.
§ 11.9.3 After this the Persians who were led by the Trachinian, after making their way around the difficult terrain, suddenly caught Leonidas between their forces, and the Greeks, giving up any thought of their own safety and choosing renown instead, with one voice asked their commander to lead them against the enemy before the Persians should learn that their men had made their way around them.
§ 11.9.4 And Leonidas, welcoming the eagerness of his soldiers, ordered them to prepare their breakfast quickly, since they would dine in Hades, and he himself, in accordance with the order he had given, took food, believing that by so doing he could keep his strength for a long time and endure the strain of contest. When they had hastily refreshed themselves and all were ready, he ordered the soldiers to attack the camp, slaying any who came in their way, and to strike for the very pavilion of the king.
§ 11.10.1 The soldiers, then, in accordance with the orders given them, forming in a compact body fell by night upon the encampment of the Persians, Leonidas leading the attack; and the barbarians, because of the unexpectedness of the attack and their ignorance of the reason for it, ran together from their tents with great tumult and in disorder, and thinking that the soldiers who had set out with the Trachinian had perished and that the entire force of the Greeks was upon them, they were struck with terror.
§ 11.10.2 Consequently many of them were slain by the troops of Leonidas, and even more perished at the hands of their comrades, who in their ignorance took them for enemies. For the night prevented any understanding of the true state of affairs, and the confusion, extending as it did throughout the entire encampment, occasioned, we may well believe, great slaughter; since they kept killing one another, the conditions not allowing of a close scrutiny, because there was no order from a general nor any demanding of a password nor, in general, any recovery of reason.
§ 11.10.3 Indeed, if the king had remained at the royal pavilion, he also could easily have been slain by the Greeks and the whole war would have reached a speedy conclusion; but as it was, Xerxes had rushed out to the tumult, and the Greeks broke into the pavilion and slew almost to a man all whom they caught there.
§ 11.10.4 So long as it was night they wandered throughout the entire camp seeking Xerxes — a reasonable action; but when the day dawned and the entire state of affairs was made manifest, the Persians observing that the Greeks were few in number, viewed them with contempt; the Persians did not, however, join battle with them face to face, fearing their valour, but they formed on their flanks and rear, and shooting arrows and hurling javelins at them from every direction they slew them to a man. Now as for the soldiers of Leonidas who guarded the passes of Thermopylae, such was the end of life they met.
§ 11.11.1 The merits of these men, who would not regard them with wonder? They with one accord did not desert the post to which Greece had assigned them, but gladly offered upon their own lives for the common salvation of all Greeks, and preferred to die bravely rather than to live shamefully.
§ 11.11.2 The consternation of the Persians also, no one could doubt that they felt it. For what man among the barbarians could have conceived of that which had taken place? Who could have expected that a band of only five hundred ever had the daring to charge against the human myriads? Consequently what man of later times might not emulate the valour of those warriors who, finding themselves in the grip of an overwhelming situation, though their bodies were subdued, were not conquered in spirit? These men, therefore, alone of all of whom history records, have in defeat been accorded a greater fame than all others who have won the fairest victories. For judgement must be passed upon brave men, not by the outcome of their actions, but by their purpose;
§ 11.11.3 in the one case Fortune is mistress, in the other it is the purpose which wins approval. What man would judge any to be braver than were those Spartans who, though not equal in number to even the thousandth part of the enemy, dared to match their valour against the unbelievable multitudes? Nor had they any hope of overcoming so many myriads, but they believed that in bravery they would surpass all men of former times, and they decided that, although the battle they had to fight was against the barbarians, yet the real contest and the award of valour they were seeking was in competition with all who had ever won admiration for their campaign.
§ 11.11.4 Indeed they alone of those of whom we have knowledge from time immemorial chose rather to preserve the laws of their state than their own lives, not feeling aggrieved that the greatest perils threatened them, but concluding that the greatest boon for which those who practise valour should pray is the opportunity to play a part in contests of this kind.
§ 11.11.5 And one would be justified in believing that it was these men who were more responsible for the common freedom of the Greeks than those who were victorious at a later time in the battles against Xerxes; for when the deeds of these men were called to mind, the Persians were dismayed whereas the Greeks were incited to perform similar courageous exploits.
§ 11.11.6 And, speaking in general terms, these men alone of the Greeks down to their time passed into immortality because of their exceptional valour. Consequently not only the writers of history but also many of our poets have celebrated their brave exploits; and one of them is Simonides, the lyric poet, who composed the following encomium in their praise, worthy of their valour: Of those who perished at Thermopylae All glorious is the fortune, fair the doom; Their grave's an altar, ceaseless memory's theirs Instead of lamentation, and their fate Is chant of praise. Such winding-sheet as this Nor mould nor all-consuming time shall waste. This sepulchre of valiant men has taken The fair renown of Hellas for its inmate. And witness is Leonidas, once king Of Sparta, who hath left behind a crown Of valour mighty and undying fame.
§ 11.12.1 Now that we have spoken at sufficient length of the valour of these men we shall resume the course of our narrative. Xerxes, now that he had gained the passes in the manner we have described and had won, as the proverb runs, a "Cadmeian victory" — had destroyed only a few of the enemy, while he had lost great numbers of his own troops. And after he had become master of the passes by means of his land forces, he resolved to make trial of contest at sea.
§ 11.12.2 At once, therefore, summoning the commander of the fleet, Megabates, he ordered him to sail against the naval force of the Greeks and to make trial, with all his fleet, of a sea-battle against them.
§ 11.12.3 And Megabates, in accordance with the king's orders, set out from Pydne in Macedonia with all the fleet and put in at a promontory of Magnesia which bears the name of Sepias. At this place a great wind arose and he lost more than three hundred warships and great numbers of cavalry transports and other vessels. And when the wind ceased, he weighed anchor and put in at Aphetae in Magnesia. From here he dispatched two hundred triremes, ordering the commanders to take a roundabout course and, by keeping Euboea on the right, to encircle the enemy.
§ 11.12.4 The Greeks were stationed at Artemisium in Euboea and had in all two hundred and eighty triremes; of these ships one hundred and forty were Athenian and the remainder were furnished by the rest of the Greeks. Their admiral was Eurybiades the Spartan, and Themistocles the Athenian supervised the affairs of the fleet; for the latter, by reason of his sagacity and skill as a general, enjoyed great favour not only with the Greeks throughout the fleet but also with Eurybiades himself, and all men looked to him and harkened to him eagerly.
§ 11.12.5 And when a meeting of the commanders of the ships was held to discuss the engagement, the rest of them all favoured waiting to receive the advance of the enemy; but Themistocles alone expressed the opposite opinion, showing them that it was to their advantage to sail against the enemy with the whole fleet in one array; for in this way, he declared, they would have the upper hand, attacking as they would with their ships in a single body an enemy whose formation was broken by disorder, as it must be, for they would be issuing out of many harbours at some distance apart. In the end the Greeks followed the opinion of meantime and sailed against the enemy with the entire fleet.
§ 11.12.6 And since the barbarians put out from many harbours, at the outset Themistocles, engaging with the scattered Persians, sank many ships and not a few he forced to turn in flight and pursued as far as the land; but later, when the whole fleet had gathered and a fierce battle ensued, each side gained the superiority in one part of the line but neither won a complete victory, and at nightfall the engagement was broken off.
§ 11.13.1 After the battle a great storm arose and destroyed many ships which were anchored outside the harbour, so that it appeared as if Providence were taking the part of the Greeks in order that, the multitude of the barbarians' ships having been lessened, the Greek force might become a match for them and strong enough to offer battle. As a result the Greeks grew ever more bold, whereas the barbarians became ever more timorous before the conflicts which faced them. Nevertheless, recovering themselves after the shipwreck, they put out with all their ships against the enemy.
§ 11.13.2 And the Greeks, with fifty Attic triremes added to their number, took position opposed to the barbarians. The sea-battle which followed was much like the fighting at Thermopylae; for the Persians were resolved to overwhelm the Greeks and force their way through the Euripus, while the Greeks, blocking the narrows, were fighting to preserve their allies in Euboea. A fierce battle ensued and many ships were lost on both sides, and nightfall compelled them to return to their respective harbours. The prize of valour, we are told, in both battles was accorded to the Athenians for the Greeks and to the Sidonians for the barbarians.
§ 11.13.3 After this the Greeks, on hearing of the course events had taken at Thermopylae and discovering that the Persians were advancing by land against Athens, became dispirited; consequently they sailed off to Salamis and awaited events there.
§ 11.13.4 The Athenians, surveying the dangers threatening each and every inhabitant of Athens, put on boats their children and wives and every useful article they could and brought them to Salamis.
§ 11.13.5 And the Persian admiral, no learning that the enemy had withdrawn, set sail for Euboea with his entire fleet, and taking the city of the Histiaeans by storm he plundered and ravaged their territory.
§ 11.14.1 While these events were taking place, Xerxes set out from Thermopylae and advanced through the territory of the Phocians, sacking the cities and destroying all property in the countryside. Now the Phocians had chosen the cause of the Greeks, but seeing that they were unable to offer resistance, the whole populace deserted all are cities and fled for safety to the rugged regions about Mount Parnassus.
§ 11.14.2 Then the king passed through the territory of the Dorians, doing it no harm since they were allies of the Persians. Here he left behind a portion of his army and ordered it to proceed to Delphi, to burn the precinct of Apollo and to carry off the votive offerings, while he advanced into Boeotia with the rest of the barbarians and encamped there.
§ 11.14.3 The force that had been dispatched to sack the oracle had proceeded as far as the temple of Athena Pronaea, but at that spot a great thunderstorm, accompanied by incessant lightning, suddenly burst from the heavens, and more than that, the storm wrenched loose huge rocks and hurled them into the host of the barbarians; the result was that large numbers of the Persians were killed and the whole force, dismayed at the intervention of the gods, fled from the region.
§ 11.14.4 So the oracle of Delphi, with the aid of some divine Providence, escaped pillage. And the Delphians, desiring to leave to succeeding generations a deathless memorial of the appearance of the gods among men, set up beside the sanctuary of Athena Pronaea a trophy on which they inscribed the following elegiac lines: To serve as a memorial to war, The warder-off of men, and as a witness To victory the Delphians set me up, Rendering thanks to Zeus and Phoebus who Thrust back the city-sacking ranks of Medes And threw their guard about the bronze-crowned precinct.
§ 11.14.5 Meanwhile Xerxes, as he passed through Boeotia, laid waste the territory of the Thespiaeans and burned Plataea which was without habitants; for the residents of these two cities had fled in a body to the Peloponnesus. After this he entered Attica and ravaged the countryside, and then he razed Athens to the ground and sent up in flames the temples of the gods. And while the king was concerned with these affairs, his fleet sailed from Euboea to Attica, having sacked on the way both Euboea and the coast of Attica.
§ 11.15.1 During this time the Cercyraeans, who had fitted out sixty triremes, were waiting off the Peloponnesus, being unable, as they themselves allege, to round the promontory at Malea, but, as certain historians tell us, anxiously awaiting the turn of the war, in order that, if the Persians prevailed, they might then give them water and earth, while if the Greeks were victorious, they would get the credit of having come to their aid.
§ 11.15.2 But the Athenians who were waiting in Salamis, when they saw Attica being laid waste with fire and heard that the sacred precinct of Athena had been razed, were exceedingly disheartened. And likewise great fear gripped the other Greeks who, driven from every quarter, were now cooped up in the Peloponnesus alone. Consequently they thought it desirable that all who had been charged with command should meet in council and deliberate regarding the kind of place that would best serve their purpose in fighting a naval battle.
§ 11.15.3 Many ideas of various kinds were expressed. The Peloponnesians, thinking only of their own safety, declared that the contest should be held at the Isthmus; for it had been strongly fortified with a wall, and so, if they should suffer any reverse in the battle, the defeated would be able to withdraw for refuge into the most suitable place of safety available, the Peloponnesus, whereas, if they cooped themselves up in the little island of Salamis, perils would beset them from which it would be difficult for them to be rescued.
§ 11.15.4 But Themistocles counselled that the contest of the ships be held at Salamis, for he believed that those who had few ships to fight with would have many advantages, in the narrows of Salamis, against a vastly superior number of vessels. And speaking generally, he showed that the region about the Isthmus would be altogether unsuitable for the sea-battle; for the contest would take place on the open sea, and the Persians because of the room for manoeuvring would easily subdue the small force of ships by their vastly superior numbers. And by presenting in like fashion many other facts pertinent to the occasion he persuaded all present to cast their votes with him for the plan he recommended.
§ 11.16.1 When at last a decision was reached by all to fight the sea-battle at Salamis, the Greeks set about making the preparations necessary to meet the Persians and the peril of battle. Accordingly Eurybiades, accompanied by Themistocles, undertook to encourage the crews and incite them to face the impending struggle. However, the crews would not heed them, but since they were one and all dismayed at the magnitude of the Persian forces, not a man of them paid any attention to his commander, every one being intent upon sailing from Salamis to the Peloponnesus.
§ 11.16.2 And the army of the Greeks on land was no whit less terrified by the armament of the enemy, and not only the loss at Thermopylae of their most illustrious warriors caused them dismay, but also the disasters which were taking place in Attica before their very eyes were filling the Greeks with utter despair.
§ 11.16.3 Meanwhile the members of the congress of the Greeks, observing the unrest of the masses and the dismay prevailing everywhere, voted to build a wall across the Isthmus. The works were completed speedily because of the enthusiasm and the multitude of those engaged in the task; but while the Peloponnesians were strengthening the wall, which extended a distance of forty stades, from Lechaeum to Cenchreae, the forces which were inactive at Salamis, together with the entire fleet, were so terror-stricken that they no longer obeyed the orders of their commanders.
§ 11.17.1 Themistocles, perceiving that the admiral, Eurybiades, was unable to overcome the mood of his forces, and yet recognizing that the narrow quarters at Salamis could be a great aid in accomplishing the victory, contrived the following ruse: He induced a certain man to desert to Xerxes and to assure him that the ships at Salamis were going to slip away from that region and assemble at the Isthmus.
§ 11.17.2 Accordingly the king, believing the man because what he reported was in itself plausible, made haste to prevent the naval forces of the Greeks from making contact with their armies on land. Therefore he at once dispatched the Egyptian fleet with orders to block the strait which separates Salamis from the territory of Megaris. The main body of his ships he dispatched to Salamis, ordering it to establish contact with the enemy and by fighting there decide the issue. The triremes were drawn up by peoples one after another, in order that, speaking the same language and knowing one another, the several contingents might assist each other with alacrity.
§ 11.17.3 When the fleet had been drawn up in this manner, the right wing was held by the Phoenicians and the left by the Greeks who were associated with the Persians. The commanders of Ionian contingents of the Persian fleet sent a man of Samos to the Greeks to inform them of what the king had decided to do and of the disposition of his forces for battle, and to say that in the course of the battle they were going to desert from the barbarians.
§ 11.17.4 And when the Samian had swum across without being observed and had informed Eurybiades about this plan, Themistocles, realizing that his stratagem had worked out as he had planned, was beside himself with joy and exhorted the crews to the fight; and as for the Greeks, they were emboldened by the promise of the Ionians, and although the circumstances were compelling them to fight against their own preference, they came down eagerly in a body from Salamis to the shore in preparation for the sea-battle.
§ 11.18.1 When at last Eurybiades and Themistocles had completed the disposition of their forces, the left wing was held by the Athenians and Lacedemonians, who in this way would be opposed to the ships of the Phoenicians; for the Phoenicians possessed a distinct superiority by reason of both of their great number and of the experience in seamanship which they inherited from their ancestors.
§ 11.18.2 The Aeginetans and Megarians formed the right wing, since they were generally considered to be the best seamen after the Athenians and it was believed that they would show the best spirit, seeing that they alone of the Greeks would have no place of refuge in case any reverse should occur in the course of the battle. The centre was held by the rest of the Greek forces. This, then, was the battle-order in which the Greeks sailed out, and they occupied the strait between Salamis and the Heracleium;
§ 11.18.3 and the king gave order to his admiral to advance against the enemy, while he himself moved down the coast to a spot directly opposite Salamis from which he could watch the course of the battle.
§ 11.18.4 The Persians, as they advanced, could at the outset maintain their line, since they had plenty of space; but when they came to the narrow passage, they were compelled to withdraw some ships from the line, creating in this way much disorder.
§ 11.18.5 The admiral, who was leading the way before the line and was the first to begin the fighting, was slain after having acquitted himself valiantly. When his ship went down, disorder seized the barbarian fleet, for there were many now to give orders, but each man did not issue the same commands. Consequently they halted the advance, and holding back their ships, they began to withdraw to where there was plenty of room.
§ 11.18.6 The Athenians, observing the disorder among the barbarians, now advanced upon the enemy, and some of their ships they struck with their rams, while from others they sheared off the rows of oars; and when the men at the oars could no longer do their work, many Persian triremes, getting sidewise to the enemy, were time and again severely damaged by the beaks of the ships. Consequently they ceased merely backing water, but turned about and fled precipitately.
§ 11.19.1 While the Phoenician and Cyprian ships were being mastered by the Athenians, the vessels of the Cilicians and Pamphylians, and also of the Lycians, which followed them in line, at first were holding out stoutly, but when they saw the strongest ships taking to flight they likewise abandoned the flight.
§ 11.19.2 On the other wing the battle was stubbornly fought and for some time the struggle was evenly balanced; but when the Athenians had pursued the Phoenicians and Cyprians to the shore and then turned back, the barbarians, being forced out of line by the returning Athenians, turned about and lost many of their ships.
§ 11.19.3 In this manner, then, the Greeks gained the upper hand and won a most renowned naval victory over the barbarians; and in the struggle forty ships were lost by the Greeks, but more than two hundred by the Persians, not including those which were captured together with their crews.
§ 11.19.4 The king, for whom the defeat was unexpected, put to death those Phoenicians who were chiefly responsible for beginning the flight, and threatened to visit upon the rest the punishment they deserved. And the Phoenicians, frightened by his threats, first put into port on the coast of Attica, and then, when night fell, set sail for Asia.
§ 11.19.5 But Themistocles, who was credited for having brought about the victory, devised another stratagem no less clever than the one we have described. For, since the Greeks were afraid to battle on land against so many myriads of Persians, he greatly reduced the number of the Persian troops in the following manner: he sent to Xerxes the attendant of his own sons to inform him that the Greeks were about to sail to the bridge of boats and to destroy it.
§ 11.19.6 Accordingly the king, believing the report because it was plausible, became fearful lest he should be cut off from the route whatever he could get back to Asia, now that the Greeks controlled the sea, and decided to cross over in all possible haste from Europe into Asia, leaving Mardonius behind in Greece with picked cavalry and infantry, the total number of whom was not less than four hundred thousand. Thus Themistocles by the use of two stratagems brought about signal advantages for the Greeks. These were the events that took place in Greece at this time.
§ 11.20.1 Now that we have described at sufficient length the events in Europe, we shall shift our narrative to the affairs of another people. The Carthaginians, we recall, had agreed with the Persians to subdue the Greeks of Sicily at the same time and had made preparations on a large scale of such materials as would be useful in carrying on a war. And when they had made everything ready, they chose for general Hamilcar, having selected him as the man who was held by them in the highest esteem.
§ 11.20.2 He assumed command of huge forces, both land and naval, and sailed forth from Carthage with an army of not less than three hundred thousand men and a fleet of over two hundred ships of war, not to mention many cargo ships for carrying supplies, numbering more than three thousand. Now as he was crossing the Libyan sea he encountered a storm and lost the vessels which were carrying the horses and chariots. And when he came to port in Sicily in the harbour of Panormus he remarked that he had finished the war; for he had been afraid that the sea would rescue the Siceliotes from the perils of the conflict.
§ 11.20.3 He took three days to rest his soldiers and to repair the damage which the storm had inflicted on his ships, and then advanced together with his host against Himera, the fleet skirting the coast with him. And when he had arrived near the city we have just mentioned, he pitched two camps, the one for the army and the other for the naval force. All the warships he hauled up on land and threw about them a deep ditch and a wooden palisade, and he strengthened the camp of the army, which he placed so that it fronted the city, and prolonged so that it took in the area from the wall extending along the naval camp as far as the hills which overhung the city.
§ 11.20.4 Speaking generally, he took control of the entire west side, after which he unloaded all the supplies from the cargo vessels and at once sent off all these boats, ordering them to bring grain and the other supplies from Libya and Sardinia.
§ 11.20.5 Then, taking his best troops, he advanced to the city, and routing the Himerans who came out against him and slaying many of them, he struck the inhabitants of the city with terror. Consequently Theron, the ruler of the Acragantini, who with a considerable force was standing by to guard Himera, in fear hastily sent word to Syracuse, asking Gelon to come to his aid as rapidly as possible.
§ 11.21.1 Gelon, who had likewise held his army in readiness, on learning that the Himerans were in despair set out from Syracuse with all speed, accompanied by not less than fifty thousand foot-soldiers and over five thousand cavalry. He covered the distance swiftly, and as he drew near the city of the Himerans he inspired boldness in the hearts of those who before had been dismayed at the forces of the Carthaginians.
§ 11.21.2 For after pitching a camp which was appropriate to the terrain about the city, he not only fortified it with a deep ditch and a palisade but also dispatched his entire body of cavalry against such forces of the enemy as were ranging over the countryside in search of booty. And the cavalry, unexpectedly appearing to men who were scattered without military order over the countryside, took prisoner as many as each man could drive before him. And when prisoners of the number of more than ten thousand had been brought into the city, not only was Gelon accorded great approbation but the Himerans also came to hold the enemy in contempt.
§ 11.21.3 Following up what he had already accomplished, all the gates which Theron through fear had formerly blocked up were now, on the contrary, opened up by Gelon through his contempt of the enemy, and he even constructed additional ones which might prove serviceable to him in case of urgent need. In a word Gelon, excelling as he did in skill as a general and in shrewdness, set about at once to discover how he might without any risk to his army outgeneral the barbarians and utterly destroy their power. And his own ingenuity was greatly aided by accident, because of the following circumstance.
§ 11.21.4 He had decided to set fire to the ships of the enemy; and while Hamilcar was occupied in the naval camp with the preparation of a magnificent sacrifice to Poseidon, cavalrymen came from the countryside bringing to Gelon a letter-carrier who was conveying dispatches from the people of Selinus, in which was written that they would send the cavalry for that day for which Hamilcar had written to dispatch them.
§ 11.21.5 The day was that on which Hamilcar planned to celebrate the sacrifice. And on that day Gelon dispatched cavalry of his own, who were under orders to skirt the immediate neighbourhood and to ride up at daybreak to the naval camp, as if they were the allies from Selinus, and when they had once got inside the wooden palisade, to slay Hamilcar and set fire to the ships. He also sent scouts to the hills which overlook the city, ordering them to raise the signal as soon as they saw that the horsemen were inside the wall. For his part, at daybreak he drew up his army and awaited the sign which was to come from the scouts.
§ 11.22.1 At sunrise the cavalrymen rode up to the naval camp of the Carthaginians, and when the guards admitted them, thinking them to be allies, they at once galloped to where Hamilcar was busied with the sacrifice, slew him, and then set fire to the ships; thereupon the scouts raised the signal and Gelon advanced with his entire army in battle order against the Carthaginian camp.
§ 11.22.2 The commanders of the Phoenicians in the camp at the outset led out their troops to meet the Siceliotes and as the lines closed they put up a vigorous fight; at the same time in both camps they sounded with the trumpets the signal for battle and a shout arose from the two armies one after the other, each eagerly striving to outdo their adversaries in the volume of their cheering.
§ 11.22.3 The slaughter was great, and the battle was swaying back and forth, when suddenly the flames from the ships began to rise on high and sundry persons reported that the general had been slain; then the Greeks were emboldened and with spirits elated at the rumours and by the hope of victory they pressed with greater boldness upon the barbarians, while the Carthaginians, dismayed and despairing of victory, turned in flight.
§ 11.22.4 Since Gelon had given orders to take no prisoners, there followed a great slaughter of the enemy in their flight, and in the end no less than one hundred and fifty thousand of them were slain. All who escaped the battle and fled to a strong position at first warded off the attackers, but the position they had seized had no water, and thirst compelled them to surrender to the victors.
§ 11.22.5 Gelon, who had won a victory in a most remarkable battle and had gained his success primarily by reason of his own skill as a general, acquired a fame that was noised abroad, not only among the Siceliotes, but among all other men as well;
§ 11.22.6 for memory recalls no man before him who had used a stratagem like this, nor one who had slain more barbarians in one engagement or had taken so great a multitude of prisoners.
§ 11.23.1 Because of this achievement many historians compare this battle with the one which the Greeks fought at Plataea and the stratagem of Gelon with the ingenious schemes of Themistocles, and the first place they assign, since such exceptional merit was shown by both men, some to the one and some to the other.
§ 11.23.2 And the reason is that, when the people of Greece on the one hand and those of Sicily on the other were struck with dismay before the conflict at the multitude of the barbarian armies, it was the prior victory of the Sicilian Greeks which gave courage to the people of Greece when they learned of Gelon's victory; and as for the men in both affairs who held the supreme command, we know that in the case of the Persians the king escaped with his life and many myriads together with him, whereas in the case of the Carthaginians not only did the general perish but also everyone who participated in the war was slain, and, as the saying is, not even a man to bear the news got back alive to Carthage.
§ 11.23.3 Furthermore, of the most distinguished of the leaders of the Greeks, Pausanias and Themistocles, the former was put to death by his fellow citizens because of his overweening greed of power and treason, and the latter was driven from every corner of Greece and fled for refuge to Xerxes, his bitterest enemy, on whose hospitality he lived to the end of his life; whereas Gelon after the battle received greater approbation every year at the hands of the Syracusans, grew old in the kingship, and died in the esteem of his people, and so strong was the goodwill which the citizens felt for him that the kingship was maintained for three members of this house. However, now that these men, who enjoy a well deserved fame, have received from us also the eulogies they merit, we shall pass on to the continuation of the preceding narrative.
§ 11.24.1 Now it so happened that Gelon won his victory on the same day that Leonidas and his soldiers were contesting against Xerxes at Thermopylae, as if the deity intentionally so arranged that both the fairest victory and the most honourable defeat should take place at the same time.
§ 11.24.2 After the battle at the city of the Himerans twenty warships made their escape from the fight, being those which Hamilcar, to serve his routine requirements, had not hauled up on shore. Consequently, although practically all the rest of the combatants were either slain or taken prisoner, these vessels managed to set sail before they were noticed. But they picked up many fugitives, and while heavily laden on this account, they encountered a storm and were all lost. A handful only of survivors got safely to Carthage in a small boat to give their fellow citizens a statement which was brief: "All who crossed over to Sicily have perished."
§ 11.24.3 The Carthaginians, who had suffered a great disaster so contrary to their hopes, were so terror-stricken that every night they kept vigil guarding the city, in the belief that Gelon with his entire force must have decided to sail forthwith against Carthage.
§ 11.24.4 And because of the multitude of the lost the city went into public mourning, while privately the homes of citizens were filled with wailing and lamentation. For some kept inquiring after sons, others after brothers, while a very large number of children who had lost their fathers, alone now in the world, grieved at the death of those who had begotten them and at their own desolation through the loss of those who could succour them. And the Carthaginians, fearing lest Gelon should forestall them in crossing over to Libya, at once dispatched to him as ambassadors plenipotentiary their ablest orators and counsellors.
§ 11.25.1 As for Gelon, after his victory he not only honoured with gifts the horsemen who had slain Hamilcar but also decorated with rewards for prowess all others who had played the part of men. The fairest part of the booty he put to one side, since he wished to embellish the temples of Syracuse with the spoils; as for the rest of the booty, much of it he nailed to the most notable of the sanctuaries in Himera, and the rest of it, together with the captives, he divided among the allies, apportioning it in accordance with the number who had served with him.
§ 11.25.2 The cities put the captives allotted to them in chains and used them for building their public works. A very great number was received by the Acragantini, who embellished their city and countryside; for so great was the multitude of prisoners at their disposal that many private citizens had five hundred captives in their homes. A contributing reason for the vast number of the captives among them was not only that they had sent many soldiers into the battle, but also that, when the flight took place, many of the fugitives turned into the interior, especially into the territory of the Acragantini, and since every man of them was taken captive by the Acragantini, the city was crammed full of the captured.
§ 11.25.3 Most of these were handed over to the state, and it was these men who quarried the stones of which not only the largest temples of the gods were constructed but also the underground conduits were built to lead off the waters from the city; these are so large that their construction is well worth seeing, although it is little thought of since they were built at slight expense. The builder in charge of these works, who bore the name of Phaeax, brought it about that, because of the fame of the construction, the underground conduits got the name "Phaeaces" from him.
§ 11.25.4 The Acragantini also built an expensive kolumbethra, seven stades in circumference and twenty cubits deep. Into it the waters from rivers and springs were conducted and it became a fish-pond, which supplied fish in great abundance to be used for food and to please the plate; and since swans also in the greatest numbers settled down upon it, the pool came to be a delight to look upon. In later years, however, the pool became choked up through neglect and was destroyed by the long passage of time;
§ 11.25.5 but the entire site, which was fertile, the inhabitants planted in vines and in trees of every description placed close together, so that they derived from it great revenues. Gelon, after dismissing the allies, led the citizens of Syracuse back home, and because of the magnitude of his success he was enthusiastically received not only among his fellow citizens but also throughout the whole of Sicily; for he brought with him such a multitude of captives that it looked as if the island had made the whole of Libya captive.
§ 11.26.1 And at once there came to him ambassadors from both the cities and rulers which had formerly opposed him, asking forgiveness for their past mistakes and promising for the future to carry out his every command. With all of them he dealt equitably and concluded alliances, bearing his good fortune as men should, not toward them alone but even toward the Carthaginians, his bitterest foes.
§ 11.26.2 For when the ambassadors who had been dispatched from Carthage came to him and begged him with tears to treat them humanely, he granted them peace, exacting of them the expense he had incurred for the war, two thousand talents of silver, and requiring them further to build two temples in which they should place copies of the treaty.
§ 11.26.3 The Carthaginians, having unexpectedly gained their deliverance, not only agreed to all this but also promised to give in addition a gold crown to Damarete, the wife of Gelon. For Damarete at their request had contributed the greatest aid toward the conclusion of the peace, and when she had received the crown of one hundred gold talents from them, she struck a coin which was called from her a Damareteion. This was worth ten Attic drachmas and was called by the Sicilian Greeks, according to its weight, a pentekontalitron.
§ 11.26.4 Gelon treated all men fairly, primarily because that was his disposition, but not the least motive was that he was eager to make all men his own by acts of goodwill. For instance, he was making ready to sail to Greece with a large force and to join the Greeks in their war against the Persians.
§ 11.26.5 And he was already on the point of setting out to sea, when certain men from Corinth put in at Syracuse and brought the news that the Greeks had won the sea-battle at Salamis and that Xerxes and a part of his armament had retreated from Europe. Consequently he stopped his preparations for departure, while welcoming the enthusiasm of the soldiers; and then he called them to an assembly, issuing orders for each man to appear fully armed. As for himself, he came to the assembly not only with no arms but not even wearing a tunic and clad only in a cloak, and stepping forward he rendered an account of his whole life and of all he had done for the Syracusans;
§ 11.26.6 and when the throng shouted its approval at each action he mentioned and showed especially its amazement that he had given himself unarmed into the hands of any who might wish to slay him, so far was he from being a victim of vengeance as a tyrant that they united in acclaiming him with one voice Benefactor and Saviour and King.
§ 11.26.7 After this incident Gelon built noteworthy temples to Demeter and Core out of the spoils, and making a golden tripod of sixteen talents value he set it up in the sacred precinct at Delphi as a thank-offering to Apollo. At a later time he purposed to build a temple to Demeter at Aetna, since one was lacking there; but he did not complete it, his life having been cut short by fate.
§ 11.26.8 Of the lyric poets Pindar was in his prime in this period. Now these are in general the most notable events which took place in this year.
§ 11.27.1 While Xanthippus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Fabius Silvanus and Servius Cornelius Tricostus. At this time the Persian fleet, with the exception of the Phoenician contingent, after its defeat in the sea-battle of Salamis lay at Cyme. Here it passed the winter, and at the coming of summer it sailed down the coast to Samos to keep watch on Ionia; and the total number of the ships in Samos excelled four hundred. Now they were keeping watch upon the cities of the Ionians who were suspected of hostile sentiments.
§ 11.27.2 Throughout Greece, after the battle of Salamis, since the Athenians were generally believed to have been responsible for the victory, and on this account were themselves exultant, it became as a matter of fact to all that they were intending to dispute with the Lacedemonians for the leadership on the sea; consequently the Lacedemonians, foreseeing what was going to happen, did all they could to humble the pride of the Athenians. When, therefore, a judgement was proposed to determine the prizes to be awarded for this valour, through the superior favour they enjoyed they caused the decision to be that of states Aegina had won the prize, and of men Ameinias of Athens, the brother of Aeschylus the poet; for Ameinias, while commanding a trireme, had been the first to ram the flagship of the Persians, sinking it and killing the admiral.
§ 11.27.3 And when the Athenians showed their anger at this undeserved humiliation, the Lacedemonians, fearful lest Themistocles should be displeased at the outcome and should devise some great evil against them and the Greeks, honoured him with double the number of gifts awarded to those who had received the prize of valour. And when Themistocles accepted the gifts, the Athenians in assembly removed him from the generalship and bestowed the office upon Xanthippus the son of Ariphron.
§ 11.28.1 When the estrangement which had arisen between the Athenians and the other Greeks became noised abroad, there came to Athens ambassadors from the Persians and from the Greeks. Now those who had been dispatched by the Persians bore word that Mardonius the general assured the Athenians that, if they should choose the cause of the Persians, he would give them their choice of any land in Greece, rebuild their walls and temples, and allow the city to live under its own laws; but those who had been sent from the Lacedemonians begged the Athenians not to yield to the persuasions of the barbarians but to maintain their loyalty toward the Greeks, who were men of their own blood and of the same speech.
§ 11.28.2 And the Athenians replied to the barbarians that the Persians possessed no land rich enough nor garland in sufficient abundance which the Athenians would accept in return for abandoning the Greeks; while to the Lacedemonians they said that as for themselves the concern which they had formerly held for the welfare of Greece they would endeavour to maintain hereafter also, and of the Lacedemonians they only asked that they should come with all speed to Attica together with all their allies. For it was evident, they added, that Mardonius, now that the Athenians had declared against him, would advance with his army against Athens.
§ 11.28.3 And this is what actually took place. For Mardonius, who was stationed in Boeotia with all his forces, at first attempted to cause certain cities in the Peloponnesus to come over to him, distributing money among their leading men, but afterwards, when he learned of the reply the Athenians had given, in his rage he led his entire force into Attica.
§ 11.28.4 Apart from the army Xerxes had given him he had himself gathered many other soldiers from Thrace and Macedonia and the other allied states, more than two hundred thousand men.
§ 11.28.5 With the advance into Attica of so large a force as this, the Athenians dispatched couriers bearing letters to the Lacedemonians, asking their aid; and since the Lacedemonians still loitered and the barbarians had already crossed the border of Attica, they were dismayed, and again, taking their children and wives and whatever else they were able to carry off in their haste, they left their native land and a second time fled for refuge to Salamis.
§ 11.28.6 And Mardonius was so angry with them that he ravaged the entire countryside, razed the city to the ground, and utterly destroyed the temples that were still standing.
§ 11.29.1 When Mardonius and his army had returned to Thebes, the Greeks gathered in congress decreed to make common cause with the Athenians and advancing to Plataea in a body, to fight to a finish for liberty, and also to make a vow to the gods that, if they were victorious, the Greeks would unite in celebrating the Festival of Liberty on that day and would hold the games of the Festival in Plataea.
§ 11.29.2 And when the Greek forces were assembled at the Isthmus, all of them agreed that they should swear an oath about the war, one that would make staunch the concord among them and would compel entrenchment nobly to endure the perils of the battle.
§ 11.29.3 The oath ran as follows: "I will not hold life dearer than liberty, nor will I desert the leaders, whether they be living or dead, but I will bury all the allies who have perished in the battle; and if I overcome the barbarians in the war, I will not destroy any one of the cities which have participated in the struggle; nor will I rebuild any one of the sanctuaries which have been burnt or demolished, but I will let them be and leave them as a reminder to coming generations of the impiety of the barbarians."
§ 11.29.4 After they had sworn the oath, they marched to Boeotia through the pass of Cithaeron, and when they had descended as far as the foothills near Erythrae, they pitched camp there. The command over the Athenians was held by Aristeides, and the supreme command by Pausanias, who was the guardian of the son of Leonidas.
§ 11.30.1 When Mardonius learned that the enemy's army was advancing in the direction of Boeotia, he marched forth from Thebes, and when he arrived at the Asopus River he pitched a camp, which he strengthened by means of a deep ditch and surrounded with a wooden palisade. The total number of the Greeks approached one hundred thousand men, that of the barbarians some five hundred thousand.
§ 11.30.2 The first to open the battle were the barbarians, who poured out upon the Greeks by night and charged with all their cavalry upon the camp. The Athenians observed them in time and with their army in battle formation boldly advanced to meet them, and a mighty battle ensued.
§ 11.30.3 In the end all the rest of the Greeks put to flight the barbarians who were arrayed against them; but the Megarians alone, who faced the commander of the cavalry and the best horsemen the Persians had, being hard pressed in the fighting, though they did not leave their position, sent some of their men as messengers to the Athenians and Lacedemonians asking them to come to their aid with all speed.
§ 11.30.4 Aristeides quickly dispatched the picked Athenians who constituted his body-guard, and these, forming themselves into a compact body and falling on the barbarians, rescued the Megarians from the perils which threatened them, slew of the Persians both the commander of the cavalry and many others, and put the remainder to flight. The Greeks, now that they had shown their superiority so brilliantly in a kind of dress rehearsal, were encouraged to hope for a decisive victory; and after this encounter they moved their camp from the foothills to a place which was better suited to a complete victory.
§ 11.30.5 For on the right was a high hill, on the left the Asopus River, and the space between was held by the camp, which was fortified by the natural impregnability of the general terrain.
§ 11.30.6 Thus for the Greeks, who had laid their plans wisely, the limited space was a great aid to their victory, since the Persian battle-line could not be extended to a great length, and the result was, as the event was to show, that no use could be made of the many myriads of the barbarians. Consequently Pausanias and Aristeides, placing their confidence in the positions they held, led the army out to battle, and when they had taken positions in a manner suitable to the terrain they advanced against the enemy.
§ 11.31.1 Mardonius, having been forced to increase the depth of his line, arranged his troops in the way that he thought would be to his advantage, and raising the battle-cry, advanced to meet the Greeks. The best soldiers were about him and with these he led the way, striking at the Lacedemonians who faced him; he fought gallantly and slew many of the Greeks. The Lacedemonians, however, opposed him stoutly and endured every peril of battle willingly, and so there was a great slaughter of the barbarians.
§ 11.31.2 Now so long as Mardonius and his picked soldiers continued to bear the brunt of the fighting, the barbarians sustained the shock of battle with good spirit; but when Mardonius fell, fighting bravely, and of the picked troops some were slain and others wounded, their spirits were dashed and they began to flee.
§ 11.31.3 When the Greeks pressed hard upon them, the larger part of the barbarians fled for safety within the palisade, but as for the rest of the army, the Greeks serving with Mardonius withdrew to Thebes, and the remainder, over four hundred thousand in number, were taken in hand by Artabazus, a man of repute among the Persians, who fled in the opposite direction, and withdrew by forced marches toward Phocis.
§ 11.32.1 Since the barbarians were thus separated in their flight, so the body of the Greeks was similarly divided; for the Athenians and Plataeans and Thespiaeans pursued after those who had set out for Thebes, and the Corinthians and Sicyonians and the Phliasians and certain others followed after the forces which were retreating with Artabazus; and the Lacedemonians together with the rest pursued the soldiers who had taken refuge within the palisade and trounced them spiritedly.
§ 11.32.2 The Thebans received the fugitives, added them to their forces, and then set upon the pursuing Athenians; a sharp battle took place before the walls, the Thebans fighting brilliantly, and not a few fell on both sides, but at last this body was overcome by the Athenians and took refuge again within Thebes.
§ 11.32.3 After this the Athenians withdrew to the aid of the Lacedemonians and joined with them in assaulting the walls against those Persians who had taken refuge within the camp; both sides put up a vigorous contest, the barbarians fighting bravely from the fortified positions they held and the Greeks storming the wooden walls, and many were wounded as they fought desperately, while not a few were also slain by the multitude of missiles and met death with stout hearts.
§ 11.32.4 Nevertheless the powerful onset of the Greeks could be withstood neither by the wall the barbarians had erected nor by their great numbers, but resistance of every kind was forced to give way; for it was a case of rivalry between the foremost peoples of Greece, the Lacedemonians and the Athenians, who were buoyed up by reason of their former victories and supported by confidence in their valour.
§ 11.32.5 In the end the barbarians were overpowered, and they found no mercy even though they pled to be taken prisoner. For the Greek general, Pausanias, observing how superior the barbarians were in number, took pains of the prevent anything due to miscalculation from happening, the barbarians being many times more numerous than the Greeks; consequently he had issued orders to take no man prisoner, and soon there was an incredible number of dead. And in the end, when the Greeks had slaughtered more than one hundred thousand of the barbarians, they reluctantly ceased slaying the enemy.
§ 11.33.1 After the battle had ended in the way we have described, the Greeks buried their dead, of which there were more than ten thousand. And after dividing up the booty according to the number of the soldiers, they made their decision as to the award for valour, and in response to the urging of Aristeides they bestowed the prize for cities upon Sparta and for men upon Pausanias the Lacedemonian. Meanwhile Artabazus with as many as four hundred thousand of the fleeing Persians made his way through Phocis into Macedonia, availing himself of the quickest routes, and got back safely together with the soldiers into Asia.
§ 11.33.2 The Greeks, taking a tenth part of the spoils, made a gold tripod and set it up in Delphi as a thank-offering to the God, inscribing on it the following couplet: This is the gift the saviours of far-flung Hellas upraised here, Having delivered their states from loathsome slavery's bonds. Inscriptions were also set up for the Lacedemonians who died at Thermopylae; for the whole body of them as follows: Here on a time there strove with two hundred myriads of foemen Soldiers in number but four thousand from Pelops' fair Isle; and for the Spartans alone as follows: To Lacedemon's folk, O stranger, carry the message, How we lie here in this place, faithful and true to their laws.
§ 11.33.3 In like manner the citizen-body of the Athenians embellished the tombs of those who had perished in the Persian War, held the Funeral Games then for the first time, and passed a law that laudatory addresses upon men who were buried at the public expense should be delivered by speakers selected for each occasion.
§ 11.33.4 After the events we have described Pausanias the general advanced with the army against Thebes and demanded for punishment the men who had been responsible for the alliance of Thebes with the Persians. And the Thebans were so overawed by the multitude of their enemy and by their prowess in battle, that the men most responsible for their desertion from the Greeks agreed of their own accord to being handed over, and they all received at the hands of Pausanias the punishment of death.
§ 11.34.1 Also in Ionia the Greeks fought a great battle with the Persians on the same day as that which took place in Plataea, and since we propose to describe it, we shall take up the account of it from the beginning.
§ 11.34.2 Leotychides the Lacedemonian and Xanthippus the Athenian, the commanders of the naval force, after the battle of Salamis collected the fleet in Aegina, and after spending some days there they sailed to Delos with two hundred and fifty triremes. And while they lay at anchor there, ambassadors came to them from Samos asking them to liberate the Greeks of Asia.
§ 11.34.3 Leotychides took counsel with the commanders, and after they had heard all the Samians had to say, they decided to undertake to liberate the cities and speedily sailed forth from Delos. When the Persian admirals, who were then at Samos, learned that the Greeks were sailing against them, they withdrew from Samos with all their ships, and putting into port at Mycale in Ionia they hauled up their ships, since they saw that the vessels were unequal to offering battle, and threw about them a wooden palisade and a deep ditch; despite these defences they also summoned land forces from Sardis and the neighbouring cities and gathered in all about one hundred thousand men. Furthermore, they made ready all the other equipment that is useful in war, believing that the Ionians also would go over to the enemy.
§ 11.34.4 Leotychides advanced with all the fleet ready for action against the barbarians at Mycale, dispatching in advance a ship carrying a herald who had the strongest voice of anyone in the fleet. This man had been ordered to sail up to the enemy and to announce in a loud voice, "The Greeks, having conquered the Persians, are now come to liberate the Greek cities of Asia."
§ 11.34.5 This Leotychides did in the belief that the Greeks in the army of the barbarians would revolt from the Persians and that great confusion would arise in the camp of the barbarians; and that is what actually happened. For as soon as the herald approached the ships which had been hauled up on the shore, and made the announcement as he had been ordered, it came about that the Persians lost confidence in the Greeks and that the Greeks began to agree among themselves about revolting.
§ 11.35.1 After the Greeks under Leotychides had found out how the Greeks in the Persians' camp felt, they disembarked their forces. And on the following day, while they were making preparation for battle, the rumour came to them of the victory which the Greeks had won over the Persians at Plataea.
§ 11.35.2 At this news Leotychides, after calling an assembly, exhorted his troops to the battle, and among the other considerations which he presented to them he announced in histrionic manner the victory of Plataea, in the belief that he would make more confident those who were about to fight. And marvellous indeed was the outcome. For it has become known that it was on the same day that the two battles took place, the one which was fought at Mycale and the other which occurred at Plataea.
§ 11.35.3 It would seem, therefore, that Leotychides had not yet learned of the victory, but that he was deliberately inventing the military success and did so as a stratagem; for the great distance separating the places proved that the transmission of the message was impossible.
§ 11.35.4 But the leaders of the Persians, placing no confidence in the Greeks of their own forces, took away their arms and gave them to men who were friendly to them; and then they called all the soldiers together and told them that Xerxes was coming in person to their aid with a great armament, inspiring them thereby with courage to face the peril of the battle.
§ 11.36.1 When both sides had drawn out their troops in battle-order and were advancing against each other, the Persians, observing how few the enemy were, disdained them and bore down on them with great shouting.
§ 11.36.2 Now the Samians and Milesians had decided unanimously beforehand to support the Greek cause and were pushing forward all together at the double; and as their advance brought them in sight of the Greek army, although the Ionians thought that the Greeks would be encouraged, the result was the very opposite.
§ 11.36.3 For the troops of Leotychides, thinking that Xerxes was come from Sardis with his army and advancing upon them, were filled with fear, and confusion and division among themselves arose in the army, some saying that they should take to their ships with all speed and depart and others that they should remain and boldly hold their lines. While they were still in disorder, the Persians came in sight, equipped in a manner to inspire terror and bearing down on them with shouting.
§ 11.36.4 The Greeks, having no respite for deliberation, were compelled to withstand the attack of the barbarians. At the outset both sides fought stoutly and the battle was indecisive, great numbers falling in both armies; but when the Samians and Milesians put in their appearance, the Greeks plucked up courage, whereas the barbarians were filled with terror and broke in flight.
§ 11.36.5 A great slaughter followed, as the troops of Leotychides and Xanthippus pressed upon the beaten barbarians and pursued them as far as the camp; and Aeolians participated in the battle, after the issue had already been decided, as well as many other peoples of Asia, since an overwhelming desire for their liberty entered the hearts of the inhabitants of the cities of Asia.
§ 11.36.6 Therefore practically all of them gave no thought either to hostages or to oaths, but they joined with the other Greeks in slaying the barbarians in their flight. This was the manner in which the Persians suffered defeat, and there were slain of them more than forty thousand, while of the survivors some found refuge in the camp and others withdrew to Sardis.
§ 11.36.7 And when Xerxes learned of both the defeat in Plataea and the rout of his own troops in Mycale, he left a portion of his armament in Sardis to carry on the war against the Greeks, while he himself, in bewilderment, set out with the rest of his army on the way to Ecbatana.
§ 11.37.1 Leotychides and Xanthippus now sailed back to Samos and made allies of the Ionians and Aeolians, and then they endeavoured to induce them to abandon Asia and to move their homes to Europe. They promised to expel the peoples who had espoused the cause of the Medes and to give their lands to them;
§ 11.37.2 for as a general thing, they explained, if they remained in Asia, they would always have the enemy on their borders, an enemy far superior in military strength, while their allies, who lived across the sea, would be unable to render them any timely assistance. When the Aeolians and Ionians had heard these promises, they resolved to take the advice of the Greeks and set about preparing to sail with them to Europe.
§ 11.37.3 But the Athenians changed to the opposite opinion and advised them to stay where they were, saying that even if no other Greeks should come to their aid, the Athenians, as their kinsmen, would do so independently. They reasoned that, if the Ionians were given new homes by the Greeks acting in common they would no longer look upon Athens as their mother-city. It was for this reason that the Ionians changed their minds and decided to remain in Asia.
§ 11.37.4 After these events it came to pass that the armament of the Greeks was divided, the Lacedemonians sailing back to Laconia and the Athenians together with the Ionians and the islanders weighing anchor for Sestus.
§ 11.37.5 And Xanthippus the general, as soon as he reached that port, launched assaults upon Sestus and took the city, and after establishing a garrison in it he dismissed the allies and himself with his fellow citizens returned to Athens.
§ 11.37.6 Now the Median War, as it has been called, after lasting two years, came to the end which we have described. And of the historians, Herodotus, beginning with the period prior to the Trojan War, has written in nine books a general history of practically all the events which occurred in the inhabited world, and brings his narrative to an end with the battle of the Greeks against the Persians at Mycale and the siege of Sestus.
§ 11.37.7 In Italy the Romans waged a war against the Volscians, and conquering them in battle slew many of them. And Spurius Cassius, who had been consul the preceding year, because he was believed to be aiming at a tyranny and was found guilty, was put to death. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 11.38.1 When Timosthenes was archon at Athens, in Rome Caeso Fabius and Lucius Aemilius Mamercus succeeded to the consulship. During this year throughout Sicily an almost complete peace pervaded the island, the Carthaginians having finally been humbled, and Gelon had established a beneficent rule over the Sicilian Greeks and was providing their cities with a high degree of orderly government and an abundance of every necessity of life.
§ 11.38.2 And since the Syracusans had by law put an end to costly funerals and done away with the expense which customarily had been incurred for the dead, and there had been specified in the law even the altogether inexpensive obsequies, King Gelon, desiring to foster and maintain the people's interest in all matters, kept the law regarding bodies intact in his own case;
§ 11.38.3 for when he fell ill and had given up hope of life, he handed over the kingship to Hieron, his eldest brother, and respecting his own burial he gave orders that the prescriptions of the law should be strictly observed. Consequently at his death his funeral was held by his successor to the throne just as he had ordered it.
§ 11.38.4 His body was buried on the estate of his wife in the Nine Towers, as it is called, which is a marvel to men by reason of its strong construction. And the entire populace accompanied his body from the city, although the place was two hundred stades distant.
§ 11.38.5 Here he was buried, and the people erected a noteworthy tomb and accorded Gelon the honours which belong to heroes; but at a later time the monument was destroyed by the Carthaginians in the course of campaign against Syracuse, while the towers were thrown down by Agathocles out of envy. Nevertheless, neither the Carthaginians out of enmity nor Agathocles of his native baseness, nor any other man has ever been able to deprive Gelon of his glory;
§ 11.38.6 for the just witness of history has guarded his fair fame, heralding it abroad with piercing voice for evermore. It is indeed both just and beneficial to society that history should heap imprecations upon base men who have held positions of authority, but should accord immortal remembrance to those who have been beneficent rulers; for in this way especially, it will be found, many men of later generations will be impelled to work for the general good of mankind.
§ 11.38.7 Now Gelon reigned for seven years, and Hieron his brother succeeded him in the rule and reigned over the Syracusans eleven years and eight months.
§ 11.39.1 In Greece the Athenians after the victory at Plataea brought their children and wives back to Athens from Troezen and Salamis, and at once set to work fortifying the city and were giving their attention to every other means which made for its safety.
§ 11.39.2 But the Lacedemonians, observing that the Athenians had gained for themselves great glory by the actions in which their navy had been engaged, looked with suspicion upon their growing power and decided to prevent the Athenians from rebuilding their walls.
§ 11.39.3 They at once, therefore, dispatched ambassadors to Athens who would ostensibly advise them not at present to fortify the city, as not being of advantage to the general interests of the Greeks; for, they pointed out, if Xerxes should return with larger armaments than before he would have walled cities ready to hand outside the Peloponnesus which he would use as bases and thus easily subjugate the Greeks. And when no attention was paid to their advice, the ambassadors approached the men who were building the wall and ordered them to stop work immediately.
§ 11.39.4 While the Athenians were at a loss what they should do, Themistocles, who enjoyed at that time the highest favour among them, advised them to take no action; for he warned them that if they had recourse to force, the Lacedemonians could easily march up against them together with the Peloponnesians and prevent them from fortifying the city.
§ 11.39.5 But he told the Council in confidence that he and certain others would go as ambassadors to Lacedemon to explain the matter of the wall to the Lacedemonians; and he instructed the magistrates, when ambassadors should come from Lacedemonian to Athens, to detain them until he himself should return from Lacedemon, and in the meantime to put the whole population to work fortifying the city. In this manner, he declared to them, they would achieve their purpose.
§ 11.40.1 After the Athenians had accepted the plan of Themistocles, he and the ambassadors set out for Sparta, and the Athenians began with great enthusiasm to build the walls, sparing neither houses nor tombs. And everyone joined in the task, both children and women and, in a word, every alien and slave, no one of them showing any lack of zeal.
§ 11.40.2 And when the work was being accomplished with amazing speed both because of the many workmen and the enthusiasm of them all, Themistocles was summoned by the chief magistrates and upbraided for the building of the walls; but he denied that there was any construction, and urged the magistrates not to believe empty rumours but to dispatch to Athens trustworthy ambassadors, from whom, he assured them, they would learn the truth; and as surety for them he offered himself and the ambassadors who had accompanied him.
§ 11.40.3 The Lacedemonians, following the advice of Themistocles, put him and his companions under guard and dispatched to Athens their most important men who were to spy out whatever matter should arouse their curiosity. But time had passed, and the Athenians had already got so far along with the construction that, when the Lacedemonian ambassadors arrived in Athens and with denunciations and threats of violence upbraided them, the Athenians took them into custody, saying that they would release them only when the Lacedemonians in turn should release the ambassadors who accompanied Themistocles.
§ 11.40.4 In this manner the Laconians were outgeneralled and compelled to release the Athenian ambassadors in order to get back their own. And Themistocles, having by means of so clever a stratagem fortified his native land speedily and without danger, enjoyed high favour among his fellow citizens.
§ 11.40.5 While the events we have described were taking place, a war broke out between the Romans and the Aequi and the inhabitants of Tusculum, and meeting the Aequi in battle the Romans overcame them and slew many of the enemy, and then they took Tusculum after a siege and occupied the city of the Aequi.
§ 11.41.1 At the close of the year the archon in Athens was Adeimantus, and in Rome the consuls elected were Marcus Fabius Vibulanus and Lucius Valerius Publius. At this time Themistocles, because of his skill as a general and his sagacity, was held in esteem not only by his fellow citizens but by all Greeks.
§ 11.41.2 He was, therefore, elated over his fame and had recourse to many other far more ambitious undertakings which would serve to increase the dominant position of his native state. Thus the Peiraeus, as it is called, was not at that time a harbour, but the Athenians were using as their ship-yard the bay called Phaleric, which was quite small; and so Themistocles conceived the plan of making the Peiraeus into a harbour, since it would require only a small amount of construction and could be made into a harbour, the best and largest in Greece.
§ 11.41.3 He also hoped that when this improvement had been added to what the Athenians possessed, the city would be able to compete for the hegemony at sea; for the Athenians possessed at that time the largest number of triremes and through an unbroken succession of battles at sea which the city had waged had gained experience and renown in naval conflicts.
§ 11.41.4 Furthermore, he reasoned that they would have the Ionians on their side because they were kinsmen, and that with their aid the Athenians would liberate the other Greeks of Asia, who would then turn in goodwill to the Athenians because of this benefaction, and that all the Greeks of the islands, being immensely impressed by the magnitude of their naval strength, would readily align themselves with the people which had the power both to inflict the greatest injury and to bestow the greatest advantages.
§ 11.41.5 For he saw that the Lacedemonians, though excellently equipped so far as their land forces were concerned, had no natural talent for fighting on ships.
§ 11.42.1 Now as Themistocles pondered these matters, he decided that he should not make public announcement of his plan, knowing with certainty that the Lacedemonians would endeavour to stop it; and so he announced to the citizens in Assembly that he wished both to advise upon and to introduce important matters which were also to the advantage of the city. But what these matters were, he added, it was not in the public interest to state openly, but it was fitting that a few men should be charged with putting them into effect; and he therefore asked the people to select two men in whom they had the greatest confidence and to entrust to them to pass upon the matter in question.
§ 11.42.2 The people acceded to his advice, and the Assembly chose two men, Aristeides and Xanthippus, selecting them not only because of their upright character, but also because they saw that these men were in active rivalry with Themistocles for glory and leadership and were therefore opposed to him.
§ 11.42.3 These men heard privately from Themistocles about the plan and then declared to the Assembly that what Themistocles had disclosed to them was of great importance, was to the advantage of the state, and was feasible.
§ 11.42.4 The people admired the man and at the same time harboured suspicions of him, lest it should be with the purpose of preparing some sort of tyranny for himself that he was embarking upon plans of such magnitude and importance, and they urged him to declare openly what he had decided upon. But he made this reply, that it was not to the interests of the state that there should be a public disclosure of his intentions.
§ 11.42.5 Thereupon the people were far the more amazed at the man's shrewdness and greatness of mind, and they urged him to disclose his ideas secretly to the Council, assuring him that, if that body decided that what he said was feasible and advantageous, then they would advise it to carry his plan to completion.
§ 11.42.6 Consequently, when the Council learned all the details and decided that what he said was for the advantage of the state and was feasible, the people, without more ado, agreed with the Council, and Themistocles received authority to do whatever he wished. And every man departed from the Assembly in admiration of the high character of the man, being also elated in spirit and expectant of the outcome of the plan.
§ 11.43.1 Themistocles, having received authority to proceed and enjoying every assistance ready at hand for his undertakings, again conceived a way to deceive the Lacedemonians by a stratagem; for he was fully assured that just as the Lacedemonians had interfered with the building of the wall about the city, they would in the same manner endeavour to obstruct the plans of the Athenians in the case of the making of the harbour.
§ 11.43.2 Accordingly he decided to dispatch ambassadors to the Lacedemonians to show them how it was to the advantage of the common interests of Greece that it should possess a first-rate harbour in view of the expedition which was to be expected on the part of the Persians. When he had in this way somewhat dulled the impulse of the Spartans to interfere, he devoted himself to that work, and since everybody enthusiastically co operated it was speedily done and the harbour was finished before anyone expected.
§ 11.43.3 And Themistocles persuaded the people each year to construct and add twenty triremes to the fleet they already possessed, and also to remove the tax upon metics and artisans, in order that great character crowds of people might stream into the city from every quarter and that the Athenians might easily procure labour for a great number of crafts. Both these policies he considered to be most useful in building up the city's naval forces. The Athenians, therefore, were busy over the matters we have described.
§ 11.44.1 The Lacedemonians, having appointed Pausanias, who had held the command at Plataea, admiral of their fleet, instructed him to liberate the Greek cities which were still held by barbarian garrisons.
§ 11.44.2 And taking fifty triremes from the Peloponnesus and summoning from the Athenians thirty commanded by Aristeides, he first of all sailed to Cyprus and liberated those cities which still had Persian garrisons;
§ 11.44.3 and after this he sailed to the Hellespont and took Byzantium, which was held by the Persians, and of the other barbarians some he slew and others he expelled, and thus liberated the city, but many important Persians whom he captured in the city he turned over to Gongylus of Eretria to guard. Ostensibly Gongylus was to keep these men for punishment, but actually he was to get them off safe to Xerxes; for Pausanias had secretly made a pact of friendship with the king and was about to marry the daughter of Xerxes, his purpose being to betray the Greeks.
§ 11.44.4 The man who was acting as negotiator in this affair was the general Artabazus, and he was quietly supplying Pausanias with large sums of money to be used in corrupting such Greeks as could serve their ends. The plan of Pausanias, however, was brought to light and he got his punishment in the following manner.
§ 11.44.5 For Pausanias emulated the luxurious life of the Persian and dealt with his subordinates in the manner of a tyrant, so that they were all angry with him, and especially those Greeks who had been assigned to some command.
§ 11.44.6 Consequently, while many, as they mingled together in the army both by peoples and by cities, were railing at the harshness of Pausanias, some Peloponnesians deserted him and sailed back to the Peloponnesus, and dispatching ambassadors to Sparta they lodged an accusation against Pausanias; and Aristeides the Athenian, making wise use of the opportunity, in the course of his public conferences with the states won them over and by his personal intimacy with them made them adherents of the Athenians. But even more did matters play by mere chance into the hands of the Athenians by reason of the following facts.
§ 11.45.1 Pausanias had stipulated that the men who carried the messages from him to the king should not return and thus become betrayers of their secret communications; consequently, since they were being put to death by the receivers of the letters, no one of them was ever returning alive.
§ 11.45.2 So one of the couriers, reasoning from this fact, opened his letters, and discovering that his inference was correct as to the killing of all who carried the messages, he turned the letters over to the ephors.
§ 11.45.3 But when the ephors were loath to believe this, because the letters had been turned over to them already opened, and demanded further and more substantial proof, the man offered to produce Pausanias acknowledging the facts in person.
§ 11.45.4 Consequently he went to Taenarum, and seating himself as a suppliant at the shrine of Poseidon he set up a tent with two rooms and concealed the ephors and certain other Spartans; and when Pausanias came to him and asked why he was a suppliant, the man upbraided him for directing in the letter that he should be put to death.
§ 11.45.5 Pausanias said that he was sorry and went on to ask the man to forgive the mistake; he even implored him to help keep the matter secret, promising him great gifts, and the two then parted. As for the ephors and the others with them, although they had learned the precise truth, at that time they held their peace, but on a later occasion, when the Lacedemonians were taking up the matter together with the ephors, Pausanias learned of it in advance, acted first, and fled for safety into the temple of Athena of the Brazen House.
§ 11.45.6 And while the Lacedemonians were hesitating whether to punish him now that he was a suppliant, we are told that the mother of Pausanias, coming to the temple, neither said nor did anything else than to pick up a brick and lay it against the entrance of the temple, and after she had done this she returned to her home.
§ 11.45.7 And the Lacedemonians, falling in with the mother's decision, walled up the entrance and in this manner forced Pausanias to meet his end through starvation. Now the body of the dead man was turned over to his relatives for burial; but the divinity showed its displeasure at the violation of the sanctity of suppliants,
§ 11.45.8 for once when the Lacedemonians were consulting the oracle at Delphi about some other matters, the god replied by commanding them to restore her suppliant to the goddess.
§ 11.45.9 Consequently the Spartans, thinking the oracle's command to be impracticable, were at a loss for a considerable time, being unable to carry out the injunction of the god. Concluding, however, to do as much as was within their power, they made two bronze statues of Pausanias and set them up in the temple of Athena.
§ 11.46.1 As for us, since throughout our entire history we have made it our practice in the case of good men to enhance their glory by means of the words of praise we pronounce over them, and in the case of bad men, when they die, to utter the appropriate obloquies, we shall not leave the turpitude and treachery of Pausanias to go uncondemned.
§ 11.46.2 For who would not be amazed at the folly of this man who, though he had been a benefactor of Greece, had won the battle of Plataea, and had performed many other deeds which won applause, not only failed to safeguard the esteem he enjoyed but by his love of the wealth and luxury of the Persians brought dishonour upon the good name he already possessed?
§ 11.46.3 Indeed, elated by his successes he came to abhor the Laconian manner of life and to imitate the licentiousness and luxury of the Persians, he who least of all had reason to emulate the customs of the barbarians; for he had not learned of them from others, but in person by actual contact he had made trial of them and was aware how greatly superior with respect to virtue his ancestors' way of life was to the luxury of the Persians.
§ 11.46.4 And in truth because of his own baseness Pausanias not only himself received the punishment he deserved, but he also brought it about that his countrymen lost the supremacy at sea. In comparison, for instance, take the fine tact of Aristeides in dealing with the allies: when they took note of it, both because of his affability toward his subordinates and his uprightness in general, it caused them all as with one impulse to incline toward the Athenian cause.
§ 11.46.5 Consequently the allies no longer paid any heed to the commanders who were sent from Sparta, but in their admiration of Aristeides they eagerly submitted to him in every matter and thus brought it about that he received the supreme command by sea without having to fight for it.
§ 11.47.1 At once, then, Aristeides advised all the allies as they were holding a general assembly to designate the island of Delos as their common treasury and to deposit there all the money they collected, and towards the war which they suspected would come from the Persians to impose a levy upon all the cities according to their means, so that the entire sum collected would amount to five hundred and sixty talents.
§ 11.47.2 And when he was appointed to allocate the levy, he distributed the sum so accurately and justly that all the cities consented to it. Consequently, since he was considered to have accomplished an impossible thing, he won for himself a very high reputation for justice, and because he excelled in that virtue he was given the epithet of "the Just."
§ 11.47.3 Thus at one and the same time the baseness of Pausanias deprived his countrymen of the supremacy on the sea, and the all-round virtue of Aristeides caused Athens to gain the leadership which she had not possessed before. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 11.48.1 When Phaedon was archon in Athens, the Seventy-sixth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Scamandrus of Mytilene won the "stadion," and in Rome the consuls were Caeso Fabius and Spurius Furius Menellaeus.
§ 11.48.2 In the course of this year Leotychides, the king of the Lacedemonians, died after a reign of twenty-two years, and he was succeeded on the throne by Archidamus, who ruled for forty-two years. And there died also Anaxilas, the tyrant of Rhegium and Zancle, after a rule of eighteen years, and he was succeeded in the tyranny by Micythus, who was entrusted with the position on the understanding that he would restore it to the sons of Anaxilas, who were not yet of age.
§ 11.48.3 And Hieron, who became king of the Syracusans after the death of Gelon, observing how popular his brother Polyzelus was among the Syracusans and believing that he was waiting to seize the kingship, was eager to put him out of the way, and so, enlisting foreign soldiers and gathering about his person an organized body of mercenaries, he thought that by these means he could hold the kingship securely.
§ 11.48.4 And so, when the Sybarites were being besieged by the Crotoniates and called on Hieron for help, he enrolled many soldiers in the army, which he then put under the command of his brother Polyzelus in the belief that he would be slain by the Crotoniates.
§ 11.48.5 When Polyzelus, suspecting what we have mentioned, refused to undertake the campaign, Hieron was enraged at his brother, and when Polyzelus took refuge with Theron, the tyrant of Acragas, he began making preparation for war upon Theron.
§ 11.48.6 Subsequently to these events, Thrasydaeus the son of Theron was governing the city of Himera more harshly than was proper, and the result was that the Himerans became altogether alienated from him.
§ 11.48.7 Now they rejected the idea of going to his father and entering an accusation with him, since they did not believe they would find in him a fair listener; but they dispatched to Hieron ambassadors, who presented their complaints against Thrasydaeus and offered to hand Himera over to Hieron and join him in his attack upon Theron.
§ 11.48.8 Hieron, however, having decided to be at peace with Theron, betrayed the Himerans and disclosed to him their secret plans. Consequently Theron, after examining into the reported plan and finding the information to be true, composed his differences with Hieron and restored Polyzelus to the favour he had previously enjoyed, and then he arrested his opponents, who were many, among the Himerans and put them to death.
§ 11.49.1 Hieron removed the people of Naxos and Catana from their cities and sent there settlers of his own choosing, having gathered five thousand from the Peloponnesus and added an equal number of others from Syracuse; and the name of Catana he changed to Aetna, and not only the territory of Catana but also much neighbouring land which he added to it he portioned out in allotments, up to the full sum of ten thousand settlers.
§ 11.49.2 This he did out of a desire, not only that he might have a substantial help ready at hand for any need that might arise, but also that from the recently founded state of ten thousand men he might receive the honours accorded to heroes. And the Naxians and Catanians whom he had removed from their native states he transferred to Leontini and commanded them to make their homes in that city along with the native population.
§ 11.49.3 And Theron, seeing that after the slaughter of the Himerans the city was in need of settlers, made a mixed multitude there, enrolling as its citizens both Dorians and any others who so wished.
§ 11.49.4 These citizens lived together on good terms in the state for fifty-eight years; but at the expiration of this period the city was conquered and razed to the ground by the Carthaginians and has remained without inhabitants to this day.
§ 11.50.1 When Dromocleides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Gnaeus Manlius. In this year the Lacedemonians, now that for no good reason they had lost the command of the sea, were resentful; consequently they were incensed at the Greeks who had fallen away from them and continued to threaten them with the appropriate punishment.
§ 11.50.2 And when a meeting of the Gerousia was convened, they considered making war upon the Athenians for the sake of regaining the command of the sea.
§ 11.50.3 Likewise, when the general Assembly was convened, the younger men and the majority of the others were eager to recover the leadership, believing that, if they could secure it, they would enjoy great wealth, Sparta in general would be made greater and more powerful, and the estates of its private citizens would receive a great increase of prosperity.
§ 11.50.4 They kept calling to mind also the ancient oracle in which the god commanded them to beware lest their leadership should be a "lame" one, and the oracle, they insisted, meant nothing other than the present; for "lame" indeed their rule would be if, having two leaderships, they should lose one of them.
§ 11.50.5 Since practically all the citizens had been eager for this course of action and the Gerousia was in session to consider these matters, no one entertained the hope that any man would have the temerity to suggest any other course.
§ 11.50.6 But a member of the Gerousia, Hetoemaridas by name, who was a direct descendant of Heracles and enjoyed favour among the citizens by reason of his character, undertook to advise that they leave the Athenians with their leadership, since it was not to Sparta's interest, he declared, to lay claim to the sea. He was able to bring pertinent arguments in support of his surprising proposal, so that, against the expectation of all, he won over both the Gerousia and the people.
§ 11.50.7 And in the end the Lacedemonians decided that the opinion of Hetoemaridas was to their advantage and abandoned their zest for the war against the Athenians.
§ 11.50.8 As for the Athenians, at first they expected to have a great war with the Lacedemonians for the command of the sea, and for this reason were building additional triremes, raising a large sum of money, and dealing honourably with their allies; but when they learned of the decision of the Lacedemonians, they were relieved of their fear of war and set about increasing the power of their city.
§ 11.51.1 When Acestorides was archon in Athens, in Rome Caeso Fabius and Titus Verginius succeeded to the consulship. And in this year Hieron, the king of the Syracusans, when ambassadors came to him from Cumae in Italy and asked his aid in the war which the Tyrrhenians, who were at that time masters of the sea, were waging against them, he dispatched to their aid a considerable number of triremes.
§ 11.51.2 And after the commanders of this fleet had put in at Cumae, joining with the men of that region they fought a naval battle with the Tyrrhenians, and destroying many of their ships and conquering them in a great sea-fight, they humbled the Tyrrhenians and delivered the Cumaeans from their fears, after which they sailed back to Syracuse.
§ 11.52.1 When Menon was archon in Athens, the Romans chose as consuls Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Gaius Cornelius Lentulus, and in Italy a war broke out between the Tarantini and the Iapygians.
§ 11.52.2 For these peoples, disputing with each other over some land on their borders, had been engaging for some years in skirmishings and in raiding each other's territory, and since the difference between them kept constantly increasing and frequently resulted in deaths, they finally went headlong into out-and out contention.
§ 11.52.3 Now the Iapygians not only made ready the army of their own men but they also joined with them an auxiliary force of more than twenty thousand soldiers; and the Tarantini, on learning of the great size of the army gathered against them, both mustered the soldiers of the state and added to them many more of the Rhegians, who were their allies.
§ 11.52.4 A fierce battle took place and many fell on both sides, but in the end the Iapygians were victorious. When the defeated army split in the flight into two bodies, the one retreating to Tarentum and the other fleeing to Rhegium, the Iapygians, following their example, also divided.
§ 11.52.5 Those who pursued the Tarantini, the distance being short, slew many of the enemy, but those who were pressing after the Rhegians were so eager that they broke into Rhegium together with the fugitives and took possession of the city.
§ 11.53.1 The next year Chares was archon in Athens, and in Rome the consuls elected were Titus Menenius and Gaius Horatius Pulvillus, and the Eleians celebrated the Seventy-seventh Olympiad, that in which Dandes of Argos won the "stadion." In this year in Sicily Theron, the despot of Acragas, died after a reign of sixteen years, and his son Thrasydaeus succeeded to the throne.
§ 11.53.2 Now Theron, since he had administered his office equitably, not only enjoyed great favour among his countrymen during his lifetime, but also upon his death he was accorded the honours which are paid to heroes; but his son, even while his father was still living, was violent and murderous, and after his father's death ruled over his native city without respect for the laws and like a tyrant.
§ 11.53.3 Consequently he quickly lost the confidence of his subjects and was the constant object of plots, living a life of execration; and so he soon came to an end befitting his own lawlessness. For Thrasydaeus after the death of his father Theron gathered many mercenary soldiers and enrolled also citizens of Acragas and Himera, and thus got together in all more than twenty thousand cavalry and infantry.
§ 11.53.4 And since he was preparing to make war with these troops upon the Syracusans, Hieron the king made ready a formidable army and marched upon Acragas. A fierce battle took place, and a very large number fell, since Greeks were marshalled against Greeks.
§ 11.53.5 Now the fight was won by the Syracusans, who lost some two thousand men against more than four thousand for their opponents. Thereupon Thrasydaeus, having been humbled, was expelled from his position, and fleeing to Nisaean Megara, as it is called, he was there condemned to death and met his end; and the Acragantini, having now recovered their democratic form of government, sent ambassadors to Hieron and secured peace.
§ 11.53.6 In Italy war broke out between the Romans and the Veiians and a great battle was fought at the site called Cremera. The Romans were defeated and many of them perished, among their number, according to some historians, being the three hundred Fabii, who were of the same gens and hence were included under the single name. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 11.54.1 When Praxigerus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Aulus Verginius Tricostus and Gaius Servilius Structus. At this time the Eleians, who dwelt in many small cities, united to form one state which is known as Elis.
§ 11.54.2 And the Lacedemonians, seeing that Sparta was in a humbled state by reason of the treason of their general Pausanias, whereas the Athenians were in good repute because no one of their citizens had been found guilty of treason, were eager to involve Athens in similar discreditable charges.
§ 11.54.3 Consequently, since Themistocles was greatly esteemed by the Athenians and enjoyed high fame for his high character, they accused him of treason, maintaining that he had been a close friend of Pausanias and had agreed with him that together they would betray Greece of the Xerxes.
§ 11.54.4 They also carried on conversations with the enemies of Themistocles, inciting them to lodge an accusation against him, and gave them money; and they explained that, when Pausanias decided to betray the Greeks, he disclosed the plan he had to Themistocles and urged him to participate in the project, and that Themistocles neither agreed to the request nor decided that it was his duty to accuse a man who was his friend.
§ 11.54.5 At any rate a charge was brought against Themistocles, but at the time he was not found guilty of treason. Hence at first after he was absolved he stood high in the opinion of the Athenians; for his fellow citizens were exceedingly fond of him on account of his achievements. But afterwards those who feared the eminence he enjoyed, and others who were envious of his glory forgot his services to the state, and began to exert themselves to diminish his power and to lower his presumption.
§ 11.55.1 First of all they removed Themistocles from Athens, employing against him what is called ostracism, an institution which was adopted in Athens after the overthrow of the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons; and the law was as follows.
§ 11.55.2 Each citizen wrote on a piece of pottery (ostracon) the name of the man who in his opinion had the greatest power to destroy the democracy; and the man who got the largest number of ostraca was obliged by the law to go into exile from his native land for a period of five years.
§ 11.55.3 The Athenians, it appears, passed such a law, not for the purpose of punishing wrongdoing, but in order to lower through exile the presumption of men who had risen too high. Now Themistocles, having been ostracized in the manner we have described, fled as an exile from his native city to Argos.
§ 11.55.4 But the Lacedemonians, learning of this and considering that Fortune had given them a favourable moment to attack Themistocles, again dispatched ambassadors to Athens. These accused Themistocles of complicity in the treason of Pausanias, and asserted that his trial, since his crimes affected all Greece, should not be held privately among the Athenians alone but rather before the General Congress of the Greeks which, according to custom, was to meet at that time.
§ 11.55.5 And Themistocles, seeing that the Lacedemonians were bent upon defaming and humbling the Athenian state, and that the Athenians were anxious to clear themselves of the charge against them, assumed that he would be turned over to the General Congress.
§ 11.55.6 This body, he knew, made its decisions, not on the basis of justice, but out of favour to the Lacedemonians, inferring this not only from its other actions but also from what it had done in making the awards for valour. For in that instance those who controlled the voting showed such jealousy of the Athenians that, although these had contributed more triremes than all the others who took part in the battle, they made them out to be no whit better than the rest of the Greeks.
§ 11.55.7 These, then, were the reasons why Themistocles distrusted the members of the Congress. Furthermore, it was from the speech in his own defence which Themistocles had made in Athens on the former occasion that the Lacedemonians had got the basis for the accusation they afterwards made.
§ 11.55.8 For in that defence Themistocles had acknowledged that Pausanias had sent letters to him, urging him to share in the act of treason, and using this as the strongest piece of evidence in his behalf, he had established that Pausanias would not have urged him, unless he had opposed his first request.
§ 11.56.1 It was for these reasons, as we have stated above, that Themistocles fled from Argos to Admetus, the king of the Molossians; and taking refuge at Admetus' hearth he became his suppliant. The king at first received him kindly, urged him to be of good courage, and, in general, assured him that he would provide for his safety;
§ 11.56.2 but when the Lacedemonians dispatched some of the most distinguished Spartans as ambassadors to Admetus and demanded the person of Themistocles for punishment, stigmatizing him as the betrayer and destroyer of the whole Greek world, and when they went further and declared that, if Admetus would not turn him over to them, they together with all the Greeks would make war on him, then indeed the king, fearing on the one hand the threats and yet pitying the suppliant and seeking to avoid the disgrace of handing him over, persuaded Themistocles to make his escape with all speed without the knowledge of the Lacedemonians and gave him a large sum of gold to meet his expenses on the flight.
§ 11.56.3 And Themistocles, being persecuted as he was on every side, accepted the gold and fled by night out of the territory of the Molossians, the king furthering his flight in every way; and finding two young men, Lyncestians by birth, who were traders and therefore familiar with the roads, he made his escape in their company.
§ 11.56.4 By travelling only at night he eluded the Lacedemonians, and by virtue of the goodwill of the young men and the hardship they endured for him he made his way to Asia. Here Themistocles had a personal friend, Lysitheides by name, who was highly regarded for his fame and wealth, and to him he fled for refuge.
§ 11.56.5 Now it so happened that Lysitheides was a friend of Xerxes the king and on the occasion of his passage through Asia Minor had entertained the entire Persian host. Consequently, since he enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with the king and yet wished out of mercy to save Themistocles, he promised to co operate with him in every way.
§ 11.56.6 But when Themistocles asked that he lead him to Xerxes, at first he demurred, explaining that Themistocles would be punished because of his past activities against the Persians; later, however, when he realized that it was for the best, he acceded, and unexpectedly and without harm he got him through safe to Persia.
§ 11.56.7 For it was a custom among the Persians that when one conducted a concubine to the king one brought her in a closed wagon, and no man who met it interfered or came face to face with the passenger; and it came about that Lysitheides availed himself of this means of carrying out his undertaking.
§ 11.56.8 After preparing the wagon and embellishing it with costly hangings he put Themistocles in it; and when he had got him through in entire safety, he came into the presence of the king, and after he had conversed with him cautiously he received pledges from the king that he would do Themistocles no wrong. Then Lysitheides introduced him to the presence of the king, who, when he had allowed Themistocles to speak and learned that he had done the king no wrong, absolved him from punishment.
§ 11.57.1 But when it seemed that the life of Themistocles had unexpectedly been saved by an enemy, he fell again into even greater dangers for the following reasons. Mandane was the daughter of the Darius who had slain the Magi and the full sister of Xerxes, and she enjoyed high esteem among the Persians.
§ 11.57.2 She had lost her sons at the time Themistocles had defeated the Persian fleet in the sea-battle at Salamis and sorely grieved over the death of her children, and because of her great affliction she was the object of the pity of the people.
§ 11.57.3 When she learned of the presence of Themistocles, she went to the palace clad in raiment of mourning and with tears entreated her brother to wreak vengeance upon Themistocles. And when the king paid no heed to her, she visited in turn the noblest Persians with her request and, speaking generally, spurred on the people to wreak vengeance upon Themistocles.
§ 11.57.4 When the mob rushed to the palace and with loud shouts demanded the person of Themistocles for punishment, the king replied that he would form a jury of the noblest Persians and that its verdict would be carried out.
§ 11.57.5 This decision was approved by all, and since a considerable time was given to make the preparations for the trial, Themistocles meanwhile learned the Persian language, and using it in his defence he was acquitted of the charges.
§ 11.57.6 And the king was overjoyed that Themistocles had been saved and honoured him with great gifts; so, for example, he gave him in marriage a Persian woman, who was of outstanding birth and beauty and, besides, praised for her virtue, and [she brought as her dower] not only a multitude of household slaves for their service but also of drinking-cups of every kind and such other furnishings as comport with a life of pleasure and luxury.
§ 11.57.7 Furthermore, the king made him a present also of three cities which were well suited for his support and enjoyment, Magnesia upon the Maeander River, which had more grain than any city of Asia, for bread, Myus for meat, since the sea there abounded in fish, and Lampsacus, whose territory contained extensive vineyards, for wine.
§ 11.58.1 Themistocles, being now relieved of the fear which he had felt when among the Greeks, the man who had unexpectedly, on the one hand, been driven into exile by those who had profited most by the benefits he had bestowed and, on the other, had received benefits from those who had suffered the most grievously at his hands, spent his life in the cities we have mentioned, being well supplied with all the good things that conduce to pleasure, and at his death he was given a notable funeral in Magnesia and a monument that stands even to this day.
§ 11.58.2 Some historians say that Xerxes, desiring to lead a second expedition to Greece, invited Themistocles to take command of the war, and that he agreed to do so and received from the king guaranties under oath that he would not march against the Greeks without Themistocles.
§ 11.58.3 And when a bull had been sacrificed and the oaths taken, Themistocles, filling a cup with its blood, drank it down and immediately died. They add that Xerxes thereupon relinquished that plan of his, and that Themistocles by his voluntary death left the best possible defence that he had played the part of a good citizen in all matters affecting the interests of Greece.
§ 11.58.4 We have come to the death of one of the greatest of the Greeks, about whom many dispute whether it was because he had wronged his native city and the other Greeks that he fled to the Persians, or whether, on the contrary, his city and all the Greeks, after enjoying great benefits at his hands, forgot to be grateful for them but unjustly plunged him, their benefactor, into the uttermost perils.
§ 11.58.5 But if any man, putting envy aside, will estimate closely not only the man's natural gifts but also his achievements, he will find that on both counts Themistocles holds first place among all of whom we have record. Therefore one may well be amazed that the Athenians were willing to rid themselves of a man of such genius.
§ 11.59.1 What other man, while Sparta still had the superior strength and the Spartan Eurybiades held the supreme command of the fleet, could by his singlehanded efforts have deprived Sparta of that glory? Of what other man have we learned from history that by a single act he caused himself to surpass all the commanders, his city all other Greek states, and the Greeks the barbarians? In whose term as general have the resources been more inferior and the dangers they faced greater?
§ 11.59.2 Who, facing the united might of all Asia, has found himself at the side of his city when its inhabitants had been driven from their homes, and still won the victory? Who in time of peace has made his fatherland powerful by deeds comparable to his? Who, when a gigantic war enveloped his state, brought it safely through and by the one single ruse of the bridge reduced land armament of the enemy by half, so that it could be easily vanquished by the Greeks?
§ 11.59.3 Consequently, when we survey the magnitude of his deeds and, examining them one by one, find that such a man suffered disgrace at the hands of his city, whereas it was by his deeds that the city rose to greatness, we have good reason to conclude that the city which is reputed to rank highest among all cities in wisdom and fair-dealing acted towards him with great cruelty.
§ 11.59.4 Now on the subject of the high merits of Themistocles, even if we have dwelt over-long on the subject in this digression, we believed it not seemly that we should leave his great ability unrecorded. While these events were taking place, in Italy Micythus, who was ruler of Rhegium and Zancle, founded the city of Pyxus.
§ 11.60.1 When Demotion was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Publius Valerius Publicola and Gaius Nautius Rufus. In this year the Athenians, electing as general Cimon the son of Miltiades and giving him a strong force, sent him to the coast of Asia to give aid to the cities which were allied with them and to liberate those which were still held by Persian garrisons.
§ 11.60.2 And Cimon, taking along the fleet which was at Byzantium and putting in at the city which is called Eion, took it from the Persians who were holding it and captured by siege Scyros, which was inhabited by Pelasgians and Dolopes; and setting up an Athenian as the founder of a colony he portioned out the land in allotments.
§ 11.60.3 After this, with a mind to begin greater enterprises, he put in at the Peiraeus, and after adding more triremes to his fleet and arranging for general supplies on a notable scale, he at that time put to sea with two hundred triremes; but later, when he had called for additional ships from the Ionians and everyone else, he had in all three hundred.
§ 11.60.4 So sailing with the entire fleet to Caria he at once succeeded in persuading the cities on the coast which had been settled from Greece to revolt from the Persians, but as for the cities whose inhabitants spoke two languages and still had Persian garrisons, he had recourse to force and laid siege to them; then, after he had brought to his side the cities of Caria, he likewise won over by persuasion those of Lycia.
§ 11.60.5 Also, by taking additional ships from the allies, who were continually being added, he still further increased the size of the fleet. Now the Persians had composed their land forces from their own peoples, but their navy they had gathered from both Phoenicia and Cyprus and Cilicia, and the commander of the Persian armaments was Tithraustes, who was an illegitimate son of Xerxes.
§ 11.60.6 And when Cimon learned that the Persian fleet was lying off Cyprus, sailing against the barbarians he engaged them in battle, pitting two hundred and fifty ships against three hundred and forty. A sharp struggle took place and both fleets fought brilliantly, but in the end the Athenians were victorious, having destroyed many of the enemy ships and captured more than one hundred together with their crews.
§ 11.60.7 The rest of the ships escaped to Cyprus, where their crews left them and took to the land, and the ships, being bare of defenders, fell into the hands of the enemy.
§ 11.61.1 Thereupon Cimon, not satisfied with a victory of such magnitude, set sail at once with his entire fleet against the Persian land army, which was then encamped on the bank of the Eurymedon River. And wishing to overcome the barbarians by a stratagem, he manned the captured Persian ships with his own best men, giving them tiaras for their heads and clothing them in the Persian fashion generally.
§ 11.61.2 The barbarians, so soon as the fleet approached them, were deceived by the Persian ships and garb and supposed the triremes to be their own. Consequently they received the Athenians as if they were friends. And Cimon, night having fallen, disembarked his soldiers, and being received by the Persians as a friend, he fell upon their encampment.
§ 11.61.3 A great tumult arose among the Persians, and the soldiers of Cimon cut down all who came in their way, and seizing in his tent Pheredates, one of the two generals of the barbarians and a nephew of the king, they slew him; and as for the rest of the Persians, some they cut down and others they wounded, and all of them, because of the unexpectedness of the attack, they forced to take flight. In a word, such consternation as well as bewilderment prevailed among the Persians that most of them did not even know who it was that was attacking them.
§ 11.61.4 For they had no idea that the Greeks had come against them in force, being persuaded that they had no land army at all; and they assumed that it was the Pisidians, who dwelt in neighbouring territory and were hostile to them, who had come to attack them. Consequently, thinking that the attack of the enemy was coming from the mainland, they fled to their ships in the belief they were in friendly hands.
§ 11.61.5 And since it was a dark night without a moon, their bewilderment was increased all the more and not a man was able to discern the true state of affairs.
§ 11.61.6 Consequently, after a great slaughter had occurred on account of the disorder among the barbarians, Cimon, who had previously given orders to the soldiers to come running to the torch which would be raised, had the signal raised beside the ships, being anxious lest, if the soldiers should scatter and turn to plundering, some miscarriage of his plans might occur.
§ 11.61.7 And when the soldiers had all been gathered at the torch and had stopped plundering, for the time being they set up a trophy and then sailed back to Cyprus, having won two glorious victories, the one on land and the other on the sea; for not to this day has history recorded the occurrence of so unusual and so important actions on the same day by a host that fought both afloat and on land.
§ 11.62.1 After Cimon had won these great successes by means of his own skill as general and his valour, his fame was noised abroad not only among his fellow citizens but among all other Greeks as well. For he had captured three hundred and forty ships, more than twenty thousand men, and a considerable sum of money.
§ 11.62.2 But the Persians, having met with so great reverses, built other triremes in greater number, since they feared the growing might of the Athenians. For from this time the Athenian state kept receiving significant enhancement of its power, supplied as it was with an abundance of funds and having attained to great renown for courage and for able leadership in war.
§ 11.62.3 And the Athenian people, taking a tenth part of the booty, dedicated it to the god, and the inscription which they wrote upon the dedication they made ran as follows: E'en from the day when the sea divided Europe from Asia, And the impetuous god, Ares, the cities of men Took for his own, no deed such as this among earth-dwelling mortals Ever was wrought at one time both upon land and at sea. These men indeed upon Cyprus sent many a Mede to destruction, Capturing out on the sea warships a hundred in sum Filled with Phoenician men; and deeply all Asia grieved o'er them, Smitten thus with both hands, vanquished by war's mighty power.
§ 11.63.1 Such, then, were the events of this year. When Phaeon was archon in Athens, in Rome the consulship was taken over by Lucius Furius Mediolanus and Marcus Manilius Vaso. During this year a great and incredible catastrophe befell the Lacedemonians; for great earthquakes occurred in Sparta, and as a result the houses collapsed from their foundations and more than twenty thousand Lacedemonians perished.
§ 11.63.2 And since the tumbling down of the city and the falling in of the houses continued uninterruptedly over a long period, many persons were caught and crushed in the collapse of the walls and no little household property was ruined by the quake.
§ 11.63.3 And although they suffered this disaster because some god, as it were, was wreaking his anger upon them, it so happened that other dangers befell them at the hands of men for the following reasons.
§ 11.63.4 The Helots and Messenians, although enemies of the Lacedemonians, had remained quiet up to this time, since they stood in fear of the eminent position and power of Sparta; but when they observed that the larger part of them had perished because of the earthquake, they held in contempt the survivors, who were few. Consequently they came to an agreement with each other and joined together in the war against the Lacedemonians.
§ 11.63.5 The king of the Lacedemonians, Archidamus, by his personal foresight not only was the saviour of his fellow citizens even during the earthquake, but in the course of the war also he bravely fought the aggressors.
§ 11.63.6 For instance, when the terrible earthquake struck Sparta, he was the first Spartan to seize his armour and hasten from the city into the country, calling upon the other citizens to follow his example.
§ 11.63.7 The Spartans obeyed him and thus those who survived the shock were saved and these men King Archidamus organized into an army and prepared to make war upon the revolters.
§ 11.64.1 The Messenians together with the Helots at first advanced against the city of Sparta, assuming that they would take it because there would be no one to defend it; but when they heard that the survivors were drawn up in a body with Archidamus the king and were ready for the struggle on behalf of their native land, they gave up this plan, and seizing a stronghold in Messenia they made it their base of operations and from there continued to overrun Laconia.
§ 11.64.2 And the Spartans, turning for help to the Athenians, received from them an army; and they gathered troops as well from the rest of their allies and thus became able to meet their enemy on equal terms. At the outset they were much superior to the enemy, but at a later time, when a suspicion arose that the Athenians were about to go over to the Messenians, they broke the alliance with them, stating as their reason that in the other allies they had sufficient men to meet the impending battle.
§ 11.64.3 The Athenians, although they believed that they had suffered an affront, at the time did no more than withdraw; later, however, their relations to the Lacedemonians being unfriendly, they were more and more inclined to fan the flames of hatred. Consequently the Athenians took this incident as the first cause of the estrangement of the two states, and later on they quarrelled and, embarking upon great wars, filled all Greece with vast calamities. But we shall give an account of these matters severally in connection with the appropriate periods of time.
§ 11.64.4 At the time in question the Lacedemonians together with their allies marched forth against Ithome and laid siege to it. And the Helots, revolting in a body from the Lacedemonians, joined as allies with the Messenians, and at one time they were winning and at another losing. And since for ten years no decision could be reached in the war, for that length of time they never ceased injuring each other.
§ 11.65.1 The following year Theageneides was archon in Athens, and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Lucius Julius Iulus, and the Seventy-eighth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Parmenides of Posidonia won the "stadion." In this year a war broke out between the Argives and Mycenaeans for the following reasons.
§ 11.65.2 The Mycenaeans, because of the ancient prestige of their country, would not be subservient to the Argives as the other cities of Argolis were, but they maintained an independent position and would take no orders from the Argives; and they kept disputing with them also over the shrine of Hera and claiming that they had the right to administer the Nemean games by themselves. Furthermore, when the Argives voted not to join with the Lacedemonians in the battle at Thermopylae unless they were given a share in the supreme command, the Mycenaeans were the only people of Argolis who fought at the side of the Lacedemonians.
§ 11.65.3 In a word, the Argives were suspicious of the Mycenaeans, fearing lest, if they got any stronger, they might, on the strength of the ancient prestige of Mycenae, dispute the right of Argos to the leadership. Such, then, were the reasons for the bad blood between them; and from of old the Argives had ever been eager to exalt their city, and now they thought they had a favourable opportunity, seeing that the Lacedemonians had been weakened and were unable to come to the aid of the Mycenaeans. Therefore the Argives, gathering a strong army from both Argos and the cities of their allies, marched against the Mycenaeans, and after defeating them in battle and shutting them within their walls, they laid siege to the city.
§ 11.65.4 The Mycenaeans for a time resisted the besiegers with vigour, but afterwards, since they were being worsted in the fighting and the Lacedemonians could bring them no aid because of their own wars and the disaster that had overtaken them in the earthquakes, and since there were no other allies, they were taken by storm through lack of support from outside.
§ 11.65.5 The Argives sold the Mycenaeans into slavery, dedicated a tenth part of them to the god, and razed Mycenae. So this city, which in ancient times had enjoyed such felicity, possessing great men and having to its credit memorable achievements, met with such an end, and has remained uninhabited down to our own times. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 11.66.1 When Lysistratus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Pinarius Mamertinus and Publius Furius Fifron. In this year Hieron, the king of the Syracusans, summoning to Syracuse the sons of Anaxilas, the former tyrant of Zancle, and giving them great gifts, reminded them of the benefactions Gelon had rendered their father, and advised them, now that they had come of age, to require an accounting of Micythus, their guardian, and themselves to take over the government of Zancle.
§ 11.66.2 And when they had returned to Rhegium and required of their guardian an accounting of his administration, Micythus, who was an upright man, gathered together the old family friends of the children and rendered so honest an accounting that all present were filled with admiration of both his justice and good faith; and the children, regretting the steps they had taken, begged Micythus to take back the administration and to conduct the affairs of the state with a father's power and position.
§ 11.66.3 Micythus, however, did not accede to the request, but after turning everything over to them punctiliously and putting his own goods aboard a boat he set sail from Rhegium, accompanied by the goodwill of the populace; and reaching Greece he spent the rest of his life in Tegea in Arcadia, enjoying the approval of men.
§ 11.66.4 And Hieron, the king of the Syracusans, died in Catana and received the honours which are accorded to heroes, as having been the founder of the city. He had ruled eleven years, and he left the kingdom to his brother Thrasybulus, who ruled over the Syracusans for one year.
§ 11.67.1 When Lysanias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Appius Claudius and Titus Quinctius Capitolinus. During this year Thrasybulus, the king of the Syracusans, was driven from his throne, and since we are writing a detailed account of this event, we must go back a few years and set forth clearly the whole story from the beginning.
§ 11.67.2 Gelon, the son of Deinomenes, who far excelled all other men in valour and strategy and out-generalled the Carthaginians, defeated these barbarians in a great battle, as has been told; and since he treated the peoples whom he had subdued with fairness and, in general, conducted himself humanely toward all his immediate neighbours, he enjoyed high favour among the Sicilian Greeks.
§ 11.67.3 Thus Gelon, being beloved by all because of his mild rule, lived in uninterrupted peace until his death. But Hieron, the next oldest among the brothers, who succeeded to the throne, did not rule over his subjects in the same manner;
§ 11.67.4 for he was avaricious and violent and, speaking generally, an utter stranger to sincerity and nobility of character. Consequently there were a good many who wished to revolt, but they restrained their inclinations because of Gelon's reputation and the goodwill he had shown towards all the Sicilian Greeks.
§ 11.67.5 After the death of Hieron, however, his brother Thrasybulus, who succeeded to the throne, surpassed in wickedness his predecessor in the kingship. For being a violent man and murderous by nature, he put to death many citizens unjustly and drove not a few into exile on false charges, confiscating their possessions into the royal treasury; and since, speaking generally, he hated those he had wronged and was hated by them, he enlisted a large body of mercenaries, preparing in this way a legion with which to oppose the citizen soldiery.
§ 11.67.6 And since he kept incurring more and most the hatred of the citizens by outraging many and executing others, he compelled the victims to revolt. Consequently the Syracusans, choosing men who would take the lead, set about as one man to destroy the tyranny, and once they had been organized by their leaders they clung stubbornly to their freedom.
§ 11.67.7 When Thrasybulus saw that the whole city was in arms against him, he at first attempted to stop the revolt by persuasion; but after he observed that the movement of the Syracusans could not be halted, he gathered together both the colonists whom Hieron had settled in Catana and his other allies, as well as a multitude of mercenaries, so that his army numbered all told almost fifteen thousand men.
§ 11.67.8 Then, seizing Achradine, as it is called, and the Island, which was fortified, and using them as bases, he began a war upon the revolting citizens.
§ 11.68.1 The Syracusans at the outset seized a part of the city which is called Tyche, and operating from there they dispatched ambassadors to Gela, Acragas, and Selinus, and also to Himera and the cities of the Siceli in the interior of the island, asking them to come together with all speed and join with them in liberating Syracuse.
§ 11.68.2 And since all these cities acceded to this request eagerly and hurriedly dispatched aid, some of them infantry and cavalry and others warships fully equipped for action, in a brief time there was collected a considerable armament with which to aid the Syracusans. Consequently the Syracusans, having made ready their ships and drawn up their army for battle, demonstrated that they were ready to fight to a finish both on land and on sea.
§ 11.68.3 Now Thrasybulus, abandoned as he was by his allies and basing his hopes only upon the mercenaries, was master only of Achradine and the Island, whereas the rest of the city was in the hands of the Syracusans. And after this Thrasybulus sailed forth with his ships against the enemy, and after suffering defeat in the battle with the loss of numerous triremes, he withdrew with the remaining ships to the Island.
§ 11.68.4 Similarly he led forth his army also from Achradine and drew them up for battle in the suburbs, but he suffered defeat and was forced to retire with heavy losses back to Achradine. In the end, giving up hope of maintaining the tyranny, he opened negotiations with the Syracusans, came to an understanding with them, and retired under a truce to Locris.
§ 11.68.5 The Syracusans, having liberated their native city in this manner, gave permission to the mercenaries to withdraw from Syracuse, and they liberated the other cities, which were either in the hands of tyrants or had garrisons, and re established democracies in them.
§ 11.68.6 From this time the city enjoyed peace and increased greatly in prosperity, and it maintained its democracy for almost sixty years, until the tyranny which was established by Dionysius.
§ 11.68.7 But Thrasybulus, who had taken over a kingship which had been established on so fair a foundation, disgracefully lost his kingdom through his own wickedness, and fleeing to Locri he spent the rest of his life there in private station.
§ 11.68.8 While these events were taking place, in Rome this year for the first time four tribunes were elected to office, Gaius Sicinius, Lucius Numitorius, Marcus Duillius, and Spurius Acilius.
§ 11.69.1 With the passing of this year, in Athens Lysitheus was archon, and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Valerius Publicola and Titus Aemilius Mamercus. During this year, in Asia Artabanus, an Hyrcanian by birth, who enjoyed the greatest influence at the court of King Xerxes and was captain of the royal body-guard, decided to slay Xerxes and transfer the kingship to himself. He communicated the plot to Mithridates the eunuch, who was the king's chamberlain and enjoyed his supreme confidence, and he, since he was also a relative of Artabanus as well as his friend, agreed to the plot.
§ 11.69.2 And Artabanus, being led at night by Mithridates into the king's bed-chamber, slew Xerxes and then set out after the king's sons. These were three in number, Darius the eldest and Artaxerxes, who were both living in the palace, and the third, Hystaspes, who happened to be away from home at the time, since he was administering the satrapy of Bactria.
§ 11.69.3 Now Artabanus, coming while it was yet night to Artaxerxes, told him that his brother Darius had murdered his father and was shifting the kingship to himself.
§ 11.69.4 He counselled him, therefore, before Darius should seize the throne, to see to it that he should not become a slave through sheer indifference but that he should ascend the throne after punishing the murderer of his father; and he promised to get the body-guard of the king to support him in the undertaking.
§ 11.69.5 Artaxerxes fell in with the advice and at once, with the help of the body-guard, slew his brother Darius. And when Artabanus saw how his plan was prospering, he called his own sons to his side and crying out that now was his time to win the kingship he strikes Artaxerxes with his sword.
§ 11.69.6 Artaxerxes, being wounded merely and not seriously hurt by the blow, held off Artabanus and dealing him a fatal blow killed him. Thus Artaxerxes, after being saved in this unexpected fashion and having taken vengeance upon the slayer of his father, took over the kingship of the Persians. So Xerxes died in the manner we have described, after having been king of the Persians for more than twenty years, and Artaxerxes succeeded to the kingship and ruled for forty years.
§ 11.70.1 When Archedemides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Aulus Verginius and Titus Minucius, and the Seventy-ninth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Xenophon of Corinth won the "stadion." In this year the Thasians revolted from the Athenians because of a quarrel over mines; but they were forced to capitulate by the Athenians and compelled to subject themselves again to their rule.
§ 11.70.2 Similarly also, when the Aeginetans revolted, the Athenians, intending to reduce them to subjection, undertook the siege of Aegina; for this state, being often successful in its engagements at sea, was puffed up with pride and was also well provided with both money and triremes, and, in a word, was constantly at odds with the Athenians.
§ 11.70.3 Consequently they sent an army against it and laid waste its territory, and then, laying siege to Aegina, they bent every effort on taking it by storm. For, speaking generally, the Athenians, now that they were making great advances in power, no longer treated their allies fairly, as they had formerly done, but were ruling them harshly and arrogantly.
§ 11.70.4 Consequently most of the allies, unable longer to endure their severity, were discussing rebellion with each other, and some of them, scorning the authority of the General Congress, were acting as independent states.
§ 11.70.5 While these events were taking place, the Athenians, who were now masters of the sea, dispatched ten thousand colonists to Amphipolis, recruiting a part of them from their own citizens and a part from the allies. They portioned out the territory in allotments, and for a time held the upper hand over the Thracians, but at a later time, as a result of their further advance into Thrace, all who entered the country of the Thracians were slain by a people known as the Edones.
§ 11.71.1 When Tlepolemus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Quinctius and Quintus Servilius Structus. This year Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, who had just recovered the throne, first of all punished those who had had a part in the murder of his father and then organized the affairs of the kingdom to suit his own personal advantage.
§ 11.71.2 Thus with respect to the satraps then in office, those who were hostile to him he dismissed and from his friends he chose such as were competent and gave the satrapies to them. He also concerned himself with both the revenues and the preparation of armaments, and since in general his administration of the entire kingdom was mild, he enjoyed the favour of the Persians to a high degree.
§ 11.71.3 But when the inhabitants of Egypt learned of the death of Xerxes and of the general attempt upon the throne and the disorder in the Persian kingdom, they decided to strike for their liberty. At once, then, mustering an army, they revolted from the Persians, and after expelling the Persians whose duty it was to collect the tribute from Egypt, they set up as king a man named Inaros.
§ 11.71.4 He at first recruited soldiers from the native Egyptians, but afterwards he gathered also mercenaries from the other nations and amassed a considerable army. He dispatched ambassadors also to the Athenians to effect an alliance, promising them that, if they should liberate the Egyptians, he would give them a share in the kingdom and grant them favours many times greater than the good service they had rendered.
§ 11.71.5 And the Athenians, having decided that it was to their advantage to humble the Persians as far as they could and to attach the Egyptians closely to themselves against the unpredictable shiftings of Fortune, voted to send three hundred triremes to the aid of the Egyptians.
§ 11.71.6 The Athenians, therefore, with great enthusiasm set about the preparation of the expedition. As for Artaxerxes, when he learned of the revolt of the Egyptians and their preparations for war, he concluded that he must surpass the Egyptians in the size of his armaments. So he at once began to enrol soldiers from all the satrapies, build ships, and give his attention to every other kind of preparation. These were the events of this year in Asia and Egypt.
§ 11.72.1 In Sicily, as soon as the tyranny of Syracuse had been overthrown and all the cities of the island had been liberated, the whole of Sicily was making great strides toward prosperity. For the Sicilian Greeks were at peace, and the land they cultivated was fertile, so that the abundance of their harvests enabled them soon to increase their estates and to fill the land with slaves and domestic animals and every other accompaniment of prosperity, taking in great revenues on the one hand and spending nothing upon the wars to which they had been accustomed.
§ 11.72.2 But later on they were again plunged into wars and civil strife for the following reasons. After the Syracusans had overthrown the tyranny of Thrasybulus, they held a meeting of the Assembly, and after deliberating on forming a democracy of their own they all voted unanimously to make a colossal statue of Zeus Eleutherios (Liberator) and each year to celebrate with sacrifices the Festival of Liberation and hold games of distinction on the day on which they had overthrown the tyrant and liberated their native city; and they also voted to sacrifice to the gods, in connection with the games, four hundred and fifty bulls and to use them for the citizens' feast.
§ 11.72.3 As for all the magistracies, they proposed to assign them to the original citizens, but the aliens who had been admitted to citizenship under Gelon they did not see fit to allow to share in this dignity, either because they judged them to be unworthy or because they were suspicious lest men who had been brought up in the way of tyranny and had served in war under a monarch might attempt a revolution. And that is what actually happened. For Gelon had enrolled as citizens more than ten thousand foreign mercenaries, and of these there were left at the time in question more than seven thousand.
§ 11.73.1 These aliens resented their being excluded from the dignity attending magistracies and with one accord revolted from the Syracusans, and they seized in the city both Achradine and the Island, both these places having their own well-built fortifications.
§ 11.73.2 The Syracusans, who were again plunged into disorder, held possession of the rest of the city; and that part of it which faced Epipolae they blocked off by a wall and made their own position very secure; for they anyone easily cut off the rebels from access to the countryside and soon caused them to be in want of provisions.
§ 11.73.3 But though in number the mercenaries were inferior to the Syracusans, yet in experience of warfare they were far superior; consequently, when attacks took place here and there throughout the city and isolated encounters, the mercenaries regularly had the upper hand in the combats, but since they were shut off from the countryside, they were in want of equipment and short of food. Such were the events in Sicily of this year.
§ 11.74.1 When Conon was archon in Athens, in Rome the consulship was held by Quintus Fabius Vibulanus and Tiberius Aemilius Mamercus. This year Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, appointed Achaemenes, who was a son of Darius and his own uncle, to be commander in the war against the Egyptians; and turning over to him more than three hundred thousand soldiers, counting both cavalry and infantry, he commanded them to subdue the Egyptians.
§ 11.74.2 Now Achaemenes, when he had entered Egypt, pitched his camp near the Nile, and when he had rested his army after the march, he made ready for battle; but the Egyptians, having gathered their army from Libya and Egypt, were awaiting the auxiliary force of the Athenians.
§ 11.74.3 After the Athenians had arrived in Egypt with two hundred ships and had been drawn up with the Egyptians in battle order against the Persians, a mighty struggle took place. And for a time the Persians with their superior numbers maintained the advantage, but later, when the Athenians seized the offensive, put to flight the forces opposing them, and slew many of them, the remainder of the barbarians turned to flight en masse.
§ 11.74.4 There was much slaughter in the course of the flight, and finally the Persians, after losing the larger part of their army, found refuge in the white Fortress, as it is called, while the Athenians, who had won the victory by their own deeds of valour, pursued the barbarians as far as the aforesaid stronghold and did not hesitate to besiege it.
§ 11.74.5 Artaxerxes, on learning of the defeat of his troops, at first sent some of his friends with a large sum of money to Lacedemon and asked the Lacedemonians to make war upon the Athenians, thinking that if they complied the Athenian troops who had won the victory in Egypt would sail back to Athens in order to defend their native city.
§ 11.74.6 When the Lacedemonians, however, neither accepted money nor paid any attention whatever to the requests of the Persians, Artaxerxes despaired of getting any aid from the Lacedemonians and set about preparing other armaments. In command of them he placed Artabazus and Megabyzus, men of outstanding merit, and dispatched them to make war upon the Egyptians.
§ 11.75.1 When Euthippus was archon in Athens, the Romans chose as consuls Quintus Servilius and Spurius Postumius Albinus. During this year, in Asia Artabazus and Megabyzus, who had been dispatched to the war against the Egyptians, set out from Persia with more than three hundred thousand soldiers, counting both cavalry and infantry.
§ 11.75.2 When they arrived in Cilicia and Phoenicia, they rested their land forces after the journey and commanded the Cyprians and Phoenicians and Cilicians to supply ships. And when the triremes had been made ready, they fitted them out with the ablest marines and arms and missiles and everything else that is useful in naval warfare.
§ 11.75.3 So these leaders were busy with their preparations and with giving their soldiers training and accustoming every man to the practice of warfare, and they spent almost this entire year in this way.
§ 11.75.4 Meanwhile the Athenians in Egypt were besieging the troops which had taken refuge near Memphis in the White Fortress; but since the Persians were putting up a stout defence, they were unable to take the stronghold and so spent the year in the siege.
§ 11.76.1 In Sicily the Syracusans, in their war upon the mercenaries who had revolted, kept launching attack after attack upon both Achradine and the Island, and they defeated the rebels in a sea-battle, but on land they were unable to expel them from the city because of the strength of these two places.
§ 11.76.2 Later, however, after an open battle had been fought on land, the soldiers engaged on both sides fighting spiritedly, finally, although both armies suffered not a few casualties, victory lay with the Syracusans. And after the battle the Syracusans honoured with the prize of valour the elite troops, six hundred in number, who were responsible for the victory, giving them each a mina of silver.
§ 11.76.3 While these events were taking place, Ducetius, the leader of the Siceli, harbouring a grudge against the inhabitants of Catana because they had robbed the Siceli of their land, led an army against them. And since the Syracusans had likewise sent an army against Catana, they and the Siceli joined in portioning out the land in allotments among themselves and made war upon the settlers who had been sent by Hieron when he was ruler of Syracuse. The Catanians opposed them with arms, but were defeated in a number of engagements and were expelled from Catana, and they took possession of what is now Aetna, which was formerly called Inessa; and the original inhabitants of Catana, after a long period, got back their native city.
§ 11.76.4 After these events the peoples who had been expelled from their own cities while Hieron was king, now that they had assistance it struggle, returned to their fatherlands and expelled from their cities the men who had wrongfully seized for themselves the habitations of others; among these were inhabitants of Gela, Acragas, and Himera.
§ 11.76.5 In like manner Rhegians along with Zanclians expelled the sons of Anaxilas, who were ruling over them, and liberated their fatherlands. Later on Geloans, who had been the original settlers of Camarina, portioned that land out in allotments. And practically all the cities, being eager to make an end of the wars, came to a common decision, whereby they made terms with the mercenaries in their midst; they then received back the exiles and restored the cities to the original citizens, but to the mercenaries who because of the former tyrannical governments were in possession of the cities belonging to others, they gave permission to take with them their own goods and to settle one and all in Messenia.
§ 11.76.6 In this manner, then, an end was put to the civil wars and disorders which had prevailed throughout the cities of Sicily, and the cities, after driving out the forms of government which aliens had introduced, with almost no exceptions portioned out their lands in allotments among all their citizens.
§ 11.77.1 When Phrasicleides was archon in Athens, the Eightieth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Toryllas the Thessalian won the "stadion"; and the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Fabius and Titus Quinctius Capitolinus. During this year, in Asia the Persian generals who had passed over to Cilicia made ready three hundred ships, which they fitted out fully for warfare, and then with their land force they advanced overland through Syria and Phoenicia; and with the fleet accompanying the army along the coast, they arrived at Memphis in Egypt.
§ 11.77.2 At the outset they broke the siege of the White Fortress, having struck the Egyptians and the Athenians with terror; but later on, adopting a prudent course, they avoided any frontal encounters and strove to bring the war to an end by the use of stratagems. Accordingly, since the Attic ships lay moored at the island known as Prosopitis, they diverted by means of canals the river which flowed around the island, and thus made the island a part of the mainland.
§ 11.77.3 When the ships thus all of a sudden came to rest on the dry land, the Egyptians in alarm left the Athenians in the lurch and came to terms with the Persians. The Athenians, being now without allies and seeing that their ships had become useless, set fire to them to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy, and then themselves, undismayed at the alarming plight they were in, fell to exhorting one to do nothing unworthy of the fights they had won in the past.
§ 11.77.4 Consequently, with a display of deeds of valour surpassing in heroism the men who perished in Thermopylae in defence of Greece, they stood ready to fight it out with the enemy. But the Persian generals, Artabazus and Megabyzus, taking note of the exceptional courage of their foes and reasoning that they would be unable to annihilate such men without sacrificing many myriads of their own, made a truce with the Athenians whereby they should with impunity depart from Egypt.
§ 11.77.5 So the Athenians, having saved their lives by their courage, departed from Egypt, and making their way through Libya to Cyrene got safely back, as by a miracle, to their native land.
§ 11.77.6 While these events were taking place, in Athens Ephialtes the son of Sophonides, who, being a popular leader, had provoked the masses to anger against the Areopagites, persuaded the Assembly to vote to curtail the power of the Council of the Areopagus and to destroy the renowned customs which their fathers had followed. Nevertheless, he did not escape the punishment for attempting such lawlessness, but he was done to death by night and none ever knew how he lost his life.
§ 11.78.1 At the conclusion of this year Philocles was archon in Athens, and in Rome Aulus Postumius Regulus and Spurius Furius Mediolanus succeeded to the consulship. During this year a war arose between the Corinthians and Epidaurians on the one hand and the Athenians on the other, and the Athenians took the field against them and after a sharp battle were victorious.
§ 11.78.2 With a large fleet they put in at a place called Halieis, landed on the Peloponnesus, and slew not a few of the enemy. But the Peloponnesians rallied and gathered a strong force, and it came to a battle with the Athenians near the place called Cecryphaleia in which the Athenians were again victorious.
§ 11.78.3 After such successes the Athenians, seeing that the Aeginetans were not only puffed up over their former achievements but also hostile to Athens, decided to reduce them by war.
§ 11.78.4 Therefore the Athenians dispatched a strong fleet against them. The inhabitants of Aegina, however, who had great experience in fighting at sea and enjoyed a great reputation therefor, were not dismayed at the superiority of the Athenians, but since they had a considerable number of triremes and had built some new ones, they engaged the Athenians in battle, but were defeated with the loss of seventy ships; and, their spirits crushed by so great a disaster, they were forced to enroll as tributaries of the Athenians. This was accomplished for the Athenians by their general Leocrates, who was engaged in the war with the Aeginetans nine months in all.
§ 11.78.5 While these events were taking place, in Sicily the king of the Siceli, Ducetius, a man of famous family and influential at this time, founded the city of Menaenum and distributed the neighbouring territory among the settlers, and making a campaign against the strong city of Morgantina and reducing it, he won fame among his own people.
§ 11.79.1 At the close of the year Bion was archon in Athens, and in Rome Publius Servilius Structus and Lucius Aebutius Albas succeeded to the consulship. During this year a quarrel arose between the Corinthians and Megarians over land on their borders and the cities went to war.
§ 11.79.2 At first they kept making raids on each other's territory and engaging in clashes of small parties; but as the quarrel increased, the Megarians, who were increasingly getting the worse of it and stood in fear of the Corinthians, made allies of the Athenians.
§ 11.79.3 As a result the cities were again equal in military strength, and when the Corinthians together with Peloponnesians advanced into Megaris with a strong army, the Athenians sent troops to the aid of the Megarians under the command of Myronides, a man who was admired for his valour. A fierce engagement took place which lasted a long time and each side matched the other in deeds of courage, but at last victory lay with the Athenians, who slew many of the enemy.
§ 11.79.4 And after a few days there was another fierce battle at Cimolia, as it is called, and again the Athenians were victorious and slew many of the enemy.
§ 11.79.5 The Phocians went to war with the Dorians, who are the original stock of the Lacedemonians and dwell in the three cities, Cytinium, Boeum and Erineus, which lie at the base of Mt. Parnassus. Now at first they subdued the Dorians by force of arms and occupied their cities; but after this the Lacedemonians, because of their kinship, dispatched Nicomedes, the son of Cleomenes, to the aid of the Dorians. He had fifteen hundred Lacedemonians and ten thousand men from the rest of the Peloponnesians.
§ 11.79.6 So Nicomedes, who was the guardian of Pleistonax the king, who was still a child, came to the aid of the Dorians with this large army, and after inflicting a defeat upon the Phocians and recovering the cities they had seized, he made peace between the Phocians and the Dorians.
§ 11.80.1 When the Athenians learned that the Lacedemonians had concluded the war against the Phocians and were about to make their return home, they decided to attack the Lacedemonians while on the march. Accordingly they dispatched an army against them, including in it Argives and Thessalians; and with the intention of falling upon them with fifty ships and fourteen thousand men, they occupied the passes about Mt. Geraneia.
§ 11.80.2 But the Lacedemonians, having information of the plans of the Athenians, took the route to Tanagra in Boeotia. The Athenians advanced into Boeotia and formed in line of battle, and a fierce struggle took place; and although in the fighting the Thessalians deserted to the Lacedemonians, nonetheless the Athenians and the Argives fought the battle through and not a few fell in both armies before night put an end to the struggle.
§ 11.80.3 After this, when a large supply-train was on its way from Attica for the Athenians, the Thessalians decided to attack it, and taking their evening meal at once, they intercepted by night the supply-train.
§ 11.80.4 The Athenians who were guarding the train were unaware that the Thessalians had changed sides and received them as friends, so that many conflicts of various kinds broke out around the convoy. For at first the Thessalians, who had been welcomed by the enemy in their ignorance, kept cutting down all whom they met, and being an organized band engaging with men who had fallen into confusion they slew many of the guards.
§ 11.80.5 But the Athenians in the camp, when they learned of the attack of the Thessalians, came up with all speed, and routing the Thessalians at the first charge, they were making a great slaughter of them.
§ 11.80.6 The Lacedemonians, however, now came to the rescue of the Thessalians with their army in battle order, and a pitched battle between the two armies ensued, and such was their rivalry that many were slain on both sides. And finally, since the battle ended in a tie, both the Lacedemonians and the Athenians laid claim to the victory. However, since night intervened and the victory was still a matter of dispute, each sent envoys to the other and they concluded a truce of four months.
§ 11.81.1 When the year ended, in Athens Mnesitheides was archon, and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Lucretius and Titus Veturius Cicurinus. During this year the Thebans, who had been humbled because of their alliance with Xerxes, sought a way by which they might recover both their ancient influence and reputation.
§ 11.81.2 Consequently, since all the Boeotians held the Thebans in disdain and no longer paid any attention to them, the Thebans asked the Lacedemonians to aid them in winning for their city the hegemony over all Boeotia; and they promised that in return for this favour they would make war by themselves upon the Athenians, so that it would no longer be necessary for the Spartans to lead troops beyond the border of the Peloponnesus.
§ 11.81.3 And the Lacedemonians assented, judging the proposal to be to their advantage and believing that, if Thebes should grow in strength, she would be a kind of counterweight to the increasing power of the Athenians; consequently, since they had at the time a large army in readiness at Tanagra, they increased the extent of the circuit wall of Thebes and compelled the cities of Boeotia to subject themselves to the Thebans.
§ 11.81.4 The Athenians, however, being eager to break up the plan of the Lacedemonians, made ready a large army and elected as general Myronides the son of Callias. He enrolled the required number of citizens and gave them orders, announcing a day on which he planned to march forth from the city.
§ 11.81.5 And when the appointed time arrived and some of the soldiers had not put in appearance at the specified rendezvous, he took those who had reported and advanced into Boeotia. And when certain of his officers and friends said that he should wait for the tardy men, Myronides, who was not only a sagacious general but energetic as well, replied that he would not do so; for, he declared, men of their own choice are late for the departure will in battle also play an ignoble and cowardly part, and will therefore not withstand the perils of war in defence of their country either, whereas the men who presented themselves ready for service on the appointed day gave clear evidence that they would not desert their posts in the war.
§ 11.81.6 And this is what actually took place; for leading forth soldiers who were few in number but the bravest in courage, he drew them up in Boeotia against a vastly superior force and utterly defeated his opponents.
§ 11.82.1 In my opinion this action was in no way inferior to any of the battles fought by the Athenians in former times; for neither the victory at Marathon nor the success over the Persians at Plataea nor the other renowned exploits of the Athenians seem in any way to surpass the victory which Myronides won over the Boeotians.
§ 11.82.2 For of those other battles, some were fought against barbarians and others were gained with the aid of allies, but this struggle was won by the Athenians single-handed in pitched battle, and they were pitted against the bravest warriors to be found among the Greeks.
§ 11.82.3 For in staunchness in the face of perils and in the fierce contests of war the Boeotians are generally believed to be surpassed by no other people; at any rate, sometime after this the Thebans at Leuctra and Mantineia, when they unaided confronted all the Lacedemonians and their allies, won for themselves the highest reputation for courage, and contrary to expectation became the leading nation of all Greece.
§ 11.82.4 And yet, although the battle of Myronides has become famous, none of our historians has described either the way it was fought or the disposition of the troops engaged in it. Myronides, then, after defeating the Boeotians in a remarkable battle, came to rival the reputations of the most renowned commanders before his time, namely, Themistocles, Miltiades, and Cimon.5 Myronides after this victory took Tanagra by siege, levelled its walls, and then he passed through all Boeotia, breaking it up and destroying it, and dividing the booty among his soldiers he loaded them all down with spoil in abundance.
§ 11.83.1 The Boeotians, exasperated by the wasting of their land, sprang to arms as a nation and when they had taken the field constituted a great army. A battle took place at Oenophyta in Boeotia, and since both sides withstood the stress of the conflict with stout hearts, they spent the day in fighting; but after a severe struggle the Athenians put the Boeotians to flight and Myronides became master of all the cities of Boeotia with the exception of Thebes.
§ 11.83.2 After this he marched out of Boeotia and led his army against the Locrians who are known as Opuntian. These he overpowered at the first attack, and taking hostages from them he then entered Parnasia.
§ 11.83.3 In like manner as he had done with the Locrians, he also subdued the Phocians, and after taking hostages he marched into Thessaly, finding fault with the Thessalians for their act of treachery and ordering them to receive back their exiles; and when the Pharsalians would not open their gates to him, he laid siege to the city.
§ 11.83.4 But since he could not master the city by force and the Pharsalians held out for a long time against the siege, for the purpose he gave up his designs regarding Thessaly and returned to Athens. Thus Myronides, who had performed great deeds in a short space of time, won among his fellow citizens the renown which was so widely acclaimed. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 11.84.1 While Callias was archon in Athens, in Elis the Eighty-first Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Polymnastus of Cyrene won the "stadion," and in Rome the consuls were Servius Sulpicius and Publius Volumnius Amentinus.
§ 11.84.2 During this year Tolmides, who was commander of the naval forces and vied with both the valour and fame of Myronides, was eager to accomplish a memorable deed.
§ 11.84.3 Consequently, since in those times no one had ever yet laid waste Laconia, he urged the Athenian people to ravage the territory of the Spartans, and he promised that by taking eleven thousand hoplites aboard the triremes he would with them lay waste Laconia and dim the fame of the Spartans.
§ 11.84.4 When the Athenians acceded to his request, he then, wishing to take with him secretly a larger number of hoplites, had recourse to the following cunning subterfuge. The citizens thought that he would enrol for the force the young men in the prime of youth and most vigorous in body; but Tolmides, determined to take with him in the campaign not merely the stipulated one thousand, approached every young man of exceptional hardihood and told him that he was going to enrol him; it would be better, however, he added, for him to go as a volunteer than be thought to have been compelled to serve under compulsion by enrolment.
§ 11.84.5 When by this scheme he had persuaded more than three thousand to enrol voluntarily and saw that the rest of the youth showed no further interest, he then enrolled the thousand he had been promised from all who were left.
§ 11.84.6 When all the other preparations for his expedition had been made, Tolmides set out to sea with fifty triremes and four thousand hoplites, and putting in at Methone in Laconia, he took the place; and when the Lacedemonians came to defend it, he withdrew, and cruising along the coast to Gytheium, which was a seaport of the Lacedemonians, he seized it, burned the city and also the dockyards of the Lacedemonians, and ravaged its territory.
§ 11.84.7 From here he set out to sea and sailed to Zacynthos which belonged to Cephallenia; he took the island and won over all the cities on Cephallenia, and then sailed across to the opposite mainland and put in at Naupactus. This city he likewise seized at the first assault and in it he settled the prominent Messenians whom the Lacedemonians had allowed to go free under a truce.
§ 11.84.8 At this time, it may be explained, the Lacedemonians had finally overcome both the Helots and Messenians, with whom they had been at war over a long period, and the Messenians they had allowed to depart from Ithome under a truce, as we have said, but of the Helots they had punished those who were responsible for the revolt and had enslaved the rest.
§ 11.85.1 When Sosistratus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Publius Valerius Publicola and Gaius Clodius Regillus. In this year Tolmides was occupied in Boeotia and the Athenians elected as general a man of the aristocracy, Pericles the son of Xanthippus, and giving him fifty triremes and a thousand hoplites, sent him against the Peloponnesus.
§ 11.85.2 He ravaged a large part of the Peloponnesus, and then sailed across to Acarnania and won over to Athens all the cities with the exception of Oeniadae. So the Athenians during this year controlled a very large number of cities and won great fame for valour and generalship.
§ 11.86.1 When Ariston was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Fabius Vibulanus and Lucius Cornelius Curitinus. This year the Athenians and Peloponnesians agreed to a truce of five years, Cimon the Athenian having conducted the negotiations.
§ 11.86.2 In Sicily a war arose between the peoples of Egesta and Lilybaeum over the land on the Mazarus River, and in a sharp battle which ensued both cities lost heavily but did not slacken their rivalry.
§ 11.86.3 And after the enrolment of citizens which had taken place in the cities and the redistribution of the lands, since many had been added to the roll of citizens without plan and in a haphazard fashion, the cities were in an unhealthy state and falling back again into civil strife and disorders; and it was especially in Syracuse that this malady prevailed.
§ 11.86.4 For a man by the name of Tyndarides, a rash fellow full of effrontery, began by gathering about him many of the poor, and organizing them into an armed unit he proceeded to make of them a personal bodyguard ready for an attempt to set up a tyranny. Not after this, when it was evident that he was grasping after supreme power, he was brought to trial and condemned to death.
§ 11.86.5 But while he was being led off to prison, the men upon whom he had lavished his favours rushed together and laid hands upon those who were arresting him. And in the confusion which arose throughout the city the most respectable citizens, who had organized themselves, seized the revolutionists and put them to death along with Tyndarides. And since this sort of thing kept happening time and again and there were men whose hearts were set on a tyranny, the people were led to imitate the Athenians and to establish a law very similar to the one they had passed on ostracism.
§ 11.87.1 Now among the Athenians each citizen was required to write on a potsherd (ostracon) the name of the man who, in his opinion, was most able through his influence to tyrannize over his fellow citizens; but among the Syracusans the name of the most influential citizen had to be written on an olive leaf, and when the leaves were counted, the man who received the largest number of leaves had to go into exile for five years.
§ 11.87.2 For by this means they thought that they would humble the arrogance of the most powerful men in these two cities; for, speaking generally, they were not exacting from violators of the law a punishment for a crime committed, but were effecting a diminution of the influence and growing power of the men in question.
§ 11.87.3 Now while the Athenians called this kind of legislation ostracism, from the way it was done, the Syracusans used the name petalism. This law remained in force among the Athenians for a long time, but among the Syracusans it was soon repealed for the following reasons.
§ 11.87.4 Since the most influential men were being sent into exile, the most respectable citizens and such as had it in their power, by reason of their high personal character, to effect many reforms in the affairs of the commonwealth were taking no part in public affairs, but consistently remained in private life because of their fear of the law, attending to their personal fortunes and leaning towards a life of luxury; whereas it was the basest citizens and such as excelled in effrontery who were giving their attention to public affairs and inciting the masses to disorder and revolution.
§ 11.87.5 Consequently, since factional quarrels were again arising the masses were turning to wrangling, the city fell back into continuous and serious disorders. For a multitude of demagogues and sycophants was arising, the youth were cultivating cleverness in oratory, and, in a word, many were exchanging the ancient and sober way of life for the ignoble pursuits; wealth was increasing because of the peace, but there was little if any concern for concord and honest conduct.
§ 11.87.6 As a result the Syracusans changed their minds and repealed the law of petalism, having used it only a short while. Such, then, was the state of affairs in Sicily.
§ 11.88.1 When Lysicrates was archon in Athens, in Rome the consuls elected were Gaius Nautius Rutilus and Lucius Minucius Carutianus. During this year Pericles, the general of the Athenians, landed in the Peloponnesus and ravaged the territory of the Sicyonians.
§ 11.88.2 And when the Sicyonians came out against him in full force and a battle was fought, Pericles was victorious, slew many as they fled, and shut them up in their city, to which he laid siege. But when he was unable by making assaults upon the walls to take the city, and when, besides, the Lacedemonians sent aid to the besieged, he withdrew from Sicyon; then he sailed to Acarnania, where he overran the territory of Oeniadae, amassed much booty, and then sailed away from Acarnania.
§ 11.88.3 After this he arrived at the Cherronesus and portioned out the land in allotments to one thousand citizens. While these events were taking place, Tolmides, the other general, passed over into Euboea and divided it and the land of the Naxians among another thousand citizens.
§ 11.88.4 As for the events in Sicily, since the Tyrrhenians were practising piracy at sea, the Syracusans chose Phayllus as admiral and sent him to Tyrrhenia. He sailed at first to the island known as Aethaleia and ravaged it, but he secretly accepted a bribe of money from the Tyrrhenians and sailed back to Sicily without having accomplished anything worthy of mention.
§ 11.88.5 The Syracusans found him guilty of treachery and exiled him, and choosing another general, Apelles, they dispatched him with sixty triremes against the Tyrrhenians. He overran the coast of Tyrrhenia and then passed over to Cyrnus, which was held at those times by the Tyrrhenians, and after sacking many places in this island and subduing Aethaleia, he returned to Syracuse accompanied by a multitude of captives and not a little other spoil.
§ 11.88.6 And after this Ducetius, the leader of the Siceli, gathered all the cities which were of the same race, with the exception of Hybla, into one and a common federation; and being an energetic man, he was always grasping after innovations, and so he gathered a large army from the Sicilian League and removed the city of Menae, which was his native state, and planted it in the plain. Also near the sacred precinct of the Palici, as they are called, he founded an important city, which he named Palice after the gods just mentioned.
§ 11.89.1 Since we have spoken of these gods, we should not omit to mention both the antiquity and the incredible nature of the shrine, and, in a word, the peculiar phenomenon of The Craters, as they are called. The myth relates that this sacred area surpasses all others in antiquity and the reverence paid to it, and many marvels there are reported by tradition.
§ 11.89.2 For first of all there are craters which are not at all large in size, but they throw up extraordinary streams of water from a depth beyond telling and have very much the nature of cauldrons which are heated by a strong fire and throw up boiling water.
§ 11.89.3 Now the water that is thrown up gives the impression of being boiling hot, but this is not known for certain because of the fact that no man dares touch it; for the amazement caused by the spout of water is so great that men believe the phenomenon to be due to some divine power.
§ 11.89.4 For not only does the water give out a strongly sulphurous smell but the yawning mouth emits a mighty and terrifying roar; and what is still more astonishing than this, the water neither pours over nor recedes, but has a motion and force in its current that lifts it to a marvellous height.
§ 11.89.5 Since so divine a majesty pervades the sacred area, the most sacred oaths are taken there and men who swear falsely are immediately overtaken by the punishment of heaven; thus certain men have lost their sight when they depart from the sacred precinct.
§ 11.89.6 And so great is the awe of the deities of this shrine, that men who are pressing claims, when, for instance, they are being overborne by a person of superior dignity, have their claims adjudicated on the strength of the preliminary examination of the witnesses supported by oaths taken in the name of these deities. This sacred area has also been recognized for some time as a place of sanctuary and has been a source of great aid to luckless slaves who have fallen into the hands of brutal masters;
§ 11.89.7 for if they have fled there for refuge, their masters have no power to remove them by force, and they remain there protected from harm until their masters, having gained their consent upon conditions of humane treatment and having given pledges, supported by such oaths, to fulfil their agreements, lead them away.
§ 11.89.8 And history records no case, out of all who have given slaves such a pledge as this, of a violation; so faithful to their slaves does the awe in which these gods are held make those who have taken the oath. And the sacred area, which lies on a plain meet for a god, has been appropriately embellished with colonnades and every other kind of lounging-place. — But let what we have said suffice for this subject, and we shall return to the narrative at the point where our history broke off.
§ 11.90.1 Ducetius, after founding Palice and enclosing it with strong walls, portioned out the neighbouring countryside in allotments. And it came to pass that this city, on account of the fertility of the soil and the multitude of the colonists, enjoyed a rapid growth.
§ 11.90.2 It did not, however, prosper for long, but was razed to the ground and has remained without habitation until our of which day; regarding this we shall give a detailed account in connection with the appropriate period of time.
§ 11.90.3 Such, then, was the state of affairs in Sicily. In Italy, fifty-eight years after the Crotoniates had destroyed Sybaris, a Thessalian gathered together the Sybarites who remained and founded Sybaris anew; it lay between two rivers, the Sybaris and the Crathis.
§ 11.90.4 And since the settlers possessed a fertile land they quickly advanced in wealth. But they had possessed the city only a few years when they were again driven out of Sybaris, regarding which event we shall undertake to give a detailed account in the following Book. (The year 452 B.C. is lacking.)
§ 11.91.1 When Antidotus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Postumius and Marcus Horatius. During this year Ducetius, who held the leadership of the Siceli, seized the city of Aetna, having treacherously slain its leader, and then he moved with an army into the territory of the Acragantini and laid siege to Motyum, which was held by a garrison of Acragantini; and when the Acragantini and the Syracusans came to the aid of the city, he joined battle with them, was successful, and drove them both out of their camps.
§ 11.91.2 But since at the time winter was setting in, they separated and returned to their homes; and the Syracusans found their general Bolcon, who was responsible for the defeat and was thought to have had secret dealings with Ducetius, guilty of treason and put him to death. With the beginning of summer they appointed a new general, to whom they assigned a strong army with orders to subdue Ducetius.
§ 11.91.3 This general, setting out with his army, came upon Ducetius while he was encamped near Nomae; a fierce struggle ensued and many fell on both sides, but with difficulty the Syracusans overpowered and routed the Siceli, slaying many of them as they fled. Of those who survived the battle the larger number found safety in the strongholds of the Siceli, but a few chose to share the hopes of Ducetius.
§ 11.91.4 While these things were taking place, the Acragantini forced the capitulation of the stronghold of Motyum, which was held by the Siceli who stayed with Ducetius, and then, uniting their troops with the Syracusans who had already won the victory, they now camped together. As for Ducetius, now that he had been completely crushed by his defeat and that some of his soldiers were deserting and others plotting against him, he had come to the depths of despair.
§ 11.92.1 Finally, when Ducetius saw that his remaining friends were about to lay hands upon him, he anticipated them by slipping away at night and riding off to Syracuse. And while it was still night he entered the market-place of the Syracusans, and seating himself at the altars he became a suppliant of the city, placing both his person and the land which he controlled at the disposition of the Syracusans.
§ 11.92.2 When the multitude poured into the market-place in amazement at the unexpected event, the magistrates called a meeting of the Assembly and laid before it the question of what should be done with Ducetius.
§ 11.92.3 Some of those who were accustomed to curry favour with the people advised that they should punish him as an enemy and inflict on him for his misdeeds the appropriate penalty; but the more fairminded of the elder citizens came forward and declared it as their opinion that they should spare the suppliant and show due regard for Fortune and the wrath of the gods. The people should consider, they continued, not what punishment Ducetius deserved, but what action was proper for the Syracusans; for to slay the victim of Fortune was not fitting, but to maintain reverence for the gods as well as to spare the suppliant was an act worthy of the magnanimity of the people.
§ 11.92.4 The people thereupon cried out as with one voice from every side to spare the suppliant. The Syracusans, accordingly, released Ducetius from punishment and sent him off to Corinth, ordering him to spend his life in that city and also giving him sufficient means for this his support.
§ 11.92.5 Since we are now at the year preceding the campaign of the Athenians against Cyprus under the leadership of Cimon, pursuant to the plan announced at the beginning of this Book we herewith bring it to an end.
§ 12.1.1 A man may justly feel perplexed when he stops to consider the inconsistency that is to be found in the life of mankind; for no thing which we consider to be good is ever found to have been given to human beings unadulterated, nor is there any evil in an absolute form without some admixture of advantage. Proofs of this will be obtained if we give thought to the events of the past, especially to those of outstanding importance.
§ 12.1.2 For instance, the campaign of Xerxes, the king of the Persians, against Greece aroused the greatest fear among the Greeks by reason of the immensity of his armaments, since the war they were entering might well decide their slavery, and since the Greek cities of Asia had already been enslaved, all men assumed that those of Greece would also suffer a similar fate.
§ 12.1.3 But the war, contrary to expectation, came to an amazing end, and not only were the peoples of Greece freed of the dangers threatening them, but they also won for themselves great glory, and every city of Hellas enjoyed such an abundant prosperity that all men were filled with wonder at the complete reversal of their fortune.
§ 12.1.4 For from this time over the next fifty years Greece made great advance in prosperity. In these years, for example, plenty brought increase to the arts, and the greatest artists of whom we have record, including the sculptor Pheidias, flourished at that time; and there was likewise great advance in education, and philosophy and oratory had a high place of honour among all Greeks, and especially the Athenians.
§ 12.1.5 For the philosophers were Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, and the orators were Pericles and Isocrates and his pupils; and there were likewise men who have become renowned for generalship, Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, Myronides, and others more than these, regarding whom it would be a long task to write.
§ 12.2.1 First place belonged to the Athenians, who had advanced so far in both fame and prowess that their name was known throughout practically the entire inhabited world; for they increased their leadership to such a degree that, by their own resources and without the aid of Lacedemonians or Peloponnesians, they overcame great Persian armaments both on land and on sea, and humbled the famed leadership of the Persians to such an extent that they forced them by the terms of a treaty to liberate all the cities of Asia.
§ 12.2.2 But of these matters we have given a detailed and fairly precise account in two Books, this and the preceding, and we shall turn now to the events next in order, after we have first set the time-limits of this section.
§ 12.2.3 Now in the preceding Book we began with the campaign of Xerxes and presented a universal history down to the year before the campaign of the Athenians against Cyprus under the command of Cimon; and in this Book we shall commence with the campaign of the Athenians against Cyprus and continue as far as the war which the Athenians voted to undertake against the Syracusans.
§ 12.3.1 When Euthydemus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus and Marcus Fabius Vibulanus. In this year the Athenians, who had been at war with the Persians on behalf of the Egyptians and had lost all their ships at the island which is known as Prosopitis, after a short time resolved to make war again upon the Persians on behalf of the Greeks in Asia Minor. And fitting out a fleet of two hundred triremes, they chose Cimon, the son of Miltiades, to be general and commanded him to sail to Cyprus to make war on the Persians.
§ 12.3.2 And Cimon, taking the fleet which had been furnished with excellent crews and abundant supplies, sailed to Cyprus. At that time the generals of the Persian armaments were Artabazus and Megabyzus. Artabazus held the supreme command and was tarrying in Cyprus with three hundred triremes, and Megabyzus was encamped in Cilicia with the land forces, which numbered three hundred thousand men.
§ 12.3.3 Cimon, when he arrived in Cyprus and was master of the sea, reduced by siege Citium and Marium, treating the conquered in humane fashion. But after this, when triremes from Cilicia and Phoenicia bore down upon the island, Cimon, putting out to sea against them and forcing battle upon them, sank many of the ships, captured one hundred together with their crews, and pursued the remainder as far as Phoenicia.
§ 12.3.4 Now the Persians with the ships that were left sought refuge on the land in the region where Megabyzus lay encamped with the land force. And the Athenians, sailing up and disembarking the soldiers, joined battle, in the course of which Anaxicrates, the other general, who had fought brilliantly, ended his life heroically; but the rest were victorious in the battle and after slaying many returned to the ships. After this the Athenians sailed back again to Cyprus. Such, then, were the events of the first year of the war.
§ 12.4.1 When Pedieus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius Lactuca and Spurius Verginius Tricostus. In this year Cimon, the general of the Athenians, being master of the sea, subdued the cities of Cyprus. And since a large Persian garrison was there in Salamis and the city was filled with missiles and arms of every description, and of grain and supplies of every other kind, he decided that it would be to his advantage to reduce it by siege.
§ 12.4.2 For Cimon reasoned that this would be the easiest way for him not only to become master of all Cyprus but also to confound the Persians, since their being unable to come to the aid of the Salaminians, because the Athenians were masters of the sea, and their having left their allies in the lurch would cause them to be despised, and that, in a word, the entire war would be decided if all Cyprus were reduced by arms. And that in which what actually happened.
§ 12.4.3 The Athenians began the siege of Salamis and were making daily assaults, but the soldiers in the city, supplied as they were with missiles and materiel, were with ease warding off the besiegers from the walls.
§ 12.4.4 Artaxerxes the king, however, when he learned of the reverses his forces had suffered at Cyprus, took counsel on the war with his friends and decided that it was to his advantage to conclude a peace with the Greeks.
§ 12.4.5 Accordingly he dispatched to the generals in Cyprus and to the satraps the written terms on which they were permitted to come to a settlement with the Greeks. Consequently Artabazus and Megabyzus sent ambassadors to Athens to discuss a settlement. The Athenians were favourable and dispatched ambassadors plenipotentiary, the leader of whom was Callias the son of Hipponicus; and so the Athenians and their allies concluded with the Persians a treaty of peace, the principal terms of which run as follows: All the Greek cities are to live under laws of their own making; the satraps of the Persians are not to come nearer to the sea than a three days' journey and no Persian warship is to sail inside of Phaselis or the Cyanean Rocks; and if these terms are observed by the king and his generals, the Athenians are not to send troops into the territory over which the king is ruler.
§ 12.4.6 After the treaty had been solemnly concluded, the Athenians withdrew their armaments from Cyprus, having won a brilliant victory and concluded most noteworthy terms of peace. And it so happened that Cimon died of an illness during his stay in Cyprus.
§ 12.5.1 When Philiscus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Romilius Vaticanus and Gaius Veturius Cichorius; and the Eleians celebrated the Eighty-third Olympiad, that in which Crison of Himera won the "stadion."
§ 12.5.2 In this year the Megarians revolted from the Athenians, and dispatching ambassadors to the Lacedemonians they concluded an alliance with them. Irritated at this the Athenians sent soldiers into the territory of the Megarians, plundering their properties and seizing much booty. And when the Megarians issued from their city to defend their territory, a battle ensued in which the Athenians were victorious and chased them back within their walls.
§ 12.6.1 When Timarchides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Asterius Fontinius. In this year the Lacedemonians invaded Attica and ravaged a large part of the countryside, and after laying siege to some of the Athenian fortresses they withdrew to the Peloponnesus; and Tolmides, the Athenian general, seized Chaeroneia.
§ 12.6.2 And when the Boeotians gathered their forces and caught Tolmides' troops in an ambush, a violent battle took place at Coroneia, in the course of which Tolmides fell fighting and of the remaining Athenians some were massacred and others were taken alive. The result of a disaster of such magnitude was that the Athenians were compelled to allow all the cities throughout Boeotia to live under laws of their own making, in order to get back their captured citizens.
§ 12.7.1 When Callimachus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Sextus Quinctius . . . Trigeminus. In this year, since the Athenians had been weakened in Greece because of their defeat in Boeotia at Coroneia, many cities revolted from them. Since the inhabitants of Euboea were taking the lead in the revolution, Pericles, who had been chosen general, made a campaign against Euboea with a strong force, and taking the city of Hestiaea by storm he removed the inhabitants from their native city; and the other cities he terrified and forced back into obedience to the Athenians. A truce was made for thirty years, Callias and Chares negotiating and confirming the peace.
§ 12.8.1 In Sicily a war broke out between the Syracusans and Acragantini for the following reasons. The Syracusans had overcome Ducetius, the ruler of the Siceli, cleared him of all charges when he became a suppliant, and specified that he should make his home in the city of the Corinthians.
§ 12.8.2 But after Ducetius had spent a short time in Corinth he broke the agreement, and on the plea that the gods had given him an oracular reply that he should found a city on the Fair Shore (Kale Acte) of Sicily, he sailed to the island with a number of colonists; some Siceli were also included, among whom was Archonides, the ruler of Herbita. He, then, was busied with the colonization of Kale Acte.
§ 12.8.3 But the Acragantini, partly because they were envious of the Syracusans and partly because they were accusing them of letting Ducetius, who was their common enemy, go free without consulting them, declared war upon the Syracusans.
§ 12.8.4 The cities of Sicily were divided, some of them taking the field with the Acragantini and others with the Syracusans, and so large armaments were mustered on both sides. Great emulation was shown by the cities as they pitched opposing camps at the Himera River, and in the conflict which followed the Syracusans were victorious and slew more than a thousand Acragantini. After the battle Acragantini sent ambassadors to discuss terms and the Syracusans conclude a peace.
§ 12.9.1 These, then, were the events in Sicily. And in Italy the city of Thurii came to be founded, for the following reasons. When in former times the Greeks had founded Sybaris in Italy, the city had enjoyed a rapid growth because of the fertility of the land.
§ 12.9.2 For lying as the city did between two rivers, the Crathis and the Sybaris, from which it derived its name, its inhabitants, who tilled an extensive and fruitful countryside, came to possess great riches. And since they kept granting citizenship to many aliens, they increased to such an extent that they were considered to be far the first among the inhabitants of Italy; indeed they so excelled in population that the city possessed three hundred thousand citizens. Now there arose among the Sybarites a leader of the people named Telys, who brought charges against the most influential men and persuaded the Sybarites to exile the five hundred wealthiest citizens and confiscate their estates.
§ 12.9.3 And when these exiles went to Croton and took refuge at the altars in the market-place, Telys dispatched ambassadors to the Crotoniates, commanding them either to deliver up the exiles or to expect war.
§ 12.9.4 An assembly of the people was convened and deliberation proposed on the question whether they should surrender the suppliants to the Sybarites or face a war with a superior foe, and the Council and people were at a loss what to do. At first the sentiments of the masses, from fear of the war, leaned toward handing over the suppliants, but after this, when Pythagoras the philosopher advised that they grant safety to the suppliants, they changed their opinions and accepted the war on behalf of the safety of the suppliants.
§ 12.9.5 When the Sybarites advanced against them with three hundred thousand men, the Crotoniates opposed them with one hundred thousand under the command of Milo the athlete, who by reason of his great physical strength was the first to put to flight his adversaries.
§ 12.9.6 For we are told that this man, who had won the prize in Olympia six times and whose courage was of the measure of his physical body, came to battle wearing his Olympic crowns and equipped with the gear of Heracles, lion's skin and club; and he won the admiration of his fellow citizens as responsible for their victory.
§ 12.10.1 Since the Crotoniates in their anger would take no prisoners but slew all who fell into their hands in the flight, the larger number of the Sybarites perished; and they plundered the city of Sybaris and laid it entirely waste.
§ 12.10.2 Fifty-eight years later Thessalians joined in settling the city, but after a little while they were driven out by the Crotoniates, in the period we are now discussing.
§ 12.10.3 And shortly thereafter the city was moved to another site and received another name, its founders being Lampon and Xenocritus; the circumstances of its founding were as follows. The Sybarites who were driven a second time from their native city dispatched ambassadors to Greece, to the Lacedemonians and Athenians, requesting that they assist their repatriation and take part in the settlement.
§ 12.10.4 Now the Lacedemonians paid no attention to them, but the Athenians promised to join in the enterprise, and they manned ten ships and sent them to the Sybarites under the leadership of Lampon and Xenocritus; they further sent word to the several cities of the Peloponnesus, offering a share in the colony to anyone who wished to take part in it.
§ 12.10.5 Many accepted the offer and received an oracular response from Apollo that they should found a city in the place where there would be water to drink in due measure, but bread to each without measure. They put in at Italy and arriving at Sybaris they set about hunting the place which the god had ordered them to colonize.
§ 12.10.6 Having found not far from Sybaris a spring called Thuria, which had a bronze pipe which the natives of the region called Medimnos, and believing this to be the place which the god had pointed out, they threw a wall about it, and founding a city there they named it Thurium for the spring.
§ 12.10.7 They divided the city lengthwise by four streets, the first of which they named Heracleia, the second Aphrodisia, the third Olympias, and the fourth Dionysias, and breadthwise they divided it by three streets, of which the first was named Heroa, the second Thuria, and the last Thurina. And since the quarters formed by these streets were filled with dwellings, the construction of the city appeared to be good.
§ 12.11.1 For a short time only did the Thurians live together in peace, and then they fell into serious civil strife, not without reason. The former Sybarites, it appears, were assigning the most important offices to themselves and the lower ones to the citizens who had been enrolled later; their wives they also thought should enjoy precedence among the citizenesses in the offering of sacrifices to the gods, and the wives of the later citizens should take second place to them; furthermore, the land lying near the city they were portioning out in allotments among themselves, and the more distant land to the newcomers.
§ 12.11.2 And when a division arose for the causes we have mentioned, the citizens who had been added to the rolls after the others, being more numerous and more powerful, put to death practically all of the original Sybarites and took upon themselves the colonization of the city. Since the countryside was extensive and rich, they sent for colonists in large numbers from Greece, and to these they assigned parts of city and gave them equal shares of the land.
§ 12.11.3 Those who continued to live in the city quickly came to possess great wealth, and concluding friendship with the Crotoniates they administered their state in admirable fashion. Establishing a democratic form of government, they divided the citizens into ten tribes, to each of which they assigned a name based on the nationality of those who constituted it: three tribes composed of peoples gathered from the Peloponnesus they named the Arcadian, the Achaean, and the Eleian; the same number, gathered from related peoples living outside the Peloponnesus, they named the Boeotian, Amphictyonian, and Dorian; and the remaining four, constituted from any other peoples, the Ionian, the Athenian, the Euboean, and the Islander. They also chose for their lawgiver the best man among such of their citizens as were admired for their learning, this being Charondas.
§ 12.11.4 He, after examining the legislations of all peoples, singled out the best principles and incorporated them in his laws; and he also worked out many principles which were his own discovery, and these it is not foreign to our purpose to mention for the edification of our readers.
§ 12.12.1 First of all, in the case of men who brought home a stepmother over their children he ordained as their punishment that they should have no part in counselling their fatherland, since he believed that men who planned so badly with respect to their own children would likewise be bad counsellors for their fatherland. For, he said, whoever had been fortunate in their first marriages would rest satisfied with their good lot, whereas whoever had been unfortunate in marriage and then made the same mistake a second time should be regarded as men without sense.
§ 12.12.2 Men who had been found guilty of false accusation should, he decreed, wear wherever they went a wreath of tamarisk, in order that they might show to all their fellow citizens that they had won the highest prize for wickedness. As a consequence certain men who had been judged guilty of this charge, being unable to bear their great disgrace, voluntarily removed themselves from life. When this took place, every man who had made a practice of false accusation was banished from the city, and the government enjoyed a blessed life of freedom from this evil.
§ 12.12.3 Charondas also wrote a unique law on evil association, which had been overlooked by all other lawgivers. He took it for granted that the characters of good men are in some cases perverted to evil by reason of their found and intimacy with bad persons, and that badness, like a pestilent disease, sweeps over the life of mankind and infects the souls of the most upright; for the road to the worse slopes downward and so provides an easier way to take; and this is the reason why many men of fairly good character, ensnared by deceptive pleasures, get stranded upon very bad habits. Wishing, therefore, to remove this source of corruption, the lawgiver forbade the indulgence in friendship and intimacy with unprincipled persons, provided actions at law against evil association, and by means of severe penalties diverted from their course those who were about to err in this manner.
§ 12.12.4 Charondas also wrote another law which is far superior to the one just mentioned and had also been overlooked by lawgivers before his time. He framed the law that all the sons of citizens should learn to read and write, the city providing the salaries of the teachers; for he assumed that men of no means and unable to provide the fees from their own resources would be cut off from the noblest pursuits.
§ 12.13.1 In fact the lawgiver rated reading and writing above every other kind of learning, and with right good reason; for it is by means of them that most of the affairs of life and such as are most useful are concluded, like votes, letters, covenants, laws, and all other things which make the greatest contribution to orderly life.
§ 12.13.2 What man, indeed, could compose a worthy laudation of the knowledge of letters? For it is by such knowledge alone that the dead are carried in the memory of the living and that men widely separated in space hold converse through written communication with those who are at the furthest distance from them, as if they were at their side; and in the case of covenants in time of war between states or kings the firmest guarantee that such agreements will abide is provided by the unmistakable character of writing. Indeed, speaking generally, it is writing alone which preserves the cleverest sayings of men of wisdom and the oracles of the gods, as well as philosophy and all knowledge, and is constantly handing them down to succeeding generations for the ages to come.
§ 12.13.3 Consequently, while it is true that nature is the cause of life, the cause of the good life is the education which is based upon reading and writing. And so Charondas, believing as he did that the illiterate were being deprived of certain great advantages, by his legislation corrected this wrong and judged them to be deserving of concern and expense on the part of the state;
§ 12.13.4 and he so far excelled former lawgivers who had required that private citizens when ill should enjoy the service of physicians at state expense that, whereas those legislators judged men's bodies to be worthy of healing, he gave healing to the souls which were in distress through want of education, and whereas it is our prayer that we may never have need of those physicians, it is our heart's desire that all our time may be spent in the company teachers of knowledge.
§ 12.14.1 To both the matters we have mentioned above many poets have borne witness in verse; to the law on evil association as follows: The man who takes delight in converse with The base, I never ask his kind, aware He's just like those with whom he likes to be; to the law he proclaimed on a stepmother as follows: Charondas, giver of laws, so men relate, In legal code says many things, but this Above all else: Let him who on his offspring A second mother foists be held without Esteem nor count among his countrymen For aught, since it's a bane that he hath brought From alien source upon his own affairs. For if, he says to him, you fortunate were When wedded first, forbear when you're well off, And if your luck was bad, a madman's act It surely is to try a second wife. For in truth the man who errs twice in the same matter may justly be considered a fool.
§ 12.14.2 And Philemon, the writer of comedy, when introducing men who repeatedly sail the seas, after commending the law, says: Amazement holds me, no longer if a man Has gone to sea, but if he's done it twice. Similarly one may say that one is not amazed if a man has married, but if he has married a second time; for it is better to expose oneself twice to the sea than to a woman.
§ 12.14.3 Indeed the greatest and most grievous quarrels in homes between children and fathers are caused by stepmothers, and this fact is the cause of many lawless acts which are portrayed in tragic scenes upon the stage.
§ 12.15.1 Charondas also wrote another law which merits approbation — that which deals with the protection of orphans. On the surface this allow appears to contain nothing unusual or worthy of approbation, but when it is scrutinized more closely and examined with care, it indicates not only earnest study but also a high claim to regard.
§ 12.15.2 For his law provided that the property of orphans should be managed by the next of kin on the father's side, but that the orphans should be reared by their relatives on the mother's side. Now at first glance a man sees nothing wise or outstanding in this law, but when it is explored deeply it is found to be justly worthy of praise. For if the reason is sought out why he entrusted the property of orphans to one group and the rearing of them to another, the lawgiver is seen to have shown an unusual kind of ingenuity.
§ 12.15.3 That is, the relatives on the mother's side will not plot to take the lives of the orphans, since they have no share in their inheritance, and the kin on the father's side do not have the opportunity to plot against their lives, since they are not entrusted with the care of their persons; furthermore, since they inherit the property if the orphans die of disease or some other circumstance, they will administer the estate with greater care, believing that they hold as their own what are hopes based upon an act of Fortune.
§ 12.16.1 Charondas also wrote a law against men who had left their post in war or had refused to take up arms at all in defence of their fatherland. Other lawmakers had made death the punishment of such men, but Charondas ordered that they should sit for three days in the market-place dressed in women's clothes.
§ 12.16.2 And this law is not only more humane than those of other peoples but it also imperceptibly, by the severity of the disgrace it inflicts, diverts others of like mind from cowardice; for it is better to die than to experience such a gross indignity in one's fatherland. Moreover, he did not do away with the guilty men but preserved them for the state against the needs of wartime, believing that they would make amends, by reason of the punishment caused by that disgrace, and would be eager to wipe out their former shame by bolder deeds of bravery.
§ 12.16.3 The lawgiver also preserved the laws he made by means of their severity. That is, he commanded that under every circumstance obedience should be rendered to the law even if it had been altogether wrongly conceived; but he allowed any law to be corrected, if it needed correction.
§ 12.16.4 For he took the position that although it was right enough that a man should be overruled by a lawgiver, to be overruled by one in private station was quite preposterous, even if that serves the general interest. And it was especially by this means that he prevented men who present in jury-courts the pretences and cunning devices of those who have violated the laws in place of the literal terms of the laws from destroying by inventive sophistries their supremacy.
§ 12.16.5 As a consequence, we are told, to certain men who had offered such arguments before the jurors who were passing on the punishment of men who had violated the law, he said, "You must save either the law or the man."
§ 12.17.1 But the most amazing legislation of Charondas, we are told, was that which related to revision of the laws. Observing that in most states the multitude of men who kept endeavouring to revise the laws led continually to the vitiation of the previously existing body of the laws and incite the masses to civil strife, he wrote a law which was peculiar and altogether unique.
§ 12.17.2 He commanded, namely, that the man who proposed to revise any law should put his neck in a noose at the time he made his proposal of a revision, and remain in that position until the people had reached a decision on the revision of the law, and if the Assembly approved the revised law, the introducer was to be freed of the noose, but if the proposal of revision did not carry, the noose was to be drawn and the man die on the spot.
§ 12.17.3 Such being the legislation relating to revision, fear restrained subsequent lawmakers and not a man dared to utter a word about revising laws; and in all subsequent time history records but three men who proposed revision among the Thurians, and these appeared because circumstances arose which rendered proposals of revision imperative.
§ 12.17.4 Thus, there was a law that if a man put out the eye of another, he should have his own eye put out, and man with but one eye, having had that eye put out and thus lost his entire sight, claimed that the offender, by the loss in requital of but one eye, had paid a less penalty; for, he maintained, if a man who had blinded a fellow citizen paid only the penalty fixed by the law, he would not have suffered the same loss; it would be just, therefore, that the man who had destroyed the entire sight of a man with but one ye should have both his eyes put out, if he were to receive a like punishment.
§ 12.17.5 Consequently the man with one eye, taking the matter strongly to heart, made bold to raise in the Assembly the case of the loss he had suffered, at the same time both lamenting bitterly over his personal misfortune to his fellow citizens and suggesting to the commons that they revise the law; and in the end, putting his neck in a noose, he won his proposal, set at naught the existing law, and had the revision approved, and he escaped the death by the noose as well.
§ 12.18.1 A second law, which gave a wife the right to divorce her husband and marry whomever she chose, was also revised. A certain man, who was well advanced in years and had a wife who was younger than he and had left him, proposed to the Thurians that they revise the law by the added provision that the wife who leaves a husband may marry whomever she chooses, provided the man is not younger than her former husband; and that likewise, if a man sends his wife away he may not marry a woman younger than the wife whom he had sent away.
§ 12.18.2 The elderly man won his proposal and set at naught the former law, also escaping the peril of the noose which threatened him; and his wife, who had thus been prevented from living with a younger husband, married again the man she had left.
§ 12.18.3 A third law to be revised had to do with heiresses and is also found in the legislation of Solon. Charondas ordered that the next of kin be assigned in marriage to an heiress and that likewise an heiress be assigned in marriage to her nearest relative, who was required to marry her or, if she were poor, to contribute five hundred drachmas as a dowry of the penniless heiress.
§ 12.18.4 And a certain orphan who was an heiress, of good birth but altogether without means of support and so unable by reason of her poverty to find a husband, turned to the people for aid, explaining to them with tears how helpless and scorned she was; and she went on to outline the revision of the law whereby, in place of the payment of five hundred drachmas, it should specify that the next of kin be required to marry the heiress who had been assigned to him. The people took pity on her and voted for the revision of the law, and thus the orphan escaped the peril which threatened her from the noose, while the nearest of kin, who was wealthy, was compelled to take to wife a penniless heiress without a dowry.
§ 12.19.1 It remains for us to speak of the death of Charondas, in connection with which a peculiar and unexpected thing happened to him. He had set out to the country carrying a dagger because of the robbers, and on his return the Assembly was in session and the commons in an uproar, whereupon he approached it because he was curious about the matter in dispute.
§ 12.19.2 But he had made a law that no man should enter the Assembly carrying a weapon, and since he had forgotten he was carrying the dagger at his side, he provided certain of his enemies with an occasion to bring an accusation against him. And when one of them said, "You have annulled your own law," he replied, "Not so, by Zeus, I will uphold it," and drawing the dagger he slew himself. Some historians, however, attribute this act to Diocles, the lawgiver of the Syracusans.
§ 12.19.3 But now that we have discoursed at sufficient length upon Charondas the lawmaker, we wish to speak briefly also of the lawmaker Zaleucus, since the two men not only followed similar principles of life but were also natives of neighbouring cities.
§ 12.20.1 Now Zaleucus was by birth a Locrian of Italy, a man of noble family, admired for his education, and a pupil of the philosopher Pythagoras. Having been accorded high favour in his native city, he was chosen lawmaker and committed to writing a thorough novel system of law, making his beginning, first of all, with the gods of the heavens.
§ 12.20.2 For at the outset in the introduction to his legislation as a whole he declared it to be necessary that the inhabitants of the city should first of all assume as an article of their creed that gods exist, and that, as their minds survey the heavens and its orderly scheme and arrangement, they should judge that these creations are not the result of Chance or the work of men's hands; that they should revere the gods as the cause of all that is noble and good in the life of mankind; and that they should keep the soul pure from every kind of evil, in the belief that the gods take no pleasure in either the sacrifices or costly gifts of the wicked but in the just and honourable practices of good men.
§ 12.20.3 And after inviting the citizens in this introduction to reverence and justice, he appended the further command that they should consider no one of their fellow citizens as an enemy with whom there can be no reconciliation, but that the quarrel be entered into with the thought that they will again come to agreement and friendship; and that the one who acts otherwise should be considered by his fellow citizens to be savage and untamed of soul. Also the magistrates were urged by him not to be wilful or arrogant, and not to render judgement out of enmity or friendship. And among his several ordinances a number were added of his own devising, which showed exceptionally great wisdom.
§ 12.21.1 To cite examples, whereas everywhere else wayward wives were required to pay fines, Zaleucus stopped their licentious behaviour by a cunningly devised punishment. That is, he made the following laws: a free-born woman may not be accompanied by more than one female slave, unless she is drunk; she may not leave the city during the night, unless she is planning to commit adultery; she may not wear gold jewelry or a garment with a purple border, unless she is a courtesan; and a husband may not wear a gold-studded ring or a cloak of Milesian fashion unless he is bent upon prostitution or adultery.
§ 12.21.2 Consequently, by the elimination, with its shameful implications, of the penalties he easily turned men aside from harmful luxury and wanton living; for no man wished to incur the sneers of his fellow citizens by acknowledging the disgraceful licentiousness.
§ 12.21.3 He wrote many other excellent laws, such as those on contracts and other relations of life which are the cause of strife. But it would be a long task for us to recount them and foreign to the plan of our history, and so we shall resume our account at the point where we digressed from the course of our narrative.
§ 12.22.1 When Lysimachides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus. In this year the Sybarites who were fleeing from the danger threatening them in the civil strife made their home on the Trais River. Here they remained for a time, but later they were driven out by the Brettii and destroyed.
§ 12.22.2 And in Greece the Athenians, regaining control of Euboea and driving the Hestiaeans from their city, dispatched, under Pericles as commander, a colony of their own citizens to it and sending forth a thousand colonists they portioned out both the city and countryside in allotments.
§ 12.23.1 When Praxiteles was archon in Athens, the Eighty-fourth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Crison of Himera won the "stadion," and in Rome the following ten men were elected to draft laws: Publius Clodius Regillanus, Titus Minucius, Spurius Veturius, Gaius Julius, Gaius Sulpicius, Publius Sestius, Romulus (Romilius), Spurius Postumius Calvinus. These men drew up the laws.
§ 12.23.2 This year the Thurians and the Tarantini handle up continuous warfare and ravaged each other's territory both by land and by sea. They engaged in many light battles and skirmishes, but accomplished no deed worthy of mention.
§ 12.24.1 When Lysanias was archon in Athens, the Romans again chose ten men as lawmakers: Appius Clodius, Marcus Cornelius, Lucius Minucius, Gaius Sergius, Quintus Publius, Manius Rabuleius, and Spurius Veturius.
§ 12.24.2 These men, however, were not able to complete the codification of the laws. One of them had conceived a passion for a maiden who was penniless but of good family, and at first he tried to seduce the girl by means of money; and when she would have nothing to do with him, he sent an agent to her home with orders to lead her into slavery.
§ 12.24.3 The agent, claiming that she was his own slave, brought her, serving in that capacity, before the magistrate, in whose court Appius charged her with being his slave. And when the magistrates had listened to the charge and handed the girl over to him, the agent led her off as his own slave.
§ 12.24.4 The maiden's father, who had been present at the scene and had complained bitterly of the injustice he had suffered, since no attention had been paid to him, passed, as it happened, a butcher's shop, and snatching up the cleaver lying on the block, he struck his daughter with it and killed her, to prevent her experiencing the violation which awaited her; then he rushed out of the city and made his way to the army which was encamped at the time on Mount Algidus, as it is called.
§ 12.24.5 There he laid his case before the common soldiers, denounced with tears the misfortune that had befallen him, and won their complete pity and great sympathy. The entire body sallied forth to bring help to the unfortunates and burst into Rome during the night fully armed. There they seized the hill known as the Aventine.
§ 12.25.1 When with the day the hatred of the soldiers toward the evil which had been done became known, the ten lawmakers, rallying to the aid of their fellow magistrate, collected a body of young men, with the intention of settling the issue by a test of arms. Since a great spirit of contention now threatened the state, the most respectable citizens, foreseeing the greatness of the danger, acted as ambassadors between both parties to reach an agreement and begged them with great earnestness to cease from the civil discord and not plunge their fatherland into such serious distress.
§ 12.25.2 In the end all were won over and a mutual agreement was reached as follows: that ten tribunes should be elected who should wield the highest authority among the magistrates of the state and should act as guardians of the freedom of the citizens; and that of the annual consuls one should be chosen from the patricians and one, without exception, should be taken from the plebeians, the people having the power to choose even both consuls from the plebeians.
§ 12.25.3 This they did in their desire to weaken the supremacy of the patricians, for the patricians, by reason both of their noble birth and of the great fame that came down to them from their ancestors, were lords, one might say, of the state. It was furthermore stipulated in the agreement that when tribunes had served their year of office they should see that an equal number of tribunes were appointed in their place, and that if they failed to do this they should be burned alive; also, in case the tribunes could not agree among themselves, the will of the interceding tribune must not be prevented. Such, then, we find, was the conclusion of the civil discord in Rome.
§ 12.26.1 When Diphilus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Horatius and Lucius Valerius Turpinus. In Rome during this year, since the legislation remained unfinished because of the civil discord, the consuls brought it to conclusion; that is, of the Twelve Tables, as they are called, ten had been drawn up, and the consuls wrote into law the two remaining. After the legislation they had undertaken had been concluded, the consuls engraved the laws on twelve bronze tablets and affixed them to the Rostra before the Senate-house. And the legislation as it was drawn up, since it is couched in such brief and pithy language, has continued to be admired by men down to our own day.
§ 12.26.2 While the events we have described were taking place, the greater number of the nations of the inhabited world were quiet, practically all of them being at peace. For the Persians had two treaties with the Greeks, one with the Athenians and their allies according to which the Greek cities of Asia were to live under laws of their own making, and they also concluded one later with the Lacedemonians, in which exactly the opposite terms had been incorporated, whereby the Greek cities of Asia were to be subject to the Persians. Likewise, the Greeks were at peace with one another, the Athenians and Lacedemonians having concluded a truce of thirty years.
§ 12.26.3 Affairs likewise in Sicily also were in a peaceful state, since the Carthaginians had made a treaty with Gelon, the Greek cities of Sicily had voluntarily conceded the hegemony to the Syracusans, and the Acragantini, after their defeat at the river Himera, had come to terms with the Syracusans.
§ 12.26.4 There was quiet also among the peoples of Italy and Celtice, as well as over Iberia and almost all the rest of the inhabited world. Consequently no deed of arms worthy of mention was accomplished in this period, a single peace prevailed, and festive gatherings, sacrificial festivals of the gods, and everything else which accompanies a life of felicity prevailed among all mankind.
§ 12.27.1 When Timocles was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lar Herminius and Titus Stertinius Structor. In this year the Samians went to war with the Milesians because of a quarrel over Priene, and when they saw that the Athenians were favouring the Milesians, they revolted from the Athenians, who thereupon chose Pericles as general and dispatched him with forty ships against the Samians.
§ 12.27.2 And sailing forth against Samos, Pericles got into the city and mastered it, and then established a democracy in it. He exacted of the Samians eighty talents and took an equal number of their young men as hostages, whom he put in the keeping of the Lemnians; then, after having finished everything in a few days, he returned to Athens.
§ 12.27.3 But civil discord arose in Samos, one party preferring the democracy and the other wanting an aristocracy, and the city was in utter tumult. The opponents of the democracy crossed over to Asia, and went on to Sardis to get aid from Pissuthnes, the Persian satrap. Pissuthnes gave them seven hundred soldiers, hoping that in this way he would get the mastery of the island, and the Samians, sailing to Samos by night with the soldiers which had been given them, slipped unnoticed into the city with the aid of the citizens, seized the island without difficulty, and expelled from the city those who opposed them. Then, after they had stolen and carried off the hostages from Lemnos and had made everything secure in Samos, they publicly declared themselves to be enemies of the Athenians.
§ 12.27.4 The Athenians again chose Pericles as general and dispatched him against the Samians with sixty ships. Thereupon Pericles fought a naval battle against seventy triremes of the Samians and defeated them; and then, summoning twenty-five ships from the Chians and Mytilenaeans, together with them he laid siege to the city of Samos. But a few days later Pericles left a part of his force to continue the siege and set out to sea to meet the Phoenician ships which the Persians had dispatched to the aid of the Samians.
§ 12.28.1 The Samians, believing that because of the departure of Pericles they had a suitable opportunity to attack the ships that had been left behind, sailed against them, and having won the battle they were puffed up with pride.
§ 12.28.2 But when Pericles received word of the defeat of his forces, he at once turned back and gathered an imposing fleet, since he desired to destroy once and for all the fleet of the enemy. The Athenians rapidly dispatched sixty triremes and the Chians and Mytilenaeans thirty, and with this great armament Pericles renewed the siege both by land and by sea, making continuous assaults.
§ 12.28.3 He built also siege machines, being the first of all men to do so, such as those called "rams" and "tortoises," Artemon of Clazomenae having built them; and by pushing the siege with energy and throwing down the walls by means of the siege machines he gained the mastery of Samos. After punishing the ringleaders of the revolt he exacted of the Samians the expenses incurred in the siege of the city, fixing the penalty at two hundred talents.
§ 12.28.4 He also took from them their ships and razed their walls; then he restored the democracy and returned to his country. As for the Athenians and Lacedemonians, the thirty-year truce between them remained unshaken to this time. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.29.1 When Morychides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Julius and Marcus Geganius, and the Eleans celebrated the Eighty-fifth Olympiad, that in which Crison of Himera won the "stadion" for the second time. In Sicily, in this year, Ducetius, the former leader of the cities of the Siceli, founded the native city of the Calactians, and when he had established many colonists there, he laid claim to the leadership of the Siceli, but his attempt was cut short by illness and his life was ended.
§ 12.29.2 The Syracusans had made subject to them all the cities of the Siceli with the exception of Trinacie, as it is called, and against it they decided to send an army; for they were deeply apprehensive lest the Trinacians should make a bid for the leadership of the Siceli, who were their kinsmen. There were many great men in this city, since it had always occupied the chief position among the cities of the Siceli; for it was full of military leaders who took an inestimable pride in their own manly spirit.
§ 12.29.3 Consequently the Syracusans marched against it after having mustered all their own armaments and those of their allied states. The Trinacians were without allies, since all the other cities were subject to the Syracusans, but they none the less offered a strong resistance. They held out valiantly against the perils they encountered and slew great numbers, and they all ended their lives fighting heroically.
§ 12.29.4 In like manner even the majority of the older men removed themselves from life, being unwilling to endure the despite they would suffer at the capture of their city. And the Syracusans, after conquering in brilliant fashion men who had never before been subdued, sold the inhabitants into slavery and utterly destroyed the city, and the choicest of the booty they sent to Delphi as a thank-offering to the god.
§ 12.30.1 When Glaucidos was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Quinctius and Agrippa Furius. During this year the Syracusans, because of the successes we have described, built one hundred triremes and doubled the number of their cavalry; they also developed their infantry forces and made financial preparations by laying heavier tributes upon the Siceli who were now subject to them. This they were doing with the intention of subduing all Sicily little by little.
§ 12.30.2 While these events were taking place it came about in Greece that the Corinthian War, as it is called, began for the following causes. Civil strife broke out among the Epidamnians who dwell upon the Adriatic Sea and are colonists of the Cercyraeans and Corinthians. The successful group sent into exile large numbers of their opponents, but the exiles gathered into one body, associated the Illyrians with themselves, and sailed together with them against Epidamnus.
§ 12.30.3 Since the barbarians had taken the field with a large army, had seized the countryside, and were investing the city, the Epidamnians, who of themselves were not equal to them in battle, dispatched ambassadors to Cercyra, asking the Cercyraeans on the grounds of kinship to come to their aid. When the Cercyraeans paid no attention to the request, they sent ambassadors to seek an alliance with the Corinthians and declared Corinth to be their single mother-city; at the same time they asked for colonists.
§ 12.30.4 And the Corinthians, partly out of pity for the Epidamnians and partly out of hatred for the Cercyraeans, since they alone of the colonists who had gone from Corinth would not send the customary sacrificial animals to the mother-city, decided to go to the aid of the Epidamnians. Consequently they sent to Epidamnus both colonists and soldiers in sufficient numbers to garrison the city.
§ 12.30.5 At this the Cercyraeans became irritated and sent out a squadron of fifty triremes under the command of a general. He, sailing up to the city, issued orders to receive back the exiles, while they dispatched ambassadors to the guards from Corinth demanding that the question of the origin of the colony be decided by a court of arbiters, not by war. When the Corinthians made no answer to this proposal, both sides decided upon war, and they set about fitting out great naval armaments and gathering allies. And so the Corinthian War, as it has been called, broke out for the reasons we have narrated.
§ 12.30.6 The Romans were at war with the Volscians and at first they engaged only in skirmishes and unimportant engagements, but later they conquered them in a great pitched battle and slew the larger number of the enemy.
§ 12.31.1 When Theodorus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Genucius and Agrippa Curtius Chilo. In Italy, during this year, the nation of the Campani was formed, deriving them name from the fertility of the plain about them. In Asia the dynasty of the Cimmerian Bosporus, whose kings were known as the Archeanactidae, ruled for forty-two years; and the successor to the kingship was Spartacus, who reigned seven years.
§ 12.31.2 In Greece the Corinthians were at war with the Cercyraeans, and after preparing naval armaments they made ready for a battle at sea. Now the Corinthians with seventy excellently equipped ships sailed against their enemy; but the Cercyraeans opposed them with eighty triremes and won the battle, and then they forced the surrender of Epidamnus and put to death all the captives except the Corinthians, whom they cast in chains and imprisoned.
§ 12.31.3 After the sea battle the Corinthians withdrew in dismay to the Peloponnesus, and the Cercyraeans, who were now masters of the sea in those regions, made frequent descents upon the allies of the Corinthians, ravaging their lands.
§ 12.32.1 At the end of the year the archon in Athens was Euthymenes, and in Rome instead of consuls three military tribunes were elected, Aulus Sempronius, Lucius Atilius, and Titus Quinctius. During this year, the Corinthians, who had suffered defeat in the sea-battle, decided to build a more imposing fleet.
§ 12.32.2 Consequently, having procured a great amount of timber and hiring shipbuilders from other cities, they set about with great eagerness building triremes and fabricating arms and missiles of every description; and, speaking generally, they were making ready all the equipment needed for the war and, in particular, triremes, of which they were building some from their keels, repairing others which had been damaged, and requisitioning still others from their allies.
§ 12.32.3 And since the Cercyraeans were doing the same thing and were not being outdone in eagerness, it was clear that the war was going to increase greatly in intensity. While these events were taking place the Athenians founded the colony of Amphipolis, selecting the colonists in part from their own citizens and in part from garrisons in the neighbourhood.
§ 12.33.1 When Lysimachus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Quinctius and Marcus Geganius Macerinus, and the Eleians celebrated the Eighty-sixth Olympiad, that in which Theopompus the Thessalian won the "stadion." In this year the Cercyraeans, learning of the great scale of the armaments which were being prepared against them, dispatched ambassadors to the Athenians asking their aid.
§ 12.33.2 Since the Corinthians did the same thing, an Assembly was convened, and the Athenian people after listening to the ambassadors voted to form an alliance with the Cercyraeans. Consequently they dispatched at once ten fully equipped triremes and promised that they would send more later if necessary.
§ 12.33.3 The Corinthians, after their failure to conclude an alliance with the Athenians, manned by themselves ninety triremes and received in addition sixty from their allies. With, therefore, one hundred and fifty fully equipped triremes and after selecting their most accomplished generals, they put to sea against Cercyra, having decided to join battle at once. And when the Cercyraeans learned that the enemy's fleet was not far off,
§ 12.33.4 they put out to sea against them with one hundred and twenty triremes including the Athenian. A sharp battle took place, and at the outset the Corinthians had the upper hand; but later, when the Athenians came on the scene with twenty additional ships which they had sent in accordance with the second alliance, it turned out that the Cercyraeans were victorious. And on the next day, when the Cercyraeans sailed against them in full force for battle, the Corinthians did not put out.
§ 12.34.1 When Antiochides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Postumus Aebutius Ulecus. In this year, since the Athenians had fought at the side of the Cercyraeans and been responsible for their victory in the sea-battle, the Corinthians were incensed at them.
§ 12.34.2 Being eager, therefore, to retaliate upon the Athenians, they incited the city of Potidaea, which was one of their own colonies, to revolt from the Athenians. And in like manner Perdiccas, the king of the Macedonians, who was also at odds with the Athenians, persuaded the Chalcidians, who had revolted from the Athenians, to abandon their cities on the sea and unite in forming a single city known as Olynthus.
§ 12.34.3 When the Athenians heard of the revolt of the Potidaeans, they dispatched thirty ships with orders to ravage the territory of the rebels and to sack their city; and the expedition landed in Macedonia, as the Athenian people had ordered them to do, and undertook the siege of Potidaea.
§ 12.34.4 Thereupon the Corinthians came to the help of the besieged with two thousand soldiers and the Athenian people also sent two thousand. In the battle which took place on the isthmus near Pallene the Athenians were victorious and slew over three hundred of the enemy, and the Potidaeans were entirely beleaguered.
§ 12.34.5 And while these event were taking place, the Athenians founded in the Propontis a city which was given the name of Astacus. In Italy the Romans sent colonists to Ardea and portioned out the land in allotments.
§ 12.35.1 When Crates was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Furius Fusus and Manius Papirius Crassus. This year in Italy the inhabitants of Thurii, who had been gathered together from many cities, divided into factions over the question from what city the Thurians should say they came as colonists and what man should justly be called the founder of the city.
§ 12.35.2 The situation was that the Athenians were laying claim to this colony on the grounds, as they alleged, that the majority of its colonists had come from Athens; and, besides, the cities of the Peloponnesus, which had provided from their people not a few to the founding of Thurii, maintained that the colonization of the city should be ascribed to them.
§ 12.35.3 Likewise, since many able men had shared in the founding of the colony and had rendered many services, there was much discussion on the matter, since each one of them was eager to have this honour fall to him. In the end the Thurians sent a delegation to Delphi to inquire what man they should call the founder of their city, and the god replied that he himself should be considered to be its founder. After the dispute had been settled in this manner, they declared Apollo to have been the founder of Thurii, and the people, being now freed from the civil discord, returned to the state of harmony which they had previously enjoyed.
§ 12.35.4 In Greece Archidamus, the king of the Lacedemonians, died after a reign of forty-two years, and Agis succeeded to the throne and was king for twenty-five years.
§ 12.36.1 When Apseudes was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Menenius and Proculus Geganius Macerinus. During this year Spartacus, the king of the Bosporus, died after a reign of seven years, and Seleucus succeeded to the throne and was king for forty years.
§ 12.36.2 In Athens Meton, the son of Pausanias, who had won fame for his study of the stars, revealed to the public his nineteen-year cycle, as it is called, the beginning of which he fixed on the thirteenth day of the Athenian month of Scirophorion. In this number of years the stars accomplish their return to the same place in the heavens and conclude, as it were, the circuit of what may be called a Great Year; consequently it is called by some the Year of Meton.
§ 12.36.3 And we find that this man was astonishingly fortunate in this prediction which he published; for the stars complete both their movement and the effects they produce in accordance with his reckoning. Consequently, even down to our own day, the larger number of the Greeks use the nineteen-year cycle and are not cheated of the truth.
§ 12.36.4 In Italy the Tarantini removed the inhabitants of Siris, as it is called, from their native city, and adding to them colonists from their own citizens, they founded a city which they named Herakleia.
§ 12.37.1 When Pythodorus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Quinctius and Nittus Menenius, and the Eleians celebrated the Eighty-seventh Olympiad, that in which Sophron of Ambracia won the "stadion." In Rome in this year Spurius Maelius was put to death while striving for despotic power. And the Athenians, who had won a striking victory around Potidaea, dispatched a second general, Phormion, in the place of their general Callias who had fallen on the field. After taking over the command of the army Phormion settled down to the siege of the city of the Potidaeans, making continuous assaults upon it; but the defenders resisted with vigour and the siege became a long affair.
§ 12.37.2 Thucydides, the Athenian, commenced his history with this year, giving an account of the war between the Athenians and the Lacedemonians, the war which has been called the Peloponnesian. This war lasted twenty-seven years, but Thucydides described twenty-two years in eight Books or, as others divide it, in nine.
§ 12.38.1 When Euthydemus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Manius Aemilianus Mamercus, Gaius Julius, and Lucius Quinctius. In this year there began the Peloponnesian War, as it has been called, between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, the longest of all the wars which history records; and it is necessary and appropriate to the plan of our history to set forth at the outset the causes of the war.
§ 12.38.2 While the Athenians were still striving for the mastery of the sea, the funds which had been collected as a common undertaking and placed at Delos, amounting to some eight thousand talents, they had transferred to Athens and give over to Pericles to guard. This man stood far above his fellow citizens in birth, renown, and ability as an orator. But after some time he had spent a very considerable amount of this money for his own purposes, and when he was called upon for an accounting he fell ill, since he was unable to render the statement of the monies with which he had been entrusted.
§ 12.38.3 While he was worried over the matter, Alcibiades, his nephew, who was an orphan and was being reared at the home of Pericles, though still a lad showed him a way out of making an explanation of the use of the money. Seeing how his uncle was troubled he asked him the cause of his worry. And when Pericles said, "I am asked for the explanation of the use of the money and I am seeking some means whereby I may be able to render an accounting of it to the citizens," Alcibiades replied, "You should be seeking some means not how to render but how not to render an accounting."
§ 12.38.4 Consequently Pericles, accepting the reply of the boy, kept pondering in what way he could embroil the Athenians in a great war; for that would be the best way, he thought, because of the disturbance and distractions and fears which would the city, for him to escape giving an exact accounting of the money. Bearing upon this expedient an incident happened to him by mere chance for the following causes.
§ 12.39.1 The statue of Athens was a work of Pheidias, and Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, had been appointed overseer of the undertaking. But sometimes assistants of Pheidias, who had been prevailed upon by Pericles' enemies, took seats as suppliants at the altars of the gods; and when they were called upon to explain their surprising action, they claimed that they would show that Pheidias had possession of a large amount of the sacred funds, with the connivance and assistance of Pericles the overseer.
§ 12.39.2 Consequently, when the Assembly convened to consider the affair, the enemies of Pericles persuaded the people to arrest Pheidias and lodged a charge against Pericles himself of stealing sacred property. Furthermore, they falsely accused the sophist Anaxagoras, who was Pericles' teacher, of impiety against the gods; and they involved Pericles in their accusations and malicious charges, since jealousy made them eager to discredit the eminence as well as the fame of the man.
§ 12.39.3 But Pericles, knowing that during the operations of war the populace has respect for noble men because of their urgent need of them, whereas in times of peace they keep bringing false accusations against the very same men because they have nothing to do and are envious, came to the conclusion that it would be to his own advantage to embroil the state in a great war, in order that the city, in its need of the ability and skill in generalship of Pericles, should pay no attention to the accusations being lodged against him and would have neither leisure nor time to scrutinize carefully the accounting he would render of the funds.
§ 12.39.4 Now when the Athenians voted to exclude the Megarians from both their market and harbours, the Megarians turned to the Spartans for aid. And the Lacedemonians, being won over by the Megarians, in the most open manner dispatched ambassadors in accordance with the decision of the Council of the League, ordering the Athenians to rescind the action against the Megarians and threatening, if they did not accede, to wage war upon them together with the forces of their allies.
§ 12.39.5 When the Assembly convened to consider the matter, Pericles, who far excelled his fellow citizens in skill of oratory, persuaded the Athenians not to rescind the action, saying that for them to accede to the demands of the Lacedemonians, contrary to their own interests, would be the first step toward slavery. Accordingly he advised that they bring their possessions from the countryside into the city and fight it out with the Spartans by means of their command of the sea.
§ 12.40.1 Speaking of the war, Pericles, after defending his course in well-considered words, enumerated first the multitude of allies Athens possessed and the superiority of its naval strength, and then the large sum of money which had been removed from Delos to Athens and which had in fact been gathered from the tribute into one fund for the common use of the cities;
§ 12.40.2 from the ten thousand talents in the common fund four thousand had been expended on the building of the Propylaea and the siege of Potidaea; and each year there was an income from the tribute paid by the allies of four hundred and sixty talents. Beside this he declared that the vessels employed in solemn processions and the booty taken from the Medes were worth five hundred talents,
§ 12.40.3 and he pointed to the multitude of votive offerings in the various sanctuaries and to the fact that the fifty talents of gold on the statue of Athena for its embellishment was so constructed as to be removable; and he showed that all these, if dire need befell them, they could borrow from the gods and return to them again when peace came, and that also by reason of the long peace the manner of life of the citizens had made great strides toward prosperity.
§ 12.40.4 In addition to these financial resources Pericles pointed out that, omitting the allies and garrisons, the city had available twelve thousand hoplites, the garrisons and metics amounted to more than seventeen thousand, and the triremes available to three hundred.
§ 12.40.5 He also pointed out that the Lacedemonians were both lacking in money and far behind the Athenians in naval armaments. After he had recounted these facts and incited the citizens to war, he persuaded the people to pay no attention to the Lacedemonians. This he accomplished readily by reason of his great ability as an orator, which is the reason he has been called "The Olympian."
§ 12.40.6 Mention has been made of this even by Aristophanes, the poet of the Old Comedy, who lived in the period of Pericles, in the following tetrameters: O ye farmers, wretched creatures, listen now and understand, If you fain would learn the reason why it was Peace left the land. Pheidias began the mischief, having come to grief and shame, Pericles was next in order, fearing he might share the blame, By his Megara-enactment lighting first a little flame, Such a bitter smoke ascended while the flames of war he blew, That from every eye in Hellas everywhere the tears it drew. And again in another place: The Olympian Pericles Thundered and lightened and confounded Hellas. And Eupolis the poet wrote: One might say Persuasion rested On his lips; such charm he'd bring. And alone of all the speakers In his listeners left his sting.
§ 12.41.1 Now the causes of the Peloponnesian War were in general what I have described, as Ephorus has recorded them. And when the leading states had become embroiled in war in this fashion, the Lacedemonians, sitting in council with the Peloponnesians, voted to make war upon the Athenians, and dispatching ambassadors to the king of the Persians, urged him to ally himself with them, while they also treated by means of ambassadors with their allies in Sicily and Italy and persuaded them to come to their aid with two hundred triremes;
§ 12.41.2 and for their own part they, together with the Peloponnesians, got ready their land forces, made all other preparations for the war, and were the first to commence the conflict. For in Boeotia the city of the Plataeans was an independent state and had an alliance with the Athenians.
§ 12.41.3 But certain of its citizens, wishing to destroy its independence, had engaged in parleys with the Boeotians, promising that they would range that state under the confederacy organized by the Thebans and hand Plataea over to them if they would send soldiers to aid in the undertaking.
§ 12.41.4 Consequently, when the Boeotians dispatched by night three hundred picked soldiers, the traitors got them inside the walls and made them masters of the city.
§ 12.41.5 The Plataeans, wishing to maintain their alliance with the Athenians, since at first they assumed that the Thebans were present in full force, began negotiations with the captors of the city and urged them to agree to a truce; but as the night wore on and they perceived that the Thebans were few in number, they rallied en masse and began putting up a vigorous struggle for their freedom.
§ 12.41.6 The fighting took place in the streets, and at first the Thebans held the upper hand because of their valour and were slaying many of their opponents; but when the slaves and children began pelting the Thebans with tiles from the houses and wounding them, they turned in flight; and some of them escaped from the city to safety, but some who found refuge in a house were forced to give themselves up.
§ 12.41.7 When the Thebans learned the outcome of the attempt from the survivors of the battle, they at once marched forth in all haste in full force. And since the Plataeans who dwelt in the rural districts were unprepared because they were not expecting the attack, many of them were slain and not a small number were taken captive alive, and the whole land was filled with tumult and plundering.
§ 12.42.1 The Plataeans dispatched ambassadors to the Thebans demanding that they leave Plataean territory and receive their own captives back. And so, when this had been agreed upon, the Thebans received their captives back, restored the booty they had taken, and returned to Thebes. The Plataeans dispatched ambassadors to the Athenians asking for aid, while they themselves gathered the larger part of their possessions into the city.
§ 12.42.2 The Athenians, when they learned of what had taken place in Plataea, at once sent a considerable body of soldiers; these arrived in haste, although not before the Thebans, and gathered the rest of the property from the countryside into the city, and then, collecting both the children and women and the rabble, sent them off to Athens.
§ 12.42.3 The Lacedemonians, deciding that the Athenians had broken the truce, mustered a strong army from both Lacedemon and the rest of the Peloponnesians.
§ 12.42.4 The allies of the Lacedemonians at this time were all the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus with the exception of the Argives, who remained neutral; and of the peoples outside of the Peloponnesus the Megarians, Ambraciotes, Leucadians, Phocians, Boeotians, and of the Locrians, the majority of those facing Euboea, and the Amphissians of the rest.
§ 12.42.5 The Athenians had as allies the peoples of the coast of Asia, namely, the Carians, Dorians, Ionians and Hellespontines, also all the islanders except the inhabitants of Melos and Thera, likewise the dwellers in Thrace except the Chalcidians and Potidaeans, furthermore the Messenians who dwelt in Naupactus and the Cercyraeans. Of these, the Chians, Lesbians, and Cercyraeans furnished ships, and all the rest supplied infantry. The allies, then, on both sides were as we have listed them.
§ 12.42.6 After the Lacedemonians had prepared for service a strong army, they placed the command in the hands of Archidamus their king. He invaded Attica with his army, made repeated assaults upon its fortified places, and ravaged a large part of the countryside. And when the Athenians, being incensed because of the raiding of their countryside, wished to offer battle to the enemy, Pericles, who was a general and held in his hands the entire leadership of the state, urged the young men to make no move, promising that he would expel the Lacedemonians from Attica without the peril of battle.
§ 12.42.7 Whereupon, fitting out one hundred triremes and putting on them a strong force of men, he appointed Carcinus general over them together with certain others and sent them against the Peloponnesus. This force, by ravaging a large extent of the Peloponnesian territory along the sea and capturing some fortresses, struck terror into the Lacedemonians; consequently they speedily recalled their army from Attica and thus provided a large measure of safety to the Peloponnesians.
§ 12.42.8 In this manner Athens was delivered from the enemy, and Pericles received approbation among his fellow citizens as having the ability to perform the duties of a general and to fight it out with the Lacedemonians.
§ 12.43.1 When Apollodorus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Geganius and Lucius Sergius. During this year the general of the Athenians never ceased plundering and harrying the territory of the Peloponnesians and laying siege to their fortresses; and when there were added to his command fifty triremes from Cercyra, he ravaged all the more the territory of the Peloponnesians, and in particular he laid waste the part of the coast which is called Acte and sent up the farm-buildings in flames.
§ 12.43.2 After this, sailing to Methone in Laconia, he both ravaged the countryside and made repeated assaults upon the city. There Brasidas the Spartan, who was still a youth in years but already distinguished for his strength and courage, seeing that Methone was in danger of capture by assault, took some Spartans, and boldly breaking through the hostile forces, which were scattered, he slew many of them and got into the stronghold.
§ 12.43.3 In the siege which followed Brasidas fought so brilliantly that the Athenians found themselves unable to take the stronghold and withdrew to their ships, and Brasidas, who had saved Methone by his individual bravery and valour, received the approbation of the Spartans. And because of this hardihood of his, Brasidas, having become inordinately proud, on many subsequent occasions fought recklessly and won for himself a great reputation for valour.
§ 12.43.4 And the Athenians, sailing around to Elis, ravaged the countryside and laid siege to Pheia, a stronghold of the Eleians. The Eleians who came out to its defence they defeated in battle, slaying many of their opponents, and took Pheia by storm.
§ 12.43.5 But after this, when the Eleians en masse offered them battle, the Athenians were driven back to their ships, whereupon they sailed off to Cephallenia, where they brought the inhabitants of that island into their alliance, and then voyaged back to Athens.
§ 12.44.1 After these events the Athenians chose Cleopompus general and sent him to sea with thirty ships under orders both to keep careful guard over Euboea and to make war upon the Locrians. He, sailing forth, ravaged the coast of Locris and reduced by siege the city of Thronium, and the Locrians who opposed him he met in battle and defeated near the city of Alope. Following this he made the island known as Atalante, which lies off Locris, into a fortress on the border of Locris for his operations against the inhabitants of that country.
§ 12.44.2 Also the Athenians, accusing the Aeginetans of having collaborated with the Lacedemonians, expelled them from their state, and sending colonists there from their own citizens they portioned out to them in allotments both the city of Aegina and its territory.
§ 12.44.3 To the Aeginetan refugees the Lacedemonians gave Thyreae, as it is called, to dwell in, because the Athenians had also once given Naupactus as a home for the people whom they had driven out of Messene. The Athenians also dispatched Pericles with an army to make war upon the Megarians. He plundered their territory, laid waste their possessions, and returned to Athens with much booty.
§ 12.45.1 The Lacedemonians together with the Peloponnesians and their other allies invaded Attica for a second time. In their advance through the country they chopped down orchards and burned the farm-buildings, and they laid waste almost the entire land with the exception of the region known as the Tetrapolis. This area they spared because their ancestors had once dwelt there and had gone forth from it as their base on the occasion when they had defeated Eurystheus; for they considered it only fair that the benefactors of their ancestors should in turn receive from their descendants the corresponding benefactions.
§ 12.45.2 As for the Athenians, they could not venture to meet them in a pitched battle, and being confined as they were within the walls, found themselves involved in an emergency caused by a plague; for since a vast multitude of people of every description had streamed together into the city, there was good reason for their falling victim to diseases as they did, because of the cramped quarters, breathing air which had become polluted.
§ 12.45.3 Consequently, since they were unable to expel the enemy from their territory, they again dispatched many ships against the Peloponnesus, appointing Pericles general. He ravaged a large part of the territory bordering on the sea, plundered some cities, and brought it about that the Lacedemonians withdrew from Attica.
§ 12.45.4 After this the Athenians, now that the trees of their countryside had been cut down and the plague was carrying off great numbers, were plunged into despondency and became angry with Pericles, considering him to have been responsible for their being at war. Consequently they removed him from the generalship, and on the strength of some petty grounds for accusation they imposed a fine upon him of eighty talents.
§ 12.45.5 After this they dispatched embassies to the Lacedemonians and asked that the war be brought to an end; but when not a man paid any attention to them, they were forced to elect Pericles general again. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.46.1 When Epameinon was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Papirius and Aulus Cornelius Macerinus. This year in Athens Pericles the general died, a man who not only in birth and wealth, but also in eloquence and skill as a general, far surpassed his fellow citizens.
§ 12.46.2 Since the people of Athens desired for the glory of it to take Potidaea by storm, they sent Hagnon there as general with the army which Pericles had formerly commanded. He put in at Potidaea with the whole expedition and made all his preparations for the siege; for he had made ready every kind of engine used in sieges, a multitude of arms and missiles, and an abundance of grain, sufficient for the entire army. Hagnon spent much time making continuous assaults every day, but without the power to take the city.
§ 12.46.3 For on the one side the besieged, spurred on by their fear of capture, were putting up a sturdy resistance and, confiding in the superior height of the walls, held the advantage over the Athenians attacking from the harbour, whereas the besiegers were dying in large numbers from the plague and despondency prevailed throughout the army.
§ 12.46.4 Hagnon, knowing that the Athenians had spent more than a thousand talents on the siege and were angry with the Potidaeans because they were the first to go over to the Lacedemonians, was afraid to raise the siege; consequently he felt compelled to continue it and to compel the soldiers, beyond their strength, to force the issue against the city.
§ 12.46.5 But since many Athens citizens were being slain in the assaults and by the ravages of the plague, he left a part of his army to maintain the siege and sailed back to Athens, having lost more than a thousand of his soldiers.
§ 12.46.6 After Hagnon had withdrawn, the Potidaeans, since their grain supply was entirely exhausted and the people in the city were disheartened, sent heralds to the besiegers to discuss terms of capitulation. These were received eagerly and an agreement to cessation of hostilities was reached on the following terms: All the Potidaeans should depart from the city, taking nothing with them, with the exception that men could have one garment and women two.
§ 12.46.7 When this truce had been agreed upon, all the Potidaeans together with their wives and children left their native land in accordance with the terms of the compact and went to the Chalcidians in Thrace among whom they made their home; and the Athenians sent out as many as a thousand of their citizens to Potidaea as colonists and portioned out to them in allotments both the city and its territory.
§ 12.47.1 The Athenians elected Phormio general and sent him to sea with twenty triremes. He sailed around the Peloponnesus and put in at Naupactus, and by gaining the mastery of the Crisaean Gulf prevented the Lacedemonians from sailing in those parts. And the Lacedemonians sent out a strong army under Archidamus their king, who marched into Boeotia and took up positions before Plataea. Under the threat of ravaging the territory of the Plataeans he called upon them to revolt from the Athenians, and when they paid no attention to him, he plundered their territory and laid waste their possessions everywhere.
§ 12.47.2 After this he threw a wall about the city, in the hope that he could force the Plataeans to capitulate because of lack of the necessities of life; at the same time the Lacedemonians continued bringing up engines with which they kept shattering the walls and making assaults without interruption. But when they found themselves unable to take the city through their assaults, they left an adequate guard before it and returned to the Peloponnesus.
§ 12.47.3 The Athenians appointed Xenophon and Phanomachus generals and sent them to Thrace with a thousand soldiers. When this force arrived at Spartolus in the territory of Bottice, it laid waste the land and cut the grain in the first growth. But the Olynthians came to the aid of the Bottiaeans and defeated them in battle; and there were slain of the Athenians both the generals and the larger part of the soldiers.
§ 12.47.4 And while this was taking place, the Lacedemonians, yielding to the request of the Ambraciotes, made a campaign against Acarnania. Their leader was Cnemus and he had a thousand foot-soldiers and a few ships. To these he added a considerable number of soldiers from their allies and entered Acarnania, pitching his camp near the city known as Stratus.
§ 12.47.5 But the Acarnanians gathered their forces and, laying an ambush, slew many of the enemy, and they forced Cnemus to withdraw his army to the city called Oeniadae.
§ 12.48.1 During the same time Phormio, the Athenian general, with twenty triremes fell in with forty-seven Lacedemonian warships. And engaging them in battle he sank the flag-ship of the enemy and put many of the rest of the ships out of action, capturing twelve together with their crews and pursuing the remaining as far as the land. The Lacedemonians, after having suffered defeat contrary to their expectations, fled for safety with the ships which were left them to Patrae in Achaea. This sea battle took place off Rhium, as it is called. The Athenians set up a trophy, dedicated a ship to Poseidon at the strait, and then sailed off to the city of Naupactus, which was in their alliance.
§ 12.48.2 The Lacedemonians sent other ships to Patrae. These ships joined to themselves the triremes which had survived the battle and assembled at Rhium, and also the land force of the Peloponnesians met them at the same place and pitched camp near the fleet.
§ 12.48.3 And Phormio, having become puffed up with pride over the victory he had just won, had the daring to attack the ships of the enemy, although they far outnumbered his; and some of them he sank, though losing ships of his own, so that the victory he won was equivocal. After this, when the Athenians had dispatched twenty triremes, the Lacedemonians sailed off in fear to Corinth, not daring to offer battle. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.49.1 When Diotimus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Julius and Proculus Verginius Tricostus, and the Eleians celebrated the Eighty-eighth Olympiad, that in which Symmachus of Messene in Sicily won the "stadion."
§ 12.49.2 In this year Cnemus, the Lacedemonian admiral, who was inactive in Corinth, decided to seize the Peiraeus. He had received information that no ships in the harbour had been put into the water for duty and no soldiers had been detailed to guard the port; for the Athenians, as he learned, had become negligent about guarding it because they by no means expected any enemy would have the audacity to seize the place.
§ 12.49.3 Consequently Cnemus, launching forty triremes which had been hauled up on the beach at Megara, sailed by night to Salamis, and falling unexpectedly on the fortress on Salamis called Boudorium, he towed away three ships and overran the entire island.
§ 12.49.4 When the Salaminians signalled by beacon-fires to the inhabitants of Attica, the Athenians, thinking that the Peiraeus had been seized, quickly rushed forth in great confusion to its succour; but when they learned what had taken place, they quickly manned a considerable number of warships and sailed to Salamis.
§ 12.49.5 The Peloponnesians, having been disappointed in their main design, sailed away from Salamis and returned home. And the Athenians, after the retreat of the enemy, in the case of Salamis gave it a more vigilant guard and left on it a considerable garrison, and the Peiraeus they strengthened here and there with booms and adequate guards.
§ 12.50.1 In the same period Sitalces, the king of the Thracians, had succeeded to the kingship of a small land indeed but nonetheless by his personal courage and wisdom he greatly increased his dominion, equitably governing his subjects, playing the part of a brave soldier in battle and of a skilful general, and furthermore giving close attention to his revenues. In the end he attained to such power that he ruled over more extensive territory than had any who had preceded him on the throne of Thrace.
§ 12.50.2 For the coastline of his kingdom began at the territory of the Abderites and stretched as far as the Ister River, and for a man going from the sea to the interior the distance was so great that a man on foot travelling light required thirteen days for the journey. Ruling as he did over a territory so extensive he enjoyed annual revenues of more than a thousand talents;
§ 12.50.3 and when he was waging war in the period we are discussing he mustered from Thrace more than one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and fifty thousand cavalry. But with respect to this war we must set forth its causes, in order that the discussion of it may be clear to our readers. Now Sitalces, since he had entered into a treaty of friendship with the Athenians, agreed to support them in their war in Thrace; and consequently, since he desired, with the help of the Athenians, to subdue the Chalcidians, he made ready a very considerable army.
§ 12.50.4 And since he was at the same time on bad terms with Perdiccas, the king of the Macedonians, he decided to bring back Amyntas, the son of Philip, and place him upon the Macedonian throne. It was for these two reasons, therefore, as we have described them, that he was forced to raise an imposing army. When all his preparations for the campaign had been made, he led forth the whole army, marched through Thrace, and invaded Macedonia.
§ 12.50.5 The Macedonians, dismayed at the great size of the army, did not dare face him in battle, but they removed both the grain and all the property they could into their most powerful strongholds, in which they remained inactive.
§ 12.50.6 The Thracians, after placing Amyntas upon the throne, at the outset made an effort to win over the cities by means of parleys and embassies, but when no one paid any attention to them, they forthwith made an assault on the first stronghold and took it by storm.
§ 12.50.7 After this some of the cities and strongholds submitted to them of their own accord through fear. And after plundering all Macedonia and appropriating much booty the Thracians turned against the Greek cities in Chalcidice.
§ 12.51.1 While Sitalces was engaged in these operations, the Thessalians, Achaeans, Magnesians, and all the other Greeks dwelling between Macedonia and Thermopylae took counsel together and united in raising a considerable army; for they were apprehensive lest the Thracians with all their myriads of soldiers should invade their territory and they themselves should be in peril of losing their native lands.
§ 12.51.2 Since the Chalcidians made the same preparations, Sitalces, having learned that the Greeks had mustered strong armies and realizing that his soldiers were suffering from the hardships of the winter, came to terms with Perdiccas, concluded a connection by marriage with him, and then led his forces back to Thrace.
§ 12.52.1 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians, accompanied by their allies of the Peloponnesus, invaded Attica under the command of Archidamus their king, destroyed the grain, which was in its first growth, ravaged the countryside, and then returned home.
§ 12.52.2 The Athenians, since they did not dare meet the invaders in the field and were distressed because of the plague and the lack of provisions, had only bleak hopes for the future. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.53.1 When Eucleides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Marcus Manius, Quintus Sulpicius Praetextatus, and Servius Cornelius Cossus. This year in Sicily the Leontines, who were colonists from Chalcis but also kinsmen of the Athenians, were attacked, as it happened, by the Syracusans. And being hard-pressed in the war and in danger of having their city taken by storm because of the superior power of the Syracusans, they dispatched ambassadors to Athens asking the Athenian people to send them immediate aid and save their city from the perils threatening it.
§ 12.53.2 The leader of the embassy was Gorgias the rhetorician, who in eloquence far surpassed all his contemporaries. He was the first man to devise rules of rhetoric and so far excelled all other men in the instruction offered by sophists that he received from his pupils a fee of one hundred minas.
§ 12.53.3 Now when Gorgias had arrived in Athens and been introduced to the people in assembly, he discoursed to them upon the subject of the alliance, and by the novelty of his speech he filled the Athenians, who are by nature clever and fond of dialectic, with wonder.
§ 12.53.4 For he was the first to use the rather unusual and carefully devised structures of space, such as antithesis, sentences with equal members or balanced clauses or similar endings, and the like, all of which at that time was enthusiastically received because the advice was exotic, but is now looked upon as laboured and to be ridiculed when employed too frequently and tediously.
§ 12.53.5 In the end he won the Athenians over to an alliance with the Leontines, and after having been admired in Athens for his rhetorical skill he made his return to Leontini.
§ 12.54.1 For some time past the Athenians had been covetous of Sicily because of the fertility of its land, and so at the moment, gladly accepting the proposals of Gorgias, they voted to send an allied force to the Leontines, offering as their excuse the need and request of their kinsmen, whereas in fact they were eager to get possession of the island.
§ 12.54.2 And indeed not many years previously, when the Corinthians and Cercyraeans were at war with one another and both were bent upon getting the Athenians allies, the popular Assembly chose the alliance with the Cercyraeans for the reason that Cercyra was advantageously situated on the sea route to Sicily.
§ 12.54.3 For, speaking generally, the Athenians, having won the supremacy of the sea and accomplished great deeds, not only enjoyed the aid of many allies and possessed powerful armaments, but also had taken over a great sum of ready money, since they had transferred from Delos to Athens the funds of the confederacy of the Greeks, which amounted to more than ten thousand talents; they also enjoyed the services of great commanders who had stood the test of actual leadership; and by means of all these assets it was their hope not only to defeat the Lacedemonians but also, after they had won the supremacy over all Greece, to lay hands on Sicily.
§ 12.54.4 These, then, were the reasons why the Athenians voted to give aid to the Leontines, and they sent twenty ships to Sicily and as generals Laches and Charoeades. These sailed to Rhegium, where they added to their force twenty ships from the Rhegians and the other Chalcidian colonists. Making Rhegium their base they first of all overran the islands of the Liparaeans because they were allies of the Syracusans, and after this they sailed to Locri, where they captured five ships of the Locrians, and then laid siege to the stronghold of Mylae.
§ 12.54.5 When the neighbouring Sicilian Greeks came to the aid of the Mylaeans, a battle developed in which the Athenians were victorious, slaying more than a thousand men and taking prisoner not less than six hundred; and at once they captured and occupied the stronghold.
§ 12.54.6 While these events were taking place there arrived forty ships which the Athenian people had sent, deciding to push the war more vigorously; the commanders were Eurymedon and Sophocles. When all the triremes were gathered into one place, a fleet of considerable strength had been fitted out, consisting as it did of eighty triremes.
§ 12.54.7 But since the war was dragging on, the Leontines entered into negotiations with the Syracusans and came to terms with them. Consequently the Athenian triremes sailed back home, and the Syracusans, granting the Leontines the right of citizenship, made them all Syracusans and their city a stronghold of the Syracusans. Such were the affairs in Sicily at this time.
§ 12.55.1 In Greece the Lesbians revolted from the Athenians; for they harboured against them the complaint that, when they wished to merge all the cities of Lesbos with the city of the Mytilenaeans, the Athenians had prevented it.
§ 12.55.2 Consequently, after dispatching ambassadors to the Peloponnesians and concluding an alliance with them, they advised the Spartans to make an attempt to seize the supremacy at sea, and toward this design they promised to supply many triremes for the war.
§ 12.55.3 The Lacedemonians were glad to accept this offer, but while they were busied with the building of the triremes, the Athenians forestalled their completion by sending forthwith a force against Lesbos, having manned forty ships and chosen Cleinippides as their commander. He gathered reinforcements from the allies and put in at Mytilene.
§ 12.55.4 In a naval battle which followed the Mytilenaeans were defeated and enclosed within a siege of their city. Meanwhile the Lacedemonians had voted to send aid to the Mytilenaeans and were making ready a strong fleet, but the Athenians forestalled them by sending to Lesbos additional ships along with a thousand hoplites.
§ 12.55.5 Their commander, Paches the son of Epiclerus, upon arriving at Mytilene, took over the force already there, threw a wall about the city, and kept launching continuous assaults upon it not only by land but by sea as well.
§ 12.55.6 The Lacedemonians sent forty-five triremes to Mytilene under the command of Alcidas, and they also invaded Attica which they had passed by before, ravaged the countryside, and then returned home.
§ 12.55.7 And the Mytilenaeans, who were distressed by lack of food and the war and were also quarrelling among themselves, formally surrendered the city to the besiegers.
§ 12.55.8 While in Athens the people were deliberating on what action they should take against the Mytilenaeans, Cleon, the leader of the populace and a man of cruel and violent nature, spurred on the people, declaring that they should slay all the male Mytilenaeans from the youth upward and sell into slavery the children and women.
§ 12.55.9 In the end the Athenians were won over and voted as Cleon had proposed, and messengers were dispatched to Mytilene to make known to the general the measures decreed by the popular assembly.
§ 12.55.10 Even as Paches had finished reading the decree a second decree arrived, the opposite of the first. Paches was glad when he learned that the Athenians had changed their minds, and gathering the Mytilenaeans in assembly he declared them free of the charges as well as of the greatest fears. The Athenians pulled down the walls of Mytilene and portioned out in allotments the entire island of Lesbos with the exception of the territory of the Methymnaeans. Such, then, was the end of the revolt of the Lesbians from the Athenians.
§ 12.56.1 About the same time the Lacedemonians who were besieging Plataea threw a wall about the city and kept a guard over it of many soldiers. And as the siege dragged on and the Athenians still sent them no help, the besieged not only were suffering from lack of food but had also lost many of their fellow citizens in the assaults.
§ 12.56.2 While they were thus at a loss and were conferring together how they could be saved, the majority were of the opinion that they should make no move, but the rest, some two hundred in number, decided to force a passage through the guards by night and make their way to Athens.
§ 12.56.3 And so, on a moonless night for which they had waited, they persuaded the rest of the Plataeans to make an assault upon one side of the encircling wall; they themselves then made ready ladders, and when the enemy rushed to defend the opposite parts of the walls, they managed by means of the ladders to get up on the wall, and after slaying the guards they made their escape to Athens.
§ 12.56.4 The next day the Lacedemonians, provoked at the flight of the men who had got away from the city, made an assault upon the city of the Plataeans and strained every nerve to subdue the besieged by storm; and the Plataeans in dismay sent envoys to the enemy and surrendered to them both themselves and the city.
§ 12.56.5 The commanders of the Lacedemonians, summoning the Plataeans one by one, asked what good deed he had ever performed for the Lacedemonians, and when each confessed that he had done them no good turn, they asked further if he had ever done the Spartans any harm; and when not a man could deny that he had, they condemned all of them to death.
§ 12.56.6 Consequently they slew all who still remained, razed the city to the ground, and farmed out its territory. So the Plataeans, who had maintained with the greatest constancy their alliance with the Athenians, fell unjust victims to the most tragic fate.
§ 12.57.1 While these events were taking place, in Cercyra bitter civil strife and contentiousness arose for the feeling reasons. In the fighting about Epidamnus many Cercyraeans had been taken prisoner and cast into the state prison, and these men promised the Corinthians that, if the Corinthians set them free, they would hand Cercyra over to them.
§ 12.57.2 The Corinthians gladly agreed to the proposals, and the Cercyraeans, after going through the pretence of paying a ransom, were released on bail of a considerable sum of talents furnished by the proxeni.
§ 12.57.3 Faithful to their promises the Cercyraeans, as soon as they had returned to their native land, arrested and put to death the men who had always been popular leaders and had acted as champions of the people. They also put an end to the democracy; but when, a little after this time, the Athenians came to the help of the popular party, the Cercyraeans, who had now recovered their liberty, undertook to mete out punishment to the men responsible for the revolt against the established government. These, in fear of the usual punishment, fled for refuge to the altars of the gods and became suppliants of the people and of the gods.
§ 12.57.4 And the Cercyraeans, out of reverence for the gods, absolved them from that punishment but expelled them from the city. But these exiles, undertaking a second revolution, fortified a strong position on the island, and continued to harass the Cercyraeans. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.58.1 When Euthynes was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Marcus Fabius, Marcus Falinius, and Lucius Servilius. In this year the Athenians, who had enjoyed a period of relief from the plague, became involved again in the same misfortunes;
§ 12.58.2 for they were so seriously attacked by the disease that of their soldiers they lost more than four thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry, and of the rest of the population, both free and slave, more than ten thousand. And since history seeks to ascertain the cause of the malignancy of this disease, it is our duty to explain these matters.
§ 12.58.3 As a result of heavy rains in the previous winter the ground had become soaked with water, and many low-lying regions, having received a vast amount of water, turned into shallow pools and held stagnant water, very much as marshy regions do; and when these waters became warm in the summer and grew putrid, thick foul vapours were formed, which, rising up in fumes, corrupted the surrounding air, the very thing which may be seen taking place in marshy grounds which are by nature pestilential.
§ 12.58.4 Contributing also to the disease was the bad character of the food available; for the crops which were raised that year were altogether watery and their natural quality was corrupted. And a third cause of the disease proved to be the failure of the etesian winds to blow, by with normally most of the heat in summer is cooled; and when the heat intensified and the air grew fiery, the bodies of the inhabitants, being without anything to cool them, wasted away.
§ 12.58.5 Consequently all the illnesses which prevailed at that time were found to be accompanied by fever, the cause of which was the excessive heat. And this was the reason why most of the sick threw themselves into the cisterns and springs in their craving to cool their bodies.
§ 12.58.6 The Athenians, however, because the disease was so severe, ascribed the causes of their misfortune to the deity. Consequently, acting upon the command of a certain oracle, they purified the island of Delos, which was sacred to Apollo and had been defiled, as men thought, by the burial there of the dead.
§ 12.58.7 Digging up, therefore, all the graves on Delos, they transferred the remains to the island of Rheneia, as it is called, which lies near Delos. They also passed a law that neither birth nor burial should be allowed on Delos. And they also celebrated the festival assembly, the Delia, which had been held in former days but had not been observed for a long time.
§ 12.59.1 While the Athenians were busied with these matters, the Lacedemonians, taking with them the Peloponnesians, pitched camp at the Isthmus with the intention of invading Attica again; but when great earthquakes took place, they were filled with superstitious fear and returned to their native lands.
§ 12.59.2 And so severe in fact were the shocks in many parts of Greece that the sea actually swept away and destroyed some cities lying on the coast, while in Locris the strip of land forming a peninsula was torn through and the island known as Atalante was formed.
§ 12.59.3 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians colonized Trachis, as it was called, and renamed it Heracleia, for the following reasons.
§ 12.59.4 The Trachinians had been at war with the neighbouring Oetaeans for many years and had lost the larger number of their citizens. Since the city was deserted, they thought it proper that the Lacedemonians, who were colonists from Trachis, should assume the care of it. And the Lacedemonians, both because of their kinship and because Heracles, their ancestor, in ancient times had made his home in Trachis, decided to make it a great city.
§ 12.59.5 Consequently the Lacedemonians and the Peloponnesians sent forth four thousand colonists and accepted any other Greeks who wished to have a part in the colony; the latter numbered not less than six thousand. The result was that they made Trachis a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and after portioning out the territory in allotments they named the city Heracleia.
§ 12.60.1 When Stratocles was archon in Athens, in Rome in place of consuls three military tribunes were elected, Lucius Furius, Spurius Pinarius, and Gaius Metellus. This year the Athenians chose Demosthenes general and sent him forth with thirty ships and an adequate body of soldiers. He added to his force fifteen ships from the Cercyraeans and soldiers from the Cephallenians, Acarnanians, and the Messenians in Naupactus, and then sailed to Leucas. After ravaging the territory of the Leucadians he sailed to Aetolia and plundered many of its villages. But the Aetolians rallied to oppose him and there was a battle in which the Athenians were defeated, whereupon they withdrew to Naupactus.
§ 12.60.2 The Aetolians, elated by their victory, after adding to their army three thousand Lacedemonian soldiers, marched upon Naupactus, which was inhabited at the time by Messenians, but were beaten off.
§ 12.60.3 After this they marched upon the city called Molycria and captured it. But the Athenian general, Demosthenes, being concerned lest the Aetolians should reduce by siege Naupactus also, summoned a thousand hoplites from Acarnania and sent them to Naupactus.
§ 12.60.4 And Demosthenes, while tarrying in Acarnania, fell in with a thousand Ambraciotes, who were encamped there, and joining battle with them he destroyed nearly the entire force. And when the men of Ambracia came out against him en masse, again Demosthenes slew the larger number of them, so that their city became almost uninhabited.
§ 12.60.5 Demosthenes then believed that he should take Ambracia by storm, hoping that he would have an easy conquest because the city had none to defend it. But the Acarnanians, fearing lest, if the Athenians became masters of the city, they should be harder neighbours to deal with than the Ambraciotes, refused to follow him.
§ 12.60.6 And since they were thus in disagreement, the Acarnanians came to terms with the Ambraciotes and concluded with them a peace of one hundred years, while Demosthenes, being left in the lurch by the Acarnanians, sailed back with his twenty ships to Athens. The Ambraciotes, who had experienced a great disaster, sent for a garrison of Lacedemonians, since they stood in fear of the Athenians.
§ 12.61.1 Demosthenes now led an expedition against Pylos, intending to fortify this stronghold as a threat to the Peloponnesus; for it is an exceptionally strong place, situated in Messenia and four hundred stades distant from Sparta. Since he had at the time both many ships and an adequate number of soldiers, in twenty days he threw a wall about Pylos. The Lacedemonians, when they learned that Pylos had been fortified, gathered together a large force, both infantry and ships.
§ 12.61.2 Consequently, when they set sail for Pylos, they not only had a fleet of forty-five fully equipped triremes but also marched with an army of twelve thousand soldiers; for they considered it to be a disgraceful thing that men who were not brave enough to defend Attica while it was being ravaged should fortify and hold a fortress in the Peloponnesus.
§ 12.61.3 Now these forces under the command of Thrasymedes pitched their camp in the neighbourhood of Pylos. And since the troops were seized by an eager desire to undergo any and every danger and to take Pylos by storm, the Lacedemonians stationed the ships with their prows facing the entrance to the harbour in order that they might use them for blocking the enemy's attempt to enter, and assaulting the walls with the infantry in successive waves and displaying all possible rivalry, they put up contests of amazing valour.
§ 12.61.4 Also to the island called Sphacteria, which extends lengthwise to the harbour and protects it from the winds, they transported the best troops of the Lacedemonians and their allies This they did in their desire to forestall the Athenians in getting control of the island before them, since its situation was especially advantageous to the prosecution of the siege.
§ 12.61.5 And though they were engaged every day in the fighting before the fortifications and were suffering wounds because of the superior height of the wall, they did not relax the violence of their fighting; as a consequence, many of them were slain and not a few were wounded as they pressed upon a position which had been fortified.
§ 12.61.6 The Athenians, who had secured beforehand a place which was also a natural stronghold and possessed large supplies of missiles and a great abundance of everything else they might need, kept defending their position with spirit; for they hoped that, if they were successful in their design, they could carry the whole war to the Peloponnesus and ravage, bit by bit, the territory of the enemy.
§ 12.62.1 Both sides displayed unsurpassable energy in the siege, and as for the Spartans in their assaults upon the walls, while many others were objects of wonder for their deeds of valour, the greatest acclaim was won by Brasidas.
§ 12.62.2 For when the captains of the triremes lacked the courage to bring the ships to land because of the rugged nature of the shore, he, being himself the commander of a trireme, called out in a loud voice to the pilot, ordering him not to spare the vessel but to drive the trireme at full speed to the land; for it would be disgraceful, he cried, for Spartans to be unsparing of their lives as they fought for victory, and yet to spare their vessels and to endure the sight of Athenians holding the soil of Laconia.
§ 12.62.3 And finally he succeeded in forcing the pilot to drive the ship forward and, when the trireme struck the shore, Brasidas, taking his stand on the gangway, fought off from there the multitude of Athenians who converged upon him. And at the outset he slew many as they came at him, but after a while, as numerous missiles assailed him, he suffered many wounds on the front of his body.
§ 12.62.4 In the end he suffered much loss of blood from the wounds, and as he lost consciousness his arm extended over the side of the ship and his shield, slipping off and falling into the sea, came into the hands of the enemy.
§ 12.62.5 After this Brasidas, who had built up a heap of many corpses of the enemy, was himself carried off half-dead from the ship by his men, having surpassed to such a degree all other men in bravery that, whereas in the case of all other men those who lose their shields are punished with death, he for that very reason won for himself glory.
§ 12.62.6 Now the Lacedemonians, although they kept making continuous assaults upon Pylos and had lost many soldiers, remained steadfast in the fierce struggles. And one may well be amazed at the strange perversity of Fortune and at the singular character of her ordering of what happened at Pylos.
§ 12.62.7 For the Athenians, defending themselves from a base on Laconian soil, were gaining the mastery over the Spartans, whereas the Lacedemonians, regarding their own soil as the enemy's, were assaulting the enemy from the sea as their base; and, as it happened, those who were masters of the land in this case controlled the see, and those who held first place on the sea were beating off an attack on land which they held.
§ 12.63.1 Since the siege dragged on and the Athenians, after their victory with their ships, were preventing the conveyance of food to the land, the soldiers caught on the island were in danger of death from starvation. Consequently the Lacedemonians, fearing for the men left on the island, sent an embassy to Athens to discuss the ending of the war. When no agreement was being reached, they asked for an exchange of men, the Athenians to get back and equal number of their soldiers now held prisoner; but not even to this would the Athenians agree. Whereupon the ambassadors spoke out frankly in Athens, that by their unwillingness to effect an exchange of prisoners the Athenians acknowledged that Lacedemonians were better men than they. 3 Meanwhile the Athenians wore down the bodily strength of the Spartans on Sphacteria through their lack of provisions and accepted their formal surrender. Of the men who gave themselves up have and twenty were Spartans and one hundred and eighty were of their allies. 4 These, then, were brought by Cleon the leader of the populace, since he held the office of general when this took place, in chains to Athens; and the people voted to keep them in custody in case the Lacedemonians should be willing to end the war, but to slay all the captives if they should decide to continue it. 5 After this they sent for select troops from the Messenians who had been settled in Naupactus, joined to them an adequate force from their other allies, and turned over to them the garrisoning of Pylos; for they believed that the Messenians, by reason of their hatred of the Spartans, would show the greatest zeal in harrying Laconia by forays, once they were operating from a strong position as their base. Such were the events about Pylos in this year.
§ 12.64.1 Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, died after a reign of forty years, and Xerxes succeeded to the throne and ruled for a year. In Italy, when the Aequi revolted from the Romans, in the war which followed Aulus Postumius was made Dictator and Lucius Julius was named Master of the Horse.
§ 12.64.2 And the Romans, having marched against the territory of the rebels with a large and strong army, first of all plundered their possessions, and when the Aequi later drew up against them, a battle ensued in which the Romans were victorious, slaying many of the enemy, taking not a few captive, and capturing great quantities of by.
§ 12.64.3 After the battle the revolters, being broken in spirit because of the defeat, submitted themselves to the Romans, and Postumius, because he had conducted the war brilliantly, as the Romans thought, celebrated the customary triumph. And Postumius, we are told, did a peculiar thing and altogether unbelievable; for in the battle his own son in his eagerness leaped forward from the station assigned him by his father, and his father, preserving the ancient discipline, had his son executed as one who had left his station.
§ 12.65.1 At the close of the year, in Athens the archon was Isarchus and in Rome the consuls elected were Titus Quinctius and Gaius Julius, and among the Eleians the Eighty-ninth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Symmachus won the "stadion" for the second time.
§ 12.65.2 This year the Athenians chose as general Nicias, the son of Niceratus, and assigning to him sixty triremes and three thousand hoplites, they ordered him to plunder the allies of the Lacedemonians. He sailed to Melos as the first place, where he ravaged their territory and for a number of days laid siege to the city; for it was the only island of the Cyclades which was maintaining its alliance with the Lacedemonians, being a Spartan colony.
§ 12.65.3 Nicias was unable to take the city, however, since the Melians defended themselves gallantly, and he then sailed to Oropus in Boeotia. Leaving his ships there, he advanced with his hoplites into the territory of the Tanagraeans, where he fell in with another Athenians force which was commanded by Hipponicus, the son of Callias.
§ 12.65.4 When the two armies had united, the generals pressed forward, plundering the land; and when the Thebans sallied forth to the rescue, the Athenians offered them battle, in which they inflicted heavy casualties and were victorious.
§ 12.65.5 After the battle the soldiers with Hipponicus made their way back to Athens, but Nicias, returning to his ships, sailed along the coast to Locris, and when he had laid waste the country on the coast, he added to his fleet forty triremes from the allies, so that he possessed in all one hundred ships. He also enrolled no small number of soldiers and gathered together a strong armament, whereupon he sailed against Corinth.
§ 12.65.6 There he disembarked the soldiers, and when the Corinthians drew up their forces against them, the Athenians gained the victory in two battles, slew many of the enemy, and set up a trophy. There perished in the fighting eight Athenians and more than three hundred Corinthians.
§ 12.65.7 Nicias then sailed to Crommyon, ravaged its territory, and seized its stronghold. Then he immediately removed from there and built a stronghold near Methone, in which he left a garrison for the twofold purpose of protecting the place and ravaging the neighbouring countryside; then Nicias plundered the coast and returned to Athens.
§ 12.65.8 After these events the Athenians sent sixty ships and two thousand hoplites to Cythera, the expedition being under the command of Nicias and certain other generals. Nicias attacked the island, hurled assaults upon the city, and received its formal surrender. And leaving a garrison behind on the island he sailed off to the Peloponnesus and ravaged the territory along the coast.
§ 12.65.9 And Thyreae, which lies on the border between Laconia and Argolis, he took by siege, making slaves of its inhabitants, and razed it to the ground; and the Aeginetans, who inhabited the city, together with the commander of the garrison, Tantalus the Spartan, he took captive and carried off to Athens. And the Athenians fettered Tantalus and kept him under guard together with the other prisoners, as well as the Aeginetans.
§ 12.66.1 While these events were taking place the Megarians were finding themselves in distress because of the war with the Athenians on the one hand and with their exiles on the other hand. And while representatives were exchanging opinions regarding the exiles, certain citizens who were hostile to the exiles approached the Athenian generals with the offer to deliver the city to them.
§ 12.66.2 The generals, Hippocrates and Demosthenes, agreeing to this betrayal, sent by night six hundred soldiers to the city, and the conspirators admitted the Athenians within the walls. When the betrayal became known throughout the city and while the multitude were divided according to party, some being in favour of fighting on the side of the Athenians and others of aiding the Lacedemonians, a certain man, acting on his own initiative, made the proclamation that any who so wished could take up arms on the side of the Athenians and Megarians.
§ 12.66.3 Consequently, when the Lacedemonians were on the point of being left in the lurch by the Megarians, it so happened that the Lacedemonian garrison of the long walls abandoned them and sought safety in Nisaea, as it is called, which is the sea-port of the Megarians.
§ 12.66.4 The Athenians thereupon dug a ditch about Nisaea and put it under siege, and then, bringing skilled workmen from Athens, they threw a wall about it. And the Peloponnesians, fearing lest they should be taken by storm and put to death, surrendered Nisaea to the Athenians. Such, then, were the affairs of the Megarians at this time.
§ 12.67.1 Brasidas, taking an adequate force from Lacedemon and the other Peloponnesian states, advanced against Megara. And striking terror into the Athenians he expelled them from Nisaea, and then he set free the city of the Megarians and brought it back into the alliance of the Lacedemonians. After this he made his way with his army through Thessaly and came to Dium in Macedonia.
§ 12.67.2 From there he advanced against Acanthus and associated himself with the cause of the Chalcidians. The city of the Acanthians was the first which he brought, partly through fear and partly through kindly and persuasive arguments, to revolt from the Athenians; and afterwards he induced many also of the other peoples of Thrace to join the alliance of the Lacedemonians.
§ 12.67.3 After this Brasidas, wishing to prosecute the war more vigorously, proceeded to summon soldiers from Lacedemon, since he was eager to gather a strong army. And the Spartans, wishing to destroy the most influential among the Helots, sent him a thousand of the most high-spirited Helots, thinking that the larger number of them would perish in the fighting.
§ 12.67.4 They also committed another violent and savage act whereby they thought to humble the pride of the Helots: They made public proclamation that any Helots who had rendered some good service to Sparta should give in their names, and promised that after passing upon their claims they would set them free; and when two thousand had given in their names, they then commanded the most influential citizens to slay these Helots, each in his own home.
§ 12.67.5 For they were deeply concerned lest the Helots should seize an opportune moment to line up with the enemy and bridge Sparta into peril. Nevertheless, since Brasidas had been joined by a thousand Helots and troops had been levied among the allies, a satisfactory force was assembled.
§ 12.68.1 Brasidas, confiding in the multitude of his soldiers, now advanced with his army against the city known as Amphipolis. This city Aristagoras of Miletus at an earlier time had undertaken to found as a colony, when he was fleeing from Darius, the king of the Persians;
§ 12.68.2 after his death the colonists were driven out by the Thracians who are called Edones, and thirty-two years after this event the Athenians dispatched ten thousand colonists to the place. In like manner these colonists also were utterly destroyed by Thracians at Drabescus, and two years later the Athenians again recovered the city, under the leadership of Hagnon.
§ 12.68.3 Since the city had been the object of many a battle, Brasidas was eager to master it. Consequently he set out against it with a strong force, and pitching his camp near the bridge, he first of all seized the suburb of the city and then on the next day, having struck terror into the Amphipolitans, he received the formal surrender of the city on the condition that anyone who so wished could take his property and leave the city.
§ 12.68.4 Immediately after this Brasidas brought over to his side a number of the neighbouring cities, the most important of which were Oesyme and Galepsus, both colonies of the Thasians, and also Myrcinus, a small Edonian city. He also set about building a number of triremes on the Strymon River and summoned soldiers from both Lacedemon and the rest of the allies.
§ 12.68.5 Also he had many complete suits of armour made, which he distributed among the young men who possessed no arms, and he gathered supplies of missiles and grain and everything else. And when all his preparations had been made, he set out from Amphipolis with his army and came to Acte, as it is called, where he pitched his camp. In this area there were five cities, of which some were Greek, being colonies from Andros, and the others had a populace of barbarians of Bisaltic origin, which were bilingual.
§ 12.68.6 After mastering these cities Brasidas led his army against the city of Torone, which was a colony of the Chalcidians but was held by Athenians. Since certain men were ready to betray the city, Brasidas was by night admitted by them and got Torone in his power without a fight. To such a height did the fortunes of Brasidas attain in the course of this year.
§ 12.69.1 While these events were happening, at Delium in Boeotia a pitched battle took place between the Athenians and the Boeotians for the following reasons. Certain Boeotians, who were restive under the form of government which obtained at the time and were eager to establish democracies in the cities, discussed their policy with the Athenian generals, Hippocrates and Demosthenes, and promised to deliver the cities of Boeotia into their hands.
§ 12.69.2 The Athenians gladly accepted this offer and, having in view the arrangements for the attack, the generals divided their forces: Demosthenes, taking the larger part of the army, invaded Boeotia, but finding the Boeotians already informed of the betrayal he withdrew without accomplishing anything; Hippocrates led the popular levy of the Athenians against Delium, seized the place, and threw a wall about it before the approach of the Boeotians. The town lies near the territory of Oropus and the boundary of Boeotia.
§ 12.69.3 Pagondas, who commanded the Boeotians, having summoned soldiers from all the cities of Boeotia, came to Delium with a great army, since he had little less than twenty thousand infantry and about a thousand cavalry.
§ 12.69.4 The Athenians, although superior to the Boeotians in number, were not so well equipped as the enemy; for they had left the city hurriedly and on short notice, and in such haste they were unprepared.
§ 12.70.1 Both armies advanced to the fray in high spirits and the forces were disposed in the following manner. On the Boeotian side, the Thebans were drawn up on the right wing, the Orchomenians on the left, and the centre of the line was made up of the other Boeotians; the first line of the whole army was formed of what they called "charioteers and footmen," a select group of three hundred. The Athenians were forced to engage the enemy while still marshalling their army.
§ 12.70.2 A fierce conflict ensued and at first the Athenian cavalry, fighting brilliantly, compelled the opposing cavalry to flee; but later, after the infantry had become engaged, the Athenians who were opposed to the Thebans were overpowered and put to flight, although the remaining Athenians overcame the other Boeotians, slew great numbers of them, and pursued them for some distance.
§ 12.70.3 But the Thebans, whose bodily strength was superior, turned back from the pursuit, and falling on the pursuing Athenians forced them to flee; and since they had won a conspicuous victory, they gained for themselves great fame for valour.
§ 12.70.4 Of the Athenians some fled for refuge to Oropus and others to Delium; certain of them made for the sea and the Athenian ships; still others scattered this way and that, as chance dictated. When night fell, the Boeotian dead were not in excess of five hundred, the Athenian many times that number. However, if night had not intervened, most of the Athenians would have perished, for it broke the drive of the pursuers and brought safety to those in flight.
§ 12.70.5 Even so the multitude of the slain was so great that from the proceeds of the booty the Thebans not only constructed the great colonnade in their market-place but also embellished it with bronze statues, and their temples and the colonnades in the market-place they covered with bronze by the armour from the booty which they nailed to them; furthermore, it was with this money that they instituted the festival called Delia.
§ 12.70.6 After the battle the Boeotians launched assaults upon Delium and took the place by storm; of the garrison of Delium the larger number died fighting gallantly and two hundred were taken prisoner; the rest fled for safety to the ships and were transported with the other refugees to Attica. Thus the Athenians, who devised a plot against the Boeotians, were involved in the disaster we have described.
§ 12.71.1 In Asia King Xerxes died after a reign of one year, or, as some record, two months; and his brother Sogdianus succeeded to the throne and ruled for seven months. He was slain by Darius, who reigned nineteen years. Of the historians Antiochus of Syracuse concluded with this year his history of Sicily, which began with Cocalus, the king of the Sicani, and embraced nine Books.
§ 12.72.1 When Ameinias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Papirius and Lucius Junius. In this year the people of Scione, holding the Athenians in contempt because of their defeat at Delium, revolted to the Lacedemonians and delivered their city into the hands of Brasidas, who was in command of the Lacedemonian forces in Thrace.
§ 12.72.2 In Lesbos, after the Athenian seizure of Mytilene, the exiles, who had escaped the capture in large numbers, had for some time been trying to return to Lesbos, and they succeeded at this time in rallying and seizing Antandrus, from which as their base they then carried on war with the Athenians who were in possession of Mytilene.
§ 12.72.3 Exasperated by this state of affairs the Athenian people sent against them as generals Aristeides and Symmachus with an army. They put in at Lesbos and by means of sustained assaults took possession of Antandrus, and of the exiles some they put to death and others they expelled from the city; then they left a garrison to guard the place and sailed away from Lesbos.
§ 12.72.4 After this Lamachus the general sailed with ten triremes into the Pontus and anchored at Heracleia, on the river Cales, as it is called, but he lost all his ships; for when heavy rains fell, the river brought down so violent a current that his vessels were driven on certain rocky places and broken to pieces on the bank.
§ 12.72.5 The Athenians concluded a truce with the Lacedemonians for a year, on the terms that both of them should remain in possession of the places of which they were masters at the time. They held many discussions and were of the opinion that they should stop the warn put an end to their mutual rivalry; and the Lacedemonians were eager to recover their citizens who had been taken captive at Sphacteria.
§ 12.72.6 When the truce had been concluded on the terms here mentioned, they were in entire agreement on all other matters, but both of them laid claim to Scione. And so bitter a controversy followed that they renounced the truce and continued their war against each other over the issue of Scione.
§ 12.72.7 At this time the city of Mende also revolted to the Lacedemonians and made the quarrel over Scione the more bitter. Consequently Brasidas removed the children and women and all the most valuable property from Mende and Scione and safeguarded the cities with strong garrisons,
§ 12.72.8 whereupon the Athenians, being incensed at what had taken place, voted to put to the sword all the Scionaeans from the youth upward, when they should take the city, and sent a naval force of fifty triremes against them, the command of which was held by Nicias and Nicostratus.
§ 12.72.9 They sailed to Mende first and conquered it with the aid of certain men who betrayed it; then they threw a wall about Scione, settled down to a siege, and launched unceasing assaults upon it.
§ 12.72.10 But the garrison of Scione, which was strong in numbers and abundantly provided with missiles and food and all other supplies, had no difficulty in repulsing the Athenians and, because they held a higher position, in wounding many of their men. Such, then, were the events of this year.
§ 12.73.1 The next year Alcaeus was archon in Athens and in Rome the consuls were Opiter Lucretius and Lucius Sergius Fideniates. During this year the Athenians, accusing Delians of secretly concluding an alliance with the Lacedemonians, expelled them from the island and took their city for their own. To the Delians who had been expelled the satrap Pharniaces gave the city of Adramytium to dwell in.
§ 12.73.2 The Athenians elected as general Cleon, the leader of the popular party, and supplying him with a strong body of infantry sent him to the regions lying off Thrace. He sailed to Scione, where he added to his force soldiers from the besiegers of the city, and then sailed away and put in at Torone; for he knew that Brasidas had gone from these parts and that the soldiers who were left in Torone were not strong enough to offer battle.
§ 12.73.3 After encamping near Torone and besieging the city both by land and by sea, he took it by storm, and the children and women he sold into slavery, but the men who garrisoned the city he took captive, fettered them, and sent them to Athens. Then, leaving an adequate garrison for the city, he sailed away with his army and put in at the Strymon River in Thrace. Pitching camp near the city of Eion, which is about thirty stades distant from Amphipolis, he launched successive assaults upon the town.
§ 12.74.1 Cleon, learning that Brasidas and his army were tarrying at the city of Amphipolis, broke camp and marched against him. And when Brasidas heard of the approach of the enemy, he formed his army in battle-order and went out to meet the Athenians. A fierce battle ensued, in which both armies engaged brilliantly, and at first the fight was evenly balanced, but later, as the leaders on both sides strove to decide the battle through their own efforts, it was the lot of many important men to be slain, the generals injecting themselves into the battle and bringing into it a rivalry for victory that could not be surpassed.
§ 12.74.2 Brasidas, after fighting with the greatest distinction and slaying a very large number, ended his life heroically; and when Cleon also, after displaying like valour, fell in the battle, both armies were thrown into confusion because they had no leaders, but in the end the Lacedemonians were victorious and set up a trophy. The Athenians got back their dead under a truce, gave them burial, and sailed away to Athens.
§ 12.74.3 And when certain men from the scene of the battle arrived at Lacedemon and brought the news of Brasidas' victory as well as of his death, the mother of Brasidas, on learning of the course of the battle, inquired what sort of a man Brasidas had shown himself to be in the conflict. And when she was told that of all the Lacedemonians he was the best, the mother of the dead man said, "My son Brasidas was a brave man, and yet he was inferior to many others."
§ 12.74.4 When this reply passed throughout the city, the ephors accorded the woman public honours, because she placed the fair name of her country above the fame of her son.
§ 12.74.5 After the battle we have described the Athenians decided to make a truce of fifty years with the Lacedemonians, upon the following terms: The prisoners with both sides were to be released and each side should give back the cities which had been taken during the course of the war.
§ 12.74.6 Thus the Peloponnesian War, which had continued up to that time for ten years, came to an end in the manner we have described.
§ 12.75.1 When Aristion was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Titus Quinctius and Aulus Cornelius Cossus. During this year, although the Peloponnesian War had just come to an end, again tumults and military movements occurred throughout Greece, for the following reasons.
§ 12.75.2 Although the Athenians and Lacedemonians had concluded a truce and cessation of hostilities in company with their allies, they had formed an alliance without consultation with the allied cities. By this act they fell under suspicion of having formed an alliance for their private ends, with the purpose of enslaving the rest of the Greeks.
§ 12.75.3 As a consequence the most important of the cities maintained a mutual exchange of embassies and conversations regarding a union of policy and an alliance against the Athenians and Lacedemonians. The leading states in this undertaking were the four most powerful ones, Argos, Thebes, Corinth, and Elis. There was good reason to suspect that Athens and Lacedemon had common designs against the rest of Greece, since a clause had been added to the compact which the two had made, namely, that the Athenians and Lacedemonians had the right, according as these states may deem it best, to add to or subtract from the agreements. Moreover, the Athenians by decree had lodged in ten men the power to take counsel regarding what would be of advantage to the city; and since much the same thing had also been done by the Lacedemonians, the selfish ambitions of the two states were open for all to see. 5 Many cities answered to the call of their common freedom, and since the Athenians were disdained by reason of the defeat they had suffered at Delium and the Lacedemonians had had their fame reduced because of the capture of their citizens on the island of Sphacteria, a large number of cities joined together and selected the city of the Argives to hold the position of leader. 6 For this city enjoyed a high position by reason of its achievements in the past, since until the return of the Heracleidae practically all the most important kings had come from the Argolis, and furthermore, since the city had enjoyed peace for a long time, it had received revenues of the greatest size and had a great store not only of money but also of men. 7 The Argives, believing that the entire leadership was to be conceded to them, picked out one thousand of their younger citizens who were at the same time the most vigorous in body and the most wealthy, and freeing them also from every other service to the state and supplying them with sustenance at public expense, they had them undergo continuous training and exercise. These young men, therefore, by reason of the expense incurred for them and their continuous training, quickly formed a body of athletes trained to deeds of war.
§ 12.76.1 The Lacedemonians, seeing the Peloponnesus uniting against them and foreseeing the magnitude of the impending war, began exerting every possible effort to make sure their position of leadership. And first of all the Helots who had served with Brasidas in Thrace, a thousand in all, were given their freedom; then the Spartans, who had been taken prisoner on the island of Sphacteria and had been disgraced on the ground that they had diminished the glory of Sparta, were freed from their state of disgrace.
§ 12.76.2 Also, in pursuance of the same policy, by means of the commendations and honours accorded in the course of the war they were incited to surpass in the struggles which lay before them the deeds of valour they had already performed; and toward their allies they conducted themselves more equitably and conciliated the most unfavourably disposed of them with kindly treatment.
§ 12.76.3 The Athenians, on the contrary, desiring to strike with fear those whom they suspected of planning secession, displayed an example for all to see in the punishment they inflicted on the inhabitants of Scione; for after reducing them by siege, they put to the sword all of them from the youth upwards, sold into slavery the children and women, and gave the island to the Plataeans to dwell in, since they had been expelled from their native land on account of the Athenians.
§ 12.76.4 In the course of this year in Italy the Campanians advanced against Cyme with a strong army, defeated the Cymaeans in battle, and destroyed the larger part of the opposing forces. And settling down to a siege, they launched a number of assaults upon the city and took it by storm. They then plundered the city, sold into slavery the captured prisoners, and selected an adequate number of their own citizens to settle there.
§ 12.77.1 When Astypilus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Quinctius and Aulus Sempronius, and the Eleians celebrated the Ninetieth Olympiad, that in which Hyperbius of Syracuse won the "stadion." This year the Athenians, in obedience to a certain oracle, returned their island to the Delians, and the Delians who were dwelling in Adramytium returned to their native land.
§ 12.77.2 And since the Athenians had not returned the city of Pylos to the Lacedemonians, these cities were again at odds with each other and hostile. When this was known to the Assembly of the Argives, that body persuaded the Athenians to close a treaty of friendship with the Argives.
§ 12.77.3 And since the quarrel kept growing, the Lacedemonians persuaded the Corinthians to desert the league of states and ally themselves with the Lacedemonians. Such being the confusion that had arisen together with a lack of leadership, the situation throughout the Peloponnesus was as has been described.
§ 12.77.4 In the regions outside, the Aenianians, Dolopians, and Melians, having come to an understanding, advanced with strong armaments against Heracleia in Trachis. The Heracleians drew up to oppose them and a great battle took place, in which the people of Heracleia were defeated. Since they had lost many soldiers and had sought refuge within their walls, they sent for aid from the Boeotians. The Thebans dispatched to their help a thousand picked hoplites, with whose aid they held off their adversaries.
§ 12.77.5 While these events were taking place, the Olynthians dispatched an army against the city of Mecyberna which had an Athenian garrison, drove out the garrison, and themselves took possession of the city.
§ 12.78.1 When Archias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Papirius Mugilanus and Gaius Servilius Structus. In this year the Argives, charging the Lacedemonians with not paying the sacrifices to Apollo Pythaeus, declared war on them; and it was at this very time that Alcibiades, the Athenian general, entered Argolis with an army.
§ 12.78.2 Adding these troops to their forces, the Argives advanced against Troezen, a city which was an ally of the Lacedemonians, and after plundering its territory and burning its farm-buildings they returned home. The Lacedemonians, being incensed at the lawless acts committed against the Troezenians, resolved to go to war against the Argives; consequently they mustered an army and put their king Agis in command.
§ 12.78.3 With this force Agis advanced against the Argives and ravaged their territory, and leading his army to the vicinity of the city he challenged the enemy to battle.
§ 12.78.4 The Argives, adding to their army three thousand soldiers from the Eleians and almost as many from the Mantineians, led out their forces from the city. When a pitched battle was imminent, the generals conducted negotiations with each other and agreed upon a cessation of hostilities for four months.
§ 12.78.5 But when the armies returned to their homes without accomplishing anything, both cities were angry with the generals who had agreed upon the truce. Consequently the Argives hurled stones at their commanders and began to menace them with death; only reluctantly and after much supplication their lives were spared, but their property was confiscated and their homes razed to the ground.
§ 12.78.6 The Lacedemonians took steps to punish Agis, but when he promised to atone for his error by worthy deeds, they reluctantly let him off, and for the future they chose ten of their wisest men, whom they appointed his advisers, and they ordered him to do nothing without learning their opinion.
§ 12.79.1 After this the Athenians dispatched to Argos by sea a thousand picked hoplites and two hundred cavalry, under the command of Laches and Nicostratus; and Alcibiades also accompanied them, although in a private capacity, because of the friendly relations he enjoyed with the Eleians and Mantineians; and when they were all gathered in council, they decided to pay no attention to the truce but to set about making war.
§ 12.79.2 Consequently each general urged on his own troops to the conflict, and when they all responded eagerly, they pitched camp outside the city. Now they agreed that they should march first of all against Orchomenus in Arcadia; and so, advancing into Arcadia, they settled down to the siege of the city and made daily assaults upon its walls.
§ 12.79.3 And after they had taken the city, they encamped near Tegea, having decided to besiege it also. But when the Tegeatans called upon the Lacedemonians for immediate aid, the Spartans gathered all their own soldiers and those of their allies and moved on Mantineia, believing that, once Mantineia was attacked in the war, the enemy would raise the siege of Tegea.
§ 12.79.4 The Mantineians gathered their allies, and marching forth themselves en masse, formed their lines opposite the Lacedemonians. A sharp battle followed, and the picked troops of the Argives, one thousand in number, who had received excellent training in warfare, were the first to put to flight their opponents and made great slaughter of them in their pursuit.
§ 12.79.5 But the Lacedemonians, after putting to flight the other parts of the army and slaying many, wheeled about to oppose the Argives and by their superior numbers surrounded them, hoping to destroy them to a man.
§ 12.79.6 Now although the picked troops of the Argives, though in numbers far inferior, were superior in feats of courage, the king of the Lacedemonians led the fight and held out firmly against the perils he encountered; and he would have slain all the Argives — for he was resolved to fulfil the promises he had made to his fellow citizens and wipe out, by a great deed, his former ill repute — but he was not allowed to consummate that purpose. For Pharax the Spartan, who was one of the advisers of Agis and enjoyed the highest reputation in Sparta, directed him to leave a way of escape for the picked men and not, by hazarding the issue against men who had given up all hope of life, to learn what valour is when abandoned by Fortune.
§ 12.79.7 So the king was compelled, in obedience to the command recently given him, to leave a way of escape even as Pharax advised. So the Thousand, having been allowed to pass through in the manner described, made their way to safety, and the Lacedemonians, having won the victory in a great battle, erected a trophy and returned home.
§ 12.80.1 When this year had come to an end, in Athens the archon was Antiphon, and in Rome in place of consuls four military tribunes were elected, Gaius Furius, Titus Quinctius, Marcus Postumius, and Aulus Cornelius. During this year the Argives and Lacedemonians, after negotiations with each other, concluded a peace and formed an alliance.
§ 12.80.2 Consequently the Mantineians, now that they had lost the help of the Argives, were compelled to subject themselves to the Lacedemonians. And about the same time in the city of the Argives the Thousand who had been selected out of the total muster of citizens came to an agreement among themselves and decided to dissolve the democracy and establish an aristocracy from their own number.
§ 12.80.3 And having as they did many to aid them, because of the prominent position their wealth and brave exploits gave them, they first of all seized the men who had been accustomed to be the leaders of the people and put them to death, and then, by terrorizing the rest of the citizens, they abolished the laws and were proceeding to take the management of the state into their own hands. They maintained this government for eight months and then were overthrown, the people having united against them; and so these men were put to death and the people got back the democracy.
§ 12.80.4 Another movement also took place in Greece. The Phocians also, having quarrelled with the Locrians, settled the issue in pitched battle by virtue of their own valour. For the victory lay with the Phocians, who slew more than one thousand Locrians.
§ 12.80.5 The Athenians under the command of Nicias seized two cities, Cythera and Nisaea; and they reduced Melos by siege, slew all the males from the youth upward, and sold into slavery the children and women.
§ 12.80.6 Such were the affairs of the Greeks in this year. In Italy the Fidenates, when ambassadors came to their city from Rome, put them to death for trifling reasons.
§ 12.80.7 Incensed at such an act, the Romans voted to go to war, and mobilizing a strong army they appointed Anius Aemilius Dictator and with him, following their custom, Aulus Cornelius Master of Horse.
§ 12.80.8 Aemilius, after making all the preparations for the war, marched with his army against the Fidenates. And when the Fidenates drew up their forces to oppose the Romans, a fierce battle ensued which continued a long time; heavy losses were incurred on both sides and the conflict was indecisive.
§ 12.81.1 When Euphemus was archon in Athens, in Rome in place of consuls military tribunes were elected, Lucius Furius, Lucius Quinctius, and Aulus Sempronius. In this year the Lacedemonians and their allies took the field against Argolis and captured the stronghold of Hysiae, and slaying the inhabitants they razed the fortress to the ground; and when they learned that the Argives had completed the construction of the long walls clear to the sea, they advanced there, razed the walls that had been finished, and then made their way back home.
§ 12.81.2 The Athenians chose Alcibiades general, and giving him twenty ships commanded him to assist the Argives in establishing the affairs of their government; for conditions were still unsettled among them because many still remained of those who preferred the aristocracy.
§ 12.81.3 So when Alcibiades had arrived at the city of the Argives and had consulted with the supporters of the democracy, he selected those Argives who were considered to be the strongest adherents of the Lacedemonian cause; these he removed from the city, and when he had assisted in establishing the democracy on a firm basis, he sailed back to Athens.
§ 12.81.4 Toward the end of the year the Lacedemonians invaded Argolis with a strong force, and after ravaging a large part of the country they settled the exiles from Argos in Orneae; this place they fortified as a stronghold against Argolis, and leaving in it a strong garrison, they ordered it to harass the Argives.
§ 12.81.5 But when the Lacedemonians had withdrawn from Argolis, the Athenians dispatched to the Argives a supporting force of forty triremes and twelve hundred hoplites. The Argives then advanced against Orneae together with the Athenians and took the city by storm, and of the garrison and exiles some they put to death and others they expelled from Orneae. These, then, were the events of the fifteenth year of the Peloponnesian War.
§ 12.82.1 In the sixteenth year of the War Arimnestus was archon among the Athenians, and in Rome in place of consuls four military tribunes were elected, Titus Claudius, Spurius Nautius, Lucius Sentius, and Sextus Julius. And in this year among the Eleians the Ninety-first Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Exaenetus of Acragas won the "stadion."
§ 12.82.2 The Byzantines and Chalcedonians, accompanied by Thracians, made war in great force against Bithynia, plundered the land, reduced by siege many of the small settlements, and performed deeds of exceeding cruelty; for of the many prisoners they took, both men and women and children, they put all to the sword.
§ 12.82.3 About the same time in Sicily war broke out between the Egestaeans and the Selinuntians from a difference over territory, where a river divided the lands of the quarrelling cities.
§ 12.82.4 The Selinuntians, crossing the stream, at first seized by force the land along the river, but later they cut off for their own a large piece of the adjoining territory, utterly disregarding the rights of the injured parties.
§ 12.82.5 The people of Egesta, aroused to anger, at first endeavoured to persuade them by verbal arguments not to trespass on the territory of another city; however, when no one paid any attention to them, they advanced with an army against those who held the territory, expelled them all from their fields, and themselves seized the land.
§ 12.82.6 Since the quarrel between the two cities had become serious, the two parties, having mustered soldiers, sought to bring about the decision by recourse to arms. Consequently, when both forces were drawn up in battle-order, a fierce battle took place in which the Selinuntians were the victors, having slain not a few Egestaeans.
§ 12.82.7 Since the Egestaeans had been humbled and were not strong enough of themselves to offer battle, they at first tried to induce the Acragantini and the Syracusans to enter into an alliance with them. Failing in this, they sent ambassadors to Carthage to beseech its aid. And when the Carthaginians would not listen to them, they looked about for some alliance overseas; and in this, chance came to their aid.
§ 12.83.1 Now since the Leontines had been forced by the Syracusans to leave their city and their territory, those of them who were living in exile got together and decided once more to take the Athenians, who were their kinsmen, as allies.
§ 12.83.2 When they had conferred with the Egestaeans on the matter and come to an agreement, the two cities jointly dispatched ambassadors to Athens, asking the Athenians to come to the aid of their cities, which were victims of ill treatment, and promising to assist the Athenians in establishing order in the affairs of Sicily.
§ 12.83.3 When, now, the ambassadors had arrived in Athens, and the Leontines stressed their kinship and the former alliance and the Egestaeans promised to contribute a large sum of money for the war and also to fight as an ally against the Syracusans, the Athenians voted to send some of their foremost men and to investigate the situation on the island and among the Egestaeans.
§ 12.83.4 When these men arrived at Egesta, the Egestaeans showed them a great sum of money which they had borrowed partly from their own citizens and partly from neighbouring peoples for the sake of making a good show.
§ 12.83.5 And when the envoys had returned and reported on the wealth of the Egestaeans, a meeting of the people was convened to consider the matter. When the proposal was introduced to dispatch an expedition to Sicily, Nicias the son of Niceratus, a man who enjoyed the respect of his fellow citizens for his uprightness, counselled against the expedition to Sicily.
§ 12.83.6 They were in no position, he declared, at the same time both to carry on a war against the Lacedemonians and to send great armaments overseas; and so long as they were unable to secure their supremacy over the Greeks, how could they hope to subdue the greatest island in the inhabited world? even the Carthaginians, he added, who possessed a most extensive empire and had waged war many times to gain Sicily, had not been able to subdue the island, and the Athenians, whose military power was far less than that of the Carthaginians, could not possibly win by the spear and acquire the most powerful of the islands.
§ 12.84.1 After Nicias had set forth these and many other considerations appropriate to the proposal before the people, Alcibiades, who was the principal advocate of the opposite view and a most prominent Athenian, persuaded the people to enter upon the war; for this man was the ablest orator among the citizens and was widely known for his high birth, wealth, and skill as a general.
§ 12.84.2 At once, then, the people got ready a strong fleet, taking thirty triremes from their allies and equipping one hundred of their own.
§ 12.84.3 And when they had fitted these ships out with every kind of equipment that is useful in war, they enrolled some five thousand hoplites and elected three generals, Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, to be in charge of the campaign.
§ 12.84.4 Such were the matters with which the Athenians were occupied. And as for us, since we are now at the beginning of the war between the Athenians and the Syracusans, pursuant to the plan we announced at the beginning of this Book we shall assign to the next Book the events which follow.
§ 13.1.1 If we were composing a history after the manner of the other historians, we should, I suppose, discourse upon certain topics at appropriate length in the introduction to each Book and by this means turn our discussion to the events which follow; surely, if we were picking out a brief period of history for our treatise, we should have the time to enjoy the fruit such introductions yield.
§ 13.1.2 But since we engaged ourselves in a few Books not only to set forth, to the best of our ability, the events but also to embrace a period of more than eleven hundred years, we must forgo the long discussion which such introductions would involve and come to the events themselves, with only this word by way of preface, namely, that in the preceding six Books we have set down a record of events from the Trojan War to the war which the Athenians by decree of the people declared against the Syracusans, the period to this war from the capture of Troy embracing seven hundred and sixty-eight years;
§ 13.1.3 and in this book, as we add to our narrative the period next succeeding, we shall commence with the expedition against the Syracusans and stop with the beginning of the second war between the Carthaginians and Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans.
§ 13.2.1 When Chabrias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Lucius Sergius, Marcus Papirius, and Marcus Servilius. This year the Athenians, pursuant to their vote of the war against the Syracusans, got ready the ships, collected the money, and proceeded with great zeal to make every preparation for the campaign. They elected three generals, Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, and gave them full powers over all matters pertaining to the war.
§ 13.2.2 Of the private citizens those who had the means, wishing to indulge the enthusiasm of the populace, in some instances fitted out triremes at their own expense and in others engaged to donate money for the maintenance of the forces; and many, not only from among the citizens and aliens of Athens who favoured the democracy but also from among the allies, voluntarily went to the generals and urged that they be enrolled among the soldier. To such a degree were they all buoyed up in their hopes and looking forward forthwith to portioning out Sicily in allotments.
§ 13.2.3 And the expedition was already fully prepared when it came to pass that in a single night the statues of Hermes which stood everywhere throughout the city were mutilated. At this the people, believing that the deed had not been by ordinary persons but by men who stood in high repute and were bent upon the overthrow of the democracy, were incensed at the sacrilege and undertook a search for the perpetrators, offering large rewards to anyone who would furnish information against them.
§ 13.2.4 And a certain private citizen, appearing before the Council, stated that he had seen certain men enter the house of an alien about the middle of the night on the first day of the new moon and that one of them was Alcibiades. When he was questioned by the Council and asked how he could recognize the faces at night, he replied that he had seen them by the light of the moon. Since, then, the man had convicted himself of lying, no credence was given to his story, and of other investigators not a man was able to discover a single clue to the deed.
§ 13.2.5 One hundred and forty triremes were equipped, and of transports and ships to carry horses as well as ships to convey food and all other equipment there was a huge number; and there were also hoplites and slingers as well as cavalry, and in addition more than seven thousand men from the allies, not including the crews.
§ 13.2.6 At this time the generals, sitting in secret session with the Council, discussed what disposition they should make of Sicilian affairs, if they should get control of the island. And it was agreed by them that they would enslave the Selinuntians and Syracusans, but upon the other peoples they would merely lay a tribute severally which they would pay annually to the Athenians.
§ 13.3.1 On the next day the generals together with the soldiers went down to the Peiraeus, and the entire populace of the city, citizens and aliens thronging together, accompanied them, everyone bidding godspeed to his own kinsmen and friends.
§ 13.3.2 The triremes lay at anchor over the whole harbour, embellished with their insignia on the bows and the gleam of their armour; and the whole circumference of the harbour was filled with censers and silver mixing-bowls, from which the people poured libations with golden cups, paying honour to the gods and beseeching them to grant success to the expedition Now after leaving the Peiraeus they sailed around the Peloponnesus and put in at Corcyra, since they were under orders to wait at that place and add to their forces the allies in that region. And when they had all been assembled, they sailed across the Ionian Strait and came to land on the tip of Iapygia, from where they skirted along the coast of Italy. 4 They were not received by the Tarantini, and they also sailed on past the Metapontines and Heracleians; but when they put in at Thurii they were accorded every kind of courtesy. From there they sailed on to Croton, from whose inhabitants they got a market, and then they sailed on past the temple of Hera Lacinia and doubled the promontory known as Dioscurias. 5 After this they passed by Scylletium, as it is called, and Locri, and dropping anchor near Rhegium they endeavoured to persuade the Rhegians to become their allies; but the Rhegians replied that they would consult with the other Greek cities of Italy.
§ 13.4.1 When the Syracusans heard that the Athenian armaments were at the Strait, they appointed three generals with supreme power, Hermocrates, Sicanus, and Heracleides, who enrolled soldiers and dispatched ambassadors to the cities of Sicily, urging them to do their share in the cause of their common liberty; for the Athenians, they pointed out, while beginning the war, as they alleged, upon the Syracusans, were in fact intent upon subduing the entire island.
§ 13.4.2 Now the Acragantini and Naxians declared that they would ally themselves with the Athenians; the Camarinaeans and Messenians gave assurances that they would maintain the peace, while postponing a reply to the request for an alliance; but the Himeraeans, Selinuntians, Geloans, and Catanaeans promised that they would fight at the side of the Syracusans. The cities of the Siceli, while tending to be favourably inclined toward the Syracusans, nevertheless remained neutral, awaiting the outcome.
§ 13.4.3 After the Aegestaeans had refused to give more than thirty talents, the Athenian generals, having remonstrated with them, put out to sea from Rhegium with their force and sailed to Naxos in Sicily. They were kindly received by the inhabitants of this city and sailed on from there to Catane.
§ 13.4.4 Although the Catanaeans would not receive the soldiers into the city, they allowed the generals to enter and summoned an assembly of the citizens, and the Athenian generals presented their proposal for an alliance.
§ 13.4.5 But while Alcibiades was addressing the assembly, some of the soldiers burst open a postern-gate and broke into the city. It was by this cause that the Catanaeans were forced to join in the war against the Syracusans.
§ 13.5.1 While these events were taking place, those in Athens who hated Alcibiades with a personal enmity, possessing now an excuse in the mutilation of the statues, accused him in speeches before the Assembly of having formed a conspiracy against the democracy. Their charges gained colour from an incident that had taken place among the Argives; for private friends of his in that city had agreed together to destroy the democracy in Argos, but they had all been put to death by the citizens.
§ 13.5.2 Accordingly the people, having given credence to the accusations and having had their feelings deeply aroused by their demagogues, dispatched their ship, the Salaminia, to Sicily with orders for Alcibiades to return with all speed to face trial. When the ship arrived at Catane and Alcibiades learned of the decision of the people from the ambassadors, he took the others who had been accused together with him aboard his own trireme and sailed away in company with the Salaminia.
§ 13.5.3 But when he had put in at Thurii, Alcibiades, either because he was privy to the deed of impiety or because he was alarmed at the seriousness of the danger which threatened him, made his escape together with the other accused men and got away. The ambassadors who had come on the Salaminia at first set up a hunt for Alcibiades, but when they could not find him, they sailed back to Athens and reported to the people what had taken place.
§ 13.5.4 Accordingly the Athenians brought the names of Alcibiades and the other fugitives with him before a court of justice and condemned them in default to death. And Alcibiades made his way across from Italy to the Peloponnesus, where he took refuge in Sparta and spurred on the Lacedemonians to attack the Athenians.
§ 13.6.1 The generals in Sicily sailed on with the armament of the Athenians to Aegesta and captured Hyccara, a small town of the Siceli, from the booty of which they realized one hundred talents; and after receiving thirty talents in addition from the Aegestaeans they continued their voyage to Catane
§ 13.6.2 And wishing to seize, without risk to themselves, the position on the Great Harbour of the Syracusans, they sent a man of Catane who was loyal to themselves and was also trusted by the Syracusan generals, with instructions to say to the Syracusan commanders that a group of Catanaeans had banded together and were ready to seize unawares a large number of Athenians, who made it their practice to pass the night in the city away from their arms, and set fire to the ships in the harbour; and he was to ask the generals that, in order to effect this, they should appear at the place with troops so that they might not fail in their design.
§ 13.6.3 When the Catanaean went to the commanders of the Syracusans and told them what we have stated, the generals, believing his story, decided on the night on which they would lead out their troops and sent the man back to Catane.
§ 13.6.4 Now on the appointed night the Syracusans brought the army to Catane, whereupon the Athenians, sailing down into the Great Harbour of the Syracusans in dead silence, not only became masters of the Olympiaeum but also, after seizing the entire area about it, constructed a camp.
§ 13.6.5 The generals of the Syracusans, however, when they learned of the deceit which had been practised on them, returned speedily and assaulted the Athenian camp. When the enemy came out to meet them, there ensued a battle, in which the Athenians slew four hundred of their opponents and compelled the Syracusans to take to flight.
§ 13.6.6 But the Athenian generals, seeing that the enemy were superior in cavalry and wishing to improve their equipment for the siege of the city, sailed back to Catane. And they dispatched men to Athens and addressed letters to the people in which they asked them to send cavalry and funds; for they believed that the siege would be a long affair; and the Athenians voted to send three hundred talents and a contingent of cavalry to Sicily.
§ 13.6.7 While these events were taking place, Diagoras, who was dubbed "the Atheist," was accused of impiety and, fearing the people, fled from Attica; and the Athenians announced a reward of a talent of silver to the man who should slay Diagoras.
§ 13.6.8 In Italy the Romans went to war with the Aequi and reduced Labici by siege. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 13.7.1 When Tisandrus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Publius Lucretius, Gaius Servilius, Agrippa Menenius, and Spurius Veturius. In this year the Syracusans, dispatching ambassadors to both Corinth and Lacedemon, urged these cities to come to their aid and not to stand idly by when total ruin threatened the Syracusans.
§ 13.7.2 Since Alcibiades supported their request, the Lacedemonians voted to send aid to the Syracusans and chose Gylippus to be general, and the Corinthians made preparations to send a number of triremes, but at the moment they sent in advance to Sicily, accompanying Gylippus, Pythes with two triremes.
§ 13.7.3 And in Catane Nicias and Lamachus, the Athenian generals, after two hundred and fifty cavalry and three hundred talents of silver had come to them from Athens, took their army aboard and sailed to Syracuse. They arrived at the city by night and unobserved by the Syracusans took possession of Epipolae. When the Syracusans learned of this, they speedily came to its defence, but were chased back into the city with the loss of three hundred soldiers.
§ 13.7.4 After this, with the arrival for the Athenians of three hundred horsemen from Aegesta and two hundred and fifty from the Siceli, they mustered in all eight hundred cavalry. Then, having built a fort at Labdalum, they began constructing a wall about the city of the Syracusans and aroused great fear among the populace. Therefore they advanced out of the city and endeavoured to hinder the builders of the wall; but a cavalry battle followed in which they suffered heavy losses and were forced to flee.
§ 13.7.5 The Athenians with a part of their troops now seized the region lying above the harbour and by fortifying the so-called Polichne, they not only enclosed the temple of Zeus but were also besieging Syracuse from both sides.
§ 13.7.6 Now that such reverses as these had befallen the Syracusans, the inhabitants of the city were disheartened; but when they learned that Gylippus had put in at Himera and was gathering soldiers, they again took heart.
§ 13.7.7 For Gylippus, having put in at Himera with four triremes, had hauled his ships up on shore, persuaded the Himeraeans to ally themselves with the Syracusans, and was gathering soldiers from them and the Geloans, as well as from the Selinuntians and the Sicani. And after he had assembled three thousand infantry in all and three hundred cavalry, he led them through the interior of the island to Syracuse.
§ 13.8.1 After a few days Gylippus led forth his troops together with the Syracusans against the Athenians. A fierce battle took place and Lamachus, the Athenian general, died in the fighting; and although many were slain on both sides, victory lay with the Athenians.
§ 13.8.2 After the battle, when thirteen triremes had arrived from Corinth, Gylippus, after taking the crews of the ships, with them and the Syracusans attacked the camp of the enemy and sought to storm Epipolae. When the Athenians came out, they joined battle and the Syracusans, after slaying many Athenians, were victorious and they razed the wall throughout the length of Epipolae; at this the Athenians abandoned the area of Epipolae and withdrew their entire force to the other camp.
§ 13.8.3 After these events the Syracusans dispatched ambassadors to Corinth and Lacedemon to get help; and the Corinthians together with the Boeotians and Sicyonians sent them one thousand men and Spartans six hundred.
§ 13.8.4 And Gylippus went about the cities of Sicily and persuaded many peoples to join the alliance, and after gathering three thousand soldiers from the Himeraeans and Sicani he led them through the interior of the island. When the Athenians learned that these troops were near at hand, they attacked and slew half of them; the survivors, however, got safely to Syracuse.
§ 13.8.5 Upon the arrival of the allies the Syracusans, wishing to try their hand also in battles at sea, launched the ships they already possessed and fitted out additional ones, giving them their trials in the small harbour.
§ 13.8.6 And Nicias, the Athenian general, dispatched letters to Athens in which he made known that many allies were now with the Syracusans and that they had fitted out no small number of ships and had resolved upon offering battle at sea; he therefore asked them to send speedily both triremes and money and generals to assist him in the conduct of the war, explaining that with the flight of Alcibiades and the death of Lamachus he was the only general left and at that was not in good health.
§ 13.8.7 The Athenians dispatched to Sicily ten ships with Eurymedon the general and one hundred and forty talents of silver, at the time of the winter solstice; meantime they busied themselves with preparations to dispatch a great fleet in the spring. Consequently they were enrolling soldiers everywhere from their allies and gathering together money.
§ 13.8.8 In the Peloponnesus the Lacedemonians, being spurred on by Alcibiades, broke the truce with the Athenians, and the war which followed continued for twelve years.
§ 13.9.1 At the close of this year Cleocritus [413/2 BCE] was archon of the Athenians, and in Rome in place of consuls there were four military tribunes, Aulus Sempronius, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Fabius, and Spurius Nautius.
§ 13.9.2 This year the Lacedemonians together with their allies invaded Attica, under the leadership of Agis and Alcibiades the Athenian. And seizing the stronghold of Deceleia they made it into a fortress for attacks upon Attica, and this, as it turned out, was why this war came to be called the Deceleian War. The Athenians dispatched thirty triremes to lie off Laconia under Charicles as general and voted to send eighty triremes and five thousand hoplites to Sicily. And the Syracusans, having made up their minds to join battle at sea, fitted out eighty triremes and sailed against the enemy.
§ 13.9.3 The Athenians put out against them with sixty ships, and when the battle was at its height, all the Athenians in the fortresses went down to the sea; for some were desirous of watching the battle, while others hoped that, in case of some reverse in the sea-battle, they could be of help to those in flight.
§ 13.9.4 But the Syracusan generals, foreseeing what really happened, had dispatched the troops in the city against the strongholds of the Athenians, which were filled with money and naval supplies as well as every other kind of equipment; when the Syracusans found the strongholds guarded by a totally inadequate number, they seized them, and slew many of those who came up from the sea to their defence.
§ 13.9.5 And since a great uproar arose about the forts and the camp, the Athenians who were engaged in the sea-battle turned about in dismay and fled toward the last remaining fort. The Syracusans pursued them without order, but the Athenians, when they saw themselves unable to find safety on land because the Syracusans controlled two forts, were forced to turn about and renew the sea-battle.
§ 13.9.6 And since the Syracusans had broken their battle order and had become scattered in the pursuit, the Athenians, attacking with their ships in a body, sank eleven triremes and pursued the rest as far as the island. When the fight was ended, each side set up a trophy, the Athenians for the sea-battle and the Syracusans for their successes on land.
§ 13.10.1 After the sea-battle had ended in the manner we have described, the Athenians, learning that the fleet under Demosthenes would arrive within a few days, decided to run no more risks before that force should join them, whereas the Syracusans, on the contrary, wishing to reach a final decision before the arrival of Demosthenes and his army, kept sailing out every day against the ships of the Athenians and continuing the fight.
§ 13.10.2 And when Ariston the Corinthian pilot advised them to make the prows of their ships shorter and lower, the Syracusans followed his advice and for that reason enjoyed great advantage in the fighting which followed.
§ 13.10.3 For the Attic triremes were built with weaker and high prows, and for this reason it followed that, when they rammed, they damaged only the parts of a ship that extended above the water, so that the enemy suffered no great damage; whereas the ships of the Syracusans, built as they were with the structure about the prow strong and low, would often, as they delivered their ramming blows, sink with one shock the triremes of the Athenians.
§ 13.10.4 Now day after day the Syracusans attacked the camp of the enemy both by land and by sea, but to no effect, since the Athenians made no move; but when some of the captains of the triremes, being no longer able to endure the scorn of the Syracusans, put out against the enemy in the Great Harbour. A sea-battle commenced in which all the triremes joined. Now though the Athenians had fast-sailing triremes
§ 13.10.5 and enjoyed the advantage from their long experience at sea as well as from the skill of their pilots, yet their superiority in these respects brought them no return since the sea-battle was in a narrow area; and the Syracusans, engaging at close quarters and giving the enemy no opportunity to turn about to ram, not only cast spears at the soldiers on the decks, but also, by hurling stones, forced them to leave the prows, and in many cases simply by ramming a ship that met them and then boarding the enemy vessel they made it a land-battle on the ship's deck.
§ 13.10.6 The Athenians, being pressed upon from every quarter, turned to flight; and the Syracusans, pressing in pursuit, not only sank seven triremes but made a large number unfit for use.
§ 13.11.1 At the moment when the hopes of the Syracusans had raised their spirits high because of their victory over the enemy both by land and by sea, Eurymedon and Demosthenes arrived, having sailed there from Athens with a great force and gathered on the way allied troops from the Thurians and Messapians.
§ 13.11.2 They brought more than eighty triremes and five thousand soldiers, excluding the crews; and they also conveyed on merchant vessels arms and money as well as siege machines and every other kind of equipment. As a result the hopes of the Syracusans were dashed again, since they believed that they could not now readily find the means to bring themselves up to equality with the enemy.
§ 13.11.3 Demosthenes persuaded his fellow commanders to assault Epipolae, for it was impossible by any other means to wall off the city, and taking ten thousand hoplites and as many more light-armed troops, he attacked the Syracusans by night. Since the assault had not been expected, they overpowered some forts, and breaking into the fortifications of Epipolae threw down a part of the wall.
§ 13.11.4 But when the Syracusans ran together to the scene from every quarter and Hermocrates also came to the aid with the picked troops, the Athenians were forced out and, it being night, because of their unfamiliarity with the region were scattered some to one place and others to another.
§ 13.11.5 The Syracusans and their allies, pursuing after them, slew two thousand five hundred of the enemy, wounded not a few, and captured much armour.
§ 13.11.6 And after the battle the Syracusans dispatched Sicanus, one of their generals, with twelve triremes to the other cities, both to announce the victory to the allies and to ask them for aid.
§ 13.12.1 The Athenians, now that their affairs had taken a turn for the worse and a wave of pestilence had struck the camp because the region round about it was marshy, counselled together how they should deal with the situation.
§ 13.12.2 Demosthenes thought that they should sail back to Athens with all speed, stating that to risk their lives against the Lacedemonians in defence of their fatherland was preferable to settling down on Sicily and accomplishing nothing worth while; but Nicias said that they ought not to abandon the siege in so disgraceful a fashion, while they were well supplied with triremes, soldiers, and funds; furthermore, he added, if they should make peace with the Syracusans without the approval of the Athenian people and sail back to their country, peril would attend them from the men who make it their practice to bring false charges against their generals.
§ 13.12.3 Of the participants in the council some agreed with Demosthenes on putting to sea, but others expressed the same opinion as Nicias; and so they came to no clear decision and took no action.
§ 13.12.4 And since help came to the Syracusans from the Siceli, Selinuntians, and Geloans, as well as from the Himeraeans and Camarinaeans, the Syracusans were the more emboldened, but the Athenians became apprehensive. Also, when the epidemic greatly increased, many of the soldiers were dying and all regretted that they had not set out upon their return voyage long since.
§ 13.12.5 Consequently, since the multitude was in an uproar and all the others were eager to take to the ships, Nicias found himself compelled to yield on the matter of their returning home. When the generals were agreed, the soldiers began gathering together their equipment, loading the triremes, and raising the yard-arms; and the generals issued orders to the multitude that at the signal not a man in the camp should be late, for he who lagged would be left behind.
§ 13.12.6 But when they were about to sail on the following day, on the night of the day before, the moon was eclipsed. Consequently Nicias, who was not only by nature a superstitiously devout man but also cautious because of the epidemic in the camp, summoned the soothsayers. And when they declared that the departure must be postponed for the customary three days, Demosthenes and the others were also compelled, out of respect for the deity, to accede.
§ 13.13.1 When the Syracusans learned from some deserters why the departure had been deferred, they manned all their triremes, seventy-four in number, and leading out their ground forces attacked the enemy both by land and by sea.
§ 13.13.2 The Athenians, having manned eighty-six triremes, assigned to Eurymedon, the general, the command of the right wing, opposite to which was stationed the general of the Syracusans, Agatharchus; on the other wing Euthydemus had been stationed and opposite to him was Sicanus commanding the Syracusans; and in command of the centre of the line were Menander for the Athenians and Pythes the Corinthian for the Syracusans.
§ 13.13.3 Although the Athenian line was the longer since they were engaging with a superior number of triremes, yet the very factor which they thought would work to their advantage was not the least in their undoing. For Eurymedon endeavoured to outfit the opposing wing; but when he had become detached from his line, the Syracusans turned to face him and he was cut off and forced into a bay called Dascon which was held by the Syracusans.
§ 13.13.4 Being hemmed in as he was into a narrow place, he was forced to run ashore, where some man gave him a mortal wound and he lost his life, and seven of his ships were destroyed in this place.
§ 13.13.5 The battle had now spread throughout both fleets, and when the word was passed along that the general had been slain and some ships lost, at first only those ships gave way which were nearest to those which had been destroyed, but later, as the Syracusans pressed forward and pushed the fight boldly because of the success they had won, the whole Athenian force was overpowered and compelled to turn in flight.
§ 13.13.6 And since the pursuit turned toward the shallow part of the harbour, not a few triremes ran aground in the shoals. When this took place, Sicanus, the Syracusan general, straightway filling a merchant ship with faggots and pine-wood and pitch, set fire to the ships which were wallowing in the shoals.
§ 13.13.7 But although they were put on fire, the Athenians not only quickly extinguished the flames but, finding no other means of safety, also vigorously fought off from their ships the men who were rushing against them; and the land forces ran to their aid along the beach on which with the ships had run ashore.
§ 13.13.8 And since they all withstood the attack with vigour, on land the Syracusans were turned back, but at sea they won the decision and sailed back to the city. The losses of the Syracusans were few, but of the Athenians not less than two thousand men and eighteen triremes.
§ 13.14.1 The Syracusans, believing that the danger no longer was the losing of their city but that, far more, the contest had become one for the capture of the camp together with the enemy, blocked off the entrance to the harbour by the construction of a barrier.
§ 13.14.2 For they moored at anchor both small vessels and triremes as well as merchant-ships, with iron chains between them, and to the vessels they built bridges of boards, completing the undertaking in three days.
§ 13.14.3 The Athenians, seeing their hope of deliverance shut off in every direction, decided to man all their triremes and put on them their best land troops, and thus, by means both of the multitude of their ship and of the desperation of the men who would be fighting for their lives, eventually to strike terror into the Syracusans.
§ 13.14.4 Consequently they put on board the officers and the choicest troops from the whole army, manning in this way one hundred and fifteen triremes, and the other soldiers they stationed on land along the beach. The Syracusans drew up their infantry before the city, and fully manned seventy-four triremes; and the triremes were attended by free boys on small boats, who were in years below manhood and were fighting at the side of their fathers.
§ 13.14.5 And the walls about the harbour and every high place in the city were crowded with people; for wives and maidens and all who, because of age, could not render the service war demands, since the whole war was coming to its decision, were eyeing the battle with the greatest anguish of spirit.
§ 13.15.1 At this time Nicias, the general of the Athenians, as he surveyed the ships and measured the magnitude of the struggle, could not remain at his station on shore, but leaving the land troops he boarded a boat and passed along the line of the Athenian triremes. Calling each captain by name and stretching forth his hands, he implored them all, now if ever before, to grasp the only hope left to them, for on the valour of those who were about to join battle at sea depended the preservation both of themselves, every man of them, and of their fatherland.
§ 13.15.2 Those who were fathers of children he reminded of their sons; those who were sons of distinguished fathers he exhorted not to bring disgrace ought to the valorous deeds of their ancestors; those who had been honoured by their fellow citizens he urged to show themselves worthy of their crowns; and all of them he reminded of the trophies erected at Salamis and begged them not to bring to disrepute the far-famed glory of their fatherland nor surrender themselves like slaves to the Syracusans.
§ 13.15.3 After Nicias had spoken to this effect, he returned to his station, and the men of the fleet advanced singing the paean and broke through the barrier of boats before the enemy could prevent them. But the Syracusans, putting quickly out to sea, formed their triremes in battle order and coming to grips with the enemy forced them to withdraw from the barrier of boats and fight a pitched battle.
§ 13.15.4 And as the ships backed water, some toward the beach, others toward the middle of the harbour, and still others in the direction of the walls, all the triremes were quickly separated from each other, and after they had got clear of the boom across its entrance the harbour was full of ships fighting in small groups.
§ 13.15.5 Thereupon both sides fought with abandon for the victory. The Athenians, cheered by the multitude of their ships and seeing no other hope of safety, carried on the fight boldly and faced gallantly their death in battle, and the Syracusans, with their parents and children as spectators of the struggle, vied with one another, each man wishing the victory to come to his country through his own efforts.
§ 13.16.1 Consequently many leaped on the prows of the hostile ships, when their own had been damaged by another, and were isolated in the midst of their enemies. In some cases they dropped grappling-irons and forced their adversaries to fight a land-battle on their ships.
§ 13.16.2 Often men whose own ships had been shattered leaped on their opponents' vessels, and by slaying the defenders or pushing them into the sea became masters of their triremes. In a word, over the entire harbour came the crash of ship striking ship and the cry of desperately struggling men slaying and being slain.
§ 13.16.3 For when a ship had been intercepted by several triremes and struck by their beaks from every direction, the water would pour in and it would be swallowed together with the entire crew beneath the sea. Some who would be swimming away after their ship had been sunk would be wounded by arrows or slain by the blows of spears.
§ 13.16.4 The pilots, as they saw with the confusion of the battle, every spot full of uproar, and often a number of ships converging upon a single one, did not know what signal to give, since the same orders were not suitable to all situations, nor was it possible, because of the multitude of missiles, for the oarsmen to keep their eyes upon the men who gave them their orders.
§ 13.16.5 In short, not a man could hear any of the commands amid the shattering of boats and the sweeping off of oars, as well as amid the uproar of the men in combat on the ships and of their zealous comrades on land.
§ 13.16.6 For of the entire beach a part was held by the Athenian infantry and a part by the Syracusans, so that at times the men fighting the sea-battle had as helpers, when along the shore, the soldiers lined up on the land.
§ 13.16.7 The spectators on the walls, whenever they saw their own fighters winning, would sing songs of victory, but when they saw them being vanquished, they would groan and with tears offer prayers to the gods. For now and then it happened that some Syracusan triremes would be destroyed along the walls and their crews slain before the eyes of their kinsmen, and parents would witness the destruction of their children, sisters and wives the pitiable ends of husbands and brothers.
§ 13.17.1 For a long time, despite the many who were dying, the battle would not come to an end, since not even the men who were in desperate straits would dare flee to the land. For the Athenians would ask those who were breaking off the battle and turning to the land, "Do you think to sail to Athens by land?" and the Syracusan infantry would inquire of any who were bringing their ships towards them, "Why, when we wanted to go aboard at triremes, did you prevent us from engaging in the battle, if now you are betraying the fatherland?" "Was the reason you blocked the mouth of the harbour that, after preventing the enemy from getting out, you might yourselves flee to the beach?" "Since it is the lot of all men to die, what fairer death do you seek than dying for the fatherland, which you are disgracefully abandoning though you have it as a witness of your fighting!"
§ 13.17.2 When the soldiers on the land hurled such upbraidings at the sailors who drew near, those who were fleeing for refuge to the beach would turn back again, even though their ships were shattered and they themselves were weighed down by their wounds.
§ 13.17.3 But when the Athenians who were engaged near the city had been thrust back and began to flee, the Athenians next in line gave way from time to time and gradually the whole host took to flight.
§ 13.17.4 Thereupon the Syracusans with great shouting pursued the ships to the land; and those Athenians who had not been slain out at sea, now that they had come to shallow water, leaped from the ships and fled to the land troops.
§ 13.17.5 And the harbour was full of arms and wreckage of boats, since of the Attic ships sixty were lost and of the Syracusan eight were completely destroyed and sixteen badly damaged. The Syracusans drew up on the shore as many of their triremes as they could, and taking up the bodies of their citizens and allies who had died, honoured them with a public funeral.
§ 13.18.1 The Athenians thronged to the tents of their commanders and begged the generals to take thought, not for the ships, but for the safety of themselves. Demosthenes, accordingly, declared that, since the barrier of boats had been broken, they should straightway man the triremes, and he expressed the belief that, if they delivered an unexpected attack, they would easily succeed in their design.
§ 13.18.2 But Nicias advised that they leave the ships behind and withdraw through the interior to the cities which were their allies. This plan was agreed to by all, and they burned some of the ships and made preparations for the retreat.
§ 13.18.3 When it was evident that the Athenians were going to withdraw during the night, Hermocrates advised the Syracusans to lead forth their entire army in the night and seize all the roads beforehand.
§ 13.18.4 And when the generals would not agree to this, both because many of the soldiers were wounded and because all of them were worn-out in body from the fighting, he sent some of the horsemen to the camp of the Athenians to tell them that the Syracusans had already dispatched men to seize in advance the roads and the most important positions.
§ 13.18.5 It was already night when the horsemen carried out these orders, and the Athenians, believing that it was men from Leontini who out of goodwill had brought them the word, were not a little disturbed and postponed the departure. If they had not been deceived by this trick, they would have got safely away.
§ 13.18.6 The Syracusans at daybreak dispatched the soldiers who were to seize in advance the narrow passes in the roads. And the Athenian generals, dividing the soldiers into two bodies, put the pack-animals and the sick and injured in the centre and stationed those who were in condition to fight in the van and the rear, and then set out for Catane, Demosthenes commanding one group and Nicias the other.
§ 13.19.1 The Syracusans took in tow the fifty ships left behind and brought them to the city, and then, taking off the crew of their triremes and providing them with arms, they followed after the Athenians with their entire armament, harassing them and hindering their forward progress.
§ 13.19.2 For three days following close on their heels and encompassing them on all sides they prevented them from taking a direct road toward Catane, their ally; instead they compelled them to retrace their steps through the plain of Elorium, and surrounding them at the Ainarus River, slew eighteen thousand and took captive seven thousand, among whom were also the generals Demosthenes and Nicias. The remainder were seized as their plunder by the soldiers; for the Athenians, since their escape was blocked in every direction, were obliged to surrender their weapons and their persons to the enemy.
§ 13.19.3 After this had taken place, the Syracusans set up two trophies, nailing to each of them the arms of a general, and turned back to the city. (19)
§ 13.19.4 Now at that time the whole city of Syracuse offered sacrifice to the gods, and on the next day, after the Assembly had gathered, they considered what disposition they should make of the captives. A man named Diocles, who was a most notable leader of the populace, declared his opinion that the Athenian generals should be put to death under torture and the other prisoners should for the present all be thrown into the quarries; but that later the allies of the Athenians should be sold as booty and the Athenians should labour as prisoners under guard, receiving two cotyls of barley meal.
§ 13.19.5 When this motion had been read, Hermocrates took the floor and endeavoured to show that a fairer thing than victory is to bear the victory with moderation.
§ 13.19.6 But when the people shouted their disapproval and would not allow him to continue, a man named Nicolaus, who had lost two sons in the war, made his way, supported by his slaves because of his age, to the platform. When the people saw him, they stopped shouting, believing that he would denounce the prisoners. As soon, then, as there was silence, the old man began to speak.
§ 13.20.1 "Of the misfortunes of the war, men of Syracuse, I have shared in a part, and not the least; for being the father of two sons, I sent them into the struggle on behalf of the fatherland, and I received back, in place of them, a message which announced their death.
§ 13.20.2 Therefore, as I miss their companionship each day and call to mind once more that they are dead, I deem them happy, but pity my own lot, believing myself to be the most unfortunate of men.
§ 13.20.3 For they, having expended for the salvation of their fatherland the death which mankind owes to Nature, have left behind them deathless renown for themselves, whereas I, bereft at the end of my days of those who were to minister to my old age, bear a twofold sorrow, in that it is both the children of my own body and their valour that I miss.
§ 13.20.4 For the more gallant their death, the more poignant the memory of themselves they have left behind. I have good reason, then, for hating the Athenians, since it is because of them that I am being guided here, not by my own sons, but, as you can see, by slaves.
§ 13.20.5 Now if I perceived, men of Syracuse, that the matter under discussion was merely a decision affecting the Athenians, I with good reason, both because of the misfortunes of our country, shared by all, and because of my personal afflictions, should have dealt bitterly with them; but since, along with consideration of the pity which is shown to unfortunates, the question at issue concerns both the good of the State and the fame of the people of the Syracusans which will be spread abroad to all mankind, I shall direct my proposal solely to the question of expediency.
§ 13.21.1 "The people of the Athenians have received a punishment their own folly deserved, first of all from the hands of the gods and then from us whom they had wronged.
§ 13.21.2 Good it is indeed that the deity involves in unexpected disasters those who begin an unjust war and do not bear their own superiority as men should.
§ 13.21.3 For who could have expected that the Athenians, who had removed ten thousand talents from Delos to Athens and had dispatched to Sicily two hundred triremes and more than forty thousand men to fight, would ever suffer disasters of such magnitude? for from the preparations they made on such a scale not a ship, not a man has returned home, so that not even a survivor is left to carry to them word of the disaster.
§ 13.21.4 Knowing, therefore, men of Syracuse, that the arrogant are hated among gods and men, do you, humbling yourselves before Fortune, commit no act that is beyond man's powers. What nobility is there in slaying the man who lies at your feet? What glory is there in wreaking vengeance on him? He who maintains his savagery unalterable amid human misfortunes also fails to take proper account of the common weakness of mankind.
§ 13.21.5 For no man is so wise that his strength can prevail over Fortune, which of its nature finds delight in the sufferings of men and works swift changes in prosperity. "Some, perhaps, will say, 'They have committed a wrong, and we have the power to punish them.'
§ 13.21.6 But have you, then, not inflicted a many times greater punishment on the Athenian people, and are you not satisfied with your chastisement of the prisoners? For they have surrendered themselves together with their arms, trusting in the reasonableness of their conquerors; it is, therefore, not seemly that they should be cheated of our expected humaneness.
§ 13.21.7 For those who maintained unalterable their enmity toward us have died fighting, but these who delivered themselves into our hands have become suppliants, no longer enemies. For those who in battle deliver their persons into the hands of their opponents do so in the hope of saving their lives; and should the men who have shown this trust receive so severe a punishment, though the victims will accept their misfortune, yet the punishers would be called hard-hearted.
§ 13.21.8 But those who lay claim to leadership, men of Syracuse, should not strive to make themselves strong in arms so much as they should show themselves reasonable in their character.
§ 13.22.1 "The fact is that subject peoples bide their time against those who dominate them by fear and, because of their hatred, retaliate upon them, but they steadfastly cherish those who exercise their leadership humanely and thereby always aid them in strengthening their supremacy. What destroyed the kingdom of the Medes? Their brutality toward the weaker.
§ 13.22.2 For after the Persians revolted from them, their kingdom was attacked by most of the nations also. Else how did Cyrus rise from private citizen to the kingship over all of Asia? By his considerate treatment of the conquered. When, for example, he took King Croesus captive, far from doing him any injustice he actually became his benefactor;
§ 13.22.3 and in much the same way did he also deal with all the other kings as well as peoples. As a consequence, when the fame of his clemency had been spread abroad to every region, all the inhabitants of Asia vied with one another in entering into alliance with the king.
§ 13.22.4 "But why do I speak of things distant in both place and time? In this our city, not long since, Gelon rose from private citizen to be lord of the whole of Sicily, the cities willingly putting themselves under his authority; for the fairness of the man, combined with his sympathy for the unfortunate, drew all men to him.
§ 13.22.5 And since from those times our city has laid claim to the leadership in Sicily, let us not bring into disrepute the fair name our ancestors won nor show ourselves brutal and implacable toward human misfortune. Indeed it is not fitting to give envy an occasion to criticize us by saying that we make an unworthy use of our good fortune; for it is a fine thing with us when Fortune is adverse and rejoice in turn at our successes.
§ 13.22.6 The advantages which are won in arms are often determined by Fortune and opportunity, but clemency amid constant success is a distinctive mark of the virtue of men whose affairs prosper. Do not, therefore, begrudge our country the opportunity of being acclaimed by all mankind, because it has surpassed the Athenians not only in feats of arms but also in humanity.
§ 13.22.7 For it will be manifest that the people who vaunt their superiority to all others in civilization have received by our kindness all consideration, and they who were the first to raise an altar to Mercy will find that mercy in the city of the Syracusans.
§ 13.22.8 From this it will be clear to all that they suffered a just defeat and we enjoyed a deserved success, if it so be that, although they sought to wrong men who had treated with kindness even their foes, we, on the contrary, defeated men who ventured treacherously to attack a people which shows mercy even to its bitterest enemies. And so the Athenians would not only stand accused by all the world, but even they themselves would condemn themselves, that they had undertaken to wrong such men.
§ 13.23.1 "A fine thing it is, men of Syracuse, to take the lead in establishing a friendship and, by showing mercy to the unfortunate, to make up the quarrel. For goodwill toward our friend should be kept imperishable, but hatred toward our enemies perishable, since by this practice it will come about that one's allies increase in number and one's enemies decrease.
§ 13.23.2 But for us to maintain the quarrel forever and to pass it on to children's children is neither kindly nor safe; since it sometimes happens that those who appear to be more powerful turn out to be weaker by the decision of a moment than their former subjects.
§ 13.23.3 And a witness to this is the war which has just now ceased: The men who came here to lay siege to the city and, by means of their superior power, threw a wall about it have by a change in fortune become captives, as you can see. It is a fine thing, therefore, by showing ourselves lenient amid the misfortunes of other men, to have reserved for us the hope of mercy from all men, in case some ill befall us of such as come to mortal men. For many are the unexpected things life holds — civic strifes, robberies, wars, amid which one may not easily avoid the peril, being but human.
§ 13.23.4 Consequently, if we shall exclude the thought of mercy for the defeated, we shall be setting up, for all time to come, a harsh law against ourselves. For it is impossible that men who have shown no compassion for others should themselves ever carve humane treatment at the hands of another and that men who have outraged others should be treated indulgently, or that we, after murdering so many men contrary to the traditions of the Greeks, should in the reversals which attend life appeal to the usages common to all mankind.
§ 13.23.5 For what Greek has ever judged that those who have surrendered themselves and put their trust in the kindness of their conquerors are deserving of implacable punishment? or who has ever held mercy less potent than cruelty, precaution than rashness?
§ 13.24.1 "All men sturdily oppose the enemy which is lined up for battle but fall back when he has surrendered, wearing down the hardihood of the former and showing pity for the misfortune of the latter. For our ardour is broken whenever the former enemy, having by a change of fortune become a suppliant, submits to suffer whatever suits the pleasure of his conquerors.
§ 13.24.2 And the spirits of civilized men are gripped, I believe, most perhaps by mercy, because of the sympathy which nature has planted in all. The Athenians, for example, although in the Peloponnesian War they had blockaded many Lacedemonians on the island of Sphacteria and taken them captive, released treatment to the Spartans on payment of ransom.
§ 13.24.3 On another occasion the Lacedemonians, when they had taken prisoner many of the Athenians and their allies, disposed of them in the same manner. And in so doing they both acted nobly.
§ 13.24.4 For hatred should exist between the Greeks only until victory has been won and punishment only until the enemy has been overcome. And whoever goes farther and wreaks vengeance upon the vanquished who flees for refuge to the leniency of his conqueror is no longer punishing his enemy but, far more, is guilty of an offence against human weakness.
§ 13.24.5 For against harshness such as this one may mention the adages of the wise men of old: 'O man, be not high-spirited'; 'Know thyself'; 'Observe how Fortune is lord of all.' For what reason did the ancestors of all the Greeks ordain that the trophies set up in celebrating victories in war should be made, not of stone, but of any wood at hand?
§ 13.24.6 Was it not in order that the memorials of the enmity, lasting as they would for a brief time, should quickly disappear? Speaking generally, if you wish to establish the quarrel for all time, know that in doing so you are treating with disdain human weakness; for a single moment, a slight turn of Fortune, often brings low the arrogant.
§ 13.25.1 "If, as is likely, you will make an end of the war, what better time will you find than the present, in which you will make your humane treatment of the prostrate the occasion for friendship? For do not assume that the Athenian people have become completely exhausted by their disaster in Sicily, seeing that they hold sway over practically all the islands of Greece and retain the supremacy over the coasts of both Europe and Asia.
§ 13.25.2 Indeed once before, after losing three hundred triremes together with their crews in Egypt, they compelled the King, who seemed to hold the upper hand, to accept ignominious terms of peace, and again, when their city had been razed to the ground by Xerxes, after a short time they defeated him also and won for themselves the leadership of Greece.
§ 13.25.3 For that city has a clever way, in the midst of the greatest misfortunes, of making the greatest growth in power and of never adopting a policy that is mean-spirited. It would be a fine thing, therefore, instead of increasing their enmity, to have the Athenians as allies after sparing the prisoners.
§ 13.25.4 For if we put them to death we shall merely be indulging our anger, sating a fruitless passion, whereas if we put them under guard, we shall have the gratitude of the men we succoured and the approbation of all other peoples.
§ 13.26.1 "Yes, some will answer, but there are Greeks who have executed their prisoners. What of it? If praise accrues to them from that deed, let us nevertheless imitate those who have paid heed to their reputation; but if we are the first by whom they are accused, let us not ourselves commit the same crimes as those who by their own admission have sinned.
§ 13.26.2 So long as the men who entrusted their lives to our good faith have suffered no irremediable punishment, all men will justly censure the Athenian people; but if they hear that, contrary to the generally accepted customs of mankind, faith has been broken with the captives, they will shift their accusation against us. For in truth, if it can be said of any other people, the prestige of the city of the Athenians deserves our reverence, and we may well return to them our gratitude for the benefactions they have bestowed upon man.
§ 13.26.3 For it is they who first gave to the Greeks a share in a food gained by cultivation of the soil, which, though they had received it from the gods for their exclusive use, they made available to all. They it was who discovered laws, by the application of which the manner of men's living has advanced from the savage and unjust existence to a civilized and just society. It was they who first, by sparing the lives of any who sought refuge with them, contrived to cause the laws on suppliants to prevail among all men, and since they were the authors of these laws, we should not deprive them of their protection. So much to all of you; but some among you I shall remind of the claims of human kindness.
§ 13.27.1 "All you who in that city have participated in its eloquence and learning, show mercy to men who offer their country as a school for the common use of mankind; and do all you, who have taken part in the most holy Mysteries, save the lives of those who initiated you, some by way of showing gratitude for kindly services already received and others, who look forward to partaking of them, not in anger depriving yourselves of that hope.
§ 13.27.2 For what place is there to which foreigners may resort for a liberal eunuch once the city of the Athenians has been destroyed? Brief is the hatred aroused by the wrong they have committed, but important and many are their accomplishments which claim goodwill. "But apart from consideration for the city, one might, in examining the prisoners individually, find those who would justly receive mercy. For the allies of Athens, being under constraint because of the superior power of their rulers, were compelled to join the expedition.
§ 13.27.3 It follows, then, that if it is just to take vengeance upon those who have done wrong from design, it would be fitting to treat as worthy of leniency those who sin against their will. What shall I say of Nicias, who from the first, after initiating his policy in the interest of the Syracusans, was the only man to oppose the expedition against Sicily, and who has continually looked after the interests of Syracusans resident in Athens and served as their proxenus?
§ 13.27.4 It would be extraordinary indeed that Nicias, who had sponsored our cause as a politician in Athens, should be punished, and that he should not be accorded humane treatment because of the goodwill he has shown toward us but because of his service in business of his country should meet with implacable punishment, and that Alcibiades, the man who brought on the war against the Syracusans, should escape his deserved punishment both from us and from the Athenians, whereas he who has proved himself by common consent the most humane among Athenians should not even meet with the mercy accorded to all men.
§ 13.27.5 Therefore for my part, when I consider the change in his circumstances, I pity his lot. For formerly, as one of the most distinguished of all Greeks and applauded for his knightly character, he was one to be deemed happy and was admired in every city;
§ 13.27.6 but now, with hands bound behind his back in a tunic squalid in appearance, he has experienced the piteous state of captivity, as if Fortune wished to give, in the life of this man, an example of her power. The prosperity which Fortune gives it behooves us to bear as human beings should and not show barbarous savagery toward men of our own race."
§ 13.28.1 Such were the arguments used by Nicolaus in addressing the people of Syracuse and before he ceased he had won the sympathy of his hearers. But the Laconian Gylippus, who still maintained implacable his hatred of Athenians, mounting the rostrum began his argument with that topic.
§ 13.28.2 "I am greatly surprised, men of Syracuse, to see that you so quickly, on a matter in which you have suffered grievously by deeds, are moved to change your minds by words. For if you who, in order to save your city from desolation, faced peril against men who came to destroy your country, have become relaxed in temper, why, then, should we who have suffered no wrong exert ourselves?
§ 13.28.3 Do you in heaven's name, men of Syracuse, grant me pardon as I set forth my counsel with all frankness; for, being a Spartan, I have also a Spartan's manner of speech. And first of all one might inquire how Nicolaus can say, 'Show mercy to the Athenians,' who have rendered his old age piteous because childless, and how, coming before the Assembly in mourner's dress, he can weep and say that you should show pity to the murderers of his own children.
§ 13.28.4 For that man is no longer equitable who ceases to think of his nearest of kin after their death but elects to save the lives of his bitterest foes. Why how many of you who are assembled here have mourned sons who have been slain in the war?" (Many of the audience at least raised a great outcry.)
§ 13.28.5 And Gylippus interrupting it said, "Do you see, Nicolaus, those who by their outcry proclaim their misfortune? And how many of you look in vain for brothers or relatives or friends whom you have lost?" (A far greater number shouted agreement.)
§ 13.28.6 Gylippus then continued: "Do you observe, Nicolaus, the multitude of those who have suffered because of Athenians? All these, though guilty of no wrong done to Athenians, have been robbed of their nearest kinsmen, and they are bound to hate the Athenians in as great a measure as they have loved their own.
§ 13.29.1 "Will it not be strange, men of Syracuse, if those who have perished chose death on your behalf of their own accord, but that you on their behalf shall not exact punishment from even your bitterest enemies? and that, though you praise those who gave their very lives to preserve their country's freedom, you shall make it a matter of greater moment to preserve the lives of the murderers than to safeguard the honour of these men?
§ 13.29.2 You have voted to embellish at public expense the tombs of the departed; yet what fairer embellishment will you find than the punishing of their slayers? Unless, by Zeus, it would be by enrolling them among your citizens, you should wish to leave living trophies of the departed.
§ 13.29.3 But, it may be said, they have renounced the name of enemies and have become suppliants. On what grounds, pray, would this humane treatment have been accorded them? For those who first established our ordinances regarding these matters prescribed mercy for the unfortunates, but punishment for those who from sheer depravity practise iniquity.
§ 13.29.4 In which category, now, are we to place the prisoners? In that of unfortunates? Why, what Fortune compelled them, who had suffered no wrong, to make war on Syracuse, to abandon peace, which all men praise, and to come here with the purpose of destroying your city?
§ 13.29.5 Consequently let those who of their free will chose an unjust war bear its hard consequences with courage, and let not those who, if they had conquered, would have kept implacable their cruelty toward you, now that they have been thwarted in their purpose, beg off from punishment by appealing to the human kindness which is due to the prayer of a suppliant.
§ 13.29.6 And if they stand convicted of having suffered their serious defeats because of wickedness and greed, let them not blame Fortune for them nor summon to their aid the name of 'supplication'. For that term is reserved among men for those who are pure in heart but have found Fortune unkind.
§ 13.29.7 These men, however, whose lives have been crammed with every malefaction, have left for themselves no place in the world which will admit them to mercy and refuge.
§ 13.30.1 "For what utterly shameful deed have they not planned, what deed most shocking have they not perpetrated? It is a distinctive mark of greed that a man, not being content with his own gifts of Fortune, covets those which are distant and belong to someone else; and this these men have done. For though the Athenians were the most prosperous of all the Greeks, dissatisfied with their felicity as if were a heavy burden, they longed to portion out to colonists Sicily, separated as it was from them by so great and expanse of sea, for they had sold the inhabitants into slavery.
§ 13.30.2 It is a terrible thing to begin a war, when one has not first been wronged; yet that is what they did. For though they were your friends until then, on a sudden, without warning, with an armament of such strength they laid siege to Syracusans.
§ 13.30.3 It is characteristic of arrogant men, anticipating the decision of Fortune, to decree the punishment of peoples not yet conquered; and this also they have left undone. For before the Athenians ever set foot in Sicily they approved a resolution to sell into slavery the citizens of Syracuse and Selinus and to compel the remaining Sicilians to pay tribute. When there is to be found in the same men greediness, treachery, arrogance, what person in his right mind would show them mercy?
§ 13.30.4 How then, mark you, did the Athenians treat the Mitylenaeans? Why after conquering them, although the Mitylenaeans had no intention of doing them any wrong but only desired their freedom, they voted to put to the sword all the inhabitants of the city. A cruel and barbarous deed.
§ 13.30.5 And that crime too they committed Greeks, against allies, against men who had often been their benefactors. Let them not now complain if, after having done such things to the rest of mankind, they themselves shall receive like punishment; for it is altogether just that a man should accept his lot without complaint when he is himself affected by the law he has laid down for others.
§ 13.30.6 What shall I say also of the Melians, whom they reduced by siege and slew from the youth upward? and of the Scionaeans, who, although their kinsmen, shared the same fate as the Melians?
§ 13.30.7 Consequently two peoples who had fallen foul of Attic fury had left not even any of their number to perform the rites over the bodies of their dead. It is not Scythians who committed such deeds, but the people who claim to excel in love of mankind have by their decrees utterly destroyed these cities. Consider now what they would have done if they had sacked the city of the Syracusans; for men who dealt with their kinsmen with such savagery would have devised a harsher punishment for a people with whom they had no ties of blood.
§ 13.31.1 "There is, therefore, no just measure of mercy in store for them to call upon, since as for the use of it on the occasion of their own mishaps they themselves have destroyed it. Where is it worth their while to flee for safety? To gods, whom they have chosen to rob of their traditional honours? To men, whom they have visited only to enslave? Do they call upon Demeter and Core and their Mysteries now that they have laid waste the sacred island of these goddesses?
§ 13.31.2 Yes, some will say, but not the whole people of the Athenians are to blame, but only Alcibiades who advised this expedition. We shall find, however, that in most cases their advisers pay every attention to the wishes of their audience, so that the voter suggests to the speaker words that suit his own purpose. For the speaker is not the master of the multitude, but the people, by adopting measures that are honest, train the orator to propose what is best.
§ 13.31.3 If we shall pardon men guilty of irrevocable injustices when they lay the responsibility upon their advisers, we shall indeed be providing wicked with an easy defence! It is clear that nothing in the world could be more unjust than that, while in the case of benefactions it is not the advisers but the people who receive the thanks of the recipients, in the matter of injustices the punishment is passed on to the speakers.
§ 13.31.4 "Yet some have lost their reasoning powers to such a degree as to assert that it is Alcibiades, over whom we have no power, who should be punished, but that we should release the prisoners, who are being led to their deserved punishment, and thus make it known to the world that the people of the Syracusans have no righteous indignation against base men.
§ 13.31.5 But if the advocates of the war have in truth been the cause of it, let the people blame the speakers for the consequences of their deception, but you will with justice punish the people for the wrongs which you have suffered. And, speaking generally, if they committed the wrongs with full knowledge that they were so doing, because of their very intention they deserve punishment, but if they entered the war without a considered plan, even so they should not be let off, in order that they may not grow accustomed to act offhand in matters which affect the lives of other men. For it is not just that the ignorance of the Athenians should bring destruction to Syracusans or that in a case where the crime is irremediable, the criminals should retain a vehicle of defence.
§ 13.32.1 "Yet, by Zeus, someone will say, Nicias took the part of the Syracusans in the debate and was the only one who advised against making war. As for what he said there we know it by hearsay, but what has been done here we have witnessed with our own eyes.
§ 13.32.2 For the man who there opposed the expedition was here commander of the armament; he who takes the part of Syracusans in debate walled off your city; and he who is humanely disposed toward you, when Demosthenes and all the others wished to break off the siege, alone compelled them to remain and continue the war. Therefore for my part I do not believe that his words should have greater weight with you than his deeds, report than experience, things unseen than things that have been witnessed by all.
§ 13.32.3 "Yet, by Zeus, someone will say, it is a good thing not to make our enmity eternal. Very well, then, after the punishment of the malefactors you will, if you so agree, put an end to your enmity in a suitable manner. For it is not just that men who treat their captives like slaves when they are the victors, should, when they in turn are the vanquished, be objects of pity as if they had done no wrong. And though they will have been freed of paying the penalty for their deeds, by specious pleas they will remember the friendship only so long as it is to their advantage.
§ 13.32.4 For I omit to mention the fact that, if you take this course, you will be wronging not only many others but also the Lacedemonians, who for your sake both entered upon the war over there and also sent you aid here; for they might have been well content to maintain peace and look on while Sicily was being laid waste.
§ 13.32.5 Consequently, if you free the prisoners and thus enter into friendly relations with Athens, you will be looked upon as traitors to your allies and, when it is in your water to weaken the common enemy, by releasing so great a number of soldiers you will make our enemy again formidable. For I could never bring myself to believe that Athenians, after getting themselves involved in so bitter an enmity, will keep the friendly relation unbroken; on the contrary, while they are weak they will feign goodwill, but when they have recovered their strength, they will carry their original purpose to completion.
§ 13.32.6 I therefore adjure you all, in the name of Zeus and all the gods, not to save the lives of your enemies, not to leave your allies in the lurch, not again for a second time to bring peril upon your country. You yourselves, men of Syracuse, if you let these men go and then some ill befalls you, will leave for yourselves not even a respectable defence."
§ 13.33.1 After the Laconian had spoken to this effect, the multitude suddenly changed its mind and approved the proposal of Diocles. Consequently the general and the allies were forthwith put to death, and the Athenians were consigned to the quarries; and at a later time such of them as possessed a better education were rescued from there by the younger men and thus got away safe, but practically all the rest ended their lives pitiably amid the hardships of this place of confinement.
§ 13.33.2 After the termination of the war Diocles set up the laws for the Syracusans, and it came to pass that this man experienced a strange reversal of fortune. For having become implacable in fixing penalties and severe in punishing offenders, he wrote in the laws that, if any man should appear in the market-place carrying a weapon, the punishment should be death, and he made no allowance for either ignorance or any other circumstance.
§ 13.33.3 And when word had been received that enemies were in the land, he set forth carrying a sword; but since sudden civil strife had arisen and there was uproar in the market-place, he thoughtlessly entered the market-place with the sword. And when one of the ordinary citizens, noticing this, said that he himself was annulling his own laws, he cried out, "Not so, by Zeus, I will even uphold them." And drawing the sword he slew himself. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 13.34.1 When Callias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Publius Cornelius . . . Gaius Fabius, and among the Eleians the Ninety-second Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Exaenetus of Acragas won the "stadion." In this year it came to pass that, after the Athenians had collapsed in Sicily, their supremacy was held in contempt;
§ 13.34.2 for immediately the peoples of Chios, Samos, Byzantium, and many of the allies revolted to the Lacedemonians. Consequently the Athenian people, being disheartened, of their own accord renounced the democracy, and choosing four hundred men they turned over to them the administration of the state. And the leaders of the Italy, after building a number of triremes, sent out forty of them together with generals.
§ 13.34.3 Although these were at odds with one another, they sailed off to Oropus, for the enemy's triremes lay at anchor there. In the battle which followed the Lacedemonians were victorious and captured twenty-two vessels.
§ 13.34.4 After the Syracusans had brought to an end the war with the Athenians, they honoured with the booty taken in the war the Lacedemonians who had fought with them under the command of Gylippus, and they sent back with them to Lacedemon, to aid them in the war against the Athenians, an allied force of thirty-five triremes under the command of Hermocrates, their foremost citizen.
§ 13.34.5 And as for themselves, after gathering the spoil that accrued from the war, they embellished their temples with dedications and with arms taken from the enemy and honoured with the appropriate gifts those soldiers who had fought with distinction.
§ 13.34.6 After this Diocles, who was the most influential among them of the leaders of the populace, persuaded the citizens to change their form of government so that the administration would be conducted by magistrates chosen by lot and that lawgivers also should be elected for organizing the polity and drafting new laws privately.
§ 13.35.1 Consequently the Syracusans elected lawgivers from such of their citizens as excelled in judgement, the most distinguished of them being Diocles. For he so far excelled the rest in understanding and renown that, although the writing of the code was a task of all in common, they were called "The Laws of Diocles."
§ 13.35.2 And not only did the Syracusans admire this man during his lifetime, but also, when he died, they rendered him the honours accorded to heroes and built a temple in his honour at public expense — the one which was torn down by Dionysius at a later time when the walls of the city were being constructed.
§ 13.35.3 And this man was held in high esteem among the other Sicilian Greeks as well; indeed many cities of the island continued to use his laws down to the time when the Sicilian Greeks as a body were granted Roman citizenship. Accordingly, when in later times laws were framed for the Syracusans by Cephalus in the time of Timoleon and by Polydorus in the time of King Hiero, they called neither one of these men a "lawgiver," but rather an "interpreter of the lawgiver," since men found the laws of Diocles, written as they were in an ancient style, difficult to understand.
§ 13.35.4 Profound reflection is displayed in his legislation, the lawmaker showing himself to be a hater of evil, since he sets heavier penalties against all wrongdoers than any other legislator, just, in that most precisely than by any predecessor the punishment of each man is fixed according to his deserts, and both practical and widely experienced, in that he judges every complaint and every dispute, whether it concerns the state or the individual, to be deserving of a fixed penalty. He is also concise in his style and leaves much for the readers to reflect upon.
§ 13.35.5 And the dramatic manner of his death bore witness to the uprightness and austerity of his soul. Now these qualities of Diocles I have been moved to set forth in considerable detail by reason of the fact that most historians have rather slighted him in their treatises.
§ 13.36.1 When the Athenians learned of the total destruction of their forces in Sicily, they were deeply distressed at the magnitude of the disaster. Yet they would not at all on that account abate their ardent aspiration for the supremacy, but set about both constructing more ships and providing themselves with funds wherewith they might contend to the last hope for the primacy.
§ 13.36.2 Choosing four hundred men they put in their hands the supreme authority to direct the conduct of the war; for they assumed that an oligarchy was more suitable than a democracy in critical circumstances like these.
§ 13.36.3 The events, however, did not turn out according to the judgement of those who held that opinion, but the Four Hundred conducted the war far less competently. For, although they dispatched forty ships, they sent along to command them two generals who were at odds with each other. Although, with the affairs of the Athenians at such low ebb, the emergency called for complete concord, the generals kept quarrelling with each other.
§ 13.36.4 And finally they sailed to Oropus without preparation and met the Peloponnesians in a sea-battle; but since they made a wretched beginning of the battle and stood up to the fighting like churls, they lost twenty-two ships and barely got the rest safe over to eretria.
§ 13.36.5 After these events had taken place, the allies of the Athenians, because of the defeats they had suffered in Sicily as well as the estranged relations of the commanders, revolted to the Lacedemonians. And since Darius, the king of the Persians, was an ally of the Lacedemonians, Pharnabazus, who had the military command of the regions bordering on the sea, supplied money to the Lacedemonians; and he also summoned the three hundred triremes supplied by Phoenicia, having in mind to dispatch them to the aid of the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.37.1 Inasmuch as the Athenians had experienced setbacks so serious at one and the same time, everyone had assumed that the war was at an end; for no one expected that the Athenians could possibly endure such reverses any longer, even for a moment. However, events did not come to an end that tallied with the assumption of the majority, but on the contrary it came to pass, such was the superiority of the combatants, that the whole situation changed for the following reasons.
§ 13.37.2 Alcibiades, who was in exile from Athens, had for a time fought on the side of the Lacedemonians and had rendered them great assistance in the war; for he was a most able orator and far the outstanding citizen in daring, and, besides, he was in high birth and wealth first among the Athenians.
§ 13.37.3 Now since Alcibiades was eager to be allowed to return to his native city, he contrived every device whereby he could do the Athenians some good turn, and in particular at the crucial moments when the Athenians seemed doomed to utter defeat.
§ 13.37.4 Accordingly, since he was on friendly terms with Pharnabazus, the satrap of Darius, and saw that he was on the point of sending three hundred ships to the support of the Lacedemonians, he persuaded him to give up the undertaking; for he showed him that it would not be to the advantage of the King to make the Lacedemonians too powerful. That would not, he said, help the Persians, and so a better policy would be to maintain a neutral attitude toward the combatants so long as they were equally matched, in order that they might continue their quarrel as long as possible.
§ 13.37.5 Thereupon Pharnabazus, believing that Alcibiades was giving him good advice, sent the fleet back to Phoenicia. Now on that occasion Alcibiades deprived the Lacedemonians of so great an allied force; and some time later, when he had been allowed to return to Athens and been given command of a military force, he defeated the Lacedemonians in many battles and completely restored again the sunken fortunes of the Athenians.
§ 13.37.6 But we shall discuss these matters in more detail in connection with the appropriate period of time, in order that our account may not by anticipation violate the natural order of events.
§ 13.38.1 After the close of the year Theopompus was archon in Athens and the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Tiberius Postumius, Gaius Cornelius, Gaius Valerius, and Caeso Fabius. At this time the Athenians dissolved the oligarchy of the Four hundred and formed the constitution of the government from the citizens at large.
§ 13.38.2 The author of all these changes was Theramenes, a man who was orderly in his manner of life and was reputed to surpass all others in judgement; for he was the only person to advise the recall from exile of Alcibiades, through whom the Athenians recovered themselves, and since he was the author of many other measures for the benefit of his country, he was the recipient of no small approbation.
§ 13.38.3 But these events took place at a little later time, and for the war the Athenians appointed Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus generals, who collected the fleet at Samos and trained the soldiers for battle at sea, giving them daily exercises.
§ 13.38.4 But Mindarus, the Lacedemonian admiral, was inactive for some time at Miletus, expecting the aid promised by Pharnabazus; and when he heard that three hundred triremes had arrived from Phoenicia, he was buoyed up in his hopes, believing that with so great a fleet he could destroy the empire of the Athenians.
§ 13.38.5 But when a little later he learned from sundry persons that Pharnabazus had been won over by Alcibiades and had sent the fleet back to Phoenicia, he gave up the hopes he had placed in Pharnabazus and by himself, after equipping both the ships bought from the Peloponnesus and those supplied by his allies from abroad, he dispatched Dorieus with thirteen ships to Rhodes, since he had learned that certain Rhodians were banding together for a revolution. —
§ 13.38.6 The ships we have mentioned had recently been sent to the Lacedemonians as an allied force by certain Greeks of Italy. — And Mindarus himself took all the other ships, numbering eighty-three, and set out for the Hellespont, since he had learned that the Athenian fleet was tarrying at Samos.
§ 13.38.7 The moment the generals of the Athenians saw them sailing by, they put out to sea against them with sixty ships. But when the Lacedemonians put in at Chios, the Athenian generals decided to sail on to Lesbos and there to gather triremes from their allies, in order that it should not turn out that the enemy surpassed them in number of ships.
§ 13.39.1 Now the Athenians were engaged in gathering ships. But Mindarus, the Lacedemonian admiral, setting out by night with his entire fleet, made in haste for the Hellespont and arrived on the second day at Sigeium. When the Athenians learned that the fleet had sailed by them, they did not wait for all the triremes of their allies, but after only three had been added to their number they set out in pursuit of the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.39.2 When they arrived at Sigeium, they found the fleet already departed, but three ships left behind they at once captured; after this they put in at Eleus and made preparations for the sea-battle.
§ 13.39.3 The Lacedemonians, seeing the enemy rehearsing for the battle, did likewise, spending five days in proving their ships and exercising their rowers; then they drew up the fleet for the battle, its strength being eighty-eight ships. Now the Lacedemonians stationed their ships on the Asian side of the channel, while the Athenians lined up against them on the European side, being fewer in number but of superior training.
§ 13.39.4 The Lacedemonians put on their right wing the Syracusans, whose leader was Hermocrates, and the Peloponnesians themselves formed the whole left wing with Mindarus in command. For the Athenians Thrasyllus was stationed on the right wing and Thrasybulus on the left. At the outset both sides strove stubbornly for position in order that they might not have the current against them.
§ 13.39.5 Consequently they kept sailing around each other for a long time, endeavouring to block off the straits and struggling for an advantageous position; for the battle took place between Abydus and Sestus and it so happened that the current was of no little hindrance where the strait was narrow. However, the pilots of the Athenian fleet, being far superior in experience, contributed greatly to the victory.
§ 13.40.1 For although the Peloponnesians had the advantage in the number of their ships and the valour of their marines, the skill of the Athenian pilots rendered the superiority of their opponents of no effect. For whenever the Peloponnesians, with their ships in a body, would charge swiftly forward to ram, the pilots would manoeuvre their own ships so skilfully that their opponents were unable to strike them at any other spot but could only meet them bows on, ram against ram.
§ 13.40.2 Consequently Mindarus, seeing that the force of the rams was proving ineffective, gave orders for his ships to come to grips in small groups, or one at a time. But not by this manoeuvre either, as it turned out, was the skill of the Athenian pilots rendered ineffective; on the contrary, cleverly avoiding the on-coming rams of the ships, they struck them on the side and damaged many.
§ 13.40.3 And such a spirit of rivalry pervaded both forces that they would not confine the struggle to ramming tactics, but tangling ship with ship fought it out with the marines. Although they were hindered by the strength of the current from achieving great success, they continued the struggle for a considerable time, neither side being able to gain the victory.
§ 13.40.4 While the fighting was thus equally balanced, there appeared beyond a cape twenty-five ships which had been dispatched to the Athenians from their allies. The Peloponnesians thereupon in alarm turned in flight toward Abydus, the Athenians clinging to them and pursuing them the more vigorously.
§ 13.40.5 Such was the end of the battle; and the Athenians captured eight ships of the Chians, five of the Corinthians, two of the Ambraciotes, and one each of the Syracusans, Pellenians, and Leucadians, while they themselves lost five ships, all of them, as it happened, having been sunk.
§ 13.40.6 After this Thrasybulus set up a trophy on the cape where stands the memorial of Hecabe and sent messengers to Athens to carry word of the victory, and himself made his way to Cyzicus with the entire fleet. For before the sea-battle this city had revolted to Pharnabazus, the general of Darius, and to Clearchus, the Lacedemonian commander. Finding the city unfortified the Athenians easily achieved their end, and after exacting money of the Cyziceni they sailed off to Sestus.
§ 13.41.1 Mindarus, the Lacedemonian admiral, after his flight to Abydus from the scene of his defeat repaired his ships that had been damaged and also sent the Spartan Epicles to the triremes at Euboea with orders to bring them with all speed.
§ 13.41.2 When Epicles arrived at Euboea, he gathered all the ships, which amounted to fifty, and hurriedly put out to sea; but when the triremes were off Mt. Athos there arose a storm of such fury that all the ships were lost and of their crews twelve men alone survived.
§ 13.41.3 These facts are set forth by a dedication, as Ephorus states, which stands in the temple at Coroneia and bears the following inscription: These from the crews of fifty ships, escaping destruction, Brought their bodies to land hard by Athos' sharp crags; Only twelve, all the rest the yawning depth of the waters Took to their death with their ships, meeting with terrible winds.
§ 13.41.4 At about the same time Alcibiades with thirteen triremes came by sea to the Athenians who were lying at Samos and had already heard that he had persuaded Pharnabazus not to come, as he had intended, with his three hundred ships to reinforce the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.41.5 And since the troops at Samos gave him a friendly welcome, he discussed with them the matter of his return from exile, offering promises to render many services to the fatherland; and in like manner he defended his own conduct and shed many tears over his own fortune, because he had been compelled by his enemies to give proof of his own valour at the expense of his native land.
§ 13.42.1 And since the soldiers heartily welcomed the offers of Alcibiades and sent messages to Athens regarding them, the people voted to dismiss the charges against Alcibiades and to give him a share in the command; for as they observed the efficiency of his daring and the fame he enjoyed among the Greeks, they assumed, and with good reason, that his adherence to them would add no little weight to their cause.
§ 13.42.2 Moreover, Theramenes, who at the time enjoyed the leadership in the government and who, if anyone, had a reputation of sagacity, advised the people to recall Alcibiades. When word of this action was reported to Samos, Alcibiades added nine ships to the thirteen he already had, and sailing with them to Halicarnassus he exacted money from that city.
§ 13.42.3 After this he sacked Meropis and returned to Samos with much plunder. And since a great amount of booty had been amassed, he divided the spoils among the soldiers at Samos and his own troops, thereby soon causing the recipients of his benefactions to be well disposed toward himself.
§ 13.42.4 About the same time the Antandrians, who were held by a garrison, sent to the Lacedemonians for soldiers, with whose aid they expelled the garrison and thus made their country a free place to live in; for the Lacedemonians, finding fault with Pharnabazus for the sending of the three hundred ships back to Phoenicia, gave their aid to the inhabitants of Antandrus.
§ 13.42.5 Of the historians, Thucydides ended his history, having included a period of twenty-two years in eight Books, although some divide it into nine; and Xenophon and Theopompus have begun at the point where Thucydides left off. Xenophon embraced a period of forty-eight years, and Theopompus set forth the facts of Greek history for seventeen years and bring his account to an end with the sea-battle of Cnidus in twelve Books.
§ 13.42.6 Such was the state of affairs in Greece and Asia. The Romans were waging war with the Aequi and invaded their territory with a strong army; and investing the city named Bolae they took it by siege.
§ 13.43.1 When the events of this year had come to an end, in Athens Glaucippus was archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Marcus Cornelius and Lucius Furius. At this time in Sicily the Aegestaeans, who had allied themselves with the Athenians against the Syracusans, had fallen into great fear at the conclusion of the war; for they expected, and with good reason, to pay the penalty to the Sicilian Greeks for the wrongs they had inflicted upon them.
§ 13.43.2 And when the Selinuntians went to war with them over the land in dispute, they withdrew from it of their free will, being concerned lest the Syracusans should use this excuse to join the Selinuntians in the war and they should thereby run the risk of utterly destroying their country.
§ 13.43.3 But when the Selinuntians proposed, quite apart from the territory in dispute, to carve off for themselves a large portion of the neighbouring territory, the inhabitants of Aegesta thereupon dispatched ambassadors to Carthage, asking for aid and putting their city in the hands of the Carthaginians.
§ 13.43.4 When the envoys arrived and laid before the Senate the instructions the people had given them, the Carthaginians found themselves in no little quandary; for while they were eager to acquire a city so strategically situated, at the same time they stood in fear of the Syracusans, having just witnessed their defeat of the armaments of the Athenians.
§ 13.43.5 But when Hannibal, their foremost citizen, also advised them to acquire the city, they replied to the ambassadors that they would come to their aid, and to supervise the undertaking, in case it should lead to war, they selected as general Hannibal, who at the time lawfully exercised sovereign powers. He was the grandson of Hamilcar, who fought in the war against Gelon and died at Himera, and the son of Gescon, who had been exiled because of his father's defeat and had ended his life in Selinus.
§ 13.43.6 Now Hannibal, who by nature was a hater of the Greeks and at the same time desired to wipe out the disgraces which had befallen his ancestors, was eager by his own efforts to achieve some advantage for his country. Hence, seeing that the Selinuntians were not satisfied with the cession of the territory in dispute, he dispatched ambassadors together with the Aegestaeans to the Syracusans, referring to them the decision of the dispute; and though ostensibly he pretended to be seeking that justice be done, in fact he believed that, after the Selinuntians refused to agree to arbitration, the Syracusans would not join them as allies.
§ 13.43.7 Since the Selinuntians also dispatched ambassadors, refusing the arbitration and answering at length the ambassadors of the Carthaginians and Aegestaeans, in the end the Syracusans decided to vote to maintain their alliance with the Selinuntians and their state of peace with the Carthaginians.
§ 13.44.1 After the return of their ambassadors the Carthaginians dispatched to the Aegestaeans five thousand Libyans and eight hundred Campanians.
§ 13.44.2 These troops had been hired by the Chalcidians to aid the Athenians in the war against the Syracusans, and on their return after its disastrous conclusion they found no one to hire their services; but the Carthaginians purchased horses for them all, gave them high pay, and sent them to Aegesta.
§ 13.44.3 The Selinuntians, who were prosperous in those days and whose city was heavily populated, held the Aegestaeans in contempt. And at first, deploying in battle order, they laid waste the land which touched their border, since their armies were far superior, but after this, despising their foes, they scattered everywhere over the countryside.
§ 13.44.4 The generals of the Aegestaeans, watching their opportunity, attacked them with the aid of the Carthaginians and Campanians. Since the attack was not expected, they easily put the Selinuntians to flight, killing about a thousand of the soldiers and capturing all their loot. And after the battle both sides straightway dispatched ambassadors, the Selinuntians to the Syracusans and the Aegestaeans to the Carthaginians, asking for help.
§ 13.44.5 Both parties promised their assistance and the Carthaginian War thus had its beginning. The Carthaginians, foreseeing the magnitude of the war, entrusted the responsibility for the size of their armament to Hannibal as their general and enthusiastically rendered him every assistance.
§ 13.44.6 And Hannibal during the summer and the following winter enlisted many mercenaries from Iberia and also enrolled not a few from among the citizens; he also visited Libya, choosing the stoutest men from every city, and he made ready ships, planning to convey the armies across with the opening of spring. Such, then, was the state of affairs in Sicily.
§ 13.45.1 In Greece Dorieus the Rhodian, the admiral of the triremes from Italy, after he had quelled the tumult in Rhodes, set sail for the Hellespont, being eager to join Mindarus; for the latter was lying at Abydus, and collecting from every quarter the ships of the Peloponnesian alliance.
§ 13.45.2 And when Dorieus was already in the neighbourhood of Sigeium in the Troad, the Athenians who were at Sestus, learning that he was sailing along the coast, put out against him with their ships, seventy-four in all.
§ 13.45.3 Dorieus held to his course for a time in ignorance of what was happening; but when he observed the great strength of the fleet he was alarmed, and seeing no other way to save his force he put in at Dardanus.
§ 13.45.4 Here he disembarked his soldiers and took over the troops who were guarding the city, and then he speedily got in a vast supply of missiles and stationed his soldiers both on the fore-parts of the ships and in advantageous positions on the land.
§ 13.45.5 The Athenians, sailing in at full speed, set to work hauling the ships away from the shore, and they were wearing down the enemy, having crowded them on every side by their superior numbers.
§ 13.45.6 When Mindarus, the Peloponnesian admiral, learned of the situation, he speedily put out from Abydus with his entire fleet and sailed to the Dardanian Promontory with eighty-four ships to the aid of the fleet of Dorieus; and the land army of Pharnabazus was also there, supporting the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.45.7 When the fleets came near one another, both sides drew up the triremes for battle; Mindarus, who had ninety-seven ships, stationed the Syracusans on his left wing, while he himself took command of the right; as for the Athenians, Thrasybulus led the right wing and Thrasyllus the other.
§ 13.45.8 After the forces had made ready in this fashion, their commanders raised the signal for battle and the trumpeters at a single word of command began to sound the attack; and since the rowers showed no lack of eagerness and the pilots managed their helms with skill, the contest which ensued was an amazing spectacle.
§ 13.45.9 For whenever the triremes would drive forward to ram, at that moment the pilots, at just the critical instant, would turn their ships so effectively that the blows were made ram on.
§ 13.45.10 As for the marines, whenever they would see their own ships borne along with their sides to the triremes of the enemy, they would be terror-stricken, despairing of their lives; but whenever the pilots, employing the skill of practice, would frustrate the attack, they would in turn be overjoyed and elated in their hopes.
§ 13.46.1 Nor did the men whose position was on the decks fail to maintain the zeal which brooked no failure; but some, while still at a considerable distance from the enemy, kept up a stream of arrows and soon the space was full of missiles, while others, each time that they drew near, would hurl their javelins, some doing their best to strike the defending marines and others the enemy pilots themselves; and whenever the ships would come close together, they would not only fight with their spears but at the moment of contact would also leap over on the enemy's triremes and carry on the contest with their swords.
§ 13.46.2 And since at each reverse the victors would raise the war-cry and the others would rush to aid with shouting, a mingled din prevailed over the entire area of the battle. For a long time the battle was equally balanced because of the very high rivalry with which both sides were inspired; but later on Alcibiades unexpectedly appeared from Samos with twenty ships, sailing by mere chance to the Hellespont.
§ 13.46.3 While these ships were still at a distance, each side, hoping that reinforcement had come for themselves, was elated in its hopes and fought on with far greater courage; but when the fleet was now near and for the Lacedemonians no signal was to be seen, but for the Athenians Alcibiades ran up a purple flag from his own ship, which was the signal they had agreed upon, the Lacedemonians in dismay turned in flight and the Athenians, elated by the advantage they now possessed, pressed eagerly upon the ships trying to escape.
§ 13.46.4 And they speedily captured ten ships, but then a storm and violent winds arose, as a result of which they were greatly hindered in the pursuit; for because of the high waves the boats would not respond to the tillers, and the attempts at ramming proved fruitless, since the ships were receding when struck.
§ 13.46.5 In the end the Lacedemonians, gaining the shore, fled to the land army of Pharnabazus, and the Athenians at first essayed to drag the ships from the shore and put up a desperate battle, but when they were checked in their attempts by the Persian forces they sailed off to Sestus.
§ 13.46.6 For Pharnabazus, wishing to build a defence for himself before the Lacedemonians against the charges they were bringing against him, put up all the more vigorous fight against the Athenians; while at the same time, with respect to his sending the three hundred triremes to Phoenicia, he explained to them that he had done so on receiving information that the king of the Arabians and the king of the Egyptians had designs upon Phoenicia.
§ 13.47.1 When the sea-battle had ended as we have related, the Athenians sailed off at the time to Sestus, whence it was already night, but when day came they collected their ships which had been damaged and set up another trophy near the former one.
§ 13.47.2 And Mindarus about the first watch of the night set out to Abydus, where he repaired his ships that had been damaged and sent word to the Lacedemonians for reinforcements of both soldiers and ships; for he had in mind, while the fleet was being made ready, to lay siege with the army together with Pharnabazus to the cities in Asia which were allied with the Athenians.
§ 13.47.3 The people of Chalcis and almost all the rest of the inhabitants of Euboea had revolted from the Athenians and were therefore highly apprehensive lest, living as they did on an island, they should be forced to surrender to the Athenians, who were masters of the sea; and they therefore asked the Boeotians to join with them in building a causeway across the Euripus and thereby joining Euboea to Boeotia.
§ 13.47.4 The Boeotians agreed to this, since it was to their special advantage that Euboea should be an island to everybody else but a part of the mainland to themselves. Consequently all the cities threw themselves vigorously into the building of the causeway and vied with one another; for orders were issued not only to the citizens to report en masse but to the foreigners dwelling among them as well, so that by reason of the great number that came forward to the work the proposed task was speedily completed.
§ 13.47.5 On Euboea the causeway was built at Chalcis, and in Boeotia in the neighbourhood of Aulis, since at that place the channel was narrowest. Now it so happened that in former times also there had always been a current in that place and that the sea frequently reversed its course, and at the time in question the force of the current was far greater because the sea had been confined into a very narrow channel; for passage was left for only a single ship. High towers were also built on both ends and wooden bridges were thrown over the channel.a
§ 13.47.6 Theramenes, who had been dispatched by the Athenians with thirty ships, at first attempted to stop the workers, but since a strong body of soldiers was at the side of the builders of the causeway, he abandoned this design and directed his voyage toward the islands.
§ 13.47.7 And since he wished to relieve both the citizens and the allies from their contributions, he laid waste the territory of the enemy and collected great quantities of booty. He visited also the allied cities and exacted money of such inhabitants as were advocating a change in government.
§ 13.47.8 And when he put in at Paros and found an oligarchy in the city, he restored their freedom to the people and exacted a great sum of money of the men who had participated in the oligarchy.
§ 13.48.1 It happened at this time that a serious civil strife occurred in Corcyra accompanied by massacre, which is said to have been due to various causes but most of all to the mutual hatred that existed between its own inhabitants.
§ 13.48.2 For never in any state have there taken place such murderings of citizens nor have there been greater quarrelling and contentiousness which culminated in bloodshed. For it would seem that the number of those who were slain by their fellow citizens before the present civil strife was some fifteen hundred, and all of these were leading citizens.
§ 13.48.3 And although these misfortunes had already befallen them, Fortune brought upon them a second disaster, in that she increased once more the disaffection which prevailed among them. For the foremost Corcyraeans, who desired the oligarchy, favoured the cause of the Lacedemonians, whereas the masses which favoured the democracy were eager to ally themselves with the Athenians.
§ 13.48.4 For the peoples who were struggling for leadership in Greece were devoted to opposing principles; the Lacedemonians, for example, made it their policy to put the control of the government in the hands of the leading citizens of their allied states, whereas the Athenians regularly established democracies in their cities.
§ 13.48.5 Accordingly the Corcyraeans, seeing that their most influential citizens were planning to hand the city over to the Lacedemonians, sent to the Athenians for an army to protect their city.
§ 13.48.6 And Conon, the general of the Athenians, sailed to Corcyra and left in the city six hundred men from the Messenians in Naupactus, while he himself sailed on with his ships and cast anchor off the sacred precinct of Hera.
§ 13.48.7 And the six hundred, setting out unexpectedly with the partisans of the people's party at the time of full market against the supporters of the Lacedemonians, arrested some of them, slew others, and drove more than a thousand from the state; they also set the slaves free and gave citizenship to the foreigners living among them as a precaution against the great number and influence of the exiles.
§ 13.48.8 Now the men who had been exiled from their country fled to the opposite mainland; but a few days later some people still in the city who favoured the cause of the exiles seized the market-place, called back the exiles, and essayed a final decision of the struggle. When night brought an end to the fighting they came to an agreement with each other, stopped their quarrelling, and resumed living together as one people on their fatherland. Such, then, was the end of the massacre in Corcyra.
§ 13.49.1 Archelaus, the king of the Macedonians, since the people of Pydna would not obey his orders, laid siege to the city with a great army. He received reinforcement also from Theramenes, who brought a fleet; but he, as the siege dragged of, sailed to Thrace, where he joined Thrasybulus who was commander of the entire fleet.
§ 13.49.2 Archelaus now pressed the siege of Pydna more vigorously, and after reducing it he removed the city some twenty stades distant from the sea. Mindarus, when winter had come to an end, collected his triremes from all quarters, for many had come to him from the Peloponnesus as well as from the other allies. But the Athenian generals in Sestus, when they learned of the great size of the fleet that was being assembled by the enemy, were greatly alarmed lest they, attacking with all their triremes, should capture their ships.
§ 13.49.3 Consequently the generals on their side hauled down the ships they had at Sestus, sailed around the Chersonesus, and moored them at Cardia; and they sent triremes to Thrasybulus and Theramenes in Thrace, urging them to come with their fleet as soon as possible, and they summoned Alcibiades also from Lesbos with what ships he had. And the whole fleet was gathered into one place, the generals being eager for a decisive battle.
§ 13.49.4 Mindarus, the Lacedemonian general, sailing to Cyzicus, disembarked his whole force and invested the city. Pharnabazus was also there with a large army and with his aid Mindarus laid siege to Cyzicus and took it by storm.
§ 13.49.5 The Athenian generals, having decided to sail to Cyzicus, put out to sea with all their ships and sailed around the Chersonesus. They arrived first at Eleus; and after that they made a special point of sailing past the city of Abydus at night, in order that the great number of their vessels might not be known to the enemy.
§ 13.49.6 And when they had arrived at Proconnesus, they spent the night there and the next day they disembarked the soldiers who had shipped with them on the territory of the Cyzicenes and gave orders to Chaereas, their commander, to lead the army against the city.
§ 13.50.1 As for the generals themselves, they divided the naval force into three squadrons, Alcibiades commanding one, Theramenes another, and Thrasybulus the third. Now Alcibiades with his own squadron advanced far ahead of the others, wishing to draw the Lacedemonians out to a battle, whereas Theramenes and Thrasybulus planned the manoeuvre of encircling the enemy and, if they sailed out, of blocking their retreat to the city.
§ 13.50.2 Mindarus, seeing only the ships of Alcibiades approaching, twenty in number, and having no knowledge of the others, held them in contempt and boldly set sail from the city with eighty ships to attack him. Then, when he had come near the ships of Alcibiades, the Athenians, as they had been commanded, pretended to flee, and the Peloponnesians, in high spirits, pursued after them vigorously in the belief they were winning the victory.
§ 13.50.3 But after Alcibiades had drawn them a considerable distance from the city, he raised the signal; and when this was given, the ships of Alcibiades suddenly at the same time turned about to face the enemy, and Theramenes and Thrasybulus sailed toward the city and cut off the retreat of the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.50.4 The troops of Mindarus, when they now observed multitude of the enemy ships and realized that they had been outgeneralled, were filled with great fear. And finally, since the Athenians were appearing from every direction and had shut off the Peloponnesians from their line of approach to the city, Mindarus was forced to seek safety on land near Cleri, as it is called, where also Pharnabazus had his army.
§ 13.50.5 Alcibiades, pursuing him vigorously, sank some ships, damaged and captured others, and the largest number, which were moored on the land itself, he seized and threw grappling-irons on, endeavouring by this means to drag them from the land.
§ 13.50.6 And when the infantry of Pharnabazus rushed to the aid of the Lacedemonians, there was great bloodshed, inasmuch as the Athenians because of the advantage they had won were fighting with greater boldness than expediency, while the Peloponnesians were in number far superior; for the army of Pharnabazus was supporting the Lacedemonians and fighting as it was from the land the position it had was more secure.
§ 13.50.7 But when Thrasybulus saw the infantry aiding the enemy, he put the rest of his marines on the land with intent to assist Alcibiades and his men, and he also urged Theramenes to join up with the land troops of Chaereas and come with all sped, in order to wage a battle on land.
§ 13.51.1 While the Athenians were busying themselves with these matters, Mindarus, the Lacedemonian commander, was himself fighting with Alcibiades for the ships that were being dragged off, and he dispatched Clearchus the Spartan with a part of the Peloponnesians against the troops with Thrasybulus; and with him he also sent the mercenaries in the army of Pharnabazus.
§ 13.51.2 Thrasybulus with the marines and archers at first stoutly withstood the enemy, and though he slew many of them, he also saw not a few his own men falling; but when the mercenaries of Pharnabazus were surrounding the Athenians and were crowding about them in great numbers from every direction, Theramenes appeared, leading both his own troops and the infantry with Chaereas.
§ 13.51.3 Although the troops of Thrasybulus were exhausted and had given up hope of rescue, their spirits were suddenly revived again when reinforcements so strong were at hand.
§ 13.51.4 An obstinate battle which lasted a long time ensued; but at first the mercenaries of Pharnabazus began to withdraw and the continuity of their battle line was broken; and finally the Peloponnesians who had been left behind with Clearchus, after having both inflicted and suffered much punishment, were expelled.
§ 13.51.5 Now that the Peloponnesians had been defeated, the troops of Theramenes rushed to give aid to the soldiers who had been fighting under Alcibiades. Although the forces had rapidly assembled at one point, Mindarus was not dismayed at the attack of Theramenes, but, after dividing the Peloponnesians, with half of them he met the advancing enemy, while with the other half which he himself commanded, first calling upon each soldier not to disgrace the fair name of Sparta, and that too in a fight on land, he formed a line against the troops of Alcibiades.
§ 13.51.6 He put up a heroic battle about the ships, fighting in person before all his troops, but though he slew many of the opponents, in the end he was killed by the troops of Alcibiades as he battled nobly for his fatherland. When he had fallen, both the Peloponnesians and all allies banded together and broke into terror-stricken flight.
§ 13.51.7 The Athenians pursued the enemy for a distance, but when they learned that Pharnabazus was hurrying up at full speed with a strong force of cavalry, they returned to the ships, and after they had taken the city they set up two trophies for the two victories, one for the sea-battle at the island of Polydorus, as it is called, and one for the land-battle where they forced the first flight of the enemy.
§ 13.51.8 Now the Peloponnesians in the city and all the fugitives from the battle fled to the camp of Pharnabazus; and the Athenian generals not only captured all the ships but they also took many prisoners and an immeasurable quantity of booty, since they had won the victory at the same time over two armaments of such size.
§ 13.52.1 When the news of the victory came to Athens, the people, contemplating the unexpected good fortune which had come to the city after their former disasters, were elated over their successes and the populace in a body offered sacrifices to the gods and gathered in festive assemblies; and for the war they selected from their most stalwart men one thousand hoplites and one hundred horsemen, and in addition to these they dispatched thirty triremes to Alcibiades, in order that, now that they dominated the sea, they might lay waste with impunity the cities which favoured the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.52.2 The Lacedemonians, on the other hand, when they heard of the disaster they had suffered at Cyzicus, sent ambassadors to Athens to treat for peace, the chief of whom was Endius. When permission was given him, he took the floor and spoke succinctly and in the terse fashion of Laconians, and for this reason I have decided not to omit the speech as he delivered it.
§ 13.52.3 "We want to be at peace with you, men of Athens, and that each party should keep the cities which it now possesses and cease to maintain its garrisons in the other's territory, and that our captives be ransomed, one Laconian for one Athenian. We are not unmindful that the war is hurtful to both of us, but far more to you.
§ 13.52.4 Never mind the words I use but learn from the facts. As for us, we till the entire Peloponnesus, but you only a small part of Attica. While to the Laconians the war has brought many allies, from the Athenians it has taken away as many as it has given to their enemies. For us the richest king to be found in the inhabited world defrays the cost of the war, for you the most poverty-stricken folk of the inhabited world.
§ 13.52.5 Consequently our troops, in view of their generous pay, make war with spirit, while your soldiers, because they pay the war-taxes out of their own pockets, shrink from both the hardships and the costs of war.
§ 13.52.6 In the second place, when we make war at sea, we risk losing only hulls among resources of the state, while you have on board crews most of whom are citizens. And, what is the most important, even if we meet defeat in our actions at sea, we still maintain without dispute the mastery on land — for a Spartan foot-soldier does not even know what flight means — but you, if you are driven from the sea, contend, not for the supremacy on land, but for survival.
§ 13.52.7 "It remains for me to show you why, despite so many and great advantages we possess in the fighting, we urge you to make peace. I do not affirm that Sparta is profiting from the war, but only that she is suffering less than the Athenians. Only fools find satisfaction in sharing the misfortunes of their enemies, when it is in their power to make no trial whatsoever of misfortune. For the destruction of the enemy brings no joy that can balance the gift caused by the distress of one's own people.
§ 13.52.8 And not for these reasons alone are we eager to come to terms, but because we hold fast to the custom of our fathers; for when we consider the many terrible sufferings which are caused by the rivalries which accompany war, we believe we should make it clear in the sight of all gods and men that we are least responsible of all men for such things."
§ 13.53.1 After the Laconian had made these and similar representations, the sentiments of the most reasonable men among the Athenians inclined toward the peace, but those who made it their practice to foment war and to turn disturbances in the state to their personal profit chose the war.
§ 13.53.2 A supporter of this sentiment was, among others, Cleophon, who was the most influential leader of the populace at this time. He, taking the floor and arguing at length on the question in his own fashion, buoyed up the people, citing the magnitude of their military successes, as if indeed it is not the practice of Fortune to adjudge the advantages in war now to one side and now to the other.
§ 13.53.3 Consequently the Athenians, after taking unwise counsel, repented of it when it could do them no good, and, deceived as they were by words spoken in flattery, they made a blunder so vital that never again at any time were they able truly to recover.
§ 13.53.4 But these events, which took place at a later date, will be described in connection with the period of time to which they belong; at the time we are discussing the Athenians, being elated by their successes and entertaining many great hopes because they had Alcibiades as the leader of their armed forces, thought that they had quickly won back their supremacy.
§ 13.54.1 When the events of this year had come to an end, in Athens Diocles took over the chief office, and in Rome Quintus Fabius and Gaius Furius held the consulship. At this time Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, gathered together both the mercenaries he had collected from Iberia and the soldiers he had enrolled from Libya, manned sixty ships of war, and made ready some fifteen hundred transports.
§ 13.54.2 On these he loaded the troops, the siege-engines, missiles, and all the other accessories. After crossing with the fleet the Libyan Sea he came to land in Sicily on the promontory which lies opposite Libya and is called Lilybaeum;
§ 13.54.3 and at that very time some Selinuntian cavalry were tarrying in those regions, and having seen the great size of the fleet as it came to land, they speedily informed their fellow citizens of the presence of the enemy. The Selinuntians at once dispatched their letter-carriers to the Syracusans, asking their aid; 4 and Hannibal disembarked his troops and pitched a camp, beginning at the well which in those times had the name Lilybaeum, and many years after these events, when a city was founded near it, the presence of the well occasioned the giving of the name to the city. 5 Hannibal had all told, as Ephorus has recorded, two hundred thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, but as Timaeus says, not many more than one hundred thousand men. His ships he hauled up on land in the bay about Motye, every one of them, wishing to give the Syracusans the impression that he had not come to make war upon them or to sail along the coast with his naval force against Syracuse. 6 And after adding to his army the soldiers supplied by the Aegestaeans and by the other allies he broke camp and made his way from Lilybaeum toward Selinus. And when he came to the Mazarus River, he took at the first assault the trading-station situated by it, and when he arrived before the city, he divided his army into two parts; then, after he had invested the city and put his siege-engines in position, he began the assaults with all speed. 7 He set up six towers of exceptional size and advanced an equal number of battering-rams plated with iron against the walls; furthermore, by employing his archers and slingers in great numbers he beat back the fighters on the battlements.
§ 13.55.1 The Selinuntians, who had for a long time been without experience in sieges and had been the only Sicilian Greeks to fight on the side of the Carthaginians in the war against Gelon, had never conceived that they would be brought to such a state of fear by the people whom they had befriended.
§ 13.55.2 But when they saw the great size of the engines of war and the hosts of the enemy, they were filled with dread and dismayed at the magnitude of the danger threatening them.
§ 13.55.3 However, they did not totally despair of their deliverance, but in the expectation that the Syracusans and their other allies would soon arrive, the whole populace fought off the enemy from the walls.
§ 13.55.4 Indeed all the men in the prime of life were armed and battled desperately, while the older men busied themselves with the supplies and, as they made the rounds of the wall, begged the young men not to allow them to fall under subjection to the enemy; and women and girls supplied the food and mills to the defenders of the fatherland, counting as naught the modesty and the sense of shame which they cherished in time of peace.
§ 13.55.5 Such consternation prevailed that the magnitude of the emergency called for even the aid of their women. Hannibal, who had promised the soldiers that he would give them the city to pillage, pushed the siege-engines forward and assaulted the walls in waves with his best soldiers.
§ 13.55.6 And all together the trumpets sounded the signal for attack and at one command the army of the Carthaginians as a body raised the war-cry, and by the power of the rams the walls were shaken, while by reason of the height of the towers the fighters on them slew many of the Selinuntians.
§ 13.55.7 For in the long period of peace they had enjoyed they had given no attention whatever even to their walls and of so they were easily subdued, since the wooden towers far excelled the walls in height. When the wall fell the Campanians, being eager to accomplish some outstanding feat, broke swiftly into the city.
§ 13.55.8 Now at the outset they struck terror into their opponents, who were few in number; but after that, when many gathered to the aid of the defenders, they were thrust out with heavy losses among their own soldiers; for since they had forced a passage when the wall had not yet been completely cleared and in their attack had fallen foul of difficult terrain, they were easily overcome. At nightfall the Carthaginians broke off the assault.
§ 13.56.1 The Selinuntians, picking out their best horsemen, dispatched them at once by night, some to Acragas, and others to Gela and Syracuse, asking them to come to their aid with all speed, since their city could not withstand the strength of the enemy for any great time.
§ 13.56.2 Now the Acragantini and Geloans waited for the Syracusans, since they wished to lead their troops as one body against the Carthaginians; and the Syracusans, on learning the facts about the siege, first stopped the war they were engaged in with the Chalcidians and then spent some time in gathering the troops from the countryside and making great preparations, thinking that the city might be forced by siege to surrender but would not be taken by storm.
§ 13.56.3 Hannibal, when the night had passed, at daybreak launched assaults from every side, and the part of the city's wall which had already fallen and the portion of the wall next the breach he broke down with the siege-engines.
§ 13.56.4 He then cleared the area of the fallen part of the wall and, attacking in relays of his best troops, gradually forced out the Selinuntians; it was not possible, however, to overpower by force men who were fighting for their very existence.
§ 13.56.5 Both sides suffered heavy losses, but for the Carthaginians fresh troops kept taking over the fighting, while for the Selinuntians there was no reserve to come to their support. The siege continued for nine days with unsurpassed stubbornness, and in the event the Carthaginians suffered and inflicted many terrible injuries.
§ 13.56.6 When the Iberians mounted where the wall had fallen, the women who were on the house-tops raised a great cry, whereupon the Selinuntians, thinking that the city was being taken, were struck with terror, and leaving the walls they gathered in bands at the entrances of the narrow alleys, endeavoured to barricade the streets, and held off the enemy for a long time.
§ 13.56.7 And as the Carthaginians pressed the attack, the multitudes of women and children took refuge on the housetops whence they threw both stones and tiles on the enemy. For a long time the Carthaginians came off baldy, being unable either, because of the walls of the houses, to surround the men in the alleys or, because of those hurling at them from the roofs, to fight it out on equal terms.
§ 13.56.8 However, as the struggle went on until the afternoon, the missiles of the fighters from the houses were exhausted, whereas the troops of the Carthaginians, which constantly relieved those which were suffering heavily, continued the fighting in fresh condition. Finally, since the troops within the walls were being steadily reduced in number and the enemy entered the city in ever-increasing strength, the Selinuntians were forced out of the alleys.
§ 13.57.1 And so, while the city was being taken, there was to be observed among the Greeks lamentation and weeping, and among the barbarians there was cheering and commingled outcries; for the former, as their eyes looked upon the great disaster which surrounded them, were filled with ter, while the latter, elated by their successes, urged on their comrades to slaughter.
§ 13.57.2 The Selinuntians gathered into the market-place and all who reached it died fighting there; and the barbarians, scattering throughout the entire city, plundered whatever of value was to be found in the dwellings, while of the inhabitants they found in them some they burned together with their homes and when others struggled into the streets, without distinction of sex or age but whether infant children or women or old men, they put them to the sword, showing no sign of compassion.
§ 13.57.3 They mutilated even the dead according to the practice of their people, some carrying bunches of hands which they had spitted upon their javelins and spears. Such women as they found to have taken refuge together with their children in the temples they called upon their comrades not to kill, and to these alone did they give assurance of their lives.
§ 13.57.4 This they did, however, not out of pity for the unfortunate people, but because they feared lest the women, despairing of their lives, would burn down the temples, and thus they would not be able to make booty of the great wealth which was stored up in them as dedications.
§ 13.57.5 To such a degree did the barbarians surpass all other men in cruelty, that whereas the rest of mankind spare those who seek refuge in the sanctuaries from the desire not to commit sacrilege against the deity, the Carthaginians, on the contrary, would refrain from laying hands on the enemy in order that they might plunder the temples of their gods.
§ 13.57.6 By nightfall the city had been sacked, and of the dwellings some had been burned and others razed to the ground, while the whole area was filled with blood and corpses. Sixteen thousand was the sum of the inhabitants who were found to have fallen, not counting the more than five thousand who had been taken captive.
§ 13.58.1 The Greeks serving as allies of the Carthaginians, as they contemplated the reversal in the lives of the hapless Selinuntians, felt pity at their lot. The women, deprived now of the pampered life they had enjoyed, spent the nights in the very midst of enemies' lasciviousness, enduring terrible indignities, and some were obliged to see their daughters of marriageable age suffering treatment improper for their years.
§ 13.58.2 For the savagery of the barbarians spared night free-born youths nor maidens, but exposed these unfortunates to dreadful disasters. Consequently, as the women reflected upon the slavery that would be their lot in Libya, as they saw themselves together with their children in a condition in which they possessed no legal rights and were subject to insolent treatment and thus compelled to obey masters, and as they noted that these masters used an unintelligible speech and had a bestial character, they mourned for their living children as dead, and receiving into their souls as a piercing wound each and every outrage committed against them, they became frantic with suffering and vehemently deplored their own fate; while as for their fathers and brothers who had died fighting for their country, them they counted blessed, since they had not witnessed any sight unworthy of their own valour.
§ 13.58.3 The Selinuntians who had escaped capture, twenty-six hundred in number, made their way in safety to Acragas and there received all possible kindness; for Acragantini, after portioning out food to them at public expense, divided them for billeting among their homes, urging the private citizens, who were indeed eager enough, to supply them with every necessity of life.
§ 13.59.1 While these events were taking place there arrived at Acragas three thousand picked soldiers from Syracusans, who had been dispatched in advance with all speed to bring aid. On learning of the fall of Selinus, they sent ambassadors to Hannibal urging him both to release the captives on the payment of ransom and to spare the temples of the gods.
§ 13.59.2 Hannibal replied that the Selinuntians, having proved incapable of defending their freedom, would now undergo the experience of slavery, and that the gods had departed from Selinus, having become offended with its inhabitants.
§ 13.59.3 However, since the fugitives had sent Empedion as an ambassador, to him Hannibal restored his possessions; for Empedion had always favoured the cause of the Carthaginians and before the siege had counselled the citizens not to go to war against the Carthaginians. Hannibal also graciously delivered up to him his kinsmen who were among the captives and to the Selinuntians who had escaped he gave permission to dwell in the city and to cultivate its fields upon payment of tribute to the Carthaginians.
§ 13.59.4 Now this city was taken after it had been inhabited from its founding for a period of two hundred and forty-two years. And Hannibal, after destroying the walls of Selinus, departed with his whole army to Himera, being especially bent on razing this city to the ground.
§ 13.59.5 For it was this city which had caused his father to be exiled and before its walls his grandfather Hamilcar had been out-generalled by Gelon and then met his end, and with him one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers had perished and no fewer than these had been taken captive.
§ 13.59.6 These were the reasons why Hannibal was eager to exact punishment, and with forty thousand men he pitched camp upon some hills not far from the city, while with the rest of his entire army he invested the city, twenty thousand additional soldiers from both Siceli and Sicani having joined him.
§ 13.59.7 Setting up his siege-engines he shook the walls at a number of points, and since he pressed the battle with waves of troops in great strength, he wore down the defenders, especially since his soldiers were elated by their successes.
§ 13.59.8 He also set about undermining the walls, which he then shored up with wooden supports, and when these were set on fire, a large section of the wall soon fell. Thereupon there ensued a most bitter battle, one side struggling to force its way inside the wall and the other fearing lest they should suffer the same fate as the Selinuntians.
§ 13.59.9 Consequently, since the defenders put up a struggle to the death on behalf of children and parents and the fatherland which all men fight to defend, the barbarians were thrust out and the section of the wall quickly restored. To their aid came also the Syracusans from Acragas and troops from their other allies, some four thousand in all, who were under the command of Diocles the Syracusan.
§ 13.60.1 At that juncture, when night brought an end to all further striving for victory, the Carthaginians abandoned the attack. And when day came, the Himeraeans decided not to allow themselves to be shut in and surrounded in this ignominious manner, as were the Selinuntians, and so they stationed guards on the walls and led out of the city the rest of their soldiers together with the allies who had arrived, some ten thousand men.
§ 13.60.2 And by engaging the enemy thus unexpectedly, they threw the barbarians into consternation, thinking as they did that allied forces had arrived to aid those who were penned in by the siege. And because the Himeraeans were far superior in deeds of daring and of skill, and especially because their single hope of safety lay in their prevailing in the battle, at the outset they slew the first opponents.
§ 13.60.3 And since the multitude of the barbarians thronged together in great disorder because they never would have expected that the besieged would dare such a move, they were under no little disadvantage; for when eighty thousand men streamed together without order into one place, the result was that the barbarians clashed with each other and suffered more heavily from themselves than from the enemy.
§ 13.60.4 The Himeraeans, having as spectators on the walls parents and children as well as all their relatives, spent their own lives unsparingly for the salvation of them all.
§ 13.60.5 And since they fought brilliantly, the barbarians, dismayed by their deeds of daring and unexpected resistance, turned in flight. They fled in disorder to the troops encamped on the hills, and the Himeraeans pressed hard upon them, crying out to each other to take no man captive, and they slew more than six thousand of them, according to Timaeus, or, as Ephorus states, more than twenty thousand.
§ 13.60.6 But Hannibal, seeing that his men were becoming exhausted, brought down his troops who were encamped on the hills, and reinforcing his beaten soldiers caught the Himeraeans in disorder as they were pushing the pursuit.
§ 13.60.7 In the fierce battle which ensued the main body of the Himeraeans turned in flight, but three thousand of them who tried to oppose the Carthaginian army, though they accomplished great deeds, were slain to a man.
§ 13.61.1 This battle had already come to an end when there arrived at Himera from the Sicilian Greeks the twenty-five triremes which had previously been sent to aid the Lacedemonians but at this time had returned from the campaign.
§ 13.61.2 And a report also spread through the city that the Syracusans en masse together with their allies were on the march to the aid of the Himeraeans and that Hannibal was planning to man his triremes in Motye with his choicest troops and, sailing to Syracuse, seize that city while it was stripped of its defenders.
§ 13.61.3 Consequently Diocles, who commanded the forces in Himera, advised the admirals of the fleet to set sail with all speed for Syracuse, in order that it might not happen that the city should be taken by storm while its best troops were fighting a war abroad.
§ 13.61.4 They decided, therefore, that their best course was to abandon the city, and that they should embark half the populace on the triremes (for these would convey them until they had got beyond Himeraean territory) and with the other half keep guard until the triremes should return.
§ 13.61.5 Although the Himeraeans complained indignantly at this conclusion, since there was no other course they could take, the triremes were hastily loaded by night with a mixed throng of women and children and of other inhabitants also, who sailed on them as far as Messene;
§ 13.61.6 and Diocles, taking his own soldiers and leaving behind the bodies of those who had fallen in the fighting, set forth upon the journey home. And many Himeraeans with children and wives set out with Diocles, since the triremes could not carry the whole populace.
§ 13.62.1 Those who had been left behind in Himera spent the night under arms on the walls; and when with the coming of day the Carthaginians surrounded the city and launched repeated attacks, the remaining Himeraeans fought with no thought for their lives, expecting the arrival of the ships.
§ 13.62.2 For that day, therefore, they continued to hold out, but on the next, even when the triremes were already in sight, it so happened that the wall began to fall before the blows of the siege-engines and the Iberians to pour in a body into the city. Some of the barbarians thereupon would hold off the Himeraeans who rushed up to bring aid, while others, gaining command of the walls, would help their comrades get in.
§ 13.62.3 Now that the city had been taken by storm, for a long time the barbarians continued, with no sign of compassion, to slaughter everyone they seized.
§ 13.62.4 But when Hannibal issued orders to take prisoners, although the slaughter stopped, the wealth of the dwellings now became the objects of plunder. Hannibal, after sacking the temples and dragging out the suppliants who had fled to them for safety, set them afire, and the city he razed to the ground, two hundred and forty years after its founding. Of the captives the women and children he distributed among the army and kept them under guard, but the men whom he took captive, some three thousand, he led to the spot where once his grandfather Hamilcar had been slain by Gelon and after torturing them put them all to death.
§ 13.62.5 After this, breaking up his army, he sent the Sicilian allies back to their countries, and accepting them also were the Campanians, who bitterly complained to the Carthaginians that, though they had been the ones chiefly responsible for the Carthaginian successes, the rewards they had received were not a fair return for their accomplishments.
§ 13.62.6 Then Hannibal embarked his army on the warships and merchant vessels, and leaving behind sufficient troops for the needs of his allies he set sail from Sicily. And when he arrived at Carthage with much booty, the whole city came out to meet him, paying him homage and honour as one who in a brief time had performed greater deeds than any general before him.
§ 13.63.1 Hermocrates the Syracusan arrived in Sicily. This man, who had served as general in the war against the Athenians and had been of great service to his country, had acquired the greatest influence among the Syracusans, but afterwards, when he had been sent as admiral in command of thirty-five triremes to support the Lacedemonians, he was overpowered by his political opponents and, upon being condemned to exile, he handed over the fleet in the Peloponnesus to the men who had been dispatched to succeed him.
§ 13.63.2 And since he had struck up a friendship with Pharnabazus, the satrap of the Persians, as a result of the campaign, he accepted from him a great sum of money with which, after he had arrived at Messene, he had five triremes built and hired a thousand soldiers.
§ 13.63.3 Then, after adding to this force also above a thousand of the Himeraeans who had been driven from their home, he endeavoured with the aid of his friends to make good his return to Syracuse; but when he failed in this design, he set out through the middle of the island and seizing Selinus he built a wall about a part of the city and called to him from all quarters the Selinuntians who were still alive.
§ 13.63.4 He also received many others into the place and thus gathered a force of six thousand picked warriors. Making Selinus his base he first laid waste the territory of the inhabitants of Motye and defeating in battle those who came out from the city against him he slew many and pursued the rest within the wall of the city. After this he ravaged the territory of the people of Panormus and acquired countless booty, and when the inhabitants offered battle en masse before the city he slew about five hundred of them and shut up the rest within their walls.
§ 13.63.5 And since he also laid waste in like fashion all the rest of the territory in the hands of the Carthaginians, he won the commendation of the Sicilian Greeks. And among other things the majority of the Syracusans also repented of their treatment of him, realizing that Hermocrates had been banished contrary to the merits of his valour.
§ 13.63.6 Consequently, after much discussion of him in meetings of the assembly, it was evident that the people desired to receive the man back from exile, and Hermocrates, on hearing of the talk about himself that was current in Syracuse, laid careful plans regarding his return from exile, knowing that his political opponents would work against it. Such was the course of events in Sicily.
§ 13.64.1 In Greece Thrasybulus, who had been sent out by the Athenians with thirty ships and a strong force of hoplites as well as a hundred horsemen, put in at Ephesus; and after disembarking his troops at two points he launched assaults upon the city. The inhabitants came out of the city against them and a fierce battle ensued; and since the entire populace of the Ephesians joined in the fighting, four hundred Athenians were slain and the remainder Thrasybulus took aboard his ships and sailed off to Lesbos.
§ 13.64.2 The Athenian generals who were in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus, sailing to Chalcedon, established there the fortress of Chrysopolis and left an adequate force behind; and the officers in charge they ordered to collect a tenth from all merchants sailing out of the Pontus.
§ 13.64.3 After this they divided their forces and Theramenes was left behind with fifty ships with which to lay siege to Chalcedon and Byzantium, and Thrasybulus was sent to Thrace, where he brought the cities in those regions over to the Athenians.
§ 13.64.4 And Alcibiades, after giving Thrasybulus a separate command with the thirty ships, sailed to the territory held by Pharnabazus, and when they had conjointly laid waste a great amount of that territory, they not only sated the soldiers with plunder but also themselves realized money from the booty, since they wished to relieve the Athenian people of the property-taxes imposed for the prosecution of their war.
§ 13.64.5 When the Lacedemonians learned that all the armaments of the Athenians were in the region of the Hellespont, they undertook a campaign against Pylos, which the Messenians held with a garrison; on the sea they had eleven ships, of which five were from Sicily and six were manned by their own citizens, while on land they had gathered an adequate army, and after investing the fortress they began to wreak havoc both by land and by sea.
§ 13.64.6 As soon as the Athenian people learned of this they dispatched to the aid of the besieged thirty ships and as general Anytus the son of Anthemion. Now Anytus sailed out on his mission, but when he was unable to round Cape Malea because of storms he returned to Athens. The people were so incensed at this that they accused him of treason and brought him to trial; but Anytus, being in great danger, saved his own life by the use of money, and he is reputed to have been the first Athenian to have bribed a jury.
§ 13.64.7 Meanwhile the Messenians in Pylos held out for some time, awaiting aid from the Athenians; but since the enemy kept launching successive assaults and of their own number some were dying of wounds and others were reduced to sad straits for lack of food, they abandoned the place under a truce. And so the Lacedemonians became masters of Pylos, after the Athenians had held it fifteen years from the time Demosthenes had fortified it.
§ 13.65.1 While these events were taking place, the Megarians seized Nisaea, which was in the hands of Athenians, and the Athenians dispatched against them Leotrophides and Timarchus with a thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. The Megarians went out to meet them en masse under arms, and after adding to their number some of the troops from Sicily they drew up for battle near the hills called "The Cerata."
§ 13.65.2 Since the Athenians fought brilliantly and put to flight the enemy, who greatly outnumbered them, many of the Megarians were slain but only twenty Lacedemonians; for the Athenians, made angry by the seizure of Nisaea, did not pursue the Lacedemonians but slew great numbers of the Megarians with whom they were indignant.
§ 13.65.3 The Lacedemonians, having chosen Cratesippidas as admiral and manned twenty-five of their own ships with troops furnished by their allies, ordered them to go to the aid of their allies. Cratesippidas spent some time near Ionia without accomplishing anything worthy of mention; but later, after receiving may have from the exiles of Chios, he restored them to their homes and seized the acropolis of the Chians.
§ 13.65.4 And the returned exiles of the Chians banished the men who were their political opponents and had been responsible for their exile to the number of approximately six hundred. These men then seized a place called Atarneus on the opposite mainland, which was by nature extremely rugged, and henceforth, from that as their base, continued to make war on their opponents who held Chios.
§ 13.66.1 While these events were taking place Alcibiades and Thrasybulus, after fortifying Lampsacus, left a strong garrison in that place and themselves sailed with their force to Theramenes, who was laying waste Chalcedon with seventy ships and five thousand soldiers. And when the armaments had been brought together into one place they threw a wooden stockade about the city from sea to sea.
§ 13.66.2 Hippocrates, who had been stationed by the Lacedemonians in the city as commander (the Laconians call such a man a "harmost"), led against them both his own soldiers and all the Chalcedonians. A fierce battle ensued, and since the troops of Alcibiades fought stoutly, not only Hippocrates fell but of the rest of the soldiers some were slain, and the others, disabled by wounds, took refuge in a body in the city.
§ 13.66.3 After this Alcibiades sailed out into the Hellespont and to Chersonesus, wishing to contract money, and Theramenes concluded an agreement with the Chalcedonians whereby the Athenians received from them as much tribe as before. Then leading his troops from there to Byzantium he laid siege to the city and with great alacrity set about walling it off.
§ 13.66.4 And Alcibiades, after collecting money, persuaded many of the Thracians to join his army and he also took into it the inhabitants of Chersonesus en masse; then, setting forth with his entire force, he first took Selybria by betrayal, in which, after exacting from it much money, he left a garrison, and then himself came speedily to Theramenes at Byzantium.
§ 13.66.5 When the armaments had been united, the commanders began making the preparations for a siege; for they were setting out to conquer a city of great wealth which was crowded with defenders, since, not counting the Byzantines, who were many, Clearchus, the Lacedemonian harmost, had in the city many Peloponnesians and mercenaries.
§ 13.66.6 Consequently, though they kept launching assaults for some time, they continued to inflict no notable damage on the defenders; but when the governor left the city to visit Pharnabazus in order to get money, thereupon certain Byzantines, hating the severity of his administration (for Clearchus was a harsh man), agreed to deliver up the city to Alcibiades and his colleagues.
§ 13.67.1 The Athenian generals, giving the impression that they intended to raise the siege and take their armaments to Ionia, sailed out in the afternoon with all their ships and withdrew the land army some distance; but when night came, they turned back again and about the middle of the night drew near the city, and they dispatched the triremes with orders to drag off the boats and to raise a clamour as if the entire force were at that point, while they themselves, holding the land army before the walls, watched for the signal which had been agreed upon with those who were yielding the city.
§ 13.67.2 And when the crews of the triremes set about carrying their orders, shattering some of the boats with their rams, trying to haul off others with their grappling irons, and all the while raising a tremendous outcry, the Peloponnesians in the city and everyone who was unaware of the trickery rushed out to the harbours to bring aid.
§ 13.67.3 Consequently the betrayers of the city raised the signal from the wall and admitted Alcibiades' troops by means of ladders in complete safety, since the multitude had thronged down to the harbour.
§ 13.67.4 When the Peloponnesians learned what had happened, at first they left half their troops at the harbour and with the rest speedily rushed back to attack the walls which had been seized.
§ 13.67.5 And although practically the entire force of the Athenians had already effected an entrance, they nonetheless were not panic-stricken but resisted stoutly for a long while and battled the Athenians with the help of the Byzantines. And in the end the Athenians would not have conquered the city by fighting, had not Alcibiades, perceiving opportunity, had the announcement made that no wrong should be done to the Byzantines; for at this word the citizens changed sides and turned upon the Peloponnesians.
§ 13.67.6 Thereupon the most of them were slain fighting gallantly, and the survivors, about five hundred, fled for refuge to the altars of the temples.
§ 13.67.7 The Athenians returned the city to the Byzantines, having first made them allies, and then came to terms with the suppliants at the altars: the Athenians would take away their arms and carry their persons to Athens turn them over to the decision of the Athenian people.
§ 13.68.1 At the end of the year the Athenians bestowed the office of archon upon Euctemon and the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Papirius and Spurius Nautius, and the Ninety-third Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Eubatus of Cyrene won the "stadion." About this time the Athenian generals, now that they had taken possession of Byzantium, proceeded against the Hellespont and took every one of the cities of that region with the exception of Abydus.
§ 13.68.2 Then they left Diodorus and Mantitheus in charge with an adequate force and themselves sailed to Athens with the ships and the spoils, having performed many great deeds for the fatherland. When they drew near the city, the populace in a body, overjoyed at their successes, came out to meet them, and great numbers of the aliens, as well as children and women, flocked to the Peiraeus.
§ 13.68.3 For the return of the generals gave great cause for amazement, in that they brought no less than two hundred captured vessels, a multitude of captive soldiers, and a great store of spoils; and their own triremes they had gone to great care to embellish with gilded arms and garlands and, besides, with spoils and all such decorations. But most men thronged to the harbours to catch sight of Alcibiades, so that the city was entirely deserted, the slaves vying with the free.
§ 13.68.4 For at that time it had come to pass that this man was such an object of admiration that the leading Athenians thought that they had at long last found a strong man capable of opposing the people openly and boldly, while the poor had assumed that they would have in him an excellent supporter who would recklessly throw the city into confusion and relieve their destitute condition.
§ 13.68.5 For in boldness he far excelled all other men, he was a most eloquent speaker, in generalship he was unsurpassed, and in daring he was most successful; furthermore, in appearance he was exceedingly handsome and in spirit brilliant and intent upon great enterprises.
§ 13.68.6 In a word, practically all men had conceived such assumptions regarding him that they believed that along with his return from exile good fortune in their undertakings had also come again to the city. Furthermore, just as the Lacedemonians enjoyed success while he was fighting on their side, so they expected that they in turn would again prosper when they had this man as an ally.
§ 13.69.1 So when the fleet came to land the multitude turned to the ship of Alcibiades, and as he stepped from it all gave their welcome to the man, congratulating him on both his successes and his return from exile. He in turn, after greeting the crowds kindly, called a meeting of the Assembly, and offering a long defence of his conduct he brought the masses into such a state of goodwill that all agreed that the city had been to blame for the decrees issued against him.
§ 13.69.2 Consequently they not only returned to him his property, which they had confiscated, but went further and cast into the sea the stelae on which were written his sentence and all the other acts passed against him; and they also voted that the Eumolpidae should revoke the curse they had pronounced against him at the time when men believed he had profaned the Mysteries.
§ 13.69.3 And to cap all they appointed him general with supreme power both on land and on sea and put in his hands all their armaments. They also chose as generals others whom he wished, namely, Adeimantus and Thrasybulus.
§ 13.69.4 Alcibiades manned one hundred ships and sailed to Andros, and seizing Gaurium, a stronghold, strengthened it with a wall. And when the Andrians, together with the Peloponnesians who were guarding the city, came out against him en masse, a battle ensued in which the Athenians were the victors; and of the inhabitants of the city many were slain, and of those who escaped some were scattered throughout the countryside and the rest found safety within the walls.
§ 13.69.5 As for Alcibiades, after having launched assaults upon the city he left an adequate garrison in the fort he had occupied, appointing Thrasybulus commander, and himself sailed away with his force and ravaged both Cos and Rhodes, collecting abundant booty to support his soldiers.
§ 13.70.1 Although the Lacedemonians had entirely lost not only their sea force but Mindarus, the commander, together with it, nevertheless they did not let their spirits sink, but they chose as admiral Lysander, a man who was believed to excel all others in skill as a general and who possessed a daring that was ready to meet every situation. As soon as Lysander assumed the command he enrolled an adequate number of soldiers from the Peloponnesus and also manned as many ships as he was able.
§ 13.70.2 Sailing to Rhodes he added to his force the ships which the cities of Rhodes possessed, and then sailed to Ephesus and Miletus. After equipping the triremes in these cities he summoned those which were supplied by Chios and thus fitted out at Ephesus a fleet of approximately seventy ships.
§ 13.70.3 And hearing that Cyrus, the son of King Darius, had been dispatched by his father to aid the Lacedemonians in the war, he went to him at Sardis, and stirring up the youth's enthusiasm for the war against the Athenians he received on the spot ten thousand darics for the pay of his soldiers; and for the future Cyrus told him to make requests without reserve, since, as he stated, he carried orders from his father to supply the Lacedemonians with whatever they should want.
§ 13.70.4 Then Lysander, returning to Ephesus, called to him the most influential men of the cities, and arranging with them to form cabals he promised that if his undertakings were successful he would put each group in control of its city. And it came to pass for this reason that these men, vying with one another, gave greater aid than was required of them and that Lysander was quickly supplied in startling fashion with all the equipment that is useful in war.
§ 13.71.1 When Alcibiades learned that Lysander was fitting out his fleet in Ephesus, he set sail for there with all his ships. He sailed up to the harbours, but when no one came out against him, he had most of his ships cast anchor at Notium, entrusting the command of them to Antiochus, his personal pilot, with orders not to accept battle until he should be present, while he took the troop-ships and sailed in haste to Clazomenae; for this city, which was an ally of the Athenians, was suffering from forays by some of its exiles.
§ 13.71.2 But Antiochus, who was by nature an impetuous man and was eager to accomplish some brilliant deed on his own account, paid no attention to the orders of Alcibiades, but manning ten of the best ships and ordering the captains to keep the others ready in case they should need to accept battle, he sailed up to the enemy in order to challenge them to battle.
§ 13.71.3 But Lysander, who had learned from certain deserters of the departure of Alcibiades and his best soldiers, decided that the favourable time had come for him to strike a blow worthy of Sparta. Accordingly, putting out to sea for the attack with all his ships, he encountered the leading one of the ten ships, the one on which Antiochus had taken his place for the attack, and sank it, and then, putting the rest to flight, he chased them until the Athenian captains manned the rest of their vessels and came to the rescue, but in no battle order at all.
§ 13.71.4 In the sea-battle which followed between the two entire fleets not far from the land the Athenians, because of their disorder, were defeated and lost twenty-two ships, but of their crews only a few were taken captive and the rest swam to safety ashore. When Alcibiades learned what had taken place, he returned in haste to Notium and manning all the triremes sailed to the harbours which were held by the enemy; but since Lysander would not venture to come out against him, he directed his course to Samos.
§ 13.72.1 While these events were taking place Thrasybulus, the Athenian general, sailing to Thasos with fifteen ships defeated in battle the troops who came out from the city and slew about two hundred of them; then, having bottled them up in a siege of the city, he forced them to receive back their exiles, that is the men who favoured the Athenians, to accept a garrison, and to be allies of the Athenians.
§ 13.72.2 After this, sailing to Abdera, he brought that city, which at that time was among the most powerful in Thrace, over to the side of the Athenians. Now the foregoing is what the Athenian generals had accomplished since they sailed from Athens.
§ 13.72.3 But Agis, the king of the Lacedemonians, as it happened, was at the time in Deceleia with his army, and when he learned that the best Athenian troops were engaged in an expedition with Alcibiades, he led his army on a moonless night to Athens.
§ 13.72.4 He had twenty-eight thousand infantry, one-half of whom were picked hoplites and the other half light-armed troops; there were also attached to his army some twelve hundred cavalry, of whom the Boeotians furnished nine hundred and the rest had been sent with him by Peloponnesians. As he drew near the city, he came upon the outposts before they were aware of him, and easily dispersing them because they were taken by surprise he slew a few and pursued the rest within the walls.
§ 13.72.5 When the Athenians learned what had happened, they issued orders for all the older men and the sturdiest of the youth to present themselves under arms. Since these promptly responded to the call, the circuit of the wall was manned with those who had rushed together to meet the common peril;
§ 13.72.6 and the Athenian generals, when in the morning they surveyed the army of the enemy extended in a line four men deep and eight stades in length, at the moment were at first dismayed, seeing as they did that approximately two-thirds of the wall was surrounded by the enemy.
§ 13.72.7 After this, however, they sent out their cavalry, who were about equal in number to the opposing cavalry, and when the two bodies met in a cavalry-battle before the city, sharp fighting ensued which lasted for some time. For the line of the infantry was some five stades from the wall, but the cavalry which had engaged each other were fighting at the very walls.
§ 13.72.8 Now the Boeotians, who by themselves alone had formerly defeated the Athenians at Delium, thought it would be a terrible thing if they should prove to be inferior to the men they had once conquered, while the Athenians, since they had as spectators of their valour the populace standing upon the walls and were known every one to them, were ready to endure everything for the sake of victory.
§ 13.72.9 Finally, overpowering their opponents they slew great numbers of them and pursued the remainder as far as the line of the infantry. After this when the infantry advanced against them, they withdrew within the city.
§ 13.73.1 Agis, deciding for the time not to lay siege to the city, pitched camp in the Academy, but on the next day, after the Athenians had set up a trophy, he drew up his army in battle order and challenged the troops in the city to fight it out for the possession of the trophy.
§ 13.73.2 The Athenians led forth their soldiers and drew them up along the wall, and at first the Lacedemonians advanced to offer battle, but since a great multitude of missiles was hurled at them from the walls, they led their army away from the city. After this they ravaged the rest of Attica and then departed to the Peloponnesus.
§ 13.73.3 Alcibiades, having sailed with all his ships from Samos to Cyme, hurled false charges against the Cymaeans, since he wished to have an excuse for plundering their territory. And at the outset he gained possession of many captives and was taking them to his ships;
§ 13.73.4 but when the men of the city came out en masse to the rescue and fell unexpectedly on Alcibiades' troops, for a time they stood off the attack, but as later many from the city and countryside reinforced the Cymaeans, they were forced to abandon their prisoners and flee for safety to their ships.
§ 13.73.5 Alcibiades, being greatly distressed by his reverses, summoned his hoplites from Mitylene, and drawing up his army before the city he challenged the Cymaeans to battle; but when no one came out of the city, he ravaged its territory and sailed off to Mitylene.
§ 13.73.6 The Cymaeans dispatched an embassy to Athens and denounced Alcibiades for having laid waste an allied city which had done no wrong; and there were also many other charges brought against him; for some of the soldiers at Samos, who were at odds with him, sailed to Athens and accused Alcibiades in the Assembly of favouring the Lacedemonian cause and of forming ties of friendship with Pharnabazus whereby he hoped that at the conclusion of the war he should lord it over his fellow citizens.
§ 13.74.1 Since the multitude soon began to believe these accusations, not only was the fame of Alcibiades damaged because of his defeat in the sea-battle and the wrongs he had committed against Cyme, but the Athenian people, viewing with suspicion the boldness of the man, chose as the ten generals Conon, Lysias, Diomedon, and Pericles, and in addition Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasybulus, and Aristogenes. Of these they gave first place to Conon and dispatched him at once to take over the fleet from Alcibiades.
§ 13.74.2 After Alcibiades had relinquished his command to Conon and handed over his armaments, he gave up any thought of returning to Athens, but with one trireme withdrew to Pactye in Thrace, since, apart from the anger of the multitude, he was afraid of the law-suits which had been brought against him.
§ 13.74.3 For there were many who, on seeing how he was hated, had filed numerous complaints against him, the most important of which was the one about the horses, involving the sum of eight talents. Diomedes, it appears, one of his friends, had sent in his care a four-horse team to Olympia; and Alcibiades, when entering it in the usual way, listed the horses as his own; and when he was the victor in the four-horse race, Alcibiades took for himself the glory of the victory and did not return the horses to the man who had entrusted them to his care.
§ 13.74.4 As he thought about all these things he was afraid lest the Athenians, seizing a suitable occasion, would inflict punishment upon him for all the wrongs he had committed against them. Consequently he himself condemned himself to exile.
§ 13.75.1 The two-horse chariot race was added in this same Olympic Festival; and, among the Lacedemonians Pleistonax, their king, died after a reign of fifty years, and Pausanias succeeded to the throne and reigned for fourteen years. Also the inhabitants of the island of Rhodes left the cities of Ielysus, Lindus and Cameirus and settled in one city, that which is now called Rhodes.
§ 13.75.2 Hermocrates, the Syracusan, taking his soldiers set out from Selinus, and on arriving at Himera he pitched camp in the suburbs of the city, which lay in ruins. And finding out the place where the Syracusans had made their stand, he collected the bones of the dead and putting them upon wagons which he had constructed and embellished at great cost he conveyed them to Syracuse.
§ 13.75.3 Now Hermocrates himself stopped at the border of Syracusan territory, since the exiles were forbidden by the laws from accompanying the bones farther, but he sent on some of his troops who brought the wagons to Syracuse.
§ 13.75.4 Hermocrates acted in this way in order that Diocles, who opposed his return and was generally believed to be responsible for lack of concern over the failure to bury the dead, should fall out with the masses, whereas he, by his humane consideration for the dead, would win the multitude back to the feeling of goodwill in which they had formerly held him.
§ 13.75.5 Now when the bones had been brought into the city, civil discord arose among the masses, Diocles objecting to their burial and the majority favouring it. Finally the Syracusans not only buried the remains of the dead but also by turning out en masse paid honour to the burial procession. Diocles was exiled; but even so they did not receive Hermocrates back, since they were wary of the daring of the man and feared lest, once he had gained a position of leadership, he should proclaim himself tyrant.
§ 13.75.6 Accordingly Hermocrates, seeing that the time was not opportune for resorting to force, withdrew again to Selinus. But some time later, when his friends sent for him, he set out with three thousand soldiers, and making his way through the territory of Gela he arrived at night at the place agreed upon.
§ 13.75.7 Although not all his soldiers had been able to accompany him, Hermocrates with a small number of them came to the gate on Achradine, and when he found that some of his friends had already occupied the region, he waited to pick up the late-comers.
§ 13.75.8 But when the Syracusans heard what had happened, they gathered in the market-place under arms, and here, since they appeared accompanied by a great multitude, they slew both Hermocrates and most of his supporters. Those who had not been killed in the fighting were brought to trial and sentenced to exile;
§ 13.75.9 consequently some of them who had been severely wounded were reported by their relatives as having died, in order that they might not be given over to the wrath of the multitude. Among their number was Dionysius, who later became tyrant of the Syracusans.
§ 13.76.1 When the events of this year came to an end, in Athens Antigenes took over the office of archon and the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Manius Aemilius and Gaius Valerius. About this time Conon, the Athenian general, now that he had taken over the armaments in Samos, fitted out the ships which were in that place and also collected those of the allies, since he was intent upon making his fleet a match for the ships of the enemy.
§ 13.76.2 And the Spartans, when Lysander's period of command as admiral had expired, dispatched Callicratidas to succeed him. Callicratidas was a very young man, without guile and straightforward in character, since he had had as yet no experience of the ways of foreign peoples, and was the most just man among the Spartans; and it is agreed by all that also during his period of command he committed no wrong against either a city or a private citizen but dealt summarily with those who tried to corrupt him with money and had them punished.
§ 13.76.3 He put in at Ephesus and took over the fleet, and since he had already sent for the ships of the allies, the sum total he took over, including those of Lysander, was one hundred and forty. And since the Athenians had Delphinium in the territory of the Chians, he sailed against them with all his ships and undertook to lay siege to it.
§ 13.76.4 The Athenians, who numbered some five hundred, were dismayed at the great size of his force and abandoned the place, passing through the enemy under a truce. Callicratidas took over the fortress and levelled it to the ground, and then, sailing against the Teians, he stole inside the walls of the city by night and plundered it.
§ 13.76.5 After this he sailed to Lesbos and with his force attacked Methymne, which held a garrison of Athenians. Although he launched repeated assaults, at first he accomplished nothing, but soon afterward, with the help of certain men who betrayed the city to him, he broke inside its walls, and although he plundered its wealth, he spared lives of the inhabitants and returned the city to the Methymnaeans.
§ 13.76.6 After these exploits he made for Mitylene; and assigning the hoplites to Thorax, the Lacedemonian, he ordered him to advance by land with all speed and himself sailed on past Thorax with his fleet.
§ 13.77.1 Conon, the Athenian general, had seventy ships which he had fitted out with everything necessary for making war at sea more carefully than any other general had ever done by way of preparation. Now it so happened that he had put out to sea with all his ships when he went to the aid of Methymne;
§ 13.77.2 but on discovering that it had already fallen, at the time he had bivouacked at one of the Hundred Isles, as they are called, and at daybreak, when he observed that the enemy's ships were bearing down on him, he decided that it would be dangerous for him to join battle in that place with triremes double his in number, but he planned to avoid battle by sailing outside the Isles and, drawing some of the enemy's triremes after him, to engage them off Mitylene. For by such tactics, he assumed, in case of victory he could turn about and pursue and in case of defeat he could withdraw for safety to the harbour.
§ 13.77.3 Consequently, having put his soldiers on board ship, he set out with the oars at a leisurely stroke in order that the ships of the Peloponnesians might draw near him. And the Lacedemonians, as they approached, kept driving the ships faster and faster in the hope of seizing the hindmost ships of the enemy.
§ 13.77.4 As Conon withdrew, the commanders of the best ships of the Peloponnesians pushed the pursuit hotly, and they wore out the rowers by their continued exertion at the oars and were themselves separated a long distance from the others. Conon, noticing this, when his ships were already near Mitylene, raised from his flagship a red banner, for this was a signal for the captains of the triremes.
§ 13.77.5 At this his ships, even as the enemy was overhauling them, suddenly turned about at the same moment, and the crews raised the battle-song and the trumpeters sounded the attack. The Peloponnesians, dismayed at the turn of events, hastily endeavoured to draw up their ships to repel the attack, but as there was not time for them to turn about they had fallen into great confusion because the ships coming up after them had left their accustomed position.
§ 13.78.1 Conon, making clever use of the opportunity, at once pressed upon them, and prevented their establishing any order, damaging some ships and shearing off the rows of oars of others. Of the ships opposing Conon not one turned to flight, but they continued to back water while waiting for the ships which tarried behind;
§ 13.78.2 but the Athenians who held the left wing, putting to flight their opponents, pressed upon them with increasing eagerness and pursued them for a long time. But when the Peloponnesians had brought all their ships together, Conon, fearing the superior numbers of the enemy, stopped the pursuit and sailed off to Mitylene with forty ships.
§ 13.78.3 As for the Athenians who had set out in pursuit, all the Peloponnesian ships, swarming around them, struck terror into them, and cutting them off from return to the city compelled them to turn in flight to land. And since the Peloponnesians pressed upon them with all their ships, the Athenians, seeing no other means of deliverance, fled for safety to the land and deserting their vessels found refuge in Mitylene.
§ 13.78.4 Callicratidas, by the capture of thirty ships, was aware that the naval power of the enemy had been destroyed, but he anticipated that the fighting on land remained. Consequently he sailed on to the city, and Conon, who was expecting a siege when he arrived, began upon preparations about the entrance to the harbour; for in the shallow places of the harbour he sank small boats filled with rocks and in the deep waters he anchored merchantmen armed with stones.
§ 13.78.5 Now the Athenians and a great throng of the Mitylenaeans who had gathered from the fields into the city because of the war speedily completed preparations for the siege. Callicratidas, disembarking his soldiers on the beach near the city, pitched a camp, and then he set up a trophy for the sea-battle. And on the next day, after choosing out his beside ships and commanding them not to get far from his own ship, he put out to sea, being eager to sail into the harbour and break the barrier constructed by the enemy.
§ 13.78.6 Conon put some of his soldiers on the triremes, which he placed with their prows facing the open passage, and some he assigned to the large vessels, while others he sent to the breakwaters of the harbour in order that the harbour might be fenced in on every side, both by land and by sea.
§ 13.78.7 Then Conon himself with his triremes joined the battle, filling with his ships the space lying between the barriers; and the soldiers stationed on the large ships hurled the stones from the yardarms upon the ships of the enemy, while those drawn up on the breakwaters of the harbour held off those who might have ventured to disembark on the land.
§ 13.79.1 The Peloponnesians were not a whit outdone by the emulation displayed by the Athenians. Advancing with their ships in mass formation and with their best soldiers lined up on the decks they made the sea-battle also a fight between infantry; for as they pressed upon their opponents' ships they boldly boarded their prows, in the belief that men who had once been defeated would not stand up to the terror of battle.
§ 13.79.2 But the Athenians and Mitylenaeans, seeing that the single hope of safety left to them lay in their victory, were resolved to die nobly rather than leave their station. And so, since an unsurpassable emulation pervaded both forces, a great slaughter ensued, all the participants exposing their bodies, without regard of risk, to the perils of battle.
§ 13.79.3 The soldiers on the decks were wounded by the multitude of missiles which flew at them, and some of them, who were mortally struck, fell into the sea, while some, so long as their wounds were fresh, fought on without feeling them; but very many fell victims to the stones that were hurled by the stone-carrying yardarms, since the Athenians kept up a shower of huge stones from these commanding positions.
§ 13.79.4 The fighting had continued, none the less, for a long while and many had met death on both sides, when Callicratidas, wishing to give his soldiers a breathing-spell, sounded the recall.
§ 13.79.5 After some time he again manned his ships and continued the struggle over a long period, and with great effort, by means of the superior number of his ships and the strength of the marines, he thrust out the Athenians. And when the Athenians fled for refuge to the harbour within the city, he sailed through the barriers and brought his ships to anchor near the city of the Mitylenaeans.
§ 13.79.6 It may be explained that the entrance for whose control they had fought had a good harbour, which, however, lies outside the city. For the ancient city is a small island, and the later city, which was founded near it, is opposite it on the island of Lesbos; and between the two cities is a narrow strait which also adds strength to the city.
§ 13.79.7 Callicratidas now, disembarking his troops, invested the city and launched assaults upon it from every side. Such was the state of affairs at Mitylene.
§ 13.79.8 In Sicily the Syracusans, sending ambassadors to Carthage, not only censured them for the war but required that for the future they cease from hostilities. To them the Carthaginians gave ambiguous answers and set about assembling great armaments in Libya, since their desire was fixed on enslaving all the cities of the island; but before sending their forces across to Sicily they picked out volunteers from their citizens and the other inhabitants of Libya and founded in Sicily right at the warm (therma) springs a city which they named Therma.
§ 13.80.1 When the events of this year came to an end, in Athens Callias succeeded to the office of archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Furius and Gnaeus Pompeius. At this time the Carthaginians, being elated over their successes in Sicily and eager to become lords of the whole island, voted to prepare great armaments; and electing as general Hannibal, who had razed to the ground both the city of the Selinuntians and that of the Himeraeans, they committed to him full authority over the conduct of the war. When he begged to be excused because of his age, they appointed besides him another general, Himilcon, the son of Hanno and of the same family.
§ 13.80.2 These two, after full consultation, dispatched certain citizens who were held in high esteem among the Carthaginians with large sums of money, some to Iberia and others to the Baliarides Islands, with orders to recruit as many mercenaries as possible.
§ 13.80.3 And they themselves canvassed Libya, enrolling as soldiers Libyans and Phoenicians and the stoutest from among their own citizens. Moreover they summoned soldiers also from the nations and kings who were their allies, Maurusians and Nomads and certain peoples who dwell in the regions toward Cyrene.
§ 13.80.4 Also from Italy they hired Campanians and brought them over to Libya; for they knew that their aid would be of great assistance to them and that the Campanians who had been left behind in Sicily, because they had fallen out with the Carthaginians, would fight on the side of the Sicilian Greeks.
§ 13.80.5 And when the armaments were finally assembled at Carthage, the sum total of the troops collected together with the cavalry was a little over one hundred and twenty thousand, according to Timaeus, but three hundred thousand, according to Ephorus. The Carthaginians, in preparation for their crossing over to Sicily, made ready and equipped all their triremes and also assembled more than a thousand cargo ships,
§ 13.80.6 and when they dispatched in advance forty triremes to Sicily, the Syracusans speedily appeared with about the same time number of warships in the region of Eryx. In the long sea-battle which ensued fifteen of the Phoenician ships were destroyed and the rest, when night fell, fled for safety to the open sea.
§ 13.80.7 And when word of the defeat was brought to the Carthaginians, Hannibal the general set out to sea with fifty ships, since he was eager both to prevent the Syracusans from exploiting their advantage and to make the landing safe for his own armaments.
§ 13.81.1 When news of the reinforcements which Hannibal was bringing was noised throughout Sicily, everyone expected that his armaments would also be brought over at once. And the city, as they heard of the great scale of the preparations and came to the conclusion that the struggle was to be for their very existence, were distressed without measure.
§ 13.81.2 Accordingly the Syracusans set about negotiating alliances both with the Greeks of Italy and with the Lacedemonians; and they also continued to dispatch emissaries to the cities of Sicily to arouse the masses to fight for the common freedom.
§ 13.81.3 The Acragantini, because they were the nearest to the empire of the Carthaginians, assumed what indeed took place, that the weight of the war would fall on them first. They decided, therefore, to gather not only their grain and other crops but also all their possessions from the countryside within their walls.
§ 13.81.4 At this time, it so happened, both the city and the territory of the Acragantini enjoyed great prosperity, which I think it would not be out of place for me to describe. Their vineyards excelled in their great extent and beauty and the greater part of their territory was planted in olive-trees from which they gathered an abundant harvest and sold to Carthage;
§ 13.81.5 for since Libya at that time was not yet planted in fruit-trees, the inhabitants of the territory belonging to Acragas took in exchange for their products the wealth of Acragas and accused fortunes of unbelievable size. Of this wealth there remain among them many evidences, which it will not foreign to our purpose to discuss briefly.
§ 13.82.1 Now the sacred buildings which they constructed, and especially the temple of Zeus, bear witness to the grand manner of the men of that day. Of the other sacred buildings some have been burned and others completely destroyed because of the many times the city has been taken in war, but the completion of the temple of Zeus, which was ready to receive its roof, was prevented by the war; and after the war, since the city had been completely destroyed, never in the subsequent years did the Acragantini find themselves able to finish their buildings.
§ 13.82.2 The temple has a length of three hundred and forty feet, a width of sixty, and a height of one hundred and twenty not including the foundation. And being as it is the largest temple in Sicily, it may not unreasonably be compared, so far as magnitude of its substructure is concerned, with the temples outside of Sicily; for even though, as it turned out, the design could not be carried out, the scale of the undertaking at any rate is clear.
§ 13.82.3 And though all other men build their temples either with walls forming the sides or with rows of columns, thrown enclosing their sanctuaries, this temple combines both these plans; for the columns were built in with the walls, the part extending outside the temple being rounded and that within square; and the circumference of the outer part of the column which extends from the wall is twenty feet and the body of a man may be contained in the fluting, while that of the inner part is twelve feet.
§ 13.82.4 The porticoes were of enormous size and height, and in the east pediment they portrayed The Battle between the Gods and the Giants which excelled in size and beauty, and in the west The Capture of Troy, in which each one of the heroes may be seen portrayed in a manner appropriate to his role.
§ 13.82.5 There was at that time also an artificial pool outside the city, seven stades in circumference and twenty cubits deep; into this they brought water and ingeniously contrived to produce a multitude of fish of every variety for their public feastings, and with the fish swans spent their time and a vast multitude of every other kind of bird, so that the pool was an object of great delight to gaze upon.
§ 13.82.6 And witness to the luxury of the inhabitants is also the extravagant cost of the monuments which they erected, some adorned with sculptured race-horses and others with the pet birds kept by girls and boys in their homes, monuments which Timaeus says he had seen extant even in his own lifetime.
§ 13.82.7 And in the Olympiad previous to the one we are discussing, namely, the Ninety-second, when Exaenetus of Acragas won the "stadion," he was conducted into the city in a chariot and in the procession there were, not to speak of the other things, three hundred chariots belonging to citizens of Acragas.
§ 13.82.8 Speaking generally, they led from youth onward a manner of life which was luxurious, wearing as they did exceedingly delicate clothing and gold ornaments and, besides, using strigils and oil-flasks made of silver and even of gold.
§ 13.83.1 Among the Acragantini of that time perhaps the richest man was Tellias, who had in his mansion a considerable number of guest-chambers and used to station servants before his gates with orders to invite every stranger to be his guest. There were also many other Acragantini who did something of this kind, mingling with others in an old-fashioned and friendly manner; consequently also Empedocles speaks of them as Havens of mercy for strangers, unacquainted with evil.
§ 13.83.2 Indeed once when five hundred cavalry from Gela arrived there during a wintry storm, as Timaeus says in his Fifteenth Book, Tellias entertained all of them by himself and provided them all forthwith from his own stores with outer and under garments.
§ 13.83.3 And Polycleitus in his Histories describes the wine-cellar in the house as still existing and as he had himself seen it when in Acragas as a soldier; there were in it, he states, three hundred great casks hewn out of the very rock, each of them with a capacity of one hundred amphoras, and beside them was a wine-vat, plastered with stucco and with a capacity of one thousand amphoras, from which the wine flowed into the casks.
§ 13.83.4 And we are told that Tellias was quite plain in appearance but wonderful in character. So once when he had been dispatched on an embassy to the people of Centoripa and came forward to speak before the Assembly, the multitude broke into unseemly laughter as they saw how much he fell short of their expectation. But he, interrupting them, said, "Don't be surprised, for it is the practice of the Acragantini to send to famous cities their most handsome citizens, but to insignificant and most paltry cities men of their sort."
§ 13.84.1 It was not in the case of Tellias only that such magnificence of wealth occurred, he says, but also of many other inhabitants of Acragas. Antisthenes at any rate, who was called Rhodus, when celebrating the marriage of his daughter, gave a party to all the citizens in the courtyards where they all lived and more than eight hundred chariots followed the bride in the procession; furthermore, not only the men on horseback from the city itself but also many from neighbouring cities who had been invited to the wedding joined to form the escort of the bride.
§ 13.84.2 But most extraordinary of all, we are told, was the provision for its lightning: the altars in all the sanctuaries and those in the courtyards throughout the city he had piled high with wood, and to the shopkeepers he gave firewood and brush with orders that when a fire was kindled on the acropolis they should all do the same;
§ 13.84.3 and when they did as they were ordered, at the time when the bride was brought to her home, since there were many torch-bearers in the procession, the city was filled with light, and the main streets through which the procession was to pass could not contain the accompanying throng, all the inhabitants zealously emulating the man's grand manner. For at that time the citizens of Acragas numbered more than twenty thousand, and when resident aliens were included, not less than two hundred thousand.
§ 13.84.4 And men say that once when Antisthenes saw his son quarrelling with a neighbouring farmer, a poor man, and pressing him to sell him his little plot of land, for a time he merely reproved his son; but when his son's cupidity grew more intense, he said to him that he should not be doing his best to make his neighbour poor but, on the contrary, to make him rich; for then the man would long for more land, and when he would be unable to buy additional land from his neighbour he would sell what he now had.
§ 13.84.5 Because of the immense prosperity prevailing in the city the Acragantini came to live on such a scale of luxury that a little later, when the city was under siege, they passed a decree about the guards who spent the nights at their posts, that none of them should have more than one mattress, one cover, one sheepskin, and two pillows.
§ 13.84.6 When such was their most rigorous kind of bedding, one can get an idea of the luxury which prevailed in their living generally. Now it was our wish neither to pass these matters by nor yet to speak of them at greater length, in order that we may not fail to record the more important events.
§ 13.85.1 The Carthaginians, after transporting their armaments to Sicily, marched against the city of the Acragantini and made two encampments, one on certain hills where they stationed the Iberians and some Libyans to the number of about forty thousand, and the other they pitched not far from the city and surrounded it with deep trench and a palisade.
§ 13.85.2 And first they dispatched ambassadors to the Acragantini, asking them, preferably, to become their allies, but otherwise to stay neutral and be friends with the Carthaginians, thereby remaining in peace; and when the inhabitants of the city would not entertain these terms, the siege was begun at once.
§ 13.85.3 The Acragantini thereupon armed all those of military age, and forming them in battle order they stationed one group upon the walls and the other as a reserve to replace the soldiers as they became worn out. Fighting with them was also Dexippus the Lacedemonian, who had lately arrived there from Gela with fifteen hundred mercenaries; for at that time, at Timaeus says, Dexippus was tarrying in Gela, enjoying high regard by reason of the city of his birth.
§ 13.85.4 Consequently the Acragantini invited him to recruit as many mercenaries as he could and come to Acragas; and together with them the Campanians who had formerly fought with Hannibal, some eight hundred, were also hired. These mercenaries held the height above the city which is called the Hill of Athena and strategically situated overhanging the city.
§ 13.85.5 Himilcar and Hannibal, the Carthaginian generals, noting, after they had surveyed the walls, that in one place the city was easily assailable, advanced two enormous towers against the walls. During the first day they pressed the siege from these towers, and after inflicting many casualties then sounded the recall for their soldiers; but when night had fallen the defenders of the city launched a counter-attack and burned the siege-engines.
§ 13.86.1 Hannibal, being eager to launch assaults in an increasing number of places, ordered the soldiers to tear down the monuments and tombs and to build mounds extending to the walls. But when these works had been quickly completed because of the united labour of many hands, a deep superstitious fear fell upon the army.
§ 13.86.2 For it happened that the tomb of Theron, which was exceedingly large, was shaken by a stroke of lightning; consequently, when it was being torn down, certain soothsayers, presaging what might happen, forbade it, and at once a plague broke out in the army, and many died of it while not a few suffered tortures and grievous distress.
§ 13.86.3 Among the dead was also Hannibal the general, and among the watch-guards who were sent out there were some who reported that in the night spirits of the dead were to be seen. Himilcar, on seeing how the throng was beset with superstitious fear, first of all put a stop to the destruction of the monuments, and then he supplicated the gods after the custom of his people by sacrificing a young boy to Cronus and a multitude of cattle to Poseidon by drowning them in the sea. He did not, however, neglect the siege works, but filling up the river which ran beside the city as far as the walls, he advanced all his siege-engines against them and launched daily assaults.
§ 13.86.4 The Syracusans, seeing that Acragas was under siege and fearing lest the besieged might suffer the same fate as befell the Selinuntians and Himeraeans, had long been eager to send them their aid, and when at this juncture allied troops arrived from Italy and Messene they elected Daphnaeus general.
§ 13.86.5 Collecting their forces they added along the way soldiers from Camarina and Gela, and summoning additional troops from the peoples of the interior they made their way towards Acragas, while thirty of their ships sailed along beside them. The forces which they had numbered in all more than thirty thousand infantry and not less than five thousand cavalry.
§ 13.87.1 When Himilcon learned of the approach of the enemy, he dispatched to meet them both his Iberians and his Campanians and more than forty thousand other troops. The Syracusans had already crossed the Himera River when the barbarians met them, and in the long battle which ensued the Syracusans were victorious and slew more than six thousand men.
§ 13.87.2 They would have crushed the whole army completely and pursued it all the way to the city, but since the soldiers were pressing the pursuit without order, the general was concerned lest Himilcar should appear with the rest of his army and retrieve the defeat. For he remembered also how the Himeraeans had been utterly destroyed for the same reason. However, when the barbarians were in flight to their camp before Acragas, the soldiers in the city, seeing the defeat of the Carthaginians, begged their generals to lead them out, saying that the opportunity had come to destroy the host of the enemy.
§ 13.87.3 But the generals, whether they had been bribed, as the report ran, or feared that Himilcon would seize the city if it were stripped of defenders, checked the ardour of the men. So the fleeing men quite safely made good their escape to the camp before the city.
§ 13.87.4 When Daphnaeus with his army arrived at the encampment which the barbarians had deserted, he took up his quarters there. At once both the soldiers from the city mingled with his troops and Dexippus accompanied his men, and the multitude gathered in a tumultuous throng in an assembly, everyone being vexed that the opportunity had been let slip and that although they had the barbarians in their power, they had not inflicted on them the punishment they deserved, but that the generals in the city, although able to lead them forth to attack and destroy the host of the enemy, had let so many myriads of men off scot-free.
§ 13.87.5 While great uproar and tumult prevailed in the assembly, Menes of Camarina, who had been put in command, came forward and lodged an accusation against the Acragantine generals and so incited all who were present that, when the accused tried to offer a defence, and one would let them speak and the multitude began to throw stones and killed four of them, but the fifth, Argeius by name, who was very much younger, they spared. Dexippus the Lacedemonian, we are told, also was the object of abuse on the ground that, although he held a position of command and was reputed to be not inexperienced in warfare, he had acted as he did treacherously.
§ 13.88.1 After the assembly Daphnaeus led forth his forces and undertook to lay siege to the camp of the Carthaginians, but when he saw that it had been fortified with great outlay, he gave up that design; however, by covering the roads with his cavalry he seized such as were foraging, and by cutting off the transport of supplies brought them into serious straits.
§ 13.88.2 The Carthaginians, not daring to wage a pitched battle and being hard pinched by lack of food, were enduring great misfortunes. For many of the soldiers were dying of want, and the Campanians together with the other mercenaries, almost in a body, forced their way to the tent of Himilcar and demanded the rations which had been agreed upon; and if these were not given them, they threatened to go over to the enemy.
§ 13.88.3 But Himilcar had learned from some source that the Syracusans were conveying a great amount of grain to Acragas by sea. Consequently, since this was the only hope he had of salvation, he persuaded the soldiers to wait a few days, giving them as a pledge the goblets belonging to the troops from Carthage.
§ 13.88.4 He then summoned forty triremes from Panormus and Motye and planned an attack upon the ships which were bringing the supplies; and the Syracusans, because up to this time the barbarians had retired from the sea and winter had already set in, held the Carthaginians in contempt, feeling assured that they would not again have the courage to man their triremes.
§ 13.88.5 Consequently, since they gave little concern to the convoying of the supplies, Himilcar, sailing forth unawares for forty triremes, sank eight of their warships and pursued the rest to the beach; and by capturing all the remaining vessels he effected such a reversal in the expectations of both sides that the Campanians who were in the service of the Acragantini, considering the position of the Greeks to be hopeless, were bought off for fifteen talents and went over to the Carthaginians.
§ 13.88.6 The Acragantini at first, when the Carthaginians were faring badly, had enjoyed their grain and other supplies without stint, expecting all the while that the siege would be quickly lifted; but when the hopes of the barbarians began to rise and so many myriads of human beings were gathered into one city, the grain was exhausted before they were aware of it.
§ 13.88.7 And the story is told that also Dexippus the Lacedemonian was corrupted by a bribe of fifteen talents; for without hesitation he replied to a question of the generals of the Italian Greeks, "Yes, it's better if the war is settled somewhere else, for our provisions have failed." Consequently the generals, offering as their excuse that the time agreed upon for the campaign had elapsed, led their troops off to the Strait.
§ 13.88.8 After the departure of these troops the generals met with the commanders and decided of make a survey of the supply of grain in the city, and when they discovered that it was quite low, they perceived that they were compelled to desert the city. At once, then, they issued orders that all should leave on the next night.
§ 13.89.1 With such a throng of men, women, and children deserting the city, at once endless lamentation and tears pervaded all homes. For while they were panic-stricken from fear of the enemy, at the same time they were also under necessity, because of their haste, of leaving behind as booty for the barbarians the possessions on which they had based their happiness; for when Fortune was robbing them of the comforts they enjoyed in their homes, they thought that they should be content that at least they were preserving their lives.
§ 13.89.2 And one could see the abandonment not only of the opulence of so wealthy a city but also of a multitude of human beings. For the sick were neglected by their relatives, everyone taking thought for his own safety, and those who were already far advanced in years were abandoned because of the weakness of old age; and many, reckoning even speculation from their native city to be the equivalent of death, laid hands upon themselves in order that they might breathe their last in the dwellings of their ancestors.
§ 13.89.3 However, the multitude which left the city was given armed escort by the soldiers to Gela; and the highway and all parts of the countryside which led away toward the territory of the Geloans were crowded with women and children intermingled with maidens, who, changing from the pampered life to which they had been accustomed to a strenuous journey by foot and extreme hardship, held out to the end, since fear nerved their souls.
§ 13.89.4 Now these got safely to Gela and at a later time made their home in Leontini, the Syracusans having given them this city for their dwelling-place.
§ 13.90.1 Himilcar, leading his army at dawn within the walls, put to death practically all who had been left behind; yes, even those who had fled for safety to the temples the Carthaginians hauled out and slew.
§ 13.90.2 And we are told that Tellias, who was the foremost citizen in wealth and honourable character, shared in the misfortune of his country: He had decided to take refuge with certain others in the sanctuary of Athena, thinking that the Carthaginians would refrain from acts of lawlessness against the gods, but when he saw their impiety, he set fire to the temple and burned himself together with the dedications in it. For by one deed, he thought, he would withhold from the gods impiety, from the enemy a vast store of plunder, and from himself, most important of all, certain physical indignity.
§ 13.90.3 But Himilcar, after pillaging and industriously ransacking the sanctuaries and dwellings, collected as great a store of booty as a city could be expected to yield which had been inhabited by two hundred thousand people, had gone unravaged since the date of its founding, had been well-nigh the wealthiest of the Greek cities of that day, and whose citizens, furthermore, had shown their love of the beautiful in expensive collections of works of art of every description.
§ 13.90.4 Indeed a multitude of paintings executed with the greatest care was found and an extraordinary number of sculptures of every description and worked with great skill, The most valuable pieces, accordingly, Himilcar sent to Carthage, among which, as it turned out, was the bull of Phalaris, and the rest of the pillage he sold as booty.
§ 13.90.5 As regards this bull, although Timaeus in his History has maintained that it never existed at all, he has been refuted by Fortune herself; for some two hundred and sixty years after the capture of Acragas, when Scipio sacked Carthage, he returned to the Acragantini, together with their others possessions still in the hands of the Carthaginians, the bull, which was still in Acragas at the time this history was being written.
§ 13.90.6 I have been led to speak of this matter rather copiously because Timaeus, who criticized most bitterly the historians before his time and left the writers of history bereft of all forgiveness, is himself caught improvising in the very province where he most proclaims his own accuracy.
§ 13.90.7 For historians should, in my opinion, be granted charity in errors that come of ignorance, since they are human beings and since the truth of ages past is hard to discover, but historians who deliberately do not give the exact facts should properly be open to censure, whenever in flattering one man or another or in attacking others from hatred too bitterly, they stray from the truth.
§ 13.91.1 Since Himilcar, after besieging the city for eight months, had taken it shortly before the winter solstice, he did not destroy it at once, in order that his forces might winter in the dwellings. But when the misfortune that had befallen Acragas was noised abroad, such fear took possession of the island that of the Sicilian Greeks some removed to Syracuse and others transferred their children and wives and all their possessions to Italy.
§ 13.91.2 The Acragantini who had escaped being taken captive, when they arrived in Syracuse, lodged accusations against their generals, asserting that it was due to their treachery that their country had perished. And it so happened that the Syracusans also came in for censure by the rest of the Sicilian Greeks, because, as they charged, they elected the kind of leaders through whose fault the whole of Sicily ran the risk of destruction.
§ 13.91.3 Nevertheless, even though an assembly of the people was held in Syracuse and great fears hung over them, not a man would venture to offer any counsel respecting the war. While everyone was at a loss what to do, Dionysius, the son of Hermocrates, taking the floor, accused the generals of betraying their cause to the Carthaginians and stirred up the assemblage to exact punishment of them, urging them not to await the futile procedure prescribed by the laws but to pass judgement upon them at once.
§ 13.91.4 And when the archons, in accordance with the laws, laid a fine upon Dionysius on the charge of raising an uproar, Philistus, who later composed his History, a man of great wealth, paid the fine and urged Dionysius to speak out whatever he had had in his mind to say. And when Philistus went on to say that if they wanted to fine Dionysius throughout the whole day he would provide the money for him, from then on Dionysius, full of confidence, hand stirring up the multitude, and throwing the assembly into confusion he accused the generals of taking bribes to put the security of the Acragantini in jeopardy. And he also denounced the rest of the most renowned citizens, presenting them as friends of oligarchy.
§ 13.91.5 Consequently he advised them to choose as generals not the most influential citizens, but rather those who were the best disposed and most favourable to the people; for the former, he maintained, ruling the citizens as they do in a despotic manner, hold the many in contempt and consider the misfortunes of their country their own source of income, whereas the more humble will do none of such things, since they fear their own weakness.
§ 13.92.1 Dionysius, by suiting every word of his harangue to the people to the predilection of his hearers and his own personal design, stirred the anger of the assembly to no small degree; for the people, which for some time past had hated the generals for what they considered to be their bad conduct of the war and at the moment were spurred on by what was being said to them, immediately dismissed some of them from office and chose other generals, among whom was also Dionysius, who enjoyed the reputation of having shown unusual bravery in the battles against the Carthaginians and was admired of all the Syracusans.
§ 13.92.2 Having become elated, therefore, in his hopes, he tried every device to become tyrant of his country. For example, after assuming office he neither participated in the meetings of the generals nor associated with them in any way; and while acting in this manner he spread the report that they were carrying on negotiations with the enemy. For in this way he hoped that he could most effectively strip them of their power and clothe himself alone with the office of general.
§ 13.92.3 While Dionysius was acting in this fashion, the most respectable citizens suspected what was taking place and in every gathering spoke disparagingly of him, but the common crowd, being ignorant of his scheme, gave him their approbation and declared that at long last teach had found a steadfast leader.
§ 13.92.4 However, when the assembly convened time and again to consider preparations for the war, Dionysius, observing that fear of the enemy had struck the Syracusans with terror, advised them to recall the exiles;
§ 13.92.5 for it was absurd, he said, to seek aid from peoples other states in Italy and the Peloponnesus and to be unwilling to enlist the assistance of their fellow citizens in facing their own dangers, citizens who, although the enemy kept promising them great rewards for their military co operation, chose rather to die as wanderers on foreign soil than plan some hostile act against their native land.
§ 13.92.6 And in fact, he declared, men who were now in exile because of past civil strife in the city, if at this time they were the recipients of this benefaction, would fight with eagerness, showing in this way their appreciation to their benefactors. After reciting many arguments for this proposal that bore on the situation, he won the votes of the Syracusans to his view; for no one of his colleagues in office dared oppose him in the matter both because of the eagerness shown by multitude and because each observed that he himself would gain only enmity, while Dionysius would heap a reward of gratitude from those who had received kindness from him.
§ 13.92.7 Dionysius took this course in the hope that he would win the exile for himself, men who wished a change and would be favourably disposed toward the establishment of a tyranny; for they would be happy to witness the murder of their enemies, the confiscation of their property, and the restoration to themselves of their possessions. And when finally the resolution regarding the exiles was passed, these returned at once to their native land.
§ 13.93.1 When messages were brought from Gela requesting the dispatch of additional troops, Dionysius got a favourable means of accomplishing his own purpose. Having been dispatched with two thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry, he arrived speedily at the city of the Geloans, which at that time was under the eye of Dexippus, the Lacedemonian, who had been put in charge by the Syracusans.
§ 13.93.2 And when Dionysius on arrival found the wealthiest citizens engaged in strife with the people, he accused them in an assembly and secured their condemnation, whereupon he put them to death and confiscated their possessions. With the money thus gained he paid the guards of the city under the command of Dexippus the wages which were owing them, while to his own troops who had come with him from Syracuse he promised he would pay double the wages which the city had determined.
§ 13.93.3 In this manner he won over to himself the loyalty not only of the soldiers in Gela but also of those whom he had brought with him. He also gained the approval of the populace of the Geloans, who believed him to be responsible for their liberation; for in their envy of the most influential citizens they stigmatized the superiority these men possessed as a despotism over themselves.
§ 13.93.4 Consequently they dispatched ambassadors who sang his praises in Syracuse and reported decrees in which they honoured him with rich gifts. Dionysius also undertook to persuade Dexippus to associate himself with his design, and when Dexippus would not join with him, he was on the point of returning with his own troops to Syracuse.
§ 13.93.5 But the Geloans, on learning that the Carthaginians with their entire host were going to make Gela the first object of attack, besought Dionysius to remain and not to stand idly by while they suffered the same fate as the Acragantini. Dionysius replied to them that he would return speedily with a larger force and set forth from Gela with his own soldiers.
§ 13.94.1 A play was being presented in Syracuse and Dionysius arrived in the city at the time when the people were leaving the theatre. When the populace rushed in throngs to him and were questioning him about the Carthaginians, they were unaware, he said, that they had more dangerous enemies than their foreign foes — the men within the city in charge of the public interests; these men the citizens trusted while they held public festivals, but these very men, while plundering the public funds, had let the soldiers go unpaid, and although the enemy was making their preparations for the war on a scale which could not be surpassed and were about to lead their forces upon Syracuse, the generals were giving these matters no concern whatsoever.
§ 13.94.2 The reason for such conduct, he continued, he had been aware of before, but now he had got fuller information. For Himilcon had sent a herald to him, ostensibly to treat about the captives, but in fact to urge him, now that Himilcon had induced a large number of Dionysius' colleagues not to bother themselves with what was taking place, at least to offer no opposition, since he, Dionysius, did not choose to co operate with him.
§ 13.94.3 Consequently, Dionysius continued, he did not wish to serve longer as general, but was present in Syracuse to lay down his office; for it was intolerable for him, while the other generals were selling out their country, to be the only one to fight together with the citizens and yet be at the same time destined to be thought in after years to have shared in their betrayal.
§ 13.94.4 Although the populace had been stirred by what Dionysius had said and his words spread through the whole army, at the time every man departed to his home full of anxiety. But on the following day, when an assembly had been convened in which Dionysius won no small approval when he lodged many accusations against the magistrates and stirred up the populace against the generals,
§ 13.94.5 finally some of the members cried out to appoint him general with supreme power and not to wait until the enemy were storming their walls; for the magnitude of the war, they urged, made necessary such a general, through whose leadership their cause could prosper; as for the traitors, their case would be debated in another assembly, since it was foreign to the present situation; indeed at a former time three hundred thousand Carthaginians had been conquered at Himera when Gelon was general with supreme power.
§ 13.95.1 And soon the multitude, as is their wont, swung to the worse decision and Dionysius was appointed general with supreme power. And now, since the situation corresponded to his desires, he proposed a decree that the pay of the mercenaries be doubled; for they would all, he said, if this were done, be more eager for the coming contest, and he urged them not to worry at all about the funds, since it would be an easy task to raise them.
§ 13.95.2 After the assembly was adjourned no small number of the Syracusans condemned what had been done, as if they themselves had not had their way in the matter; for as their thoughts turned to their own state they could imagine the tyrannical power which was to follow. Now these men, in their desire to insure their freedom, had unwittingly established a despot over their country;
§ 13.95.3 Dionysius, on the other hand, wishing to forestall the change of mind on the part of the populace, kept seeking a means whereby he could ask for a guard for his person, for if this were granted him he would easily establish himself in the tyranny. At once, then, he issued orders that all men of military age up to forty years should provide themselves rations for thirty days and report to him under arms at Leontini. This city was at that time an outpost of the Syracusans, being full of exiles and foreigners. For Dionysius hoped that he would have these men on his side, desiring as they did a change of government, and that the majority of the Syracusans would not even come to Leontini.
§ 13.95.4 However, while he was encamped at night in the countryside, he pretended that he was the object of a plot and had his personal servants raise a tumult and uproar; and after doing this he took refuge on the acropolis, where he passed the night, keeping fires burning and summoning to him his most trustworthy soldiers.
§ 13.95.5 And at daybreak, when the common people were gathered into Leontini, he delivered a long plausible speech to further his design and persuaded the populace to give him a guard of six hundred soldiers whomsoever he should select. It is said that Dionysius did this in imitation of Peisistratus the Athenian;
§ 13.95.6 for he, we are told, after wounding himself, appeared before the assembly alleging that he had been the victim of a plot, and because of this he received a guard at the hands of the citizens, by means of which he established the tyranny. And at this time Dionysius, having deceived the multitude by a similar device, put into effect the structure of his tyranny.
§ 13.96.1 For instance Dionysius at once selected such citizens as were without property but bold in spirit, more than a thousand in number, provided them with costly arms, and buoyed them up with extravagant promises; the mercenaries also he won to himself by calling them to him and conversing with them in friendly fashion. He made changes also in the military posts, conferring their commands upon his most faithful followers; and Dexippus the Lacedemonian he dismissed to Greece, for he was suspicious of this man lest he should seize a favourable opportunity and restore to the Syracusans their liberty.
§ 13.96.2 He also called to himself the mercenaries in Gela and gathered from all quarters the exiles and impious, hoping that in these men the tyranny would find its strongest support. While in Syracuse, however, he took up his quarters in the naval station, having openly proclaimed himself tyrant. Although the Syracusans were offended, they were compelled to keep quiet; for they were unable to effect anything now, since not only was the city thronged with mercenary soldiers but the people were filled with fear of the Carthaginians who possessed such powerful armaments.
§ 13.96.3 Now Dionysius straightway married the daughter of Hermocrates, the conqueror of the Athenians, and gave his sister in marriage to Polyxenus, the brother of Hermocrates' wife. This he did out of a desire to draw a distinguished house into relationship with him in order to make firm the tyranny. After this he summoned an assembly and had his most influential opponents, Daphnaeus and Demarchus, put to death.
§ 13.96.4 Now Dionysius, from a scribe and ordinary private citizen, had become tyrant of the largest city in the Greek world; and he maintained his dominance until his death, having ruled as tyrant for thirty-eight years. But we shall give a detailed account of his deeds and of the expansion of his rule in connection with the appropriate periods of time; for it seems that this man, single-handed, established the strongest and longest tyranny of any recorded by history.
§ 13.96.5 The Carthaginians, after their capture of the city, transferred to Carthage both the votive offerings and statues and every object of greatest value, and when they had burned down the temples and plundered the city, they spent the winter there. And in the springtime they made ready every kind of engine of war and of missile, planning to lay siege first to the city of the Geloans.
§ 13.97.1 While these events were taking place, the Athenians, who had suffered a continued series of reverses, conferred citizenship upon the metics and any other aliens who were willing to fight with them; and when a great multitude was quickly enrolled among the citizens, the generals kept mustering for the campaign all who were in fit condition. They made ready sixty ships, and after fitting them out at great expense they sailed forth to Samos, where they found the other generals who had assembled eighty triremes from the rest of the islands.
§ 13.97.2 They also had asked the Samians to man and equip ten additional triremes, and with one hundred and fifty ships in all they set out to sea and put in at the Arginusae Islands, being eager to raise the siege of Mytilene.
§ 13.97.3 When Callicratidas, the admiral of the Lacedemonians, learned of the approach of the ships, he left Eteonicus with the land troops in charge of the siege, while he himself manned one hundred and forty ships and hurriedly put out to sea on the other side of the Arginusae. These islands, which were inhabited at that time and contained a small settlement of Aeolians, lie between Mitylene and Cyme and are but a very small distance from the mainland and the headland of Canis.
§ 13.97.4 The Athenians learned at once of the approach of the enemy, since they lay at anchor no great distance away, but refused battle because of the strong winds and made ready for the conflict on the following day, the Lacedemonians also doing likewise, although the seers on both sides forbade it.
§ 13.97.5 For in the case of the Lacedemonians the head of the victim, which lay on the beach, was lost to sight when the waves broke on it, and the seer accordingly foretold that the admiral would die in the fight. At this prophecy Callicratidas, we are told, remarked, "If I die in the fight, I shall not have lessened the fame of Sparta."
§ 13.97.6 And in the case of the Athenians Thrasybulus their general, who held the supreme command on that day, saw in the night the following vision. He dreamed that he was in Athens and the theatre was crowded, and that he and six of the other generals were playing the Phoenician Women of Euripides, while their competitors were performing the Suppliants; and that it resulted in a "Cadmean victory" for them and they all died, just as did those who waged the campaign against Thebes.
§ 13.97.7 When the seer heard this, he disclosed that seven of the generals would be slain. Since the omens revealed victory, the generals forbade any word going out to the others about their own death but they passed the news of the victory disclosed by the omens throughout the whole army.
§ 13.98.1 The admiral Callicratidas, having assembled his whole force, encouraged them with the appropriate words and concluded his speech as follows. "So eager am I myself to enter battle for my country that, although the seer declares that the victims foretell victory for you but death for me, I am none the less ready to die. Accordingly, knowing that after the death of commanders forces are thrown into confusion, I designate at this time as admiral to succeed me, in case I meet with some mishap, Clearchus, a man who has proved himself in deeds of war."
§ 13.98.2 By these words Callicratidas led not a few to emulate his valour and to become more eager for the battle. The Lacedemonians, exhorting one another, entered their ships, and the Athenians, after hearing the exhortations of their generals summoning them to the struggle, manned the triremes in haste and all took their positions.
§ 13.98.3 Thrasyllus commanded the right wing and also Pericles, the son of the Pericles, who by reason of his influence, had been dubbed "The Olympian"; and he associated with himself on the right wing also Theramenes, giving him a command. At the time Theramenes was on the campaign as a private citizen, although formerly he had often been in command of armaments. The rest of the generals he stationed along the entire line, and the Arginusae Islands, as they are called, he enclosed by his battle order, since he wished to extend his ships as far as possible.4 Callicratidas put out to sea holding himself the right flank, and the left he entrusted to the Boeotians, who were commanded by Thrasondas the Theban. And since he was unable to make his line equal to that of the enemy by reason of the large space occupied by the islands, he divided his force, and forming two fleets fought two battles separately, one on each wing. 5 Consequently he aroused great amazement in the spectators on many sides, since there were four fleets engaged and the ships that had been gathered into one place did not lack many of being three hundred. For this is the greatest sea-battle on record of Greeks against Greeks.
§ 13.99.1 At the very moment when the admirals gave orders to sound the trumpets the whole host on each side, raising the war-cry in turn, made a tremendous shout; and all, as they enthusiastically struck the waves, vied with one another, every man being anxious to be the first to begin the battle.
§ 13.99.2 For the majority were experienced in fighting, because the war had endured so long, and they displayed insuperable enthusiasm, since it was the choicest troops who had been gathered for the decisive contest; for all took it for granted that the conquers in this battle would put an end to the war.
§ 13.99.3 But Callicratidas especially, since he had heard from the seer of the end awaiting him, was eager the compass for himself a death that would be most renowned. Consequently he was the first to drive at the ship of Lysias the general, and shattering it at the first blow together with the triremes accompanying it, he sank it; and as for the other ships, some he rammed and made unseaworthy and from others he tore away the rows of oars and rendered them useless for the fighting.
§ 13.99.4 Last of all he rammed the trireme of Pericles with a rather heavy blow and broke a great hole in the trireme; then, since the beak of his ship stuck tight in the gap and they could not withdraw it, Pericles threw an iron hand on the ship of Callicratidas, and when it was fastened tight, the Athenians, surrounding the ship, sprang upon it, and pouring over its crew put them all to the sword.
§ 13.99.5 It was at this time, we are told, that Callicratidas, after fighting brilliantly and holding out for a long time, finally was worn down by numbers, as he was struck from all directions. As soon as the defeat of the admiral became evident, the result was that the Peloponnesians gave way in fear.
§ 13.99.6 But although the right wing of the Peloponnesians was in flight, the Boeotians, who held the left, continued to put up a stout fight for some time; for both they and the Euboeans who were fighting by their side as well as all the other Greeks who had revolted from the Athenians feared lest the Athenians, if they should once again regain their sovereignty, would exact punishment of them for their revolt. But when they saw that most of their ships had been damaged and that the main body of the victors was turning against them, they were compelled to take flight. Now of the Peloponnesians some found safety in Chios and some in Cyme.
§ 13.100.1 The Athenians, while they pursued the defeated foe for a considerable distance, filled the whole area of the sea in the neighbourhood of the battle with corpses and the wreckage of ships. After this some of the generals thought that they should pick up the dead, since the Athenians are incensed at those who allow the dead to go unburied, but others of them said they should sail to Mitylene and raise the siege with all speed.
§ 13.100.2 But in the meantime a great storm arose, so that the ships were tossed about and the soldiers, by reason both of the hardships they had suffered in the battle and the heavy waves, opposed picking up the dead.
§ 13.100.3 And finally, since the storm increased in violence, they neither sailed to Mitylene nor picked up the dead but were forced by the winds to put in at the Arginusae. The losses in the battle were twenty-five ships of the Athenians together with most of their crews and seventy-seven of the Peloponnesians;
§ 13.100.4 and as a result of the loss of so many ships and of the sailors who manned them the coastline of the territory of the Cymaeans and Phocaeans was strewn with corpses and wreckage.
§ 13.100.5 When Eteonicus, who was besieging Mitylene, learned from someone of the defeat of the Peloponnesians, he sent his ships to Chios and himself retreated with his land forces to the city of the Pyrrhaeans, which was an ally; for he feared lest, if the Athenians should sail against his troops with their fleet and the besieged make a sortie from the city, he should run the risk of losing his entire force.
§ 13.100.6 And the generals of the Athenians, after sailing to Mitylene and picking up Conon and his forty ships, put in at Samos, and from there as their base they set about laying waste the territory of the enemy.
§ 13.100.7 After this the inhabitants of Aeolis and Ionia and of the islands which were allies of the Lacedemonians gathered in Ephesus, and as they counselled together they resolved to send to Spartan to ask for Lysander as admiral; for during the time Lysander had been in command of the fleet he had enjoyed many successes and was believed to excel all others in skill as a general.
§ 13.100.8 The Lacedemonians, however, having a law not to send the same man twice and being unwilling to break the custom of their fathers, chose Aracus as admiral but sent Lysander with him as an ordinary citizen, commanding Aracus to follow the advice of Lysander in every matter. These leaders, having been dispatched to assume the command, set about assembling the greatest possible number of triremes from both the Peloponnesus and their allies.
§ 13.101.1 When the Athenians learned of their success at the Arginusae, they commended the generals for the victory but were incensed that they had allowed the men who had died to maintain their supremacy to go unburied.
§ 13.101.2 Since Theramenes and Thrasybulus had gone off to Athens in advance of the others, the generals, having assumed that it was they who had made accusations before the populace with respect to the dead, dispatched letters against them to the people stating that it was they whom the generals had ordered to pick up the dead. But this very thing turned out to be the principal cause of their undoing.
§ 13.101.3 For although they could have had the help of Theramenes and his associates in the trial, men who both were able orators and had many friends and, most important of all, had been participants in the events relative to the battle, they had them, on the contrary, as adversaries and bitter accusers.
§ 13.101.4 For when the letters were read before the people, the multitude was at once angered at Theramenes and his associates, but after these had presented their defence, it turned out that their anger was directed again on the generals.
§ 13.101.5 Consequently the people served notice on them of their trial and ordered them to turn over the command of the armaments to Conon, whom they freed of the responsibility, while they decreed that the others should report to Athens with all speed. Of the generals Aristogenes and Protomachus, fearing the wrath of the populace, sought safety in flight, but Thrasyllus and Calliades and, besides, Lysias and Pericles and Aristocrates sailed home to Athens with most of their ships, hoping that they would have their crews, which were numerous, to aid them in the trial.
§ 13.101.6 When the populace gathered in the assembly, they gave attention to the accusation and to those who spoke to gratify them, but any who entered a defence they unitedly greeted with clamour and would not allow to speak. And not the least damaging to the generals were the relatives of the dead, who appeared in the assembly in mourning garments and begged the people to punish those who had allowed men who had gladly died on behalf of their country to go unburied.
§ 13.101.7 And in the end the friends of these relatives and the partisans of Theramenes, being many, prevailed and the outcome was that the generals were condemned to death and their property confiscated.
§ 13.102.1 After this action had been taken and while the generals were about to be led off by the public executioners to death, Diomedon, one of the generals, took the floor before the people, a man who was both vigorous in the conduct of war and thought by all to excel both in justice and in the other avoids.
§ 13.102.2 And when all became still, he said: "Men of Athens, may the action which has been taken regarding us turn out well for the state; but as for the vows which we made for the victory, inasmuch as Fortune has prevented our paying them, since it is well that you give thought to them, do you pay them to Zeus the Saviour and Apollo and the Holy Goddesses; for it was to these gods that we made vows before we overcame the enemy."
§ 13.102.3 Now after Diomedon had made this request he was led off to the appointed execution together with the other generals, though among the better citizens he had aroused great compassion and tears; for that the man who was about to meet an unjust death should make no mention whatsoever of his own fate but on behalf of the state which was wronging him should request it to pay his vows to the gods appeared to be an act of a man who was god-fearing and magnanimous and undeserving of the fate that was to befall him.
§ 13.102.4 These men, then, were put to death by the eleven magistrates who are designated by the laws, although far from having committed any crime against the state, they had won the greatest naval battle that had ever taken place of Greeks against Greeks and fought in splendid fashion in other battles and by reason of their individual deeds of valour had set up trophies of victories over their enemies.
§ 13.102.5 To such an extent were the people beside themselves at that time, and provoked unjustly as they were by their political leaders, they vented their rage upon men who were deserving, not of punishment, but of many praises and crowns.
§ 13.103.1 Soon, however, both those who had urged this action and those whom they had persuaded repented, as if the deity had become wroth with them; for those who had been deceived got the wages of their error when not long afterwards they fell he says the power of not one despot only but of thirty;
§ 13.103.2 and the deceiver, who had also proposed the measure, Callixenus, when once the populace had repented, was brought to trial on the charge of having deceived the people, and without being allowed to speak in his defence he was put in chains and thrown into the public prison; and secretly burrowing his way out of the prison with certain others he managed to make his way to the enemy at Deceleia, to the end that by escaping death he might have that finger of scorn pointed at his turpitude not only in Athens but also wherever else there were Greeks throughout his entire life.
§ 13.103.3 Now these, we may say, were the events of this year. And of the historians Philistus ended his first History of Sicily with this year and the capture of Acragas, treating a period of more than eight hundred years in seven Books, and he began his second History where the first leaves off and wrote four Books.
§ 13.103.4 At this same time Sophocles the son of Sophilus, the writer of tragedies, died at the age of ninety years, after he had won the prize eighteen times. And we are told of this man that when he presented his last tragedy and won the prize, he was filled with insuperable jubilation which was also the cause of his death.
§ 13.103.5 And Apollodorus, who composed his Chronology, states that Euripides also died in the same year; although others say that he was living at the court of Archelaus, the king of Macedonia, and that once when he went out in the countryside, he was set upon by dogs and torn to pieces a little before this time.
§ 13.104.1 At the end of this year Alexias was archon in Athens and in Rome in the place of consuls three military tribunes were elected, Gaius Julius, Publius Cornelius, and Gaius Servilius. When these had entered office, the Athenians, after the execution of the generals, put Philocles in command, and turning over the fleet to him, they sent him to Conon with orders that they should share the leadership of the armaments in common.
§ 13.104.2 After he had joined Conon in Samos, he manned all the ships which numbered one hundred and seventy-three. Of these it was decided to leave twenty at Samos, and with all the rest they set out for the Hellespont under the command of Conon and Philocles.
§ 13.104.3 Lysander, the admiral of the Lacedemonians, having collected thirty-five ships from his neighbouring allies of the Peloponnesus, put in at Ephesus; and after summoning also the fleet from Chios he made it ready. He also went inland to Cyrus, the son of King Darius, and received from him a great sum of money with which to maintain his soldiers.
§ 13.104.4 And Cyrus, since his father was summoning him to Persia, turned over to Lysander the authority over the cities under his command and ordered them to pay the tribute to him. Lysander, then, after being thus supplied with every means for making war, returned to Ephesus.
§ 13.104.5 At the same time certain men in Miletus, who were striving for an oligarchy, with the aid of the Lacedemonians put an end to the government of the people. First of all, while the Dionysia was being celebrated, they seized in their homes and carried off their principal opponents and put some forty of them to the sword, and then, at the time when the market-place was full, they picked out three hundred of the wealthiest citizens and slew them.
§ 13.104.6 The most respectable citizens among those who favoured the people, not less than one thousand, fearing the situation they were in, fled to Pharnabazus the satrap, who received them kindly and giving each of them a gold stater settled them in Blauda, a fortress of Lydia.
§ 13.104.7 Lysander, sailing with the larger part of his ships to Iasus in Caria, took the city, which was an ally of the Athenians, by storm, put to the sword the males of military age to the number of eight hundred, sold the children and women as booty, and razed the city to the ground.
§ 13.104.8 After this he sailed against Attica and many places, but accomplished nothing of importance or worthy of record; consequently we have not taken pains to recount these events. Finally, capturing Lampsacus, he let the Athenian garrison depart under a truce, but seized the property of the inhabitants and then returned the city to them.
§ 13.105.1 The generals of the Athenians, on learning that the Lacedemonians in full force were besieging Lampsacus, assembled their triremes from all quarters and put forth against them in haste with one hundred and eighty ships.
§ 13.105.2 But finding the city already taken, at the time they stationed their ships at Aegospotami but afterward sailed out each day against the enemy and offered battle. When the Peloponnesians persisted in not coming out against them, the Athenians were at a loss what to do in the circumstances, since they were unable to find supplies for their armaments for any further length of time where they were.
§ 13.105.3 Alcibiades now came to them and said that Medocus and Seuthes, the kings of the Thracians, were friends of his and had agreed to give him a large army if he wished to make war to a finish on the Lacedemonians; he therefore asked them to give him a share in the command, promising them one of two things, either to compel the enemy to accept battle or to contend with them on land with the aid of the Thracians.
§ 13.105.4 This offer Alcibiades made from a desire to achieve by his own efforts some great success for his country and through his benefactions to bring the people back to their old affection for him. But the generals of the Athenians, considering that in case of defeat the blame would attach to them and that in case of success all men would attribute it to Alcibiades, quickly bade him to be gone and not come near the camp ever again.
§ 13.106.1 Since they refused to accept battle at sea and famine gripped the army, Philocles, who held the command on that day, ordered the other captains to man their triremes and follow him, while he with thirty triremes which were ready set out in advance.
§ 13.106.2 Lysander, who had learned of this from some deserters, set out to sea with all his ships, and putting Philocles to flight, pursued him toward the other ships.
§ 13.106.3 The triremes of the Athenians had not yet been manned and confusion pervaded them all because of the unexpected appearance of the enemy.
§ 13.106.4 And when Lysander perceived the tumult among the enemy, he speedily put ashore Eteonicus and the troops who were practised in fighting on land. Eteonicus, quickly turning to his account the opportunity of the moment, seized a part of the camp, while Lysander himself, sailing up with all his triremes in trim for battle, after throwing iron hands on the ships which were moored along the shore began dragging them off.
§ 13.106.5 The Athenians, panic-stricken at the unexpected move, since they neither had respite for putting out to sea with their ships nor were able to fight it out by land, held out for a short while and then gave way, and at once, some deserting the ships, others the camp, they took to flight in whatever direction each man hoped to find safety.
§ 13.106.6 Of the triremes only ten escaped. Conon, the general, who had one of them, gave up any thought of returning to Athens, fearing the wrath of the people, but sought safety with Evagoras, who was in control of Cyprus and with whom he had relations of friendship; and of the soldiers the majority fled by land to Sestus and found safety there.
§ 13.106.7 The rest of the ships Lysander captured, and taking prisoner Philocles general, he took him to Lampsacus and had him executed. After this Lysander dispatched messengers by the swiftest trireme to Lacedemon to carry news of the victory, first decking the vessel out with the most costly arms and booty.
§ 13.106.8 After this, advancing against the Athenians who had found refuge in Sestus, he took the city but let the Athenians depart under a truce. Then he sailed at once to Samos with his troops and himself began the siege of the city, but Gylippus, who with a flotilla had fought in aid of the Syracusans in Sicily, he dispatched to Sparta to take there both the booty and with it fifteen hundred talents of silver.
§ 13.106.9 The money was in small bags, each of which contained a skytale which carried the notation of the amount of the money. Gylippus, not knowing of the skytale, secretly undid the bags and took out three hundred talents, and when, by means of the notation, Gylippus was detected by the ephors, he fled the country and was condemned to death.
§ 13.106.10 Similarly it happens that Clearchus also, the father of Gylippus, fled the country at an earlier time, when he was believed to have accepted a bribe from Pericles not to make the planned raid into Attica, and was condemned to death, spending his life as an exile in Thurii in Italy. And so these men, who in all other affairs were looked upon as individuals of ability, by such conduct brought shame upon the rest of their lives.
§ 13.107.1 When the Athenians heard of the destruction of their armaments, they abandoned the policy of control of the sea, but busied themselves with putting the walls in order and with blocking the harbours, expecting, as well they might, that they would be besieged.
§ 13.107.2 For at once the kings of the Lacedemonians, Agis and Pausanias, invaded Attica with a large army and pitched their camp before the walls, and Lysander with more than two hundred triremes put in at the Peiraeus. Although they were in the grip of such hard trials, the Athenians nevertheless held out and had no trouble defending their city for some time.
§ 13.107.3 And the Peloponnesians decided, since the siege was offering difficulties, to withdraw their armies from Attica and to conduct a blockade at a distance with their ships, in order that no grain should come to the inhabitants.
§ 13.107.4 When his was done, the Athenians came into dire want of everything, but especially of food, because this had always come to them by sea. Since the suffering increased day by day, the city was filled with dead, and the survivors sent ambassadors and concluded peace with the Lacedemonians on the terms that they should tear down the two Long Walls and those of the Peiraeus, keep no more than ten ships of war, withdraw from all the cities, and recognize the hegemony of the Lacedemonians.
§ 13.107.5 And so the Peloponnesian War, the most protracted of any of which we have knowledge, having run for twenty-seven years, came to the end we have described.
§ 13.108.1 Not long after the peace Darius, the King of Asia, died after a reign of nineteen years, and Artaxerxes, his eldest son, succeeded to the throne and reigned for forty-three years. During this period, as Apollodorus the Athenian says, the poet Antimachus flourished.
§ 13.108.2 In Sicily at the beginning of summer Himilcon, the commander of the Carthaginians, razed to the ground the city of the Acragantini, and in the case of the temples which did not appear to have been sufficiently destroyed even by the fire he mutilated the sculptures and everything of rather exceptional workmanship; he then at once with his entire army invaded the territory of the Geloans.
§ 13.108.3 In his attack upon all this territory and that of Camarina he enriched his army with booty of every description. After this he advanced to Gela and pitched his camp along the river of the same name as the city.
§ 13.108.4 The Geloans had, outside the city, a bronze statue of Apollo of colossal size; this the Carthaginians seized as spoil and sent to Tyre. The Geloans had set up the statue in accordance with an oracular response of the god, and the Tyrians at a later time, when they were being besieged by Alexander of Macedon, treated the god disrespectfully on the ground that he was fighting on the side of the enemy. But when Alexander took the city, as Timaeus says, on the day with the same name and at the same hour on which the Carthaginians seized the Apollo at Gela, it came to pass that the god was honoured by the Greeks with the greatest sacrifices and processions as having been the cause of its capture.
§ 13.108.5 Although these events took place at different times, we have thought it not inappropriate to bring them together because of their astonishing nature. Now the Carthaginians cut down the trees of the countryside and threw a trench about their encampment, since they were expecting Dionysius to come with a strong army to the aid of the imperilled inhabitants.
§ 13.108.6 The Geloans at first voted to remove their children and women out of danger to Syracuse because of the magnitude of the expected danger, but when the women fled to the altars about the market-place and begged to share the same fortune as the men, they yielded to them.
§ 13.108.7 After this, forming a very large number of detachments, they sent the soldiers in turn over the countryside; and they, because of their knowledge of the land, attacked wandering bands of the enemy, daily brought back many of them alive, and slew not a few.
§ 13.108.8 And although the Carthaginians kept launching assaults in relays upon the city and breaching the walls with their battering-rams, the Geloans defended themselves gallantly; for the portions of the walls which fell during the day they built up again at night, the women and children assisting. For those who were in the bloom of their physical strength were under arms and constantly in battle, and the rest of the multitude stood by to attend to the defences and the rest of the tasks with all eagerness.
§ 13.108.9 In a word, they met the attack of the Carthaginians so stoutly that, although their city lacked natural defences and they were without allies and they could, besides, see the walls falling in a number of places, they were not dismayed at the danger which threatened them.
§ 13.109.1 Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, summoning aid from the Greeks of Italy and his other allies, led forth his army; and he also enlisted the larger part of the Syracusans of military age and enrolled the mercenaries in the army.
§ 13.109.2 He had in all, as some record, fifty thousand soldiers, but according to Timaeus, thirty thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry, and fifty decked vessels. With a force of such size he set out to the aid of the Geloans, and when he drew near the city, he pitched camp by the sea.
§ 13.109.3 For his intent was not to divide his army but to use the same base for the fighting by land as well as by sea; and with his light armed troops he engaged the enemy and did not allow them the forage over the countryside, while with his cavalry and ships he attempted to deprive the Carthaginians of the supplies which they got from the territory of which they were masters.
§ 13.109.4 Now for twenty days they were inactive, doing nothing worthy of mention. But after this Dionysius divided his infantry into three groups, and one division, which he formed of the Sicilian Greeks, he ordered to advance against the entrenched camp of their adversaries with the city on their left flank; the second division, which he formed of allies, he commanded to drive along the shore with the city on their right; and he himself with the contingent of mercenaries advanced through the city against the place where the Carthaginian engines of war were stationed.
§ 13.109.5 And to the cavalry he gave orders that, as soon as they saw the infantry advancing, they should cross the river and overrun the plain, and if they should see their comrades winning, they should join in the fighting, but in hand they were losing, they should receive any who were in distress; and to the troops on the ships his orders were, so soon as the Italian Greeks made their attack, to sail against the camp of the enemy.
§ 13.110.1 When the fleet carried out their orders at the proper time, the Carthaginians rushed to the aid of that sector in an attempt to keep back the attackers disembarking from the ships; and in fact that portion of the camp which the Carthaginians occupied was unfortified, all the part which lay along the beach.
§ 13.110.2 And at this survey time the Italian Greeks, who had covered the entire distance along the sea, attacked the camp of the Carthaginians, having found that most of the defenders had gone to give aid against the ships, and putting to flight the troops which had been left behind at this place, they forced their way into the encampment.
§ 13.110.3 At this turn of affairs the Carthaginians, turning about with the greater part of their troops, after a sustained flight, thrust out with difficulty the men who had forced their way within the trench. The Italian Greeks, overcome by the multitude of the barbarians, encountered as they withdrew the acute angle of the palisade and no help came to them;
§ 13.110.4 for the Sicilian Greeks, advancing through the plain, came too late and the mercenaries with Dionysius encountered difficulties in making their way through the streets of the city and thus were unable to make such haste as they had planned. The Geloans, advancing for some distance from the city, gave aid to the Italian Greeks over only a short space of the area, since they were afraid to abandon the guarding of the walls, and as a result they were too late to be of any assistance.
§ 13.110.5 The Iberians and Campanians, who were serving in the army of the Carthaginians, pressing hard upon the Italian Greeks, slew more than a thousand of them. But since the crews of the ships held back the pursuers with showers of arrows, the rest of them got back in safety to the city.
§ 13.110.6 In the other part the Sicilian Greeks, who had engaged the Libyans who opposed them, slew great numbers of them and pursued the rest into the encampment; but when the Iberians and Campanians and, besides, the Carthaginians came up to the aid of the Libyans, they withdrew to the city, having lost some six hundred men.
§ 13.110.7 And the cavalry, when they saw the defeat of their comrades, likewise withdrew to the city, since the enemy pressed hard upon them. Dionysius, having barely got through the city, found his army defeated and for the time being withdrew within the walls.
§ 13.111.1 After this Dionysius called a meeting of his friends and took counsel regarding the war. When they all said that his position was unfavourable for a decisive battle with the enemy, he dispatched a herald toward evening to arrange for the taking up of the dead on the next day, and about the first watch of the night he sent out of the city the mass of the people, while he himself set out about the middle of the night, leaving behind some two thousand of his light-armed troops.
§ 13.111.2 These had been given orders to keep fires burning through the entire night and to make an uproar in order to cause the Carthaginians to believe that he was still in the city. Now these troops, as the day was beginning to break, set out to join Dionysius, and the Carthaginians, on learning what had taken place, moved their quarters into the city and plundered what had been left of the contents of the dwellings.
§ 13.111.3 When Dionysius arrived at Camarina, he compelled the residents of that city also to depart with their children and wives to Syracuse. And since their fear admitted of no delay, some gathered together silver and gold and whatever could be easily carried, while others fled with only their parents and infant children, paying no attention to valuables; and some, who were aged or suffering from illness, were left behind because they had no relatives or friends, since the Carthaginians were expected of the arrive almost immediately.
§ 13.111.4 For the fate that had befallen Selinus and Himera and Acragas as well terrified the populace, all of whom felt as if they had actually been eye-witnesses of the savagery of the Carthaginians. For among them there was no sparing their captives, but they were without compassion for the victims of Fortune of whom they would crucify some and upon others inflict unbearable outrages.
§ 13.111.5 Nevertheless, now that two cities had been driven into exile, the countryside teemed with women and children and the rabble in general. And when the soldiers witnessed these conditions, they were not only enraged against Dionysius but also filled with pity at the lot of the unfortunate victims;
§ 13.111.6 for they saw free-born boys and maidens of marriageable years rushing pell-mell along the road in a manner improper for their age, since the stress of the moment had done away with the dignity and respect which are shown before strangers. Similarly they sympathized also with the elderly, as they watched them being forced to push onward beyond their strength while trying to keep up with those in the prime of life.
§ 13.112.1 It was for these reasons that the hatred against Dionysius was flaring up, since men assumed that he had so acted for this definite plan: by using the dread of the Carthaginians to be lord or remaining cities of Sicily without risk.
§ 13.112.2 For they reckoned up his delay in bringing aid; the fact that none of his mercenaries had fallen; that he had retreated without reason, since he had suffered no serious reverse; and, most important of all, that not a single one of the Carthaginians had pursued them. Consequently, for those who before this were eager to seize an opportunity to revolt, all things, as if by the foreknowledge of the gods, were working toward the overthrow of the tyrannical power.
§ 13.112.3 Now the Italian Greeks, deserting Dionysius, made their way home through the interior of the island, and the Syracusan cavalry at first kept watch in the hope that they might be able to slay the tyrant along the road; but when they saw that the mercenaries were not deserting him, they rode off with one accord to Syracuse.
§ 13.112.4 And finding the guards of the dockyards knew nothing of the events at Gela, they entered these without hindrance, plundered the house of Dionysius which was filled with silver and gold and all other costly things, and seizing his wife left her so ill-used as to ensure the tyrant's keeping his anger fiercely alive, acting as they did in the belief that the vengeance they wreaked on Dionysius' wife would be the surest guarantee of their holding by each other in their attack upon him.
§ 13.112.5 And Dionysius, guessing while on the way what had taken place, picked out the most trustworthy of his cavalry and infantry, with whom he pressed toward the city without checking speed; for he reasoned that he could overcome the cavalry by no other means than by speedy action, and he acted accordingly. For if he should make his arrival even more of a surprise than theirs had been, he had hope that he would easily carry out his design; and that is what happened.
§ 13.112.6 For the cavalry assumed that Dionysius would now neither return to Syracuse nor remain with his army; consequently, in the belief that they had carried out their design, they said that he had pretended that in leaving Gela he was giving the slip to the Carthaginians whereas the truth in fact was that he had given the slip to the Syracusans.
§ 13.113.1 Dionysius covered a distance of four hundred stades and arrived at the gates of Achradine about the middle of the night with a hundred cavalry and six hundred infantry, and finding the gate closed, he piled upon it reeds brought from the marshes such as the Syracusans are accustomed to use to bind their stucco. While the gates were being burned down, he gathered to his troops the laggards.
§ 13.113.2 And when the fire had consumed the gates, Dionysius with his followers made their way through Achradine, and the stoutest soldiers among the cavalry, when they heard what had happened, without waiting for the main body, and although they were very few in number, rushed forth at once to aid in the resistance. They were gathered in the market-place, and there they were surrounded by the mercenaries and shot down to a man.
§ 13.113.3 Then Dionysius, ranging through the city, slew any who came out here and there to resist him, and entering the houses of those who were hostile toward him, some of them he killed and others he banished from the city. The main body of the cavalry which was left fled from the city and occupied Aetne, as it is now called.
§ 13.113.4 At daybreak the main body of the mercenaries and the army of the Sicilian Greeks arrived at Syracuse, but the Geloans and Camarinaeans, who were at odds with Dionysius, left him and departed to Leontini.
§ 13.114.1 . . . . Consequently Himilcar, acting under the stress of circumstances, dispatched a herald to Syracuse urging the vanquished to make up their differences. Dionysius was glad to comply and they concluded peace on the following terms: To the Carthaginians shall belong, together with their original colonists, the Elymi and Sicani; the inhabitants of Selinus, Acragas, and Himera as well as those of Gela and Camarina may dwell in their cities, which shall be unfortified, but shall pay tribute to the Carthaginians; the inhabitants of Leontini and Messene and the Siceli shall all live under laws of their own making, and the Syracusans shall be subject to Dionysius; and whatever captives and ships are held shall be returned to those who lost them.
§ 13.114.2 As soon as this treaty had been concluded, the Carthaginians sailed off to Libya, having lost more than half their soldiers from the plague; but the pestilence continued to rage no less in Libya also and great numbers both of the Carthaginians themselves and of their allies were struck down.
§ 13.114.3 But for our part, now that we have arrived at the conclusion of the wars, in Greece the Peloponnesian and in Sicily the first between the Carthaginians and Dionysius, and our proposed task has been completed, we think that we should set down the events next in order in the following Book.
§ 14.1.1 All men, perhaps naturally, are disinclined to listen to obloquies that are uttered against them. Indeed even those whose evil-doing is in every respect so manifest that it cannot even be denied, none the less deeply resent it when they are the objects of censure and endeavour to make a reply to the accusation. Consequently all men should take every possible care not to commit any evil deed, and those especially who aspire to leadership or have been favoured by some striking gift of Fortune;
§ 14.1.2 for since the life of such men is in all things an open book because of their distinction, it cannot conceal its own unwisdom. Let no man, therefore, who has gained some kind of pre-eminence, cherish the hope that, if he commits great crimes, he will for all time escape notice and go uncensured. For even if during his own lifetime he eludes the sentence of rebuke, let him expect that at a later time Truth will find him out, frankly proclaiming abroad matters long hidden from mention.
§ 14.1.3 It is, therefore, a hard fate for wicked men that at their death they leave to posterity and undying image, so to speak, of their entire life; for even if those things that follow after death do not concern us, as certain philosophers keep chanting, nevertheless the life which has preceded death becomes far worse throughout all time for the evil memory that it enjoys. Manifest examples of this may be found by those who read the detailed story contained in this Book.
§ 14.2.1 Among the Athenians, for example, thirty men who became tyrants from their own lust of gain, not only involved their native land in great misfortunes but themselves soon lost their power and have bequeathed a deathless memorial of their own disgrace. The Lacedemonians, after winning for themselves the undisputed sovereignty of Greece, were shorn of it from the moment when they sought to carry out unjust projects at the expense of their allies. For the superiority of those who enjoy leadership is maintained by goodwill and justice, and is overthrown by acts of injustice and by the hatred of their subjects.
§ 14.2.2 Similarly Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, although he has been the most fortunate of such rulers, was incessantly plotted against while alive, was compelled by fear to wear an iron corselet under his tunic, and has bequeathed since his death his own life as an outstanding example unto all ages for the maledictions of men.
§ 14.2.3 But we shall record each one of these illustrations with more detail in connection with the appropriate period of time; for the present we shall take up the continuation of our account, pausing only to define our dates.
§ 14.2.4 In the preceding Books we have set down a record of events from the capture of Troy to the end of the Peloponnesian War and of the Athenian Empire, covering a period of seven hundred and seventy-nine years. In this Book, as we add to our narrative the events next succeeding, we shall commence with the establishment of the thirty tyrants and stop with the capture of Rome by the Gauls, embracing a period of eighteen years.
§ 14.3.1 There was no archon in Athens because of the overthrow of the government, it being the seven hundred and eightieth year from the capture of Troy, and in Rome four military tribunes succeeded to the consular magistracy, Gaius Fulvius, Gaius Servilius, Gaius Valerius, and Numerius Fabius; and in this year the Ninety-fourth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Corcinas of Larisa was victor.
§ 14.3.2 At this time the Athenians, completely reduced by exhaustion, made a treaty with the Lacedemonians whereby they were bound to demolish the walls of their city and to employ the polity of their fathers. They demolished the walls, but were unable to agree among themselves regarding the form of government.
§ 14.3.3 For those who were bent on oligarchy asserted that the ancient constitution should be revived, in which only a very few represented the state, whereas the greatest number, who were partisans of democracy, made the government of their fathers their platform and declared that this was by common consent a democracy. After a controversy over this had continued for some days, the oligarchic party sent an embassy to Lysander the Spartan, who, at the end of the war, had been dispatched to administer the governments of the cities and had established oligarchies in the greater number of them, for they hoped that, as well he might, he would support them in their design. Accordingly they sailed across to Samos, for it happened that Lysander was tarrying there, having just seized the city. 5 He gave his assent to their pleas for co-operation, appointed Thorax the Spartan harmost of Samos, and put in himself at the Peiraeus with one hundred ships. Calling an assembly of the Athenians, he advised them to choose thirty men to head the government and to manage all the affairs of the state. 6 And when Theramenes opposed him and read to him the terms of the peace, which agreed that they should enjoy the government of their fathers, and declared that it would be a terrible thing if they should be robbed of their freedom contrary to the oaths, Lysander stated that the terms of peace had been broken by the Athenians, since, he asserted, they had destroyed the walls later than the days of grace agreed upon. He also invoked the direst of threats against Theramenes, saying that he would have put to death if he did not stop opposing the Lacedemonians. 7 Consequently Theramenes and the people, being struck with terror, were compelled to dissolve the democracy by a show of hands. Accordingly thirty men were elected with power to manage the affairs of the state, as directors ostensibly but tyrants in fact.
§ 14.4.1 The people, observing the fair dealing of Theramenes and believing that his honourable principles would act to some extent to check the encroachments of the leaders, elected him also as one of the thirty officials. It was the duty of those selected to appoint both a Council and the other magistrates and to draw up laws in accordance with which they were to administer the state.
§ 14.4.2 Now they kept postponing the drawing up of laws, always putting forth fine-sounding excuses, but a Council and the other magistrates they appointed from their personal friends, so that these men bore the name indeed of magistrates but actually were underlings of the Thirty. At first they brought to trail the lowest elements of the city and condemned them to death; and thus far the most honourable citizens approved of their actions.
§ 14.4.3 But after this, desiring to commit acts more violent and lawless, they asked the Lacedemonians for a garrison, saying that they were going to establish a form of government that would serve the interests of the Lacedemonians. For they realized that they would be unable to accomplish murders without foreign armed aid, since all men, they knew, would unite to support the common security.
§ 14.4.4 When the Lacedemonians sent a garrison and Callibius to command it, the Thirty won the commander over by bribes and any accommodations. Then, choosing out from the rich such men as suited their ends, they proceeded to arrest them as revolutionaries, put them to death, and confiscated their possessions.
§ 14.4.5 When Theramenes opposed his colleagues and threatened to join the ranks of those who claimed the right to be secure, the Thirty called a meeting of the Council. Critias was their spokesman, and in a long speech accused Theramenes of betraying this government of which he was a voluntary member; but Theramenes in his reply cleared himself of the several charges and gained the sympathy of the entire Council.
§ 14.4.6 Critias, fearing that Theramenes might overthrow the oligarchy, threw about him a band of soldiers with drawn swords. They were going to arrest him, but, forestalling them, Theramenes leaped up to the altar of Hestia of the Council Chamber, crying out,
§ 14.4.7 "I flee for refuge to the gods, not with the thought that I shall be saved, but to make sure that my slayers will involve themselves in an act of impiety against the gods."
§ 14.5.1 When the attendants came forward and were dragging him off, Theramenes bore his bad fortune with a noble spirit, since indeed he had had no little acquaintance with philosophy in company with Socrates; the multitude, however, in general mourned the ill-fortune of Theramenes, but had not the courage to come to his aid since a strong armed guard stood around him.
§ 14.5.2 Now Socrates the philosopher and two of his intimates ran forward and endeavoured to hinder the attendants. But Theramenes entreated them to do nothing of the kind; he appreciated, he said, their friendship and bravery, but as for himself, it would be the greatest grief if he should be the cause of the death of those who were so intimately associated with him.
§ 14.5.3 Socrates and his helpers, since they had no aid from anyone else and saw the intransigence of those in authority increasing, made no move. Then those who had received their orders dragged Theramenes from the altar and hustled him through the centre of the market-place to his execution;
§ 14.5.4 and the populace, terror-stricken at the arms of the garrison, were filled with pity for the unfortunate man and shed tears, not only over his fate, but also over their own slavery. For all the common sort, when they saw a man of such virtue as Theramenes treated with such contumely, had concluded that they in their weakness would be sacrificed without a thought.
§ 14.5.5 After the death of Theramenes the Thirty drew up a list of the wealthy, lodged false charges against them, put them to death, and seized their estates. They slew even Niceratus, the son of Nicias who had commanded the campaign against the Syracusans, a man who had conducted himself toward all men with fairness and humanity, and who perhaps first of all Athenians in wealth and reputation.
§ 14.5.6 It came about, therefore, that every house was filled with pity for the end of the man, as fond thoughts due to their memory of his honest ways provoked them to tears. Nevertheless, the tyrants did not cease from their lawless conduct; rather their madness became so much the more acute that of the metics they slaughtered sixty of the wealthiest in order to gain possession of their property, and as for the citizens, since they were being killed daily, the well-to-do among them fled from the city almost to a man.
§ 14.5.7 They also slew Autolycus, an outspoken man, and, in a word, selected the most respectable citizens. So far did their wasting of the city to that more than half of the Athenians took to flight.
§ 14.6.1 The Lacedemonians, seeing the city of the Athenians abased in power and having no desire that the Athenians should ever gain strength, were delighted and made their attitude clear; for they voted that the Athenian exiles should be delivered up to the Thirty from all over Greece and that anyone who attempted to prevent this should be liable to fine of five talents.
§ 14.6.2 Though this decree was shocking, all the rest of the cities, dismayed at the power of the Spartans, obeyed it, with the exception of the Argives who, hating as they did the cruelty of the Lacedemonians and pitying the hard lot of the unfortunate, were the first to receive the exiles in a spirit of humanity.
§ 14.6.3 Also the Thebans voted that anyone who witnessed an exile being led off and did not render him all aid within his power should be subject to a fine. Such, then, was the state of the affairs of the Athenians.
§ 14.7.1 In Sicily, Dionysius, the tyrant of the Siceli, after concluding peace with the Carthaginians, planned of the busy himself more with the strengthening of his tyranny; for he assumed that the Syracusans, now that they were relieved of the war, would have plenty of time to see after the recovery of their liberty.
§ 14.7.2 And, perceiving that the Island was the strongest section of the city and could be easily defended, he divided it from the rest of the city by an expensive wall, and in this he set high towers at close intervals, while before it he built places of business and stoas capable of accommodating a multitude of the populace.
§ 14.7.3 He also constructed on the Island at great expense a fortified acropolis as a place of refuge in case of immediate need, and within its wall he enclosed the dockyards which are connected with the small harbour that is known as Laccium. The dockyards could accommodate sixty triremes and had an entrance that was closed off, through which only one ship could enter at a time.
§ 14.7.4 As for the territory of Syracuse, he picked out the best of it and distributed it in gifts to his friends as well as to higher officers, and divided the rest of it in equal portions both to aliens and to citizens, including under the name of citizens the manumitted slaves whom he designated as New Citizens.
§ 14.7.5 He also distributed the dwellings among the common people, except those on the island, which he gave to his friends and the mercenaries. When Dionysius thought that he had now organized his tyranny properly, he led forth his army against the Siceli, being eager to bring all the independent peoples under his control, and the Siceli in particular, because of their previous alliance with the Carthaginians.
§ 14.7.6 Accordingly he advanced against the city of the Herbessini and made preparations for its siege. But the Syracusans who were in the army, now that they had arms in their hands, began to gather in groups and upbraid each other that they had not joined with the cavalry in overthrowing the tyrant. The man appointed by Dionysius to command the men at first warned one of those who were freespoken, and when the man retorted, stepped boldly up to him to give him a blow.
§ 14.7.7 The soldiers, in ager at this, slew the commander, whose name was Doricus, and, crying to the citizens to strike for their freedom, sent for the cavalry from Aetne; for the cavalry, who had been banished at the beginning of the tyranny, occupied this outpost.
§ 14.8.1 Dionysius, terror-stricken at the revolt of the Syracusans, broke off the siege and hastened to Syracuse, being eager to secure the city. Upon his flight those who had revolted chose as generals the men who had slain the commander, and gathering to their number the cavalry from Aetne, they pitched a camp facing the tyrant on the height called Epipolae, and blocked his passage to the countryside.
§ 14.8.2 And they at once dispatched ambassadors to the Messenians and the Rhegians, urging these people to join in the bid for freedom by action at sea; for it had been the practice of these cities at this time to man no less than eighty triremes. These triremes the cities dispatched at that time to the Syracusans, being eager to support them in the cause of freedom.
§ 14.8.3 The revolters also proclaimed a large reward to any who would slay the tyrant and promised citizenship to any mercenaries who would come over to them. They also constructed engines of war with which to shatter and destroy the walls, launched daily assaults upon the Island, and kindly received any of the mercenaries who came over to them.
§ 14.8.4 Dionysius, being shut off as he now was from access to the countryside and constantly being abandoned by the mercenaries, gathered together his friends to counsel with them on the situation; for he had so completely despaired of maintaining his tyrannical power that he no longer was studying how to defeat the Syracusans but rather how to meet death in such a way as to end his rule not altogether ingloriously.
§ 14.8.5 Now Heloris, one of his friends, or as some say, his adopted father, declared to him, "Tyranny is a fair winding-sheet"; but Polyxenus, his brother-in-law, advised him to use his swiftest horse and ride off into the domain of the Carthaginians to the Campanians, whom Himilcon had left behind to guard the districts of Sicily. Philistus, however, who composed his history after these events, declared in opposition to Polyxenus that it was not fitting to dash from the tyranny on a galloping horse but to be cast out, dragged by the leg.
§ 14.8.6 Dionysius agreed with Philistus and decided to submit to anything rather than abandon the throne of his free will. Consequently he sent ambassadors to those in revolt and urged them to allow him and his companions to leave the city, while he secretly dispatched messengers to the Campanians and promised them any price they should ask for the duration of the siege.
§ 14.9.1 After the events we have described the Syracusans, having given the tyrant permission to sail away with five ships, took matters with rather less concern; the cavalry, since they were of no use in the siege, they discharged, while as for the infantry, most of them roved off into the countryside, assuming that the tyranny was already at an end.
§ 14.9.2 The Campanians, being elated at the promises they had received, first of all came to Agyrium, and leaving their baggage there with Agyris, the ruler of the city, they set forth unencumbered for Syracuse, being in number twelve hundred cavalry.
§ 14.9.3 Completing the journey in quick time, they came upon the Syracusans unexpectedly and, slaying many of them, they forced their way through to Dionysius. At this same time three hundred mercenaries had also landed to aid the tyrant, so that his hopes revived.
§ 14.9.4 The Syracusans, as the despotic power again gathered strength, were at odds among themselves, some maintaining that they should remain and continue the siege and others that they should disband their forces and abandon the city.
§ 14.9.5 As soon as Dionysius learned of this, he led his army out against them, and falling on them while they were disordered, he easily routed them near the New City, as it is called. Not many of them, however, were slain, since Dionysius, riding among his men, stopped them from killing the fugitives. The Syracusans were forthwith scattered over the countryside, but a little later more than seven thousand of them were gathered with the cavalry at Aetne.
§ 14.9.6 Dionysius, after burying the Syracusans who had fallen, dispatched ambassadors to Aetne, asking the exiles to accept terms and return to their native land, and giving his pledged word that he would not bear enmity against them.
§ 14.9.7 Now certain of them, who had left behind children and wives, felt compelled to accept the offer; but the rest replied, when the ambassadors cited the benefaction Dionysius had performed in the burial of the dead, that he deserved the same favour, and they prayed to the gods that they might, the sooner the better, see him obtain it.
§ 14.9.8 These men accordingly, who would by no means put any trust in the tyrant, remained in Aetne, watching for an opportunity against him. Dionysius treated with humanity the exiles who returned, wishing to encourage the rest to return to their native land too. To the Campanians he awarded the gifts that were due and then dispatched them from the city, having regard to their fickleness.
§ 14.9.9 These made their way to Entella and persuaded the men of the city to receive them as fellow-inhabitants; then they fell upon them by night, slew the men of military age, married the wives of the men with whom they had broken faith, and possessed themselves of the city.
§ 14.10.1 In Greece the Lacedemonians, now that they had brought the Peloponnesian War to an end, held the supremacy by common acknowledgement both on land and on sea. Appointing Lysander admiral, they ordered him to visit the cities and set up in each the magistrates they call harmosts; for the Lacedemonians, who had a dislike for the democracies, wished the cities to have oligarchic governments.
§ 14.10.2 They also levied tribute upon the peoples they had conquered, and although before this time they had not used coined money, they now collected yearly from the tribute more than a thousand talents. When the Lacedemonians had settled the affairs of Greece to their own taste, they dispatched Aristus, one of their distinguished men, to Syracuse, ostensibly pretending that they would overthrow the government, but in truth with intent to increase the power of the tyranny; for they hoped that by helping to establish the rule of Dionysius they would obtain his ready service because of their benefactions to him.3 Aristus, after having put ashore at Syracuse and discussed secretly with the tyrant the matters we have mentioned, kept stirring up the Syracusans and promised to restore their liberty; then he slew Nicoteles the Corinthian, a leader of the Syracusans, made strong the tyrant by betraying those who put their faith in him, and by such conduct brought disgrace both upon himself and upon his native land. 4 Dionysius, sending the Syracusans out to harvest their crops, entered their homes and carried off the arms of them all; after this he built a second wall about the acropolis, constructed war vessels, and also collected a great number of mercenaries; and he made every other provision to safeguard the tyranny, since he had learned by experience that the Syracusans would endure anything to escape slavery.
§ 14.11.1 While these events were taking place, Pharnabazus, the satrap of King Darius, seized Alcibiades the Athenian and put him to death. But since Ephorus recounts that his death was sought for other reasons, I think it not unprofitable to set forth the plot against Alcibiades as the historian has described it.
§ 14.11.2 He states in the Seventeenth Book that Cyrus and the Lacedemonians were making secret plans for a joint war against Cyrus' brother Artaxerxes, and Alcibiades, learning of Cyrus' purpose from certain parties, went to Pharnabazus and told him of it in detail; and he asked him for someone to conduct him on a mission to Artaxerxes, since he wished to be the first to disclose the plot to the King.
§ 14.11.3 But Pharnabazus, on hearing the story, usurped the function of reporter and sent trusted men to disclose the matter to the King. When Pharnabazus did not provide escorts to the capital, Ephorus continues, Alcibiades set out to the satrap of Paphlagonia in order to make the trip with his assistance; but Pharnabazus, fearing lest the King should hear the truth of the affair, sent men after Alcibiades to slay him on the road.
§ 14.11.4 These came upon him where he had taken shelter in a village of Phrygia, and in the night enclosed the place with a mass of fuel. When a strong fire was kindled, Alcibiades endeavoured to save himself, but came to his death from the fire and the javelins of his attackers.
§ 14.11.5 About the same time Democritus the philosopher died at the age of ninety. And Lasthenes the Theban, who was the victor in the Olympic Games of this year, won a race, we are told, against a race horse, the course being from Coroneia to the city of the Thebans.
§ 14.11.6 In Italy the Roman garrison of Erruca, a city of the Volsci, was attacked by the enemy, who captured the city and slew most of the defenders.
§ 14.12.1 When the events of this year had come to an end, Eucleides was archon in Athens, and in Rome four military tribunes succeeded to the consular magistracy, Publius Cornelius, Numerius Fabius, and Lucius Valerius.
§ 14.12.2 After these magistrates had taken office, the Byzantines were in serious difficulties both because of factional strife and of a war that they were waging with the neighbouring Thracians; and since they were unable to devise a settlement of their mutual differences, they asked the Lacedemonians for a general. The Spartans, accordingly, sent them Clearchus to bring order to the affairs of the city;
§ 14.12.3 and he, after being entrusted with supreme authority, and having gathered a large body of mercenaries, was no longer their president but their tyrant. First of all, he invited their chief magistrates to attend a festival of some kind and put them to death, and after this, since there was no government in the city, he seized a group of thirty prominent Byzantines, put a cord about their necks, and strangled them to death. After appropriating for himself the property of those he had slain, he also picked out the wealthy among the rest of the citizens, and launching false charges against them, he put some to death and drove others into exile. Having thus acquired a large amount of money and assembled a great body of mercenaries, he made his tyrannical power secure.
§ 14.12.4 When the cruelty and power of the tyrant became noised abroad, the Lacedemonians first of all dispatched ambassadors to him to prevail upon him to lay down his tyrannical power, but when he paid no heed to their requests, they sent an army against him under the command of Panthoedas.
§ 14.12.5 Clearchus, on learning of his approach, transferred his army to Selymbria, being master also of this city, for he assumed that after the many crimes he had committed against the Byzantines, he would have as enemies not only the Lacedemonians, but also the inhabitants of the city.
§ 14.12.6 Consequently, having decided that Selymbria would be a safer base for the war, he removed both his treasure and his army to that place. When he learned that the Lacedemonians were close at hand, he advanced to meet them and joined battle with the troops of Panthoedas at the place called Porus.
§ 14.12.7 The struggle lasted a long while, but the Lacedemonians fought splendidly and the forces of the tyrant were destroyed. Clearchus with a few of his companions was at first shut up in Selymbria and besieged there, but later he was fearful and slipped away by night, and crossed over to Ionia, where he became intimate with Cyrus, the brother of the Persian King, and won command of his troops.
§ 14.12.8 For Cyrus, who had been appointed supreme commander of the satrapies lying on the sea and was afire with ambition, was planning to lead an army against his brother Artaxerxes.
§ 14.12.9 Observing, therefore, that Clearchus possessed daring and a prompt boldness, he supplied him with funds and instructed him to enroll as many mercenaries as he could, believing that he would have in Clearchus an apt partner for his bold undertakings.
§ 14.13.1 Lysander the Spartan, after he had introduced governments in all the cities under the Lacedemonians in accordance with the will of the ephors, establishing a rule of ten men in some and oligarchies in others, was the cynosure of Sparta. For by bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end he had bestowed upon his native land the supreme power, acknowledged by all, both on land and on sea.
§ 14.13.2 Consequently, he conceived the idea of putting an end to the kingship of the Heracleidae and making every Spartan eligible to election as king; for he hoped that the kingship would very soon come to him because of his achievements, which were very great and glorious.
§ 14.13.3 Knowing that the Lacedemonians gave very great heed to the responses of oracles, he attempted to bribe the prophetess in Delphi, since he believed that, if he should receive an oracular response favourable to the designs he entertained, he should easily carry his project to a successful end.
§ 14.13.4 But when he could not win over the attendants of the oracle, despite the large sum he promised them, he opened negotiations on the same matter with the priestesses of the oracle of Dodona, through a certain Pherecrates, who was a native of Apollonia and intimate with the attendants of the shrine.
§ 14.13.5 Meeting with no success, he made a journey to Cyrene, offering as his reason payment of vows to Ammon, but actually for the purpose of bribing the oracle; and he took with him a great sum of money with which he hoped to win over the attendants of the shrine.
§ 14.13.6 And in fact Libys, the king of those regions, was a guest-friend of his father, and it so happened that Lysander's brother had been named Libys by reason of the friendship with the king. With the king's help, then, and the money he brought, he hoped to win them, but not only did he fail of his design, but the overseers of the oracle sent ambassadors to lay charges against Lysander for his effort to bribe the oracle. When Lysander arrived at Lacedemon, a trial was proposed, but he presented a persuasive defence of his conduct. 8 Now at that time the Lacedemonians knew nothing of Lysander's purpose to abolish the kings in line of descent from Heracles; but some time later, after his death, when some documents were being searched for in his house, they found a speech, composed at greatest expense, which he had prepared to deliver to the people, to persuade them that the kings should be elected from all the citizens.
§ 14.14.1 Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, after he had made peace with the Carthaginians and had got free of the uprisings in the city, was eager to attach to himself the neighbouring cities of the Chalcidians, namely, Naxos, Catane, and Leontini.
§ 14.14.2 He was eager to be lord of them because they lay on the borders of Syracuse and possessed many advantages for further increase of his tyrannical power. First of all, then, he encamped near Aetne and won the fortress, the exiles there being no match for an army of such size;
§ 14.14.3 and after this he advanced to Leontini and pitched his camp near the city along the river Teria. Then he at first led out his army in battle-order and dispatched a herald to the Leontines, commanding them to surrender the city and believing that he had struck terror into the inhabitants.
§ 14.14.4 But when the Leontines paid no attention to him and had made every preparation to withstand a siege, Dionysius, having no engines of war, gave up the siege for the time being, but plundered their entire territory.
§ 14.14.5 From there he set out against the Siceli, pretending that he was engaging in war against them in order that the Catanians and Naxians might become slacker in the defence of their cities.
§ 14.14.6 And while he was tarrying in the neighbourhood of Enna, he persuaded Aeimnestus, a native of the city, to make a bid for tyranny, promising to aid him in the undertaking.
§ 14.14.7 But when Aeimnestus had succeeded in his design and then did not admit Dionysius into the city, Dionysius in anger changed sides and urged the Ennaeans to overthrow the tyrant. These streamed into the market-place with their arms, contending for their freedom, and the city was filled with tumult.
§ 14.14.8 Dionysius, on learning of the strife, took his light-armed troops, speedily broke through an unoccupied place into the city, seized Aeimnestus, and handed him over to the Ennaeans to be punished. He himself, refraining from all injustice, departed from the city. This he did, not so much because he had regard for right as because he wanted to encourage the other cities to put faith in him.
§ 14.15.1 From Enna Dionysius set out to the city of the Herbitaeans and attempted to ravage it. But accomplishing nothing, he made peace with them and led his army to Catane, for Arcesilaus, the general of the Catanians, had offered to betray the city to him. Consequently, being admitted by Arcesilaus about midnight, he became master of Catane. After taking their arms from the citizens, he placed an adequate garrison in the city.
§ 14.15.2 After this Procles, the commander of the Naxians, on being won over by great promises, delivered over his native city to Dionysius, who, after paying the promised gifts to the traitor and granting him his kinsmen, sold the inhabitants into slavery, turned their property over to the soldiers to plunder, and razed the walls and the dwellings.
§ 14.15.3 He also meted out a similar treatment to the Catanians, selling the captives he took as booty in Syracuse. Now the territory of the Naxians he gave as a present to the neighbouring Siceli and granted to the Campanians the city of the Catanians as their dwelling-place.
§ 14.15.4 After this he advanced to Leontini with his entire armed strength and laid siege to the city, and sending ambassadors to the inhabitants, he ordered them to hand over their city and enjoy citizenship in Syracuse. The Leontines, expecting that they would receive no help and reflecting on the fate of the Naxians and Catanians, were struck with terror in fear that they would suffer the same misfortune. Consequently, yielding to the exigency of the moment, they assented to the proposal, left their city, and removed to Syracuse.
§ 14.16.1 Archonides, the leader of Herbita, after the citizen-body of the Herbitaeans had concluded peace with Dionysius, determined to found a city. For he had not only many mercenaries but also a mixed throng who had streamed into the city in connection with the war against Dionysius; and many of the destitute among the Herbitaeans had promised him to join in the colony.
§ 14.16.2 Consequently, taking the multitude of refugees, he occupied a hill lying eight stades from the sea, on which he founded the city of Halaesa; and since there were other cities of Sicily with the same name, he called it Halaesa Archonidion after himself.
§ 14.16.3 When, in later times, the city grew greatly both because of the trade by sea and because the Romans exempted it from tribute, the Halaesians denied their kinship with the Herbitaeans, holding it a disgrace to be deemed colonists of an inferior city.
§ 14.16.4 Nevertheless, up to the present time numerous ties of relationships are to be found among both peoples, and they administer their sacrifices at the Apollonion with the same customs. But there are those who state that Halaesa was founded by the Carthaginians at the time when Himilcon concluded his peace with Dionysius.
§ 14.16.5 In Italy a war arose between the Romans and the people of Veii for the following reasons. In this campaign the Romans voted for the first time to give annual pay to the soldiers for their support. They also reduced by siege the city of the Volsci which was called at that time Anxor but now has the name Tarracine.
§ 14.17.1 At the close of the year Micion was archon in Athens, and in Rome three military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Titus Quinctius, Gaius Julius, and Aulus Mamilus. After these magistrates had entered office, the inhabitants of Oropus fell into civil strife and exiled some of their citizens.
§ 14.17.2 For a time the exiles undertook to effect their return by their own resources, but finding themselves unable to carry through their purpose, they persuaded the Thebans to send an army to assist them.
§ 14.17.3 The Thebans took the field against the Oropians, and becoming masters of the city, resettled the inhabitants some seven stades from the sea; and for some time they allowed them to have their own government, but after this they gave them Theban citizenship and attached their territory to Boeotia.
§ 14.17.4 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians brought a number of charges against the Eleians, the most serious being that they had prevented Agis, their king, from offering sacrifices to the god and that they had not allowed the Lacedemonians to compete in the Olympic Games.
§ 14.17.5 Consequently, having decided to wage war on the Eleians, they dispatched ten ambassadors to them, ordering them, in the first place, to allow their subject cities to be independent, and after that they demanded of them their quota of the cost of the war against the Athenians.
§ 14.17.6 This they did in quest of specious pretexts for themselves and of plausible openings for war. When the Eleians not only paid no heed to them but even accused them besides of enslaving the Greeks, they dispatched Pausanias, the other of their two kings, against them with four thousand soldiers.
§ 14.17.7 He was accompanied by many soldiers also from practically all the allies except the Boeotians and Corinthians. They, being offended by the proceedings of the Lacedemonians, took no part in the campaign against Elis.
§ 14.17.8 Pausanias, then, entered Elis by way of Arcadia and straightway took the outpost of Lasion at the first assault; then, leading his army through Acroreia, he won to his side the four cities of Thraestus, Halium, Epitalion, and Opous.
§ 14.17.9 Moving thence, he straightway encamped near Pylus and took this place, which was about seventy stades from Elis. After this, advancing to Elis proper, he pitched his camp on the hills across the river. A short time before this the Eleians had got from the Aetolians a thousand elite troops to help them, to whom they had given the region about the gymnasium to guard.
§ 14.17.10 When Pausanias first of all started to lay siege to this place, and in a careless manner, not supposing that the Eleians would ever dare to make a sortie against him, suddenly both the Aetolians and many of the citizens, pouring forth from the city, struck terror into the Lacedemonians and slew some thirty of them.
§ 14.17.11 At the time Pausanias raised the siege, but after this, since he saw that the city would be hard to take, he traversed its territory, laying it waste and plundering it, even though it was sacred soil, and gathered great stores of booty. 12 Since the winter was already at hand, he built walled outposts in Elis and left adequate forces in them, and himself passed the winter with the rest of the army in Dyme.
§ 14.18.1 In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Siceli, since his government was making satisfactory progress, determined to make war upon the Carthaginians; but being not yet sufficiently prepared, he concealed this purpose of his while making the necessary preparations for the coming encounters.
§ 14.18.2 And realizing that in the war with Athens the city had been blocked off by a wall that ran from the sea to the sea, he took care that he should never, when caught at a similar disadvantage, be cut off from contact with the countryside; for he saw that the site of Epipolae, as it is called, naturally commanded the city of the Syracusans.
§ 14.18.3 Sending, therefore, for his master-builders, in accord with their advice he decided that he must fortify Epipolae at the point where there stands now the Wall with the Six Gates.
§ 14.18.4 For this place, which faces north, is precipitous in its entirety, and so steep that access is hardly to be won from the outside. Wishing to complete the building of the walls rapidly, he gathered the peasants from the countryside, from whom he selected some sixty thousand capable men and parcelled out to them the space to be walled.
§ 14.18.5 For each stade he appointed a master-builder and for each plethron a mason, and the labourers from the common people assigned to the task numbered two hundred for each plethron. Besides these, other workers, a multitude in number, quarried out the rough stone, and six thousand yoke of oxen brought it to the appointed place.
§ 14.18.6 And the united labour of so many workers struck the watchers with great amazement, since all were zealous to complete the task assigned them. For Dionysius, in order to excite the enthusiasm of the multitude, offered valuable gifts to such as finished first, special ones for the master-builders, and still others for the masons and in turn for the common labourers; and he in person, together with his friends, oversaw the work through all the days required, visiting every section and ever lending a hand to the toilers.
§ 14.18.7 Speaking generally, he laid aside the dignity of his office and reduced himself to the ranks. Putting his hands to the hardest tasks, he endured the same toil as the other workers, so that great rivalry was engendered and some added even a part of the night to the day's labour, such eagerness had infected the multitude for the task.
§ 14.18.8 As a result, contrary to expectation, the wall was brought to completion in twenty days. It was thirty stades in length and of corresponding height, and the added strength of the wall made it impregnable to assault; for there were lofty towers at frequent intervals and it was constructed of stones four feet long and carefully joined.
§ 14.19.1 At the close of the year Exaenetus was archon in Athens, and in Rome six military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Publius Cornelius, Caeso Fabius, Spurius Nautius, Gaius Valerius, and Manius Sergius.
§ 14.19.2 At this time Cyrus, who was commander of the satrapies on the sea, had been planning for a long while to lead an army against his brother Artaxerxes; for the young man was full of ambition and had a keenness for the encounters of war that was not unrewarded.
§ 14.19.3 When an adequate force of mercenaries had been collected for him and all preparations for the campaign had been completed, he did not reveal the truth to the troops, but kept asserting that he was leading the army to Cilicia against the despots who were in rebellion against the King.
§ 14.19.4 He also dispatched ambassadors to the Lacedemonians to recall to their minds the services he had rendered in their war against the Athenians and to urge them to join him as allies The Lacedemonians, thinking that the war would be to their advantage, decided to give aid to Cyrus and forthwith sent ambassadors to their admiral, named Samus, with instructions that he should carry out whatever Cyrus ordered.
§ 14.19.5 Samus had twenty-five triremes, and with these he sailed to Ephesus to Cyrus' admiral and was reduce to co-operate with him in every respect. They also sent eight hundred infantry, giving the command to Cheirisophus. The commander of the barbarian fleet was Tamos, who had fifty triremes which had been fitted out at great expense; and after the Lacedemonians had arrived, the fleets put out to sea, following a course for Cilicia.
§ 14.19.6 Cyrus, after gathering to Sardis both the levies of Asia and thirteen thousand mercenaries, appointed Persians of his kindred to be governors of Lydia and Phrygia, but of Ionia, Aeolis, and the neighbouring territories, his trusted friend Tamos, who was a native of Memphis; then he with his army advanced in the direction of Cilicia and Pisidia, spreading the report that certain peoples of those regions were in revolt. From Asia he had in all seventy thousand troops, of whom three thousand were cavalry, and from the Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece thirteen thousand mercenaries. 8 The soldiers from the Peloponnesus, with the exception of the Achaeans, were commanded by Clearchus the Lacedemonian, those from Boeotia by Proxenus the Theban, the Achaeans by Socrates the Achaean, and those from Thessaly by Menon of Larissa. 9 The officers of the barbarians, in minor commands, were Persians, and of the whole army Cyrus himself was commander-in-chief. He had disclosed to the commanders that he was marching against his brother, but he kept this hid from the troops for fear that they would leave his enterprise stranded because of the scale of his expedition. Consequently along the march, by way of providing for the coming occasion, he curried favour with the troops by affability and by providing abundant supplies of provisions.
§ 14.20.1 After Cyrus had traversed Lydia and Phrygia as well as the regions bordering on Cappadocia, he arrived at the boundaries of Cilicia and the entrance at the Cilician Gates. This pass is narrow and precipitous, twenty stades in length, and bordering it on both sides are exceedingly high and inaccessible mountains; and walls stretch down one side from the mountains as far as the roadway, where gates have been built across it.
§ 14.20.2 Leading his army through these gates, Cyrus entered a plain which in beauty yields to no plain in Asia, and through which he advanced to Tarsus, the largest city of Cilicia, which he speedily mastered. When Syennesis, the lord of Cilicia, heard of the great size of the hostile army, he was at a great loss, since he was no match for it in battle.
§ 14.20.3 When he was summoned to Cyrus' presence and had been given pledges, he went to him, and on learning the truth about the war he agreed to join him as an ally against Artaxerxes; and he sent one of his two sons along with Cyrus, giving him also a strong contingent of Cilicians for his army. For Syennesis, being by nature unscrupulous and having adjusted himself to the uncertainty of Fortune, had dispatched his other son secretly to the King to reveal to him the armaments that had been gathered against him and to assure him that he took the part of Cyrus out of necessity, but that he was still faithful to the King and, when the opportunity arose, would desert Cyrus and join the army of the King.
§ 14.20.4 Cyrus rested his army twenty days in Tarsus, and after this, when he would have resumed the march, the troops suspected that the campaign was against Artaxerxes. And as each man reckoned up the length of the distances entailed and the multitude of hostile peoples through whom they would have to pass, he was filled with the deepest anxiety; for the word had got about that it was a four months' march for an army to Bactria and that a force of more than four hundred thousand soldiers had been mustered for the King.
§ 14.20.5 Consequently the soldiers became most fearful and vexed, and in anger at their commanders they attempted to kill them on the ground that the commanders had betrayed them. But when Cyrus entreated one and all of them and assured them that he was leading the army, not against Artaxerxes, but against a certain satrap of Syria, the soldiers yielded, and when they had received an increase in pay, they resumed their former loyalty to him.
§ 14.21.1 As Cyrus marched through Cilicia he arrived at Issus, which lies on the sea and is the last city of Cilicia. At the same time the fleet of the Lacedemonians also put in at the city, and the commanders went ashore, met with Cyrus, and reported the goodwill of the Spartans toward him; and they disembarked and turned over to him the eight hundred infantry under the command of Cheirisophus.
§ 14.21.2 The pretence was that these mercenaries were sent by the friends of Cyrus, but in fact everything was done with the consent of the ephors. The Lacedemonians had not yet openly entered upon the war, but were concealing their purpose, awaiting the turn of the war. Cyrus set out with his army, travelling toward Syria, and ordered the admirals to accompany him by sea with all the ships.
§ 14.21.3 When he arrived at the Gates, as they are called, and found the place clear of guards, he was elated, for he was greatly concerned lest troops might have occupied them before his arrival. The place is narrow and precipitous in character, so that it can be easily guarded by few troops.
§ 14.21.4 For two mountains lie against everyone, the one jagged and with great crags, and the other beginning right at the road itself, and it is the largest in those regions, bearing the name Amanus and extending along Phoenicia; and the space between the mountains, some three stades in length, has walls running its while length and gates closed to make a narrow passage.
§ 14.21.5 Now, after passing through the Gates without a fight, Cyrus sent off that part of the fleet that was still with him to make the return voyage to Ephesus, since it was of no further use to him now that he would be travelling inland. After a march of twenty days he arrived at the city of Thapsacus, which lies on the Euphrates River.
§ 14.21.6 Here he remained five days, and after winning the army to himself both by abundant supplies and by booty from foraging, he summoned it to an assembly and disclosed the truth about his campaign. When the soldiers received his words unfavourably, he besought them, one and all, not to leave him in the lurch, promising, besides other great rewards, that, when they came to Babylon, he would give every man of them five minas of silver. The soldiers, accordingly, soaring in their expectations, were prevailed upon to follow him.
§ 14.21.7 When Cyrus crossed the Euphrates with his army, he pressed on the way without making any halt, and as soon as he reached the borders of Babylonia he rested his troops.
§ 14.22.1 King Artaxerxes had learned some time before from Pharnabazus that Cyrus was secretly collecting an army to lead against him, and when he now learned that he was on the march, he summoned his armaments from every place to Ecbatana in Media.
§ 14.22.2 When the contingents from the Indians and certain other peoples were delayed because of the remoteness of those regions, he set out to meet Cyrus with the army that had been assembled. He had in all not less than four hundred thousand soldiers, including cavalry, as Ephorus states.
§ 14.22.3 When he arrived on the plain of Babylonia, he pitched a camp beside the Euphrates, intending to leave his baggage in it; for he had learned that the enemy was not far distant and he was apprehensive of their reckless daring.
§ 14.22.4 Accordingly he dug a trench sixty feet wide and ten deep and encircled the camp with the baggage-waggons of his train like a wall. Having left behind in the camp the baggage and the attendants who were of no use in the battle, he appointed an adequate guard for it, and leading forward in person his army unencumbered, he advanced to meet the enemy which was near at hand.
§ 14.22.5 When Cyrus saw the King's army advancing, he at once drew up his own force in battle order. The right wing, which rested on the Euphrates, was held by infantry composed of Lacedemonians and some of the mercenaries, all under the command of Clearchus the Lacedemonian, and helping him in the fight were the cavalry brought from Paphlagonia, more than a thousand. The left wing was held by the troops from Phrygia and Lydia and about a thousand of the cavalry, under the command of Aridaeus.
§ 14.22.6 Cyrus himself had taken a station in the centre of the battle-line, together with the choicest troops gathered from the Persians and the other barbarians, about ten thousand strong; and leading the van before him were the finest-equipped cavalry, a thousand, armed with Greek breastplates and swords. Artaxerxes stationed before the length of his battle-line scythe-bearing chariots in no small number, and the wings he put under command of Persians, while he himself took his position in the centre with no less than fifty thousand elite troops.
§ 14.23.1 When the armies were about three stades apart, the Greeks struck up the paean and at first advanced at a slow pace, but as soon as they were within range of missiles they began to run at great speed. Clearchus the Lacedemonian had given orders for them to do this, for by not running from a great distance he had in mind to keep the fighters fresh in body for the fray, while if they advanced on the run when at close quarters, this, it was thought, would cause the missiles shot by bows and other means to fly over their heads.
§ 14.23.2 When the troops with Cyrus approached the King's army, such a multitude of missiles was hurled upon them as one could expect to be discharged from a host of four hundred thousand. Nevertheless, they fought but an altogether short time with javelin and then for the remainder of the battle closed hand to hand.
§ 14.23.3 The Lacedemonians and the rest of the mercenaries at the very first contact struck terror into the opposing barbarians both by the splendour of their arms and by the skill they displayed.
§ 14.23.4 For the barbarians were protected by small shields and their divisions were for the most part equipped with light arms; and, furthermore, they were without trial in the perils of war, whereas the Greeks had been in constant battle by reason of the length of the Peloponnesian War and were far superior in experience. Consequently they straightway put their opponents to flight, pushed after them in pursuit, and slew many of the barbarians.
§ 14.23.5 In the centre of the lines, it so happened, were stationed both the men who were contending for the kingship. Consequently, becoming aware of this fact, they made at each other, being eagerly desirous of deciding the issue of the battle by their own hands; for Fortune, it appears, brought the rivalry of the brothers over the throne to culmination in a duel as if in imitation of that ancient rash combat of Eteocles and Polyneices so celebrated in tragedy.
§ 14.23.6 Cyrus was the first to hurl his javelin from a distance, and striking the King, brought him to the ground; but the King's attendants speedily snatched him away and carried him out of the battle. Tissaphernes, a Persian noble, now succeeded to the supreme command held by the King, and not only rallied the troops but fought himself in splendid fashion; and retrieving the reverse involved in the wounding of the King and arriving on the scene everywhere his elite troops, he slew great numbers of the enemy, so that his presence was conspicuous from afar.7 Cyrus, being elated by the success of his forces, rushed boldly into the midst of the enemy and at first slew numbers of them as he set no bounds to his daring; but later, as he fought too imprudently, he was struck by a common Persian and fell mortally wounded. Upon his death the King's soldiers gained confidence for the battle and in the end, by virtue of numbers and daring, wore down their opponents.
§ 14.24.1 On the other wing Aridaeus, who was second in command to Cyrus, at first withstood stoutly the charge of the barbarians, but later, since he was being encircled by the far-extended line of the enemy and had learned of Cyrus' death, he turned in flight with the soldiers under his command to one of the stations where he had once stopped, which was not unsuited as a place for retreat.
§ 14.24.2 Clearchus, when he observed that both the centre of his allies and the other part as well had been routed, stopped his pursuit, and calling back the soldiers, set them in order; for he feared that if the entire army should turn on the Greeks, they would be surrounded and slain to a man.
§ 14.24.3 The King's troops, after they had put their opponents to flight, first plundered Cyrus' baggage-train and then, when night had come on, gathered in force and set upon the Greeks; but when the Greeks met the attack valiantly, the barbarians withstood them only a short while and after a little turned in flight, being overcome by their deeds of valour and skill.
§ 14.24.4 The troops of Clearchus, when they had slain great numbers of the barbarians, since it was already night, returned to the battlefield and set up a trophy, and about the second watch got safe to their camp.
§ 14.24.5 Such was the outcome of the battle, and of the army of the King more than fifteen thousand were slain, most of whom fell at the hands of the Lacedemonians and mercenaries under the command of Clearchus.
§ 14.24.6 On the other side some three thousand of Cyrus' soldiers fell, while of the Greeks, we are told, not a man was slain, though a few were wounded. When the night was past, Aridaeus, who had fled to the stopping-place, dispatched messengers to Clearchus, urging him to lead his soldiers to him and to join him in making a safe return to the regions not sea. For now that Cyrus had been slain and the King's armaments held the advantage, deep concern had seized those who had dared to take the field to unset Artaxerxes from the throne.
§ 14.25.1 Clearchus called together both the generals and commanders and took counsel with them on the situation. While they were discussing it, there came ambassadors from the King, the chief of whom was a man of Greece, Phalynus by name, who was a Zacynthian. They were introduced to the gathering and spoke as follows: "King Artaxerxes says: Since I have defeated and slain Cyrus, do you surrender your arms, come to my doors, and seek how you may appease me and gain some favour."
§ 14.25.2 To these words each general gave a reply much like that which Leonides made when he was guarding the Pass of Thermopylae, and Xerxes sent messengers ordering him to lay down his arms.
§ 14.25.3 For Leonides at that time instructed the messengers to report to the King: "We believe that if we become friends of Xerxes, we shall be better allies if we keep our arms, and if we are forced to wage war against him, we shall fight the better if we keep them."
§ 14.25.4 When Clearchus had made a somewhat similar reply to the message, Proxenus the Theban said, "As things now stand, we have lost practically everything else, and all that is left to us is our valour and our arms. It is my opinion, therefore, that if we guard our arms, our valour also will be useful to us, but if we give them up, then not even our valour will be of any help to us." Consequently he gave them this message to the King: "If you are plotting some evil against us, with our arms we will fight against you for your own possessions."
§ 14.25.5 We are told that also Sophilus, one of the commanders, said, "I am surprised at the words of the King; for if he believes that he is stronger than the Greeks, let him come with his army and take our arms away from us; but if he wishes to use persuasion, let him say what favour of equal worth he will grant us in exchange for them."
§ 14.25.6 After these speakers Socrates the Achaean said, "The King is certainly acting toward us in a most astounding fashion; for what he wishes to take from us he requires at once, while what will be given us in return he commands us to request of him at a later time. In a word, if it is in ignorance of who are the victors that he orders us to obey his command as though we had been defeated, let him come with his numerous host and find out on whose side the victory lies; but if, knowing well enough that we are the victors, he uses lying words, how shall we trust his later promises?"
§ 14.25.7 After the messengers had received these replies, they departed; and Clearchus marched to the stopping-place whither the troops had retired who had escaped from the battle. When the entire force had gathered in the same place, they counselled together how they should make their way back to the sea and what route they should take.
§ 14.25.8 Now it was agreed that they should not return by the same way they had come, since much of it was waste country where they could not expect provisions to be available with a hostile army on their heels. They resolved, therefore, to make toward Paphlagonia, and set out in that direction with the army, proceeding at a leisurely pace, since they gathered provisions as they marched.
§ 14.26.1 The King was recovering from his wound, and when he learned that his opponents were withdrawing, he believed that they were in flight and set out in haste after them with his army.
§ 14.26.2 As soon as he had overtaken them because of their slow progress, for the moment, since it was night, he went into camp near them, and when day came and the Greeks were drawing up their army for battle, he sent messengers to them and for the time being agreed upon a truce of three days.
§ 14.26.3 During this period they reached the following agreement: The King would see that his territory was friendly to them; he would provide them guides for their journey to the sea and would supply them with provisions on the way; the mercenaries under Clearchus and all the troops under Aridaeus would pass through his territory without doing any injury.
§ 14.26.4 After this they started on their journey, and the King led his army off to Babylon. In that city he accorded fitting honours to everyone who had performed deeds of courage in the battle and judged Tissaphernes seem to have been the bravest of all. Consequently he honoured him with rich gifts, gave him his own daughter in marriage, and henceforth continued to hold him as his most trusted friend; and he also gave him the command which Cyrus had held over the satrapies on the sea.
§ 14.26.5 Tissaphernes, seeing that the King was angered at the Greeks, promised him that he would destroy them one and all, if the King would supply him with armaments and come to terms with Aridaeus, for he believed that Aridaeus would betray the Greeks to him in the course of the march. The King readily accepted this suggestion and allowed him to select from his entire army as many of the best troops as he chose.
§ 14.26.6 (When Tissaphernes caught up with the Greeks he sent word for Clearchus and the) rest of the commanders to come to him and hear what he had to say in person. Consequently, practically all the generals, together with Clearchus and some twenty captains, went to Tissaphernes, and of the common soldiers about two hundred, who wanted to go to market, accompanied them.
§ 14.26.7 Tissaphernes invited the generals into his tent and the captains waited at the entrance. And after a little, at the raising of a red flag from Tissaphernes' tent, he seized the generals within, certain appointed troops fell upon the captains and slew them, and others killed the soldiers who had come to the market. Of the last, one made his escape to the camp and disclosed the disaster that had befallen them.
§ 14.27.1 When the soldiers learned what had taken place, at the moment they were panic-stricken and all rushed to arms in great disorder, since there was no one to command; but after this, since no one disturbed them, they elected a number of generals and put the supreme command in the hands of one, Cheirisophus the Lacedemonian.
§ 14.27.2 The generals organized the army for the march on the route they thought best and proceeded toward Paphlagonia. Tissaphernes sent the generals in chains to Artaxerxes, who executed the others but spared Menon alone, since he alone, because of a quarrel with his allies, was thought to be ready to betray the Greeks.
§ 14.27.3 Tissaphernes, following with his army, clung to the Greeks, but he did not dare to meet them in battle face to face, fearing as he did the courage and recklessness of desperate men; and although he harassed them in places well suited for that purpose, he was unable to do them any great harm, but he followed them, causing slight difficulties, as far as the country of the people known as the Carduchi.
§ 14.27.4 Since Tissaphernes was unable to accomplish anything further, he set out with his army for Ionia; and the Greeks made their way for seven days through the mountains of the Carduchi, suffering greatly at the hands of the natives, who were a warlike people and well acquainted with the region.
§ 14.27.5 They were enemies of the King and a free people who practised the arts of war, and they especially trained themselves in hurling largest stones they could with slings and in the use of enormous arrows, with which missiles they inflicted wounds on the Greeks from advantageous positions, slaying many and seriously injuring not a few.
§ 14.27.6 For the arrows were more than two cubits long and pierced both the shields and breastplates, so that no armour could withstand their force; and these arrows they used were so large, we are told, that the Greeks wound thongs about those that had been shot and used them as javelins to hurl back.
§ 14.27.7 Now after they had traversed with difficulty the country we have mentioned, they arrived at the river Centrites, which they crossed, and entered Armenia. The satrap here was Tiribazus, with whom they made a truce and passed through his territory as friends.
§ 14.28.1 As they made their way through the mountains of Armenia they encountered a heavy snow and the entire army came near to perishing. What happened was this. At first, when the air was stirred, the snow began to fall in light quantities from the heavens, so that the marchers experienced no trouble in their advance; but after this a wind rose and it came down heavier and heavier and so covered the ground that not only the road but even any distinguishing landmarks could no longer be seen at all.
§ 14.28.2 Consequently despondency and fear seized the army, which was unwilling to turn back to certain destruction and unable to advance because of the heavy snow. As the storm increased in intensity, there came a great wind and heavy hail which beat in gusts on their faces and forced the entire army to come to a halt; for everyone, being unable to endure the hardship entailed in a further advance, was forced to remain wherever he happened to be.
§ 14.28.3 Although without supplies of any kind, they stuck it out under the open sky that day and the following night, beset by many hardships; for because of the heavy snow which kept continually falling, all their arms were covered and their bodies were completely chilled by the frost in the air. The hardships they endured were so great that they got no sleep the entire night. Some lighted fires and got some help from them, and some, whose bodies were invaded by the frost, gave up all hope of succour, since practically all their fingers and toes were mortifying.
§ 14.28.4 Accordingly, when the night was past, it was found that most of the baggage animals had perished, and of the soldiers many were dead and not a few, though still conscious, could not move their bodies because of the frost; and the eyes of some were blinded by reason of the cold and the glare from the snow.
§ 14.28.5 And every man would certainly have perished had they not gone on a little farther and found villages full of supplies. These villages had entrances for the beasts of burden which were tunnelled under the ground and others for the human inhabitants who descended into them by ladders . . . and in the houses the animals were supplied with hay, while the human inhabitants enjoyed a great abundance of all the necessities of life.
§ 14.29.1 After they had remained in the villages eight days, they went on to the river Phasis. Here they passed four days and then made their way through the territory of the Chaoi and the Phasians. When the natives attacked them, they defeated them in battle, slaying great numbers of them, seized their farms, which abounded in provisions, and spent fifteen days on them.
§ 14.29.2 Continuing their advance from here, they then traversed the territory of the Chaldaeans, as they are called, in seven days and arrived at the river named Harpagus, which was four plethra wide. From here their advance brought them through the territory of the Scytini by a road across a plain, on which they refreshed themselves for three days, enjoying all the necessities of life in plenty. After this they set out and on the fourth day arrived at a large city which bore the name of Gymnasia.
§ 14.29.3 Here the ruler of these regions concluded a truce with them and furnished them guides to lead them to the sea. Arriving in fifteen days at Mt. Chenium, when the men marching in the van caught sight of the sea, they were overjoyed and raised such a cry that the men in the rear, assuming that there was an attack by enemies, rushed to arms.
§ 14.29.4 But when they had all got up to the place from which the sea could be seen, they raised their hands to the gods and gave thanks, believing they had now come through to safety; and gathering together into one spot a great number of stones, they formed from them great cairns on which they set up as a dedication spoils taken from the barbarians, wishing to leave an eternal memorial of their expedition. To the guide they gave as presents a silver bowl and a suit of Persian raiment; and he, after pointing out to them the road to the Macronians, took his departure.
§ 14.29.5 The Greeks then entered the territory of the Macronians with whom they concluded a truce, receiving from them as a pledge of good faith a spear used by these barbarians and giving them in return a Greek one; for the barbarians declared that such an exchange had been handed down to them from their forefathers as the surest pledge of good faith. When they had crossed the boundaries of this people, they arrived at the territory of the Colchians.
§ 14.29.6 When the natives gathered here against them, the Greeks overcame them in battle and slew great numbers of them, and then, seizing a strong position on a hill, they pillaged the territory, gathered their booty not hill, and refreshed themselves plentifully.
§ 14.30.1 There were found in the regions great numbers of beehives which yielded valuable honey. But as many as partook of it succumbed to a strange affliction; for those who ate it lost consciousness, and falling on the ground were like dead men.
§ 14.30.2 Since many consumed the honey because of the pleasure its sweetness afforded, such a number had soon fallen to the ground as if they had suffered a rout in war. Now during that day the army was disheartened, terrified as it was at both the strange happening and the great number of the unfortunates; but on the next day at about the same hour all came to themselves, gradually recovered their senses, and rose up from the ground, and their physical state was like that of men recovered after a dose of a drug.
§ 14.30.3 When they had refreshed themselves for three days, they marched on to the Greek city of Trapezus, which is a colony of the Sinopians and lies in the territory of the Colchians. Here they spent thirty days, during which they were most magnificently entertained by the inhabitants; and they offered sacrifices to Heracles and to Zeus the Deliverer and held a gymnastic contest at the place at which, men say, the Argo put in with Jason and his men.
§ 14.30.4 From here they dispatched Cheirisophus their commander to Byzantium to get transports and triremes, since he claimed to be a friend of Anaxibius, the admiral of the Byzantines. The Greeks sent him off on a light boat, and then, receiving from the Trapezians two small boats equipped with oars, they plundered the neighbouring barbarians both by land and by sea.
§ 14.30.5 Now for thirty days they waited for the return of Cheirisophus, and when he still delayed and provisions for the troops were running low, they set out from Trapezus and arrived on the third day at the Greek city of Cerasus, a colony of the Sinopians. Here they spent some days and then came to the people of the Mosynoecians.
§ 14.30.6 When the barbarians assembled against them, the Greeks defeated them in battle, slaying great numbers of them. And when they fled for refuge to a stronghold where they had their dwelling and which they defended with wooden towers seven stories high, the Greeks launched successive assaults upon it and took it by storm. This stronghold was the capitol of all the other walled communities and in it, in the loftiest part, their king had his dwelling.
§ 14.30.7 A custom, handed down from their fathers, is followed that the king must remain for his entire life in the stronghold and from it issue his commands to the people. This was the most barbarous nation, the soldiers said, that they passed through: the men have intercourse with the women in the sight of all; the children of the wealthiest are nourished on boiled nuts; and they are all from their youth tattooed in various colours on both their back and breast. The territory they passed through in eight days and the next country, called Tibarene, in three.
§ 14.31.1 From there they arrived at Cotyora, a Greek city and a colony of the Sinopians. Here they spent fifty days, plundering both the neighbouring peoples of Paphlagonia and the other barbarians. And the citizens of Heracleia and Sinope sent them vessels on which both the soldiers and their pack-animals were conveyed across.
§ 14.31.2 Sinope was a colony founded by the Milesians, and situated as it was in Paphlagonia, it held first place among the cities of those regions; and it was in this city that in our day Mithridates, who went to war with the Romans, had his largest palace.
§ 14.31.3 And at that city also arrived Cheirisophus, who had been dispatched without success to get triremes. Nevertheless, the Sinopians entertained them in kindly fashion and sent them on their way by sea to Heracleia, a colony of the Megarians; and the entire fleet came to anchor at the peninsula of Acherusia, where, we are told, Heracles led up Cerberus from Hades.
§ 14.31.4 As they proceeded from there on foot through Bithynia they fell among perils, as the natives skirmished with them along their route. So they barely made their way to safety to Chrysopolis in Chalcedonia, eight thousand three hundred surviving of the original ten thousand.
§ 14.31.5 From there some of the Greeks got back in safety, without further trouble, to their native lands, and the rest banded together around the Chersonesus and laid waste the adjoining territory of the Thracians. Such, then, was the outcome of the campaign of Cyrus against Artaxerxes.
§ 14.32.1 In Athens the Thirty Tyrants, who were in supreme control, made no end out of daily exiling some citizens and putting to death others. When the Thebans were displeased at what was taking place and extended kindly hospitality to the exiles, Thrasybulus of the deme of Stiria, as he was called, who was an Athenian and had been exiled by the Thirty, with the secret aid of the Thebans seized a stronghold in Attica called Phyle. This was an outpost, which was not only very strong but was also only one hundred stades distant from Athens, so that it afforded them many advantages for attack.
§ 14.32.2 The Thirty Tyrants, on learning of this act, at first led forth their troops against the band with the intention of laying siege to the stronghold. But while they were encamped near Phyle there came a heavy snow,
§ 14.32.3 and when some set to work to shift their encampment, the majority of the soldiers assumed that they were taking to flight and that a hostile force was at hand; and the uproar which men call Panic struck the army and they removed their camp to another place.
§ 14.32.4 The Thirty, seeing that those citizens of Athens who enjoyed no political rights in the government of the three thousand were elated at the prospect of the overthrow of their control of the state, transferred them to Peiraeus and maintained their control of the city by means of mercenary troops; and accusing the Eleusinians and Salaminians of siding with the exiles, they put them all to death.
§ 14.32.5 While these things were being done, many of the exiles flocked to Thrasybulus; (and the Thirty dispatched ambassadors to Thrasybulus) publicly to treat with him about some prisoners, but privately to advise him to dissolve the band of exiles and to associate himself with the Thirty in the rule of the city, taking the place of Theramenes; and they promised further that he could have licence to restore to their native land any ten exiles he chose.
§ 14.32.6 Thrasybulus replied that he preferred his own state of exile to the rule of the Thirty and that he would not end the war unless all the citizens returned from exile and the people got back the form of government they had received from their fathers. The Thirty, seeing many revolting from them because of hatred and the exiles growing ever more numerous, dispatched ambassadors to Sparta for aid, and meanwhile themselves gathered as many troops as they could and pitched a camp in the open country near Acharnae, as it is called.
§ 14.33.1 Thrasybulus, leaving behind an adequate guard at the stronghold, led forth the exiles, twelve hundred in number, and delivering an unexpected attack by night on the camp of his opponents, he slew a large number of them, struck terror into the rest by his unexpected move, and forced them to flee to Athens.
§ 14.33.2 After the battle Thrasybulus set out straightway for the Peiraeus and seized Munychia, which was an uninhabited and strong hill; and the Tyrants with all the troops at their disposal went down to the Peiraeus and attacked Munychia, under the command of Critias. In the sharp battle which continued for a long time the Thirty held the advantage in numbers and the exiles in the strength of their position.
§ 14.33.3 At last, however, when Critias fell, the troops of the Thirty were dismayed and fled for safety to more level ground, the exiles not daring to come down against them. When after this great numbers went over to the exiles, Thrasybulus made an unexpected attack upon his opponents, defeated them in battle, and became master of the Peiraeus.
§ 14.33.4 At once many of the inhabitants of the city who wished to be rid of the tyranny flocked to the Peiraeus and all the exiles who were scattered throughout the cities of Greece, on hearing of the successes of Thrasybulus, came to the Peiraeus, so that from now on the exiles were far superior in force. In consequence they began to lay siege to the city.
§ 14.33.5 The remaining citizens in Athens now removed the Thirty from office and sent them out of the city, and then they elected ten men with supreme power first and foremost to put an end to the war, in any way possible, on friendly terms. But these men, as soon as they had succeeded to office, paid no attention to these orders, but established themselves as tyrants and sent to Lacedemon for forty warships and a thousand soldiers, under the command of Lysander.
§ 14.33.6 But Pausanias, the king of the Lacedemonians, being jealous of Lysander and observing that Sparta was in ill repute among the Greeks, marched forth with a strong army and on his arrival in Athens brought about a reconciliation between the men in the city and the exiles. As a result the Athenians got back their country and henceforth conducted their government under laws of their own making; and the men who lived in fear of punishment for their unbroken series of past crimes they allowed to make their home in Eleusis.
§ 14.34.1 The Eleians, because they stood in fear of the superior strength of the Lacedemonians, brought the war with them to an end, agreeing that they would surrender their triremes to the Lacedemonians and let the neighbouring cities go free.
§ 14.34.2 And the Lacedemonians, now that they had brought their wars to an end and were no longer concerned with them, advanced with their army against the Messenians, of whom some were settled in an outpost on Cephallenia and others in Naupactus, which the Athenians had given them, among the western Locrians.
§ 14.34.3 Driving the Messenians from these regions, they returned the one outpost to the inhabitants of Cephallenia and the other to the Locrians. The Messenians, being now driven from every place because of their ancient hatred of the Spartans, departed with their arms from Greece, and some of them, sailing to Sicily, took service as mercenaries with Dionysius, while others, about three thousand in number, sailed to Cyrene and joined the forces of exiles there.
§ 14.34.4 For at that time disorder had broken out among the Cyrenaeans, since Ariston, together with certain others, had seized the city. Of the Cyrenaeans, five hundred of the most influential citizens had recently been put to death and the most respected among the survivors had been banished.
§ 14.34.5 The exiles now added the Messenians to their number and joined battle with the men who had seized the city, and many of the Cyrenaeans were slain on both sides, but the Messenians were killed almost to a man.
§ 14.34.6 After the battle the Cyrenaeans negotiated with each other and agreed to be reconciled, and they immediately swore oaths not to remember past injuries and lived together as one body in the city.
§ 14.34.7 At this same time the Romans increased the number of colonists in the city known as Velitrae.
§ 14.35.1 At the close of this year, in Athens Laches was archon and in Rome the consulship was administered by military tribunes, Manius Claudius, Marcus Quinctius, Lucius Julius, Marcus Furius, and Lucius Valerius; and the Ninety-fifth Olympiad was held, that in which Minos of Athens won the "stadion."
§ 14.35.2 This year Artaxerxes, the King of Asia, after his defeat of Cyrus, had dispatched Tissaphernes to take over all the satrapies which bordered on the sea. Consequently the satraps and cities which had allied themselves with Cyrus were in great suspense, lest they should be punished for their offences against the King.
§ 14.35.3 Now all the other satraps, sending ambassadors to Tissaphernes, paid court to him and in every way possible arranged their affairs to suit him; but Tamos, the most powerful satrap, who commanded Ionia, put on triremes his possessions and all his sons except one whose name was Glos and who became later commander of the King's armaments.
§ 14.35.4 Tamos then, in fear of Tissaphernes, sailed off with his fleet to Egypt and sought safety with Psammetichus, the king of the Egyptians, who was a descendant of the famous Psammetichus. Because of a good turn he had done the king in the past, Tamos believed that he would find in him a haven, as it were, from the perils he faced from the King of Persia.
§ 14.35.5 But Psammetichus, completely ignoring both the good turn and the hallowed obligation due to suppliants, put to the sword the man who was his suppliant and friend, together with his children, in order to take for his own both Tamos' possessions and his fleet.
§ 14.35.6 When the Greek cities of Asia learned that Tissaphernes was on his way, they were deeply concerned for their future and dispatched ambassadors to the Lacedemonians, begging them not to allow the cities to be laid waste by the barbarians. The Lacedemonians promised to come to their aid and sent ambassadors to Tissaphernes to warn him not to commit any acts of aggression against the Greek cities.
§ 14.35.7 Tissaphernes, however, advancing with his army against the city of the Cymaeans first, both plundered its entire territory and got possession of many captives; after this he laid siege to the Cymaeans, but on the approach of winter, since he was unable to capture the city, he released the captives for a heavy ransom and raised the siege.
§ 14.36.1 The Lacedemonians appointed Thibron commander of the war against the King, gave him a thousand soldiers from their own citizens, and ordered him to enlist as many troops from their allies as he should think desirable.
§ 14.36.2 Thibron, after going to Corinth and summoning soldiers from the allies to that city, set sail for Ephesus with not more than five thousand troops. Here he enrolled some two thousand soldiers from his own and other cities and then marched forth with a total force of over seven thousand. Advancing some one hundred and twenty stades, he came to Magnesia which was under the government of Tissaphernes; taking this city at the first assault, he then advanced speedily to Tralles in Ionia and began to lay siege to the city, but when he was unable to achieve any success because of its strong position, he turned back to Magnesia.
§ 14.36.3 And since the city was unwalled and Thibron therefore feared that at his departure Tissaphernes would get control of it, he transferred it to a neighbouring hill which men call Thorax; then Thibron, invading the territory of the enemy, glutted his soldiers with booty of every kind. But when Tissaphernes arrived with strong cavalry forces, he withdrew for security to Ephesus.
§ 14.37.1 At this same time a group of the soldiers who had served in the campaign with Cyrus and had got back safe to Greece went off each to his own country, but the larger part of them, about five thousand in number, since they had become accustomed to the life of a soldier, chose Xenophon for their general.
§ 14.37.2 And Xenophon with this army set out to make war on the Thracians who dwell around Salmydessus. The territory of this city, which lies on the left side of the Pontus, stretches for a great distance and is the cause of many shipwrecks.
§ 14.37.3 Accordingly the Thracians made it their practice to lie in wait in those parts and seize the merchants who were cast ashore as prisoners. Xenophon with the troops he had gathered invaded their territory, defeated them in battle, and burned most of their villages.
§ 14.37.4 After this, when Thibron sent for the soldiers with the promise to hire them, they withdrew to join him and made war with the Lacedemonians against the Persians.
§ 14.37.5 While these events were taking place, Dionysius founded in Sicily a city just below the crest of Mount Aetne and named it Adranum, after a certain famous temple.
§ 14.37.6 In Macedonia King Archelaus was unintentionally struck while hunting by Craterus, whom he loved, and met his end, after a reign of seven years. He was succeeded on the throne by Orestes, who was still a boy and was slain by Aeropus, his guardian, who held the throne for six years.
§ 14.37.7 In Athens Socrates the philosopher, who was accused by Anytus and Meletus of impiety and of corrupting the youth, was condemned to death and met his end by drinking the hemlock. But since the accusation had been undeserved, the people repented, considering that so great a man had been put to death; consequently they were angered at the accusers and ultimately put them to death without trial.
§ 14.38.1 At the end of the year in Athens Aristocrates entered the office of archon and in Rome the consular magistracy was taken over by six military tribunes, Gaius Servilius, Lucius Verginius, Quintus Sulpicius, Aulus Mutilius, and Manius Sergius.
§ 14.38.2 After these magistrates had entered office the Lacedemonians, learning that Thibron was conducting the war inefficiently, dispatched Dercylidas as general to Asia; and he took over the army and advanced against the cities in the Troad.
§ 14.38.3 Now Hamaxitus and Colonae and Arisba he took at the first assault, then Ilium and Cerbenia and all the rest of the cities of the Troad, occupying some by craft and conquering the others by force. After this he concluded an armistice of eight months with Pharnabazus and advanced against the Thracians who were dwelling at that time in Bithynia; and after laying waste their territory he led his army off into winter quarters.
§ 14.38.4 In Trachinian Heracleia civil discord had arisen and the Lacedemonians sent Herippidas there to restore order. As soon as Herippidas arrived in Heracleia he called an assembly of the people, and surrounding them with his hoplites, he arrested the authors of the discord and put them all to death, some five hundred in number.
§ 14.38.5 And since the inhabitants about Oite had revolted, he made war on them, subjected them to many hardships, and forced them to leave their land. The majority of them, together with their children and wives, fled into Thessaly, from where they were restored to their homes five years later by the Boeotians.
§ 14.38.6 While these events were taking place, the Thracians invaded the Chersonesus in great multitudes, laid waste the whole region, and held its cities beleaguered. The inhabitants of the Chersonesus, being hard pressed in the war, sent for the Lacedemonian Dercylidas to come from Asia.
§ 14.38.7 He, crossing over with his army, drove the Thracians out of the country and shut off the Chersonesus by a wall which he ran from sea to sea. By this act he prevented any future descent of the Thracians; and after being honoured with great gifts he transported his army of the Asia.
§ 14.39.1 Pharnabazus, after the truce had been made with the Lacedemonians, went back to the King and won him over to the plan of preparing a fleet and appointing Conon the Athenian as its admiral; for Conon was experienced in the encounters of war and especially in combat with the present enemy, and although he excelled in warfare, he was at the time in Cyprus at the court of Evagoras the king. After the King had been persuaded, Pharnabazus took five hundred talents of silver and prepared to fit out a naval force.
§ 14.39.2 Sailing across to Cyprus, he ordered the kings there to make ready a hundred triremes and then, after discussions with Conon about the command of the fleet, he appointed him supreme commander at sea, giving indications in the name of the King of great hopes Conon might entertain. 3 Conon, in the hope not only that he would recover the leadership in Greece for his native country if the Lacedemonians were subdued in war but also that he would himself win great renown, accepted the command. 4 And before the entire fleet had been made ready, he took the forty ships which were at hand and sailed across to Cilicia, where he began preparations for the war. Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes gathered soldiers from their own satrapies and marched out, making their way towards Ephesus, since the enemy had their forces in that city. 5 The army accompanying them numbered twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. On hearing of the approach of the Persians Dercylidas, the commander of the Lacedemonians, led out his army, having in all not more than seven thousand men. 6 But when the forces drew near each other, they concluded a truce and set a period of time during which Pharnabazus should send word to the King regarding the terms of the treaty, should he be ready to end the war, and Dercylidas should explain the matter to the Spartans. So upon this understanding the commanders dispersed their armies.
§ 14.40.1 The inhabitants of Rhegium, who were colonists of Chalcis, were angered to see the growing power of Dionysius. For he had sold into slavery the Naxians and Catanians, their kinsmen, and to the Rhegians, because they were of the same blood as these unfortunate peoples, this act was the cause of no ordinary concern, since all feared the same disaster would befall them.
§ 14.40.2 They therefore decided to take the field speedily against the tyrant before he became entirely secure. Their decision upon war was forthwith supported strongly also by the Syracusans who had been exiled by Dionysius, for most of them were at that time resident in Rhegium and were continually discussing the matter and pointing out that all the Syracusans would seize the occasion to join in an attack.
§ 14.40.3 In the end the Rhegians appointed generals and sent out with them six thousand infantry, six hundred cavalry, and fifty triremes. The generals crossed the strait and induced the generals of the Messenians to join in the war, declaring that it would be a terrible thing for them to stand idly by when Greek cities, and their neighbours, had been totally destroyed by the tyrant.
§ 14.40.4 Now the generals were won over by the Rhegians and, without obtaining a vote of the people, led forth their forces which consisted of four thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry, and thirty triremes. But when the armaments we have mentioned had advanced as far as the borders of Messene, opposition broke out among the soldiers due to a harangue delivered by the Messenian Laomedon;
§ 14.40.5 for he advised them not begin a war against Dionysius who had done them no wrong. Accordingly the Messenian troops, since the people had not approved the war, followed his advice at once, and, deserting their generals, turned back home;
§ 14.40.6 and the Rhegians, since they were not strong enough alone for a battle, when they saw that the Messenians were disbanding their army, also turned back speedily to Rhegium. At the outset Dionysius had led out his army to the border of the Syracusan territory, awaiting the attack of the enemy; but when he learned of their retirement, he led his forces back to Syracuse.
§ 14.40.7 When the Rhegians and Messenians sent ambassadors to treat upon terms of peace, he decided that it was to his advantage to put an end to enmity against these states and concluded peace.
§ 14.41.1 When Dionysius observed that some of the Greeks were deserting to the Carthaginian domain, taking with them their justice and their estates, he concluded that so long as he was at peace with the Carthaginians many of his subjects would be wanting to join their defection, whereas, if there were war, all who had been enslaved by the Carthaginians would revolt to him. And he also heard that many Carthaginians in Libya had fallen victims to a plague which had raged among them.
§ 14.41.2 Thinking for these reasons, then, that he had a favourable occasion for war, he decided that preparation should first be effected; for he assumed that the war would be a great and protracted one since he was entering a struggle with the most powerful people of Europe.
§ 14.41.3 At once, therefore, he gathered skilled workmen, commandeering them for from the cities under his control and attracting them by high wages from Italy and Greece as well as Carthaginian territory. For his purpose was to make weapons in great numbers and every kind of missile, and also quadriremes and quinqueremes, no ship of the latter size having yet been built at that time.
§ 14.41.4 After collecting many skilled workmen, he divided them into groups in accordance with their skills, and appointed over them the most conspicuous citizens, offering great bounties to any who created a supply of arms. As for the armour, he distributed among them models of each kind, because he had gathered his mercenaries from many nations;
§ 14.41.5 for he was eager to have every one of his soldiers armed with the weapons of his people, conceiving that by such armour his army would, for this very reason, cause great consternation, and that in battle all of his soldiers would fight to best effect in armour to which they were accustomed.
§ 14.41.6 And since the Syracusans enthusiastically supported the policy of Dionysius, it came to pass that rivalry rose high to manufacture the arms. For not only was every space, such as the porticoes and back rooms of the temples as well as the gymnasia and colonnades of the market place, crowded with workers, but the making of great quantities of arms went on, apart from such public places, in the most distinguished homes.
§ 14.42.1 In fact the catapult was invented at this time in Syracuse, since the ablest skilled workmen had been gathered from everywhere into one place. The high wages as well as the numerous prizes offered the workmen who were judged to be the best stimulated their zeal. And over and above these factors, Dionysius circulated daily among the workers, conversed with them in kindly fashion, and rewarded the most zealous with gifts and invited them to his table.
§ 14.42.2 Consequently the workmen brought unsurpassable devotion to the devising of many missiles and engines of war that were strange and capable of rendering great service. He also began the construction of quadriremes and quinqueremes, being the first to think of the construction of such ships.
§ 14.42.3 For, hearing that triremes had first been built in Corinth, he was intent, in his city that had been settled by a colony from there, on increasing the scale of naval construction.
§ 14.42.4 After obtaining leave to transport timber from Italy he dispatched half of his woodmen to Mount Aetne, on which there were heavy stands at that time of both excellent fir and pine, while the other half he dispatched to Italy, where he got ready teams to convey the timber to the sea, as well as boats and crews to bring the worked wood speedily to Syracuse.
§ 14.42.5 When Dionysius had collected an adequate supply of wood, he began at one and the same time to build more than two hundred ships and to refit the one hundred and ten he already had; and he also constructed about the Great Harbour, as it is now called, one hundred and sixty costly ship-sheds, and repaired the one hundred and fifty which were already there.
§ 14.43.1 With so many arms and ships under construction at one place the beholder was filled with utter wonder at the sight. For whenever a man gazed at the eagerness shown in the building of the ships, he thought that every Greek in Sicily was engaged on their construction; and when, on the other hand, he visited the places where men were making arms and engines of war, he thought that all available labour was engaged on this alone.
§ 14.43.2 Moreover, despite the unsurpassable zeal devoted to the products we have mentioned, there were made one hundred and forty thousand shields and a like number of daggers and helmets; and in addition corselets were made ready, of every design and wrought with utmost art, more than fourteen thousand in number.
§ 14.43.3 These Dionysius expected to distribute to his cavalry and the commanders of the infantry, as well as to the mercenaries who were to form his bodyguard. He also had catapults made of every style and a large number of the other missiles.
§ 14.43.4 For half of the ships of war which were prepared, the pilots, officers at the bow, and rowers were drawn from citizens, while for the rest of the vessels Dionysius hired mercenaries. When the building of the ships and the making of arms were completed, Dionysius turned his attention to the gathering of soldiers; for he believed it advantageous not to hire them far in advance in order to avoid heavy expenses.
§ 14.43.5 In this year Astydamas, the writer of tragedies, produced his first play; and he lived sixty years. The Romans were besieging Veii, and when a sortie was made from the city, some of the Romans were cut to pieces by the Veientes and others escaped by shameful flight.
§ 14.44.1 When this year had come to an end, Ithycles was archon in Athens and in Rome five military tribunes were established in place of the consuls, Lucius Julius, Marcus Furius, Marcus Aemilius, Gaius Cornelius, and Caeso Fabius. Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, as soon as the major part of the task of making arms and building a fleet was completed, turned at once to the gathering of soldiers.
§ 14.44.2 From the Syracusans he enrolled those who were fit for military service in companies and from the cities subject to him he summoned their able men. He also gathered mercenaries from Greece, and especially from the Lacedemonians, for they, in order to aid him in building up his power, gave him permission to enlist as many mercenaries from them as he might wish. And, speaking generally, since he made a point of gathering his mercenary force from many nations and promised high pay, he found men who were responsive.
§ 14.44.3 Since Dionysius was going to raise up a great war, he addressed himself to the cities of Sicily with courtesy, eliciting their goodwill. He saw that the Rhegians and Messenians who dwelt on the Strait had a strong army mobilized and he feared that, when the Carthaginians crossed over to Sicily, they would join the Carthaginians; for these cities would add no little weight to the side with which they allied themselves for the war.
§ 14.44.4 Since these considerations were the cause of great concern to Dionysius, he made a present to the Messenians of a large piece of territory on their borders, binding them to him by such a benefaction; and to the Rhegians he dispatched ambassadors, urging them to form a connection by marriage and to give him in marriage a maiden who was a citizen of theirs; and he promised that he would win for them a large section of neighbouring territory and do all that was in his power to add to the strength of their city.
§ 14.44.5 For since his wife, the daughter of Hermocrates, had been slain at the time the cavalry revolted, he was eager to beget children, in the belief that the loyalty of his offspring would be the strongest safeguard of his tyrannical power. Nevertheless, when an assembly of the people was held in Rhegium to consider Dionysius' proposal, after much discussion the Rhegians voted not to accept the marriage connection.
§ 14.44.6 Now that Dionysius had failed of this design, he dispatched his ambassadors for the same purpose to the people of the Locrians. When they voted to approve the marriage connection, Dionysius sued for the hand of Doris, the daughter of Xenetus, who at that time was their most esteemed citizen.
§ 14.44.7 A few days before the marriage he sent to Locri a quinquereme, the first one he had built, embellished with silver and gold furnishings; on this he had the maiden conveyed to Syracuse, where he led her into the acropolis.
§ 14.44.8 And he also sought in marriage from among the people of his city the most notable maiden among them, Aristomache, for whom he dispatched a chariot drawn by four white horses to bring her to his own home.
§ 14.45.1 After Dionysius had taken in marriage both maidens at the same time, he gave a series of public dinners for the soldiers and the larger part of the citizens; for he now renounced the oppressive aspect of his tyranny, and changing to a course of equitable dealing, he ruled over his subjects in more humane fashion, no more putting them to death or banishing them, as had been his practice.
§ 14.45.2 After his marriages he let a few days pass and then called an assembly of the Syracusans and urged them to make war against the Carthaginians, declaring that they were most hostile to all Greeks generally and that they had designs at every opportunity on the Greeks of Sicily in particular.
§ 14.45.3 For the present, he pointed out, the Carthaginians were inactive because of the plague which had broken out among them and had destroyed the larger part of the inhabitants of Libya, but when they had recovered their strength, they would not refrain from attacking the Sicilian Greeks, against whom they had been plotting from the earliest time.
§ 14.45.4 It was therefore preferable, he continued, to wage a decisive war upon them while they were still weak than to wait and compete when they were strong. At the same time he pointed out how terrible a thing it was to allow the Greek cities to be enslaved by barbarians, and that these cities would the more zealously join in the war, the more eagerly they desired to obtain their freedom.
§ 14.45.5 After speaking at length in support of his policy he speedily won the approval of the Syracusans. Indeed they were no less eager than he for war, first of all because of their hatred of the Carthaginians who were the cause of their being compelled to take orders from the tyrant; secondly, because they hoped that Dionysius would treat them in more humane fashion because of his fear of the enemy and of an attack upon him by the citizens he had enslaved; but most of all, because they hoped that once they had got weapons in their hand, they could strike for their liberty, let Fortune but give them the opportunity.
§ 14.46.1 After the meeting of the assembly the Syracusans, with the permission of Dionysius, seized as plunder the property of the Phoenicians; for no small number of Carthaginians had their homes in Syracuse and rich possessions, and many also of their merchants had vessels in the harbour loaded with goods, all of which the Syracusans plundered.
§ 14.46.2 Similarly the rest of the Sicilian Greeks drove out the Phoenicians who dwelt among them and plundered their possessions; for although they hated the tyranny of Dionysius, they were still glad to join in the war against the Carthaginians because of the cruelty of that people.
§ 14.46.3 For the very same reasons, too, the inhabitants of the Greek cities under the rule of the Carthaginians, as soon as Dionysius publicly enacted war, made open display of their hatred of the Phoenicians; for not only did they seize their property as plunder, but they also laid hands on their persons and subjected them to every kind of physical torture and outrage, remembering what they had themselves suffered during the time of their captivity.
§ 14.46.4 So far did they go in the vengeance they wreaked on the Phoenicians both at this time and subsequently, that the Carthaginians were taught the lesson no more to transgress the law in their treatment of conquered peoples; for they did not fail to realize, learning as they did by very deeds, that in war Fortune is impartial to both combatants and in defeat both sides must suffer the same sort of thing that they themselves have done to those who were unfortunate.
§ 14.46.5 Now when Dionysius had made ready all his preparations for the war, he determined to send messengers to Carthage with the announcement: The Syracusans declare war upon the Carthaginians unless they restore freedom to the Greek cities that they have enslaved. Dionysius, then, was engaged in the affairs we have discussed.
§ 14.46.6 Ctesias the historian ended with this year his History of the Persians, which began with Ninus and Semiramis. And in this year the most distinguished composers of dithyrambs were in their prime, Philoxenus of Cythera, Timotheus of Miletus, Telestus of Selinus, and Polyeidus, who was also expert in the arts of painting and music.
§ 14.47.1 At the close of the year, in Athens Lysiades became archon, and in Rome six military tribunes administered the office of consul, Popilius Mallius, Publius Maelius, Spurius Furius, and Lucius Publius. When Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, had completed all his preparations for the war according to his personal design, he sent a herald to Carthage, having given him a letter to the senate,
§ 14.47.2 which contained the statement that the Syracusans had resolved to make war upon the Carthaginians unless they withdrew from the Greek cities. The herald accordingly, pursuant to his orders, sailed to Libya and delivered the letter to the senate. When it had been read in the council and subsequently before the people, it came about that the Carthaginians were not a little distressed at the thought of war; for the plague had killed great numbers of them, and they were also totally unprepared.
§ 14.47.3 Nevertheless, they waited for the Syracusans to take the initiative and dispatched members of the senate with large sums of money to recruit mercenaries in Europe.
§ 14.47.4 Dionysius with the Syracusans, the mercenaries, and his allies marched forth from Syracuse and made his way towards Eryx. For not far from this hill lay the city of Motye, a Carthaginian colony, which they used as their chief base of operations against Sicily; and Dionysius hoped that with this city in his power he would have no small advantage over his enemies.
§ 14.47.5 In the course of his march he received from time to time the contingents from the Greek cities, supplying the full levy of each with arms; for they were all eager to join his campaign, hating as they did the heavy hand of Phoenician domination and relishing the prospect at last of freedom.
§ 14.47.6 He received first the levy from Camarina, then those of Gela and Acragas; and after these he sent for the Himeraeans, whose home was on the other side of Sicily, and after adding the men of Selinus, as he passed by, he arrived at Motye with all his army.
§ 14.47.7 He had eighty thousand infantry, well over three thousand cavalry, and a little less than two hundred warships, and he was accompanied by not less than five hundred merchantmen loaded with great numbers of engines of war and all the other supplies needed.
§ 14.48.1 Since the armament was on the great scale we have described, the people of Eryx were awed by the magnitude of the force and, hating the Carthaginians as they did, came over to Dionysius. The inhabitants of Motye, however, expecting aid from the Carthaginians, were not dismayed at Dionysius' armament, but made ready to withstand a siege; for they were not unaware that the Syracusans would make Motye the first city to sack, because it was most loyal to the Carthaginians.
§ 14.48.2 This city was situated on an island lying six stades off Sicily, and was embellished artistically to the last degree with numerous fine houses, thanks to the prosperity of the inhabitants. It also had a narrow artificial causeway extending to the shore of Sicily, which the Motyans breached at this time, in order that the enemy should have no approach against them.
§ 14.48.3 Dionysius, after reconnoitring the area, together with his engineers, began to construct moles leading to Motye, hauled the warships up on land at the entrance of the harbour, and moored the merchantmen along the beach.
§ 14.48.4 After this he left Leptines his admiral in command of the works, while he himself set out with the infantry of his army against the cities that were allies of the Carthaginians. Now the Sicani, fearing the great size of the army, all went over to the Syracusans, and of the rest of the cities only five remained loyal to the Carthaginians, these being Halicyae, Solus, Aegesta, Panormus, and Entella.
§ 14.48.5 Hence Dionysius plundered the territory of Solus and Panormus, and that also of Halicyae, and cut down the trees on it, but he laid siege to Aegesta and Entella with strong forces and launched continuous attacks upon them, seeking to get control of them by force. Such was the state of the affairs of Dionysius.
§ 14.49.1 Himilcon, the general of the Carthaginians, being himself busy with the mustering of the armaments and other preparations, dispatched his admiral with ten triremes under orders to sail speedily in secret against the Syracusans, enter the harbour by night, and destroy the shipping left behind there.
§ 14.49.2 This he did, expecting to cause a diversion and force Dionysius to send part of his fleet back to the Syracusans. The admiral who had been dispatched carried out his orders with promptness and entered the harbour of the Syracusans by night while everyone was ignorant of what had taken place. Attacking unawares, he rammed the vessels lying at anchor along the shore, sank practically all of them, and then returned to Carthage.
§ 14.49.3 Dionysius, after ravaging all the territory held by the Carthaginians and forcing the enemy to take refuge behind walls, led all his army against Motye; for he hoped that when this city had been reduced by siege, all the others would forthwith surrender themselves to him. Accordingly, he at once put many times more men on the task of filling up the strait between the city and the coast, and, as the mole was extended, advanced his engines of war little by little toward the walls.
§ 14.50.1 Meanwhile Himilcon, the admiral of the Carthaginians, hearing that Dionysius had hauled his warships up on land, manned at once his hundred vest triremes; for he assumed that if he appeared unexpectedly, he should easily seize the vessels which were hauled up on land in the harbour, since he would be master of the sea. Once he succeeded in this, he believed, he would not only relieve the siege of Motye but also transfer the war to the city of the Syracusans.
§ 14.50.2 Sailing forth, therefore, with one hundred ships, he arrived during the night at the territory of Selinus, skirted the promontory of Lilybaeum, and arrived at daybreak at Motye. Since his appearance took the enemy by surprise, he disabled some of the vessels anchored along the shore by ramming and others by burning, for Dionysius was unable to come to their defence.
§ 14.50.3 After this he sailed into the harbour and drew up his ships as if to attack the vessels which the enemy had drawn up on land. Dionysius now massed his army at the entrance of the harbour; but when he saw that the enemy was lying in wait to attack as the ships left the harbour, he refused to risk launching his ships within the harbour, since he realized that the narrow entrance compelled a few ships to match themselves against an enemy many times more numerous.
§ 14.50.4 Consequently, using the multitude of his soldiers, he hauled his vessels over the land with no difficulty and launched them safely in the sea outside the harbour. Himilcon attacked the first ships, but was held back by the multitude of missiles; for Dionysius had manned the ships with a great number of archers and slingers, and the Syracusans slew many of the enemy by using from the land the catapults which shot sharp-pointed missiles. Indeed this weapon created great dismay, because it was a new invention at this time. As a result, Himilcon was unable to achieve his design and sailed away to Libya, believing that a sea-battle would serve no end, since the enemy's ships were double his in number.
§ 14.51.1 After Dionysius had completed the mole by employing a large force of labourers, he advanced war engines of every kind against the walls and kept hammering the towers with his battering-rams, while with the catapults he kept down the fighters on the battlements; and he also advanced against the walls his wheeled towers, six stories high, which he had built to equal the height of the houses.
§ 14.51.2 The inhabitants of Motye, now that the threat was at hand-grips, were nevertheless not dismayed by the armament of Dionysius, even though they had for the moment no allies to help them. Surpassing the besiegers in thirst for glory, they in the first place raised up men in crow's-nests resting on yard-arms suspended from the highest possible masts, and these from their lofty positions hurled lighted fire-brands and burning tow with pitch on the enemies' siege engines.
§ 14.51.3 The flame quickly caught the wood, but the Sicilian Greeks, dashing to the scene, swiftly quenched it; and meantime the frequent blows of the battering-rams broke down a section of the wall. Since now both sides rushed with one accord to the place, the battle that ensued grew furious.
§ 14.51.4 For the Sicilian Greeks, believing that the city was already in their hands, spared no effort in retaliating upon the Phoenicians for former injuries they had suffered at their hands, while the people of the city, envisioning the terrible fate of a life of captivity and seeing no possibility of flight either by land or by sea, faced death stoutly.
§ 14.51.5 And finding themselves shorn of the defence of the walls, they barricaded the narrow lanes and made the last houses provide a lavishly constructed wall. From this came even greater difficulties for the troops of Dionysius.
§ 14.51.6 For after they had burst through the wall and seemed to be already masters of the city, they were raked by missiles from men posted in superior positions.
§ 14.51.7 Nevertheless, they advanced the wooden towers to the first houses and provided them with gangways; and since the siege machines were equal in height to the dwellings, the rest of the struggle was fought hand to hand. For the Sicilian Greeks would launch the gangways and force a passage by them on to the houses.
§ 14.52.1 The Motyans, as they took account of the magnitude of the peril, and with their wives and children before their eyes, fought the more fiercely out of fear for their fate. There were some whose parents stood by entreating them not to let them be surrendered to the lawless will of victors, who were thus wrought to a pitch where they set no value on life; others, as they heard the laments of their wives and helpless children, sought to die like men rather than to see their children led into captivity.
§ 14.52.2 Flight of course from the city was impossible, since it was entirely surrounded by the sea, which was controlled by the enemy. Most appalling for the Phoenicians and the greatest cause of their despair was the thought how cruelly they had used their Greek captives and the prospect of their suffering the same treatment. Indeed there was nothing left for them but, fighting bravely, either to conquer or die.
§ 14.52.3 When such an obstinate mood filled the souls of the besieged, the Sicilian Greeks found themselves in a very difficult position.
§ 14.52.4 For, fighting as they were from the suspended wooden bridges, they suffered grievously both because of the narrow quarters and because of the desperate resistance of their opponents, who had abandoned hope of life. As a result, some perished in hand-to hand encounter as they gave and received wounds, and others, pressed back by the Motyans and tumbling from the wooden bridges, fell to their death on the ground.
§ 14.52.5 In the end, while the kind of siege we have described had lasted some days, Dionysius made it his practice always toward evening to sound the trumpet for the recall of the fighters and break off the siege. When he had accustomed the Motyans to such a practice, the combatants on both sides retiring, he dispatched Archylus of Thurii with the elite troops,
§ 14.52.6 who, when night had fallen, placed ladders against the fallen houses, and mounting by them, seized an advantageous spot where he admitted Dionysius' troops.
§ 14.52.7 The Motyans, when they perceived what had taken place, at once rushed to the rescue with all eagerness, and although they were too late, none the less faced the struggle. The battle grew fierce and abundant reinforcements climbed the ladders, until at last the Sicilian Greeks wore down their opponents by weight of numbers.
§ 14.53.1 Straightway Dionysius' entire army burst into the city, coming also by the mole, and now every spot was a scene of mass slaughter; for the Sicilian Greeks, eager to return cruelty for cruelty, slew everyone they encountered, sparing without distinction not a child, not a woman, not an elder.
§ 14.53.2 Dionysius, wishing to sell the inhabitants into slavery for the money he could gather, at first attempted to restrain the soldiers from murdering the captives, but when no one paid any attention to him and he saw that the fury of the Sicilian Greeks was not to be controlled, he stationed heralds to cry aloud and tell the Motyans to take refuge in the temples which were revered by the Greeks.
§ 14.53.3 When this was done, the soldiers ceased their slaughter and turned to looting the property; and the plunder yielded much silver and not a little gold, as well as costly raiment and an abundance of every other product of felicity. The city was given over by Dionysius to the soldiers to plunder, since he wished to whet their appetites for future encounters.
§ 14.53.4 After this success he rewarded Archylus, who had been the first to mount the wall, with one hundred minas, and honoured according to their merits all others who had performed deeds of valour; he also sold as booty the Motyans who survived, but he crucified Daimenes and other Greeks who had fought on the side of the Carthaginians and had been taken captive.
§ 14.53.5 After this Dionysius stationed guards in the city whom he put under the command of Biton of Syracuse; and the garrison was composed largely of Siceli. He ordered Leptines his admiral with one hundred and twenty ships to lie in wait for any attempt by the Carthaginians to cross to Sicily; and he also assigned to him the siege of Aegesta and Entella, in accordance with his original plan to sack them. Then, since the summer was already coming to a close, he marched back to Syracuse with his army.
§ 14.53.6 In Athens Sophocles, the son of Sophocles, began to produce tragedies and won the first prize twelve times.
§ 14.54.1 When the year had come to an end, in Athens Phormion assumed the archonship and in Rome six military tribunes took the place of the consuls, Gnaeus Genucius, Lucius Atilius, Marcus Pomponius, Gaius Duilius, Marcus Veturius, and Valerius Publilius; and the Ninety-sixth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Eupolis of Elis was the victor.
§ 14.54.2 In the year when these magistrates entered office Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, set out from Syracuse with his entire army and invaded the domain of the Carthaginians. While he was laying waste the countryside, the Halicyaeans in dismay sent an embassy to him and concluded an alliance. But the Aegestaeans, falling unexpectedly by night on their besiegers and setting fire to the tents where they were camped, threw the men in the encampment into great confusion;
§ 14.54.3 for since the flames spread over a large area and the fire could not be brought under control, a few of the soldiers who came to the rescue lost their lives and most of the horses were burned, together with the tents.
§ 14.54.4 Now Dionysius ravaged the Carthaginian territory without meeting any opposition, and Leptines his admiral from his quarters in Motye kept watch against any approach of the enemy by sea. The Carthaginians, when they learned of the magnitude of the armament of Dionysius, resolved far to surpass him in their preparations.
§ 14.54.5 Consequently, lawfully according Himilcon sovereign power, they gathered armaments from all Libya as well as from Iberia, summoning some from their allies and in other cases hiring mercenaries. In the end they collected more than three hundred thousand infantry, four thousand cavalry in addition to chariots, which numbered four hundred, four hundred ships of war, and over six hundred other vessels to convey food and engines of war and other supplies. These are the numbers stated by Ephorus.
§ 14.54.6 Timaeus, on the other hand, says that the troops transported from Libya did not exceed one hundred thousand and declares that an additional thirty thousand were enlisted in Sicily.
§ 14.55.1 Himilcon gave sealed orders to all the pilots with commands to open them after they had sailed and to carry out the instructions. He devised this scheme in order that no spy should be able to report to Dionysius where they would put in; and the orders read for them to put in at Panormus.
§ 14.55.2 When a favourable wind arose, all the vessels cast off their cables and the transports put out to open sea, but the triremes sailed into the Libyan Sea and skirted the land. The wind continued favourable, and as soon as the leading vessels of the transports were visible from Sicily, Dionysius dispatched Leptines with thirty triremes under orders to ram and destroy all he could intercept.3 Leptines sailed forth promptly and straightway sank, together with their men, the first ships he encountered, but the rest, having all canvas spread and catching the wind with their sails, easily made their escape. Nevertheless, fifty ships were sunk, together with five thousand soldiers and two hundred chariots. 4 After Himilcon had put in at Panormus and disembarked his army, he advanced toward the enemy, ordering the triremes to sail along beside him; and having himself taken Eryx by treachery as he passed, he took up quarters before Motye. Since Dionysius and his army were during this time at Aegeste, Himilcon reduced Motye by siege. 5 Although the Sicilian Greeks were eager for a battle, Dionysius conceived it to be better, both because he was widely separated from his allied cities and because the transport of his food supplies was reduced, to renew the war in other areas. 6 Having decided, therefore, to break camp, he proposed to the Sicani to abandon their cities for the present and to join him in the campaign; and in return he promised to give them richer territory of about equal size and, at the conclusion of the war, to return to their native cities any who so wished. 7 Of the Sicani only a few, fearing that, if they refused, they would be plundered by the soldiers, agreed to Dionysius' offer. The Halicyaeans similarly deserted him and sent ambassadors to the Carthaginian camp and concluded an alliance with them. And Dionysius set out for Syracuse, laying waste the territory though which he led his army.
§ 14.56.1 Himilcon, now that his affairs were proceeding as he wished, made preparations to lead his army against Messene, being anxious to get control of the city because of its favourable facilities; for it had an excellent harbour, capable of accommodating all his ships, which numbered more than six hundred, and Himilcon also hoped that by getting possession of the straits he would be able to bar any aid from the Italian Greeks and hold in check the fleets that might come from the Peloponnesus.
§ 14.56.2 With this programme in mind, he formed relations of friendship with the Himeraeans and the dwellers in the fort of Cephaloedium, and seizing the city of Lipara, he exacted thirty talents from the inhabitants of the island. Then he set out in person with his entire army toward Messene, his ships sailing along the coast beside him.
§ 14.56.3 Completing the distance in a brief time, he pitched his camp at Peloris, at a distance of one hundred stades from Messene. When the inhabitants of this city learned that the enemy was at hand, they could not agree among themselves about the war.
§ 14.56.4 One party, when they heard reports of the great size of the enemy's army and observed that they themselves were without any allies — what is more, that their own cavalry were at Syracuse — were fully convinced that nothing could save them from capture. When contributed most to their despair was the fact that their walls had fallen down and that the situation allowed no time for their repair. Consequently they removed from the city their children and wives and most valuable possessions to neighbouring cities.
§ 14.56.5 Another party of the Messenians, however, hearing of a certain ancient oracle of theirs which ran, "Carthaginians must be bearers of water in Messene," interpreted the utterance to their advantage, believing that the Carthaginians would serve as slaves in Messene.
§ 14.56.6 Consequently not only were they in a hopeful mood, but they made many others eager to face battle for their freedom. At once, then, they selected the ablest troops from among their young men and dispatched them to Peloris to prevent the enemy from entering their territory.
§ 14.57.1 While the Messenians were busied in this way, Himilcon, seeing that they had sallied against his place of landing, dispatched two hundred ships against the city, for he hoped, as well he might, that while the soldiers were trying to prevent his landing, the crews of the ships would easily seize Messene, stripped of defenders as it was.
§ 14.57.2 A north wind sprang up and the ships with all canvas spread entered the harbour, while the Messenians who were on guard at Peloris, in spite of their hurried return, failed to arrive before the ships.
§ 14.57.3 Consequently the Carthaginians invested Messene, forced their way through the fallen walls, and made themselves masters of the city.
§ 14.57.4 Of the Messenians, some were slain as they put up a gallant fight, others fled to the nearest cities, but the great mass of the common people took to flight through the surrounding mountains and scattered among the fortresses of the territory;
§ 14.57.5 of the rest, some were captured by the enemy and some, who had been cut off in the area near the harbour, hurled themselves into the sea in hopes of swimming across the intervening strait. These numbered more than two hundred and most of them were overcome by the current, only fifty making their way in safety to Italy.
§ 14.57.6 Himilcon now brought his entire army into the city and at first set to work to reduce the forts over the countryside; but since they were strongly situated and the men who had fled to them put up gallant struggles, he retired to the city, having found himself unable to master them. After this he refreshed his army and made preparations to advance against Syracuse.
§ 14.58.1 The Siceli, who had hated Dionysius from of old and now had an opportunity to revolt, went over in a body, with the exception of the people of Assorus, to the Carthaginians. In Syracuse Dionysius set free the slaves and manned sixty ships from their numbers; he also summoned over a thousand mercenaries from the Lacedemonians, and went about the countryside strengthening the fortresses and storing them with provisions. He was most concerned, however, to fortify the citadels of the Leontines and to store in them the harvest from the plains.
§ 14.58.2 He also persuaded the Campanians who were dwelling in Catane to move to Aetne, as it is now called, since it was an exceptionally strong fortress. After this he led forth his entire army one hundred and sixty stades from Syracuse and encamped near Taurus, as it is called. He had at that time thirty thousand infantry, more than three thousand cavalry, and one hundred and eighty ships of war, of which only a few were triremes.
§ 14.58.3 Himilcon threw down the walls of Messene and issued orders to his soldiers to raze to the ground the dwellings, and to leave not a tile or timber or anything else but either to burn or break them. When the many hands of the soldiers speedily accomplished this task, no one would have known that the site had been occupied.
§ 14.58.4 For, reflecting that the place was far separated from the cities which were his allies and yet was the most strategically situated of any in Sicily, he had determined that he would see either that it was kept uninhabited or that it was an arduous and prolonged task to rebuild it.
§ 14.59.1 After Himilcon had exhibited his hatred for the Greeks by the calamity he visited upon the Messenians, he dispatched Magon his admiral with his naval armament under orders to sail to the peak known as Taurus. This area had been taken by Siceli in large numbers, who, however, had no leader.
§ 14.59.2 They had formerly been given by Dionysius the territory of the Naxians, but at this time, having been induced by Himilcon's offers, they occupied this peak. Since it was a strong position, both at this time and subsequent to the war, they made it their home, throwing a wall about it, and since those who gathered remained (menein) upon Taurus, they named the city Tauromenium.
§ 14.59.3 Himilcon, advancing with his land forces, made so rapid a march that he arrived at the same time as Magon put in there by sea. But since there had recently been a fiery eruption from Mt. Aetne as far as the sea, it was no longer possible for the land forces to advance in the company of the ships as they sailed beside them; for the regions along the sea were laid waste by the lava, as it is called, so that the land army had to take it was way around the peak of Aetne.
§ 14.59.4 Consequently he gave orders to Magon to come to port at Catane, while he himself advanced speedily through the heart of the country with the intention of joining the ships on the Catanaean shore; for he was concerned lest, when his forces were divided, the Sicilian Greeks should fight a battle with Magon at sea.
§ 14.59.5 And this is what actually took place. For Dionysius, when he realized that Magon had a short sail, whereas the route of the land forces was toilsome and long, hastened to Catane with the object of attacking Magon by sea before the arrival of Himilcon.
§ 14.59.6 His hope was that his land forces lined up along the coast would embolden his own troops while the enemy would be the more fearful, and, what was the most important consideration, that if he should suffer a reverse of some kind, the ships in distress would be able to take refuge in the camp of the land forces.
§ 14.59.7 With this purpose in mind, he dispatched Leptines with his whole fleet under orders to engage with his ships in close order, and not to break his line lest he be endangered by the great numbers of his opponents; for, including merchantmen and oared vessels with brazen beaks, Magon had no less than five hundred ships.
§ 14.60.1 When the Carthaginians saw the shore thronged with infantry and the ships of the Greeks bearing down on them, they were at once not a little alarmed and began to make for the land; but later, when they realized the risk they ran of destruction in giving battle at the same time both to the fleet and to the infantry, they quickly changed their mind. Deciding, therefore, to face the battle at sea, they drew up their ships and awaited the approach of the enemy.
§ 14.60.2 Leptines advanced with his thirty best vessels far ahead of the rest and joined battle, in no cowardly fashion, but without prudence. Attacking forthwith the leading ships of the Carthaginians, at the outset he sank no small number of the opposing triremes; but when Magon's massed ships crowded about the thirty, the forces of Leptines surpassed in valour, but the Carthaginians in numbers.
§ 14.60.3 Consequently, as the battle grew fiercer, the steersmen laid their ships broadside in the fighting and the struggle came to resemble conflicts on land. For they did not drive upon the opposing ships from a distance in order to ram them, but the vessels were locked together and the fighting was hand to hand. Some, as they leaped for the enemy's ships, fell into the sea, and others, who succeeded in their attempt, continued the struggle on the opponents' ships.
§ 14.60.4 In the end Leptines was driven off and compelled to flee to the open sea, and his remaining ships, attacking without order, were overcome by the Carthaginians; for the defeat suffered by the admiral raised the spirits of the Phoenicians and markedly discouraged the Sicilian Greeks.
§ 14.60.5 After the battle had ended in the manner we have described, the Carthaginians pursued with even greater ardour the enemy who were fleeing in disorder, and destroyed more than one hundred of their ships, and stationing their lighter craft along the shore, they slew any of the sailors who were swimming toward the land army.
§ 14.60.6 And as they perished in great numbers not far from the land, while the troops of Dionysius were unable to help them in any way, the whole region was full of corpses and wreckage. There perished in the sea battle no small number of Carthaginians, but the loss of the Sicilian Greeks amounted to more than one hundred ships and over twenty thousand men.
§ 14.60.7 After the battle the Phoenicians anchored their triremes in the harbour of Catane, took in tow the ships they had captured, and when they had brought them in, repaired them, so that they made the greatness of their success not only a tale for the ears but also a sight for the eyes of the Carthaginians.
§ 14.61.1 The Sicilian Greeks made their way toward Syracuse, but as they reflected that they would certainly be invested and forced to endure a laborious siege, they urged Dionysius to seek an immediate encounter with Himilcon because of his past victory; for, they said, perhaps their unexpected appearance would strike terror into the barbarians and they could repair their late reverse.
§ 14.61.2 Dionysius was at first won over by these advisers and ready to lead his army against Himilcon, but when some of his friends told him that he ran the risk of losing the city if Magon should set out with his entire fleet against Syracuse, he quickly changed his mind; and in fact he knew that Messene had fallen to the hands of the barbarians in a similar manner. And so, believing that it was not safe to strip the city of defenders, he set out for Syracuse.
§ 14.61.3 The majority of the Sicilian Greeks, being angered at his unwillingness to encounter the enemy, deserted Dionysius, some of them departing to their own countries and others to fortresses in the neighbourhood.
§ 14.61.4 Himilcon, who had reached in two days the coast of the Catanaeans, hauled all the ships up on land, since a strong wind had arisen, and, while resting his forces for some days, sent ambassadors to the Campanians who held Aetne, urging them to revolt from Dionysius.
§ 14.61.5 He promised both to give them a large amount of territory and to let them share in the spoils of the war; he also informed them that the Campanians dwelling in Entella found no fault with the Carthaginians and took their side against the Sicilian Greeks, and he pointed out that as a general thing the Greeks as a race are the enemies of all other peoples.
§ 14.61.6 But since the Campanians had given hostages to Dionysius and had sent their choicest troops to Syracuse, they were compelled to maintain the alliance with Dionysius, although they would gladly have joined the Carthaginians.
§ 14.62.1 After this Dionysius, who was in terror of the Carthaginians, sent his brother-in law Polyxenus as ambassador both to the Greeks in Italy and to the Lacedemonians, as well as the Corinthians, begging them to come to his aid and not to suffer the Greek cities of Sicily to be utterly destroyed. He also sent to the Peloponnesus men with ample funds to recruit mercenaries, ordering them to enlist as many soldiers as they could without regard to economy.
§ 14.62.2 Himilcon decked his ships with the spoils taken from the enemy and put in at the great harbour of the Syracusans, and he caused great dismay among the inhabitants of the city. For two hundred and fifty ships of war entered the harbour, with oars flashing in order and richly decorated with the spoils of war; then came the merchantmen, in excess of three thousand, laden with more than five hundred . . .; and the whole fleet numbered some two hundred vessels. The result was that the harbour of the Syracusans, despite its great size, was blocked up by the vessels and it was almost entirely concealed from view by the sails.
§ 14.62.3 The sails had just come to anchor when at once from the other side the land army advanced, consisting, as some have reported, of three hundred thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry. The general of the armaments, Himilcon, took up his quarters in the temple of Zeus and the rest of the multitude encamped in the neighbourhood twelve stades from the city.
§ 14.62.4 After this Himilcon led out the entire army and drew up his troops in battle order before the walls, challenging the Syracusans to battle; and he also sailed up to the harbours with a hundred of his finest ships in order to strike terror into the inhabitants of the city and to force them to concede that they were inferior at sea as well.
§ 14.62.5 But when no one ventured to come out against him, for the time being he withdrew his troops to the camp and then for thirty days overran the countryside, cutting down the trees and laying it all waste, in order not to only to satisfy the soldiers with every kind of plunder, but also to reduce the besieged to despair.
§ 14.63.1 Himilcon seized the suburb of Achradine; and he also plundered the temples of both Demeter and Core, for which acts of impiety against the divinity he quickly suffered a fitting penalty. For his fortune quickly worsened from day today, and whenever Dionysius made bold to skirmish with him, the Syracusans had the better of it.
§ 14.63.2 Also at night unaccountable tumults would arise in the camp and the soldiers would rush to arms, thinking that the enemy was attacking the palisade. To this was added a plague which was the cause of every kind of suffering. But of this we shall speak a little later, in order that our account may not anticipate the proper time.
§ 14.63.3 Now when he threw a wall about the camp, Himilcon destroyed practically all the tombs in the area, a among which was that of Gelon and his wife Demarete, of costly construction. He also built three forts along the sea, one at Plemmyrium, one at the middle of the harbour, and one by the temple of Zeus, and into them he brought wine and grain and all other provisions, believing that the siege would continue a long time.
§ 14.63.4 He also dispatched merchant ships to Sardinia and Libya to secure grain and every kind of food. Polyxenus, the brother-in law of Dionysius, arrived from the Peloponnesus and Italy, bringing thirty warships from his allies, with Pharacidas the Lacedemonian as admiral.
§ 14.64.1 After this Dionysius and Leptines had set out with warships to escort a supply of provisions; and the Syracusans, who were thus left to themselves, seeing by chance a vessel approaching laden with food, sailed out against it with five ships, seized it, and brought it to the city.
§ 14.64.2 The Carthaginians put out against them with forty ships, whereupon the Syracusans manned all their ships and in the ensuing battle both captured the flag-ship and destroyed twenty-four of the remainder; and then, pursuing the fleeing ships as far as the enemy's anchorage, they challenged the Carthaginians to battle.
§ 14.64.3 Elated at their success and thinking how often Dionysius had met defeat, whereas a they, without his presence, had won a victory over the Carthaginians, they were now puffed up with pride.
§ 14.64.4 And as they gathered in groups they talked together about how they took no steps to end their slavery to Dionysius, even though they had an opportunity to depose him; for up until then they had been without arms, but now because of the war they had weapons at their command.
§ 14.64.5 Even while discussions of this kind were taking place, Dionysius sailed into the harbour and, calling an assembly, praised the Syracusans and urged them to be of good courage, promising that he would speedily put an end to the war. And he was on the point of dismissing the assembly when Theodorus, a Syracusan, who was held in high esteem among the cavalry and was considered a man of action, made bold to speak as follows in regard to their liberty.
§ 14.65.1 "Although Dionysius has introduced some falsehoods, the last statement he made was true: that he would speedily put an end to the war. He could accomplish this if he were no longer our commander — for he has often been defeated — but had returned to the citizens the freedom their fathers enjoyed.
§ 14.65.2 As things are, no one of us faces battle with good courage so long as victory differs not a whit from defeat; for if conquered, we shall have to obey the commands of the Carthaginians, and if conquerors, to have in Dionysius a harsher master than they would be. For even should the Carthaginians defeat us in war, they would only impose a fixed tribute and would not prevent us from governing the city in accordance with our ancient laws; but this man has plundered our temples, has taken the property of private citizens together with the lives of their owners, and pays a wage to servants to secure the enslavement of their masters. Such horrors as attend the storming of cities are perpetrated by him in time of peace, yet he promises to put an end to the war with the Carthaginians.
§ 14.65.3 But it behooves us, fellow citizens, to put an end not only to the Phoenician war but to the tyrant within our walls. For the acropolis, which is guarded by the weapons of slaves, is a hostile redoubt in our city; the multitude of mercenaries has been gathered to hold the Syracusans in slavery; and he lords it over the city, not like a magistrate dispensing justice on equal terms, but like a dictator who by policy makes all decisions for his own advantage. For the time being the enemy possess a small portion of our territory, but Dionysius has devastated it all and given it to those who join in increasing his tyranny.
§ 14.65.4 "How long, then, are we to be patient though we suffer such abuses as brave men endure to die rather than to experience them? In battle against the Carthaginians we bravely face the final sacrifice, but against a harsh tyrant, in behalf of freedom and our fatherland, even in speech we no longer dare to raise our voices; we face in battle so many myriads of the enemy, but we stand in shivering fear of a single ruler, who has not the manliness of a superior slave.
§ 14.66.1 "Surely no one would think of comparing Dionysius with Gelon of old. For Gelon, by reason of his own high character, together with the Syracusans and the rest of the Sicilian Greeks, set free the whole of Sicily, whereas this man, who found the cities free, has delivered all the rest of them over to the lordship of the enemy and has himself enslaved his native state.
§ 14.66.2 Gelon fought so far forward in behalf of Sicily that he never let his allies in the cities even catch siege of the enemy, whereas this man, after fleeing from Motye through the entire length of the island, has cooped himself up within our walls, full of confidence against his fellow citizens, but unable to bear even the sight of the enemy.
§ 14.66.3 As a consequence Gelon, by reason both of his high character and of his great deeds, received the leadership by the free will not only of the Syracusans but also of the Sicilian Greeks, while, as for this man whose generalship has led to the destruction of his allies and the enslavement of his fellow citizens, how can he escape the just hatred of all? For not only is he unworthy of leadership but, if justice were done, would die ten thousand deaths.
§ 14.66.4 Because of him Gela and Camarina were subdued, Messene lies in total ruin, twenty thousand allies are perished in a sea-battle, and, in a word, we have been enclosed in one city and all the other Greek cities throughout Sicily have been destroyed. For in addition to his other malefactions he sold into slavery Naxos and Catane; he has completely destroyed cities that were allies, cities whose existence was opportune.
§ 14.66.5 With the Carthaginians he has fought two battles and has come out vanquished in each. Yet when he was entrusted with a generalship by the citizens but one time, he speedily robbed them of their freedom, slaying those who spoke openly on behalf of the laws and exiling the more wealthy; he gave the wives of the banished in marriage to slaves and to a motley throng; he put the weapons of citizens in the hands of barbarians and foreigners. And these deeds, O Zeus and all the gods, were the work of a public clerk, of a desperate man.
§ 14.67.1 "Where, then, is the Syracusans' love of freedom? Where the deeds of our ancestors? I say nothing of the three hundred thousand Carthaginians who were totally destroyed at Himera; I pass by the overthrow of the tyrants who followed Gelon. But only yesterday, as it were, when the Athenians attacked Syracuse with such great armaments, our fathers left not a man free to carry back word of the disaster.
§ 14.67.2 And shall we, who have such great examples of our fathers' valour, take orders from Dionysius, especially when we have weapons in our hands? Surely some divine providence has gathered us here, with allies about us and weapons in our hands, for the purpose of recovering our freedom, and it is within our power this day to play the part of brave men and rid ourselves with one accord of our heavy yoke.
§ 14.67.3 For hitherto, while we were disarmed and without allies and guarded by a multitude of mercenaries, we have, I dare say, yielded to the pressure of circumstances; but now, since we have arms in our hands and allies to give us aid as well as bear witness of our bravery, let us not yield but make it clear that it was circumstances, not cowardice, that made us submit to slavery.
§ 14.67.4 Are we not ashamed that we should have as commander in our wars the man who has plundered the temples of our city and that we choose as representative in such important matters a person to whom no man of good sense would entrust the management of his private affairs? And though all other peoples in times of war, because of the great perils they face, observe with the greatest care their obligations to the gods, do we expect that a man of such notorious impiety will put an end to the war?
§ 14.68.1 "In fact, if a man cares to put a finer point on it, he will find that Dionysius is as wary of peace as he is of war. For he believes that, as matters stand, the Syracusans, because of their fear of the enemy, will not attempt anything against him, but that once the Carthaginians have been defeated they will claim their freedom, since they will have weapons in their hands and will be proudly conscious of their deeds.
§ 14.68.2 Indeed this is the reason, in my opinion, why in the first war he betrayed Gela and Camarina and made these cities desolate, and why in his negotiations he agreed that most of the Greek cities should be given over to the enemy.
§ 14.68.3 After this he broke faith in time of peace with Naxos and Catane and sold the inhabitants into slavery, razing one to the ground and giving the other to the Campanians from Italy to dwell in.
§ 14.68.4 And when, after the destruction of these peoples, the rest of Sicily made many attempts to overthrow his tyranny, he again declared war upon the Carthaginians; for his scruple against breaking his agreement in violation of the oaths he had taken was not so great as his fear of the surviving concentrations of the Sicilian Greeks. "Moreover, it is obvious that he has been at all times on the alert to effect their destruction.
§ 14.68.5 First of all at Panormus, when the enemy were disembarking and were in bad physical condition after the stormy passage, he could have offered battle, but did not choose to do. After that he stood idly by and sent no help to Messene, a city strategically situated and of great size, but allowed it to be razed, not only in order that the greatest possible number of Sicilian Greeks should perish, but also that the Carthaginians might intercept the reinforcements from Italy and the fleets from the Peloponnesus.
§ 14.68.6 Last of all, he joined battle offshore at Catane, careless of the advantage of pitching battle near the city, where the vanquished could find safety in their own harbours. After the battle, when strong winds sprang up and the Carthaginians were forced to haul their fleet up on land, he had a most favourable opportunity for victory;
§ 14.68.7 for the land forces of the enemy had not yet arrived and the violent storm was driving the enemy's ships on the shore. At that time, if we had all attacked on land, the only outcomes left the enemy would have been, either to be captured with ease, if they left their ships, or to strew the coast with wreckage, if they matched their strength against the waves.
§ 14.69.1 "But to lodge accusations against Dionysius at greater length among Syracusans is, I should judge, not necessary. For if men who have suffered in very deed such irretrievable ruin are not roused to rage, will they, forsooth, be moved by words to wreak vengeance upon him — men too who have seen his behaviour as the worst of citizens, the harshest of tyrants, the most ignoble of all generals?
§ 14.69.2 For as often as we have stood in line of battle under his command, so often have we been defeated, whereas but just now, when we fought independently, we defeated with a few ships the enemy's entire force. We should, therefore, seek out another leader, to avoid fighting under a general who has pillaged the shrines of the gods and so finding ourselves engaged in a war against the gods;
§ 14.69.3 for it is manifest that heaven opposes those who have selected the worst enemy of religion to be their commander. Noting that when he is present our armies in full force suffer defeat, whereas, when he is absent, even a small detachment is sufficient to defeat the Carthaginians, should not all men see in this the visible presence of the gods?
§ 14.69.4 Therefore, fellow citizens, if he is willing to lay down his office of his own accord, let us allow him to leave the city with his possessions; but if he does not choose to do so, we have at the present moment the fairest opportunity to assert our freedom. We are all gathered together; we have weapons in our hands; we have allies about us, not only the Greeks from Italy but also those from the Peloponnesus.
§ 14.69.5 The chief command must be given, according to the laws, either to citizens, or to the Corinthians who dwell in our mother-city, or to the Spartans who are the first power in Greece."
§ 14.70.1 After this speech by Theodorus the Syracusans were in high spirits and kept their eyes fixed on their allies; and when Pharacidas the Lacedemonian, the admiral of the allies, stepped up to the platform, all expected that he would take the lead for liberty.
§ 14.70.2 But he was on friendly terms with the tyrant and declared that the Lacedemonians had dispatched him to aid the Syracusans and Dionysius against the Carthaginians, not to overthrow the rule of Dionysius. At this statement so contrary to expectation the mercenaries flocked about Dionysius, and the Syracusans in dismay made no move, although they called down many curses on the Spartans.
§ 14.70.3 For on a previous occasion Aretes the Lacedemonian, at the time that he was asserting the right of the Syracusans to freedom, had betrayed them, and now at this time Pharacidas vetoed the movement of the Syracusans. For the moment Dionysius was in great fear and dissolved the assembly, but later he won the favour of the multitude by kindly words, honouring some of them with gifts and inviting some to general banquets.
§ 14.70.4 After the Carthaginians had seized the suburb and pillaged the sanctuary of Demeter and Core, a sickness struck the army. Over and above the disaster sent by influence of the city, there were contributing causes: that myriads of people were gathered together, that it was the time of year which is most productive of sicknesses, and that the particular summer had brought unusually hot water.
§ 14.70.5 It also seems likely that the place itself was responsible for the excessive extent of the disaster; for on a former occasion the Athenians too, who occupied the same camp, had perished in great numbers from the plague, since the terrain was marshy and in a hollow.
§ 14.70.6 First, before sunrise, because of the cold from the breeze over the waters, their bodies were struck with chills, but in the middle of the day the heat was stifling, as must be the case when so great a multitude is gathered together in a narrow place.
§ 14.71.1 Now the plague first attacked the Libyans, and, as many of them perished, at first they buried the dead, but later, both because of the multitude of corpses and because those who tended the sick were seized by the plague, no one dared approach the suffering. When even nursing was thus omitted, there was no remedy for the disaster.
§ 14.71.2 For by reason of the stench of the unburied and the miasma from the marshes, the plague began with a catarrh; then came a swelling in the throat; gradually burning sensations ensued, pains in the sinews of the back, and a heavy feeling in the limbs; then dysentery supervened and pustules upon the whole surface of the body.
§ 14.71.3 In most cases this was the course of the disease; but some became mad and totally lost their memory; they circulated through the camp, out of their mind, and struck at anyone they met. In general, as it turned out, even help by physicians was of no avail both because of the severity of the disease and the swiftness of the death; for death came on the fifth day or on the sixth at the latest, amidst such terrible tortures that all looked upon those who had fallen in the war as blessed.
§ 14.71.4 In fact all who watched beside the sick were struck by the plague, and thus the lot of the ill was miserable, since no one was willing to minister to the unfortunate. For not only did any not akin abandon one another, but even brothers were forced to desert brothers, friends to sacrifice friends out of fear for their own lives.
§ 14.72.1 When Dionysius heard of the disaster that had struck the Carthaginians, he manned eighty ships and ordered Pharacidas and Leptines the admirals to attack the enemy's ships at daybreak, while he himself, profiting by a moonless night, made a circuit with his army and, passing by the sanctuary of Cyane, arrived near the camp of the enemy at daybreak before they were aware of it.
§ 14.72.2 The cavalry and a thousand infantry from the mercenaries were dispatched in advance against that part of the Carthaginian encampment which extended toward the interior. These mercenaries were the most hostile, beyond all others, to Dionysius and had engaged time and again in factional quarrels and uproars.
§ 14.72.3 Consequently Dionysius had issued orders to the cavalry that as soon as they came to blows with the enemy they should flee and leave the mercenaries in the lurch; when this order had been carried out and the mercenaries had been slain to a man, Dionysius set about laying siege to both the camp and the forts. While the barbarians were still dismayed at the unexpected attack and bringing up reinforcements in disorderly fashion, he on his part took by storm the fort known as Polichne; and on the opposite side the cavalry, aided in an attack by some of the triremes, stormed the area around Dascon.
§ 14.72.4 At once all the warships joined in the attack, and when the army raised the war-cry at the taking of the forts, the barbarians were in a state of panic. For at the outset they had rushed in a body against the land troops in order to ward off the assailants of the camp; but when they saw the fleet also coming up to attack, they turned back to give help to the naval station. The swift course of events, however, outstripped them and their haste was without result.
§ 14.72.5 Even as they were mounting on the decks and manning the triremes, the enemy's vessels, driven on by rowers, struck the ships athwart in many cases. Now one well-delivered blow would sink a damaged ship; but blows in repeated rammings, which broke through the nailed timbers, struck terrible dismay into the opponents.
§ 14.72.6 Since all about the mightiest ships were being shattered, the rending of the vessels by the crushing blows raised a great noise and the shore extending along the scene of the battle was strewn with corpses.
§ 14.73.1 The Syracusans, eagerly co operating in their success, rivalled one another in great zeal to be the first to board the enemy's ships, and surrounding the barbarians, who were terror-stricken at the magnitude of the peril they faced, put them to death.
§ 14.73.2 Nor did the infantry who were attacking the naval station show less zeal than the others, and among them, it so happened, was Dionysius himself, who had ridden on horseback to the section about Dascon. Finding there forty ships of fifty oars, which had been drawn up on the beach, and beside them merchant ships and some triremes at anchor, they set fire to them.
§ 14.73.3 Quickly the flame leaped up into the sky and, spreading over a large area, caught the shipping, and none of the merchants or owners was able to bring any help because of the violence of the blaze. Since a strong wind arose, the fires carried from the ships drawn up on land to the merchantmen lying at anchor.
§ 14.73.4 When the crews dived into the water from fear of suffocation and the anchor cables were burnt off, the ships came into collision because of the rough seas, some of them being destroyed as they struck one another, and others as the wind drove them about, but the majority of them were victims of the fire.
§ 14.73.5 Thereupon, as the flames swept up through the sails of the merchant-ships and consumed the yard-arms, the sight was like a scene from the theatre to the inhabitants of the city and the destruction of the barbarians resembled that of men struck by lightning from heaven for their impiety.
§ 14.74.1 Forthwith, elated by the Syracusan successes, both the oldest youths and such aged men as were not yet entirely incapacitated by years manned lighters, and approaching without order all together made for the ships in the harbour. Those which the fire had ruined they plundered, stripping them of anything that could be saved, and such as were undamaged they took in tow and brought to the city.
§ 14.74.2 Thus even those who by age were exempt from war duties were unable to restrain themselves, but in their excessive joy their ardent spirit prevailed over their age. When the news of the victory ran through the city, children and women, together with their households, left their homes, everyone hurrying to the walls, and the whole extent was crowded with spectators.
§ 14.74.3 Of these some raised their hands to heaven and returned thanks to the gods, and others declared that the barbarians had suffered the punishment of heaven for their plundering of the sanctuaries.
§ 14.74.4 For from a distance the sight resembled a battle with the gods, such a number of ships going up in fire, the flames leaping aloft among the sails, the Greeks applauding every success with great shouting, and the barbarians in their consternation at the disaster keeping up a great uproar and confused crying.
§ 14.74.5 But as night came the battle ceased for the time, and Dionysius kept to the field against the barbarians, pitching a camp near the sanctuary of Zeus.
§ 14.75.1 Now that the Carthaginians had suffered defeat on land as well as on sea, they entered into negotiations with Dionysius without the knowledge of the Syracusans. They asked him to allow their remaining troops to cross back to Libya and promised to give him the three hundred talents which they had there in their camp.
§ 14.75.2 Dionysius replied that he would not be able to allow the whole army to escape, but he consented to their citizen troops alone withdrawing secretly at night by sea; for he knew that the Syracusans and their allies would not allow him to make any such terms with the enemy.
§ 14.75.3 Dionysius acted as he did to avoid the total destruction of the Carthaginian army, in order that the Syracusans, by reason of their fear of the Carthaginians, should never find a time of ease to assert their freedom. Accordingly Dionysius agreed that the flight of the Carthaginians should take place by night on the fourth day hence and led his army back into the city.
§ 14.75.4 Himilcon during the night conveyed the three hundred talents to the acropolis and delivered them to the persons stationed on the island by the tyrant, and then himself, when the time agreed upon had arrived, manned forty triremes during the night with the citizens of Carthage and began his flight, abandoning all the rest of his army. He had already made his way across the harbour, when some of the Corinthians observed his flight and speedily reported it to Dionysius.
§ 14.75.5 Since Dionysius took his time in calling the soldiers to arms and gathering the commanders, the Corinthians did not wait for him but speedily put out to sea against the Carthaginians, and vying with each other in their rowing they caught up with the last Phoenician ships, which they shattered with their rams and sent to the bottom.
§ 14.75.6 After this Dionysius led out the army, but the Siceli, who were serving in the army of the Carthaginians, forestalling the Syracusans, fled through the interior and, almost to a man, made their way in safety to their native homes.
§ 14.75.7 Dionysius stationed guards at intervals along the roads and then led his army against the enemy's camp, while it was still night. The barbarians, abandoned as they were by their general, by the Carthaginians, and by the Siceli as well, were dispirited and fled in dismay.
§ 14.75.8 Some were taken captive as they fell in with weight guards on the roads, but the majority threw down their arms, surrendered themselves, and asked only that their lives be spared. Some Iberians alone massed together with their arms and dispatched a herald to treat about taking service with him.
§ 14.75.9 Dionysius made peace with the Iberians and enrolled them in his mercenaries, but the rest of the multitude he made captive and whatever remained of the baggage he turned over to the soldiers to plunder.
§ 14.76.1 With such swiftness did Fortune work a change in the affairs of the Carthaginians, and point out to all mankind that those who become elated above due measure quickly give proof of their own weakness.
§ 14.76.2 For they who had in their hands practically all the cities of Sicily with the exception of Syracuse and expected its capture, of a sudden were forced to be anxious for their own fatherland; they who overthrew the tombs of the Syracusans gazed upon one hundred and fifty thousand dead lying in heaps and unburied because of the plague; they who wasted with fire the territory of the Syracusans now in their turn saw their own fleet of a sudden go usurp in flames; they who so arrogantly sailed with their whole armada into the harbour and flaunted their successes before the Syracusans had little thought that they were to steal away by night and leave their allies at the mercy of their enemy.
§ 14.76.3 The general himself, who had taken the sanctuary of Zeus for his quarters and the pillaged wealth of the sanctuaries for his own possession, slipped away in disgrace to Carthage with a few survivors, in order that he might not by dying and paying a debt to nature go unscathed for his acts of impiety, but should in his native land lead a life that was notorious, while reproaches were heaped on him on every hand.
§ 14.76.4 Indeed, so calamitous was his lot that he went about the temples of the city in the cheapest clothing, charging himself with impiety and offering acknowledged retribution to heaven for his sins against the gods. In the end he passed sentence of death upon himself and starved himself to death. And he bequeathed to his fellow citizens a deep respect for religion, for straightway Fortune heaped upon them the other calamities of war as well.
§ 14.77.1 When the news of the Carthaginian disaster had spread throughout Libya, their allies, who had long hated the oppressive rule of the Carthaginians and even more at this time because of the betrayal of the soldiers at Syracuse, were inflamed against them.
§ 14.77.2 Consequently, being led on partly by anger and partly by contempt for them because of the disaster they had suffered, they endeavoured to assert their independence. After exchanging messages with one another they collected an army, moved forward, and pitched camp in the open.
§ 14.77.3 Since they were speedily joined not only by freemen but also by slaves, there was gathered in a short time a body of two hundred thousand men. Seizing Tynes, a city situated not far from Carthage, they based their line of battle on it, and since they had the better of the fighting, they confined the Phoenicians within their walls.
§ 14.77.4 The Carthaginians, against whom the gods were clearly fighting, at first gathered in small groups and in great confusion and besought the deity to put an end to its wrath; thereupon the entire city was seized by superstitious fear and dread, as every man anticipated in imagination the enslavement of the city. Consequently they voted by every means to propitiate the gods who had been sinned against.
§ 14.77.5 Since they had included neither Core nor Demeter in their rites, they appointed their most renowned citizens to be priests of these goddesses, and consecrating statues of them with all solemnity, they conducted their rites, following the ritual used by the Greeks. They also chose out the most prominent Greeks who lived among them and assigned them to the service of the goddesses. After this they constructed ships and made careful provision of supplies for the war.
§ 14.77.6 Meanwhile the revolters, who were a motley mass, possessed no capable commanders, and what was of first importance, they were short of provisions because they were so numerous, while the Carthaginians brought supplies by sea from Sardinia. Furthermore, they quarrelled among themselves over the supreme command and some of them were bought off with Carthaginian money and deserted the common cause. As a result, both because of the lack of provisions and because of treachery on the part of some, they broke up and scattered to their native lands, thus relieving the Carthaginians of the greatest fear. Such was the state of affairs in Libya at this time.
§ 14.78.1 Dionysius, seeing that the mercenaries were most hostile to him and fearing that they might depose him, first of all arrested Aristotle, their commander.
§ 14.78.2 At this, when the body of them ran together under arms and demanded their pay with some sharpness, Dionysius declared that he was sending Aristotle to Lacedemon to face trial among his fellow citizens, and offered to the mercenaries, who numbered about ten thousand, in lieu of their pay the city and territory of the Leontines.
§ 14.78.3 To this they gladly agreed because the territory was good land, and after portioning it out in allotments they made their home in Leontini. Dionysius then recruited other mercenaries and trusted in them and his freedmen to maintain the government.
§ 14.78.4 After the disaster which the Carthaginians had suffered, the survivors from the cities of Sicily that had been enslaved gathered together, gained back their native lands, and revived their strength.
§ 14.78.5 Dionysius settled in Messene a thousand Locrians, four thousand Medmaeans, and six hundred Messenians from the Peloponnesus who were exiles from Zacynthus and Naupactus. But when he observed that the Lacedemonians were offended that the Messenians whom they had driven out were settled in a renowned city, he removed them from Messene, and giving them a place on the sea, he cut off some area of Abacaene and annexed it to their territory.
§ 14.78.6 The Messenians named their city Tyndaris, and by living in concord together and admitting many to citizenship, they speedily came to number more than five thousand citizens.
§ 14.78.7 After this Dionysius waged a number of campaigns against the territory of the Siceli, in the course of which he took Menaenum and Morgantinum and struck a treaty with Agyris, the tyrant of the Agyrinaeans, and Damon, the lord of the Centoripans, as well as with the Herbitaeans and the Assorini. He also gained by treachery Cephaloedium, Solus, and Enna, and made peace besides with the Herbessini. Such was the state of affairs in Sicily at this time.
§ 14.79.1 In Greece the Lacedemonians, foreseeing how great their war with the Persians would be, put one of the two kings, Agesilaus, in command. After he had levied six thousand soldiers and constitute a council of thirty of his foremost fellow citizens, he transported the armament from Aulis to Ephesus.
§ 14.79.2 Here he enlisted four thousand soldiers and took the field with his army, which numbered ten thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. They were also accompanied by a throng of no less number which provided a market and was intent upon plunder.
§ 14.79.3 He traversed the Plain of Cayster and laid waste the territory held by the Persians until he arrived at Cyme. From this as his base he spent the larger part of the summer ravaging Phrygia and neighbouring territory; and after sating his army with pillage he returned toward the beginning of autumn to Ephesus.
§ 14.79.4 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians dispatched ambassadors to Nephereus, the king of Egypt, to conclude an alliance; he, in place of the aid requested, made the Spartans a gift of equipment for one hundred triremes and five hundred thousand measures of grain. Pharax, the Lacedemonian admiral, sailing from Rhodes with one hundred and twenty ships, put in at Sasanda in Caria, a fortress one hundred and fifty stades from Caunus.
§ 14.79.5 From this as his base he laid siege to Caunus and blockaded Conon, who was commander of the King's fleet and lay at Caunus with forty ships. But when Artaphernes and Pharnabazus came with strong forces to the aid of the Caunians, Pharax lifted the siege and sailed off to Rhodes with the entire fleet.
§ 14.79.6 After this Conon gathered eighty triremes and sailed to the Chersonesus, and the Rhodians, having expelled the Peloponnesian fleet, revolted from the Lacedemonians and received Conon, together with his entire fleet, into their city.
§ 14.79.7 Now the Lacedemonians, who were bringing the gift of grain from Egypt, being unaware of the defection of the Rhodians, approached the island in full confidence; but the Rhodians and Conon, the Persian admiral, brought the ships in the harbours and stored the city with grain.
§ 14.79.8 There also came to Conon ninety triremes, ten of them from Cilicia and eighty from Phoenicia, under the command of the lord of the Sidonians.
§ 14.80.1 After this Agesilaus led forth his army into the Plain of Cayster and the country around Sipylus and ravaged the possessions of the inhabitants. Tissaphernes, gathering ten thousand cavalry and fifty thousand infantry, followed close on the Lacedemonians and cut down any who became separate from the main body while plundering. Agesilaus formed his soldiers in a square and clung to the foothills of Mt. Sipylus, awaiting a favourable opportunity to attack the enemy.
§ 14.80.2 He overran the countryside as far as Sardis and ravaged the orchards and the pleasure-park belonging to Tissaphernes, which had been artistically laid out at great expense with plants and all other things that contribute to luxury and the enjoyment in peace of the good things of life. He then turned back, and when he was midway between Sardis and Thybarnae, he dispatched by night the Spartan Xenocles with fourteen hundred soldiers to a thickly wooded place to set an ambush for the barbarians.
§ 14.80.3 Then Agesilaus himself moved at daybreak along the way with his army. And when he had passed the place of ambush and the barbarians were advancing upon him without battle order and harassing his rearguard, to their surprise he suddenly turned about on the Persians. When a sharp battle followed, he raised the signal to the soldiers in ambush and they, chanting the battle song, charged the enemy. The Persians, seeing that they were caught between the forces, were struck with dismay and turned at once in flight.
§ 14.80.4 Pursuing them for some distance, Agesilaus slew over six thousand of them, gathered a great multitude of prisoners, and pillaged their camp which was stored with goods of many sorts.
§ 14.80.5 Tissaphernes, thunderstruck at the daring of the Lacedemonians, withdrew from the battle to Sardis, and Agesilaus was about to attack the satrapies farther inland, but led his army back to the sea when he could not obtain favourable omens from the sacrifices.
§ 14.80.6 When Artaxerxes, the King of Asia, learned of the defeats, being alarmed by the war with the Greeks, he was angry at Tissaphernes, since he considered him to be responsible for the war. He had also been asked by his mother, Parysatis, to grant her revenge upon Tissaphernes, for she hated him for denouncing her son Cyrus, when he made his attack upon his brother.
§ 14.80.7 Accordingly Artaxerxes appointed Tithraustes commander with orders to arrest Tissaphernes and sent letters to the cities and the satraps that all should perform whatever he commanded.
§ 14.80.8 Tithraustes, on arriving at Colossae in Phrygia, with the aid of Ariaeus, a satrap, arrested Tissaphernes while he was in the bath, cut off his head, and sent it to the King. Then he persuaded Agesilaus to enter into negotiations and concluded with him a truce of six months.
§ 14.81.1 While affairs in Asia were handled as we have described, the Phocians went to war with the Boeotians because of certain grievances and persuaded the Lacedemonians to join them against the Boeotians. At first they sent Lysander to them with a few soldiers, who, on entering Phocis, gathered an army; but later the king, Pausanias, was dispatched there with six thousand soldiers.
§ 14.81.2 The Boeotians persuaded the Athenians to take part with them in the war, but at the time they took the field alone and found Haliartus under siege by Lysander and the Phocians. In the battle which followed Lysander fell together with many Lacedemonians and their allies. The entire body of other Boeotians speedily turned back from the pursuit, but some two hundred Thebans advanced rather rashly into rugged terrain and were slain.
§ 14.81.3 This was called the Boeotian War. Pausanias, the king of the Lacedemonians, on learning of the defeat, concluded a truce with the Boeotians and led his army back to the Peloponnesus.
§ 14.81.4 Conon, the admiral of the Persians, put the Athenians Hieronymus and Nicodemus in charge of the fleet and himself set forth with intent to interview the King. He sailed along the coast of Cilicia, and when he had gone on to Thapsacus in Syria, he then took boat by the Euphrates river to Babylon.
§ 14.81.5 Here he met the King and promised that he would destroy the Lacedemonians' naval power if the King would furnish him with such money and other supplies as his plan required.
§ 14.81.6 Artaxerxes approved Conon, honoured him with rich gifts, and appointed a paymaster who should supply funds in abundance as Conon might assign them. He also gave him authority to take as his associate leader for the war any Persian he might choose. Conon selected the satrap Pharnabazus and then returned to the sea, having arranged everything to suit his purpose.
§ 14.82.1 At the close of this year, in Athenian Diophantus entered upon the archonship, and in Rome, in place of consuls, the consular magistracy was exercised by six military tribunes, Lucius Valerius, Marcus Furius, Quintus Servilius, and Quintus Sulpicius. After these men had assumed their magistracies the Boeotians and Athenians, together with the Corinthians and the Argives, concluded an alliance with each other.
§ 14.82.2 It was their thought that, since the Lacedemonians were hated by their allies because of their harsh rule, it would be an easy matter to overthrow their supremacy, given that the strongest states were of one mind. First of all, they set up a common Council in Corinth to which they sent representatives to form plans, and worked out in common the arrangements for the war. Then they dispatched ambassadors to the cities and caused many allies of the Lacedemonians to withdraw from them;
§ 14.82.3 for at once all of Euboea and the Leucadians joined them, as well as the Acarnanians, Ambraciots, and the Chalcidians of Thrace.
§ 14.82.4 They also attempted to persuade the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus to revolt from the Lacedemonians, but no one listened to them; for Sparta, lying as it does along the side of it, was a kind of citadel and fortress of the entire Peloponnesus.
§ 14.82.5 Medius, the lord of Larissa in Thessaly, was at war with Lycophron, the tyrant of Pherae, and when he asked for aid to be sent him, the Council dispatched to him two thousand soldiers.
§ 14.82.6 After the troops had arrived Medius seized Pharsalus, in which there was a garrison of Lacedemonians, and sold the inhabitants as booty. After this the Boeotians and Argives, parting company with Medius, seized Heracleia in Trachis; and on being admitted at night within the walls by certain persons, they put to the sword the Lacedemonians whom they seized but allowed the other Peloponnesians to leave with their possessions.
§ 14.82.7 They then summoned to the city the Trachinians whom the Lacedemonians had banished from their homes, and gave them the city as their dwelling-place; and indeed they were the most ancient settlers of this territory. After this Ismenias, the leader of the Boeotians, left the Argives in the city to serve as its garrison and himself persuaded the Aenianians and the Athamanians to revolt from the Lacedemonians and gathered soldiers from among them and their allies. After he had recruited a little less than six thousand men, he took the field against the Phocians.
§ 14.82.8 While he was taking up quarters in Naryx in Locris, which men say was the birthplace of Ajax, the people of the Phocians came against him in arms under the command of Alcisthenes the Laconian.
§ 14.82.9 A sharp and protracted battle followed, in which the Boeotians were the victors. Pursuing the fugitives until nightfall, they slew not many less than a thousand, but lost of their own troops in the battle about five hundred.
§ 14.82.10 After the pitched battle both sides dismissed their armies to their native lands, and the members of the Council in Corinth, since affairs were progressing as they desired, gathered to Corinth soldiers from all the cities, more than fifteen thousand infantry and about five hundred cavalry.
§ 14.83.1 When the Lacedemonians saw that the greatest cities of Greece were uniting against them, they voted to summon Agesilaus and his army from Asia. In the meantime they gathered from their own levy and their allies twenty-three thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry and advanced to meet the enemy.
§ 14.83.2 The battle took place along the river Nemea, lasting until nightfall, and parts of both armies had the advantage, but of the Lacedemonians and their allies eleven hundred men fell, while of the Boeotians and their allies but also twenty-eight hundred.
§ 14.83.3 After Agesilaus had conveyed his army across from Asia to Europe, at first he was opposed by certain Thracians with a large force; these he defeated in battle, slaying the larger number of the barbarians. Then he made his way through Macedonia, passing through the same country as Xerxes did when he made his campaign against the Greeks.
§ 14.83.4 When Agesilaus had traversed Macedonia and Thessaly and made his way through the pass of Thermopylae, he continued. . . . Conon the Athenian and Pharnabazus were in command of the King's fleet and were tarrying in Loryma of the Chersonesus. 6 On sailing from there he fell in with the King's fleet, and engaging the leading ships, he won the advantage over them; but when the Persians came to give aid with their triremes in close formation, all his allies fled to the land. But Peisander turned his own ship against them, believing ignoble flight to be disgraceful and unworthy of Sparta. 7 After fighting brilliantly and slaying many of the enemy, in the end he was overcome, battling in a manner worthy of his native land. Conon pursued the Lacedemonians as far as the land and captured fifty of their triremes. As for the crews, most of them leaped overboard and escaped by land, but about five hundred were captured. The rest of the triremes found safety at Cnidus.
§ 14.84.1 Agesilaus enlisted more soldiers from the Peloponnesus and then advanced with his army against Boeotia, whereupon the Boeotians, together with their allies, at once set out to Coroneia of the meet him. In the battle which followed the Thebans defeated the forces opposed to them and pursued them as far as their camp, but the others held out only a short time and then were forced by Agesilaus and his troops to take to flight.
§ 14.84.2 Therefore the Lacedemonians, looking upon themselves as conquerors, set up a trophy and gave back the dead to the enemy under a truce. There fell of the Boeotians and their allies more than six hundred, but of the Lacedemonians and their associates three hundred and fifty. Agesilaus, who had suffered many wounds, was taken to Delphi, where he looked after his physical needs.
§ 14.84.3 After the sea-fight Pharnabazus and Conon put out to sea with all their ships against the allies of the Lacedemonians. First of all they induced the people of Cos to secede, and then those of Nisyros and of Teos. After this the Chians expelled their garrison and joined Conon, and similarly the Mitylenaeans and Ephesians and Erythraeans changed sides.
§ 14.84.4 Something like the same eagerness for change infected all the cities, of which some expelled their Lacedemonian garrisons and maintained their freedom, while others attached themselves to Conon. As for the Lacedemonians, from this time they lost the sovereignty of the sea. Conon, having decided to sail with the entire fleet to Attica, put out to sea, and after bringing over to his cause the islands of the Cyclades, he sailed against the island of Cythera.
§ 14.84.5 Mastering it at once on the first assault, he sent the Cytherians under a truce to Laconia, left an adequate garrison for the city, and sailed for Corinth. After putting in there he discussed with the members of the Council such points as they wished, made an alliance with them, left them money, and then sailed off to Asia.
§ 14.84.6 At this time Aeropus, the king of the Macedonians, died of illness after a reign of six years, and was succeeded in the sovereignty by his son Pausanias, who ruled for one year.
§ 14.84.7 Theopompus of Chios ended with this year and the battle of Cnidus his Hellenistic History, which he wrote in twelve books. This historian began with the battle of Cynossema, with which Thucydides ended his work, and covered in his account a period of seventeen years.
§ 14.85.1 At the conclusion of the year, in Athens Eubulides was archon and in Rome the consular magistracy was administered by six military tribunes, Lucius Sergius, Aulus Postumius, Publius Cornelius, and Quintus Manlius.
§ 14.85.2 At this time Conon, who held the command of the King's fleet, put in at the Peiraeus with eighty triremes and promised the citizens to rebuild the fortifications of the city; for the whiles of the Peiraeus and the Long Walls had been destroyed in accordance with the terms the Athenians had concluded with the Lacedemonians when they were reduced in the Peloponnesian War.
§ 14.85.3 Accordingly Conon hired a multitude of skilled workers, and putting at their service the general run of his crews, he speedily rebuilt the larger part of the wall. For the Thebans too sent five hundred skilled workers and masons, and some other cities also gave assistance.
§ 14.85.4 But Tiribazus, who commanded the land forces in Asia, was envious of Conon's successes, and on the plea that Conon was using the King's armaments to win the cities for the Athenians, he lured him to Sardis, where he arrested him, threw him in chains, and remanded him to custody.
§ 14.86.1 In Corinth certain men who favoured a democracy, banding together while contests were being held in the theatre, instituted a slaughter and filled the city with civil strife; and when the Argives gave them their support in their turn, they put to the sword one hundred and twenty of the citizens and drove five hundred into exile.
§ 14.86.2 While the Lacedemonians were making preparations to restore the exiles and gathering an army, the Athenians and Boeotians came to the aid of the murderers, in order that they might secure the adhesion of the city.
§ 14.86.3 The exiles, together with the Lacedemonians and their allies, attacked Lechaeum and the dock-yard by night and seized them by storm; and on the next day, when the troops of the city, which Iphicrates commanded, came out against them, a battle followed in which the Lacedemonians were victorious and slew no small number of their opponents.
§ 14.86.4 After this the Boeotians and Athenians, and with them the Argives and Corinthians, came with all their forces to Lechaeum, and at the outset they laid siege to the place and forced their way into the corridor between the walls; but afterward the Lacedemonians and the exiles put up a brilliant fight and forced out the Boeotians and all who were with them. They then, having lost about a thousand soldiers, returned to the city.
§ 14.86.5 And since the Isthmian Games were now at hand, there was a quarrel over who should conduct them. After much contention the Lacedemonians had their way and saw to it that the exiles conducted festival.
§ 14.86.6 Since the severe fighting in the war took place for the most part about Corinth, it was called the Corinthian War, and it continued for eight years.
§ 14.87.1 In Sicily the people of Rhegium, bringing the charge against Dionysius that in fortifying Messene he was making preparations against them, first of all offered asylum to those who were expelled by Dionysius and were active against him, and then settled in Mylae the surviving Naxians and Catanians, prepared an army, and dispatched as its general Heloris to lay siege to Messene.
§ 14.87.2 When Heloris made a reckless attack upon the acropolis, the Messenians and the mercenaries of Dionysius, who were holding the city, closed ranks and advanced against him. In the battle that followed the Messenians were victorious and slew more than five hundred of their opponents.
§ 14.87.3 Marching straightway against Mylae, they seized the city and let the Naxians who had been settled there go free under a truce. These, accordingly, departed to the Siceli and the Greek cities and made their dwelling some in one place and others in another.
§ 14.87.4 Dionysius, now that the regions about the Straits had been brought to friendly terms with him, planned to lead an army against Rhegium, but he had trouble with the Siceli who held Tauromenium.
§ 14.87.5 Deciding, therefore, that it would be to his advantage to attack them first, he led out his forces against them, pitched a camp on the side toward Naxos, and persisted in the siege during the winter, in the belief that the Siceli would desert the hill since they had not been dwelling there long.
§ 14.88.1 The Siceli, however, had an ancient tradition, handed down from their ancestors, that these parts of the island had been the possession of the Siceli, when Greeks first landed there and founded Naxos, expelling from that very hill the Siceli who were then dwelling on it. Maintaining, therefore, that they had only recovered territory that belonged to their fathers and were justly righting the wrongs which the Greeks had committed against their ancestors, they put forth every effort to hold the hill.
§ 14.88.2 While extraordinary rivalry was being displayed on both sides, the winter solstice occurred, and because of the consequent winter storms the area about the acropolis was filled with snow. Thereupon Dionysius, who had discovered that the Siceli were careless in their guard of the acropolis because of its strength and the unusual height of the wall, advanced on a moonless and stormy night against the loftiest sectors.
§ 14.88.3 After many difficulties both because of the obstacles offered by the crags and because of the great depth of the snow he occupied one peak, although his face was frosted and his vision impaired by the cold. After this he broke through to the other side and led his army into the city. But when the Siceli came up in a body, the troops of Dionysius were thrust out and Dionysius himself was struck on the corslet in the flight, sent scrambling, and barely escaped being taken alive.
§ 14.88.4 Since the Siceli pressed upon them from superior ground, more than six hundred of Dionysius' troops were slain and most of them lost their complete armour, while Dionysius himself saved only his corslet.
§ 14.88.5 After this disaster the Acragantini and Messenians banished the partisans of Dionysius, asserted their freedom, and renounced their alliance with the tyrant.
§ 14.89.1 Pausanias, the king of the Lacedemonians, was accused by his fellow citizens and went into exile after a reign of fourteen years, and his son Agesipolis succeeded to the kingship and reigned for the same length of time as his father.
§ 14.89.2 Pausanias too, the king of the Macedonians, died after a reign of one year, being assassinated by Amyntas, who seized the kingship and reigned twenty-four years.
§ 14.90.1 At the conclusion of this year, in Athens Demostratus took over the archonship, and in Rome the cease magistracy was administered by six military tribunes, 2 Lucius Titinius, Publius Licinius, Publius Melaeus, Quintus Mallius, Gnaeus Genycius, and Lucius Atilius. After these magistrates had entered office, Magon, the Carthaginian general, was stationed in Sicily. He set about retrieving the Carthaginian cause after the disaster they had suffered, 3 for he showed kindness to the subject cities and received the victims of Dionysius' wars. He also formed alliances with most of the Siceli and, after gathering armaments, launched an attack upon the territory of Messene. After ravaging the countryside and seizing much booty he marched from that place and went into camp near the city of Abacaene, which was his ally. 4 When Dionysius came up with his army, the forces drew up for battle, and after a sharp engagement Dionysius was the victor. The Carthaginians fled into the city after a loss of more than eight hundred men, while Dionysius withdrew for the time being to Syracuse; but after a few days he manned one hundred triremes and set out against the Rhegians. 5 Arriving unexpectedly by night before the city, he put fire to the gates and set ladders against the walls. The Rhegians, coming up in defence as they did at first in small numbers, endeavoured to put out the flames, but later, when their general Heloris arrived and advised them to do just the opposite, they saved the city. 6 For if they had put out the fire, they would not have been strong enough to prevent Dionysius from entering, being far too small a number; but by bringing firewood and timbers from the neighbouring houses they made the flames higher, until the main body of their troops could assemble in arms and come to the defence. 7 Dionysius, who had failed of his design, traversed the countryside, wasting it in flames and cutting down orchards, and then concluded a truce for a year and sailed off to Syracuse.
§ 14.91.1 The Greek inhabitants of Italy, when they saw the encroachments of Dionysius advancing as far as their own lands, formed an alliance among themselves and established a Council. It was their hope to defend themselves with ease against Dionysius and to resist the neighbouring Leucani; for these last were also at war with them at this time.
§ 14.91.2 The exiles who held Lechaeum in Corinthian territory, being admitted into the city in the night, endeavoured to get possession of the walls, but when the troops of Iphicrates came up against them, they lost three hundred of their number and fled back to the ship station. Some days later a contingent of the Lacedemonian army was passing through Corinthian territory, when Iphicrates and some of the allies in Corinth fell on them and slew the larger number.
§ 14.91.3 Iphicrates with his peltasts advanced against the territory of Phlius, and joining battle with the men of the city, he slew more than three hundred of them. Then, when he advanced against Sicyon, the Sicyonians offered battle before their walls but lost about five hundred men and found refuge within their city.
§ 14.92.1 After these events had taken place, the Argives took up arms in full force and marched against Corinth, and after seizing the acropolis and securing the city for themselves, they made the Corinthian territory Argive.
§ 14.92.2 The Athenian Iphicrates also had the design to seize the city, since it was advantageous for the control of Greece; but when the Athenian people opposed it, he resigned his position. The Athenians appointed Chabrias general in his place and sent him to Corinth.
§ 14.92.3 In Macedonia Amyntas, the father of Philip, was driven from his country by Illyrians who invaded Macedonia, and giving up hope for his crown, he made a present to the Olynthians of his territory which bordered on theirs. For the time being he lost his kingdom, but shortly he was restore by the Thessalians, recovered his crown, and ruled for twenty-four years.
§ 14.92.4 Some say, however, that after the expulsion of Amyntas the Macedonians were ruled by Argaeus for a period of two years, and that it was after that time that Amyntas recovered the kingship.
§ 14.93.1 The same year Satyrus, the son of Spartacus and king of Bosporus, died after a reign of forty years, and his son Leucon succeeded him in the rulership for a period of forty years.
§ 14.93.2 In Italy the Romans, who were in the eleventh year of their siege of the Veians, appointed Marcus Furius to be dictator and Publius Cornelius to be master of the horse. These restored the spirit of the troops and captured Veii by constructing an underground passage; the city they reduced to slavery, selling the inhabitants with the other booty.
§ 14.93.3 The dictator then celebrated a triumph, and the Roman people, taking a tenth of the spoil, made a gold bowl and dedicated to the oracle at Delphi.
§ 14.93.4 The ambassadors who were taking it fell in with pirates from the Lipari islands, were all taken prisoners, and brought to Lipara. But Timasitheus, the general of the Liparaeans, on learning what had taken place, rescued the ambassadors, gave them back the vessel of gold, and sent them on their way to Delphi. The men who were conveying the bowl dedicated it in the Treasury of the Massalians and returned to Rome.
§ 14.93.5 Consequently the Roman people, when they learned of this generous act of Timasitheus, honoured him at once by conferring the right to public hospitality, and one hundred and thirty-seven years later, when they took Lipara from the Carthaginians, they relieved the descendants of Timasitheus of the payment of taxes and gave them freedom.
§ 14.94.1 When the year had ended, in Athens Philocles became archon, and in Rome the consular magistracy was assumed by six military tribunes, Publius and Cornelius, Caeso Fabius, Lucius Furius, Quintus Servilius, and Marcus Valerius; and this year the Ninety-seventh Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Terires was victor.
§ 14.94.2 In this year the Athenians chose Thrasybulus general and sent him to sea with forty triremes. He sailed to Ionia, collected funds from the allies, and proceeded on his way; and while tarrying at the Chersonesus he made allies of Medocus and Seuthes, the kings of the Thracians.
§ 14.94.3 After some time he sailed from the Hellespont to Lesbos and anchored off the coast at Eresus. But strong winds arose and twenty-three triremes were lost. Getting off safe with the other ships he advanced against the cities of Lesbos, with the intention of winning them over; for they had all revolted with the exception of Mitylene.
§ 14.94.4 First he appeared before Methymna and joined battle with the men of the city, who were commanded by the Spartan Therimachus. In a brilliant fight he slew not only Therimachus himself but no small number of the Methymnaeans and shut up the rest of them within their walls; he also ravaged the territory of the Methymnaeans and received the surrender of eresus and Antissa. After this he gathered ships from the Chian and Mitylenaean allies and sailed to Rhodes.
§ 14.95.1 The Carthaginians, after a slow recovery from the disaster they had suffered at Syracuse, resolved to keep their hand in Sicilian affairs. Having decided upon war, they crossed over with only a few warships, but brought together troops from Libya and Sardinia as well as from the barbarians of Italy. The soldiers were all carefully supplied with equipment to which they were accustomed and brought over to Sicily, being no less than eighty thousand in number and under the command of Magon.
§ 14.95.2 This commander accordingly made his way through the Siceli, detaching most of the cities from Dionysius, and went into camp in the territory of the Agyrinaeans on the banks of the Chrysas River near the road that leads to Morgantina. For since he was unable to bring the Agyrinaeans to enter into an alliance with him, he refrained from marching farther, since he had news that the enemy had set out from Syracuse.
§ 14.95.3 Dionysius, on learning that the Carthaginians were making their way through the interior, speedily collected as many Syracusans and mercenaries as he could and set forth, having in all not less than twenty thousand soldiers.
§ 14.95.4 When he came near the enemy he sent an embassy to Agyris, the lord of the Agyrinaeans. This man possessed the strongest armament of any of the tyrants of Sicily at that time after Dionysius, since he was lord of practically all the neighbouring fortified communities and ruled the city of the Agyrinaeans which was well peopled at that time, for it had no less than twenty thousand citizens.
§ 14.95.5 There was also laid up on the acropolis for this multitude which had been gathered together in the city a large store of money which Agyris had collected after he had murdered the wealthiest citizens.
§ 14.95.6 But Dionysius, after entering the city with a small company, persuaded Agyris to join him as a genuine ally and promised to make him a present of a large portion of neighbouring territory if the war ended successfully.
§ 14.95.7 At the outset, then, Agyris readily provided the entire army of Dionysius with food and whatever else it needed, led forth his troops in a body, joined with Dionysius in the campaign, and fought together with him in the war against the Carthaginians.
§ 14.96.1 Magon, since he was encamped in hostile territory and was ever more and more in want of supplies, was at no little disadvantage; for the troops of Agyris, being familiar with the territory, held the advantage in laying ambushes and were continually cutting off the enemy's supplies.
§ 14.96.2 The Syracusans were for deciding the issue by battle as soon as possible, but Dionysius opposed them, saying that time and want would ruin the barbarians without fighting. Provoked to anger at this the Syracusans deserted him.
§ 14.96.3 In his first concern Dionysius proclaimed freedom for the slaves, but later, when the Carthaginians sent embassies to discuss peace, he negotiated with them, sent back the slaves to their masters, and made peace with the Carthaginians.
§ 14.96.4 The conditions were like the former except that the Siceli were to be subject to Dionysius and that he was to receive Tauromenium. After the conclusion of the treaty Magon sailed off, and Dionysius, on taking possession of Tauromenium, banished most of the Siceli who were in it and selected and settled there the most suitable members of his own mercenary troops.
§ 14.96.5 Such was the state of affairs in Sicily; and in Italy the Romans pillaged the city of Faliscusa of the tribe of the Falisci.
§ 14.97.1 At the close of the year, in Athens Nicoteles was archon, and in Rome the consular magistracy was administered by three military tribunes, Marcus Furius and Gaius Aemilius. After these magistrates had entered office, the philo-Lacedemonians among the Rhodians rose up against the party of the people and expelled from the city the partisans of the Athenians.
§ 14.97.2 When these banded together under arms and endeavoured to maintain their interests, the allies of the Lacedemonians got the upper hand, slaughtered many, and formally banished those who escaped. They also at once sent ambassadors to Lacedemon to get aid, fearing that some of the citizens would rise in revolt.
§ 14.97.3 The Lacedemonians dispatched to them seven triremes and three men to take charge of affairs, Eudocimus, Philocodus, and Diphilas. They first reached Samos and brought that city over from the Athenians, and then they put in at Rhodes and assumed the oversight of affairs there.
§ 14.97.4 The Lacedemonians, now that their affairs were prospering, resolved to get control of the sea, and after gathering a naval force they again little by little began to get the upper hand over their allies. So they put in at Samos and Cnidus and Rhodes; and gathering ships from every place and enrolling the choicest marines, they equipped lavishly twenty-seven triremes.
§ 14.97.5 Agesilaus, the king of the Lacedemonians, on hearing that the Argives were engaged about Corinth, led forth the Lacedemonians in full force with the exception of one regiment. He visited every part of Argolis, pillaged the homesteads, cut down the trees over the countryside, and then returned to Sparta.
§ 14.98.1 In Cyprus Evagoras of Salamis, who was of most noble birth, since he was descended from the founders of the city, but had previously been banished because of some factional quarrels and had later returned in company with a small group, drove out Abdemon of Tyre, who was lord of the city and a friend of the King of the Persians. When he took control of the city, Evagoras was at first king only of Salamis, the largest and strongest of the cities of Cyprus; but when he soon acquired great resources and mobilized an army, he set out to make the whole island his own.
§ 14.98.2 Some of the cities he subdued by force and others he won over by persuasion. While he easily gained control of the other cities, the peoples of Amathus, Soli, and Citium resisted him with arms and dispatched ambassadors to Artaxerxes the King of the Persians to get his aid. They accused Evagoras of having slain King Agyris, an ally of the Persians, and promised to join the King in acquiring the island for him.
§ 14.98.3 The King, not only because he did not wish Evagoras to grow any stronger, but also because he appreciated the strategic position of Cyprus and its great naval strength whereby it would be able to protect Asia in front, decided to accept the alliance. He dismissed the ambassadors and for himself sent letters to the cities situated on the sea and to their commanding satraps to construct triremes and with all speed to make ready everything the fleet might need; and he commanded Hecatomnus, the ruler of Caria, to make war upon Evagoras.
§ 14.98.4 Hecatomnus traversed the cities of the upper satrapies and crossed over to Cyprus in strong force.
§ 14.98.5 Such was the state of affairs in Asia. In Italy the Romans concluded peace with the Falisci and waged war for the fourth time on the Aequi; they also sent a colony to Sutrium but were expelled by the enemy from the city of Verrugo.
§ 14.99.1 At the close of this year Demostratus was archon in Athens, and in Rome the consuls Lucius Lucretius and Servilius took office. At this time Artaxerxes sent Struthas as general to the coast with an army to make war on the Lacedemonians, and the Spartans, when they learned of his arrival, dispatched Thibron as general to Asia. Thibron seized the stronghold of Ionda and a high mountain, Cornissus, forty stades from Ephesus.
§ 14.99.2 He then advanced with eight thousand soldiers together with the troops gathered from Asia, pillaging the King's territory. Struthas, with a strong force of barbarian cavalry, five thousand hoplites, and more than twenty thousand light-armed troops, pitched his camp not far from the Lacedemonians.
§ 14.99.3 Eventually, when Thibron once set out with a detachment of his troops and had seized much booty, Struthas attacked and slew him in battle, killed the larger number of his troops, and took captive others. A few found safety in Cnidinium, an outpost.
§ 14.99.4 Thrasybulus, the Athenian general, went with his fleet from Lesbos to Aspendus and moored his triremes in the Eurymedon River. Although he had received contributions from the Aspendians, some of the soldiers, nevertheless, pillaged the countryside. When night came, the Aspendians, angered at such unfairness, attacked the Athenians and slew both Thrasybulus and a number of the others; whereupon the captains of the Athenian vessels, greatly alarmed, speedily manned the ships and sailed off to Rhodes.
§ 14.99.5 Since this city was in revolt, they joined the exiles who had seized a certain outpost and waged war on the men who held the city. When the Athenians learned of the death of their general Thrasybulus, they sent out Agyrius as general. Such was the state of affairs in Asia.
§ 14.100.1 In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, with intent to annex the Greeks of Italy as well to the overlordship that he held in the island, postponed the general war against them to another time. He judged rather that it was good policy to attack first the city of the Rhegians, because it was the advanced bastion of Italy, and so set out from Syracuse with his army.
§ 14.100.2 He had twenty thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry, and one hundred and twenty ships of war. He crossed with his troops to the borders of Locris and from there made his way through the interior, cutting down the trees and burning and destroying the territory of the Rhegians. His fleet sailed along to the other districts upon the sea and he encamped with his entire army at the Strait.
§ 14.100.3 When the Italians learned that Dionysius had crossed the sea to attack Rhegium, they dispatched sixty ships from Croton, with intent to hand them over to the Rhegians. While this fleet was cruising on the high sea, Dionysius sailed against them with fifty ships, and when the fleet fled to land, he pressed his attack no less vigorously and began to make fast and haul off the ships that were lying off-shore.
§ 14.100.4 Since the sixty triremes were in danger of being captured, the Rhegians came to their aid in full force and held Dionysius off from the land by the multitude of their missiles. When a heavy storm arose, the Rhegians hauled up the ships high and dry on the land, but Dionysius lost seven ships in the heavy gale and together with them no fewer than fifteen hundred men.
§ 14.100.5 Since the sailors were cast ashore together with their ships on Rhegian territory, many of them were taken prisoner by the Rhegians. Dionysius, who was on a quinquereme and many times narrowly escaped foundering, about midnight barely found safety in the harbour of Messene. Since the winter season had already come, he drew up terms of alliance with the Leucani and led his forces back to Syracuse.
§ 14.101.1 After this, when the Leucanians overran the territory of Thurii, the Thurians sent word to their allies to gather to them speedily under arms. For the Greek cities of Italy had an agreement among themselves to the effect that if any city's territory was being plundered by the Leucanians, they should all come to its aid, and that if any city's army did not take up a position to give aid, the generals of that city should be put to death.
§ 14.101.2 Consequently, when the Thurians dispatched messengers to the cities to tell of the approach of the enemy, they all made ready to march. But the Thurians, who were first off the mark in their actions, did not wait for the troops of their allies, but set forth against the Leucanians with above fourteen thousand infantry and about one thousand cavalry.
§ 14.101.3 The Leucanians, on hearing of the approach of the enemy, withdrew to their own territory, and the Thurians, falling in haste upon Leucania, captured the first outpost and gathered much booty, thus taking the bait, as it were, for their own destruction. For having become puffed with pride at their success, they advanced with light concern through some narrow and sheer paths, in order to lay siege to the prosperous city of Laus.
§ 14.101.4 When they had arrived at a certain plain surrounded by lofty hills and precipitous cliffs, thereupon the Leucanians with their entire army cut them off from retreat to their native soil. Making their appearance, which was quite unexpected and unconcealed, on the height, they filled the Greeks with dismay, both because of the great size of the army and because of the difficulty of the terrain; for the Leucanians had at the time thirty thousand infantry and no less than four thousand cavalry.
§ 14.102.1 When the Greeks were to their surprise caught in such hopeless peril as we have described, the barbarians descended into the plain. A battle took place and there fell of the Italian Greeks, overwhelmed as they were by the multitude of the Leucanians, more than ten thousand men, since the Leucanians gave orders to save no one alive. Of the survivors some fled to a height on the sea, and others, seeing warships sailing toward them and thinking they belonged to the Rhegians, fled in a body to the sea and swam out to the triremes.
§ 14.102.2 The approaching fleet belonged to Dionysius the tyrant, under the command of his brother Leptines, and had been sent to the aid of the Leucanians. Leptines received the swimmers kindly, set them on land, and persuaded the Leucanians to accept a mina of silver for each captive, the number of whom was over a thousand.
§ 14.102.3 Leptines went surety for the ransom money, reconciled the Italian Greeks with the Leucanians, and persuaded them to conclude peace. He won great acclaim among the Italian Greeks, having settled the war, as he had, to his own advantage, but without any profit to Dionysius. For Dionysius hoped that, if the Italian Greeks were embroiled in war with the Leucanians, he might appear and easily make himself master of affairs in Italy, but if they were rid of such a dangerous war, his success would be difficult. Consequently he relieved Leptines of his command and appointed Thearides, his other brother, commander of the fleet.
§ 14.102.4 Subsequent to these events the Romans portioned out in allotments the territory of the Veians, giving each holder four plethra, but according to other accounts, twenty-eight. The Romans were at war with the Aequi and took by storm the city of Liphlus; and they began war upon the people of Velitrae, who had revolted. Satricum also revolted from the Romans; and they dispatched a colony to Cercii.
§ 14.103.1 When the year had ended, in Athens Antipater was archon, and in Rome Lucius Valerius and Aulus Mallius administered the consular magistracy. This year Dionysius, the lord of the Syracusans, openly indicated his design of an attack on Italy and set forth from Syracuse with a most formidable force.
§ 14.103.2 He had more than twenty thousand infantry, some three thousand cavalry, forty ships of war, and not less than three hundred vessels transporting food supplies. On arriving at Messene on the fifth day he rested his troops in the city, while he dispatched his brother Thearides with thirty ships to the islands of the Liparaeans, since he had learned that ten ships of the Rhegians were in those waters.
§ 14.103.3 Thearides, sailing forth and coming upon the ten Rhegian ships in a place favourable to his purpose, seized the ships together with their crews and speedily returned to Dionysius at Messene. Dionysius threw the prisoners in chains and turned them over to the custody of the Messenians; then he transported his army to Caulonia, laid siege to the city, advanced his siege-engines, and launched frequent assaults.
§ 14.103.4 When the Greeks of Italy learned that the armaments of Dionysius were starting to move across the strait which separated them, they in turn mustered their forces. Since the city of the Crotoniates was the most heavily populated and had the largest number of exiles from Syracuse, they gave over to them the command of the war, 5 and the people of Croton gathered troops from every quarter and chose as general Heloris the Syracusan. Since this man had been banished by Dionysius and was considered by all to possess action and enterprise, it was believed that he could be best trusted, because of his hatred, to lead a war against the tyrant. When all the allies had gathered in Croton, Heloris disposed them to his liking and advanced with the entire army toward Caulonia. 6 He calculated that he would by his appearance at the same time both relieve the siege and also be in combat with the enemy worn out by their daily assaults. In all he had about twenty-five thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry.
§ 14.104.1 The Italian Greeks had accomplished the major part of their march and were encamped on the Eleporus River, when Dionysius drew off from the city and advanced to meet them. Now Heloris was in the van of his army with five hundred of choicest troops and Dionysius, at it happened, was encamped forty stades from the enemy. On learning from his scouts that the enemy was near, he roused his army at early light and led it forward.
§ 14.104.2 Meeting at daybreak the troops of Heloris, who were few in number, he engaged them in unexpected battle, and since he had his army ready for combat, he gave the enemy not a moment to recover themselves.
§ 14.104.3 Though Heloris found himself in desperate straits, he withstood the attackers with what troops he had, while he sent some of his friends to the camp, urging them to rush up the main body of soldiers. These speedily carried out their orders, and when the Italian Greeks learned of the danger facing their general and his troops, they came to their aid on the run. Meanwhile Dionysius, with his troops in close order, surrounded Heloris and his men and slew them almost to a man, though they offered a gallant resistance.
§ 14.104.4 Since the Italian Greeks in their haste entered the fighting in scattered groups, the Sicilian Greeks, who kept their lines intact, experienced no difficulty in overcoming the enemy. Nevertheless, the Greeks of Italy maintained the fight for some time, although they saw their comrades falling in great numbers. But when they learned of the death of their general, while being greatly hampered as they fell foul of one another in their confusion, then at last they completely lost spirit and turned in flight.
§ 14.105.1 Many were killed in their rout across the plain; but the main body made a safe retreat to a hill, which was strong enough to withstand a siege but had no water and could be easily contained by the enemy. Dionysius invested the hill and bivouacked under arms that day and through the night, giving careful attention to the watches. The next day the beleaguered suffered severely from the heat and lack of water.
§ 14.105.2 They then sent a herald to Dionysius inviting him to accept ransom; he, however, did not preserve moderation in his success but ordered them to lay down their arms and put themselves at the disposal of their conqueror. This was a harsh order and they held out for some time; but when they were overborne by physical necessity, they surrendered about the eighth hour, their bodies being now weakened.3 Dionysius took a staff and struck it on the ground while numbering the prisoners as they descended, and they amounted to more than ten thousand. All men were apprehensive of his brutality, but on the contrary he showed himself most kindly; 4 for he let the prisoners go subject to no authority without ransom, concluded peace with most of the cities, and left them independent. In return for this he received the approval of those he had favoured and was honoured with gold crowns; and men believed that this would probably be the finest act of his life.
§ 14.106.1 Dionysius now advanced against Rhegium and prepared to lay siege to the city with his army because of the slight he had received in connection with his offer of marriage. Deep distress gripped the Rhegians, since they had neither allies nor an army that was a match for him in battle, and they knew, furthermore, that if the city were taken, neither pity nor entreaty would be left them.
§ 14.106.2 Therefore they decided to dispatch ambassadors to entreat him to deal moderately with them and to urge him to make no decision against them beyond what became a human being.
§ 14.106.3 Dionysius required three hundred talents of them, took all their ships, which amounted to seventy, and ordered the delivery of one hundred hostages. When all these had been turned over, he set out against Caulonia. The inhabitants of this city he transplanted to Syracuse, gave them citizenship, and allowed them exemption from taxes for five years; he then levelled the city to the ground and gave the territory of the Cauloniates to the Locrians.
§ 14.106.4 The Romans, after taking the city of Liphoecua from the people of the Aequi, held, in accordance with the vows of the consuls, great games in honour of Zeus.
§ 14.107.1 At the close of the year, in Athens Pyrgion was archon and in Rome four military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Lucius Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, Gaius Aemilius, and Gaius Rufus, and the Ninety-eighth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Sosippus of Athens was the victor.
§ 14.107.2 When these men had entered office, Dionysius, the lord of the Syracusans, advanced with his army to Hipponium, removed its inhabitants to Syracuse, razed the city to the ground, and apportioned its territory to the Locrians.
§ 14.107.3 For he was continuously set upon doing the Locrians favours for the marriage they had agreed to, whereas he studied revenge upon the Rhegians for their affront with respect to the offer of kinship. For on the occasion when he sent ambassadors to them to ask them to grant him in marriage a maiden of their city, the Rhegians replied to the ambassadors by action of the people, we are told, that the only maiden they would agree to his marrying would be the daughter of their public executioner.
§ 14.107.4 Angered because of this and believing that he had been grossly insulted, he was bent on getting revenge upon them. Indeed the peace he had concluded with them in the preceding year had come from no hankering on his part for friendly relations, but was designed to strip them of their naval water, which consisted of seventy triremes. For he believed that if the city were cut off from aid by sea he could easily reduce it by siege.
§ 14.107.5 Consequently, while loitering in Italy, he kept seeking a plausible excuse whereby he might seem to have broken the truce without prejudice to his own standing.
§ 14.108.1 Dionysius now led his forces to the Strait and made preparations to cross over. And first he asked the Rhegians to provide him with supplies for sale, promising that he would promptly return from Syracuse what they had given. He made this request in order that men should think that, if they did not provide the food, he would be justified in seizing the city, whereas if they did, he believed their food would run out and by sitting down before the city he would speedily master it by starvation.
§ 14.108.2 The Rhegians, suspecting nothing of this, at first supplied them lavishly with food for several days; but when he kept extending his stay, at one time claiming illness and at another offering other excuses, they suspected what he had in mind and no longer furnished his army with supplies.
§ 14.108.3 Dionysius, pretending now to be angered at this, returned the hostages to the Rhegians, laid siege to the city, and launched daily assaults upon it. He also constructed a great multitude of siege weapons of unbelievable size by which he rocked the walls in his determination to take the city by storm.
§ 14.108.4 The Rhegians chose Phyton as general, armed all who could bear arms, gave close concern to their watches, and, as opportunity arose, sallied out and burned the enemy's siege engines.
§ 14.108.5 Fighting brilliantly as they did for their fatherland on many occasions before the walls, they roused the anger of the enemy, and although they lost many of their own troops, they also slew no small number of the Sicilian Greeks.
§ 14.108.6 And it happened that Dionysius himself was struck by a lance in the groin and barely escaped death, recovering with difficulty from the wound. The siege wore on because of unsurpassable zeal the Rhegians displayed to maintain their freedom; but Dionysius held his armaments to the daily assaults and would not give up the task he had originally proposed to himself.
§ 14.109.1 The Olympic Games were at hand and Dionysius dispatched to the contest several four-horse teams, which far surpassed all others in swiftness, and also pavilions for the festive occasion, which were interwoven with gold and embellished with expensive cloth of gay and varied colours. He also sent the best professional reciters that they might present his poems in the gathering and thus win glory for the name of Dionysius, for he was madly addicted to poetry.
§ 14.109.2 In charge of all this he sent along his brother Thearides. When Thearides arrived at the gathering, he was a centre of attraction for the beauty of the pavilions and the large number of four-horse teams; and when the reciters began to present the poems of Dionysius, at first the multitude thronged together because of the pleasing voices of the actors and all were filled with wonder. But on second consideration, when they observed how poor his verses were, they laughed Dionysius to scorn and went so far to their rejection that some of them even ventured to rifle the tents.
§ 14.109.3 Indeed the orator Lysias, who was at that time in Olympia urged the multitude not to admit to the sacred festival the representatives from a most impious tyranny; and at this time he delivered his Olympiacus.
§ 14.109.4 In the course of the contest chance brought it about that some of Dionysius' chariots left the course and others collided among themselves and were wrecked. Likewise the ship which was on its way to Sicily carrying the representatives from the games was wrecked by strong winds near Taras in Italy.
§ 14.109.5 Consequently the sailors who got safe to Syracuse spread the story throughout the city, we are told, that the badness of the verses caused the ill-success, not only of the reciters, but of the teams and of the ship with them.
§ 14.109.6 When Dionysius learned of the ridicule that had been heaped upon his verses, his flatterers told him that every fair accomplishment is first an object of envy and then of admiration. He therefore did not give up his devotion to writing.
§ 14.109.7 The Romans fought a battle at Gurasium with the Volscians and slew great numbers of the enemy.
§ 14.110.1 At the conclusion of these events the year came to an end, and among the Athenians Theodotus was archon and in Rome the consular my was held by six military tribunes, Quintus Caeso Sulpicius, Aenus Caeso Fabius, Quintus Servilius, and Publius Cornelius.
§ 14.110.2 After these men had entered office, the Lacedemonians, who were hard put to it by their double war, that against the Greeks and that against the Persians, dispatched their admiral Antalcidas to Artaxerxes to treat for peace.3 Antalcidas discussed as well as he could the circumstances of the mission and the King agreed to make peace on the following terms: "The Greek cities of Asia are subject to the King, but all the other Greeks shall be independent; and upon those who refuse compliance and do not accept these terms I shall make war through the aid of those who consent to them." 4 Now the Lacedemonians consented to the terms and offered no opposition, but the Athenians and Thebans and some of the other Greeks were deeply concerned that the cities of Asia should be left in the lurch. But since they were not by themselves a match in war, they consented of necessity and accepted the peace. 5 The King, now that his difference with the Greeks was settled, made ready his armaments for the war great Cyprus. For Evagoras had got possession of almost the whole of Cyprus and gathered strong armaments, because Artaxerxes was distracted by the war against the Greeks.
§ 14.111.1 It was about the eleventh month of Dionysius's siege of Rhegium, and since he had cut off relief from every direction, the inhabitants of the city were faced by a terrible dearth of the necessities of life. We are told, indeed, that at the time a medimnus of wheat among the Rhegians cost five minas.
§ 14.111.2 So reduced were they by lack of food that at first they ate their horses and other beasts of burden, then fed upon boiled skins and leather, and finally they would go out from the city and eat the grass near the walls like so many cattle. To such an extent did the demand of nature compel the wants of man to turn for their satisfaction to the food of dumb animals.
§ 14.111.3 When Dionysius learned what was taking place, far from showing mercy to those who were perforce suffering beyond man's endurance, on the contrary he brought in cattle to clear the place of the green-stuff, with the result that it was completely stripped.
§ 14.111.4 Consequently the Rhegians, overcome by their excessive hardships, surrendered their city to the tyrant, giving him complete power over their lives. Within the city Dionysius found heaps of dead who had perished from lack of food, and the living too whom he captured were like dead men and weakened in body. He got together more than six thousand captives and the multitude he sent off to Syracuse with orders that those who could pay as ransom a mina of silver should be freed, but to sell as slaves those who were unable to raise that sum.
§ 14.112.1 Dionysius seized Phyton, the general of the Rhegians, and drowned his son in the sea, but Phyton himself he at first bound on his loftiest siege engines, wreaking a vengeance upon him such as is to be seen upon the stage of tragedy. He also sent one of his servants to tell him that Dionysius had drowned his son in the sea the day before; to whom Phyton replied, "He has been more fortunate than his father by one day."
§ 14.112.2 After this Dionysius had him led about the city under flogging and subjected to every indignity, a herald accompanying him and announcing that Dionysius was inflicting this unusual vengeance upon the man because he had persuaded the city to undertake the war.
§ 14.112.3 But Phyton, who had shown himself a brave general during the siege and had won approval for all his other qualities, endured his mortal punishment with no low-born spirit. Rather he preserved his spirit undaunted and cried out that he was punished because he would not betray the city to Dionysius, and that heaven would soon visit such punishment upon Dionysius himself. The courage of the man aroused sympathy even among the soldiers of Dionysius, and some of them began to protest.
§ 14.112.4 Dionysius, fearing that some of the soldiers might make bold to snatch Phyton out of his hands, ceased to punish him and drowned the unfortunate man at sea together with his near of kin.
§ 14.112.5 So this man suffered monstrous tortures unworthy of his merits. He won many of the Greeks to grieve for him at the time and many poets to lament the sad story of his reversal of fortune thereafter.
§ 14.113.1 At the time that Dionysius was besieging Rhegium, the Celts who had their homes in the regions beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Apennine mountains and the Alps, expelling the Tyrrhenians who dwelt there.
§ 14.113.2 These, according to some, were colonists from the twelve cities of Tyrrhenia; but others state that before the Trojan War Pelasgians fled from Thessaly to escape the flood of Deucalion's time and settled in this region.
§ 14.113.3 Now it happened, when the Celts divided up the territory by tribes, that those known as the Sennones received the area which lay farthest from the mountains and along the sea. But since this region was scorching hot, they were distressed and eager to move; hence they armed their younger men and sent them out to seek a territory where they might settle. Now they invaded Tyrrhenia, and being in number some thirty thousand they sacked the territory of the Clusini.
§ 14.113.4 At this very time the Roman people sent ambassadors into Tyrrhenia to spy out the army of the Celts. The ambassadors arrived at Clusium, and when they saw that a battle had been joined, with more valour than wisdom they joined the men of Clusium against their besiegers,
§ 14.113.5 and one of the ambassadors was successful in killing a rather important commander. When the Celts learned of this, they dispatched ambassadors to Rome to demand the person of the envoy who had thus commenced an unjust war.
§ 14.113.6 The senate at first sought to persuade the envoys of the Celts to accept money in satisfaction of the injury, but when they would not consider this, it voted to surrender the accused. But the father of the man to be surrendered, who was also one of the military tribunes with consular power, appealed the judgement to the people, and since he was a man of influence among the masses, he persuaded them to void the decision of the senate.
§ 14.113.7 Now in the times previous to this the people had followed the senate in all matters; with this occasion they first began to rescind decisions of that body.
§ 14.114.1 The ambassadors of the Celts returned to their camp and reported the reply of the Romans. At this they were greatly angered and, adding an army from their fellow tribesmen, they marched swiftly upon Rome itself, numbering more than seventy thousand men. The military tribunes of the Romans, exercising their special power, when they heard of the advance of the Celts, armed all the men of military age.
§ 14.114.2 They then marched out in full force and, crossing the Tiber, led their troops for eighty stades along the river; and at news of the approach of the Galatians they drew up the army for battle.
§ 14.114.3 Their best troops, to the number of twenty-four thousand, they set in a line from the river as far as the hills and on the highest hills they stationed the weakest. The Celts deployed their troops in a long line and, whether by fortune or design, stationed their choicest troops on the hills.
§ 14.114.4 The trumpets on both sides sounded the charge at the same time and the armies joined in battle with great clamour. The elite troops of the Celts, who were opposed to the weakest soldiers of the Romans, easily drove them from the hills.
§ 14.114.5 Consequently, as these fled in masses to the Romans on the plain, the ranks were thrown into confusion and fled in dismay before the attack of the Celts. Since the bulk of the Romans fled along the river and impeded one another by reason of their disorder, the Celts were not behind-hand in slaying again and again those who were last in line. Hence the entire plain was strewn with dead.
§ 14.114.6 Of the men who fled to the river the bravest attempted to swim across with their arms, prizing their armour as highly as their lives; but since the stream ran strong, some of them were borne down to their death by the weight of the arms, and some, after being carried along for some distance, finally and after great effort got off safe.
§ 14.114.7 But since the enemy pressed them hard and was making a great slaughter along the river, most of the survivors threw away their arms and swam across the Tiber.
§ 14.115.1 The Celts, though they had slain great numbers on the bank of the river, nevertheless did not desist from the zest for glory but showered javelins upon the swimmers; and since many missiles were hurled and men were massed in the river, those who threw did not miss their mark. So it was that some died at once from mortal blows, and others, who were wounded only, were carried off unconscious because of loss of blood and the swift current.
§ 14.115.2 When such disaster befell, the greater part of the Romans who escaped occupied the city of Veii, which had lately been razed by them, fortified the place as well as they could, and received the survivors of the rout. A few of those who had swum the river fled without their arms to Rome and reported that the whole army had perished. When word of such misfortunes as we have described was brought to those who had been left behind in the city, everyone fell into despair;
§ 14.115.3 for they saw no possibility of resistance, now that all their youth had perished, and to flee with their children and wives was fraught with the greatest danger since the enemy were close at hand. Now many private citizens fled with their households to neighbouring cities, but the city magistrates, encouraging the populace, issued orders for them to bring speedily to the Capitoline grain and every other necessity.
§ 14.115.4 When this had been done, both the acropolis and the Capitoline were stored not only with supplies of food but with silver and gold and the costliest raiment, since the precious possessions had been gathered from over the whole city into one place. They gathered such valuables as they could and fortified the place we have mentioned during a respite of three days.
§ 14.115.5 For the Celts spent the first day cutting off, according to their custom, the heads of the dead. And for two days they lay encamped before the city, for when they saw the walls deserted and yet heard the noise made by those who were transferring their most useful possessions to the acropolis, they suspected that the Romans were planning a trap for them.
§ 14.115.6 But on the fourth day, after they had learned the true state of affairs, they broke down the gates and pillaged the city except for a few dwellings on the Palatine. After this they delivered daily assaults on strong positions, without, however, inflicting any serious hurt upon their opponents and with the loss of many of their own troops. Nevertheless, they did not relax their ardour, expecting that, even if they did not conquer by force, they would wear down the enemy in the course of time, when the necessities of life had entirely given out.
§ 14.116.1 While the Romans were in such throes, the neighbouring Tyrrhenians advanced and made a raid with a strong army on the territory of the Romans, capturing many prisoners and not a small amount of booty. But the Romans who had fled to Veii, falling unexpectedly upon the Tyrrhenians, put them to flight, took back the booty, and captured their camp.
§ 14.116.2 Having got possession of arms in abundance, they distributed them among the unarmed, and they also gathered men from the countryside and armed them, since they intended to relieve the siege of the soldiers who had taken refuge on the Capitoline.
§ 14.116.3 While they were at a loss how they might reveal their plans to the besieged, since the Celts had surrounded them with strong forces, a certain Cominius Pontius undertook to get the cheerful news to the men on the Capitoline.
§ 14.116.4 Starting out alone and swimming the river by night, he got unseen to a cliff of the Capitoline that was hard to climb and, hauling himself up it with difficulty, told the soldiers on the Capitoline about the troops that had been collected in Veii and how they were watching for an opportunity and would attack the Celts. Then, descending by the way he had mounted and swimming the Tiber, he returned to Veii.
§ 14.116.5 The Celts, when they observed the tracks of one who had recently climbed up, made plans to ascend at night by the same cliff. Consequently about the middle of the night, while the guards were neglectful of their watch because of the strength of the place, some Celts started an ascent of the cliff.
§ 14.116.6 They escaped detection by the guards, but the sacred geese of Hera, which were kept there, noticed the climbers and set up a cackling. The guards rushed to the place and the Celts deterred did not dare proceed farther. A certain Marcus Mallius, a man held in high esteem, rushing to the defence of the place, cut off the hand of the climber with his sword and, striking him on the breast with his shield, rolled him from the cliff.
§ 14.116.7 In like manner the second climber met his death, whereupon the rest all quickly turned in flight. But since the cliff was precipitous they were all hurled headlong and perished. As a result of this, when the Romans sent ambassadors to negotiate a peace, they were persuaded, upon receipt of one thousand pounds of gold, to leave the city and to withdraw from Roman territory.
§ 14.116.8 The Romans, now that their houses had been razed to the ground and the majority of their citizens slain, gave permission to anyone who wished to build a home in any place he chose, and supplied him at state expense with roof-tiles; and up to the present time these are known as "public tiles."
§ 14.116.9 Since every man naturally built his home where it suited his fancy, the result was that the streets of the city were narrow and crooked; consequently, when the population increased in later days, it was impossible to straighten the streets. Some also say that the Roman matrons, because they contributed their gold ornaments to the common safety, received from the people as a reward the right to ride through the city in chariots.
§ 14.117.1 While the Romans were in a weakened condition because of the misfortune we have described, the Volscians went to war against them. Accordingly the Roman military tribunes enrolled soldiers, took the field with their army, and pitched camp on the Campus Martius, as it is called, two hundred stades distant from Rome.
§ 14.117.2 Since the Volscians lay over against them with a larger force and were assaulting the camp, the citizens in Rome, fearing for the safety of those in the encampment, appointed Marcus Furius dictator. . . .
§ 14.117.3 These armed all the men of military age and marched out during the night. At day-break they caught the Volscians as they were assaulting the camp, and appearing on their rear easily put them to flight. When the troops in the camp then sallied forth, the Volscians were caught in the middle and cut down almost to a man. Thus a people that passed for powerful in former days was by this disaster reduced to the weakest among the neighbouring tribes.
§ 14.117.4 After the battle the dictator, on hearing that Bola was being besieged by the Aeculani, who are now called the Aequicoli, led forth his troops and slew most of the besieging army. From here he marched to the territory of Sutrium, a Roman colony, which the Tyrrhenians had forcibly occupied. Falling unexpectedly upon the Tyrrhenians, he slew many of them and recovered the city for the people of Sutrium.
§ 14.117.5 The Gauls on their way from Rome laid siege to the city of Veascium which was an ally of the Romans. The dictator attacked them, slew the larger number of them, and got possession of all their baggage, included in which was the gold which they had received for Rome and practically all the booty which they had gathered in the seizure of the city.
§ 14.117.6 Despite the accomplishment of such great deeds, envy on the part of the tribunes prevented his celebrating a triumph. There are some, however, who state that he celebrated a triumph for his victory over the Tuscans in a chariot drawn by four white horses, for which the people two years later fined him a large sum of money. But we shall recur to this in the appropriate period of time.
§ 14.117.7 Those Celts who had passed into Iapygia turned back through the territory of the Romans; but soon thereafter the Cerii made a crafty attack on them by night and cut all of them to pieces in the Trausian Plain.
§ 14.117.8 The historian Callisthenes began his history with the peace of this year between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, the King of the Persians. His account embraced a period of thirty years in ten Books and he closed the last Book of his history with the seizure of the Temple of Delphi by Philomelus the Phocian.
§ 14.117.9 But for our part, since we have arrived at the peace between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, and at the threat to Rome offered by the Gauls, we shall make this the end of this Book, as we proposed at the beginning.
§ 15.1.1 Throughout our entire treatise our practice has been to employ the customary freedom of speech enjoyed by history, and we have added just praise of good men for their fair deeds and meted out just censure upon bad men whenever they did wrong. By this means, as we believe, we shall lead men whose nature fortunately inclines them to virtue to undertake, because of immortality fame accords them, the fairest deeds, whereas by appropriate obloquies we shall turn men of the opposite character from their impulse to evil.
§ 15.1.2 Consequently, since we have come in our writing to the period when the Lacedemonians fell upon deep distress in their unexpected defeat at Leuctra, and again in their unlooked for repulse at Mantineia lost the supremacy over the Greeks, we believe that we should maintain the principle we have set for our writing and set forth the appropriate censure of the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.1.3 For who would not judge men to be deserving of accusation who had received from their ancestors a supremacy with such firm foundations and that too preserved by the high spirit of their ancestors for over five hundred years, and now beheld it, as the Lacedemonians of that time did, overthrown by their own folly? And this is easy to understand. For the men who had lived before them won the glory they had by many labours and great struggles, treating their subjects the while fairly and humanely; but their successors used their allies roughly and harshly, stirring up, besides, unjust and insolent wars against the Greeks, and so it is quite to be understood that they lost their rule because of their own acts of folly.
§ 15.1.4 For the hatred of those they had wronged found in their disasters an opportunity to retaliate upon their aggressors, and they who had been unconquered from their ancestors' time were now attended by such contempt as, it stands to reason, must befall those who obliterate the virtues that characterized their ancestors.
§ 15.1.5 This explains why the Thebans, who for many generations had been subjects of their superiors, when they defeated them to everyone's surprise, became supreme among the Greeks, but the Lacedemonians, when once they had lost the supremacy, were never at any time able to recover the high position enjoyed by their ancestors.
§ 15.1.6 Now that we have sufficiently censured the Lacedemonians, we shall in turn pass on to the further course of our history, after we have first set the time-limits of this section. The preceding Book, which is the fourteenth of our narrative, closed with the events concerned with the enslaving of the Rhegians by Dionysius and the capture of Rome by the Gauls, which took place in the year preceding the campaign of the Persians in Cyprus against Evagoras the king. In this Book we shall begin with this war and close with the year preceding the reign of Philip the son of Amyntas.
§ 15.2.1 When Mystichides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Marcus Furius, Gaius, and Aemilius. This year Artaxerxes, the King of the Persians, made war upon Evagoras, the king of Cyprus. He busied himself for a long time with the preparations for the war and gathered a large armament, both naval and land; his land force consisted of three hundred thousand men including cavalry, and he equipped more than three hundred triremes.
§ 15.2.2 As commanders he chose for the land force his brother-in law Orontes, and for the naval Tiribazus, a man who was held in high favour among the Persians. These commanders took over the armaments in Phocaea and Cyme, repaired to Cilicia, and passed over to Cyprus, where they prosecuted the war with vigour.
§ 15.2.3 Evagoras made an alliance with Acoris, the king of the Egyptians, who was an enemy of the Persians, and received a strong force from him, and from Hecatomnus, the lord of Caria, who was secretly co operating with him, he got a large sum of money to support his mercenary troops. Likewise he drew on such others to join in the war with Persia as were at odds with the Persians, either secretly or openly.
§ 15.2.4 He was master of practically all the cities of Cyprus, and of Tyre and some others in Phoenicia. He also had ninety triremes, of which twenty were Tyrian and seventy were Cyprian, six thousand soldiers of his own subjects, and many more than this number from his allies. In addition to these he enlisted many mercenaries, since he had funds in abundance. And not a few soldiers were sent him by the king of the Arabs and by certain others of whom the King of the Persians was suspicious.
§ 15.3.1 Since Evagoras had such advantages, he entered the war with confidence. First, since he had not a few boats of the sort used for piracy, he lay in wait for the supplies coming to the enemy, sank some of their ships at sea, drove off others, and captured yet others. Consequently the merchants did not dare to convey food to Cyprus; and since large armaments had been gathered on the island, the army of the Persians soon suffered from lack of food
§ 15.3.2 and the want led to revolt, the mercenaries of the Persians attacking their officers, slaying some of them, and filling the camp with tumult and revolt. It was with difficulty that the generals of the Persians and the leader of the naval armament, known as Glos, put an end to the mutiny.
§ 15.3.3 Sailing off with their entire fleet, they transported a large quantity of grain from Cilicia and provided a great abundance of food. As for Evagoras, King Acoris transported an adequate supply of grain from Egypt and sent him money and adequate supplies for every other need.
§ 15.3.4 Evagoras, seeing that he was much inferior in naval strength, fitted out sixty additional ships and sent for fifty from Acoris in Egypt, seems he had in all two hundred triremes. These he fitted out for battle in a way to cause terror and by continued trials and drill got ready for a sea engagement. Consequently, when the King's fleet sailed past toward Citium, he fell upon the ships unexpectedly and had a great advantage over the Persians.
§ 15.3.5 For he attacked with his ships in compact array ships in disorder, and since he fought with men whose plans were prepared against men unready, he at once at the first encounter won a prearranged victory. For, attacking as he did with his triremes in close order triremes that were scattered and in confusion, he sank some and captured others.
§ 15.3.6 Still the Persian admiral Glos and the other commanders put up a gallant resistance, and a fierce struggle developed in which at first Evagoras held the upper hand. Later, however, when Glos attacked in strong force and put up a gallant fight, the result was that Evagoras turned in flight and lost many of his triremes.
§ 15.4.1 The Persians after their victory in the sea-fight gathered both their sea and land forces at the city of Citium. From this as their base they organized a siege of Salamis and beleaguered the city both by land and by sea.
§ 15.4.2 Meantime Tiribazus crossed over to Cilicia after the sea-fight and continued thence to the King, reported the victory, and brought back two thousand talents for the prosecution of the war. Before the sea-fight, Evagoras, who had fallen in with a body of the land force near the sea and defeated it, had been confident of success, but when he suffered defeat in the sea-fight and found himself besieged, he lost heart.
§ 15.4.3 Nevertheless, deciding to continue the war, he left his son Pnytagoras behind as supreme commander in Cyprus and himself took ten triremes, eluded the enemy, and got away from Salamis. On arriving in Egypt he met the king and urged him to continue the war energetically and to consider the war against the Persians a common undertaking.
§ 15.5.1 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians determined to make war upon Mantineia, without regard to the standing treaty, for the following reasons. The Greeks were enjoying the general peace of Antalcidas, in accordance with which all the cities had got rid of their garrisons and recovered by agreement their autonomy. The Lacedemonians, however, who by their nature loved to command and by policy preferred war, would not tolerate the peace which they considered to be a heavy burden, and longing for their past dominance over Greece, they were poised and alert to begin a new movement.
§ 15.5.2 At once, then, they stirred up the cities and formed partisan groups in them with the aid of their friends, being provided in some of the cities with plausible grounds for interference. For the cities, after having recovered their autonomy, demanded an accounting of the men who had been in control under the Lacedemonian supremacy; and since the procedure was harsh, because the people bore enmity for past injuries and many were sent into exile, the Lacedemonians took it upon themselves to give support to the defeated faction.
§ 15.5.3 By receiving these men and dispatching a force with them to restore them to their homes, they at first enslaved the weaker cities, but afterward made war on and forced the more important cities to submit, having preserved the general peace no longer than two years. Seeing that the city of the Mantineians lay upon their borders and was full of valiant men, the Lacedemonians were jealous of its growth which had resulted from the peace and were bent on humbling the pride of its citizens.
§ 15.5.4 First of all, therefore, they dispatched ambassadors to Mantineia, commanding them to destroy their walls and all of them to remove to the original five villages from which they had of old united to form Mantineia. When no one paid any attention to them, they sent out an army and laid siege to the city.
§ 15.5.5 The Mantineians dispatched ambassadors to Athens, asking for aid. When the Athenians did not choose to make a breach of the common peace, the Mantineians none the less withstood the siege on their own account and stoutly resisted the enemy. In this way, then, fresh wars got a start in Greece.
§ 15.6.1 In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, now that he was relieved of wars with the Carthaginians, enjoyed great peace and leisure. Consequently he devoted himself with much seriousness to the writing of poetry, and summoning men of repute in this line, he accorded them special honours and resorted to them, making use of them as instructors and revisers of his poems. Elated by the flattering words with which these men repaid his benefactions, Dionysius boasted far more of his poems than of his successes in war.
§ 15.6.2 Among the poets in his company was Philoxenus the writer of dithyrambs, who enjoyed very high repute as a composer in his own line. After dinner, when the compositions of the tyrant, which were wretched, had been read, he was asked what was his judgement of the poetry. When he replied with a good deal of frankness, the tyrant, offended at his words, found fault with him that he had been moved by jealousy to use scurrilous language and commanded his servants to drag him off forthwith to the quarries.
§ 15.6.3 On the next day, however, when Philoxenus' friends made petition for a grant of pardon, Dionysius made up with him and again included the same men in his company after dinner. As the drinking advanced, again Dionysius boasted of the poetry he had written, recited some lines which he considered to be happily composed, and then asked, "What do you think of the verses?" To this Philoxenus said not a word, but called Dionysius' servants and ordered them to take him away to the quarries.
§ 15.6.4 Now at the time Dionysius, smiling at the ready wit of the words, tolerated the freedom of speech, since the joke took the edge off the censure. But when some time later his acquaintances and Dionysius as well asked him to desist from his untimely frankness, Philoxenus made a paradoxical offer. He would, he said, in his answer both respect the truth and keep the favour of Dionysius. Nor did he fail to make his word good.
§ 15.6.5 For when the tyrant produced some lines that described harrowing events, and asked, "How do the verses strike you?", he replied, "Pitiful!", keeping his double promise by the ambiguity. For Dionysius took the word "pitiful" as signifying harrowing and deeply moving, which are successful effects of good poets, and therefore rated him as having approved them; the rest, however, who caught the real meaning, conceived that the word "pitiful" was only employed to suggest failure.
§ 15.7.1 Much the same thing, as it happened, also occurred in the case of Plato the philosopher. Dionysius summoned this man to his court and at first deigned to show him the highest favour, since he saw that he practised the freedom of speech that philosophy is entitled to. But later, being offended at some of his statements, he became altogether alienated from him, exposed him in the market, and sold him as a slave for twenty minas. Those who were philosophers, however, joined together, purchased his freedom, and sent him off to Greece with the friendly admonition that a wise man should associate with tyrants either as little as possible or with the best grace possible.
§ 15.7.2 Dionysius did not renounce his zeal for poetry but dispatched to the Olympic Games actors with the most pleasing voices who should present a musical performance of his poems for the assembled throng. At first their pleasing voices filled the hearers with admiration, but later, on further reflection, the reciters were despised and rewarded with laughter.
§ 15.7.3 Dionysius, on learning of the slight that was cast upon his poems, fell into a fit of melancholy. His condition grew constantly worse and a madness seized his mind, so that he kept saying that he was the victim of jealousy and suspected all his friends of plotting against him. At last his frenzy and madness went so far that he slew many of his friends on false charges, and he drove not a few into exile, among whom were Philistus and his own brother Leptines, men of outstanding courage who had rendered him many important services in his wars.
§ 15.7.4 These men, then, passed their banishment in Thurii in Italy where they were cordially welcomed by the Italian Greeks. Later, at the request of Dionysius, they were reconciled with him and returned to Syracuse where they enjoyed his former goodwill, and Leptines married Dionysius' daughter. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 15.8.1 When Dexitheus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Lucretius and Servius Sulpicius, This year Evagoras, the king of the Salaminians, arrived in Cyprus from Egypt, bringing money from Acoris, the king of Egypt, but less than he had expected. When he found that Salamis was closely besieged and that he was deserted by his allies, he was forced to discuss terms of settlement.
§ 15.8.2 Tiribazus, who held the supreme command, agreed to a settlement upon the conditions that Evagoras should withdraw from all the cities of Cyprus, that as king of Salamis alone he should pay the Persian King a fixed annual tribute, and that he should obey orders as slave to master.
§ 15.8.3 Although these were hard terms, Evagoras agreed to them all except that he refused to obey orders as slave to master, saying that he should be subject as king to king. When Tiribazus would not agree to this, Orontes, who was the other general and envious of Tiribazus' high position, secretly sent letters to Artaxerxes against Tiribazus.
§ 15.8.4 The charges against him were first, that although he was able to take Salamis, he was not doing so, but was receiving embassies from Evagoras and conferring with him on the question of making common cause; that he was likewise concluding a private alliance with the Lacedemonians, being their friend; that he had sent to Pytho to inquire of the god regarding his plans for revolt; and, most important of all, that he was winning for himself the commanders of the troops by acts of kindness, bringing them over by honours and gifts and promises.
§ 15.8.5 On reading the letter the King, believing the accusations, wrote to Orontes to arrest Tiribazus and dispatch him to him. When the order had been carried out, Tiribazus, on being brought to the King, asked for a trial and for the time being was put in prison. After this the King was engaged in a war with the Cadusians and postponed the trial, and so the legal action was deferred.
§ 15.9.1 Orontes succeeded to the command of the forces in Cyprus. But when he saw that Evagoras was again putting up a bold resistance to the siege and, furthermore, that the soldiers were angered at the arrest of Tiribazus and so were insubordinate and listless in pressing the siege, Orontes became alarmed at the surprising change in the institution. He therefore sent men to Evagoras to discuss a settlement and to urge him to agree to a peace on the same terms Evagoras had agreed to with Tiribazus.
§ 15.9.2 Evagoras, then, was surprisingly able to dispel the menace of capture, and agreed to peace on the conditions that he should be king of Salamis, pay the fixed tribute annually, and obey as a king the orders of the King. So the Cyprian war, which had lasted for approximately ten years, although the larger part of the period was spent in preparations and there were in all but two years of continuous warfare, came to the end we have described.
§ 15.9.3 Glos, who had been in command of the fleet and was married to the daughter of Tiribazus, fearful that it might be thought that he had co operated with Tiribazus in his plan and that he would be punished by the King, resolved to safeguard his position by a new project of action. Since he was well supplied with money and soldiers and had furthermore won the commanders of the triremes to himself by acts of kindness, he resolved to revolt from the King.
§ 15.9.4 At once, then, he sent ambassadors to Acoris, the king of the Egyptians, and concluded an alliance with him against the King. He also wrote the Lacedemonians and incited them against the King, promising to give them a large sum of money and offering other great inducements. He pledged himself to full co operation with them in Greece and to work with them in restoring the supremacy their fathers had exercised.
§ 15.9.5 Even before this the Spartans had made up their minds to recover their supremacy, and at the time were already throwing the cities into confusion and enslaving them, as was clear to all men. Moreover, they were in bad repute because it was generally believed that in the agreement they had made with the King they had betrayed the Greeks of Asia, and so they repented of what they had done and sought a plausible excuse for a war against Artaxerxes. Consequently they were glad to enter the alliance with Glos.
§ 15.10.1 After Artaxerxes had concluded the war with the Cadusians, he brought up the trial of Tiribazus and assigned three of the most highly esteemed Persians as judges. At this time other judges who were believed to have been corrupt were flayed alive and their skins stretched tight on judicial benches. The judges rendered their decisions seated on these, having before their eyes an example of the punishment meted out to corrupt decisions.
§ 15.10.2 Now the accusers read the letter sent by Orontes and stated that it constituted sufficient cause for accusation. Tiribazus, with respect to the charge in connect with Evagoras, presented the agreement made by Orontes that Evagoras should obey the King as a king, whereas he had himself agreed upon a peace on the terms that Evagoras should obey the King as a slave his master. With respect to the oracle he stated that the god as a general thing gives no response concerning death, and to the truth of this he invoked all the Greeks present as witnesses. As for the friendship with the Lacedemonians, he replied in defence that he had formed the friendship not for any advantage of his own but for the profit of the King; and he pointed out that the Greeks of Asia were thereby detached from the Lacedemonians and delivered captive to the King. At the conclusion of his defence he reminded the judges of the former good services he had rendered the King.
§ 15.10.3 It is related that Tiribazus pointed out many services to the King, and one very great one, as a result of which he was highly regarded and became a very great friend. Once during a hunt, while the King was riding in a chariot, two lions came at him, tore to pieces two of four horses belonging to the chariot, and then charged upon the King himself; but at that very moment Tiribazus appeared, slew the lions, and rescued the King from the danger.
§ 15.10.4 In wars also, men say, he excelled in valour, and in council his judgement was so good that when the King followed his advice he never made a mistake. By means of such a defence Tiribazus was cleared of the charges by the unanimous vote of the judges.
§ 15.11.1 The King summoned the judges one by one and asked each of them what principles of justice he had followed in clearing the accused. The first said that he observed the charges to be debatable, while the benefactions were not contested. The second said that, though it were granted that the charges were true, nevertheless the benefactions excelled the offences. The third stated that he did not take into account the benefactions, because Tiribazus had received from the King in return for them favours and honours many times as great, but that when the charges were examined apart by themselves, the accused did not appear to be guilty of them.
§ 15.11.2 The King praised the judges for having rendered a just decision and bestowed upon Tiribazus the highest honours, such as were customary. Orontes, however, he condemned as one who had fabricated a false accusation, expelled him from his list of friends, and subjected him to the utmost marks of degradation. Such was the state of affairs in Asia.
§ 15.12.1 In Greece the Lacedemonians continued the siege of Mantineia, and through the summer the Mantineians maintained a gallant resistance against the enemy. For they were considered to surpass the other Arcadians in valour, and it was for this reason that the Lacedemonians had formerly made it their practice in battle to place them, as their most trustworthy allies, on their flank. But with the coming of winter the river which flows beside Mantineia received a great increase from rains and the Lacedemonians diverted the flow of the river with great dikes, turned the river into the city, and made a pool of all region round about.
§ 15.12.2 Consequently, as the houses began to fall, the Mantineians in despair were compelled to surrender the city to the Lacedemonians. After they received the surrender, they imposed no other hardship on the Mantineians than the command that they should move back to their former villages. Consequently they were compelled to raze their own city and return to their villages.
§ 15.13.1 While these events were taking place, in Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, resolved to plant cities on the Adriatic Sea. His idea in doing this was to get control of the Ionian Sea, in order that there he might make the route to Epeirus safe and have his own cities which could give haven to ships. For it was his intent to descend unexpectedly with great armaments upon the regions about Epeirus and to sack the temple at Delphi, which was filled with great wealth.
§ 15.13.2 Consequently he made an alliance with the Illyrians with the help of Alcetas the Molossian, who was at the time an exile and spending his days in Syracuse. Since the Illyrians were at war, he dispatched to them an allied force of two thousand soldiers and five hundred suits of Greek armour. The Illyrians distributed the suits of armour among their cost warriors and incorporated the soldiers among their own troops.
§ 15.13.3 Now that they had gathered a large army, they invaded Epeirus and would have restored Alcetas to the kingship over the Molossians. But when no one paid any attention to him, they first ravaged the country, and after that, when the Molossians drew up against them, there followed a sharp battle in which the Illyrians were victorious and slew more than fifteen thousand Molossians. After such a disaster befell the inhabitants of Epeirus, the Lacedemonians, as soon as they had learned the facts, sent a force to give aid to the Molossians, by means of which they curbed the barbarians' great audacity.
§ 15.13.4 While these events were taking place, the Parians, in accordance with an oracle, sent out a colony to the Adriatic, founding it on the island of Pharos, as it is called, with the co operation of the tyrant Dionysius. He had already dispatched a colony to the Adriatic not many years previously and had founded the city known as Lissus.
§ 15.13.5 From this as his base Dionysius . . . Since he had the leisure, he built dockyards with a capacity for two hundred triremes and threw about the city a wall of such size that its circuit was the greatest possessed by any Greek city. He also constructed large gymnasia along the Anapus River, and likewise temples of the gods and whatever else would contribute to the growth and renown of the city.
§ 15.14.1 At the conclusion of the year, in Athens Diotrephes was archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Valerius and Aulus Mallius, and the Eleians celebrated the Ninety-ninth Olympiad, that in which Dicon of Syracuse won the "stadion." This year the Parians, who had settled Pharos, allowed the previous barbarian inhabitants to remain unharmed in an exceedingly well fortified place, while they themselves founded a city by the sea and built a wall about it.
§ 15.14.2 Later, however, the old barbarian inhabitants of the island took offence at the presence of the Greeks and called in the Illyrians of the opposite mainland. These, to the number of more than ten thousand, crossed over to Pharos in many small boats, wrought havoc, and slew many of the Greeks. But the governor of Lissus appointed by Dionysius sailed with a good number of triremes against the light craft of the Illyrians, sinking some and capturing others, and slew more than five thousand of the barbarians, while taken some two thousand captive.
§ 15.14.3 Dionysius, in need of money, set out to make war against Tyrrhenia with sixty triremes. The school he offered was the suppression of the pirates, but in fact he was going to pillage a holy temple, richly provided with dedications, which was located in the seaport of the Tyrrhenian city of Agylle, the name of the port being Pyrgi.
§ 15.14.4 Putting in by night, he disembarked his men, attacked at daybreak, and achieved his design; for he overpowered the small number of guards in the place, plundered the temple, and amassed no less than a thousand talents. When the men of Agylle came out to bring help, he overpowered them in battle, took many prisoners, laid waste their territory, and then returned to Syracuse. From the booty which he sold he took in no less than five hundred talents. Now that Dionysius was well supplied with money, he hired a multitude of soldiers from every land, and after bringing together a very considerable army, was obviously preparing for a war against the Carthaginians. These, then, were the events of this year.
§ 15.15.1 When Phanostratus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected instead of consuls four military tribunes, Lucius Lucretius, Sentius Sulpicius, Lucius Aemilius, and Lucius Furius. This year Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, after preparations for war upon the Carthaginians, looked about to find a reasonable excuse for the conflict. Seeing, then, that the cities subject to the Carthaginians were favourable to a revolt, he received such as wished to do so, formed an alliance with them, and treated them with fairness.
§ 15.15.2 The Carthaginians at first dispatched ambassadors to the ruler and asked for the return of their cities, and when he paid no attention to them, this came to be the beginning of the war. Now the Carthaginians formed an alliance with the Italian Greeks and together with them went to war against the tyrant; and since they wisely recognized in advance that it would be a great war, they enrolled as soldiers capable youth from their own citizens, and then, raising a great sum of money, hired large forces of mercenary troops. As general they chose their king Magon and moved many tens of thousands of soldiers across to Sicily and Italy, planning to wage war on both fronts.3 Dionysius for his part also divided his forces, on the one front fighting the Italian Greeks and on the other the Phoenicians. Now there were many battles here and there between groups of soldiers and minor and continuous engagements, in which nothing of consequence was achieved. But there were two important and famous pitched battles. In the first, near Cabala, as it is called, Dionysius, who put up an admirable fight, was victorious, slaying more than ten thousand of the barbarians and capturing not less than five thousand. He also forced the rest of the army to take refuge on a hill which was fortified but altogether without water. There fell also Magon their king after a splendid combat. 4 The Phoenicians, dismayed at the magnitude of the disaster, at once sent an embassy to discuss terms of peace. But Dionysius declared that his only terms were cardinal upon their retiring from the cities of Sicily and paying the cost of the war.
§ 15.16.1 This reply was considered by the Carthaginians to be harsh and arrogant and they outgeneralled Dionysius with their accustomed knavery. They pretended that they were satisfied with the terms, but stated that it was not in their power to hand over the cities; and in order that they might discuss the question with their government, they asked Dionysius to agree to a truce of a few days.
§ 15.16.2 When the monarch agreed the truce took effect, Dionysius was overjoyed, supposing that he would forthwith take over the whole of Sicily. The Carthaginians meanwhile gave their king Magon a magnificent funeral and replaced him as general with his son, who, though he was young indeed, was full of ambition and distinguished for his courage. He spent the entire period of the truce drilling and exercising his troops, and what with laborious exercise, hortatory speeches, and training in arms, he rendered the army obedient and competent.
§ 15.16.3 At the expiration of the period agreed upon both sides deployed their forces and entered the battle with high spirit. There followed a sharp pitched battle at Cronium, as it is called, and the deity redressed by victory turn for turn the defeat of the Carthaginians. The former victors, who were loudly boasting because of their military success, were unexpectedly tripped up, and they who, because of their defeat, were crestfallen at the outlook, won an unexpected and important victory.
§ 15.17.1 Leptines, who was stationed on one wing and excelled in courage, ended his life in a blaze of glory, fighting heroically and after slaying many Carthaginians. At his fall the Phoenicians were emboldened and pressed so hard upon their opponents that they put them to flight.
§ 15.17.2 Dionysius, whose troops were a select band, at first had the advantage over his opponents; but when the death of Leptines became known and the other wing was crushed, his men were dismayed and took to flight.
§ 15.17.3 When the rout became general, the Carthaginians pursued the more eagerly and called out to one another to take no one captive; and so all who were caught were put to death and the whole region close at hand was heaped with dead.
§ 15.17.4 So great was the slaughter, as the Phoenicians recalled past injuries, that the slain among the Sicilian Greeks were found to number more than fourteen thousand. The survivors, who found safety in the camp, were preserved by the coming of night. After their great victory in a pitched battle the Carthaginians retired to Panormus.
§ 15.17.5 The Carthaginians, bearing their victory as men should, dispatched ambassadors to Dionysius and gave him the opportunity to end the war. The tyrant gladly accepted the proposals, and peace was declared on the terms that both parties should hold what they previously possessed, the only exception being that the Carthaginians received both the city of the Selinuntians and its territory and that of Acragas as far as the river called Halycus. And Dionysius paid the Carthaginians one thousand talents. This was the state of affairs in Sicily.
§ 15.18.1 In Asia Glos, the Persian admiral in the Cyprian War, who had deserted from the King and had called upon both the Lacedemonians and the king of the Egyptians to make war upon the Persians, was assassinated by certain persons and so did not achieve his purpose. After his death Tachos took over his operations. He gathered a force about him and founded on a crag near the sea a city which bears the name of Leuce and contains a sacred shrine of Apollo.
§ 15.18.2 A short time after his death a dispute over this city arose between the inhabitants of Clazomenae and those of Cymae. Now at first the cities undertook to settle the matter by recourse to war, but later someone suggested that the god be asked which one of the two cities should be master of Leuce. The Pythia decided that it should be the one which should first offer sacrifice in Leuce, and that each side should start from his own city at the rising of the sun on a day upon which both should agree.
§ 15.18.3 When the day was set the Cymaeans assumed that they would have the advantage because their city lay the nearer, but the Clazomenians, though they were a greater distance away, devised the following scheme to get the victory. Choosing by lot from their own citizens, they founded near Leuce a city from which they made their start at the rising of the sun and thus forestalled the Cymaeans in performing the sacrifice.
§ 15.18.4 Having become masters Leuce by this scheme, they decided to hold an annual festival to bear its name which they called the Prophthaseia. After these events the rebellions in Asia came of themselves to an end.
§ 15.19.1 After the death of Glos and Tachos the Lacedemonians renounced their undertakings in Asia, but they went on organizing affairs in Greece for their own interest, winning over some of the cities by persuasion and getting others into their hands by force through the return of the exiles. From this point they began openly to bring into their own hands the supremacy of Greece, contrary to the command agreements adopted in the time of Antalcidas after intervention by the King of the Persians.
§ 15.19.2 In Macedonia Amyntas the king had been defeated by the Illyrians and had relinquished his authority; he had furthermore made a grant to the people of the Olynthians of a large part of the borderland because of his abandonment out of political power. At first the people of the Olynthians enjoyed the revenues from the land given them, and when later the king unexpectedly recovered strength and got back his entire kingdom, the Olynthians were not inclined to return the land when he asked for it.
§ 15.19.3 Consequently Amyntas gathered an army from his own people, and forming an alliance with the Lacedemonians persuaded them to send out a general and a strong force against the Olynthians. The Lacedemonians, having decided to extend their control to the regions about Thrace, enrolled soldiers both from their citizens and from their allies, more than ten thousand in all; the army they turned over to Phoebidas the Spartan with orders to join forces with Amyntas and to make war together with him upon the Olynthians. They also sent out another army against the people of Phlius, defeated them in battle, and compelled them to accept the rule of the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.19.4 At this time the kings of the Lacedemonians were at variance with each other on matters of policy. Agesipolis, who was a peaceful and just man and, furthermore, excelled in wisdom, declared that they should abide by their oaths and not enslave the Greeks contrary to the common agreements. He pointed out that Sparta was in ill repute for having surrendered the Greeks of Asia to the Persians and for organizing the cities of Greece in her own interest, although she had sworn in the common agreement that she would preserve their autonomy. But Agesilaus, who was by nature a man of action, was fond of war and yearned for dominance over the Greeks.
§ 15.20.1 When Evander was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six military tribunes with consular power, Quintus Sulpicius, Gaius Fabius, Quintus Servilius, Publius Cornelius. During their term of office, the Lacedemonian took possession of the Cadmeia in Thebes for the following reasons. Seeing that Boeotia had a large number of cities and that her inhabitants were men of outstanding valour, while Thebes, still retaining her renown of ancient times, was, generally speaking, the citadel of Boeotia, they were mindful of the danger that Thebes, if a suitable occasion arose, might claim the leadership of Greece.
§ 15.20.2 Accordingly the Spartans gave secret instructions to their commanders, if ever they found an opportunity, to take possession of the Cadmeia. Acting under these instructions, Phoebidas the Spartan, who had been assigned to a command and was leading an expeditionary force against Olynthus, seized the Cadmeia. When the Thebans, resenting this act, gathered under arms, he joined battle with them and after defeating them exiled three hundred of the most eminent Thebans. Then after he had terrorized the rest and had stationed a strong garrison in the Cadmeia, he went off on his own business. For this act the Lacedemonians, being now discredited in the eyes of the Greeks, punished Phoebidas with a fine but would not remove the garrison from Thebes.
§ 15.20.3 So the Thebans in this way lost their independence and were compelled to take orders from the Lacedemonians. As the Olynthians continued the war against Amyntas, king of the Macedonians, the Lacedemonians relieved Phoebidas of his command, and installed Phoebidas' brother Eudamidas as general. Giving him three thousand hoplites, they dispatched him to carry on the war against the Olynthians.
§ 15.21.1 Eudamidas struck into the territory of the Olynthians and, in conjunction with Amyntas, continued to wage war upon the Olynthians. Thereupon the Olynthians, who had collected a considerable force, had the better in the field because they had more soldiers than the enemy; but the Lacedemonians, having made ready a considerable force, appointed Teleutias general in charge of it. Teleutias was brother of King Agesilaus and was greatly admired for his valour by his fellow citizens.
§ 15.21.2 He accordingly set out from the Peloponnese with an army and on arriving near the territory of the Olynthians took over the soldiers commanded by Eudamidas. Being now a match for the enemy, he began by plundering the Olynthian territory and dividing among his troops the booty that he had collected; but when the Olynthians and their allies in full force took the field, he gave battle. At first they drew apart after an even contest, but later a stubborn battle was fought in which Teleutias himself fell after a splendid fight and the Lacedemonians lost more than twelve hundred men.
§ 15.21.3 After the Olynthians had met with so remarkable a success, the Lacedemonians, wishing to repair the loss they had sustained, prepared to send out more numerous forces, while the Olynthians, judging that the Spartans would come with larger forces and that the war would last for a long time, prepared large supplies of grain and procured additional soldiers from their allies.
§ 15.22.1 When Demophilus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as military tribunes military tribune with consular power Publius Cornelius, Lucius Verginius, Lucius Papirius, Marcus Furius, Valerius, Aulus Manlius, Lucius and Postumius.
§ 15.22.2 During their term of office the Lacedemonians appointed as general Agesipolis their king, gave him an adequate army, and voted to make war on the Olynthians.On his arrival in Olynthian territory, he took under his command the soldiers previously encamped there and continued the war against the inhabitants. The Olynthians, however, engaged in no important battle this year, but to the end fought only by exchanges of missiles and short engagements, being in awe of the strength of the king's army.
§ 15.23.1 At the close of the year Pythias was archon at Athens, and at Rome six military tribunes with consular power were elected, Titus Quinctius, Lucius Servilius, Lucius Julius, Aquilius, Lucius Lucretius, and Servius Sulpicius; and in this year the Eleians celebrated the hundredth Olympiad, at which Dionysodorus of Tarentum won the stadium race.
§ 15.23.2 During their term of office Agesipolis, king of the Lacedemonians, died of illness after a reign of fourteen years; Cleombrotus his brother succeeded to the throne and reigned for nine years. The Lacedemonians appointed Polybiadas general and sent him to the war against the Olynthians.
§ 15.23.3 He took over the forces, and, prosecuting the war vigorously and with able generalship, was often superior. With ever-increasing success, after several victories, he reduced the Olynthians to a state of siege. In the end he thoroughly cowed his enemies and forced them to become subjects of the Lacedemonians. With the enrolment of the Olynthians in the Spartan alliance many other states likewise were eager to enlist under the Lacedemonian standard. As a result the Lacedemonians at this particular juncture reached their greatest power and won the overlordship of Greece on both land and sea.
§ 15.23.4 For the Thebans were secured by a garrison; the Corinthians and the Argives were safely humbled as a result of the previous wars; the Athenians, because of their policy of occupying with colonists the lands of those whom they subdued, had a bad reputation with the Greeks; the Lacedemonians, however, had given their constant attention to securing a large population and practice in the use of arms, and so were become an object of terror to all because of the strength of their following.
§ 15.23.5 Consequently the greatest rulers of that time, the Persian King and Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily, paid court to the Spartan overlordship and sought alliance with them.
§ 15.24.1 When Nicon was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Papirius, Gaius Servilius, Lucius Quinctius, Lucius Cornelius, Lucius Valerius, and Aulus Manlius. During their term of office the Carthaginians invaded Italy and restored their city to the Hipponiatae who had been exiled from it, and, having gathered together all the refugees, they showed themselves very solicitous of their welfare.
§ 15.24.2 After this a plague broke out among the inhabitants of Carthage which was so violent and took off so many of the Carthaginians that they risked losing their commanding position. For the Libyans, undervaluing them, seceded, and the Sardinians, thinking they now had an opportunity to oppose the Carthaginians, revolted, and, making common cause, attacked the Carthaginians.
§ 15.24.3 And about the same time a supernatural disaster befell Carthage; for turmoils and fears and panicky disturbances constantly occurred throughout the city defying explanation; and many men rushed from their houses in arms, having the impression that enemies had burst into the city, and they fought constantly with one another as if with enemies, killing some and wounding others. Finally, after having propitiated the deity by sacrifices and with difficulty rid themselves of their misfortunes, they quickly subdued the Libyans and recovered the island of Sardinia.
§ 15.25.1 When Nausinicus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected four military tribunes with consular power, Marcus Cornelius, Quintus Servilius, Marcus Furius, and Lucius Quinctius. During their term of office what is known as the Boeotian War broke out between the Lacedemonians and the Boeotians for the following reasons. When the Lacedemonians maintained a garrison unjustly in the Cadmeia and had exiled many important citizens, the exiles gathered together, secured the support of the Athenians, and returned by night to their native city.
§ 15.25.2 Having first slain in their own houses those who favoured the Lacedemonian cause, whom they surprised while still asleep, they next rallied the citizens to the cause of freedom and obtained the co operation of all the Thebans. When the populace had quickly assembled under arms, at daybreak they attempted to assault the Cadmeia.
§ 15.25.3 The Lacedemonians who formed the garrison of the citadel, numbering with their allies not less than fifteen hundred, sent men to Sparta to announce the insurrection of the Thebans and to urge them to send help as soon as possible. Favoured by their position, they slew many of the attackers and wounded severely no small number.
§ 15.25.4 The Thebans, anticipating the arrival of a large army from Greece to aid the Lacedemonians, dispatched envoys to Athens to remind them that they too once aided in restoring the democracy of the Athenians at the time when the Athenians had been enslaved by the Thirty Tyrants, and to request the Athenians to come with all their forces and assist them in reducing the Cadmeia before the arrival of the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.26.1 The Athenian people heard the ambassadors through to the end and voted to dispatch immediately as large a force as possible for the liberation of Thebes, thus repaying their obligation for the former service and at the same time moved by a desire to win the Boeotians to their side and to have in them a powerful partner in the contest against the superiority of the Lacedemonians. For the Boeotian was reputed to be inferior to none of the Greek nations in the number of its men and in military valour.
§ 15.26.2 Finally Demophon, who had been made general, and had immediately raised a levy of five thousand hoplites and five hundred horse, on the following day at dawn led forth his troops from the city, and pressed on at full speed in an effort to outstrip the Lacedemonians; but the Athenians none the less went on with their preparations for an expedition into Boeotia with all their forces in case of need.3 Demophon by taking cross-country paths appeared unexpectedly before Thebes. And since many soldiers likewise came hurriedly together from the other cities of Boeotia, there was quickly assembled a great army for the support of the Thebans. 4 For not less than twelve thousand hoplites and more than two thousand horse were assembled. And since they were one and all eager for the siege, dividing their forces they kept making their assaults in relays, maintaining a persistent attack at all times both day and night.
§ 15.27.1 The garrison in the Cadmeia under the exhortations of their commanders stoutly defended themselves against their adversaries, expecting that the Lacedemonians would come shortly with a large army. Now as long as they had sufficient food, they held out stubbornly against the attacks and slew and wounded many of their besiegers, supported by the strength of the citadel; but when the scarcity of provisions increased and the Lacedemonians, occupied in mustering forces, were long in coming, dissension spread amongst them.
§ 15.27.2 For the Lacedemonians among them thought they should hold out till death, while their partners in war from the allied cities, who were many times their number, declared themselves for surrendering the Cadmeia. Under such compulsion even the men from Sparta itself, who were but few, joined in the evacuation of the citadel. These therefore capitulated on terms and returned to the Peloponnese;
§ 15.27.3 but the Lacedemonians advanced with a considerable force on Thebes, and, coming just too late, were unsuccessful in their attack. They put on trial the three officers of the garrison, sentenced two to death, and inflicted so heavy a fine upon the third that his estate could not pay it.
§ 15.27.4 Subsequently the Athenians returned home, and the Thebans assailed Thespiae but were unsuccessful in their attack. While these things were taking place in Greece, the Romans dispatched five hundred colonists, who were to be exempt from taxes, to Sardinia.
§ 15.28.1 When Calleas was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as military tribunes with consular power four men, Lucius Papirius, Marcus Publius, Titus Cornelius, and Quintus Lucius. During their term of office, following the failure of the Lacedemonians at Thebes, the Boeotians, uniting boldly, formed an alliance and gathered a considerable army, expecting that the Lacedemonians would arrive in Boeotia in great strength.
§ 15.28.2 The Athenians sent their most respected citizens as ambassadors to the city which were subject to the Lacedemonians, urging them to adhere to the common cause of liberty. For the Lacedemonians, relying on the size of the force at their disposal, ruled their subject peoples inconsiderately and severely, and consequently many of those who belonged to the Spartan sphere of influence fell away to the Athenians.
§ 15.28.3 The first to respond to the plea to secede were the peoples of Chios and Byzantium; they were followed by the peoples of Rhodes and Mytilene and certain others of the islanders; and as the movement steadily gathered force throughout Greece, many cities attached themselves to the Athenians. The democracy, elated by the loyalty of the cities, established a common council of all the allies and appointed representatives of each state.
§ 15.28.4 It was agreed by common consent that, while the council should hold its sessions in Athens, every city great and small should be on an equal basis and enjoy but one vote, and that all should continue independent, accepting the Athenians as leaders. The Lacedemonians, aware that the movement of their cities to secede could not be checked, nevertheless strove earnestly by means of diplomatic missions, friendly words and promises of benefits to win back the peoples who had become estranged.
§ 15.28.5 Likewise they devoted themselves assiduously to their preparations for war, for they expected the Boeotian War to be a hard and tedious affair for them, since the Athenians and the rest of the Greeks who participated in the council were allied with the Thebans.
§ 15.29.1 While these things were going on, Acoris, the king of the Egyptians, being on unfriendly terms with the Persian King, collected a large mercenary force; for by offering high pay to those who enrolled and doing favours to many of them, he quickly induced many of the Greeks to take service with him for the campaign.
§ 15.29.2 But having no capable general, he sent for Chabrias the Athenian, a man distinguished both for his prudence as general and his shrewdness in the art of war, who had also won great repute for personal prowess. Now Chabrias, without first securing the permission of the Athenian people, accepted the appointment and took command of the forces in Egypt and with great dispatch made preparations to fight the Persians.
§ 15.29.3 But Pharnabazus, who had been appointed by the King general of the Persian armies, prepared large supplies of war material, and also sent ambassadors to Athens, first to denounce Chabrias, who by becoming general of the Egyptians was alienating, so he said, the King's affection from the people of Athens, and, secondly, to urge them to give him Iphicrates as general.
§ 15.29.4 The Athenians, being eager to gain the favour of the Persian King and to incline Pharnabazus to themselves, quickly recalled Chabrias from Egypt and dispatched Iphicrates as general to act in alliance with the Persians. The truce which the Lacedemonians and Athenians had concluded in the earlier period remained unshaken up to this time. But now Sphodriades the Spartan, who had been placed in command and was by nature flighty and precipitate, was prevailed upon by Cleombrotus, the king of the Lacedemonians, without the consent of the ephors to occupy the Peiraeus. 6 Sphodriades with more than ten thousand soldiers attempted to occupy the Peiraeus at night, but he was detected by the Athenians and, failing in the attempt, returned without accomplishing anything. He was then denounced before the council of the Spartans, but since he had the kings to support him, he got off by a miscarriage of justice. 7 As a result the Athenians, much vexed at the occurrence, voted that the truce had been broken by the Lacedemonians. They then decided to make war on them and chose three of their most distinguished citizens as generals, Timotheus, Chabrias, and Callistratus. They voted to levy twenty thousand hoplites and five hundred cavalry, and to man two hundred ships. They likewise admitted the Thebans into the common council on terms equal in all respects. 8 They voted also to restore the land settled by cleruchs to its former owners and passed a law that no Athenian should cultivate lands outside of Attica. By this generous act they recovered the goodwill of the Greeks and made their own leadership more secure.
§ 15.30.1 Now many of the other cities for the aforesaid reason were prompted to fall away to Athens; and the first to join in the alliance and the most eager were the cities of Euboea excepting Hestiaea; for Hestiaea, having been treated most generously by the Lacedemonians while she had suffered terribly in war with the Athenians, had very good reason for maintaining unabated her enmity to Athens and force continuing to observe inviolate her pledge of the Sparta.
§ 15.30.2 Nevertheless seventy cities eventually entered into alliance with the Athenians and participated on equal footing in the common council. So with the constant increase in the strength of the Athenians and the diminution of that of the Lacedemonians the two states were now well matched. The Athenians, seeing affairs proceeding to their liking, dispatched a force to Euboea to serve at once as a protection for their allies and to subdued the opposition.
§ 15.30.3 In Euboea a short time before this a certain Neogenes with the assistance of Jason of Pherae had gathered soldiers and occupied the citadel of Hestiaea, and so appointed himself tyrant of this country and of the city of Oreitans. Because of his violent and arrogant rule the Lacedemonians had then dispatched Theripides against him.
§ 15.30.4 Theripides at first endeavoured to prevail upon the tyrant by reasoning with him to leave the citadel; but when the tyrant paid no heed to him, he rallied the people of the district to the cause of freedom, took the place by storm, and restored their freedom to the people of Oreus. For this reason the people who inhabit what is known as the country of the Hestiaeans continued to be loyal to the Spartans and preserved intact their friendship.
§ 15.30.5 Chabrias, in command of the force dispatched by the Athenians, left aside Hestiaeotis, and, fortifying its Metropolis, as it is called, which is situated on a naturally steep hill, left a garrison in it, and then sailed to the Cyclades and won over Peparethos and Sciathos and some other islands which had been subject to the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.31.1 The Spartans, perceiving that the impulse of their allies to secede was not to be checked, put an end to their former severity and began to treat the cities humanely. By this sort of treatment and by benefactions they rendered all their allies more loyal. And now that they saw that the war was becoming more serious and required strict attention, they set ambitiously to work on their various preparations for it, and in particular brought to greater perfection the organization and distribution of their soldiers and the services.
§ 15.31.2 In fact they divided the cities and the soldiers that were levied for the war into ten parts. The first part included the Lacedemonians, the second and third the Arcadians, the fourth the Eleians, the fifth the Achaeans. Corinthians and Megarians supplied the sixth, the seventh the Sicyonians and Phliasians and the inhabitants of the promontory called Acte, the eighth the Acarnanians, the ninth the Phocians and Locrians, and the last of all the Olynthians and the allies who lived in Thrace. They reckoned one hoplite to two light-armed, and one horseman as equivalent to four hoplites.
§ 15.31.3 Such was the organization, and King Agesilaus was put in command of the campaign. He was renowned for courage and shrewdness in the art of war and had been all but invincible in the former periods. For in all his wars he won admiration and especially when the Lacedemonians were fighting the Persians. For he gave battle and won the victory over a force of many times his own number; then he overran a large part of Asia, mastering the open country, and finally would probably have succeeded, had not the Spartans recalled him because of political affairs, in reducing the whole Persian empire to the direst straits.
§ 15.31.4 For he was a man of energy, daring but highly intelligent, engaging in hazardous actions. Accordingly the Spartans, seeing that the magnitude of the war called for a first-rate leader, again appointed him commander of the whole war.
§ 15.32.1 Agesilaus led forth his army and reached Boeotia accompanied by all the soldiers, amounting to more than eighteen thousand, in which were the five divisions of Lacedemonians. Each division contained five hundred men. The company known as Sciritae amongst the Spartans is not drawn up with the rest, but has its own station with the king and it goes to the support of the sections that from time to time are in distress; and since it is composed of picked men, it is an important factor in turning the scale in pitched battles, and generally determines the victory. Agesilaus also had fifteen hundred cavalry.
§ 15.32.2 Passing on then to the city of Thespiae, which was garrisoned by the Lacedemonians, he encamped near it and for several days rested his men from the hardships of the march. The Athenians, having become aware of the arrival of the Lacedemonians in Boeotia, immediately went to the assistance of Thebes with five thousand foot-soldiers and two hundred cavalry.
§ 15.32.3 When these forces had assembled, the Thebans occupied an oblong crest about twenty stades from the city and, having transformed the obstacle into a bastion, awaited the attack of the enemy; for the reputation of Agesilaus so overawed them that they were too timid to await his attack on equal terms in the level country.
§ 15.32.4 As for Agesilaus, he led out his army in battle array against the Boeotians, and, when he had drawn near, in the first place launched his light-armed troops against his opponents, thus testing their disposition to fight him. But when the Thebans had easily from their higher position thrust his men back, he led the whole army against them closely arrayed to strike them with terror.
§ 15.32.5 Chabrias the Athenian, however, leading his mercenary troops, ordered his men to receive the enemy with a show of contempt, maintaining all the while their battle lines, and, leaning their shields against their knees, to wait with upraised spear.
§ 15.32.6 Since they did what they were ordered as at a single word of command, Agesilaus, marvelling at the fine discipline of the enemy and their posture of contempt, judged it inadvisable to force a way against the higher ground and compel his opponents to show their valour in a hand-to hand contest, and, having learned by trial that they would dare, if forced, to dispute the victory, he challenged them in the plain. But when the Thebans would not come down to meet him, he withdrew the phalanx of infantry, dispatched the cavalry and light-armed ranks to plunder the countryside unhampered, and so took a great quantity of spoil.
§ 15.33.1 The Spartan advisers, who accompanied Agesilaus, and his officers expressed to him their surprise that Agesilaus, who reputedly was a man of energy and had the larger and more powerful force, should have avoided a decisive contest with the enemy. To them Agesilaus made answer that, as it was, the Lacedemonians had won the victory without the risk; for when the countryside was being sacked, the Boeotians had not dared to rally to its defence; but if, when the enemy themselves had conceded the victory, he had forced them to endure the risks of battle, perhaps through the uncertainty of fortune the Lacedemonians might even have come to grief in the contest.
§ 15.33.2 Now at the time he was thought in this reply of his to have estimated the possible outcome fairly well, but later in the light of events he was believed to have uttered no mere human saying but a divinely inspired oracle. For the Lacedemonians, having taken the field against the Thebans with a mighty army and having compelled them to fight for their freedom, met with a great disaster.
§ 15.33.3 They were defeated, namely, at Leuctra first, where they lost many of their citizen soldiers and their king Cleombrotus fell; and later, when they fought at Mantineia, they were utterly routed and hopelessly lost their supremacy. For fortune has a knack, when men vaunt themselves too highly, of laying them unexpectedly low and so teaching them to hope for nothing in excess. At any rate Agesilaus, prudently satisfied with his first success, brought his army through unharmed.
§ 15.33.4 After this Agesilaus returned with his army to the Peloponnese, while the Thebans, saved by the generalship of Chabrias, though he had performed many gallant deeds in war, was particularly proud of this bit of strategy and he caused the statues which had been granted to him by his people to be erected to display that posture.
§ 15.33.5 The Thebans after the departure of Agesilaus, leading an expedition against Thespiae, destroyed the advance outpost consisting of two hundred men, but after making repeated assaults on the city itself and accomplishing nothing worthy of mention, led their army back to Thebes.
§ 15.33.6 Phoebidas, the Lacedemonian, who had a considerable garrison in Thespiae, sallied forth from the city, fell rashly upon the retreating Thebans, and lost more than five hundred soldiers, while he himself, fighting brilliantly, after receiving many wounds in front, met a hero's death.
§ 15.34.1 Not long after this the Lacedemonians again took the field against Thebes in the same strength as before, but the Thebans, by occupying certain new obstacles, prevented the enemy from devastating the country, though they did not venture to offer battle in the plains face to face against the whole army of the enemy.
§ 15.34.2 As Agesilaus advanced to the attack, they came out to met him gradually. A bitter battle raged for a long time, in which at first Agesilaus' men prevailed, but later, as the Thebans poured forth in full force from the city, Agesilaus, behold the multitude of men streaming down upon him, summoned his soldiers by trumpet to withdraw from the battle. The Thebans, who found themselves now for the first time not inferior to the Lacedemonians, erected a trophy of victory and thereafter faced the army of the Spartans with confidence.
§ 15.34.3 With regard to the fighting of the land forces, such was the issue. At sea about the same time occurred a great naval battle between Naxos and Paros, of which the cause was as follows. Pollis, the admiral of the Lacedemonians, learning that a large shipment of grain was on its way to Athens in freighters, lay in wait watching for the grain fleet as it put in to port, intending to attack the freighters. The Athenian people, being informed of this, sent out a convoy to guard the grain in transit, which in fact brought it safe to the Peiraeus.
§ 15.34.4 Later Chabrias, the Athenian admiral, with the whole navy sailed to Naxos and laid it under siege. Bringing his siege-engines to bear against the walls, when he had shaken them, he then bent every effort to take the city by storm. While these things were going on, Pollis, the admiral of the Lacedemonians, sailed into port to assist the Naxians. In eager rivalry both sides engaged in a sea-battle, and forming in line of battle charged each other.
§ 15.34.5 Pollis had sixty-five triremes; Chabrias eighty-three. As the ships bore down on one another, Pollis, leading the right wing, was first to attack the opposing triremes on the left wing, which Cedon the Athenian commanded. In a brilliant contest he slew Cedon himself and sank his ship; and, in similar fashion engaging the other ships of Cedon and tearing them open with the beaks of his ships, he destroyed some and others he forced to flee.
§ 15.34.6 When Chabrias beheld what was happening, he dispatched a squadron of the ships under his command and brought support to the men who were hard pressed and so retrieved the defeat of his own side. He himself with the strongest part of the fleet in a valiant struggle destroyed many triremes and took a large number captive.
§ 15.35.1 Although he had thus won the upper hand and forced all the enemies' ships to flee, he abstained altogether from pursuit. For he recalled the battle of Arginusae and that the assembly of the people, in return for the great service performed by victorious generals, condemned them to death on the charge that they had failed to bury the men who had perished in the fight; consequently he was afraid, since the circumstances were much the same, that he might run the risk of a similar fate. Accordingly, refraining from pursuit, he gathered up the bodies of his fellow citizens which were afloat, saved those who still lived, and buried the dead. Had he not engaged in this task he would easily have destroyed the whole enemy fleet.
§ 15.35.2 In the battle eighteen triremes on the Athenian side were destroyed; on the Lacedemonian twenty-four were destroyed and eight captured with their crews. Chabrias then, having won a notable victory, sailed back laden with spoils to the Peiraeus and met with an enthusiastic reception from his fellow citizens. Since the Peloponnesian War this was the first naval battle the Athenians had won. For they had not fought the battle of Cnidus with a fleet of their own, but had got the use of the King's fleet and won a victory.
§ 15.35.3 While these things were going on, in Italy Marcus Manlius, who aspired to a tyranny in Rome, was overpowered and slain.
§ 15.36.1 When Charisander was archon at Athens, the Romans elected four military tribunes with consular power, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius Papirius, Titus Quinctius; and the Eleians celebrated the one hundred first Olympiad, in which Damon of Thurii won the stadium race. During their term of office, in Thrace the Triballians, suffering from a famine, moved in full force into territory beyond their borders and obtained food from the land not their own.
§ 15.36.2 More than thirty thousand invaded the adjacent part of Thrace and ravaged with impunity the territory of Abdera; and after seizing a large quantity of booty they were making their way homeward in a contemptuous and disorderly fashion when the inhabitants of Abdera took the field in full force against them and slew more than two thousand of them as they straggled in disorder homewards.
§ 15.36.3 The barbarians then, enraged at what had happened and wishing to avenge themselves upon the Abderites, again invaded their land. The victors in the earlier conflict, being elated by their success and aided by the presence of the Thracians of the neighbouring region, who had sent out a body of men to assist them, drew up their lines opposite to the barbarians.
§ 15.36.4 A stubborn battle took place, and since the Thracians suddenly changed sides, the Abderites, now left to fight alone and surrounded by the superior number of the barbarians, were butchered almost to a man, as many as took part in the fight. But just after the Abderites had suffered so great a disaster and were on the point of being besieged, Chabrias the Athenian suddenly appeared with troops and snatched them out of their perils. He drove the barbarians from the country, and, after leaving a considerable garrison in the city, was himself assassinated by certain persons.
§ 15.36.5 Timotheus succeeded him as admiral, sailed to Cephallenia, won over the cities there, and likewise persuaded the cities of Acarnania to come over to Athens. After he had made a friend of Alcetas, king of the Molossians, and, speaking generally, had won over the areas belonging to the cities of those regions, he defeated the Lacedemonians in a naval battle off Leuctra.
§ 15.36.6 All this he accomplished quickly and easily, not only persuading men by his eloquence, but also winning battles by courage and good generalship. Consequently he won great acclaim, not only among his own fellow citizens but also among the Greeks at large. Thus stood the fortunes of Timotheus.
§ 15.37.1 While these things were going on, the Thebans made an expedition against Orchomenus with five hundred picked men and performed a memorable action. For as the Lacedemonians maintained a garrison of many soldiers in Orchomenus and had drawn up their forces against the Thebans, a stiff battle took place in which the Thebans, attacking twice their number, defeated the Lacedemonians. Never indeed had such a thing occurred before; it had seemed enough if they won with many against few.
§ 15.37.2 The result was that the Thebans swelled with pride, became more and more renowned for their valour, and had manifestly put themselves in a position to compete for the supremacy of Greece.
§ 15.37.3 Of the historians, Hermeias of Methymne brought to a close with this year his narrative of Sicilian affairs, having composed ten books, or, as some divide the work, twelve.
§ 15.38.1 When Hippodamas was archon at Athens, the Romans elected four military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Valerius, Lucius Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, and Lucretius. During their term of office Artaxerxes, King of the Persians, intending to make war on the Egyptians and being busily engaged in organizing a considerable mercenary army, decided to effect a settlement of the wars going on in Greece. For by this means he particularly hoped that the Greeks, once released from their domestic wars, would be more ready to accept mercenary service. Accordingly he sent ambassadors to Greece to urge the cities to enter into a general peace by agreement.
§ 15.38.2 The Greeks welcomed his proposal because they wearied of the uninterrupted series of wars, and all agreed to make peace on the condition that all the cities should be independent and free from foreign garrisons. Accordingly the Greeks appointed agents who, going from city to city, proceeded to evacuate all the garrisons. But the Thebans alone would not agree that the ratification of the peace should be made city by city, but insisted that all Boeotia should be listed as subject to the confederacy of the Thebans.
§ 15.38.3 When the Athenians opposed this in the most contentious manner, Callistratus, their popular leader, reciting their reasons, while, on behalf of the Thebans, Epameinondas delivered the address before the general assembly with marvellous effect, the result was that though the terms of the peace were harmoniously concluded for all the other Greek states, the Thebans alone were refused participation in them; and, through the influence of Epameinondas, who by his own personal merits inspired his fellow citizens with patriotic spirit, they were emboldened to make a stand against the decision of all the rest.
§ 15.38.4 For the Lacedemonians and Athenians, who had constantly been rivals for the hegemony, now yielded one to the other, the one being judged worthy on land, the other on the sea. They were consequently annoyed by the claims to leadership advanced by a third contender and sought to sever the Boeotian cities from the Theban confederation.
§ 15.39.1 The Thebans, who excelled in bodily strength and prowess and had already conquered the Lacedemonians in numerous battles, were elated in spirit and eager to dispute the supremacy on land. Nor were they cheated of their hope, both for the aforesaid reasons and because they had more good commanders and generals during the period under consideration.
§ 15.39.2 Most famous were Pelopidas, Gorgidas, and Epameinondas. Epameinondas, indeed, far excelled not merely those of his own race but even all Greeks in valour and shrewdness in the art of war. He had a broad general education, being particularly interested in the philosophy of Pythagoras. Besides this, being well endowed with physical advantages, it is natural that he contributed very distinguished achievements. Hence even when compelled with a very few citizen soldiers to fight against all the armies of the Lacedemonians and their allies, he was so far superior to these heretofore invincible warriors that he slew the Spartan king Cleombrotus, and almost completely annihilated the multitude of his opponents.
§ 15.39.3 Such were the remarkable deeds which he unexpectedly performed because of his astuteness and the moral excellence he had derived from his education. However, we shall somewhat later explain these matters more fully in a special chapter; at present we shall turn to the thread of our narrative.
§ 15.40.1 After autonomy had been conceded to the various peoples, the cities fell into great disturbances and internal strife, particularly in the Peloponnese. Having been used to oligarchic institutions and now taking foolish advantage of the liberties which democracy allows itself, they exiled many of their good citizens, and, trumping up charges against them, condemned them. Thus falling into internal strife they had recourse to exilings and confiscations of property, particularly against those who during the Spartan hegemony had been leaders of their native cities.
§ 15.40.2 Indeed in those times the oligarchs had exercised authoritative control over their fellow citizens, and later as the democratic mob recovered is freedom it harboured a grudge. First, however, the exiles of Phialeia, rallying their forces, recovered Heraea, as it is called, a stronghold. And setting out from there, they swooped down upon Phialeia, and at a time when, as it happened, the festival of Dionysus was being celebrated, they fell unexpectedly upon the spectators in the theatre, killed many, persuaded not a few to participate in their folly, and retreated to Sparta.
§ 15.40.3 And the exiles from Corinth, who, many in number, were living among the Argives, attempted to return, but though admitted into the city by some of their relatives and friends, they were denounced and surrounded, and, as they were about to be apprehended, fearful of the maltreatment their capture would entail, they slew one another. The Corinthians, having charged many of their citizens with assisting the exiles in the attack, put some to death and exiled others.
§ 15.40.4 Again, in the city of the Megarians, when some persons endeavoured to overturn the government and overpowered by the democracy, many were slain and not a few driven into exile. Likewise among the Sicyonians as well a number who tried to effect a revolution but failed were killed.
§ 15.40.5 Among the Phliasians, when many who were in exile had seized a stronghold in the country and gathered a considerable number of mercenaries, a battle was fought against the city party, and, when the exiles won the victory, over three hundred of the Phliasians were slain. Later, as the sentinels betrayed the exiles, the Phliasians got the upper hand and executed more than six hundred exiles, while they drove the rest out of the country and compelled them to take refuge in Argos. Such were the disasters that afflicted the Peloponnesian cities.
§ 15.41.1 When Socratides was archon at Athens, the Romans elected four military tribunes with consular power, Quintus Servilius, Servius Cornelius, and Spurius Papirius. During their term of office King Artaxerxes sent an expedition against the Egyptians, who had revolted from Persia. The leaders of the army were Pharnabazus, commanding the barbarian contingent, and Iphicrates the Athenian, commanding the mercenaries, who numbered twenty thousand. Iphicrates, who had been summoned for the campaign by the King, was given the assignment because of his strategic skill.
§ 15.41.2 After Pharnabazus had wasted several years making his preparations, Iphicrates perceiving that though in talk he was clever, he was sluggish in action, frankly told him that he marvelled that anyone so quick in speech could be so dilatory in action. Pharnabazus replied that it was because he was master of his words but the King was master of his actions.
§ 15.41.3 When the Persian army had assembled at the city of Ace it numbered two hundred thousand barbarians under the command of Pharnabazus and twenty thousand Greek mercenaries led by Iphicrates. The triremes numbered three hundred and the thirty-oared vessels two hundred. The number of those conveying food and other supplies was great.
§ 15.41.4 At the beginning of the summer the King's generals broke camp with the entire army, and accompanied by the fleet sailing along the coast proceeded to Egypt. When they came near the Nile they found that the Egyptians had manifestly completed their preparations for the war.
§ 15.41.5 For Pharnabazus marched slowly and had given plenty of time for the enemy to prepare. Indeed it is the usual custom for the Persian commanders, not being independent in the general conduct of war, to refer all matters to the King and await his replies concerning every detail.
§ 15.42.1 The Egyptian king Nectanebos learned the size of the Persian armies, but was emboldened, for Egypt is extremely difficult of approach, and secondly by the fact that all points of invasion from land or sea had been carefully blocked.
§ 15.42.2 For the Nile empties into the Egyptian Sea by seven mouths, and at each mouth a city had been established along with great towers on each bank of the stream and a wooden bridge commanding its entrance. He especially fortified the Pelusiac mouth because it is the first to be encountered by those approaching from Syria and seemed to be the most likely route of the enemy approach.
§ 15.42.3 He dug channels connecting with this, fortified the entrances for ships at the most suitable points, and inundated the approaches by land while blocking the sea approaches by embankments. Accordingly it was not easy either for the ships to sail in, or for the cavalry to draw near, or for the infantry to approach.
§ 15.42.4 Pharnabazus' staff, finding the Pelusiac mouth so remarkably fortified and guarded by a multitude of soldiers, rejected utterly the plan of forcing a way through it and decided to make the invasion by ship through another mouth. Accordingly they voyaged on the open sea so that the ships should not be sighted by the enemy, and sailed in by the mouth known as Mendesian, which had a beach stretching over a considerable space. Landing here with three thousand men, Pharnabazus and Iphicrates pushed forward to the walled stronghold at the mouth.
§ 15.42.5 The Egyptians rushed out with three thousand horse and infantry, and a sharp battle ensued, but many men from their ships came to increase the number of the Persians, until finally the Egyptians were surrounded, many slain, and not a few captured alive; and the rest were driven in confusion into the city. Iphicrates' men dashed in with the defenders inside the walls, took possession of the fortress, razed it, and enslaved the inhabitants.
§ 15.43.1 After this, discord set in amongst the commanders, causing the failure of the enterprise. For Iphicrates, learning from the captives that Memphis, the most strategically situated of the Egyptian cities, was undefended, advised sailing immediately up to Memphis before the Egyptian forces arrived there, but Pharnabazus thought they should await the entire Persian force; for in this way the campaign against Memphis would be less dangerous.
§ 15.43.2 When Iphicrates demanded that he be given the mercenaries that were on hand and promised if he had them to capture the city, Pharnabazus became suspicious of his boldness and his courage for fear lest he take possession of Egypt for himself. Accordingly when Pharnabazus would not yield, Iphicrates protested that if they let slip the exact moment of opportunity, they would make the whole campaign a failure. Some generals indeed bore a grudge against him and were attempting to fasten unfair charges upon him.
§ 15.43.3 Meanwhile the Egyptians, having had plenty of time to recuperate, first sent an adequate garrison into Memphis, and then, proceeding with all their forces against the ravaged stronghold at the Mendesian mouth of the Nile and being now at a great advantage owing to the strength their position, fought constant engagements with the enemy. With ever-increasing strength they slew many Persians and gained confidence against them.
§ 15.43.4 As the campaign about this stronghold dragged on, and the Etesian winds had already set in, the Nile, which was filling up and flooding the whole region with the abundance of its waters, made Egypt daily more secure. The Persian commanders, as this state of affairs constantly operated against them, decided to withdraw from Egypt.
§ 15.43.5 Consequently, on their way back to Asia, when a disagreement arose between him and Pharnabazus, Iphicrates, suspecting that he might be arrested and punished as Conon the Athenian had been, decided to flee secretly from the camp. Accordingly, having secured a ship he covertly got away at night and reached port at Athens.
§ 15.43.6 Pharnabazus dispatched ambassadors to Athens and accused Iphicrates of being responsible for the failure to capture Egypt. The Athenians, however, replied to the Persians that if they detected him in wrongdoing they would punish him as he deserved, and shortly afterward appointed Iphicrates general in command of their fleet.
§ 15.44.1 It will not be out of place to set forth what I have learned about the remarkable character of Iphicrates. For he is reported to have possessed shrewdness in common and to have enjoyed an exceptional natural genius for every kind of useful invention. Hence we are told, after he had acquired his long experience of military operations in the Persian War, he devised many improvements in the tools of war, devoting himself especially to the matter of arms.
§ 15.44.2 For instance, the Greeks were using shields which were large and consequently difficult to handle; these he discarded and made small oval ones of moderate size, thus successfully achieving both objects, to furnish the body with adequate cover and to enable the user of the small shield, on account of its lightness, to be completely free in his movements.
§ 15.44.3 After a trial of the new shield its easy manipulation secured its adoption, and the infantry who had formerly been called "hoplites" because of their heavy shield, then had their name changed to "peltasts" from the light pelta they carried. As regards spear and sword, he made changes in the contrary direction: namely, he increased the length of the spears by half, and made the swords almost twice as long. The actual use of these arms confirmed the initial test and from the success of the experiment won great fame for the inventive genius of the general.
§ 15.44.4 He made soldiers' boots that were easy to untie and light and they continue to this day to be called "iphicratids" after him. He also introduced many other useful improvements into warfare, but it would be tedious to write about them. So the Persian expedition against Egypt, for all its huge preparations, disappointed expectations and proved a failure in the end.
§ 15.45.1 Throughout Greece now that its several states were in confusion because of unwonted forms of government, and many uprisings were occurring in the midst of the general anarchy, the Lacedemonians gave assistance to such as were trying to establish oligarchies, while the Athenians supported those groups which clung to democracy.
§ 15.45.2 For both these states did maintain the truce for a short time, but then, acting in co operation with their affiliated cities renewed the war, no longer respecting the general peace that had been agreed upon. So it came about that in Zacynthos the popular party, being angry and resentful toward those who had held control of the government during the domination of the Lacedemonians, drove them all into exile. . . . These Zacynthians, having taken refuge with Timotheus the Athenian in charge of the fleet, joined his naval force and fought with him.
§ 15.45.3 Accordingly they made him their confederate, were transported by him to the island, and seized a stronghold by the sea which they called Arcadia. With this as their base and having the support of Timotheus they inflicted damage upon those in the city.
§ 15.45.4 And when the Zacynthians asked the Lacedemonians to help them, these latter at first sent envoys to Athens to denounce Timotheus; but then, seeing that the Athenian people favoured the exiles, they organized a fleet, and manning twenty-five triremes sent them to assist the Zacynthians, placing Aristocrates in command.
§ 15.46.1 While these things were going on, some partisans of the Lacedemonians in Corcyra revolted against the democracy and called upon the Spartans to dispatch a fleet, promising to betray Corcyra to them. The Lacedemonians, aware of the great importance that Corcyra had for the aspirants to sea power, made haste to possess themselves of this city.
§ 15.46.2 So they immediately dispatched to Corcyra twenty-two triremes, having given the command to Alcidas. They pretended that this expedition was sent to Sicily, in order to be received as friends by the Corcyraeans and then with the assistance of the exiles to occupy the city.
§ 15.46.3 But the Corcyraeans, discovering the design of the Spartans, kept careful guard over the city and sent envoys to Athens to get help. The Athenians voted help for the Corcyraeans and the Zacynthian exiles, sent to Zacynthos Ctesicles as general in command of the exiles, and prepared to dispatch a naval force to Corcyra.
§ 15.46.4 While these things were going on, the Plataeans in Boeotia, clinging to the alliance with the Athenians, sent to them for soldiers, having decided to hand their city over to the Athenians. At this the Boeotarchs became incensed with the Plataeans, and being eager to forestall the allied force from Athens, immediately brought a considerable army against the Plataeans.
§ 15.46.5 They reached the neighbourhood of Plataeae when the attack was not expected, so that a large number of the Plataeans were arrested in the fields and carried off by the cavalry, while the rest, who had escaped to the city, being helpless without any allies, were forced to make a covenant agreeable to their enemies; they were obliged, namely, to depart from the city with their movable possessions and never again to set foot on Boeotian soil.
§ 15.46.6 Thereupon the Thebans, having razed Plataeae completely, pillaged Thespiae as well, which was at odds with them. The Plataeans with their wives and children, having fled to Athens, received equality of civic rights as a mark of favour from the Athenian people. Such was the state of affairs in Boeotia.
§ 15.47.1 The Lacedemonians appointed Mnasippus general and ordered him to proceed to Corcyra with sixty-five triremes, his forces consisting of fifteen hundred soldiers. Touching at the island, he picked up the exiles, then sailed into the harbour and captured four ships, the three remaining ships having fled to the shore, where they were burned by the Corcyraeans to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. He also defeated with his infantry a contingent on land which had seized a certain hill, and generally terrorized the Corcyraeans.
§ 15.47.2 The Athenians had some time previously dispatched Timotheus, Conon's son, with sixty ships to aid Corcyra. He, however, before intervening in their favour, had sailed to the region of Thrace. Here he summoned many cities to join the alliance, and added thirty triremes to his fleet.
§ 15.47.3 At this point, because he was too late to assist Corcyra, he was at first deprived of his command as a result of his loss of popularity. Later, however, when he sailed along the Attic coast to Athens, bringing with him a great number of envoys from states which were ready to conclude an alliance with Athens, having added thirty triremes to his fleet and put the whole fleet in good trim for the war, the people repented and reinstated him in his command.
§ 15.47.4 They furthermore equipped forty additional triremes, so that altogether he had one hundred thirty; they also provided liberal stores of food, engines of war, and other supplies needed for war. To meet the immediate emergency, they chose Ctesicles general and sent him with five hundred soldiers to aid the Corcyraeans.
§ 15.47.5 He arrived there secretly by night and sailed into Corcyra undetected by the besiegers. Finding the inhabitants of the city at strife with one another and handling military matters badly, he composed the dissensions, devoted much attention to the city's business, and heartened the besieged.
§ 15.47.6 At first in an unexpected attack on the besiegers he slew about two hundred, and later in a great battle slew Mnasippus and not a few others. Finally he encircled and laid siege to the besiegers and won great approval.
§ 15.47.7 The war to possess Corcyra was practically at an end when the Athenian fleet sailed in with the generals Timotheusand Iphicrates. These, having arrived too late for the critical moment, accomplished nothing worth mentioning except that, falling in with some Sicilian triremes which Dionysius had dispatched under the command of Cissides and Crinippus to assist his allies the Lacedemonians, they captured them with their crews, nine ships in all. By selling the captives as booty they collected more than sixty talents, with which they paid their forces.
§ 15.47.8 While these things were going on, in Cyprus Nicocles the eunuch assassinated the king Evagoras and possessed himself of the royal power over the Salaminians; and Italy the Romans, arrayed in battle against the Praenestini, defeated them and slew almost all their opponents.
§ 15.48.1 When Asteius was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six military tribunes with consular power, Marcus Furius, Lucius Furius, Aulus Postumius, Lucius Lucretius, Marcus Fabius, and Lucius Postumius. During their term of office great earthquakes occurred in the Peloponnese accompanied by tidal waves which engulfed the open country and cities in a manner past belief; for never in the earlier periods had such disasters befallen Greek cities, nor had entire cities along with their inhabitants disappeared as a result of some divine force wreaking destruction and ruin upon mankind.
§ 15.48.2 The extent of the destruction was increased by the time of its occurrence; for the earthquake did not come in the daytime when it would have been possible for the sufferers to help themselves, but the blow came at night, so that when the houses crashed and crumbled under the force of the shock, the population, owing to the darkness and to the surprise and bewilderment occasioned by the event, had no power to struggle for life.
§ 15.48.3 The majority were caught in the falling houses and annihilated, but as day returned some survivors dashed from the ruins and, when they thought they had escaped the danger, met with a greater and still more incredible danger. For the sea rose to a vast height, and a wave towering even higher washed away and drowned all the inhabitants and their native lands as well. Two cities in Achaia bore the brunt of this disaster, Helice and Bura, the former of which had, as it happened, before the earthquake held first place among the cities of Achaia.
§ 15.48.4 These disasters have been the subject of much discussion. Natural scientists make it their endeavour to attribute responsibility in such cases not to divine providence, but to certain natural circumstances determined by necessary causes, whereas those who are disposed to venerate the divine power assign certain plausible reasons for the occurrence, alleging that the disaster was occasioned by the anger of the gods at those who had committed sacrilege. This question I too shall endeavour to deal with in detail in a special chapter of my history.
§ 15.49.1 In Ionia nine cities were in the habit of holding sacrifices of great antiquity on a large scale to Poseidon in a lonely region near the place called Mycale. Later, however, as a result of the outbreak of wars in this neighbourhood, since they were unable to hold the Panionia there, they shifted the festival gathering to a safe place near Ephesus. Having sent an embassy to Delphi, they received an oracle telling them to take copies of the ancient ancestral altars at Helice, which was situated in what was then known as Ionia, but is now known as Achaea.
§ 15.49.2 So the Ionians in obedience to the oracle sent men to Achaea to make the copies, and they spoke before the council of the Achaeans and persuaded them to give them what they asked. The inhabitants of Helice, however, who had an ancient saying that they would suffer danger when Ionians should sacrifice at the altar of Poseidon, taking account of the oracle, opposed the Ionians in the matter of the copies, saying that the sanctuary was not the common property of the Achaeans, but their own particular possession. The inhabitants of Bura also took part with them in this.
§ 15.49.3 But since the Achaeans by common decree had concurred, the Ionians sacrificed at the altar of Poseidon as the oracle directed, but the people of Helice scattered the sacred possessions of the Ionians and seized the persons of their representatives, thus committing sacrilege. It was because of these acts, they say, that Poseidon in his anger brought ruin upon the offending cities through the earthquake and the flood.
§ 15.49.4 That it was Poseidon's wrath that was wreaked upon these cities they allege that clear proofs are at hand: first, it is distinctly conceived that authority over earthquakes and floods belongs to this god, and also it is the ancient belief that the Peloponnese was an habitation of Poseidon; and this country is regarded as sacred in a way to Poseidon, and, speaking generally, all the cities in the Peloponnese pay honour to this god more than to any other of the immortals.
§ 15.49.5 Furthermore, the Peloponnese has beneath its surface huge caverns and get underground accumulations of flowing water. Indeed the two rivers in it which clearly have underground courses; one of them, in fact, near Pheneus, plunges into the ground, and in former times completely disappeared, swallowed up by underground caves, and the other, near Stymphalus, plunges into a chasm and flows for two hundred stades concealed underground, then pours forth by the city of the Argives.
§ 15.49.6 In addition to these statements the pious say further that except for those who committed the sacrilege no one perished in the disaster. Concerning the earthquakes and floods which occurred we shall rest content with what has been said.
§ 15.50.1 When Alcisthenes was archon at Athens, the Romans elected eight military tribunes with consular power, Lucius and Publius Valerius, Gaius Terentius, Lucius Menenius, Gaius Sulpicius, Titus Papirius, and Lucius Aemilius, and the Eleians celebrated the hundred and second Olympiad in which Damon of Thurii won the stadium race.
§ 15.50.2 During their term of office, after the Lacedemonians had held the supremacy in Greece for almost five hundred years, a divine portent foretold the loss of their empire; for there was seen in the heavens during the course of many nights a great blazing torch which was named from its shape a "flaming beam," and a little later, to the surprise of all, the Spartans were defeated in a great battle and irretrievably lost their supremacy.
§ 15.50.3 Some of the students of nature ascribed the origin of the torch to natural causes, voicing the opinion that such apparitions occur of necessity at appointed times, and that in these matters the Chaldaeans in Babylon and the other astrologers succeeded in making accurate prophecies. These men, they say, are not surprised when such a phenomenon occurs, but rather if it does not, since each particular constellation has its own peculiar cycle and they complete these cycles through age-long movements in appointed courses. At any rate this torch had such brilliancy, they report, and its light such strength that it cast shadows on the rather similar to those cast by the moon.
§ 15.50.4 At this time Artaxerxes the Persian King, seeing that the Greek world was again in a turmoil, sent ambassadors, calling upon the Greeks to settle their internecine wars and establish a common peace in accordance with the covenants they had formerly made. All the Greeks gladly received this proposal, and all the cities agreed to a general peace except Thebes; for the Thebans alone, being engaged in bringing Boeotia under a single confederacy, were not admitted by the Greeks because of the general determination to have the oaths and treaties made city by city. So, remaining outside of the treaties as formerly, the Thebans continued to hold Boeotia in a single confederacy subject to themselves.
§ 15.50.5 The Lacedemonians, being exasperated by this, decided to lead a large army against them as common enemies, for they cast an extremely jealous eye upon their increase of power, fearing lest with the leadership of all Boeotia they might break up the Spartan supremacy, given a suitable opportunity. For they constantly practised gymnastics and had great bodily strength, and since they were naturally lovers of war, they were inferior to no Greek nation in deeds of valour.
§ 15.50.6 They had besides leaders conspicuous for their virtues, greatest among them being three men, Epameinondas, Gorgidas, and Pelopidas. The city of the Thebans was full of pride because of the glory of its ancestors in the heroic age and aspired to mighty deeds. In this year, then, the Lacedemonians were making ready for war, levying armies both of their own citizens and from their allies as well.
§ 15.51.1 When Phrasicleides was archon at Athens, the Romans elected eight military tribunes with consular power, Publius Manius, Gaius Erenucius, Gaius Sextus, Tiberius Julius, Lucius Lavinius, Publius Tribonius, and Gaius Manlius, and besides Lucius Anthestius. During their term of office the Thebans, since they were not participants in the truce, were forced to undertake alone the war with the Lacedemonians; for there was no city that could legally join them, because all had agreed to the general peace.
§ 15.51.2 The Lacedemonians, since the Thebans were isolated, determined to fight them and reduce Thebes to complete slavery. And since the Lacedemonians were making their preparations without concealment and the Thebans were destitute of allies, everyone assumed that they would be easily defeated by the Spartans.
§ 15.51.3 Accordingly some of the Greeks who were friendly to the Thebans sympathized with them at the prospect of defeat, while others who were at odds with them were overjoyed at the thought that Thebes would in a trice be reduced to utter slavery. Finally the Lacedemonians, their huge army ready, gave command of it to Cleombrotus their king, and first of all sent envoys ahead to Thebes, directing the Thebans to permit all of the Boeotian cities to be independent, to people Plataea and Thespiae, and to restore the land to its former owners.
§ 15.51.4 When the Thebans replied that they never meddled with affairs in Laconia and the Spartans had no right to touch those of Boeotia, such being the tenor of their answers, the Lacedemonians sent Cleombrotus forth immediately with his army against Thebes; and the Spartan allies were eager for the war, confident that there would be no contest or battle but that they would master the Boeotians without a struggle.
§ 15.52.1 The Spartans accordingly advanced till they came to Coroneia, where they encamped and waited for such of their allies as were tardy. The Thebans, in view of the presence of the enemy, first voted to remove their wives and children to safety in Athens, then chose Epameinondas general and turned over to him the command in the war, giving him as his advisers six boeotarchs.
§ 15.52.2 Epameinondas, having conscripted for the battle all Thebans of military age and the other Boeotians who were willing and qualified, led forth from Thebes his army, numbering in all not more than six thousand.
§ 15.52.3 As the soldiers were marching out from the city it seemed to many that unfavourable omens appeared to the armament. For by the gates Epameinondas was met by a blind herald, who, seeking recovery of runaway slaves, just as was usual, cried his warning not to take them from Thebes nor to spirit them away, but to bring them home and keep them secure.
§ 15.52.4 Now the older people amongst those who heard the herald considered it an omen for the future; but the younger folk kept quiet so as not to appear through cowardice to hold Epameinondas back from the expedition. But Epameinondas replied to those who told him that he must observe the omens: One only omen is best, to fight for the land that is ours."
§ 15.52.5 Though Epameinondas astounded the cautious by his forthright answer, a second omen appeared more unfavourable than the previous one. For as the clerk advanced with a spear and a ribbon attached to it and signalled the orders from headquarters, a breeze came up and, as it happened, the ribbon was torn from the spear and wrapped itself around a slab that stood over a grave, and there were buried in this spot some Lacedemonians and Peloponnesians who had died in the expedition under Agesilaus.
§ 15.52.6 Some of the older folk who again chanced to be there protested earnestly against leading the force out in the face of the patent opposition of the gods; but Epameinondas, deigning them no reply, led forth his army, thinking that considerations of nobility and regard for justice should be preferred as motives to the omens in question.
§ 15.52.7 Epameinondas accordingly, who was trained in philosophy and applied sensibly the principles of his training, was at the moment widely criticized, but later in the light of his successes would considered to have excelled in military shrewdness and did contribute the greatest benefits to his country. For he immediately led forth his army, seized in advance the pass at Coroneia, and encamped there.
§ 15.53.1 Cleombrotus, learning that the enemy had seized the pass first, decided against forcing a passage there, proceeded instead through Phocis, and, when he had traversed the shore road which was difficult, entered Boeotia without danger. In his passage he took some of the fortresses and seized ten triremes.
§ 15.53.2 Later, when he reached the place called Leuctra, he encamped there and allowed the soldiers to recover after their march. As the Boeotians neared the enemy in their advance, and then, after surmounting some ridges, suddenly caught sight of the Lacedemonians covering the entire plain of Leuctra, they were astounded at beholding the great size of the army.
§ 15.53.3 And when the boeotarchs held a conference to decide whether they ought to remain and fight it out with an army that many times outnumbered them, or whether they should retreat and join battle in a commanding position, it chanced that the votes of the leaders were equal. For of the six boeotarchs, three thought that they should withdraw the army, and three that they should stay and fight it out, and among the latter Epameinondas was numbered. In this great and perplexing deadlock, the boeotarch came to vote, whom Epameinondas persuaded to vote with him, and thus he carried the day. So the decision to stake all on the issue of battle was thus ratified.
§ 15.53.4 But Epameinondas, who saw that the soldiers were superstitious on account of the omens that had occurred, earnestly desired through his own ingenuity and strategy to reverse the scruples of the soldiery. Accordingly, a number of men having recently arrived from Thebes, he persuaded them to say that the weapons at the temple of Heracles had surprisingly disappeared and that word had gone abroad in Thebes that the heroes of old had taken them up and set off to help the Boeotians. He placed before them another man as one who had recently ascended from the cave of Trophonius, who said that the god had directed them, when they won at Leuctra, to institute a contest with crowns for prizes in honour of Zeus the king. This indeed is the origin of this festival which the Boeotians now celebrate at Lebadeia.
§ 15.54.1 An aider and abettor of this device was Leandrias the Spartan, who had been exiled from Lacedemonian and was then a member of the Theban expedition. He was produced in the assembly and declared that there was an ancient saying amongst the Spartans, that they would lose the supremacy when they should be defeated at Leuctra at the hands of the Thebans.
§ 15.54.2 Certain local oracle-mongers likewise came up to Epameinondas, saying that the Lacedemonians were destined to meet with a great disaster by the tomb of the daughters of Leuctrus and Scedasus for the following reasons.
§ 15.54.3 Leuctrus was the person for whom this plain was named. His daughters and those of a certain Scedasus as well, being maidens, were violated by some Lacedemonian ambassadors. The outraged girls, unable to endure their misfortune, called down curses on the country that had sent forth their ravishers and took their lives by their own hands.
§ 15.54.4 Many other such occurrences were reported, and when Epameinondas had convened an assembly and exhorted the soldiers by the appropriate pleas to meet the issue, they all shifted their resolutions, rid themselves of their superstition, and with courage in their hearts stood ready for the battle.
§ 15.54.5 There came also at this time to aid the Thebans an allied contingent from Thessaly, fifteen hundred infantry, and five hundred horsemen, commanded by Jason. He persuaded both the Boeotians and the Lacedemonians to make an armistice and so to guard against the caprices of Fortune.
§ 15.54.6 When the truce came into effect, Cleombrotus set out with his army from Boeotia, and there came to meet him another large army of Lacedemonians and their allies under the command of Archidamus, son of Agesilaus. For the Spartans, seeing the preparedness of the Boeotians, and taking measures to meet their boldness and recklessness in battle, had dispatched the second army to overcome by the superior number of their combatants the daring of the enemy.
§ 15.54.7 Once these armies had united, the Lacedemonians thought it cowardly to fear the valour of the Boeotians. So they disregarded the truce and with high spirits returned to Leuctra. The Boeotians too were ready for the battle and both sides marshalled their forces.
§ 15.55.1 Now on the Lacedemonian side the descendants of Heracles were stationed as commanders of the wings, namely Cleombrotus the king and Archidamus, son of the King Agesilaus, while on the Boeotian side Epameinondas, by employing an unusual disposition of his own, was enabled through his own strategy to achieve his famous victory.
§ 15.55.2 He selected from the entire army the bravest men and stationed them on one wing, intending to fight to the finish with them himself. The weakest he placed on the other wing and instructed them to avoid battle and withdraw gradually during the enemy's attack. So then, by arranging his phalanx in oblique formation, he planned to decide the issue of the battle by means of the wing in which were the elite.
§ 15.55.3 When the trumpets on both sides sounded the charge and the armies simultaneously with the first onset raised the battle-cry, the Lacedemonians attacked both wings with their phalanx in crescent formation, while the Boeotians retreated on one wing, but on the other engaged the enemy in double-quick time.
§ 15.55.4 As they met in hand-to hand combat, at first both fought ardently and the battle was evenly poised; shortly, however, as Epameinondas' men began to derive advantage from their valour and the denseness of their lines, many Peloponnesians began to fall. For they were unable to endure the weight of the courageous fighting of the elite corps; of those who had resisted some fell and others were wounded, taking all the blows in front.
§ 15.55.5 Now as long as King Cleombrotus of the Lacedemonians was alive and had with him many comrades-in arms who were quite ready to die in his defence, it was uncertain which way the scales of victory inclined; but when, though he shrank from no danger, he proved unable to bear down his opponents, and perished in an heroic resistance after sustaining many wounds, then, as masses of men thronged about his body, there was piled up a great mound of corpses.
§ 15.56.1 There being no one in command of the wing, the heavy column led by Epameinondas bore down upon the Lacedemonians, and at first by sheer force caused the line of the enemy to buckle somewhat; then, however, the Lacedemonians, fighting gallantly about their king, got possession of his body, but were not strong enough to achieve victory.
§ 15.56.2 For as the corps of elite outdid them in feats of courage, and the valour and exhortations of Epameinondas contributed greatly to its prowess, the Lacedemonians were with great difficulty forced back; at first, as they gave ground they would not break their formation, but finally, as many fell and the commander who would have rallied them had died, the army turned and fled in utter rout.
§ 15.56.3 Epameinondas' corps pursued the fugitives, slew many who opposed them, and won for themselves a most glorious victory. For since they had met the bravest of the Greeks and with a small force had miraculously overcome many times their number, they won a great reputation for valour. The highest praises were accorded the general Epameinondas, who chiefly by his own courage and by his shrewdness as a commander had defeated in battle the invincible leaders of Greece.
§ 15.56.4 More than four thousand Lacedemonians fell in the battle but only about three hundred Boeotians. Following the battle they made a truce to allow for taking up the bodies of the dead and the departure of the Lacedemonians to the Peloponnese. Such was the outcome of events relating to the battle of Leuctra.
§ 15.57.1 When the year had ended, at Athens Dysnicetus was archon, and in Rome military tribunes with consular power were elected, four in number: Quintus Servilius, Lucius Furius, Gaius Licinius, and Publius Coelius. During their term of office the Thebans, taking the field with a large army against Orchomenus, aimed to reduce the city to slavery, but when Epameinondas advised them that any who aimed at supremacy over the Greeks ought to safeguard by their generous treatment what they had achieved by their valour, they changed their mind. Accordingly they reckoned the people of Orchomenus as belonging to the territory of their allies, and later, having made friends of the Phocians, Aetolians, and Locrians, returned to Boeotia again.
§ 15.57.2 Jason, tyrant of Pherae, whose power was constantly increasing, invaded Locris, first took Heracleia in Trachinia by treachery, laid it waste, and gave the country to the Oetaeans and Malians; then later, moving into Perrhaebia, he won over some of the cities by generous promises, and subdued others by force. As his position of influence speedily became established, the inhabitants of Thessaly looked with suspicion on his aggrandizement and encroachments.
§ 15.57.3 While these things were going on, in the city of Argos civil strife broke out accompanied by slaughter of a greater number than is recorded ever to have occurred anywhere else in Greece. Among the Greeks this revolutionary movement was called "Club-law," receiving this appellation on account of the manner of the execution.
§ 15.58.1 Now the strife arose from the following causes: the city of Argos had a democratic form of government, and certain demagogues instigated the populace against the outstanding citizens of property and reputation. The victims of the hostile charges then got together and decided to overthrow the democracy.
§ 15.58.2 When some of those who were thought to be implicated were subjected to torture, all but one, fearing the agony of torture, committed suicide, but this one came to terms under torture, received a pledge of immunity, and as informer denounced thirty of the most distinguished citizens, and the democracy without a thorough investigation put to death all those who were accused and confiscated their property.
§ 15.58.3 But many others were under suspicion, and as the demagogues supported false accusations, the mob was wrought up to such a pitch of savagery that they condemned to death all the accused, who were many and wealthy. When, however, more than twelve hundred influential men had been removed, the populace did not spare the demagogues themselves.
§ 15.58.4 For because of the magnitude of the calamity the demagogues were afraid that some unforeseen turn of fortune might overtake them and therefore desisted from their accusation, whereas the mob, now thinking that they had been left in the lurch by them, were angry at this and put to death all the demagogues. So these men received the punishment which fitted their crimes as if some divinity were visiting its just resentment upon them, and the people, eased of their mad rage, were restored to their senses.
§ 15.59.1 About the same time, Lycomedes of Tegea prevailed upon the Arcadians to form a single confederacy with a common council to consist of ten thousand men empowered to decide issues of war and peace.
§ 15.59.2 But since civil war broke out in Arcadia on a large scale and the quarrelling factions came to a decision by force of arms, many were killed and more than fourteen hundred fled, some to Sparta, others to Pallantium.
§ 15.59.3 Now these latter refugees were surrendered by the Pallantians and slaughtered by the victorious party, whereas those who took refuge in Sparta prevailed upon the Lacedemonians to invade Arcadia.
§ 15.59.4 Accordingly King Agesilaus with an army and the band of fugitives invaded the territory of the Tegeans, who were believed to have been the cause of the insurrection and the expulsions. By devastation of the countryside and assaults upon the city, he cowed the Arcadians of the opposing party.
§ 15.60.1 While these things were going on, Jason, tyrant of Pherae, because of his superior shrewdness as a general and his success in attracting many of his neighbours into an alliance, prevailed upon the Thessalians to lay claim to the supremacy in Greece; for this was a sort of prize for valour open to those strong enough to contend for it.
§ 15.60.2 Now it happened that the Lacedemonians had sustained a great disaster at Leuctra; that the Athenians laid claim to the mastery of the sea only; that the Thebans were unworthy of first rank; and that the Argives had been brought low by civil wars and internecine slaughter. So the Thessalians put Jason forward as leader of the whole country, and as such gave him supreme command in war. Jason accepted the command, won over some of the tribes near by, and entered into alliance with Amyntas king of the Macedonians.
§ 15.60.3 A peculiar coincidence befell in this year, for three of those in positions of power died about the same time. Amyntas, son of Arrhidaeus, king of Macedonia, died after a rule of twenty-four years, leaving behind him three sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip. The son Alexander succeeded to the throne and ruled for one year.
§ 15.60.4 Likewise Agesipolis, king of the Lacedemonians, died after ruling a year, the kingship going to Cleomenes his brother who succeeded to the throne and had a reign of thirty-four years.
§ 15.60.5 Thirdly, Jason of Pherae, who had been chosen ruler of Thessaly and was reputed to be governing his subjects with moderation, was assassinated, either, as Ephorus writes, by seven young men who conspired together for the repute it would bring, or, as some historians say, by his brother Polydorus.
§ 15.60.6 This Polydorus himself also, after succeeding to the position of leader, ruled for one year. Duris of Samos, the historian, began his History of the Greeks at this point. These then were the events of this year.
§ 15.61.1 When Lysistratus was archon at Athens, civil strife arose among the Romans, one party thinking there should be consuls, others that military tribunes should be chosen. For a time then anarchy supervened on civil strife, later they decided to choose six military tribunes, and those elected were Lucius Aemilius, Gaius Verginius, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius Quintius, Gaius Cornelius, and Gaius Valerius.
§ 15.61.2 During their term of office Polydorus of Pherae the ruler of Thessaly was poisoned by Alexander his nephew, who had challenged him to a drinking bout, and the nephew Alexander succeeded to the rule as overlord and held it for eleven years. Having acquired the rule illegally and by force, he administered it consistently with the policy he had chosen to follow. For while the rulers before him had treated the peoples with moderation and were therefore loved, he was hated for his violent and severe rule.
§ 15.61.3 Accordingly, in fear of his lawlessness, some Larissaeans, called Aleuadae because of their noble descent, conspired together to overthrow the overlordship. Journeying from Larissa to Macedonia, they prevailed upon the King Alexander to join them in overthrowing the tyrant.
§ 15.61.4 But while they were occupied with these matters, Alexander of Pherae, learning of the preparations against him, gathered such men as were conveniently situated for the campaign, intending to give battle in Macedonia. But the Macedonian king, accompanied by refugees from Larissa, anticipated the enemy by invading Larissa with the army, and having been secretly admitted by the Larissaeans within the fortifications, he mastered the city with the exception of the citadel.
§ 15.61.5 Later he took the citadel by siege, and, having also won the city of Crannon, at first covenanted to restore the cities to the Thessalians, but then, in contempt of public opinion, he brought into them garrisons of considerable strength and held the cities himself. Alexander of Pherae, hotly pursued and alarmed at the same time, returned to Pherae. Such was the state of affairs in Thessaly.
§ 15.62.1 In the Peloponnese, the Lacedemonians dispatched Polytropus as general to Arcadia with a thousand citizen hoplites and five hundred Argive and Boeotian refugees. He reached the Arcadian Orchomenus and guarded it closely since it was on friendly terms with Sparta.
§ 15.62.2 Lycomedes of Mantineia, general of the Arcadians, with five thousand men styled the elite, came to Orchomenus. As the Lacedemonians led forth their army from the city a great battle ensued in which the Lacedemonian general was killed and two hundred others, while the rest were driven into the city.
§ 15.62.3 The Arcadians, in spite of their victory, felt a prudent respect for the strength of Sparta and believed that they would not be able by themselves to cope with the Lacedemonians. Accordingly, associating Argives and Eleians with themselves, they first sent envoys to Athens requesting them to join in an alliance against the Spartans, but as no one heeded them, they sent an embassy to the Thebans and persuaded them to join an alliance against the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.62.4 Immediately, then, the Boeotians led out their army, taking some Locrians and Phocians along as allies. Now these men advanced against the Peloponnese under the boeotarchs Epameinondas and Pelopidas, for the other boeotarchs had willingly relinquished the command to these in recognition of their shrewdness in the art of war and their courage.
§ 15.62.5 When they reached Arcadia, the Arcadians, Eleians, Argives, and all the other allies joined them in full force. And when more than fifty thousand had gathered, their leaders sitting in council decided to march upon Sparta itself and lay waste all Laconia.
§ 15.63.1 As for the Lacedemonians, since they had cast away many of their young men in the disaster at Leuctra and in their other defeats had lost not a few, and were, taking all together, restricted by the blows of fortune to but few citizen soldiers, and, furthermore, since some of their allies had seceded and others were experiencing a shortage of men for reasons similar to their own, they sank into a state of great weakness. Hence they were compelled to have recourse to the aid of the Athenians, the very people over whom they had once set up thirty tyrants, whom they had forbidden to rebuild the walls of their city, whose city they had aimed utterly to destroy, and whose territory, Attica, they wished to turn into a sheep-walk.
§ 15.63.2 Yet, after all, nothing is stronger than necessity and fate, which compelled the Lacedemonians to request the aid of their bitterest enemies. Nevertheless they were not disappointed of their hopes. For the Athenian people, magnanimous and generous, were not terrified by the power of Thebes, and voted to aid with all their forces the Lacedemonians now that they were in danger of enslavement. Immediately they appointed Iphicrates general and dispatched him with twelve thousand young men the self-same day. Iphicrates, then, whose men were in high spirits, advanced with the army at top speed.
§ 15.63.3 Meanwhile the Lacedemonians, as the enemy took up quarters on the borders of Laconia, issued in full force from Sparta and marched on to meet them, weakened in military force but strong in inward courage.
§ 15.63.4 Now Epameinondas and the others, perceiving that the country of the Lacedemonians was difficult to invade, thought it not to their advantage to make the invasion with such a large force in a body, and so decided to divide their army into four columns and enter at several points.
§ 15.64.1 Now the first, composed of the Boeotians, took the middle route to the city known as Sellasia and caused its inhabitants to revolt from the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.64.2 The Argives, entering by the borders of Tegeatis, engaged in battle the garrison set to guard the pass, slew its leader Alexander the Spartan and about two hundred of the rest, amongst whom were the Boeotian refugees.
§ 15.64.3 The third contingent, composed of the Arcadians and containing the largest number, invaded the district called Sciritis, which had a large garrison under Ischolas, a man of conspicuous valour and shrewdness. Himself one of the most distinguished soldiers, he accomplished an heroic and memorable deed.
§ 15.64.4 For, seeing that, because of the overwhelming number of the enemy, all who joined battle with them would be killed, he decided that while it was not in keeping with Spartan dignity to abandon his post in the pass, yet it would be useful to his country to preserve the men. He therefore in an amazing manner provided for both objects and emulated the courageous exploit of King Leonidas at Thermopylae.
§ 15.64.5 For he picked out the young men and sent them back to Sparta to be of service to her in her hour of deadly peril. He himself, keeping his post with the older men, slew many of the enemy, but finally, encircled by the Arcadians, perished with all his corps.
§ 15.64.6 The Eleians, who formed the fourth contingent, marching by other unguarded regions, reached Sellasia, for this was the locality designated to all as the rendezvous. When all the army had gathered in Sellasia, they advanced upon Sparta itself, sacking and burning the countryside.
§ 15.65.1 Now the Lacedemonians, who for five hundred years had preserved Laconia undevastated, could not then bear to see it being sacked by the enemy, but hot-headedly were ready to rush forth from the city; but being restrained by the elders from advancing too far from their native land, lest some one attack it, they were finally prevailed upon to wait quietly and keep the city safe.
§ 15.65.2 Now Epameinondas descended through the Taygetus into the Eurotas valley and was engaged in crossing the river, whose current was swift since it was the winter season, when the Lacedemonians, seeing their opponents' army thrown into confusion by the difficulty of the crossing, seized the opportunity favourable for attack. Leaving the women, children, and the old men as well in the city to guard Sparta, they marshalled in full force the men of military age, streamed forth against the enemy, fell upon them suddenly as they crossed, and wrought heavy slaughter.
§ 15.65.3 But as the Boeotians and Arcadians fought back and began to encircle the enemy with their superior numbers, the Spartans, having slain many, withdrew to the city, for they had clearly displayed their own courage.
§ 15.65.4 Following this, as Epameinondas in full force made a formidable assault on the city, the Spartans with the aid of their strong natural defences slew many of those who pressed rashly forward, but finally the besiegers applied great pressure and thought at first they had overcome Sparta by force; but as those who tried to force their way were some slain, some wounded, Epameinondas recalled the soldiers with the trumpet, but the men of their own accord would approach the city, and would challenge the Spartans to a pitched battle, bidding them otherwise admit their inferiority to the enemy.
§ 15.65.5 When the Spartans replied to the effect that when they found a suitable occasion they would stake everything on one battle, they departed from the city. And when they had devastated all Laconia and amassed countless spoils, they withdrew to Arcadia.
§ 15.65.6 Thereupon the Athenians, who had arrived on the scene too late for action, returned to Attica without accomplishing anything of note; but others of their allies, to the number of four thousand men, came to reinforce the Lacedemonians. Besides these they attached to their numbers the Helots who had been newly emancipated, a thousand, and two hundred of the Boeotian fugitives, and summoned no small number from the neighbouring cities, so that they created an army comparable to that of the enemy. As they maintained these in one body and trained them, they gained more and more confidence and made themselves ready for the decisive contest.
§ 15.66.1 Now Epameinondas, whose nature it was to aim at great enterprises and to crave everlasting fame, counselled the Arcadians and his other allies to resettle Messene, which for many years had remained stripped of its inhabitants by the Lacedemonians, for it occupied a position well suited for operations against Sparta. When they all concurred, he sought out the remnants of the Messenians, and registering as citizens any others who so wished he founded Messene again, making it a populous city. Among them he divided the land, and reconstructing its buildings restored a notable Greek city and gained the widespread approbation of all men.
§ 15.66.2 Here I think it not unsuitable, since Messene has so often been captured and razed, to recapitulate its history from the beginning. In ancient times the line of Neleus and Nestor held it down to Trojan times; then Orestes, Agamemnon's son, and his descendants down to the return of the Heracleidae; following which Cresphontes received Messene as his portion and his line ruled it for a time; but later when Cresphontes' descendants had lost the kingship, the Lacedemonians became masters of it.
§ 15.66.3 After this, at the death of the Lacedemonian king Teleclus, the Messenians were defeated in a war by the Lacedemonians. This war is said to have lasted twenty years, for the Lacedemonians had taken an oath not to return to Sparta unless they should have captured Messene. Then it was that the children called partheniae were born and founded the city of Tarentum. Later, however, while the Messenians were in slavery to the Lacedemonians, Aristomenes persuaded the Messenians to revolt from the Spartans, and he inflicted many defeats upon the Spartans at the time when the poet Tyrtaeus was given by the Athenians as a leader to Sparta.
§ 15.66.4 Some say that Aristomenes lived during the twenty-year war. The last war between them was on the occasion of a great earthquake; practically all Sparta was destroyed and left bare of men, and the remnants of the Messenians settled Ithome with the aid of the Helots who joined the revolt, after Messene had for a long time been desolate.
§ 15.66.5 But when they were unsuccessful in all their wars and were finally driven from their homes, they settled in Naupactus, a city which the Athenians had given them for an abode. Furthermore some of their number were exiled to Cephallenia, while others settled in Messana in Sicily, which was named after them.
§ 15.66.6 Finally at the time under discussion the Thebans, at the instigation of Epameinondas, who gathered together the Messenians from all quarters, settled Messene and restored their ancient land to them. Such then were the many important vicissitudes of Messenian history.
§ 15.67.1 The Thebans, having accomplished in eighty-five days all that is narrated above, and having left a considerable garrison for Messene, returned to their own land. The Lacedemonians, who had unexpectedly got rid of their enemies, sent to Athens a commission of the most distinguished Spartans, and came to an agreement over the supremacy: the Athenians should be masters of the sea, the Lacedemonians of the land; but after this in both cities they set up a joint command.
§ 15.67.2 The Arcadians now appointed Lycomedes their general, gave him the corps they called their elite, five thousand in number, and took the field against Pellene in Laconia. Having taken the city by force, they slew the Lacedemonians who had been left behind there as a garrison, over three hundred men, enslaved the city, devastated the countryside, and returned home before assistance came from the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.67.3 The Boeotians, summoned by the Thessalians to liberate their cities and to overthrow the tyranny of Alexander of Pherae, dispatched Pelopidas with an army to Thessaly, after giving him instructions to arrange Thessalian affairs in the interests of the Boeotians.
§ 15.67.4 Having arrived in Larissa and found the acropolis garrisoned by Alexander of Macedon, he obtained its surrender. Then proceeding into Macedon, where he made an alliance with Alexander the Macedonian king, he took from him as a hostage his brother Philip, whom he sent to Thebes. When he had settled Thessalian affairs as he thought fit in the interest of the Boeotians, he returned home.
§ 15.68.1 After these events, Arcadians, Argives, and Eleians, making common cause, decided to take the field against the Lacedemonians, and having sent a commission to the Boeotians prevailed on them to join in the war. They appointed Epameinondas commander along with other boeotarchs and dispatched seven thousand foot and six hundred horse. The Athenians, hearing that the Boeotian army was about to pass into the Peloponnese, dispatched an army and Chabrias as general against them.
§ 15.68.2 He arrived in Corinth, added to his number Megarians, Pellenians, and also Corinthians, and so gathered a force of ten thousand men. Later, when the Lacedemonians and other allies arrived at Corinth, there were assembled no less than twenty thousand men all told.
§ 15.68.3 They decided to fortify the approaches and prevent the Boeotians from invading the Peloponnese. From Cenchreae to Lechaeum they fenced off the area with palisades and deep trenches, and since the task was quickly completed owing to the large number of men and their enthusiasm, they had every spot fortified before the Boeotians arrived.
§ 15.68.4 Epameinondas came with his army, inspected the fortifications, and, perceiving that there was a spot very easy of access where the Lacedemonians were on guard, first challenged the army to come forth to a pitched battle, though they were almost three times his number, then when not a man dared to advance beyond the fortified line, but all remained on the defensive in their palisaded camp, he launched a violent attack upon them.
§ 15.68.5 Accordingly, throughout the whole area heavy assaults were made, but particularly against the Lacedemonians, for their terrain was easily assailed and difficult to defend. Great rivalry arose between the two armies, and Epameinondas, who had with him the bravest of the Thebans, with great effort forced back the Lacedemonians, and, cutting through their defence and bringing his army through, passed into the Peloponnese, thereby accomplishing a feat no whit inferior to his former mighty deeds.
§ 15.69.1 Having proceeded straightway to Troezen and Epidaurus, he ravaged the countryside but could not seize the cities, for they had garrisons of considerable strength, yet Sicyon, Phlius, and certain other cities he so intimidated as to bring them over to his side. When he invaded Corinth, and the Corinthians sallied forth to meet him, he defeated them in battle, and drove them all back inside their walls, but when the Boeotians were so elated by their successes that some of them rashly ventured to force their way through the gates into the city, the Corinthians, frightened, took refuge in their houses, but Chabrias the Athenian general made an intelligent and determined resistance, and succeeded in driving the Boeotians out of the city, having also struck down many of them.
§ 15.69.2 In the rivalry which followed, the Boeotians gathered all their army in line of battle and directed a formidable blow at Corinth; but Chabrias with the Athenians advanced out of the city, took his station on superior terrain and withstood the attack of the enemy.
§ 15.69.3 The Boeotians, however, relying upon the hardihood of their bodies and their experience in continuous warfare, expected to worst the Athenians by sheer might, but Chabrias' corps, having the advantage of superior ground in the struggle and of abundant supplies from the city, slew some of the attackers and severely wounded others.
§ 15.69.4 The Boeotians, having suffered many losses and being unable to accomplish anything, beat a retreat. So Chabrias won great admiration for his courage and shrewdness as a general and got rid of the enemy in this fashion.
§ 15.70.1 From Sicily, Celts and Iberians to the number of two thousand sailed to Corinth, for they had been sent by the tyrant Dionysius to fight in an alliance with the Lacedemonians, and had received pay for five months. The Greeks, in order to make trial of them, led them forth; and they proved their worth in hand-to hand fighting and in battles and many both of the Boeotians and of their allies were slain by them. Accordingly, having won repute for superior dexterity and courage and rendered many kinds of service, they were given awards by the Lacedemonians and sent back home at the close of the summer to Sicily.
§ 15.70.2 Following this, Philiscus, who was sent on this mission by King Artaxerxes, sailed to Greece to urge the Greeks to compose their strife and agree to a general peace. All but the Thebans responded willingly; they, however, adhering to their own design, had brought all Boeotia into one confederation and were excluded from the agreement. Since the general peace was not adhered to, Philiscus left two thousand picked mercenaries, paid in advance, for the Lacedemonians and then returned to Asia.
§ 15.70.3 While these things were going on, Euphron of Sicyon, a particularly rash and crack-brained individual, with accomplices from Argos attempted to set up a tyranny. Succeeding in his plan, he sent forty of the wealthiest Sicyonians into exile, first confiscating their property, and, when he had secured large sums thereby, he collected a mercenary force and became lord of the city.
§ 15.71.1 When Nausigenes was archon at Athens, in Rome four military tribunes with consular power were elected, Lucius Papirius, Lucius Menenius, Servius Cornelius, and Servius Sulpicius; and the Eleians celebrated the hundred and third Olympiad, in which Pythostratus the Athenian won the stadium race. During their term of office Ptolemy of Alorus, son of Amyntas, assassinated Alexander, his brother-in law, and was king of Macedon for three years.
§ 15.71.2 In Boeotia Pelopidas, whose military reputation rivalled that of Epameinondas, saw that the latter had arranged the Peloponnesian affairs to the advantage of the Boeotians, and was eager to be the instrument whereby districts outside of the Peloponnese were won for the Thebans. Taking along with him as his associate Ismenias, a friend of his, and a man who was admired for his valour, he entered Thessaly. There he met Alexander, the tyrant of Pherae, but was suddenly arrested with Ismenias, and placed under guard.
§ 15.71.3 The Thebans, incensed at what had been done, dispatched with all speed eight thousand hoplites and six hundred cavalry into Thessaly, so frightening Alexander that he dispatched ambassadors to Athens for an alliance. The Athenian people immediately sent him thirty ships and a thousand men under the command of Autocles.
§ 15.71.4 While Autocles was making the circuit of Euboea, the Thebans entered Thessaly. Though Alexander had gathered his infantry and had many times more horsemen than the Boeotians, at first the Boeotians decided to settle the war by battle, for they had the Thessalians as supporters; but when the latter left them in the lurch and the Athenians and some other allies joined Alexander, and they found their provisions of food and drink and all their other supplies giving out, the boeotarchs decided to return home.
§ 15.71.5 When they had broken camp and were proceeding through level country, Alexander trailed them with a large body of cavalry and attacked their rear. A number of Boeotians perished under the continuous rain of darts, others fell wounded, until finally, being permitted neither to halt nor to proceed, they were reduced to utter helplessness, as was natural when they were also running short of provisions.
§ 15.71.6 When they had now abandoned hope, Epameinondas, who was at that time serving as a private soldier, was appointed general by the men. Quickly selecting the light-armed men and cavalry, he took them with him, and, posting himself in the rear, with their aid checked the enemy pursuers and provided complete security for the heavy-armed men in the front ranks; and by wheeling about and offering battle and using masterly formations he saved the army.
§ 15.71.7 By these repeated successes he more and more enhanced his own reputation and won the warm approbation of both his fellow citizens and allies. But the Thebans brought judgement against the boeotarchs of the day and punished them with a heavy fine.
§ 15.72.1 When the reason is asked why a man of such parts was serving as a private soldier in the expedition that was sent to Thessaly, we must give his own plea in defence. In the battle at Corinth Epameinondas, having cut through the guard of the Lacedemonians on the outwork, though he might have slain many of the enemy, was satisfied with his advantage and desisted from further combat.
§ 15.72.2 A serious suspicion arose that he had spared the Lacedemonians as a personal favour, and those who were jealous of his fame found an opportunity for plausible charges against him. They accordingly brought a charge of treason against him, and the populace, incensed, removed him from the board of boeotarchs, made him a private soldier, and sent him out with the rest. When he had by his achievements wiped out the feeling against him, the people then restored him to his former position of high repute.
§ 15.72.3 Shortly after this the Lacedemonians fought a great battle with the Arcadians and defeated them signally. Indeed since the defeat at Leuctra this was their first stroke of good fortune, and it was a surprising one; for over ten thousand Arcadians fell and not one Lacedemonian. The priestesses of Dodona had foretold to them that this war would be a tearless one for the Lacedemonians.
§ 15.72.4 After this battle the Arcadians, fearful of the invasions of the Lacedemonians, founded in a favourable location the city called Great, Megalopolis, by combining to form it twenty villages of the Arcadians known as Maenalians and Parrhasians. Such were the events in Greece at this time.
§ 15.73.1 In Sicily, Dionysius the tyrant having large armies, and perceiving that the Carthaginians were in no condition for war because of the plague which had raged in their midst and the defection of the Libyans, decided to take the field against them. Not having a reasonable excuse for strife, he alleged that the Phoenicians in the empire of Carthage had violated the territory subject to him.
§ 15.73.2 He therefore got ready an armament of thirty thousand foot, three thousand horse, three hundred triremes and the supply train appropriate for that force, and invaded Carthaginian territory in Sicily. He immediately won Selinus and Entella, lay waste the whole countryside, and, having captured the city of Eryx, besieged Lilybaeum, but there were so many soldiers in the place that he abandoned the siege.
§ 15.73.3 Hearing that the Carthaginians' dockyards had been burned and thinking that their whole fleet had been destroyed, he conceived a contempt for them and dispatched only one hundred thirty of his best triremes to the harbour of Eryx, sending all the rest back to Syracuse.
§ 15.73.4 But the Carthaginians, having unexpectedly manned two hundred ships, sailed against the fleet at anchor in the harbour of Eryx, and, as the attack was unforeseen, they made off with most of the triremes. Later when winter had set in, the two states agreed to an armistice and separated, each going to its own cities.
§ 15.73.5 A little later Dionysius fell sick and died, after ruling as overlord for thirty-eight years. His son Dionysius succeeded and ruled as tyrant twelve years.
§ 15.74.1 It is not out of keeping with the present narrative to recount the cause of his death and the events which befell this dynast toward the end of his life. Now Dionysius had produced a tragedy at the Lenaea at Athens and had won the victory, and one of those who sang in the chorus, supposing he would be rewarded handsomely if he were the first to give news of the victory, set sail to Corinth. There, finding a ship bound for Sicily, he transferred to it, and obtaining favouring winds, speedily landed at Syracuse and gave the tyrant news of the victory.
§ 15.74.2 Dionysius did reward him, and was himself so overjoyed that he sacrificed to the gods for the good tidings and instituted a drinking bout and great feasts. As he entertained his friends lavishly and during the bout applied himself overzealously to drink, he fell violently ill from the quantity of liquor he had consumed.
§ 15.74.3 Now he had an oracle the gods had given him that he should die when he had conquered "his betters," but he interpreted the oracle as referring to the Carthaginians, assuming that these were "his betters." So in the wars that he had many times waged against them he was accustomed to withdraw in the hour of victory and accept defeat willingly, in order that he might not appear to have proved himself "better" than the stronger foe.
§ 15.74.4 For all that, however, he could not in the end by his chicanery outwit the destiny Fate had in store for him; on the contrary, though a wretched poet and though judged on this occasion in a competition at Athens, he defeated "better" poets than himself. So in verbal consistency with the decree of the oracle he met his death as a direct consequence of defeating "his betters."
§ 15.74.5 Dionysius the younger on his succession to the tyranny first gathered the populace in an assembly and urged them in appropriate words to maintain toward him the loyalty that passed to him with the heritage that he had received from his father; then, having buried his father with magnificent obsequies in the citadel by the gates called royal, he made secure for himself the administration of the government.
§ 15.75.1 When Polyzelus was archon at Athens, anarchy prevailed at Rome because of civil dissensions, and in Greece, Alexander, tyrant of Pherae in Thessaly, having lodged accusations about certain matters against the city of Scotussa, summoned its citizens to an assembly and, having surrounded them with mercenaries, slew them all, cast the bodies of the dead into the ditch in front of the walls, and plundered the city from end to end.
§ 15.75.2 Epameinondas, the Theban, entered the Peloponnese with an army, won over the Achaeans and some cities besides, and liberated Dyme, Naupactus, and Calydon, which were held by a garrison of the Achaeans. The Boeotians invaded Thessaly also and released Pelopidas from the custody of Alexander, tyrant of Pherae.
§ 15.75.3 And to the Phliasians upon whom the Argives were waging war, Chares brought assistance, having been sent with an army under his command by the Athenians; he defeated the Argives in two battles, and after securing the position of the Phliasians, returned to Athens.
§ 15.76.1 When the year ended, Cephisodorus was archon at Athens, and at Rome the people elected four military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Furius, Paulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, and Servius Cornelius. During their term of office, Themison, tyrant of Eretria, seized Oropus. But this city, which belonged to Athens, he quite unexpectedly lost; for when the Athenians took the field against him with far superior forces, the Thebans, who had come to aid him and had taken over from him the city for safekeeping, did not give it back.
§ 15.76.2 While these things were going on, the Coans transferred their abode to the city they now inhabit and made it a notable place; for a large population was gathered into it, and costly walls and a considerable harbour were constructed. From this time on its public revenues and private wealth constantly increased, so much so that it became in a word a rival of the leading cities of Greece.
§ 15.76.3 While these things were going on, the Persian King sent envoys and succeeded in persuading the Greeks to settle their wars and make a general peace with one another. Accordingly the war called Sparto-Boeotian was settled after lasting more than five years counting from the campaign of Leuctra.
§ 15.76.4 In this period there were men memorable for their culture, Isocrates the orator and those who became his pupils, Aristotle the philosopher, and besides these Anaximenes of Lampsacus, Plato of Athens, the last of the Pythagorean philosophers, and Xenophon who composed his histories in extreme old age, for he mentions the death of Epameinondas which occurred a few years later. Then there were Aristippus and Antisthenes, and Aeschines of Sphettus, the Socratic.
§ 15.77.1 When Chion was archon at Athens, at Rome military tribunes with consular power were elected, Quintus Servilius, Gaius Veturius, Aulus Cornelius, Marcus Cornelius, and Marcus Fabius. During their term of office, though peace prevailed throughout Greece, clouds of war again gathered in certain cities and strange new outbreaks of revolution. For instance, the Arcadian exiles, setting out from Elis, occupied a stronghold known as Lasion of the country called Triphylia.
§ 15.77.2 For many years Arcadia and Elis had been disputing the possession of Triphylia, and according as the ascendancy shifted from one country to the other, they had alternately been masters of the district; but at the period in question, though the Arcadians were ruling Triphylia, the Eleians, making the refugees a pretext, took it from the Arcadians.
§ 15.77.3 As a result the Arcadians were incensed and at first dispatched envoys demanding a return of the district; but when no one paid any attention to them, they summoned an allied force from the Athenians and with it attacked Lasion. The Eleians coming to the rescue of the refugees, a battle ensued near Lasion in which, being many times outnumbered by the Arcadians, the Eleians were defeated and lost over two hundred men.
§ 15.77.4 When the war had started in this way, it came to pass that the disagreement between Arcadians and Eleians widened in scope, for immediately the Arcadians, elated by their success, invaded Elis and took the cities of Margana and Cronion, and Cyparissia and Coryphasium.
§ 15.77.5 While these things were going on, in Macedon Ptolemy of Alorus was assassinated by his brother-in law Perdiccas after ruling three years; and Perdiccas succeeded to the throne and ruled Macedon for five years.
§ 15.78.1 When Timocrates was archon at Athens, in Rome three military tribunes with consular power were elected, Titus Quinctius, Servius Cornelius, and Servius Sulpicius; and the hundred and fourth Olympiad was celebrated by the Pisans and Arcadians, in which Phocides, an Athenian, won the stadium race.
§ 15.78.2 During their term of office the Pisans, renewing the ancient prestige of their country and resorting to mythical, antiquarian proofs, asserted that the honour of holding the Olympian festival was their prerogative. And judging that they had now a suitable occasion for claiming the games, they formed an alliance with the Arcadians, who were enemies of the Eleians. With them as supporters they took the field against the Eleians who were in the act of holding the games.
§ 15.78.3 The Eleians resisted with all their forces and a stubborn battle took place, having as spectators the Greeks who were present for the festival wearing wreaths on their heads and calmly applauding the deeds of valour on both sides, themselves out of reach of danger. Finally the Pisans won the day and held the games, but the Eleians later failed to record this Olympiad because they considered that it had been conducted by force and contrary to justice.
§ 15.78.4 While these things were going on, Epameinondas the Theban, who enjoyed the highest standing amongst his fellow countrymen, harangued his fellow citizens at a meeting of the assembly, urging them to strive for the supremacy on the sea. In the course of the speech, which was the result of long consideration, he pointed out that this attempt was both expedient and possible, alleging in particular that it was easy for those who possessed supremacy on land to acquire the mastery of the sea. The Athenians, for instance, in the war with Xerxes, who had two hundred ships manned by themselves, were subject to the commands of the Lacedemonians who provided only ten ships. By this and many other arguments suited to his theme he prevailed upon the Thebans to make a bid for the mastery at sea.
§ 15.79.1 Accordingly the people immediately voted to construct a hundred triremes and dockyards to accommodate their number, and to urge the peoples of Rhodes, Chios, and Byzantium to assist their schemes. Epameinondas himself, who had been dispatched with a force to the aforementioned cities, so overawed Laches, the Athenian general, who had a large fleet and had been sent out to circumvent the Thebans, that he forced him to sail away and made the cities friendly to Thebes.
§ 15.79.2 Indeed if this man had lived on longer, the Thebans admittedly would have secured the mastery at sea in addition to their supremacy on land; when, however, a little while later, after winning a most glorious victory for his country in the battle of Mantineia, he died a hero's death, straightway the power of Thebes died with him. But this subject we shall set forth accurately in detail a little later.
§ 15.79.3 At that time the Thebans decided to take the field against Orchomenus for the following reasons. Certain refugees who wanted to change the constitution of Thebes to an aristocracy induced the knights of Orchomenus, three hundred in all, to join them in the attempt.
§ 15.79.4 These knights, who were in the habit of meeting with some Thebans on a stated day for a review under arms, agreed to make the attack on this day, and along with many others who joined the movement and added their efforts, they met at the appointed time.
§ 15.79.5 Now the men who had originated the action changed their minds, and disclosed to the Boeotarchs the projected attack, thus betraying their fellow conspirators, and by this service they purchased safety for themselves. The officials arrested the knights from Orchomenus and brought them before the assembly, where the people voted to execute them, to sell the inhabitants of Orchomenus into slavery, and to raze the city. For from earliest times the Thebans had been ill-disposed towards them, having paid tribute to the Minyae in the heroic age, but later they had been liberated by the Heracles.
§ 15.79.6 So the Thebans, thinking they had a good opportunity and having got plausible pretexts for punishing them, took the field against Orchomenus, occupied the city, slew the male inhabitants and sold into slavery the women and children.
§ 15.80.1 About this time the Thessalians, who continued the war upon Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, and, suffering defeat in most of the battles, had lost large numbers of their fighting men, sent ambassadors to the Thebans with a request to assist them and to dispatch to them Pelopidas as general. For they knew that on account of his arrest by Alexander he was on very bad terms with the ruler, and besides, that he was a man of superior courage and widely renowned for his shrewdness in the art of war.
§ 15.80.2 When the common council of the Boeotians convened and the envoys had explained the matters on which they had been instructed, the Boeotians concurred with the Thessalians on every matter, gave Pelopidas seven thousand men and ordered him speedily to assist as requested; but as Pelopidas was hastening to leave with his army, the sun, as it happened, was eclipsed.
§ 15.80.3 Many were superstitious about the phenomenon, and some of the soothsayers declared that because of the withdrawal of the soldiers, the city's "sun" had been eclipsed. Although in this interpretation they were foretelling the death of Pelopidas, he notwithstanding set out for the campaign, drawn on by Fate.
§ 15.80.4 When he arrived in Thessaly, and found that Alexander had forestalled him by occupying the commanding positions and had more than twenty thousand men, he encamped opposite the enemy, and, strengthening his forces with allied troops from among the Thessalians, joined battle with his opponents.
§ 15.80.5 Although Alexander had the advantage by reason of his superior position, Pelopidas, eager to settle the battle by his own courage, charged Alexander himself. The ruler with a corps of picked men resisted, and a stubborn battle ensued, in the course of which Pelopidas, performing mighty deeds of valour, strewed all the ground about him with dead men, and though he brought the contest to a close, routed the enemy and won the victory, he yet lost his own life, suffering many wounds and heroically forfeiting his life.
§ 15.80.6 But Alexander, after being worsted in a second battle and utterly crushed, was compelled by agreement to restore to the Thessalians the cities he had reduced, to surrender the Magnesians and the Phthiotian Achaeans to the Boeotians, and for the future to be the ruler over Pherae alone as an ally of the Boeotians.
§ 15.81.1 Although the Thebans had won a famous victory, they declared to the world that they were the losers because of the death of Pelopidas. For having lost such a remarkable man, they rightly judged the victory of less account than the fame of Pelopidas. Indeed he had done many great services to his country and had contributed more than any other man to the rise of Thebes. For in the matter of the return of the refugees, whereby he recaptured the Cadmeia, all men agree in attributing to him the principal credit for its success. And it turned out that this piece of good fortune was the cause of all the subsequent happy events.
§ 15.81.2 In the battle by Tegyra, Pelopidas alone of the boeotarchs won victory over the Lacedemonians. In the battle of Leuctra he commanded the Sacred Band, with which he charged the Spartans first and thus was the primary cause of the victory. In the campaigns about Lacedemon, he commanded seventy thousand men, and in the very territory of Sparta erected a trophy of victory over the Lacedemonians, who never in all previous time had seen their land plundered.
§ 15.81.3 As ambassador to the Persian King he took Messene under his personal charge in the general settlement, and though for three hundred years it had been stripped of inhabitants, the Thebans established it again. At the end of his life, in the contest with Alexander who had an army far outnumbering his, he not only gained a glorious victory, but also met his death with a courage that made it renowned.
§ 15.81.4 In his relations with his fellow citizens he was so favourably treated that from the return of the exiles to Thebes until his death he continued every year to hold the office of boeotarch, an honour accorded to no other citizen. So let Pelopidas, whose personal merits received the approbation of all, receive from us too the approbation of History.
§ 15.81.5 At the same time, Clearchus, who was a native of Heracleia on the Black Sea, set out to win a tyranny, and when he had achieved his purpose, he emulated the methods of Dionysius tyrant of Syracuse, and after becoming tyrant of Heracleia ruled with conspicuous success for twelve years.
§ 15.81.6 While these things were going on Timotheus, the Athenian general, commanding a force of both infantry and ships, besieged and took Torone and Potidaea, and brought relief to Cyzicus, which was undergoing a siege.
§ 15.82.1 When this year had ended, at Athens Charicleides became archon, and in Rome consuls were elected, Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Lucius Sextius Lateranus. During their term of office the Arcadians collaborating with the Pisans administered the Olympian games, and were masters of the temple and the offerings deposited in it. Since the Mantineians had appropriated for their own private uses a large number of the dedications, they were eager as transgressors for the war against the Eleians to continue, in order to avoid, if peace were restored, giving an account of their expenditures.
§ 15.82.2 But since the rest of the Arcadians wished to make peace, they stirred up strife against their fellow countrymen. Two parties accordingly sprang up, one headed by Tegea, and the other by Mantineia.
§ 15.82.3 Their quarrel assumed such proportions that they resorted to a decision by arms, and the Tegeans, having sent ambassadors to the Boeotians, won assistance for themselves, for the Boeotians appointed Epameinondas general, gave him a large army, and dispatched him to aid the Tegeans.
§ 15.82.4 The Mantineians, terrified at the army from Boeotia and the reputation of Epameinondas, sent envoys to the bitterest enemies of the Boeotians, the Athenians and the Lacedemonians, and prevailed upon them to fight on their side. And when both peoples had quickly sent in response strong armies, many heavy engagements took place in the Peloponnese.
§ 15.82.5 Indeed the Lacedemonians, living near at hand, immediately invaded Arcadia, but Epameinondas, advancing at this juncture with his army and being not far from Mantineia, learned from the inhabitants that the Lacedemonians, in full force, were plundering the territory of Tegea.
§ 15.82.6 Supposing then that Sparta was stripped of soldiers, he planned a great stroke, but fortune worked against him. He himself set out by night to Sparta, but the Lacedemonian king Agis, suspecting the cunning of Epameinondas, shrewdly guessed what he would do, and sent out some Cretan runners and through them forestalling Epameinondas got word to the men who had been left behind in Sparta that the Boeotians would shortly appear in Lacedemon to sack the city, but that he himself would come as quickly as possible with his army to bring aid to his native land. So he gave orders for those who were in Sparta to watch over the city and be terrified at nothing, for he himself would soon appear with help.
§ 15.83.1 The Cretans speedily carried out their orders, and the Lacedemonians miraculously avoided the capture of their native land; for had not the attack been disclosed in advance, Epameinondas would have burst into Sparta undetected. We can justly praise the ingenuity of both generals, but should deem the strategy of the Laconian the shrewder.
§ 15.83.2 It is true that Epameinondas, without resting the entire night, covered the distance at top speed and at daybreak attacked Sparta. But Agesilaus, who had been left on guard and had learned only shortly before from the Cretans all about the enemy's plan, straightway devoted his utmost energy to the care of the city's defence.
§ 15.83.3 He placed the oldest children and the aged on the roofs of the houses and instructed them from there to defend themselves against the enemy if he forced a way into the city, while he himself lined up the men in the prime of life and apportioned them to the obstacles in front of the city and to the approaches, and, having blocked all places that could offer passage, he awaited the attack of the enemy.
§ 15.83.4 Epameinondas, after dividing his soldiers into several columns, attacked everywhere at once, but when he saw the disposition of the Spartans, he knew immediately that his move had been revealed. Nevertheless he made the assault on all the positions one after the other, and, though he was at a disadvantage because of the obstacles, closed in a hand-to hand combat.
§ 15.83.5 Many a blow he received and dealt and did not call off the zealous rivalry until the army of the Lacedemonians re-entered Sparta. Then as many came to the assistance of the besieged and night intervened, he desisted from the siege.
§ 15.84.1 Having learned from his captives that the Mantineians had come in full force to assist the Lacedemonians, Epameinondas then withdrew a short distance from the city and encamped, and having given orders to prepare mess, he left some of the horsemen and ordered them to burn fires in the camp until the morning watch, while he himself set out with his army and hurried to fall suddenly on those who had been left in Mantineia.
§ 15.84.2 Having covered much ground on the next day, he suddenly broke in on the Mantineians when they were not expecting it. However, he did not succeed in his attempt, although by his plan of campaign he had provided for every contingency, but, finding Fate opposed to him, contrary to his expectations he lost the victory. For just as he was approaching the unprotected city, one opposite side of Mantineia there arrived the reinforcements sent by Athens, six thousand in number with Hegesileos their general, a man at that time renowned amongst his fellow citizens. He introduced an adequate force into the city and arrayed the rest of the army in expectation of a decisive battle.
§ 15.84.3 And presently the Lacedemonians and Mantineians made their appearance as well, whereat all got ready for the contest which was to decide the issue and summoned their allies from every direction.
§ 15.84.4 On the side of the Mantineians were the Eleians, Lacedemonians, Athenians, and a few others, who numbered all told more than twenty thousand foot and about two thousand horse. On the side of the Tegeans the most numerous and bravest of the Arcadians were ranged as allies, also Achaeans, Boeotians, Argives, some other Peloponnesians, and allies from outside, and all in all there were assembled above thirty thousand foot and not less than three thousand horse.
§ 15.85.1 Both sides eagerly drew together for the decisive conflict, their armies in battle formation, while the soothsayers, having sacrificed on both sides, declared that victory was foreshadowed by the gods.
§ 15.85.2 In the disposition of forces the Mantineians with the rest of the Arcadians occupied the right wing with the Lacedemonians as their neighbours and supporters, and next to these were Eleians and Achaeans; and the weaker of the remaining forces occupied the centre, while the Athenians filled the left. The Thebans themselves had their post on the left wing, supported by the Arcadians, while they entrusted the right to the Argives. The remaining multitude filled the middle of the line: Euboeans, Locrians, Sicyonians, Messenians, Malians, Aenianians, together with Thessalians and the remaining allies. Both sides divided the cavalry and placed contingents on each wing.
§ 15.85.3 Such was the array of the armaments, and now as they approached one another, the trumpets sounded the battle charge, the armies raised the battle shout, and by the very volume of their cries betokened their victory.
§ 15.85.4 Now as the Athenian horse attacked the Theban they suffered defeat not so much because of the quality of their mounts nor yet on the score of the riders' courage or experience in horsemanship, for in none of these departments was the Athenian cavalry deficient; but it was in the numbers and equipment of the light-armed troops and in their tactical skill that they were far inferior to their opponents. Indeed they had only a few javelin-throwers, whereas the Thebans had three times as many slingers and javelin-throwers sent them from the regions about Thessaly.
§ 15.85.5 These people practised from boyhood assiduously this type of fighting and consequently were wont to exercise great weight in battles because of their experience in handling these missiles. Consequently the Athenians, who were continually being wounded by the light-armed and were harried to exhaustion by the opponents who confronted them, all turned and fled.
§ 15.85.6 But having fled beyond the flanks, they managed to retrieve their defeat, for even in their retreat they did not break their own phalanx, and encountering simultaneously the Euboeans and certain mercenaries who had been dispatched to seize the heights near by, they gave battle and slew them all.
§ 15.85.7 Now the Theban horse did not follow up the fugitives, but, assailing the phalanx opposing them, strove zealously to outflank the infantry. The battle was a hot one; the Athenians were exhausted and had turned to flee, when the Eleian cavalry-commander, assigned to the rear, came to the aid of the fugitives and, by striking down many Boeotians, reversed the course of the battle.
§ 15.85.8 So while the Eleian cavalry by their appearance in this fashion on the left wing retrieved the defeat their allies had sustained, on the other flank both cavalry forces lashed at one another and the battle hung for a short time in the balance, but then, because of the number and valour of the Boeotian and Thessalian horsemen, the contingents on the Mantineian side were forced back, and with considerable loss took refuge with their own phalanx.
§ 15.86.1 Now the cavalry battle had the foregoing issue. But when the infantry forces closed with the enemy in hand-to hand combat, a mighty, stupendous struggle ensued. For never at any other time when Greeks fought Greeks was such a multitude of men arrayed, nor did generals of greater repute or men more competent ever display such gallantry in battle.
§ 15.86.2 For the most capable foot-soldiers of that time, Boeotians and Lacedemonians, whose lines were drawn up facing one another, began the contest, exposing their lives to every risk. After the first exchange of spears in which most were shattered by the very density of the missiles, they engaged with swords. And although their bodies were all locked with one another and they were inflicting all manner of wounds, yet they did not leave off; and for a long time as they persisted in their terrible work, because of the superlative courage displayed on each side, the battle hung poised.
§ 15.86.3 For each man, disregarding the risk of personal hurt, but desirous rather of performing some brilliant deed, would nobly accept death as the price of glory.
§ 15.86.4 As the battle raged severely for a long time and the conflict took no turn in favour of either side, Epameinondas, conceiving that victory called for the display of his own valour also, decided to be himself the instrument to decide the issue. So he immediately took his best men, grouped them in close formation and charged into the midst of the enemy; he led his battalion in the charge and was the first to hurl his javelin, and hit the commander of the Lacedemonians. Then, as the rest of his men also came immediately into close quarters with the foe, he slew some, threw others into a panic, and broke through the enemy phalanx.
§ 15.86.5 The Lacedemonians, overawed by the prestige of Epameinondas and by the sheer weight of the contingent he led, withdrew from the battle, but the Boeotians kept pressing the attack and continually slaying any men who were in the rear rank, so that a multitude of corpses was piled up.
§ 15.87.1 As for the Lacedemonians, when they saw that Epameinondas in the fury of battle was pressing forward too eagerly, they charged him in a body. As missiles flew thick and fast about him, he dodged some, others he fended off, still others he pulled from his body and used to ward off his attackers. But while struggling heroically for the victory, he received a mortal wound in the chest. As the spear broke and the iron point was left in his body, he fell of a sudden, his strength sapped by the wound. About his body a rivalry ensued in which many were slain on both sides, but at last with difficulty by their superiority in bodily strength, the Thebans wore the Lacedemonians out.
§ 15.87.2 As the latter turned and fled, the Boeotians pursued for a short time but turned back, considering it most essential to take possession of the bodies of the dead. So, when the trumpeters sounded recall for their men, all withdrew from battle and both sides set up trophies claiming the victory.
§ 15.87.3 In fact the Athenians had defeated the Euboeans and mercenaries in the battle for the heights and were in possession of the dead; while the Boeotians, because they had overpowered the Lacedemonians and were in possession of the dead, were for awarding the victory to themselves.
§ 15.87.4 So for a long time neither side sent envoys to recover its dead, in order that it should not appear to yield the primacy; but later, when the Lacedemonians were the first to have sent a herald to ask for the recovery of their dead, each side buried its own.
§ 15.87.5 Epameinondas, however, was carried back to camp still living, and the physicians were summoned, but when they declared that undoubtedly as soon as the spear-point should be drawn from his chest, death would ensue, with supreme courage he met his end.
§ 15.87.6 For first summoning his armour-bearer he asked him if he had saved his shield. On his replying yes and placing it before his eyes, he again asked, which side was victorious. At the boy's answer that the Boeotians were victorious, he said, "It is time to die," and directed them to withdraw the spear point. His friends press cried out in protest, and one of them said: "You die childless, Epameinondas," and burst into tears. To this he replied, "No, by Zeus, on the contrary I leave behind two daughters, Leuctra and Mantineia, my victories." Then when the spear point was withdrawn, without any commotion he breathed his last.
§ 15.88.1 For us who are wont to accord to the demise of great men the appropriate meed of praise, it would be most unfitting, so we think, to pass by the death of a man of such stature with no word of note. For it seems to me that he surpassed his contemporaries not only in skill and experience in the art of war, but in reasonableness and magnanimity as well.
§ 15.88.2 For among the generation of Epameinondas were famous men: Pelopidas the Theban, Timotheus and Conon, also Chabrias and Iphicrates, Athenians all, and, besides, Agesilaus the Spartan, who belonged to a slightly older generation. Still earlier than these, in the times of the Medes and Persians, there were Solon, Themistocles, Miltiades, and Cimon, Myronides, and Pericles and certain others in Athens, and in Sicily Gelon, son of Deinomenes, and still others.
§ 15.88.3 All the same, if you should compare the qualities of these with the generalship and reputation of Epameinondas, you would find the qualities possessed by Epameinondas far superior. For in each of the others you would discover but one particular superiority as a claim to fame; in him, however, all qualities combined. For in strength of body and eloquence of speech, furthermore in elevation of mind, contempt of lucre, fairness, and, most of all, in courage and shrewdness in the art of war, he far surpassed them all.
§ 15.88.4 So it was that in his lifetime his native country acquired the primacy of Hellas, but when he died lost it and constantly suffered change for the worse and finally, because of the folly of its leaders, experienced slavery and devastation. So Epameinondas, whose valour was approved among all men, in the manner we have shown met his death.
§ 15.89.1 The states of Greece after the battle, since the victory credited to them all was in dispute and they had proved to be evenly matched in the matter of valour, and, furthermore, were now exhausted by the unbroken series of battles, came to terms with one another. When they had agreed upon a general truce and alliance, they sought to include the Messenians in the compact.
§ 15.89.2 But the Lacedemonians, because of the irreconcilable quarrel with them, chose not to be parties to the truce and alone of the Greeks remained out of it.
§ 15.89.3 Among the historians Xenophon the Athenian brings the narrative of "Greek Affairs" down into this year, closing it with the death of Epameinondas, while Anaximenes of Lampsacus, who composed the "First Inquiry of Greek Affairs" beginning with the birth of the gods and the first generation of man, closed it with the battle of Mantineia and the death of Epameinondas. He included practically all the doings of the Greek and non-Greeks in twelve volumes. And Philistus brought his history of Dionysius the Younger down to this year, narrating the events of five years in two volumes.
§ 15.90.1 When Molon was archon at Athens, in Rome there were elected as consuls Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius. During their term of office the inhabitants of the Asiatic coast revolted from Persia, and some of the satraps and generals rising in insurrection made war on Artaxerxes.
§ 15.90.2 At the same time Tachos the Egyptian king decided to fight the Persians and prepared ships and gathered infantry forces. Having procured many mercenaries from the Greek cities, he persuaded the Lacedemonians likewise to fight with him, for the Spartans were estranged from Artaxerxes because the Messenians had been included by the King on the same terms as the other Greeks in the general peace. When the general uprising against the Persians reached such large proportions, the King also began making preparations for the war.
§ 15.90.3 For at one and the same time he must needs fight the Egyptian king, the Greek cities of Asia, the Lacedemonians and the allies of these, — satraps and generals who ruled the coastal districts and had agreed upon making common cause with them. Of these the most distinguished were Ariobarzanes, satrap of Phrygia, who at the death of Mithridates had taken possession of his kingdom, and Mausolus, overlord of Caria, who was master of many strongholds and important cities of which the hearth and mother city was Halicarnassus, which possessed a famous acropolis and the royal palace of Caria; and, in addition to the two already mentioned, Orontes, satrap of Mysia, and Autophradates, satrap of Lydia. Apart from the Ionians were Lycians, Pisidians, Pamphylians, and Cilicians, likewise Syrians, Phoenicians, and practically all the coastal peoples.
§ 15.90.4 With the revolt so extensive, half the revenues of the King were cut off and what remained were insufficient for the expenses of the war.
§ 15.91.1 The peoples who had revolted from the King chose as their general Orontes in charge of all branches of the administration. He, having taken over the command and funds needed for recruiting mercenaries, amounting to a year's pay for twenty thousand men, proceeded to betray his trust. For suspecting that he would obtain from the King not only great rewards but would also succeed to the satrapy of all the coastal region if he should deliver the rebels into the hands of the Persians, he first arrested those who brought the money and dispatched them to Artaxerxes; then afterwards he delivered many of the cities and the soldiers who had been hired to the commanding officers who had been sent by the King.
§ 15.91.2 In a similar manner, betrayal occurred also in Cappadocia, where a strange and unexpected thing took place. Artabazus, the King's general, had invaded Cappadocia with a large army, and Datames, the satrap of the country, had taken the field against him, for he had collected many horsemen and had twenty thousand mercenary foot-soldiers serving with him.
§ 15.91.3 But the father-in law of Datames, who commanded the cavalry, wishing to acquire favour and at the same time having an eye to his own safety, deserted at night and rode off with the cavalry to the enemy, having the day before made arrangements with Artabazus for the betrayal.
§ 15.91.4 Datames then summoned his mercenaries, promised them largess, and launched an attack upon the deserters. Finding them on the point of joining forces with the enemy and himself attacking at the same time Artabazus' guard and the horsemen, he slew all who came to close quarters.
§ 15.91.5 Artabazus, at first unaware of the truth and suspecting that the man who had deserted Datames was effecting a counter-betrayal, ordered his own men to slay all the horsemen who approached. And Mithrobarzanes, caught between the two parties one group seeking revenge against him as a traitor; the other trying to punish him for counter-betrayal — was in a predicament, but since the situation allowed no time to deliberate, he had recourse to force, and fighting against both parties caused grievous slaughter. When, finally, more than ten thousand had been slain, Datames, having put the rest of Mithrobarzanes' men to flight and slain many of them, recalled with the trumpet his soldiers who had gone in pursuit.
§ 15.91.6 Amongst the survivors in the cavalry some went back to Datames and asked for pardon; the rest did nothing, having nowhere to turn, and finally, being about five hundred in number, were surrounded and shot down by Datames.
§ 15.91.7 As for Datames, though even before this he was admired for his generalship, at that time he won far greater acclaim for both his courage and his sagacity in the art of war; but King Artaxerxes, when he learned about Datames' exploit as general, because he was impatient to be rid of him, instigated his assassination.
§ 15.92.1 While these things were going on, Rheomithres, who had been sent by the insurgents to King Tachos in Egypt, received from him five hundred talents of silver and fifty warships, and sailed to Asia to the city named Leucae. To this city he summoned many leaders of the insurgents. These he arrested and sent in irons to Artaxerxes, and, though he himself had been an insurgent, by the favours that he conferred through his betrayal, he made his peace with the King.
§ 15.92.2 In Egypt King Tachos, having completed his preparations for the war, now had two hundred triremes expensively adorned, ten thousand chosen mercenaries from Greece, and besides these eighty thousand Egyptian infantry. He gave the command of the mercenaries to the Spartan Agesilaus, who had been dispatched by the Lacedemonians with a thousand hoplites to fight as an ally, being a man capable of leading troops and highly regarded for his courage and for his shrewdness in the art of war.
§ 15.92.3 The command of the naval contingent he entrusted to Chabrias the Athenian, who had not been sent officially by his country, but had been privately prevailed upon by the king to join the expedition. The king himself, having command of the Egyptians and being general of the whole army, gave no heed to the advice of Agesilaus to remain in Egypt and conduct the war through the agency of his generals, though the advice was sound. In fact when the armament had gone far afield and was encamped near Phoenicia, the general left in charge of Egypt revolted from the king, and having thereupon sent word to his son Nectanebos prevailed upon him to take the kingship in Egypt, and thereby kindled a great war.
§ 15.92.4 For Nectanebos, who had been appointed by the king commander of the soldiers from Egypt and had been sent from Phoenicia to besiege the cities in Syria, after approving of his father's designs, solicited the officers with bribes and the common soldiers with promises, and so prevailed upon them to be his accomplices.
§ 15.92.5 At last Egypt was seized by the insurgents, and Tachos, panic-stricken, made bold to go up to the King by way of Arabia and beg forgiveness for his past errors. Artaxerxes not only cleared him of the charges against him but even appointed him general in the war against Egypt.
§ 15.93.1 Shortly after, the King of Persia died, having ruled forty-three years, and Ochus, who now assumed a new name, Artaxerxes, succeeded to the kingdom and ruled twenty-three years; — for since the first Artaxerxes had ruled well and had shown himself altogether peace-loving and fortunate, the Persians changed the names of those who ruled after him and prescribed that they should bear that name.
§ 15.93.2 When King Tachos had returned to the army of Agesilaus, Nectanebos, who had collected more than a hundred thousand men, came against Tachos and challenged him to fight a battle for the kingship. Now Agesilaus, observing that the king was terrified and lacked the courage to risk a battle, bade him take heart. "For," said he, "it is not those who have the advantage of numbers who win the victory, but those who excel in valour." But since the king paid no heed to Agesilaus, he was obliged to withdraw with him to a large city.
§ 15.93.3 The Egyptians at first started to assault them once they were shut in it, but when they had lost many men in their attacks on the walls, they then began to surround the city with a wall and a ditch. As the work was rapidly nearing completion by reason of the large number of workers, and the provisions in the city were exhausted, Tachos despaired of his safety, but Agesilaus, encouraging the men and attacking the enemy by night, unexpectedly succeeded in bringing all the men out safely.
§ 15.93.4 And since the Egyptians had pursued close on their heels and the district was now flat, the Egyptians supposed that they had the enemy surrounded by superior numbers, and would utterly destroy them, but Agesilaus seized a position which had on each side a canal fed by the river and thus halted the enemy's attack.
§ 15.93.5 Then having drawn up his force in conformity with the terrain and protected his army by the river channels, he joined battle. The superior numbers of the Egyptians had become useless, and the Greeks, who surpassed them in courage, slew many Egyptians and forced the rest to flee.
§ 15.93.6 Afterwards Tachos easily recovered the Egyptian kingship, and Agesilaus, as the one who single-handed had restored his kingdom, was honoured with appropriate gifts. On his journey back to his native land by way of Cyrene Agesilaus died, and his body packed in honey was conveyed to Sparta where he received kingly burial and honour. So far did events in Asia progress to the end of the year.
§ 15.94.1 In the Peloponnese, though the Arcadians had agreed on a general peace after the battle of Mantineia, they adhered to their covenant only a year before they renewed the war. In the covenant it was written that each should return to his respective native country after the battle, but there had come into the city of Megalopolis the inhabitants of neighbouring cities who had been moved to new homes and were finding transplantation from their own homes difficult to bear. Consequently when they had returned to the cities which had formerly been theirs, the Megalopolitans tried to compel them to abandon their homelands.
§ 15.94.2 And when for this reason a quarrel arose, the townsfolk asked the Mantineians and certain other Arcadians to help them, and also the Eleians and the other peoples that were members of the alliance with the Mantineians, whereas the Megalopolitans besought the Thebans to fight with them as allies. The Thebans speedily dispatched to them three thousand hoplites and three hundred cavalry with Pammenes as their commander.
§ 15.94.3 He came to Megalopolis, and by sacking some of the towns and terrifying others he compelled their inhabitants to change their abode to Megalopolis. So the problem of the amalgamation of the cities, after it had reached such a state of turmoil, was reduced to such calm as was possible.
§ 15.94.4 Of the historians, Athanas of Syracuse wrote thirteen books beginning with the events attending and following Dion's expedition, but he prefixed, in one book, an account of the period of seven years not recorded in the treatise of Philistus and by recording these events in summary fashion made of the history a continuous narrative.
§ 15.95.1 When Nicophemus was archon at Athens, the consular office at Rome was assumed by Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Licinius. During their term of office Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, sent pirate ships against the Cyclades, stormed some and took many captives, then disembarking mercenaries on Peparethos put the city under siege.
§ 15.95.2 And when the Athenians came to the assistance of the Peparethians and left Leosthenes in command of the mission, Alexander attacked the Athenians. Actually they were blockading such of Alexander's soldiers as were stationed in Panormos. And since the tyrant's men attacked unexpectedly, Alexander won a surprising success. For he not only rescued the detachment at Panormos from the greatest danger, but he also captured five Attic triremes and one Peparethian, and took six hundred captives.
§ 15.95.3 The Athenians, enraged, condemned Leosthenes to death as a traitor and confiscated his property, then choosing Chares as general in command and giving him a fleet, they sent him out. But he spent his time avoiding the enemy and injuring the allies. For he sailed to Corcyra, an allied city, and stirred up such violent civil strife in it that many murders and seizures took place, with the result that the Athenian democracy was discredited in the eyes of the allies. So it turned out that Chares, who did many other such lawless acts, accomplished nothing good but brought his country into discredit.
§ 15.95.4 The historians Dionysodorus and Anaxis, Boeotians, closed their narrative of Greek history with this year. But we, now that we have narrated the events before the time of King Philip, bring this book to a close here in accordance with the plan stated at the beginning. In the following book which begins with Philip's accession to the throne, we shall record all the achievements of this king to his death, including in its compass those other events as well which have occurred in the known portions of the world.
§ 16.1.1 In all systematic historical treatises it behooves the historian to include in his books actions of states or of kings which are complete in themselves from beginning to end; for in this manner I conceive history to be most easy to remember and most intelligible to the reader.
§ 16.1.2 Now incomplete actions, the conclusion of which is unconnected with the beginning, interrupt the interest of the curious reader, whereas if the actions embrace a continuity of development culminating naturally, the narrative of events will achieve a well-rounded perfection. Whenever the natural pattern of events itself harmonizes with the task of the historian, from that point on he must not deviate at all from this principle.
§ 16.1.3 Consequently, now that I have reached the actions of Philip son of Amyntas, I shall endeavour to include the deeds performed by this king within the compass of the present Book. For Philip was king over the Macedonians for twenty-four years, and having started from the most insignificant beginnings built up his kingdom to be the greatest of the dominions in Europe, and having taken over Macedonia when she was a slave to the Illyrians, made her mistress of many powerful tribes and states.
§ 16.1.4 And it was by his own valour that he took over the supremacy of all Hellas with the consent of the states, which voluntarily subordinated themselves to his authority. Having subdued in war the men who had been plundering the shrine at Delphi and having brought aid to the oracle, he won a seat in the Amphictyonic Council, and because of his reverence for the gods received as his prize in the contest, after the defeat of the Phocians, the votes which had been theirs.
§ 16.1.5 Then when he had conquered in war Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Scythians, and all the peoples in the vicinity of these, he planned to overthrow the Persian kingdom, and, after transporting his armaments into Asia, was in the act of liberating the Greek cities; but, cut short by Fate in mid-career, he left armies so numerous and powerful that his son Alexander had no need to apply for allies in his attempt to overthrow the Persian supremacy.
§ 16.1.6 And these deeds he accomplished, not by the favour of Fortune, but by his own valour. For King Philip excelled in shrewdness in the art of war, courage, and brilliance of personality. But, not to anticipate his achievements in my introduction, I shall proceed to the continuous thread of the narrative after first briefly retracing his early period.
§ 16.2.1 When Callimedes was archon at Athens, the one hundred fifth celebration of the Olympian games was held at which Porus of Cyrene won the stadion race, and the Romans elected as consuls Gnaeus Genucius and Lucius Aemilius. During their term of office Philip, the son of Amyntas and father of Alexander who defeated the Persians in war, succeeded to the Macedonian throne in the following manner.
§ 16.2.2 After Amyntas had been defeated by the Illyrians and forced to pay tribute to his conquerors, the Illyrians, who had taken Philip, the youngest son of Amyntas, as a hostage, placed him in the care of the Thebans. They in turn entrusted the lad to the father of Epameinondas and directed him both to keep careful watch over his ward and to superintend his upbringing and education.
§ 16.2.3 Since Epameinondas had as his instructor a philosopher of the Pythagorean school, Philip, who was reared along with him, acquired a wide acquaintance with the Pythagorean philosophy. Inasmuch as both students showed natural ability and diligence they proved to be superior in deeds of valour. Of the two, Epameinondas underwent the most rigorous tests and battles, and invested his fatherland almost miraculously with the leadership of Hellas, while Philip, availing himself of the same initial training, achieved no less fame than Epameinondas.
§ 16.2.4 For after the death of Amyntas, Alexander, the eldest of the sons of Amyntas, succeeded to the throne. But Ptolemy of Alorus assassinated him and succeeded to the throne and then in similar fashion Perdiccas disposed of him and ruled as king. But when he was defeated in a great battle by the Illyrians and fell in the action, Philip his brother, who had escaped from his detention as a hostage, succeeded to the kingdom, now in a bad way.
§ 16.2.5 For the Macedonians had lost more than four thousand men in the battle, and the remainder, panic-stricken, had become exceedingly afraid of the Illyrian armies and had lost heart for continuing the war.
§ 16.2.6 About the same time the Paeonians, who lived near Macedonia, began to pillage their territory, showing contempt for the Macedonians, and the Illyrians began to assemble large armies and prepare for an invasion of Macedonia, while a certain Pausanias, who was related to the royal line of Macedon, was planning with the aid of the Thracian king to join the contest for the throne of Macedon. Similarly, the Athenians too, being hostile to Philip, were endeavouring to restore Argaeus to the throne and had dispatched Mantias as general with three thousand hoplites and a considerable naval force.
§ 16.3.1 The Macedonians because of the disaster sustained in the battle and the magnitude of the dangers pressing upon them were in the greatest perplexity. Yet even so, with such fears and dangers threatening them, Philip was not panic-stricken by the magnitude of the expected perils, but, bringing together the Macedonians in a series of assemblies and exhorting them with eloquent speeches to be men, he built up their morale, and, having improved the organization of his forces and equipped the men suitably with weapons of war, he held constant manoeuvres of the men under arms and competitive drills.
§ 16.3.2 Indeed he devised the compact order and the equipment of the phalanx, imitating the close order fighting with overlapping shields of the warriors at Troy, and was the first to organize the Macedonian phalanx.
§ 16.3.3 He was courteous in his intercourse with men and sought to win over the multitudes by his gifts and his promises to the fullest loyalty, and endeavoured to counteract by clever moves the crowd of impending dangers. For instance, when he observed that the Athenians were centring all their ambition upon recovering Amphipolis and for this reason were trying to bring Argaeus back to the throne, he voluntarily withdrew from the city, after first making it autonomous.
§ 16.3.4 Then he sent an embassy to the Paeonians, and by corrupting some with gifts and persuading others by generous promises he made an agreement with them to maintain peace for the present. In similar fashion he prevented the return of Pausanias by winning over with gifts the king who was on the point of attempting his restoration.
§ 16.3.5 Mantias, the Athenian general, who had sailed into Methone, stayed behind there himself but sent Argaeus with his mercenaries to Aegae. And Argaeus approached the city and invited the population of Aegae to welcome his return and become the founders of his own kingship.
§ 16.3.6 When no one paid any attention to him, he turned back to Methone, but Philip, who suddenly appeared with his soldiers, engaged him in battle, slew many of his mercenaries, and released under a truce the rest, who had fled for refuge to a certain hill, after he had first obtained from them the exiles, whom they delivered to him. Now Philip by his success in this first battle encouraged the Macedonians to meet the succeeding contests with greater temerity.
§ 16.3.7 While these things were going on, the Thasians settled the place called Crenides, which the king afterward named Philippi for himself and made a populous settlement.
§ 16.3.8 Among the writers of history Theopompus of Chios began his history of Philip at this point and composed fifty-eight books, of which five are lost.
§ 16.4.1 When Eucharistus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Servilius and Quintus Genucius. During their term of office Philip sent ambassadors to Athens and persuaded the assembly to make peace with him on the ground that he abandoned for all time any claim to Amphipolis.
§ 16.4.2 Now that he was relieved of the war with the Athenians and had information that the king of the Paeonians, Agis, was dead, he conceived that he had the opportunity to attack the Paeonians. Accordingly, having conducted an expedition into Paeonia and defeated the barbarians in a battle, he compelled the tribe to acknowledge allegiance to the Macedonians.
§ 16.4.3 And since the Illyrians were still left as enemies, he was ambitious to defeat them in war also. So, having quickly called an assembly and exhorted his soldiers for the war in a fitting speech, he led an expedition into the Illyrian territory, having no less than ten thousand foot-soldiers and six hundred horsemen. 4 Bardylis, the king of the Illyrians, having learned of the presence of the enemy, first dispatched envoys to arrange for a cessation of hostilities on the condition that both sides remained possessed of the cities which they then controlled. But when Philip said that he indeed desired peace but would not, however, concur in that proposal unless the Illyrians should withdraw from all the Macedonian cities, the envoys returned without having accomplished their purpose, and Bardylis, relying upon his previous victories and the gallant conduct of the Illyrians, came out to meet the enemy with his army; and he had ten thousand picked infantry soldiers and about five hundred cavalry. 5 When the armies approached each other and with a great outcry clashed in the battle, Philip, commanding the right wing, which consisted of the flower of the Macedonians serving under him, ordered his cavalry to ride past the ranks of the barbarians and attack them on the flank, while he himself falling on the enemy in a frontal assault began bitter combat. 6 But the Illyrians, forming themselves into a square, courageously entered the fray. And at first for a long while the battle was evenly poised because of the exceeding gallantry displayed on both sides, and as many were slain and still more wounded, the fortune of battle vacillated first one way then the other, being constantly swayed by the valorous deeds of the combatants; but later as the horsemen pressed on from the flank and rear and Philip with the flower of his troops fought with true heroism, the mass of the Illyrians was compelled to take hastily to flight. 7 When the pursuit had been kept up for a considerable distance and many had been slain in their flight, Philip recalled the Macedonians with the trumpet and erecting a trophy of victory buried his own dead, while the Illyrians, having sent ambassadors and withdrawn from all the Macedonian cities, obtained peace. But more than seven thousand Illyrians were slain in this battle.
§ 16.5.1 Since we have finished with the affairs of Macedonia and Illyria, we shall now turn to events of a different kind. In Sicily Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of the Syracusans, who had succeeded to the realm in the period preceding this but was indolent and much inferior to his father, pretended because of his lack of enterprise to be peacefully inclined and mild of disposition.
§ 16.5.2 Accordingly, since he had inherited the war with the Carthaginians, he made peace with them and likewise pursued war listlessly for some time against the Lucanians and then, in the latest battles having had the advantage, he gladly brought to a close the war against them.
§ 16.5.3 In Apulia he founded two cities because he wished to make safe for navigators the passage across the Ionian Sea; for the barbarians who dwelt along the coast were accustomed to put out in numerous pirate ships and render the whole shore along the Adriatic Sea unsafe for merchants.
§ 16.5.4 Thereafter, having given himself over to a peaceful existence, he relieved the soldiers of their drills in warfare and though he had succeeded to the greatest of the realms in Europe, the tyranny that was said by his father to be bound fast by adamantine chains, yet, strange to say, he lost it all by his pusillanimity. The causes for its dissolution and the various events I shall attempt to record.
§ 16.6.1 When Cephisodotus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Licinius and Gaius Sulpicius. During their term of office Dion, son of Hipparinus and the most distinguished of the Syracusans, escaped from Sicily and by his nobility of spirit set free the Syracusans and the other Sicilian Greeks in the following manner.
§ 16.6.2 Dionysius the Elder had begotten children of two wives, of the first, who was a Locrian by birth, Dionysius, who succeeded to the tyranny, and of the second, who was the daughter of Hipparinus, a Syracusan of great renown, two sons Hipparinus and Nysaeus.
§ 16.6.3 It chanced that the brother of the second wife was Dion, a man who had great proficiency in philosophy and, in matter of courage and skill in the art of war, far surpassed the other Syracusans of his time.
§ 16.6.4 Dion, because of his high birth and nobility of spirit, fell under suspicion with the tyrant, for he was considered powerful enough to overthrow the tyranny. So, fearing him, Dionysius decided to get him out of the way by arresting him on a charge involving the death penalty. But Dion, becoming aware of this, was at first concealed in the home of some of his friends, and then escaped from Sicily to the Peloponnese in the company of his brother Megacles and of Heracleides who had been appointed commandant of the garrison by the tyrant.
§ 16.6.5 When he landed at Corinth, he besought the Corinthians to collaborate with him in setting free the Syracusans, and he himself began to gather mercenary troops and to collect suits of armour. Soon many gave ear to his pleas and he gradually accumulated large supplies of armour and many mercenaries, then, hiring two merchantmen, he loaded on board arms and men, while he himself with these transports sailed from Zacynthus, which is near Cephallenia, to Sicily, but he left Heracleides behind to bring up later some triremes as well as merchantmen to Syracuse.
§ 16.7.1 While these things were going on, Andromachus of Tauromenium, who was the father of Timaeus, the author of the Histories, and distinguished for his wealth and nobility of spirit, gathered together the men who had survived the razing of Naxos by Dionysius. Having settled the hill above Naxos called Tauros and remained there a considerable time, he called it Tauromenium from his "remaining on Tauros."And as the city made quick progress, the inhabitants laid up great wealth, and the city, which had won considerable repute, finally in our own lifetime, after Caesar had expelled the inhabitants of Tauromenium from their native land, received a colony of Roman citizens.
§ 16.7.2 While these things were going on, the inhabitants of Euboea fell into strife among themselves, and when one party summoned the Boeotians to its assistance and the other the Athenians, war broke out over all Euboea. A good many close combats and skirmishes occurred in which sometimes the Thebans were superior and sometimes the Athenians carried off the victory. Although no important pitched battle was fought to a finish, yet when the island had been devastated by the intestinal warfare and many men had been slain on both sides, at long last admonished by the disasters, the parties came to an agreement and made peace with one another. Now the Boeotians returned home and remained quiet,
§ 16.7.3 but the Athenians, who had suffered the revolt of Chios, Rhodes, and Cos and, moreover, of Byzantium, became involved in the war called the Social War which lasted three years. The Athenians chose Chares and Chabrias as generals and dispatched them with an army. The two generals on sailing into Chios found that allies had arrived to assist the Chians from Byzantium, Rhodes, and Cos, and also from Mausolus, the tyrant of Caria. They then drew up their forces and began to besiege the city both by land and by sea. Now Chares, who commanded the infantry force, advanced against the walls by land and began a struggle with the enemy who poured out on him from the city; but Chabrias, sailing up to the harbour, fought a severe naval engagement and was worsted when his ship was shattered by a ramming attack.
§ 16.7.4 While the men on the other ships withdrew in the nick of time and saved their lives, he, choosing death with glory instead of defeat, fought on for his ship and died of his wounds.
§ 16.8.1 About the same time Philip, king of the Macedonians, who had been victorious over the Illyrians in a great battle and had made subject all the people who dwelt there as far as the lake called Lychnitis, now returned to Macedonia, having arranged a noteworthy peace with the Illyrians and won great acclaim among the Macedonians for the success due to his valour.
§ 16.8.2 Thereupon, finding that the people of Amphipolis were ill-disposed toward him and offered many pretexts for war, he entered upon a campaign against them with a considerable force. By bringing siege-engines against the walls and launching severe and continuous assaults, he succeeded in breaching a portion of the wall with his battering rams, whereupon, having entered the city through the breach and struck down many of his opponents, he obtained the mastery of the city and exiled those who were disaffected toward him, but treated the rest considerately.
§ 16.8.3 Since this city was favourably situated with regard to Thrace and the neighbouring regions, it contributed greatly to the aggrandizement of Philip. Indeed he immediately reduced Pydna, and made an alliance with the Olynthians in the terms of which he agreed to take over for them Potidaea, a city which the Olynthians had set their hearts on possessing.
§ 16.8.4 Since the Olynthians inhabited an important city and because of its huge population had great influence in war, their city was an object of contention for those who sought to extend their supremacy. For this reason the Athenians and Philip were rivals against one another for the alliance with the Olynthians.
§ 16.8.5 However that may be, Philip, when he had forced Potidaea to surrender, led the Athenian garrison out of the city and, treating it considerately, sent it back to Athens — for he was particularly solicitous toward the people of Athens on account of the importance and repute of their city — but, having sold the inhabitants into slavery, he handed it over to the Olynthians, presenting them also at the same time with all the properties in the territory of Potidaea.
§ 16.8.6 After this he went to the city of Crenides, and having increased its size with a large number of inhabitants, changed its name to Philippi, giving it his own name, and then, turning to the gold mines in its territory, which were very scanty and insignificant, he increased their output so much by his improvements that they could bring him a revenue of more than a thousand talents.
§ 16.8.7 And because from these mines he had soon amassed a fortune, with the abundance of money he raised the Macedonian kingdom higher and higher to a greatly superior position, for with the gold coins which he struck, which came to be known from name as Philippeioi, he organized a large force of mercenaries, and by using these coins for bribes induced many Greeks to become betrayers of their native lands. But concerning these matters the several events, when recorded, will explain everything in detail, and we shall now shift our account back to the events in the order of their occurrence.
§ 16.9.1 When Agathocles was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Gaius Poplius. During their term of office, Dion son of Hipparinus sailed to Sicily intending to overthrow the tyranny of Dionysius, and with slenderer resources than those of any conqueror before his time he succeeded contrary to all expectation in overthrowing the greatest realm in all Europe.
§ 16.9.2 Who, indeed, would have believed that, putting ashore with two merchantmen, he could actually have overcome the despot who had at his disposal four hundred ships of war, infantry numbering nearly one hundred thousand, ten thousand horse, and as great a store of arms, food, and money as one in all probability possessed who had to maintain lavishly the aforesaid forces; and, apart from all we have mentioned, had a city which was the largest of the cities of Hellas, and harbours and docks and fortified citadels that were impregnable, and, besides, a great number of powerful allies?
§ 16.9.3 The cause for Dion's successes was, above all others, his own nobility of spirit, his courage, and the willing support of those who were to be liberated, but still more important than all these were the pusillanimity of the tyrant and his subjects' hatred of him; for when all these characteristics merged at a single critical moment, they unexpectedly brought to a successful close deeds which were considered impossible.
§ 16.9.4 But we must forgo these reflections and turn to the detailed narrative of the events as they severally occurred. Dion, having sailed from Zacynthos, which lies by Cephallenia, with two merchantmen, put in at the harbour of Acragas named Minoa. This had been founded of olden time by Minos, king of the Cretans, on the occasion when, in his search for Daedalus, he had been entertained by Cocalus, king of the Sicanians, but in the period with which we are concerned this city was subject to the Carthaginians, and its governor, named Paralus, who was a friend of Dion, received him enthusiastically.
§ 16.9.5 Dion, having unloaded from the merchantman five thousand suits of armour, handed them over to Paralus and requested him to transport them on wagons to Syracuse, while he himself, taking along the mercenaries numbering a thousand, led them against Syracuse. On the march he persuaded the peoples of Acragas, Gela, and some of the Sicanians and Sicels who dwelt in the interior, also the people of Camarina, to join in the liberation of the Syracusans, and then advanced to overthrow the tyrant.
§ 16.9.6 Since many men with their arms streamed in from all sides, soon more than twenty thousand soldiers were gathered. Likewise many also of the Greeks from Italy and of the Messenians were summoned, and all came in haste with great enthusiasm.
§ 16.10.1 When Dion was on the borders of the Syracusan territory, there came to meet him a host of men without arms both from the countryside and from the city; for Dionysius, being suspicious of the Syracusans, had disarmed many of them.
§ 16.10.2 About this time the tyrant was sojourning in the newly founded cities along the Adriatic with large forces, and the commanders who had been left in charge of the garrison of Syracuse at first attempted to summon back the Syracusans from their revolt, but when the impulse of the mobs could not be checked they gave up in despair and gathered mercenaries and those who favoured the cause of the tyrant, and having filled their ranks decided to attack the insurgents.
§ 16.10.3 Dion distributed the five thousand suits of armour to such of the Syracusans as were unarmed, and equipped the rest as well as he could with weapons that came to hand. Then having brought them all to a general assembly, he disclosed that he had come for the liberation of the Greeks of Sicily, and he urged them to elect as generals those men who were well qualified to effect the restoration of their independence and the dissolution of the entire tyranny. The crowd as with one voice cried out that it chose Dion and his brother Megacles as generals with absolute power.
§ 16.10.4 Accordingly he drew up his army in line of battle immediately at the close of the assembly and advanced upon the city. Since no one disputed with him the open country, he entered fearlessly within the walls, and making his way through Achradina encamped in the market-place, no one daring to come out against him.
§ 16.10.5 The whole number of the soldiers with Dion was not less than fifty thousand. All of these with garlands on their heads came down to the city under the leadership of Dion and Megacles and with them thirty Syracusans who alone of the exiles in the Peloponnese were willing to share in the battles with their fellow Syracusans.
§ 16.11.1 Now that all the city had put on the garb of freedom in exchange for that of slavery and that fortune had changed the sullen looks of the tyranny to festival gaiety, every house was filled with sacrificing and rejoicing, as the citizens burnt incense on their own hearths, thanked the gods for their present blessings, and offered hopeful prayers for blessings to come. The women too raised great shouts of joy for the unexpected good fortune and gathered together in throngs throughout the whole city.
§ 16.11.2 There was no freeman, no slave, no stranger who did not hasten to gaze upon Dion, and all applauded the man's valour in terms too exalted for a mere mortal. And they had good reason for such feelings because of the magnitude and unexpected nature of the change; for after having experienced fifty years slavery and forgotten the meaning of freedom through the lapse of time, they were suddenly released from their misfortune by the valour of a single man.
§ 16.11.3 Dionysius himself at this time chanced to be sojourning near Caulonia in Italy, and he sent for Philistus his general, who was cruising the Adriatic, to come with his fleet and ordered him to sail to Syracuse. Both men made haste to reach the same spot, but Dionysius arrived seven days after the return of Dion.
§ 16.11.4 Immediately, then, on his arrival, desirous of outmanoeuvring the Syracusans, he sent an embassy to make peace, and gave many indications that he would surrender his power as tyrant to the people and would accept of the people's government important privileges in exchange. He requested them to dispatch envoys to him so that he might sit in conference with them and bring the war to an end.
§ 16.11.5 The Syracusans, accordingly, elated with hopes, dispatched as envoys the most important of their men; but Dionysius, having placed them under guard, postponed the conference and, observing that the Syracusans because of their hope of peace were lax in the matter of garrisons and unprepared for a battle, suddenly opened the gates of the citadel on the Island, and issued forth with his army in battle array.
§ 16.12.1 Since the Syracusans had constructed a crosswall of their own from sea to sea, the mercenaries fell upon the wall with a loud and terrifying outcry, massacred many of the garrison and, getting inside the wall, engaged in a struggle with those who were coming out to the rescue.
§ 16.12.2 Dion, being unexpectedly tricked by the violation of the truce, came to meet the enemy with his best soldiers and joining battle wrought extensive slaughter. For when fighting took place, as if in a stadium, within the narrow interval afforded by the crosswall, a multitude of soldiers collected in a contracted space.
§ 16.12.3 For this reason on both sides men outstanding in gallantry met in the action and since Dionysius' mercenaries, by the size of the promised rewards, and the Syracusans, by the hope of freedom, were wrought up to a high pitch of rivalry, at first the battle stood equally poised, as the valour of both sides in the fight was equal. Many fell, and not a few were wounded, receiving all the blows in front; for on the one hand those in the front rank courageously met death defending the rest, and those arrayed behind them covering them with their shields as they fell and holding firm in the desperate peril took the most dangerous risks to win the victory.
§ 16.12.4 After this engagement Dion, wishing to display his valour in the battle and eager to win the victory by his own deeds, forced his way into the midst of the enemy and there in an heroic encounter slew many and having disrupted the whole battle line of the mercenaries was suddenly cut off and isolated in the crowd. Many missiles hurled at him fell upon his shield and helmet, but he escaped these owing to the protection of his armour, but receiving a wound on his right arm he was borne down by the weight of the blow and barely escaped capture by the enemy.
§ 16.12.5 The Syracusans, fearing for their general's safety, dashed into the mercenaries in heavy formation and rescued the distressed Dion from his perils, then overpowering the enemy, forced them to flee. Since likewise in the other part of the wall the Syracusans had the superiority, the tyrant's mercenaries were chased in a body inside the gates of the Island. The Syracusans, who had now won victory in a significant battle and had securely recovered their freedom, set up a trophy to signalize the tyrant's defeat.
§ 16.13.1 After this, Dionysius, who had failed and by now despaired of his tyranny, left a considerable garrison in his citadels, while he himself, having secured permission to take up his dead, eight hundred in number, gave their bodies a magnificent burial, causing them to be crowned with golden crowns and wrapped in fine purple; for he hoped by his solicitude for them to incite the survivors to fight spiritedly in defence of the tyranny; and those who had behaved gallantly he honoured with rich gifts. And he kept sending messengers to the Syracusans to confer about terms of a settlement.
§ 16.13.2 But Dion in the matter of his embassies, by constantly offering plausible excuses, kept making postponements, and, when he had meanwhile constructed the remainder of the wall at his leisure, he then called for the embassies, having outmanoeuvred the enemy by encouraging their hopes of peace. When discussion arose concerning the terms of settlement, Dion replied to the ambassadors that only one settlement was possible, namely that Dionysius should resign his position as tyrant and then deign to accept certain privileges. But Dionysius, since Dion's reply had been arrogant, assembled his commanders and began to deliberate on the best means of defending himself against the Syracusans.
§ 16.13.3 Having plenty of everything but grain and being in control of the sea, he began to pillage the countryside and, finding it difficult to provide subsistence from his foraging parties, he dispatched merchantmen and money to purchase grain. But the Syracusans, who had many ships of war and kept putting in an appearance at opportune places, made off with many of the supplies which were being brought in by the traders. This was the situation of affairs in Syracuse.
§ 16.14.1 In Greece Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, was assassinated by his own wife Thebe and her brothers Lycophron and Tisiphonus. The brothers at first received great acclaim as tyrannicides, but later, having changed their purpose and bribed the mercenaries, they disclosed themselves as tyrants, slew many of their opponents, and, having contrived to make their forces imposing, retained the government by force.
§ 16.14.2 Now the faction among the Thessalians called Aleuadae, who enjoyed a far-flung reputation by reason of their noble birth, began to oppose the tyrants. But not being of sufficient strength to fight by themselves they took on Philip, the king of the Macedonians, as ally. And he, entering Thessaly, defeated the tyrants and, when he had vindicated the independence of their cities, showed himself very friendly to the Thessalians. Wherefore in the course of subsequent events not merely Philip himself but his son Alexander after him had the Thessalians always as confederates.
§ 16.14.3 Among historians Demophilus, the son of the chronicler Ephorus, who treated in his work the history of what is known as the Sacred War, which had been passed over by his father, began his account with the capture of the shrine at Delphi and the pillaging of the oracle by Philomelus the Phocian. This war lasted eleven years until the annihilation of those who had divided amongst themselves the sacred property.
§ 16.14.4 And Callisthenes wrote the history of the events in the Hellenic world in ten books and closed with the capture of the shrine and the impious act of Philomelus the Phocian.
§ 16.14.5 Diyllus the Athenian began his history with the pillaging of the shrine and wrote twenty-six books, in which he included all the events which occurred in this period both in Greece and in Sicily.
§ 16.15.1 When Elpines was archon at Athens the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Poplius Laenas and Gnaeus Maemilius Imperiosus, and the one hundred sixth celebration was held of the Olympian games, at which Porus the Malian won the stadion race. During their term of office, in Italy there gathered in Lucania a multitude of men from every region, a mixture of every sort, but for the most part runaway slaves. These at first led a marauding life and as they habituated themselves to out-of door life and making raids they gained practice and training in warfare; consequently, since they regularly had the upper hand with the inhabitants in their battles, they reached a state of considerably increased importance.
§ 16.15.2 First they took by siege the city Terina and plundered it completely; then, having taken Hipponium, Thurii, and many other cities, they formed a common government and were called Bruttians from the fact that most of them were slaves, for in the local dialect runaway slaves were called "bruttians." Such, then, was the origin of the people of the Bruttians in Italy.
§ 16.16.1 In Sicily Philistus, Dionysius' general, sailed to Rhegium and transported to Syracuse the cavalry, more than five hundred in number. When he had added to these other cavalry more numerous and two thousand infantry, he made an expedition against Leontini, which had revolted from Dionysius, and having succeeded in entering the walls by night captured a portion of the city. A sharp engagement ensued, and the Syracusans came to the aid of the Leontinians, so that he was defeated and was driven out of Leontini.
§ 16.16.2 Heracleides, who had been left behind by Dion as commander of his men-of war, being hindered by storms in the Peloponnese, was too late for Dion's return and the liberation of the Syracusans, but he now came with twenty men-of war and fifteen hundred soldiers. Being a man of very great distinction and considered worthy of the position, he was chosen admiral by the Syracusans, and, having been assigned to the supreme command of the armed forces along with Dion, he participated in the war against Dionysius.
§ 16.16.3 After this Philistus, who had been appointed general and had fitted out sixty triremes, fought a naval battle with the Syracusans, who had about the same number. As the fight became sharp Philistus at first was superior because of his own gallantry, but later on, when he was intercepted by the enemy, the Syracusans, encircling the ships from all sides, put forth strenuous efforts to capture the general alive, but Philistus, with apprehensions of torture after his capture, slew himself after having performed a great many very important services to the tyrants and having proved himself the most faithful of their friends to the men in power.
§ 16.16.4 The Syracusans, after they had won the naval battle, dismembered the body of Philistus, dragged it through the whole city, and cast it forth unburied; and Dionysius, who had lost the most efficient of his friends and had no other general of repute, being himself unable to sustain the burden of the war, sent out ambassadors to Dion, first offering him the half of his power, but later consenting to place the whole of it in his hands.
§ 16.17.1 But when Dion replied that it was only fair to surrender to the Syracusans the acropolis with the reservation of certain property and privileges, Dionysius was ready to surrender the citadel to the people on the condition that he took his mercenaries and his property and went abroad to Italy, and Dion counselled the Syracusans to accept his offer. But the people, persuaded by their inopportune demagogues, refused, believing that they could forcibly make the tyrant surrender by siege.
§ 16.17.2 Thereafter Dionysius left the best of his mercenaries to guard the citadel, while he himself, putting his possessions and all his royal paraphernalia on board ship, sailed off secretly and put ashore in Italy.
§ 16.17.3 But the Syracusans were divided into two factions, some being of the opinion that they should entrust the generalship and supreme power in the state to Heracleides because it was believed that he would never aim at tyrannical power, and the others declaring that Dion should have the supremacy over the entire government. Furthermore, large sums for wages were due to the Peloponnesian mercenaries who had liberated Syracuse and the city was short of funds, so the mercenaries, deprived of their money, banded together in excess of three thousand, and since all had been selected for meritorious conduct and because of their training in actual warfare were hardened veterans, they were far more than a match for the Syracusans in valour.
§ 16.17.4 As for Dion, when he was asked by the mercenaries to join their revolt and to take vengeance upon the Syracusans as a common enemy, he at first refused, but later, upon compulsion of the critical circumstances, he accepted the command of the mercenaries, and with them marched off to Leontini.
§ 16.17.5 The Syracusans in a body set out to pursue the mercenaries, and, having engaged them on the way and lost many men, retreated. Dion, who had defeated them in a brilliant battle, harboured no grudge toward the Syracusans, for when they sent him a herald to arrange for the removal of the dead he granted them permission and set free without ransom the captives, who were numerous. For many who were on the point of being slain in their flight declared that they were on Dion's side and all for this reason escaped death.
§ 16.18.1 After this Dionysius dispatched to Syracuse as general Nypsius the Neapolitan, a man who excelled in valour and in sagacity of generalship; and with him he sent merchantmen laden with grain and other supplies. Nypsius then set sail from Locri and completed the voyage to Syracuse.
§ 16.18.2 The tyrant's mercenaries, stationed on the acropolis, as their supply of grain failed at this time, were in dire distress for want of supplies, but for a time endured in good spirits their lack of food; then, when human nature succumbed to necessity and they despaired of saving their lives, they came together in an assembly at night and voted to surrender the citadel and themselves to the Syracusans at dawn.
§ 16.18.3 Night was just drawing to a close as the mercenaries sent heralds to the Syracusans to make terms, but, as dawn was just breaking, Nypsius sailed in with his fleet and anchored off Arethusa. Consequently, now that scarcity had suddenly changed into a great abundance of supplies, the general Nypsius, after disembarking his soldiers, held a joint assembly, presented arguments suitable to the occasion and won the support of the men to meet the perils in store. Now the acropolis which was already on the point of being given over to the Syracusans was unexpectedly preserved in the aforesaid manner,
§ 16.18.4 but the Syracusans, manning all their triremes, sailed against the enemy while they were still occupied in unloading the supplies. Since the attack was unexpected and the mercenaries in the citadel could only be drawn up in confused fashion against the enemy triremes, a naval battle took place in which the Syracusans had the superiority, in fact they sank some of the ships, gained possession of others, and pursued the remnant to the shore.
§ 16.18.5 Elated by their success they offered magnificent sacrifice to the gods in honour of the victory, and, turning to banqueting and drink, with contempt for the men they had defeated, were negligent about their guards.
§ 16.19.1 Nypsius, the commander of the mercenaries, wishing to renew the battle and retrieve the defeat, with his army which had been marshalled during the night unexpectedly attacked the wall which had been constructed. And, finding that the guards through contempt and drunkenness had betaken themselves to sleep, he placed against it the ladders that had been constructed in case they were needed.
§ 16.19.2 The bravest of the mercenaries climbed on the wall with these, slaughtered the guards, and opened the gates. As the men poured into the city, the generals of the Syracusans, becoming sober after their drunkenness, tried to bring aid, but, their efforts being hampered by the wine, some were slain and some fled. When the city had been captured and almost all the soldiers from the citadel had rushed inside the circuit-walls, since the Syracusans were panic-stricken by the suddenness and confusion of the attack, a great slaughter took place.
§ 16.19.3 The soldiers of the tyrant numbered more than ten thousand and their lines were so well marshalled that no one was able to withstand their sheer weight, inasmuch as the din and disorder and, furthermore, the lack of a commander, impeded the Syracusans in their hour of defeat.
§ 16.19.4 Once the market-place had come into possession of the enemy, the victors straightway attacked the residences. They carried off much property and took off as slaves many women and children and household servants besides. Where the Syracusans formed to meet them in narrow alleys and other streets, continuous engagements occurred and many were killed and not a few wounded. So they passed the night slaying one another at random in the darkness, and every quarter teemed with dead.
§ 16.20.1 At daybreak the magnitude of the disaster was seen in its entirety, and the Syracusans, whose one hope of survival lay in help from Dion, sent horsemen to Leontini begging Dion not to suffer his native city to be captured by the spear point of the enemy, to forgive them the mistakes they had made, and in pity for their present misfortunes to come and retrieve his country's disaster.
§ 16.20.2 Dion, a man noble in spirit and civilized in his judgements because of his philosophical training, did not bear a grudge against his fellow citizens, but, after winning the mercenaries over, straightway set out and, having quickly traversed the road to Syracuse, arrived at the Hexapyla.
§ 16.20.3 After drawing up his soldiers at that point he advanced with all speed and encountered, fleeing from the city, children, women, and old men in excess of ten thousand. All of these as they met him besought him with tears to avenge their own misfortunes. The mercenaries from the citadel, having already obtained their objective, after plundering the houses by the market-place set them on fire and now, attacking the remaining residences, were in the act of plundering the possessions in these.
§ 16.20.4 At this very moment Dion, rushing into the city in several places and attacking the enemy as they were busily engaged in their looting, slew all whom he met as they were lugging furnishings of various sorts off on their shoulders. And because of the unexpectedness of his appearance and the disorder and confusion, all of those who were making off with their plunder were easily overpowered. And finally, after more than four thousand had been slain, some in the houses, and others in the streets, the rest fled in a body to the citadel and closing the gates escaped the danger.
§ 16.20.5 Dion, having accomplished the finest of all the deeds ever performed by him, preserved the burning houses by extinguishing the flames, and, by restoring to good condition the circuit-wall, at one stroke fortified the city and by walling off the foe blocked their egress to the mainland. When he had cleansed the city of the dead and had erected a trophy of victory, he offered sacrifices to the gods for the deliverance of the city.
§ 16.20.6 An assembly was summoned, and the people, as an expression of their gratitude to him, elected Dion general with absolute power and accorded him honours suited to a hero, and Dion in harmony with his former conduct generously absolved all his personal enemies of the charges outstanding against them and having reassured the populace brought them to a state of general harmony. The Syracusans with universal praises and with elaborate testimonials of approval honoured their benefactor as the one and only saviour of their native land. Such was the condition of affairs in Sicily.
§ 16.21.1 In Greece proper, where the Chians, Rhodians, Coans, and also the Byzantians were continuing the Social War against the Athenians, both sides were making great preparations, for they wished to decide the war by a naval battle. The Athenians had previously sent Chares forth with sixty ships, but now, manning sixty more and placing as generals in command the most distinguished of their citizens, Iphicrates and Timotheus, they dispatched this expedition along with Chares to continue war upon their allies who had revolted.
§ 16.21.2 The Chians, Rhodians, and Byzantians together with their allies manned one hundred ships and then sacked Imbros and Lemnos, Athenian islands, and having descended on Samos with a large contingent lay waste the countryside and besieged the city by land and by sea; and by ravaging many other islands that were subject to Athens they collected money for the needs of the war.
§ 16.21.3 All the Athenian generals now met and planned at first to besiege the city of the Byzantians, and when later the Chians and their allies abandoned the siege of Samos and turned to assist the Byzantians, all the fleets became massed in the Hellespont. But just at the time when the naval battle was about to take place a great wind fell upon them and thwarted their plans.
§ 16.21.4 When Chares, however, though the elements were against him, wished to fight, but Iphicrates and Timotheus opposed on account of the heavy sea, Chares, calling upon his soldiers to bear him witness, accused his colleagues of treason and wrote to the assembly about them, charging that they had purposely shirked the sea-fight. And the Athenians were so incensed that they indicted Iphicrates and Timotheus, fined them many talents, and removed them from the generalship.
§ 16.22.1 Chares, now that he had succeeded to the command of the whole fleet and was eager to relieve the Athenians of its expense, undertook a hazardous operation. Now Artabazus had revolted from the Persian King and with only a few soldiers was on the point of joining combat with the satraps who had more than seventy thousand. Chares with all his forces took part with Artabazus in a battle and defeated the King's army. And Artabazus, out of gratitude for his kindness, made him a present of a large sum of money, with which he was able to furnish his entire army with supplies.
§ 16.22.2 The Athenians at first approved Chares' action, but later, when the King sent ambassadors and denounced Chares, they changed their minds; for word had been spread abroad that the King had promised Athens' enemies that he would join them in their war against the Athenians with three hundred ships. The assembly, accordingly, taking a cautious attitude, decided to bring to a close the war against their revolted allies; and finding that they too desired peace they easily came to terms with them. So the Social War, as it was called, came to a close after lasting four years.
§ 16.22.3 In Macedon three kings combined against Philip, — the kings of the Thracians, Paeonians, and Illyrians. For these peoples, inasmuch as they bordered upon Macedonia, eyed with suspicion the aggrandizement of Philip; singly, however, they were not capable of sustaining a combat, each having suffered defeat in the past, but they supposed that, if they should join their forces in a war, they would easily have the better of Philip. So it was that, while they were still gathering their armies, Philip appeared before their dispositions were made, struck terror into them, and compelled them to join forces with the Macedonians.
§ 16.23.1 When Callistratus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Gaius Plautius. During their term of office the Sacred War, as it was called, began and lasted nine years. For Philomelus the Phocian, a man of unusual audacity and lawlessness, seized the shrine in Delphi and kindled the Sacred War for reasons somewhat as follows.
§ 16.23.2 When the Lacedemonians had fought the Leuctrian War with the Boeotians and been defeated, the Thebans brought a serious charge against the Lacedemonians in the Amphictyonic Council because of their seizure of the Cadmeia and obtained a judgement against them for a large indemnity;
§ 16.23.3 and the Phocians for having cultivated a large portion of the consecrated territory named Cirrhaean were arraigned in the Council and were fined a large number of talents. When they did not discharge the assessments, the hieromnemones of the Amphictyons brought charges against the Phocians and demanded of the Council that if the Phocians did not pay the money to the god, they should lay under a curse the land of those who were cheating the god. Likewise they declared that the others against whom judgements had been passed should discharge their fines, the Lacedemonians being in this category, and if they did not obey, they should incur the common hatred of the Greeks for their knavery.
§ 16.23.4 When the Greeks all ratified the decisions of the Amphictyons and the territory of the Phocians was about to be placed under the curse, Philomelus, who had the highest reputation among the Phocians, harangued his fellow countrymen, explaining that they were unable to pay the money on account of the magnitude of the fine, and that to allow the territory to be cursed was not only cowardly but involved them in danger since it was the destruction of the means by which they all lived.
§ 16.23.5 He endeavoured also to prove that the judgements of the Amphictyons were unjust in the highest degree, since they had inflicted huge fines for the cultivation of what was a very small parcel of land. Accordingly he advised them to treat the fines as null and void and declared that the Phocians had strong grounds for their case against the Amphictyons: for in ancient times they had held control and guardianship of the oracle. As witness he offered the most ancient and greatest of all poets, Homer who said: "Now over Phocians Schedius ruled and e'en Epistrophus, They dwelt in Cyparissus and in Pytho land of rocks."
§ 16.23.6 On this account he said they should enter a claim for the guardianship of the oracle on the ground that this belonged to the Phocians as an inheritance from their fathers. He promised that he would succeed with the enterprise if they would appoint him general with absolute power for the entire programme and give him complete authority.
§ 16.24.1 When the Phocians out of fear of the judgement elected him general with absolute power, Philomelus set about energetically to fulfil his promise. First he went to Sparta, where he conversed in private with Archidamus king of the Lacedemonians, representing that the king had an equal interest in the effort to render null and void the judgements of the Amphictyons, for there existed serious and unjust pronouncements of that Council to the injury of the Lacedemonians also.
§ 16.24.2 He accordingly disclosed to Archidamus that he had decided to seize Delphi and that if he succeeded in obtaining the guardianship of the shrine he would annul the decrees of the Amphictyons. Although Archidamus approved of the proposal, he said he would not for the present give assistance openly, but that he would co operate secretly in every respect, providing both money and mercenaries. Philomelus, having received from him fifteen talents and having added at least as much on his own account, hired foreign mercenaries and chose a thousand of the Phocians, whom he called peltasts.
§ 16.24.3 Then, after he had gathered a multitude of soldiers and had seized the oracle, he slew the group of Delphians called Thracidae who sought to oppose him and confiscated their possessions; but, observing that the others were terror-stricken, he exhorted them to be of good cheer since no danger would befall them.
§ 16.24.4 When news of the seizure of the shrine was noised abroad, the Locrians, who lived near by, straightway took the field against Philomelus. A battle took place near Delphi and the Locrians, having been defeated with the loss of many of their men, fled to their own territory, and Philomelus, being elated by his victory, hacked from the slabs the pronouncements of the Amphictyons, deleted the letters recording their judgements, and personally caused the report to be circulated that he had resolved not to plunder the oracle nor had he purposed to commit any other lawless deed, but that in support of the ancestral claim to the guardianship and because of his desire to annul the unjust decrees of the Amphictyons, he was vindicating the ancestral laws of the Phocians.
§ 16.25.1 The Boeotians, coming together in an assembly, voted to rally to the support of the oracle and immediately dispatched troops. While these things were going on, Philomelus threw a wall about the shrine and began to assemble a large number of mercenaries by raising the pay to half as much grain, and selecting the bravest of the Phocians he enrolled them and quickly had a considerable army; for with no less than five thousand troops he took up a position in defence of Delphi, already a formidable adversary for those who wished to make war upon him.
§ 16.25.2 Later on, having led an expedition into the territory of the Locrians and laid waste much of the enemy's land, he encamped near a river that flowed past a stronghold. Though he made assaults upon this, he was unable to take it and finally desisted from the siege, but joining battle with the Locrians he lost twenty of his men, and not being able to get possession of their bodies, he asked through a herald the privilege of taking them up. The Locrians, refusing to grant this, gave answer that amongst the Greeks it was the general law that temple-robbers should be cast forth without burial.
§ 16.25.3 Philomelus so resented this that he joined battle with the Locrians and, bending every effort, slew some of the enemy, and having got possession of their bodies compelled the Locrians to make an exchange of the dead. As he was master of the open country, he sacked a large portion of Locris and returned to Delphi, having given his soldiers their fill of the spoils of war. After this, since he wished to consult the oracle for the war, he compelled the Pythian priestess to mount her tripod and deliver the oracle.
§ 16.26.1 Since I have mentioned the tripod, I think it not inopportune to recount the ancient story which has been handed down about it. It is said that in ancient times goats discovered the oracular shrine, on which account even to this day the Delphians use goats preferably when they consult the oracle.
§ 16.26.2 They say that the manner of its discovery was the following. There is a chasm at this place where now is situated what is known as the "forbidden" sanctuary, and as goats had been wont to feed about this because Delphi had not as yet been settled, invariably any goat that approached the chasm and peered into it would leap about in an extraordinary fashion and utter a sound quite different from what it was formerly wont to emit.
§ 16.26.3 The herdsman in charge of the goats marvelled at the strange phenomenon and having approached had the same experience as the goats, for the goats began to act like beings possessed and the goatherd began to foretell future events. After this as the report was bruited among the people of the vicinity concerning the experience of those who approached the chasm, an increasing number of persons visited the place and, as they all tested it because of its miraculous character, whosoever approached to spot became inspired. For these reasons the oracle came to be regarded as a marvel and to be considered the prophecy-giving shrine of Earth.
§ 16.26.4 For some time all who wished to obtain a prophecy approached the chasm and made their prophetic replies to one another; but later, since many were leaping down into the chasm under the influence of their frenzy and all disappeared, it seemed best to the dwellers in that region, in order to eliminate the risk, to station one woman there as a single prophetess for all and to have the oracles told through her. And for her a contrivance was devised which she could safely mount, then become inspired and give prophecies to those who so desired.
§ 16.26.5 And this contrivance has three supports and hence was called a tripod, and, I dare say, all the bronze tripods which are constructed even to this day are made in imitation of this contrivance. In what manner, then, the oracle was discovered and for what reasons the tripod was devised I think I have told at sufficient length.
§ 16.26.6 It is said that in ancient times virgins delivered the oracles because virgins have their natural innocence intact and are in the same case as Artemis; for indeed virgins were alleged to be well suited to guard the secrecy of disclosures made by oracles. In more recent times, however, people say that Echecrates the Thessalian, having arrived at the shrine and beheld the virgin who uttered the oracle, became enamoured of her because of her beauty, carried her away with him and violated her; and that the Delphians because of this deplorable occurrence passed a law that in future a virgin should no longer prophesy but that an elderly woman of fifty should declare the oracles and that she should be dressed in the costume of a virgin, as a sort of reminder of the prophetess of olden times. Such are the details of the legend regarding the discovery of the oracle; and now we shall turn to the activities of olden times.
§ 16.27.1 When Philomelus had control of the oracle he directed the Pythia to make her prophecies from the tripod in the ancestral fashion. But when she replied that such was not the ancestral fashion, he threatened her harshly and compelled her to mount the tripod. Then when she frankly declared, referring to the superior power of the man who was resorting to violence: "It is in your power to do as you please," he gladly accepted her utterance and declared that he had the oracle which suited him. He immediately had the oracle inscribed and set it up in full view, and made it clear to everyone that the god gave him the authority to do as he pleased.
§ 16.27.2 Having got together an assembly and disclosed the prophecy to the multitude and urged them to be of good cheer, he turned to the business of the war. There came to him an omen as well, in the sanctuary of Apollo, namely an eagle which, after flying over the temple of the god and swooping down to earth, preyed upon the pigeons which were maintained in the sanctuary, some of which it snatched away from the very altars. Those versed in such matters declared that the omen indicated to Philomelus and the Phocians that they would control the affairs of Delphi.
§ 16.27.3 Elated accordingly by these events, he selected the best qualified of his friends for the embassies, and sent some to Athens, some to Lacedemon, and some to Thebes; and he likewise sent envoys to the other most distinguished cities of the Greek world, explaining that he had seized Delphi, not with any designs upon its sacred properties but to assert a claim to the guardianship of the sanctuary; for this guardianship had been ordained in early times as belonging to the Phocians.
§ 16.27.4 He said he would render due account of the property to all Greeks and expressed himself as ready to report the weight and the number of the dedications to all who wished examination. But he requested that, if any through enmity or envy were to engage in war against the Phocians, these cities should preferably join forces with him, or, if not, at least maintain peaceful relations.
§ 16.27.5 When the envoys had accomplished their appointed mission, the Athenians, Lacedemonians, and some others arranged an alliance with him and promised assistance, but the Boeotians, Locrians, and some others passed decrees to the contrary intent and renewed the war in behalf of the god upon the Phocians. Such were the events of this year.
§ 16.28.1 When Diotimus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Marcius and Gnaeus Manlius. During their term of office Philomelus, foreseeing the magnitude of the war, began to gather a multitude of mercenaries and to select for active duty those of the Phocians who were fit.
§ 16.28.2 Although the war required additional funds, he kept his hands off the sacred dedications, but he did exact from the Delphians, who were exceptionally prosperous and wealthy, a sufficient sum of money to pay the mercenaries. Having accordingly prepared a large army, he led it into the open country and was obviously holding himself ready to join issue with any who were hostile to the Phocians.
§ 16.28.3 And when the Locrians took the field against him a battle was fought near the cliffs called Phaedriades, in which Philomelus won the victory, having slain many of the enemy and taken not a few alive, while some he forced to hurl themselves over the precipices. After this battle the Phocians were elated by their successes, but the Locrians, being quite dejected, sent ambassadors to Thebes asking the Boeotians to come to their support and the god's.
§ 16.28.4 The Boeotians because of their reverence for the gods and because of the advantage they gained if the decisions of the Amphictyons were enforced, sent embassies to the Thessalians and the other Amphictyons demanding that they make war in common against the Phocians. But when the Amphictyons voted the war against the Phocians much confusion and disagreement reigned throughout the length and breadth of Greece. For some decided to stand by the god and punish the Phocians as temple-robbers, while others inclined toward giving the Phocians assistance.
§ 16.29.1 As tribes and cities were divided in their choice, the Boeotians, Locrians, Thessalians, and Perrhaebians decided to aid the shrine, and in addition the Dorians and Dolopians, likewise the Athamanians, Achaeans of Phthiotis, and the Magnesians, also the Aenianians and some others; while the Athenians, Lacedemonians, and some others of the Peloponnesians fought on the side of the Phocians.
§ 16.29.2 In the Leuctrian War the Thebans, after defeating the enemy, brought suit before the Amphictyons against the Spartans, the charge being that Phoebidas the Spartan had seized the Cadmeia, and the Amphictyons assessed a fine of five hundred talents for the offence. Then when the Lacedemonians had had judgement entered against them and failed to pay the fine during the period set by the laws, the Thebans again brought suit, this time for double damages.
§ 16.29.3 When the Amphictyons set the judgement at a thousand talents, the Lacedemonians, on account of the large amount of the fine, made declarations similar to those of the Phocians, saying that an unjust judgement had been rendered against them by the Amphictyons.
§ 16.29.4 Wherefore, though their interests were now common, the Lacedemonians hesitated to begin war by themselves on account of the adverse judgement, but thought that it was more seemly to annul the judgements of the Amphictyons through the agency of the Phocians. For these particular reasons they were very ready to fight on the side of the Phocians and they co operated in securing for them the guardianship of the sanctuary.
§ 16.30.1 When it was clear that the Boeotians would take the field with a large army against the Phocians, Philomelus decided to gather a great number of mercenaries. Since the war required ampler funds he was compelled to lay his hands on the sacred dedications and to plunder the oracle. By setting the base pay for the mercenaries at half as much again as was usual he quickly assembled a large number of mercenaries, since many answered the summons to the campaign on account of the size of the pay.
§ 16.30.2 Now no men of honourable character enrolled for the campaign because of their reverence for the gods, but the worst knaves, and those who despised the gods, because of their own greed, eagerly gathered about Philomelus and quickly a strong army was formed out of those whose object it was to plunder the shrine.
§ 16.30.3 So Philomelus, because of the magnitude of his resources, soon had prepared a considerable army. He immediately advanced into the territory of the Locrians with soldiers both foot and horse amounting to more than ten thousand. When the Locrians marshalled their forces to meet him and the Boeotians came to the support of the Locrians, a cavalry battle ensued in which the Phocians had the superiority.
§ 16.30.4 After this the Thessalians together with the allies from neighbouring districts, having assembled to the number of six thousand, arrived in Locris and joining battle with the Phocians met with a defeat by a hill called Argolas. When the Boeotians put in an appearance with thirteen thousand men and the Achaeans from the Peloponnesus came to the support of the Phocians with fifteen hundred, the armies encamped over against one another, both assembled in one place.
§ 16.31.1 After this the Boeotians, who had taken captive on foraging parties a good many mercenaries, brought them out in front of the city and made an announcement by heralds that the Amphictyons were punishing with death these men present who had enlisted with the temple-robbers; and immediately, making the deed follow the word, shot them all down.
§ 16.31.2 But the mercenaries serving with the Phocians were so enraged by this that they demanded of Philomelus that he mete out the like punishment to the enemy, and then, when, bending every effort, they had taken captive many men who were straggling up and down the countryside where the enemy were, they brought them back and all these Philomelus shot. Through this punishment they forced the opposite side to give up their overweening and cruel vengeance.
§ 16.31.3 After this, as the armies were invading another district and were making a march through heavily wooded rough regions, both vanguards suddenly became intermingled. An engagement took place and then a sharp battle in which the Boeotians, who far outnumbered the Phocians, defeated them.
§ 16.31.4 As the flight took place through precipitous and almost impassable country many of the Phocians and their mercenaries were cut down. Philomelus, after he had fought courageously and had suffered many wounds, was driven into a precipitous area and there hemmed in, and since there was no exit from it and he feared the torture after capture, he hurled himself over the cliff and having thus made atonement to the gods ended his life.
§ 16.31.5 Onomarchus, his colleague in the generalship, having succeeded to the command and retreated with such of his force as survived, collected any who returned from the flight.
§ 16.31.6 While these things were going on, Philip, king of the Macedonians, after taking Methone by storm and pillaging it, razed it to the ground, and having subdued Pagasae forced it to submit. In the region of the Black Sea Leucon, the king of the Bosporus, died after ruling forty years, and Spartacus, his son, succeeding to the throne, reigned for five years.
§ 16.31.7 A war took place between the Romans and Faliscans and nothing important or memorable was accomplished; only raids and pillaging of the territory of the Faliscans went on. In Sicily after Dion the general had been slain by some mercenaries from Zacynthos, Callippus, who had procured them for the assassination, succeeded him and ruled thirteen months.
§ 16.32.1 When Thudemus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Poplius and Marcus Fabius. During their term of office, now that the Boeotians had won a victory over the Phocians and were of the opinion that the fate of Philomelus, who was chiefly responsible for the plundering of the temple and who had been punished by gods and men, would deter the rest from like villainy, they returned to their own country.
§ 16.32.2 But the Phocians, now freed from the war, for the present returned to Delphi and there meeting with their allies in a common assembly deliberated on the war. The moderate parties inclined toward the peace, but the irreligious, the hot-headed and avaricious were of the opposite opinion and were looking around to find the proper spokesman to support their lawless aims.
§ 16.32.3 When Onomarchus arose and delivered a carefully argued speech urging them to adhere to their original purpose, he swung the sentiment of the gathering toward war, though he did so not so much with the intention of consulting the common welfare as with a view to his own interests, for he had been sentenced frequently and severely by the Amphictyons in the same manner as the rest and had not discharged the fines. Accordingly, seeing that war was more desirable for himself than peace, he quite logically urged the Phocians and their allies to adhere to the project of Philomelus.
§ 16.32.4 Having been chosen general with supreme command, he began to collect a large number of mercenaries, and, filling the gaps in his ranks caused by the casualties and having increased his army by the large number of foreigners enrolled, he set about making great preparations of allies and of everything else that is serviceable for war.
§ 16.33.1 He was greatly encouraged in this undertaking by a dream which gave intimation of great increase of power and glory. In his sleep, namely, it seemed that he was remodelling with his own hands the bronze statue which the Amphictyons had dedicated in the sanctuary of Apollo, making it much taller and larger. He accordingly assumed that a sign was being given to him from the gods that there would be an increase of glory because of his services as general. But truth turned out to be otherwise, rather the contrary was indicated because of the fact that the Amphictyons had dedicated the statue out of the fines paid by the Phocians who had acted lawlessly toward the shrine and had been fined for so doing.
§ 16.33.2 What was indicated was that the fine of the Phocians would take on an increase at the hands of Onomarchus; and such turned out to be the case. Onomarchus, when he had been chosen general in supreme command, prepared a great supply of weapons from the bronze and iron, and having struck coinage from the silver and gold distributed it among the allied cities and chiefly gave it as bribes to the leaders of those cities.
§ 16.33.3 Indeed he succeeded in corrupting many of the enemy too, some of whom he persuaded to fight on his side, and others he required to maintain the peace. He easily accomplished everything because of man's greed. In fact he persuaded even the Thessalians, who were held in highest esteem amongst the allies, by bribes to maintain the peace. In his dealings with the Phocians he also arrested and executed those who opposed him and confiscated their property. After invading the territory of the enemy he took Thronion by storm and reduced its inhabitants to slavery, and having intimidated the Amphissans by threats he forced them to submit.
§ 16.33.4 He sacked the cities of the Dorians and ravaged their territory. He invaded Boeotia, captured Orchomenus, then, having attempted to reduce Chaeroneia by siege and being defeated by the Thebans, he returned to his own territory.
§ 16.34.1 While these things were going on, Artabazus, who had revolted from the Persian King, continued the war against the satraps who had been dispatched by the King to take part in the war against him. At first when Chares the Athenian general was fighting with him, Artabazus resisted the satraps courageously, but when Chares had gone and he was left alone he induced the Thebans to send him an auxiliary force. Choosing Pammenes as general and giving him five thousand soldiers, they dispatched him to Asia.
§ 16.34.2 Pammenes, by the support he gave to Artabazus and by defeating the satraps in two great battles, won great glory for himself and the Boeotians. Now it seemed an amazing thing that the Boeotians, after the Thessalians had left them in the lurch, and when the war with the Phocians was threatening them with serious dangers, should be sending armies across the sea into Asia and for the most part proving successful in the battles.
§ 16.34.3 While these things were going on, war broke out between the Argives and the Lacedemonians, and in a battle that took place near the city of Orneae the Lacedemonians won, and after they had taken Orneae by siege, returned to Sparta. Chares the Athenian general sailed to the Hellespont, captured Sestus, slew its adult inhabitants, and enslaved the rest.
§ 16.34.4 And when Cersobleptes, son of Cotys, because of his hostility to Philip and his alliance of friendship with the Athenians, had turned over to the Athenians the cities on the Chersonese except Cardia, the assembly sent out colonists to these cities. Philip, perceiving that the people of Methone were permitting their city to become a base of operations for his enemies, began a siege.
§ 16.34.5 And although for a time the people of Methone held out, later, being overpowered, they were compelled to hand the city over to the king on the terms that the citizens should leave Methone with a single garment each. Philip then razed the city and distributed its territory among the Macedonians. In this siege it so happened that Philip was struck in the eye by an arrow and lost the sight of that eye.
§ 16.35.1 After this Philip in response to a summons from the Thessalians entered Thessaly with his army, and at first carried on a war against Lycophron, tyrant of Pherae, in support of the Thessalians; but later, when Lycophron summoned an auxiliary force from his allies the Phocians, Phayllus, the brother of Onomarchus, was dispatched with seven thousand men. But Philip defeated the Phocians and drove them out of Thessaly.
§ 16.35.2 Then Onomarchus came in haste with his entire military strength to the support of Lycophron, believing that he would dominate all Thessaly. When Philip in company with the Thessalians joined battle against the Phocians, Onomarchus with his superior numbers defeated him in two battles and slew many of the Macedonians. As for Philip, he was reduced to the uttermost perils and his soldiers were so despondent that they had deserted him, but by arousing the courage of the majority, he got them with great difficulty to obey his orders.
§ 16.35.3 Later Philip withdrew to Macedonia, and Onomarchus, marching into Boeotia, defeated the Boeotians in battle and took the city of Coroneia. As for Thessaly, however, Philip had just at that time returned with his army from Macedonia and had taken the field against Lycophron, tyrant of Pherae.
§ 16.35.4 Lycophron, however, since he was no match for him in strength, summoned reinforcements from his allies the Phocians, promising jointly with them to organize the government of all Thessaly. So when Onomarchus in haste came to his support with twenty thousand foot and five hundred horse, Philip, having persuaded the Thessalians to prosecute the war in common, gathered them all together, numbering more than twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse.
§ 16.35.5 A severe battle took place and since the Thessalian cavalry were superior in numbers and valour, Philip won. Because Onomarchus had fled toward the sea and Chares the Athenian was by chance sailing by with many triremes, a great slaughter of the Phocians took place, for the men in their effort to escape would strip off their armour and try to swim out to the triremes, and among them was Onomarchus.
§ 16.35.6 Finally more than six thousand of the Phocians and mercenaries were slain, and among them the general himself; and no less than three thousand were taken captives. Philip hanged Onomarchus; the rest he threw into the sea as temple-robbers.
§ 16.36.1 After the death of Onomarchus his brother Phayllus succeeded to the command of the Phocians. In an attempt to retrieve the disaster, he began to gather a multitude of mercenaries, offering double the customary pay, and summoned help from his allies. He got ready also a large supply of arms and coined gold and silver money.
§ 16.36.2 About the same time Mausolus, the tyrant of Caria, died after ruling twenty-four years, and Artemisia, his sister and wife, succeeded to the throne and reigned for two years.
§ 16.36.3 Clearchus, the tyrant of Heracleia, was slain during the festival of Dionysus as he went to witness the spectacle, after ruling twelve years, and his son Timotheus succeeded to the throne and ruled for fifteen years.
§ 16.36.4 The Etruscans, continuing their war with the Romans, sacked much of the enemy territory and after marauding as far as the Tiber returned to their own country.
§ 16.36.5 In Syracuse, civil strife having broken out between the friends of Dion and Callippus, Dion's friends were defeated, fled to Leontini, and, after a short time, when Hipparinus son of Dionysius had put ashore at Syracuse with troops, Callippus was defeated and driven from the city, and Hipparinus, having recovered his father's realm, ruled for two years.
§ 16.37.1 When Aristodemus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Valerius, and the one hundred seventh celebration of the Olympian games was held, in which Micrinas of Tarentum won the stadion race. During their term of office Phayllus, the general of the Phocians after the death and defeat of his brother, effected another revival of the affairs of the Phocians, then at a low ebb on account of the defeat and slaughter of their soldiers.
§ 16.37.2 For since he had an inexhaustible supply of money he gathered a large body of mercenaries, and persuaded not a few allies to co operate in renewing the war. In fact, by making lavish use of his abundance of money he not only procured many individuals as enthusiastic helpers, but also lured the most renowned cities into joining his enterprise.
§ 16.37.3 The Lacedemonians, for example, sent him a thousand soldiers, the Achaeans two thousand, the Athenians five thousand foot and four hundred horse with Nausicles as their general. The tyrants of Pherae, Lycophron and Peitholaus, who were destitute of allies after the death of Onomarchus, gave Pherae over to Philip, while they themselves, being protected by terms of truce, brought together their mercenaries to the number of two thousand, and, having fled with these to Phayllus, joined the Phocians as allies.
§ 16.37.4 Not a few of the lesser cities as well actively supported the Phocians because of the abundance of money that had been distributed; for gold that incites man's covetousness compelled them to desert to the side which would enable them to profit from their gains.
§ 16.37.5 Phayllus accordingly with his army carried the campaign into Boeotia, and, suffering defeat near the city of Orchomenus, lost a great number of men. Later in another battle that took place by the Cephisus River the Boeotians won again and slew over five hundred of the enemy and took no fewer than four hundred prisoners.
§ 16.37.6 A few days later, in a battle that took place near Coroneia, the Boeotians were victorious and slew fifty of the Phocians, and took one hundred thirty prisoners. Now that we have recounted the affairs of the Boeotians and Phocians we shall return to Philip.
§ 16.38.1 Philip, after his defeat of Onomarchus in a noteworthy battle, put an end to the tyranny in Pherae, and, after restoring its freedom to the city and settling all other matters in Thessaly, advanced to Thermopylae, intending to make war on the Phocians.
§ 16.38.2 But since the Athenians prevented him from penetrating the pass, he returned to Macedonia, having enlarged his kingdom not only by his achievement but also by his reverence toward the god.
§ 16.38.3 Phayllus, having made a campaign into the Locris known as Epicnemidian, succeeded in capturing all the cities but one named Naryx, which he had taken by treachery at night but from which he was expelled again with the loss of two hundred of his men.
§ 16.38.4 Later as he was encamped near a place called Abae, the Boeotians attacked the Phocians at night and slew a great number of them; then, elated by their success, they passed into Phocian territory, and, by pillaging a great portion of it, gathered a quantity of booty.
§ 16.38.5 As they were on their way back and were assisting the city of the Narycaeans, which was under siege, Phayllus suddenly appeared, put the Boeotians to flight, and having taken the city by storm, plundered and razed it.
§ 16.38.6 But Phayllus himself, falling sick of a wasting disease, after a long illness, suffering great pain as befitted his impious life, died, leaving Phalaecus, son of the Onomarchus who had kindled the Sacred War, as general of the Phocians, a stripling in years, at whose side he had placed as guardian and supporting general Mnaseas, one of his own friends.
§ 16.38.7 After this in a night attack upon the Phocians the Boeotians slew their general Mnaseas and about two hundred of his men. A short while later in a cavalry battle which took place near Chaeroneia, Phalaecus was defeated and lost a large number of his cavalry.
§ 16.39.1 While these things were going on, throughout the Peloponnese also disturbances and disorders had occurred for the following reasons. The Lacedemonians, being at variance with the Megalopolitans, overran their country with Archidamus in command, and the Megalopolitans, incensed over their actions but not strong enough to fight by themselves, summoned aid from their allies.
§ 16.39.2 Now the Argives, Sicyonians, and Messenians in full force and with all speed came to their assistance; and the Thebans dispatched four thousand foot and five hundred horse with Cephision placed in charge as general.
§ 16.39.3 The Megalopolitans accordingly, having taken the field with their allies, encamped near the headwaters of the Alpheius River, while the Lacedemonians were reinforced by three thousand foot-soldiers from the Phocians and one hundred fifty cavalry from Lycophron and Peitholaus, the exiled tyrants of Pherae, and, having mustered an army capable of doing battle, encamped by Mantineia.
§ 16.39.4 Then having advanced to the Argive city of Orneae, they captured it before the arrival of the enemy, for it was an ally of the Megalopolitans. When the Argives took the field against them, they joined battle and defeated them and slew more than two hundred.
§ 16.39.5 Then the Thebans appeared, and since they were in number twice as many though inferior in discipline, a stubborn battle was engaged; and as the victory hung in doubt, the Argives and their allies withdrew to their own cities, while the Lacedemonians, after invading Arcadia and taking the city Helisson by storm and plundering it, returned to Sparta.
§ 16.39.6 Some time after this the Thebans with their allies conquered the enemy near Telphusa and after slaying many took captive Anaxander, who was in command, along with more than sixty others. A short time later they had the advantage in two other battles and felled a considerable number of their opponents.
§ 16.39.7 Finally, when the Lacedemonians proved victorious in an important battle, the armies on both sides withdrew to their own cities. Then when the Lacedemonians made an armistice with the Megalopolitans the Thebans went back to Boeotia.
§ 16.39.8 But Phalaecus, who was lingering in Boeotia, seized Chaeroneia and when the Thebans came to its rescue, was expelled from the city. Then the Boeotians, who now with a large army invaded Phocis, sacked the greater portion of it and plundered the farms throughout the countryside; and having taken also some of the small towns and gathered an abundance of booty, they returned to Boeotia.
§ 16.40.1 When Theellus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Titus Quintius. During their term of office the Thebans, growing weary of the war against the Phocians and finding himself short of funds, sent ambassadors to the King of the Persians urging him to furnish the city with a large sum of money.
§ 16.40.2 Artaxerxes, readily acceding to the request, made a gift to them of three hundred talents of silver. Between the Boeotians and the Phocians skirmishes and raids on each other's territory occurred but no actions worth mentioning took place during this year.
§ 16.40.3 In Asia the King of the Persians, who had in the period treated above made an expedition into Egypt with vast multitudes of soldiers and was unsuccessful, made war on the Egyptians and, after carrying out some remarkable feats by his own forceful activity, regained possession of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Cyprus.
§ 16.40.4 To make clear the history of these events I shall set forth first the causes of the war by reviewing again briefly the period to which these events properly belong. We recall that, when the Egyptians revolted from the Persians in the earlier period, Artaxerxes, known as Ochus, himself unwarlike, remained inactive, and though he sent out armies and generals many times, failed in his attempts because of the cowardice and inexperience of the leaders.
§ 16.40.5 And so, though regarded with contempt by the Egyptians, he was compelled to be patient because of his own inertia and peace-loving nature. But in the period now under discussion, when the Phoenicians and the kings in Cyprus had imitated the Egyptians and in contemptuous disregard of him made a move to revolt, he became enraged and decided to make war upon the insurgents.
§ 16.40.6 So he rejected the practice of sending out generals, and adopted the plan of carrying out in person the struggles to preserve his kingdom. Wherefore, having made great provision of arms, missiles, food, and forces, he assembled three hundred thousand foot-soldiers, thirty thousand horsemen, three hundred triremes, and five hundred merchantmen and other ships to carry the supplies.
§ 16.41.1 He began to make war also on the Phoenicians for the following reasons. In Phoenicia there is an important city called Tripolis, whose name is appropriate to its nature, for there are in it three cities, at a distance of a stade from one another, and the names by which these are called are the city of the Aradians, of the Sidonians, and of the Tyrians. This city enjoys the highest repute amongst the cities of Phoenicia, for there, as it happens, the Phoenicians held their common council and deliberated on matters of supreme importance.
§ 16.41.2 Now since the King's satraps and generals dwelt in the city of the Sidonians and behaved in an outrageous and high-handed fashion toward the Sidonians in ordering things to be done, the victims of this treatment, aggrieved by their insolence, decided to revolt from the Persians.
§ 16.41.3 Having persuaded the rest of the Phoenicians to make a bid for their independence, they sent ambassadors to the Egyptian king Nectanebos, who was an enemy of the Persians, and after persuading him to accept them as allies they began to make preparations for the war.
§ 16.41.4 Inasmuch as Sidon was distinguished for its wealth and its private citizens had amassed great riches from its shipping, many triremes were quickly outfitted and a multitude of mercenaries gathered, and, besides, arms, missiles, food, and all other materials useful in war were provided with dispatch.
§ 16.41.5 The first hostile act was the cutting down and destroying of the royal park in which the Persian Kings were wont to take their recreation; the second was the burning of the fodder for the horses which had been stored up by the satraps for the war; last of all they arrested such Persians as had committed the acts of insolence and wreaked vengeance upon them.
§ 16.41.6 Such was the beginning of the war with the Phoenicians, and Artaxerxes, being apprised of the rash acts of the insurgents, issued threatening warnings to all the Phoenicians and in particular to the people of Sidon.
§ 16.42.1 In Babylon the King, after assembling his infantry and cavalry forces, immediately assumed command of them and advanced against the Phoenicians. While he was still on his way, Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazaeus, the governor of Cilicia, having joined forces, opened the war against the Phoenicians.
§ 16.42.2 Tennes, the king of Sidon, acquired from the Egyptians four thousand Greek mercenary soldiers whose general was Mentor the Rhodian. With these and the citizen soldiery he engaged the aforementioned satraps, defeated them, and drove the enemy out of Phoenicia.
§ 16.42.3 While these things were going on, a war broke out in Cyprus also, the actions in which were interwoven with the war we have just mentioned.
§ 16.42.4 For in this island were nine populous cities, and under them were ranged the small towns which were suburbs of the nine cities. Each of these cities had a king who governed the city and was subject to the King of the Persians.
§ 16.42.5 All these kings in common agreement and in imitation of the Phoenicians revolted, and having made preparations for the war, declared their own kingdoms independent.
§ 16.42.6 Incensed at these actions, Artaxerxes wrote to Idrieus, despot of Caria, who had just acquired his office and was a friend and ally of the Persians by inheritance from his ancestors, to collect an infantry force and a navy to carry on a war with the kings in Cyprus.
§ 16.42.7 Idrieus, after making ready immediately forty triremes and eight thousand mercenary soldiers, sent them to Cyprus, having placed in command as their generals Phocion the Athenian and Evagoras, who had in the former period been king in the island.
§ 16.42.8 So these two, having sailed to Cyprus, at once led their army against Salamis, the largest of the cities. Having set up a palisade and fortified the encampment, they began to besiege the Salaminians by land and also by sea. Since all the island had enjoyed peace for a long time and the territory was wealthy, the soldiers, who had possession of the open country, gathered much booty.
§ 16.42.9 When word of their affluence got abroad, many soldiers from the opposite coast of Syria and Cilicia flocked over voluntarily in the hope of gain. Finally, after the army with Evagoras and Phocion had been doubled in size, the kings throughout Cyprus fell into a state of great anxiety and terror. Such was the situation in Cyprus.
§ 16.43.1 After this the King of the Persians, who had begun his journey from Babylon, marched with his army against Phoenicia. The ruler of Sidon, Tennes, who was informed of the great size of the Persian army and thought that the insurgents were incapable of fighting against it, decided to provide for his personal safety.
§ 16.43.2 Accordingly, without the knowledge of the people of Sidon, he sent the most faithful of his own henchmen, Thettalion, to Artaxerxes with the promise that he would betray Sidon to him, would assist him in vanquishing Egypt, and would render him great service, since he was acquainted with the topography of Egypt and knew accurately the landing-places along the Nile.
§ 16.43.3 The King on hearing from Thettalion these particulars was extremely pleased and said that he would free Tennes of the charges relative to the revolt, and he promised to give him rich rewards if he performed all that he had agreed upon. But when Thettalion added that Tennes wished him also to confirm his promise by giving his right hand, thereupon the King, flying into a rage at the thought that he was not trusted, handed Thettalion over to his attendants and gave orders to take off his head.
§ 16.43.4 But when, as Thettalion was being led off to his punishment, he simply said: "You, O King, will do as you please, but Tennes, though he is able to achieve complete success, since you refuse the pledge, will assuredly not perform any of his promises," the King, hearing what he said, again changed his mind and recalling the attendants directed them to release Thettalion, and then he gave him his right hand, which is the surest pledge amongst the Persians. Thettalion accordingly returned to Sidon and reported what had happened to Tennes without the knowledge of the people of Sidon.
§ 16.44.1 The Persian King, accounting it a matter of great importance, in view of his former defeat, to overthrow Egypt, dispatched envoys to the greatest cities of Greece requesting them to join the Persians in the campaign against the Egyptians. Now the Athenians and the Lacedemonians replied that they continued to observe their friendship for the Persians, but were opposed to sending troops as allies.
§ 16.44.2 But the Thebans, choosing Lacrates as general, dispatched him with a thousand hoplites. And the Argives sent three thousand men; they did not, however, choose a general themselves, but when the King requested Nicostratus specifically as general, they concurred.
§ 16.44.3 Now Nicostratus was good both in action and in counsel, but there was madness mingled with his intelligence; for since he excelled in bodily strength, he would imitate Heracles when on a campaign by wearing a lion's skin and carrying a club in battle.
§ 16.44.4 Following the example of these states, the Greeks who inhabited the sea-coast of Asia Minor dispatched six thousand men, making the total number of Greeks who served as allies ten thousand. Before their arrival the Persian King, after he had traversed Syria and reached Phoenicia, encamped not far from Sidon.
§ 16.44.5 As for the Sidonians, while the King had been slow to move, they attended assiduously to the preparation of food, armour, and missiles. Likewise they had encompassed their city with huge triple ditches and constructions of lofty walls.
§ 16.44.6 They had also an ample number of citizen soldiers well trained in exercises and hard work and of superior bodily condition and strength. In wealth and in other resources the city far excelled the other cities of Phoenicia and, most important of all, it had more than a hundred triremes and quinqueremes.
§ 16.45.1 Tennes, having confided his scheme for betrayal to Mentor the commander of the mercenaries from Egypt, left him to guard a portion of the city and to act in concert with his agents handling the betrayal, while he himself, with five hundred men, marched out of the city, pretending that he was going to a common meeting of the Phoenicians, and he took with him the most distinguished of the citizens, to the number of one hundred, in the role of advisers.
§ 16.45.2 When they had come near the King he suddenly seized the hundred and delivered them to Artaxerxes. The King, welcoming him as a friend, had the hundred shot as instigators of the revolt, and when five hundred of the leading Sidonians carrying olive branches approached him, he summoned Tennes and asked him if he was able to deliver the city to him; for he was very eager not to receive Sidon on the terms of a capitulation, since his aim was to overwhelm the Sidonians with a merciless disaster and to strike terror into the other cities by their punishment.
§ 16.45.3 When Tennes assured him that he would deliver up the city, the King, maintaining his merciless rage, had all five hundred shot down while still holding the supplicant branches. Thereupon Tennes, approaching the mercenaries from Egypt, prevailed upon them to lead him and the King inside the walls.
§ 16.45.4 So Sidon by this base betrayal was delivered into the power of the Persians; and the King, believing that Tennes was of no further use to him, put him to death. But the people of Sidon before the arrival of the King burned all their ships so that none of the townspeople should be able by sailing out secretly to gain safety for himself. But when they saw the city and the walls captured and swarming with many myriads of soldiers, they shut themselves, their children, and their women up in their houses and consumed them all in flames.
§ 16.45.5 They say that those who were then destroyed in the fire, including the domestics, amounted to more than forty thousand. After this disaster had befallen the Sidonians and the whole city together with its inhabitants had been obliterated by the fire, the King sold that funeral pyre for many talents,
§ 16.45.6 for as a result of the prosperity of the householders there was found a vast amount of silver and gold melted down by the fire. So the disasters which had overtaken Sidon had such an ending, and the rest of the cities, panic-stricken, went over to the Persians.
§ 16.45.7 Shortly before this time Artemisia, who had held despotic rule over Caria, passed away after ruling two years, and Idrieus, her brother, succeeded to the despotism and ruled seven years.
§ 16.45.8 In Italy the Romans made an armistice with the people of Praeneste, and a treaty with the Samnites, and they put to death two hundred sixty inhabitants of Tarquinii at the hands of the public executioners in the Forum.
§ 16.45.9 In Sicily Leptines and Callippus, the Syracusans then in power, took by siege Rhegium, which was garrisoned by the tyrant Dionysius the younger, ejected the garrison, and restored to the people of Rhegium their independence.
§ 16.46.1 When Apollodorus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius and Gaius Sulpicius. During their term of office, in Cyprus, while the people of Salamis were being besieged by Evagoras and Phocion, the rest of the cities all became subject to the Persians, and Pnytagoras, the king of Salamis, alone continued to endure the siege.
§ 16.46.2 Now Evagoras was endeavouring to recover his ancestral rule over the Salaminians and through the help of the King of the Persians to be restored to his kingship. But later, when he had been falsely accused to Artaxerxes and the King was backing Pnytagoras, Evagoras, after having given up hope of his restoration, and made his defence on the accusations brought against him, was accorded another and higher command in Asia.
§ 16.46.3 But then when he had misgoverned his province he fled again to Cyprus and, arrested there, paid the penalty. Pnytagoras, who had made willing submission to the Persians, continued thenceforth to rule unmolested as king in Salamis.
§ 16.46.4 After the capture of Sidon and the arrival of his allies from Argos and Thebes and the Greek cities in Asia, the King of the Persians assembled all his army and advanced against Egypt.
§ 16.46.5 As he came to the great marsh where are the Barathra or Pits, as they are called, he lost a portion of his army through his lack of knowledge of the region. Since we have discoursed earlier on the nature of the marsh and the peculiar mishaps which occur there in the first Book of our History, we shall refrain from making a second statement about it.
§ 16.46.6 Having passed through the Barathra with his army the King came to Pelusium. This is a city at the first mouth at which the Nile debouches into the sea. Now the Persians encamped at a distance of forty stades from Pelusium, but the Greeks close to the town itself.
§ 16.46.7 The Egyptians, since the Persians had given them plenty of time for preparation, had already fortified well all the mouths of the Nile, particularly the one near Pelusium because it was the first and the most advantageously situated.
§ 16.46.8 Five thousand soldiers garrisoned the position, Philophron the Spartiate being the general in command. The Thebans, being eager to show themselves the best of the Greeks that were taking part in the expedition, were the first to venture, unsupported and recklessly, to make a crossing through a narrow and deep canal.
§ 16.46.9 They had passed through it and were assaulting the walls when the garrison of Pelusium sallied forth from the city and engaged in battle with the Thebans. As the engagement proved severe because of the intense rivalry on both sides, they spent the whole of that day in the battle and were separated only by the night.
§ 16.47.1 Then on the next day, as the king divided the Greek army into three contingents, each contingent had a Greek general, and stationed along beside him a Persian officer, a man preferred above the others for valour and loyalty.
§ 16.47.2 Now the forward position was held by the Boeotians, who had as general the Theban Lacrates and as Persian officer Rhosaces. The latter was a descendant of one of the seven Persians who deposed the Magi; he was satrap of Ionia and Lydia, and he was accompanied by a large force of cavalry and no small body of infantry composed of barbarians.
§ 16.47.3 Next in line was the Argive contingent of which Nicostratus was general and with him as Persian colleague Aristazanes. The latter was an usher of the King and the most faithful of his friends after Bagoas; and assigned to him were five thousand elite soldiers and eighty triremes.
§ 16.47.4 Of the third contingent Mentor was general, he who had betrayed Sidon, having the mercenaries that were formerly under his command; and associated with him on the expedition was Bagoas, whom the King trusted most, a man exceptionally daring and impatient of propriety; and he had the King's Greeks and an ample force of barbarians and not a few ships.
§ 16.47.5 The King himself with the remainder of the army held himself in reserve for the whole operation. Such being the distribution of the army on the Persian side, the king of the Egyptians, Nectanebos, was dismayed neither by the multitude of the enemy nor by the general disposition of the Persian forces, though his numbers were far inferior.
§ 16.47.6 In fact he had twenty thousand Greek mercenaries, about the same number of Libyans, and sixty thousand Egyptians of the caste known amongst them as "The Warriors", and besides these an incredible number of river-boats suited for battles and engagements on the Nile.
§ 16.47.7 The bank of the river facing Arabia had been strongly fortified by him, being a region crowded with towns and, besides, all intersected by walls and ditches. Although he had ready also all the other preparations which were adequate for the war, yet because of his own poor judgement he met with complete disaster.
§ 16.48.1 The reason for his defeat was chiefly his lack of experience as a general and the fact that the Persians had been defeated by him in the previous expedition.
§ 16.48.2 For he had then had as his generals men who were distinguished and superior both in valour and in sagacity in the art of war, Diophantus the Athenian and Lamius the Spartan, and it was because of them that he had been victorious in all respects. At this time, however, since he supposed that he himself was a competent general, he would not share the command with anyone and so, because of his inexperience, was unable to execute any of the moves that would have been useful in this war.
§ 16.48.3 Now when he had provided the towns here and there with considerable garrisons, he maintained a strict guard there, and having in his own command thirty thousand Egyptians, five thousand Greeks, and half the Libyans, he held them in reserve to defend the most exposed approaches. Such being the disposition of the forces on both sides, Nicostratus, the general of the Argives, having as guides Egyptians whose children and wives were held as hostages by the Persians, sailed by with his fleet through a canal into a hidden district and, disembarking his men and fortifying a site for a camp, encamped there.
§ 16.48.4 The mercenaries of the Egyptians who were keeping a strict guard in the neighbourhood, observing the presence of the enemy, straightway made a sally in number not less than seven thousand.
§ 16.48.5 Cleinius the Coan, their commander, drew up his force in line of battle. And when those who had sailed in were drawn up opposite, a sharp battle ensued in the course of which the Greeks serving with the Persians, fighting brilliantly, slew the general Cleinius and cut down more than five thousand of the rest of the soldiers.
§ 16.48.6 Nectanebos the Egyptian king, on hearing of the loss of his men, was terror-stricken, thinking that the rest of the Persian army also would easily cross the river.
§ 16.48.7 Assuming that the enemy with their entire army would come to the very gates of Memphis, he decided first and foremost to take precautionary measures to protect the city. Accordingly he returned to Memphis with the army he had retained and began to prepare for this siege.
§ 16.49.1 Lacrates the Theban, who was in command of the first contingent, hastened to begin the siege of Pelusium. First he diverted the stream of the canal to other directions, then when the channel had become dry he filled it with earth and brought siege engines against the city. When a large portion of the walls fell, the garrison in Pelusium quickly built others to oppose the advance and reared huge towers of wood.
§ 16.49.2 The battle for the walls continued for several days running and at first the Greeks in Pelusium vigorously warded off the besiegers; but when they learned of the king's withdrawal to Memphis they were so terror-stricken that they sent envoys to arrange for a settlement.
§ 16.49.3 Since Lacrates gave them pledges backed by oaths to the effect that if they surrendered Pelusium they would all be conveyed back to Greece with whatever they could carry on their backs, they delivered over the citadel.
§ 16.49.4 After this Artaxerxes dispatched Bagoas with barbarian soldiers to take over Pelusium, and the soldiers, arriving at this place as the Greeks were issuing forth, seized upon many of the articles they were carrying out.
§ 16.49.5 The victims of this injustice in their anger called loudly upon the gods who were guardians of their oaths, whereupon Lacrates became incensed, put the barbarians to flight, slaying a number of them, thus standing by the Greeks, the sufferers from the broken pledges.
§ 16.49.6 But when Bagoas fled to the King and brought accusation against Lacrates, Artaxerxes decided that Bagoas' contingent had met with their just deserts and put to death the Persians who were responsible for the robbery. So it was in this fashion that Pelusium was delivered over to the Persians.
§ 16.49.7 Mentor, who was in command of the third contingent, captured Bubastus and many other cities and made them subject to the King by a single strategic device. For since all the cities were garrisoned by two peoples, Greeks and Egyptians, Mentor passed the word around to the soldiers that King Artaxerxes had decided to treat magnanimously those who voluntarily surrendered their cities, but to mete out the same penalty to those who were overcome by force as he had imposed on the people of Sidon; and he instructed those who guarded the gates to give free passage to any who wished to desert from the other side.
§ 16.49.8 Accordingly, since the captured Egyptians were leaving the barracks without hindrance, the aforementioned word was quickly scattered amongst all the cities of Egypt. Immediately, therefore, the mercenaries were everywhere at variance with the natives and the cities were filled with strife; for each side was privately endeavouring to surrender its posts and nursing private hopes of gain in exchange for this favour; and this is what actually happened in the case of the city of Bubastus first.
§ 16.50.1 When, namely, the forces of Mentor and Bagoas were encamped near Bubastus, the Egyptians, without the knowledge of the Greeks, sent an envoy to Bagoas offering to deliver the city if he would consent to their safety.
§ 16.50.2 The Greeks, having knowledge of the mission, overtook the envoy and by dire threats extracted the truth, whereat they were much enraged and attacked the Egyptians, slew some, wounded others, and herded the rest into a quarter of the city.
§ 16.50.3 The discomfited men, having notified Bagoas of what had taken place, asked him to come with all speed and receive the city from themselves. But the Greeks had been privately treating with Mentor, who gave them secret encouragement, as soon as Bagoas should enter Bubastus, to attack the barbarians.
§ 16.50.4 Later on, when Bagoas with the Persians was entering the city without the sanction of the Greeks and a portion of his men had got inside, the Greeks suddenly closed the gates and attacked those who were inside the walls, and, having slain all the men, took Bagoas himself prisoner.
§ 16.50.5 The latter, seeing that his hopes of safety lay in Mentor, besought him to spare his life and promised in future to do nothing without his advice.
§ 16.50.6 Mentor, who now prevailed upon the Greeks to set Bagoas free and to arrange the surrender through himself, won credit himself for his success, but, having become responsible for Bagoas' life, he made an agreement with him for common action, and after an exchange of pledges on this matter kept the agreement faithfully till the end of his life.
§ 16.50.7 The result of this was that these two by their cooperation in the service of the King attained later on to the greatest power of all the friends and relatives at Artaxerxes' court. In fact Mentor, having been appointed to the chief command in the coastal districts of Asia, performed great services to the King in gathering mercenaries from Greece and sending them to Artaxerxes, and in the course of his activities administering all his duties courageously and loyally.
§ 16.50.8 As for Bagoas, after he had administered all the King's affairs in the upper satrapies, he rose to such power because of his partnership with Mentor that he was master of the kingdom, and Artaxerxes did nothing without his advice. And after Artaxerxes' death he designated in every case the successor to the throne and enjoyed all the functions of kingship save the title. But of these matters we shall record the details in their proper chronological sequence.
§ 16.51.1 At the time under consideration, after the surrender of Bubastus, the remaining cities, terror-stricken, were delivered to the Persians by capitulation. But King Nectanebos, while still tarrying in Memphis and perceiving the trend of the cities toward betrayal, did not dare risk battles for his dominion. So giving up hope of his kingship and taking with him the greater part of his possessions, he fled into Aethiopia.
§ 16.51.2 Artaxerxes, after taking over all Egypt and demolishing the walls of the most important cities, by plundering the shrines gathered a vast quantity of silver and gold, and he carried off the inscribed records from the ancient temples, which later on Bagoas returned to the Egyptian priests on the payment of huge sums by way of ransom.
§ 16.51.3 Then when he had rewarded the Greeks who had accompanied him on the campaign with lavish gifts, each according to his deserts, he dismissed them to their native lands; and, having installed Pherendates as satrap of Egypt, he returned with his army to Babylon, bearing many possessions and spoils and having won great renown by his successes.
§ 16.52.1 When Callimachus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Marcius and Publius Valerius. During their term of office Artaxerxes, seeing that Mentor the general had performed great services for him in the war against the Egyptians, advanced him over and above his other friends.
§ 16.52.2 Esteeming him worthy of honour for his gallant actions, he gave him a hundred talents of silver and also the best of expensive decorations, and he appointed him satrap of the Asiatic coast and placed him in charge of the war against the rebels, having designated him general in supreme command.
§ 16.52.3 And since Mentor was related to Artabazus and Memnon, both of whom had warred against the Persians in the preceding period and at the time now under consideration were fugitives from Asia residing at the court of Philip, he requested the King and prevailed upon him to dismiss the charges against them. Immediately afterwards he also summoned them both to come to his presence with all their families;
§ 16.52.4 for there had been born to Artabazus by the sister of Mentor and Memnon eleven sons and ten daughters. And Mentor was so enchanted with the large number of children born to the marriage that he promoted the lads, giving them the most distinguished commands in the armed forces.
§ 16.52.5 He made his first campaign against Hermias the tyrant of Atarneus, who had revolted are the King and was master of many fortresses and cities.
§ 16.52.6 Having promised Hermias that he would prevail upon the King to dismiss the charges against him too, he met him at a conference and then, playing him false, arrested him. After getting possession of his signet-ring and writing to the cities that a reconciliation had been effected with the King through Mentor's intervention, he sealed the letters with Hermias' ring, and sent the letters and with them agents who were to take over the districts.
§ 16.52.7 The populations of the cities, trusting the documents and being quite content to accept the peace, all surrendered their fortresses and cities. Now that Mentor through deception had quickly and without risk recovered the towns of the rebels, he won great favour with the King, who concluded that he was capable of performing the duties of general realistically.
§ 16.52.8 Similarly with regard to the other commanders who were at odds with the Persians, whether by force or by stratagem, he soon subdued them all. And this was the state of affairs in Asia.
§ 16.52.9 In Europe Philip, the Macedonian king, marched against the cities of Chalcidice, took the fortress of Zereia [ms reading uncertain] by siege and razed it. He then intimidated some of the other towns and compelled them to submit. Then coming against Pherae in Thessaly he expelled Peitholaus, who was in control of the city.
§ 16.52.10 While these things were going on, there occurred in Pontus the death of Spartacus king of Pontus after a rule of five years. His brother Paerisades succeeded to the throne and reigned for thirty-eight years.
§ 16.53.1 When this year had elapsed, at Athens Theophilus was archon, and at Rome Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Quintius were elected as consuls, and the one hundred eighth celebration of the Olympian games was held at which Polycles of Cyrene won the stadion race.
§ 16.53.2 During their term of office Philip, whose aim was to subdue the cities on the Hellespont, acquired without a battle Mecyberna and Torone by treasonable surrender, and then, having taken the field with a large army against the most important of the cities in this region, Olynthus, he first defeated the Olynthians in two battles and confined them to the defence of their walls; then in the continuous assaults that he made he lost many of his men in encounters at the walls, but finally bribed the chief officials of the Olynthians, Euthycrates and Lasthenes, and captured Olynthus through their treachery.
§ 16.53.3 After plundering it and enslaving the inhabitants he sold both men and property as booty. By so doing he procured large sums for prosecuting the war and intimidated the other cities that were opposed to him. Having rewarded with appropriate gifts such soldiers as had behaved gallantly in the battle and distributed a sum of money to men of influence in the cities, he gained many tools ready to betray their countries. Indeed he was wont to declare that it was far more by the use of gold than of arms that he had enlarged his kingdom.
§ 16.54.1 Since the Athenians viewed with alarm the rising power of Philip, they came to the assistance of any people who were attacked by the king, by sending envoys to the cities and urging them to watch over their independence and punish with death those citizens who were bent on treason, and they promised them all that they would fight as their allies, and, after publicly declaring themselves the king's enemies, engaged in an out-and-out war against Philip.
§ 16.54.2 The man who more than any other spurred them on to take up the cause of Hellas was the orator Demosthenes, the most eloquent of the Greeks of those times. Even his city was, however, unable to restrain its citizens from their urge toward treason, such was the crop, as it were, of traitors that had sprung up at that time throughout Hellas.
§ 16.54.3 Hence the anecdote that when Philip wished to take a certain city with unusually strong fortifications and one of the inhabitants remarked that it was impregnable, he asked if even gold could not scale its walls.
§ 16.54.4 For he had learned from experience that what could not be subdued by force of arms could easily be vanquished by gold. So, organizing bands of traitors in the several cities by means of bribes and calling those who accepted his gold "guests" and "friends," by his evil communications he corrupted the morals of the people.
§ 16.55.1 After the capture of Olynthus, he celebrated the Olympian festival to the gods in commemoration of his victory, and offered magnificent sacrifices; and he organized a great festive assembly at which he held splendid competitions and thereafter invited many of the visiting strangers to his banquets.
§ 16.55.2 In the course of the carousals he joined in numerous conversations, presenting to many guests drinking cups as he proposed the toasts, awarding gifts to a considerable number, and graciously making such handsome promises to them all that he won over a large number to crave friendship with him.
§ 16.55.3 At one time in the course of the drinking bout, noticing Satyrus, the actor, with a gloomy look on his face, Philip asked him why he alone disdained to partake of the friendly courtesy he offered; and when Satyrus said that he wished to obtain a boon from him but he feared lest, if he disclosed the request he had decided upon, he should be refused, the king, exceedingly pleased, affirmed that he granted forthwith any favour he might ask. He replied that there were two virgin daughters of a friend of his who were of marriageable age among the captive women; these girls he wished to obtain, not in order to derive any profit if he were granted the gift, but to give them both a dowry and husbands and would not permit them to suffer any indignity unworthy of their years.
§ 16.55.4 Thereupon Philip gladly acceded to his request and immediately made a present of the girls to Satyrus. And by dispensing many other benefactions and gifts of every kind he reaped returns many times greater than his favour; for many who were incited by hopes of his beneficence outstripped one another in devoting themselves to Philip and in delivering their countries to him.
§ 16.56.1 When Themistocles was archon at Athens, at Rome Gaius Cornelius and Marcus Popilius succeeded to the consular office. During their term of office the Boeotians, after sacking much of the Phocian territory about the city named Hya, defeated their enemies and slew about seventy of them.
§ 16.56.2 After this the Boeotians, having come to grips near Coroneia with the Phocians, were defeated and lost many men. When the Phocians now seized several cities of considerable size in Boeotia, the Boeotians took the field and destroyed the grain in enemy territory, but were defeated on the return journey.
§ 16.56.3 While these things were going on, Phalaecus, the general of the Phocians, who was accused of stealing many of the sacred properties, was removed from his command. Three generals having been chosen to replace him, Democrates, Callias, and Sophanes, an investigation into the sacred property took place and the Phocians called upon those who had administered it to render an accounting. The man who had been in charge of most of it was Philon.
§ 16.56.4 Since he was unable to render a proper accounting, he was adjudged guilty, and after being tortured by the generals disclosed the names of his accomplices in the theft, while he himself, after being subjected to the utmost torments, obtained the kind of death that suited his impiety.
§ 16.56.5 Those who had diverted the properties to their own use restored whatever balance they still possessed of the stolen property and were themselves put to death as temple-robbers. Of the generals who had been in office previously, the first to hold the office, Philomelus, had kept his hands off the dedications, but the second, named Onomarchus, brother of Philomelus, squandered much of the god's money, while the third, Phayllus, the brother of Onomarchus, when he became general, struck into coin a large number of the dedications in order to pay the mercenaries.
§ 16.56.6 For he coined for currency one hundred twenty gold bricks which had been dedicated by Croesus king of the Lydians weighing two talents each, and three hundred sixty golden goblets weighing two minae each, and golden statues of a lion and of a woman, weighing in all thirty talents of gold, so that the sum total of gold that was coined into money, referred to the standard of silver, is found to be four thousand talents, while of the silver offerings, those dedicated by Croesus and all the others, all three generals had spent more than six thousand talents' worth, and if to these were added the gold dedications, the sum surpassed ten thousand talents.
§ 16.56.7 Some of the historians say that the pillaged property was not less than the sums acquired by Alexander in the treasure chambers of the Persians. The generals on the staff of Phalaecus took steps even to dig up the temple, because some one said that there was a treasure chamber in it containing much gold and silver, and they zealously dug up the ground about the hearth and tripod. The man who gave information about the treasure offered as witness the most famous and ancient of poets Homer, who says in a certain passage: "Nor all the wealth beneath the stony floor that lies Where Phoebus, archer god, in rocky Pytho dwells."
§ 16.56.8 But as the soldiers attempted to dig about the tripod, great earthquakes occurred and roused fear in the hearts of the Phocians, and since the gods clearly indicated in advance the punishment they would visit upon the temple-robbers, the soldiers desisted from their efforts. The leader of this sacrilege, the aforementioned Philon, was promptly punished as he deserved for his crime against the god.
§ 16.57.1 Although the loss of the sacred property was ascribed entirely to the Phocians, the Athenians and the Lacedemonians, who were fighting on the side of the Phocians and received pay out of all proportion to the number of soldiers they sent out, shared in the seizure.
§ 16.57.2 This period brought it to pass for the Athenians that they sinned against the divine powers to such an extent that, shortly before the Delphian affair, as Iphicrates was tarrying near Corcyra with a naval force and Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse had shipped to Olympia and to Delphi statues cunningly wrought in gold and ivory, Iphicrates, chancing to fall in with the ships that were conveying these statues, seized them and sent word to the Athenian people inquiring what he should do with them; whereat the Athenians instructed him not to raise questions about what concerned the gods but to give his attention to seeing that his soldiers were well fed.
§ 16.57.3 Now Iphicrates, obeying the decision of his country, sold as booty the works of art belonging to the gods. The tyrant, filled with rage at the Athenians, wrote them a letter of the following tenor: "Dionysius to the Senate and Assembly of the Athenians: It is inappropriate to wish you to do well since you are committing sacrilege against the gods both on land and on sea, and, having made off with the statues which had been sent by us to be dedicated to the gods, you have turned them into coin and have committed impiety toward the greatest of the gods, Apollo, whose abode is Delphi, and Olympian Zeus."
§ 16.57.4 Such now was the conduct of the Athenians toward the divine powers, and that too though they boasted that Apollo was their tutelary god and progenitor. And the Lacedemonians, though they had consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi and through it come to possess their constitution which is admired of all the world, though even now they still interrogate the god on matters of supreme importance, had the effrontery to become partners in crime of those who had pillaged the sanctuary.
§ 16.58.1 In Boeotia the Phocians, who held three strongly fortified cities, Orchomenus, Coroneia, and Corsiae, conducted from these their campaign against the Boeotians. Being well supplied with mercenaries they pillaged the country and in their thrusts and engagements proved superior to the inhabitants of the place.
§ 16.58.2 As a consequence the Boeotians, feeling the pinch of war and the loss of great numbers of their men, but having no financial resources, sent envoys to Philip with a request for assistance.
§ 16.58.3 The king, pleased to see their discomfiture and disposed to humble the Boeotians' pride over Leuctra, dispatched few men, being on his guard against one thing only — lest he be thought to be indifferent to the pillaging of the oracle.
§ 16.58.4 As the Phocians were engaged in building a fortress near the place named Abae, at which is a holy shrine of Apollo, the Boeotians took the field against them. Some of the Phocians straightway fled to the nearest cities and dispersed, while others took refuge in the temple of Apollo and perished to the number of five hundred.
§ 16.58.5 Now many other divine visitations fell to the lot of the Phocians about this period, and in particular the one that I am about to relate. The men who had taken refuge in the temple supposed that their lives would be saved through the intervention of the gods, but on the contrary through some divine Providence they met with the punishment temple-robbers well deserve.
§ 16.58.6 For there was a quantity of rushes about the temple, and a fire had been left behind in the tents of the men who had fled, with the result that the rushes caught fire and such a great conflagration was touched off so miraculously that the temple was consumed and the Phocians who had fled to it for refuge were burned alive. Indeed it became apparent that the gods do not extend to temple-robbers the protection generally accorded to suppliants.
§ 16.59.1 When Archias was archon at Athens, the Romans elected Marcus Aemilius and Titus Quinctius consuls. During their term of office the Phocian War, after lasting for ten years, was terminated in the following manner. Since the Boeotians and the Phocians were utterly dejected by the length of the war, the Phocians dispatched envoys to Lacedemon asking for reinforcements, and the Spartans sent a thousand hoplites in charge of whom as general they placed their king Archidamus.
§ 16.59.2 Similarly the Boeotians sent an embassy to Philip proposing an alliance, and Philip, after taking over the Thessalians, entered Locris with a large army. And when he had overtaken Phalaecus, who had again been granted the generalship and had the main body of the mercenaries, Philip prepared to decide the war by a pitched battle. But Phalaecus, who was tarrying in Nicaea and saw that he was no match for Philip, sent ambassadors to the king to treat for an armistice.
§ 16.59.3 An agreement was reached whereby Phalaecus with his men should depart whithersoever he wished, and he then, under terms of the truce, withdrew to the Peloponnese with his mercenaries to the number of eight thousand, but the Phocians, whose hopes were now completely crushed, surrendered to Philip.
§ 16.59.4 The king, having without a battle unexpectedly terminated the Sacred War, sat in council with the Boeotians and the Thessalians. As a result he decided to call a meeting of the Amphictyonic Council and leave to it the final decision on all the issues at stake.
§ 16.60.1 The members of the Council then passed a decree admitting Philip and his descendants to the Amphictyonic Council and according him two votes which formerly had been held by the Phocians, now defeated in war. They also voted that the three cities in the possession of the Phocians should have their walls removed and that the Phocians should have no participation in the shrine of Delphi or in the Council of the Amphictyons; that they should not be permitted to acquire either horses or arms until they should have repaid to the god the monies they had pillaged; that those of the Phocians who had fled and any others who had had a share in the robbing the sanctuary were to be under a curse and subject to arrest wherever they might be;
§ 16.60.2 that all the cities of the Phocians were to be razed and the men moved to villages, no one of which should have more than fifty houses, and the villages were to be not less than a stade distant from one another; that the Phocians were to possess their territory and to pay each year to the god a tribute of sixty talents until they should have paid back the sums entered in the registers at the time of the pillaging of the sanctuary. Philip, furthermore, was to hold the Pythian games together with the Boeotians and Thessalians, since the Corinthians had shared with the Phocians in the sacrilege committed against the god.
§ 16.60.3 The Amphictyons and Philip were to hurl the arms of the Phocians and their mercenaries down the crags and burn what remained of them and to sell the horses. In similar tenor the Amphictyons laid down regulations for the custody of the oracle and other matters affecting due respect for the gods and the general peace and concord of the Greeks.
§ 16.60.4 Thereafter, when Philip had helped the Amphictyons give effect to their decrees and had dealt courteously with all, he returned to Macedonia, having not merely won for himself a reputation piety and excellent generalship, but having also made important preparations for the aggrandizement that was destined to be his.
§ 16.60.5 For he was ambitious to be designated general of Hellas in supreme command and as such to prosecute the war against the Persians. And this was what actually came to pass. But these events we shall record severally in their proper periods; we shall now proceed with the thread of our narrative.
§ 16.61.1 But first it is only right, so we think, to record the punishment which was visited by the gods upon those who had committed the outrage on the oracle. For, speaking generally, it was not merely the perpetrators of the sacrilege but all persons who had the slightest connection with the sacrilege that were hounded by the inexorable retribution sent of Heaven.
§ 16.61.2 In fact the man who first schemed for the seizure of the shrine, Philomelus, in a crisis of the war hurled himself over a cliff, while his brother Onomarchus, after taking over the command of his people, now become desperate, was cut to pieces in a battle in Thessaly, along with the Phocians and mercenaries of his command, and crucified.
§ 16.61.3 The third in succession and the one who coined into money most of the dedications, Phayllus, fell ill of a lingering disease and so was unable even to secure a quick release from his punishment. And the last of all, Phalaecus, who had gathered the remnants of the pillaged property, passed his life for a considerable length of time wandering about in great fear and danger, though it was not Heaven's intent that he should be happier than those who participated with him in the sacrilege, but that by being tortured longer and by becoming known to many for his misfortunes, his sad fate might become notorious.
§ 16.61.4 For when he had taken flight with his mercenaries following the agreement, he first sojourned in the Peloponnese, supporting his men on the last remnants of the pillaging, but later he hired vessels prepared for the voyage to Italy and Sicily, thinking that in these regions he would either seize some city or obtain service for pay, for a war was in progress, as it chanced, between the Lucanians and the Tarentines. To his fellow passengers he had been summoned by the people of Italy and Sicily.
§ 16.62.1 When he had sailed out of the harbour and was on the high seas, some of the soldiers who were in the largest ship, on which Phalaecus himself was a passenger, conferred with one another because they suspected that no one had sent for them. For they could see on board no officers sent by the peoples who were soliciting aid, and the voyage in prospect was not short, but long and dangerous.
§ 16.62.2 Accordingly, since they not only distrusted what they had been told but also feared the overseas campaign, they conspired together, above all those who had commands among the mercenary troops. Finally drawing their swords and menacing Phalaecus and the pilot they forced them to reverse their course. And when those who were sailing in the other boats also did the same, they put in again at a Peloponnesian harbour.
§ 16.62.3 Then they gathered at the Malean promontory in Laconia and there found Cnossian envoys who had sailed in from Crete to enlist mercenaries. After these envoys had conversed with Phalaecus and the commanders and had offered rather high pay, they all sailed off with them. Having made port at Cnossus in Crete, they immediately took by storm the city called Lyctus.
§ 16.62.4 But to the Lyctians, who had been expelled from their native land, there appeared a miraculous and sudden reinforcement. For at about the same time the people of Tarentum were engaged in prosecuting a war against the Lucanians and had sent to the Lacedemonians, who were the stock of their ancestors, envoys soliciting help, whereupon the Spartans, who were willing to join them because of their relationship, quickly assembled an army and navy and as general in command of it appointed King Archidamus. But as they were about to set sail for Italy, a request came from the Lyctians to help them first. Consenting to this, the Lacedemonians sailed to Crete, defeated the mercenaries and restored to the Lyctians their native land.
§ 16.63.1 After this Archidamus sailed to Italy and joined forces with the Tarentines but lost his life fighting gallantly in battle. He was praised for his ability as a general and for his conduct on the whole, though in the matter of the Phocian alliance alone he was severely criticized as the one who was chiefly responsible for the seizure of Delphi.
§ 16.63.2 Now Archidamus was king of the Lacedemonians for twenty-three years, and Agis his son succeeded to the throne and ruled for fifteen years. After the death of Archidamus his mercenaries, who had participated in plundering the shrine, were shot down by the Lucanians, whereas Phalaecus, now that he had been driven out of Lyctus, attempted to besiege Cydonia.
§ 16.63.3 He had constructed siege engines and was bringing them up against the city when lightning descended and these structures were consumed by the divine fire, and many of the mercenaries in attempting to save the engines perished in the flames. Among them was the general Phalaecus.
§ 16.63.4 But some say that he offended one of the mercenaries and was slain by him. The mercenaries who survived were taken into their service by Eleian exiles, were then transported to the Peloponnese, and with these exiles were engaged in war against the people of Elis.
§ 16.63.5 When the Arcadians joined the Eleians in the struggle and defeated the exiles in battle, many of the mercenaries were slain and the remainder, about four thousand, were taken captive. After the Arcadians and the Eleians had divided up the prisoners, the Arcadians sold as booty all who had been apportioned to them, while the Eleians executed their portion because of the outrage committed against the oracle.
§ 16.64.1 Now the participants in the sacrilege met in this fashion with their just retribution from the deity. And the most renowned cities because of their part in the outrage were later defeated in war by Antipater, and lost at one and the same time their leadership and their freedom.
§ 16.64.2 The wives of the Phocian commanders who had worn the gold necklaces taken from Delphi met with punishment befitting their impiety. For one of them who had worn the chain which had belonged to Helen of Troy sank to the shameful life of a courtesan and flung her beauty before any who chose wantonly to abuse it, and another, who put on the necklace of Eriphyle, had her house set on fire by her eldest son in a fit of madness and was burned alive in it. Thus those who had the effrontery to flout the deity met just retribution in the manner I have described at the hands of the gods,
§ 16.64.3 while Philip who rallied to the support of the oracle added continually to his strength from that time on and finally because of his reverence for the gods was appointed commander of all Hellas and acquired for himself the largest kingdom in Europe. Now that we have reported in sufficient detail the events of the Sacred war, we shall return to events of a different nature.
§ 16.65.1 In Sicily the Syracusans, who were engaged in civil strife and were forced to live as slaves under many varied tyrannies, sent ambassadors to Corinth with the request that the Corinthians should dispatch to them as general a man who would administer their city and curb the ambitions of those who aimed to become tyrants.
§ 16.65.2 The Corinthians, concluding that it was only right to assist people who were offshoots of themselves, voted to send as general Timoleon, son of Timaenetus, a man of highest prestige amongst his fellow citizens for bravery and sagacity as a general and, in a word, splendidly equipped with every virtue. A peculiar coincidence befell him which contributed toward his being chosen to the generalship. 3 Timophanes, his brother, a man of outstanding wealth and effrontery amongst the Corinthians, had for some time past been clearly aiming at a tyranny and at the moment was winning the poor to his cause and laying up a store of suits of armour and parading about the market-place accompanied by a band of ruffians, not actually claiming to be tyrant but practising the arts of tyranny. 4 Timoleon, who was much averse to the rule of one man, first attempted to dissuade his brother from his overt attempt, but when the latter refused to heed and continued all the more his headstrong career, Timoleon, being unable by reasoning with him to make him mend his ways, put him to death as he was promenading in the market-place. 5 A scuffle ensued and a mob of citizens came surging up stirred by the surprising character and the enormity of the deed, and dissension broke out. One side claimed that as the perpetrator of a kin-murder Timoleon should receive the punishment prescribed by the laws, whereas the other party asserted just the opposite, that they should applaud him as a tyrannicide. 6 When the senate met to deliberate in the council chamber and the matter in dispute was referred to the session, Timoleon's personal enemies denounced him, while those more favourably inclined rallied to his cause and counselled letting him go free. 7 While the investigation was still unsettled there sailed into the harbour from Syracuse the ambassadors who, having made known their mission to the senate, requested them to dispatch with all speed the general they needed. 8 The session accordingly voted to send Timoleon and, in order to ensure the success of the project, they proposed a strange and amazing alternative to him. They affirmed categorically that if he ruled the Syracusans fairly, they adjudged him a tyrannicide, but if too ambitiously, a murderer of his brother.9 Timoleon, not so much in fear of the threat imposed on him by the senate as because of his native virtue, administered the government in Sicily fairly and profitably. For he subdued in war the Carthaginians, restored to their original state the Greek cities which had been razed by the barbarians, and made all Sicily independent; in a word, having found Syracuse and the other Greek cities depopulated when he took them over, he made them notably populous. These matters, however, we shall record severally below in their proper periods; now we shall return to the thread of our narrative.
§ 16.66.1 When Eubulus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Servius Sulpicius. In this year Timoleon the Corinthian, who had been chosen by his fellow-citizens to command in Syracuse, made ready for his expedition to Sicily.
§ 16.66.2 He enrolled seven hundred mercenaries and, putting his men aboard four triremes and three fast-sailing ships, set sail from Corinth. As he coasted along he picked up three additional ships from the Leucadians and the Corcyraeans, and so with ten ships he crossed the Ionian Sea.
§ 16.66.3 During this voyage, a peculiar and strange event happened to Timoleon. Heaven came to the support of his venture and foretold his coming fame and the glory of his achievements, for all through the night he was preceded by a torch blazing in the sky up to the moment when the squadron made harbour in Italy.
§ 16.66.4 Now Timoleon had heard already in Corinth from the priestesses of Demeter and Persephone that, while they slept, the goddesses had told them that they would accompany Timoleon on his voyage to their sacred island.
§ 16.66.5 He and his companions were, in consequence, delighted, recognizing that the goddesses were in fact giving them their support. He dedicated his best ship to them, calling it "The Sacred Ship of Demeter and Persephone." Encountering no hazards, the squadron put in at Metapontum in Italy, and so, shortly after, did a Carthaginian trireme also bringing Carthaginian ambassadors.
§ 16.66.6 Accosting Timoleon, they warned him solemnly not to start a war or even to set foot in Sicily. But the people of Rhegium were calling him and promised to join him as allies, and so Timoleon quickly put out from Metapontum hoping to outstrip the report of his coming.
§ 16.66.7 Since the Carthaginians controlled the seas, he was afraid that they would prevent his crossing over to Sicily. He was, then, hastily completing his passage to Rhegium.
§ 16.67.1 Shortly before this, the Carthaginians on their part had come to see that there would be a serious war in Sicily and began making friendly representations to the cities in the island which were their allies. Renouncing their opposition to the tyrants throughout the island, they established friendship with them, and particularly they addressed themselves to Hicetas, the most powerful of these, because he had the Syracusans under his control.
§ 16.67.2 They prepared and transported to Sicily a large sea and land force of their own, and appointed Hanno to the command as general. They had one hundred and fifty battleships, fifty thousand infantry, three hundred war chariots, over two thousand extra teams of horses, and besides all this, armour and missiles of every description, numerous siege engines, and an enormous supply of food and other materials of war.
§ 16.67.3 Advancing first on Entella, they devastated the countryside and blockaded the country people inside the city. The Campanians who occupied the city were alarmed at the odds against them and appealed for help to the other cities that were hostile to the Carthaginians. Of these, none responded except the city of Galeria. These people sent them a thousand hoplites, but the Phoenicians intercepted them, overwhelmed them with a large force, and cut them all down.
§ 16.67.4 The Campanians who dwelt in Aetna were at first also ready to send reinforcements to Entella because of kinship, but when they heard of the disaster to the troops from Galeria, they decided to make no move.
§ 16.68.1 Now at the time when Dionysius was still master of Syracuse, Hicetas had taken the field against it with a large force, and at first constructing a stockaded camp at the Olympiaeum carried on war against the tyrant in the city,
§ 16.68.2 but as the siege dragged on and provisions ran out, he started back to Leontini, for that was the city which served as his base. Dionysius set out in hot pursuit and overtook his rear, attacking it at once,
§ 16.68.3 but Hicetas wheeled upon him, joined battle, and having slain more than three thousand of the mercenaries, put the rest to flight. Pursuing sharply and bursting into the city with the fugitives, he got possession of all Syracuse except the Island. Such was the situation as regards Hicetas and Dionysius.
§ 16.68.4 Three days after the capture of Syracuse, Timoleon put in at Rhegium and anchored off the city. The Carthaginians promptly turned up with twenty triremes, but the people of Rhegium helped Timoleon to escape the trap.
§ 16.68.5 They called a general assembly in the city and staged a formal debate on the subject of a settlement. The Carthaginians expected that Timoleon would be prevailed upon to sail back to Corinth and kept a careless watch. He, however, giving no hint of an intention to slip away, remained close to the tribunal, but secretly ordered nine of his ships to put to sea immediately.
§ 16.68.6 Then, while the Carthaginians concentrated their attention on the intentionally long-winded Rhegians, Timoleon stole away unnoticed to his remaining ship and quickly sailed out of the harbour.
§ 16.68.7 The Carthaginians, though outmanoeuvred, set out in pursuit, but his fleet had gained a substantial lead, and as night fell it was able to reach Tauromenium before being overtaken.8 Andromachus, who was the leading man of this city and had constantly favoured the Syracusan cause, welcomed the fugitives hospitably and did much to ensure their safety. 9 Hicetas now put himself at the head of five thousand of his best soldiers and marched against the Adranitae, who were hostile to him, encamping near their city. Timoleon added to his force some soldiers from Tauromenium and marched out of that city, having all told no more than a thousand men. 10 Setting out at nightfall, he reached Adranum on the second day, and made a surprise attack on Hicetas's men while they were at dinner. Penetrating their defences he killed more than three hundred men, took about six hundred prisoners, and became master of the camp.11 Capping this manoeuvre with another, he proceeded forthwith to Syracuse. Covering the distance at full speed, he fell on the city without warning, having made better time than those who were routed and fleeing. Such were the events that took place in this year.
§ 16.69.1 When Lyciscus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius and Marcus Publius, and the one hundred and ninth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Aristolochus the Athenian won the foot-race. In this year the first treaty was concluded between the Romans and the Carthaginians.
§ 16.69.2 In Caria, Idrieus, the ruler of the Carians, died after ruling seven years, and Ada, his sister and wife, succeeding him, ruled for four years.
§ 16.69.3 In Sicily, Timoleon took the Adranitae and the Tyndaritae into his alliance and received not a few reinforcements from them. Great confusion reigned in Syracuse, where Dionysius held the Island, Hicetas Achradina and Neapolis, and Timoleon the rest of the city, while the Carthaginians had put in to the Great Harbour with a hundred and fifty triremes and encamped with fifty thousand men on the shore. Timoleon and his men viewed the odds against them with dismay, but the prospect took a sudden and surprising change for the better.
§ 16.69.4 First Marcus, the tyrant of Catania, came over to Timoleon with a considerable army, and then many of the outlying Syracusan forts declared for him in a move to gain their independence. On top of all this, the Corinthians manned ten ships, supplied them with money, and dispatched them to Syracuse.
§ 16.69.5 Thereupon Timoleon plucked up courage but the Carthaginians took alarm and unaccountably sailed out of the harbour, returning with all their forces to their own territory.
§ 16.69.6 Hicetas was left isolated, while Timoleon victoriously occupied Syracuse. Then he proceeded to recover Messana, which had gone over to the Carthaginians. Such was the state of affairs in Sicily.
§ 16.69.7 In Macedonia, Philip had inherited from his father a quarrel with the Illyrians and found no means of reconciling the disagreement. He therefore invaded Illyria with a large force, devastated the countryside, captured many towns, and returned to Macedonia laden with booty.
§ 16.69.8 Then he marched into Thessaly, and by expelling tyrants from the cities won over the Thessalians through gratitude. With them as his allies, he expected that the Greeks too would easily be won over also to his favour; and that is just what happened. The neighbouring Greeks straightway associated themselves with the decision of the Thessalians and became his enthusiastic allies.
§ 16.70.1 When Pythodotus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Plautius and Titus Manlius. In this year Timoleon frightened the tyrant Dionysius into surrendering the citadel, resigning his office and retiring under a safe-conduct to the Peloponnese, but retaining his private possessions.
§ 16.70.2 Thus, through cowardice and meanness, he lost that celebrated tyranny which had been, as people said, bound with fetters of steel, and spent the remaining years of his life in poverty at Corinth, furnishing in his life and misfortune an example to all who vaunt themselves unwisely on their successes.
§ 16.70.3 He who had possessed four hundred triremes arrived shortly after in Corinth in a small tub of a freighter, conspicuously displaying the enormity of the change in his fortunes.
§ 16.70.4 Timoleon took over the Island and the forts which had formerly belonged to Dionysius. He razed the citadel and the tyrant's palace on the Island, and restored the independence of the fortified towns.
§ 16.70.5 Straightway he set to work on a new code of laws, converting the city into a democracy, and specified in exact detail the law of contracts and all such matters, paying special attention to equality.
§ 16.70.6 He instituted also the annual office that is held in highest honour, which the Syracusans call the "amphipoly" of Zeus Olympius. To this, the first priest elected was Callimenes, the son of Alcadas, and henceforth the Syracusans continued to designate the years by these officials down to the time of my writing this history and of the change in their form of government. For when the Romans shared their citizenship with the Greeks of Sicily, the office of these priests became insignificant, after having been important for over three hundred years. Such was the condition of affairs in Sicily.
§ 16.71.1 In Macedonia, Philip conceived a plan to win over the Greek cities in Thrace to his side, and marched into that region. Cersobleptes, who was the king of the Thracians, had been following a policy of reducing the Hellespontine cities bordering on his territory and of ravaging their territories.
§ 16.71.2 With the aim of putting a stop to the barbarian attacks Philip moved against them with a large force. He overcame the Thracians in several battles and imposed on the conquered barbarians the payment of a tithe to the Macedonians, and by founding strong cities at key places made it impossible for the Thracians to commit any outrages in the future. So the Greek cities were freed from this fear and gladly joined Philip's alliance.
§ 16.71.3 Theopompus of Chios, the historian, in his Philippica, included three books dealing with affairs in Sicily. Beginning with the tyranny of Dionysius the Elder he covered a period of fifty years, closing with the expulsion of the younger Dionysius. These three books are XLI XLIII.
§ 16.72.1 When Sosigenes was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius and Marcus Gnaeus Publius. In this year, Arymbas king of the Molossians died after a rule of ten years, leaving a son Aeacides, Pyrrhus's father, but Alexander the brother of Olympias succeeded to the throne with the backing of Philip of Macedon.
§ 16.72.2 In Sicily, Timoleon made an expedition against Leontini, for this was the city where Hicetas had taken refuge with a substantial army. He launched an assault on the part called Neapolis, but since the soldiers in the city were numerous and had an advantage in fighting from the walls, he accomplished nothing and broke off the siege.
§ 16.72.3 Passing on to the city Engyum, which was controlled by the tyrant Leptines, he assailed it with repeated attacks in the hope of expelling Leptines and restoring to the city its freedom.
§ 16.72.4 Taking advantage of his preoccupation, Hicetas led out his entire force and attempted to lay siege to Syracuse, but lost many of his men and hastily retreated back to Leontini.
§ 16.72.5 Leptines was frightened into submission, and Timoleon shipped him off to the Peloponnese under a safe-conduct, giving the Greeks tangible evidence of the results of his programme of defeating and expelling tyrants. The city of Apollonia had also been under Leptines. On taking it, Timoleon restored its autonomy as well as that of the city of Engyum.
§ 16.73.1 Lacking funds to pay his mercenaries, he sent a thousand men with his best officers into the part of Sicily ruled by the Carthaginians. They pillaged a large area, and, carrying off a large amount of plunder, delivered it to Timoleon. Selling this and realizing a large sum of money, he paid his mercenaries for a long term of service.
§ 16.73.2 He took Entella also and, after putting to death the fifteen persons who were the strongest supporters of the Carthaginians, restored the rest to independence. As his strength and military reputation grew, all the Greek cities in Sicily began to submit themselves voluntarily to him, thanks to his policy of restoring to all their autonomy. Many too of the cities of the Sicels and the Sicanians and the rest who were subject to the Carthaginians approached him through embassies in a desire to be included in his alliance.
§ 16.73.3 The Carthaginians recognized that their generals in Sicily were conducting the war in a spiritless manner and decided to send out new ones, together with heavy reinforcements. Straightway they made a levy for the campaign from among their noblest citizens and made suitable drafts among the Libyans. Furthermore, appropriating a large sum of money, they enlisted mercenaries from among the Iberians, Celts, and Ligurians. They were occupied also with the construction of battleships. They assembled many freighters and manufactured other supplies in enormous quantities.
§ 16.74.1 When Nicomachus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Marcius and Titus Manlius Torquatus. In this year, Phocion the Athenian defeated and expelled Cleitarchus, the tyrant of Eretria who had been installed by Philip.
§ 16.74.2 In Caria, Pizodarus, the younger of the brothers, ousted Ada from her rule as dynast and held sway for five years until Alexander's crossing over into Asia. Philip, whose fortunes were constantly on the increase, made an expedition against Perinthus, which had resisted him and inclined toward the Athenians. He instituted a siege and advancing engines to the city assailed the walls in relays day after day.
§ 16.74.3 He built towers eighty cubits high, which far overtopped the towers of Perinthus, and from a superior height kept wearing down the besieged. He rocked the walls with battering rams and undermined them with saps, and cast down a long stretch of the wall. The Perinthians fought stoutly in their own defence and quickly threw up a second wall; many admirable feats were performed in the open and on the fortifications.
§ 16.74.4 Both sides displayed great determination. The king, for his part, rained destruction with numerous and varied catapults upon the men fighting steadfastly along the battlements, while the Perinthians, although their daily losses were heavy, received reinforcements of men, missiles, and artillery from Byzantium.
§ 16.74.5 When they had again become a match for the enemy, they took courage and resolutely bore the brunt of battle for their homeland. Still the king persevered in his determination. He divided his forces into several divisions and with frequent reliefs kept up a continuous attack on the walls both day and night. He had thirty thousand men and a store of missiles and siege engines besides other machines in plenty, and kept up a steady pressure against the besieged people.
§ 16.75.1 So the siege dragged on. The numbers mounted of dead and wounded in the city and provisions were running short. The capture of the city was imminent. Fortune, however, did not neglect the safety of those in danger but brought them an unexpected deliverance. Philip's growth to power had been reported in Asia, and the Persian king, viewing this power with alarm, wrote to his satraps on the coast to give all possible assistance to the Perinthians.
§ 16.75.2 They consequently took counsel and sent off to Perinthus a force of mercenaries, ample funds, and sufficient stocks of food, missiles, and other materials required for operations. Similarly the people of Byzantium also sent them their best officers and soldiers. So the armies were again well matched, and as the fighting was resumed, the siege was waged with supreme determination.
§ 16.75.3 Philip constantly battered the walls with his rams, making breaches in them, and as his catapults cleared the battlements of defenders, he would at the same moment drive through the breached walls with his soldiers in close formation and assail with scaling ladders the portions of the walls which he had cleared. Then hand-to hand combat ensued and some were slain outright, others fell under many wounds.
§ 16.75.4 The rewards of victory challenged the daring of the contestants, for the Macedonians hoped to have a wealthy city to sack and to be rewarded by Philip with gifts, the hope of profit steeling them against danger, while the Perinthians had before their eyes the horrors of capture and sustained with great courage the battle for their deliverance.
§ 16.76.1 The natural setting of the city greatly aided the besieged Perinthians towards a decisive victory. It lies by the sea on a sort of high peninsula with an isthmus one furlong across, and its houses are packed close together and very high.
§ 16.76.2 In their construction along the slope of the hill they overtop one another and thus give the city the general aspect of a theatre. In spite of the constant breaches in the fortifications, consequently, the Perinthians were not defeated, for they blocked up the alley-ways and utilized the lowest tier of houses each time as though it were a wall of defence.
§ 16.76.3 When Philip with much labour and hard fighting mastered the city wall, he found that the houses afforded a stronger one, ready made by Fortune. Since, in addition, the city's every need was promptly met by supplies coming to Perinthus from Byzantium, he split his forces in two, and leaving one division under his best officers to continue the operations before Perinthus, marched himself with the other and, making a sudden attack on Byzantium, enclosed that city also in a tight siege.
§ 16.76.4 Since their men and weapons and war equipment were all at Perinthus, the people of Byzantium found themselves seriously embarrassed. Such was the situation at Perinthus and Byzantium.
§ 16.76.5 Ephorus of Cyme, the historian, closed his history at this point with the siege of Perinthus, having included in his work the deeds of both the Greeks and the barbarians from the time of the return of the Heracleidae. He covered a period of almost seven hundred and fifty years, writing thirty books and prefacing each with an introduction.
§ 16.76.6 Diyllus the Athenian began the second section of his history with the close of Ephorus's and made a connected narrative of the history of Greeks and barbarians from that point to the death of Philip.
§ 16.77.1 When Theophrastus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, and the one hundred and tenth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Anticles the Athenian won the foot-race.
§ 16.77.2 In this year, seeing that Philip was besieging Byzantium, the Athenians voted that he had broken his treaty with them and promptly dispatched a formidable fleet to aid that city. Besides them, the Chians, Coans, Rhodians, and some others of the Greeks sent reinforcements also.
§ 16.77.3 Philip was frightened by this joint action, broke off the siege of the two cities, and made a treaty of peace with the Athenians and the other Greeks who opposed him.
§ 16.77.4 In the west, the Carthaginians prepared great stores of war materials and transported their forces to Sicily. They had all told, including the forces previously on the island, more than seventy thousand infantry; cavalry, war-chariots, and extra teams of horses amounting to not less than ten thousand; two hundred battleships; and more than a thousand freighters carrying the horses, weapons, food and everything else.
§ 16.77.5 Timoleon was not daunted, however, although he learned the size of the hostile force while he himself was reduced to a handful of soldiers. He was still at war with Hicetas, but came to terms with him and took over his troops, thus materially increasing his own army.
§ 16.78.1 He decided to commence the struggle with the Carthaginians in their own territory so as to keep intact the land of his allies while wasting that which was subject that barbarians.
§ 16.78.2 He assembled his mercenaries immediately, together with the Syracusans and his allies, called a general assembly, and encouraged his audience with appropriate words to face the decisive struggle. When all applauded and shouted, urging him to lead them immediately against the barbarians, he took the field with not more than twelve thousand men in all.
§ 16.78.3 He had reached the territory of Agrigentum when unexpected confusion and discord broke out in his army. One of his mercenaries named Thrasius, who had been with the Phocians when they plundered the shrine at Delphi and was remarkable for his mad recklessness, now perpetrated an act that matched his former outrages.
§ 16.78.4 While almost all the rest who had participated in the sacrilege against the oracle had received from the deity their due punishment, as we reported a little earlier, he who alone had eluded divine vengeance attempted to incite the mercenaries to desert. He said that Timoleon was out of his mind and was leading his men to certain destruction.
§ 16.78.5 The Carthaginians were six times their number and were immeasurably superior in every sort of equipment, but Timoleon was nevertheless promising that they would win, gambling with the lives of the mercenaries whom for a long time because of lack of funds he had not even been able to pay.
§ 16.78.6 Thrasius recommended that they should return to Syracuse and demand their pay, and not follow Timoleon any further on a hopeless campaign.
§ 16.79.1 The mercenaries received his speech with enthusiasm and were on the point of mutiny, but Timoleon with some difficulty quieted the disturbance by urgent pleading and the offer of gifts. Even so, a thousand men did go off with Thrasius, but he put off their punishment till a later time, and by writing to his friends in Syracuse to receive them kindly and to pay them their arrears he brought the unrest to an end, but also stripped the disobedient men of all credit for the victory.
§ 16.79.2 With the rest, whose loyalty he had regained by tactful handling, he marched against the enemy who were encamped not far away. Calling an assembly of the troops, he encouraged them with an address, describing the cowardice of the Phoenicians and recalling the success of Gelon.
§ 16.79.3 Just at the moment when all as with one voice were clamouring to attack the barbarians and to begin the battle, it chanced that pack animals came carrying wild celery for their bedding, and Timoleon declared that he accepted the omen of his victory, for the crown at the Isthmian games is woven of this.
§ 16.79.4 On his suggestion, the soldiers plaited crowns out of celery and with their heads wreathed advanced cheerfully in the confidence that the god foretold their victory.
§ 16.79.5 And that, as a matter of fact, is how it was, for unpredictably, incredible to tell, they got the better of the enemy not only through their own valour but also through the gods' specific assistance. Timoleon deployed his forces and advanced down from a line of little hills to the river Crimisus, where ten thousand of the enemy had already crossed. These he shattered at the first outset, taking his own position in the centre of his line.
§ 16.79.6 There was a sharp fight, but as the Greeks were superior both in bravery and in skill, there was great slaughter of the barbarians. The rest began to flee, but the main body of the Carthaginians crossed the river in the mean time and restored the situation.
§ 16.80.1 As the battle was renewed, the Phoenicians were overwhelming the Greeks with their superior numbers when, suddenly, from the heavens sheets of rain broke and a storm of great hailstones, while lightning flashed and thunder roared and the wind blew in fierce gusts. All of this tempest buffeted the backs of the Greeks but struck the faces of the barbarians, so that, though Timoleon's soldiers were not much inconvenienced by the affair, the Phoenicians could not stand the force of circumstances, and as the Greeks continued to attack them, they broke into flight.
§ 16.80.2 As all sought the river together — horse and foot intermingled, while the chariots added to the confusion — some perished helplessly trodden under foot or pierced by the swords or lances of their comrades, while others were herded by Timoleon's cavalry into the bed of the river and were struck down from behind. Many died without an enemy's stroke as the bodies piled up in the panic.
§ 16.80.3 There was crowding and it was difficult to keep one's feet in the stream. Worst of all, as the rain came down heavily, the river swept downstream as a raging torrent and carried the men with it, drowning them as they struggled to swim in their heavy armour.
§ 16.80.4 In the end, even the Carthaginians who composed the Sacred Battalion, twenty-five hundred in number and drawn from the ranks of those citizens who were distinguished for valour and reputation as well as for wealth, were all cut down after a gallant struggle.
§ 16.80.5 In the other elements of their army, more than ten thousand soldiers were killed and no less than fifteen thousand were taken captive. Most of the chariots were destroyed in the battle but two hundred were taken. The baggage train, with the draught animals and most of the wagons, fell into the hands of the Greeks.
§ 16.80.6 Most of the armour was lost in the river, but a thousand breastplates and more than ten thousand shields were brought to the tent of Timoleon. Of these, some were dedicated later in the temples at Syracuse, some were distributed among the allies, and some were sent home by Timoleon to Corinth with instructions to dedicate them in the sanctuary of Poseidon.
§ 16.81.1 The battle yielded a great store of wealth also, because the Carthaginians had with them an abundance of silver and gold drinking vessels; these, as well as the rest of the personal property which was very numerous because of the wealth of the Carthaginians, Timoleon allowed the soldiers to keep as rewards for their gallantry.
§ 16.81.2 For their part, the Carthaginians who escaped from the battle made their way with difficulty to safety at Lilybaeum. Such consternation and terror possessed them that they did not dare embark in their ships and sail to Libya, persuaded that they would be swallowed up by the Libyan Sea because their gods had forsaken them.
§ 16.81.3 In Carthage itself, when news of the extent of the disaster had come, all were crushed in spirit and took it for granted that Timoleon would come against them directly with his army. They wasted no time in recalling from exile Gisco the son of Hanno and appointing him general, for they thought that he best combined the qualities of boldness and military skill.
§ 16.81.4 They voted not to risk the lives of citizens in the future but to enlist foreign mercenaries, especially Greeks who, they thought, would answer the call in large numbers because of the high rate of pay and the wealth of Carthage; and they sent skilled envoys to Sicily with instructions to make peace on whatever terms proved possible.
§ 16.82.1 At the end of this year, Lysimachides became archon at Athens, and in Rome there were elected as consuls Quintus Servilius and Marcus Rutilius. In this year, Timoleon returned to Syracuse and promptly expelled from the city as traitors all the mercenaries who had abandoned him under the leadership of Thrasius.
§ 16.82.2 These crossed over into Italy, and coming upon a coastal town in Bruttium, sacked it. The Bruttians, incensed, immediately marched against them with a large army, stormed the place, and shot them all down with javelins. Those who had abandoned Timoleon were rewarded by such misfortune for their own wickedness.
§ 16.82.3 Timoleon himself seized and put to death Postumius the Etruscan, who had been raiding sea traffic with twelve corsairs, and had put in at Syracuse as a friendly city. He received the new settlers sent out by the Corinthians kindly, to the number of five thousand. Then, when the Carthaginians sent envoys and pleaded with them urgently, he granted them peace on the terms that all the Greek cities should be free, that the river Lycus should be the boundary of their respective territories, and that the Carthaginians might not give aid to the tyrants who were at war with Syracuse.
§ 16.82.4 After this, he concluded his war with Hicetas and put him to death, and then attacked the Campanians in Aetna and wiped them out. Likewise he overbore Nicodemus, tyrant of Centuripae, and ousted him from that city; and putting an end to the tyranny of Apolloniades in Agyrium he gave Syracusan citizenship to its freed inhabitants. In a word, all of the tyrants throughout the island were uprooted and the cities were set free and taken into his alliance.
§ 16.82.5 He made proclamation in Greece that the Syracusans would give land and houses to those who wished to come and share in their state, and many Greeks came to receive their allotments. Ultimately forty thousand settlers were assigned to the vacant land of Syracuse and ten thousand to that of Agyrium, because of its extent and quality.
§ 16.82.6 At this time, also, Timoleon revised the existing laws of Syracuse, which Diocles had composed. Those concerning private contracts and inheritance he allowed to remain unaltered, but he amended those concerned with public affairs in whatever way seemed advantageous to his own concept.
§ 16.82.7 Chairman and director of this legislative programme was Cephalus the Corinthian, a man distinguished for education and intelligence. When his hands were free of this matter, Timoleon transferred the people of Leontini to Syracuse, but sent additional settlers to Camarina and enlarged the city.
§ 16.83.1 So, having established peaceful conditions everywhere throughout Sicily, he caused the cities to experience a vast growth of prosperity. For many years, because of domestic troubles and border wars, and still more because of the numbers of tyrants who kept constantly appearing, the cities had become destitute of inhabitants and the open country had become a wilderness for lack of cultivation, producing no useful crops. But now new settlers streamed into the land in great numbers, and as a long period of peace set in, the fields were reclaimed for cultivation and bore abundant crops of all sorts. These the Siceliot Greeks sold to merchants at good prices and rapidly increased their wealth.
§ 16.83.2 It was by reason of the funds so acquired that many large constructions were completed in that period. There was, first, the structure in Syracuse on the Island called the "Hall of the Sixty Couches," which surpassed all the other buildings of Sicily in size and grandeur. This was built by Agathocles the despot, and since, in its pretentiousness, it went beyond the temples of the gods, so it received a mark of Heaven's displeasure in being struck by lightning. Then there were the towers along the shore of the Little Harbour with their mosaic inscriptions of varicoloured stones, proclaiming the name of their founder, Agathocles. Comparable to these but a little later, in the time of Hiero the king, there was built the Olympieium in the market and the altar beside the theatre, a stade in length and proportionally high and broad.
§ 16.83.3 Among the lesser cities is to be reckoned Agyrium, but since it shared in the increase of settlers due to this agricultural prosperity, it built the finest theatre in Sicily after that of Syracuse, together with temples of the gods, a council chamber, and a market. There were also memorable towers, as well as pyramidal monuments of architectural distinction marking graves, many and great.
§ 16.84.1 When Charondes was archon at Athens, Lucius Aemilius and Gaius Plautius succeeded to the consulship. In this year, Philip the king, having won most of the Greeks over to friendship with him, was ambitious to gain the uncontested leadership of Greece by terrifying the Athenians into submission.
§ 16.84.2 Therefore he suddenly seized the city of Elateia, concentrated his forces there and adopted a policy of war with Athens. He expected to have no trouble in defeating them, since their reliance on the existing peace treaty made them unprepared for hostilities; and that is how it worked out. For after Elateia had been occupied, persons came at night to Athens reporting the occupation and stating that Philip would march immediately into Attica with his army.
§ 16.84.3 Taken aback by this unexpected development, the Athenian generals summoned the trumpeters and ordered them to keep blowing the alarm signal the whole night through. The news spread into every household and the city was tense with terror, and at dawn the whole people flocked to the theatre even before the archons had made their customary proclamation.
§ 16.84.4 When the generals came and introduced the messenger and he had told his story, silence and terror gripped the assembly and none of the usual speakers dared propose a course of action. Again and again the herald called for someone to speak for the common safety, but no one came forward with a proposal.
§ 16.84.5 In utter perplexity and dismay, the crowd kept their eyes on Demosthenes. Finally he came down from his seat, and bidding the people take heart gave it as his opinion that they must straightway send envoys to Thebes and invite the Boeotians to join them to make a struggle for freedom. There was no time to send envoys to their other allies invoking the treaties of alliance, since in two days the king could be expected to enter Attica. As his way led through Boeotia, the support of the Boeotians was their only recourse, especially since Philip was at that time the friend and ally of the Boeotians and would evidently try to take them along as he marched past to the war against Athens.
§ 16.85.1 When the people accepted the proposal and the decree authorizing the embassy had been drafted by Demosthenes, they turned to the search for their most eloquent representative. Demosthenes willingly answered the call to service. He carried out the mission vigorously and returned to Athens at last having secured the adhesion of the Thebans. Now that they had doubled their existing armed forces by the foreign alliance, the Athenians recovered their confidence.
§ 16.85.2 At once they designated Chares and Lysicles as generals and sent forth their entire army under arms into Boeotia. All their youth reported eager for battle and advanced with forced marches as far as Chaeroneia in Boeotia. Impressed by the promptness of the Athenian arrival and themselves no less ready to act decisively, the Boeotians joined them with their weapons and, brigaded together, all awaited the approach of the enemy.
§ 16.85.3 Philip's first move was to send envoys to the Boeotian League, the most eminent of whom was Pytho. He was celebrated for his eloquence, but judged by the Boeotians in this contest for their allegiance against Demosthenes, he surpassed all the other speakers, to be sure, but was clearly inferior to him.
§ 16.85.4 And Demosthenes himself in his speeches parades his success against this orator as a great accomplishment, where he says: "I did not then give ground before Pytho in spite of his confidence and his torrent of words against you."
§ 16.85.5 So Philip failed to get the support of the Boeotians, but nevertheless decided to fight both of the allies together. He waited for the last of his laggard confederates to arrive, and then marched into Boeotia. His forces came to more than thirty thousand infantry and no less than two thousand cavalry.
§ 16.85.6 Both sides were on the edge for the battle, high-spirited and eager, and were well matched in courage, but the king had the advantage in numbers and in generalship.
§ 16.85.7 He had fought many battles of different sorts and had been victorious in most cases, so that he had a wide experience in military operations. On the Athenian side, the best of their generals were dead — Iphicrates, Chabrias, and Timotheus too — and the best of those who were left, Chares, was no better than any average soldier in the energy and discretion required of a commander.
§ 16.86.1 The armies deployed at dawn, and the king stationed his son Alexander, young in age but noted for his valour and swiftness of action, on one wing, placing beside him his most seasoned generals, while he himself at the head of picked men exercised the command over the other; individual units were stationed where the occasion required.
§ 16.86.2 On the other side, dividing the line according to nationality, the Athenians assigned one wing to the Boeotians and kept command of the other themselves. Once joined, the battle was hotly contested for a long time and many fell on both sides, so that for a while the struggle permitted hopes of victory to both.
§ 16.86.3 Then Alexander, his heart set on showing his father his prowess and yielding to none in will to win, ably seconded by his men, first succeeded in rupturing the solid front of the enemy line and striking down many he bore heavily on the troops opposite him. As the same success was won by his companions, gaps in the front were constantly opened.
§ 16.86.4 Corpses piled up, until finally Alexander forced his way through the line and put his opponents to flight. Then the king also in person advanced, well in front and not conceding credit for the victory even to Alexander; he first forced back the troops stationed before him and then by compelling them to flee became the man responsible for the victory.
§ 16.86.5 More than a thousand Athenians fell in the battle and no less than two thousand were captured.
§ 16.86.6 Likewise, many of the Boeotians were killed and not a few taken prisoners. After the battle Philip raised a trophy of victory, yielded the dead for burial, gave sacrifices to the gods for victory, and rewarded according to their deserts those of his men who had distinguished themselves.
§ 16.87.1 The story is told that in the drinking after dinner Philip downed a large amount of unmixed wine and forming with his friends a comus in celebration of the victory paraded through the midst of his captives, jeering all the time at the misfortunes of the luckless men. Now Demades, the orator, who was then one of the captives, spoke out boldly and made a remark able to curb the king's disgusting exhibition.
§ 16.87.2 He is said to have remarked: "O King, when Fortune has cast you in the role of Agamemnon, are you not ashamed to act the part of Thersites?" Stung by this well-aimed shaft of rebuke, Philip altered his whole demeanour completely. He cast off his garland, brushed aside the symbols of pride that marked the communicates, expressed admiration for the man who dared to speak so plainly, freed him from captivity and gave him a place in his own company with every mark of honour.
§ 16.87.3 Addressed by Demades with Attic charm, he ended by releasing all of the Athenian prisoners without ransom and, altogether abandoning the arrogance of victory, sent envoys to the people of Athens and concluded with them a treaty of friendship and alliance. With the Boeotians he concluded peace but maintained a garrison in Thebes.
§ 16.88.1 After this defeat, the Athenians condemned to death the general Lysicles on the accusation of Lycurgus, the orator. Lycurgus had the highest repute of the politicians of his time, and since he had won praise for his conduct of the city's finances over a period of twelve years and lived in general a life renowned for rectitude, he proved to be a very stern prosecutor.
§ 16.88.2 One can judge of his character and austerity in the passage in his accusation where he says: "You were general, Lysicles. A thousand citizens have perished and two thousand were taken captive. A trophy stands over your city's defeat, and all of Greece is enslaved. All of this happened under your leadership and command, and yet you dare to live and to look on the sun and even to intrude into the market, a living monument of our country's shame and disgrace."
§ 16.88.3 There was an odd coincidence in the period under review. At the same time as the battle took place at Chaeroneia, another battle occurred in Italy on the same day and at the same hour between the people of Tarentum and the Lucanians. In the service of Tarentum was Archidamus, the Lacedemonian king, and it happened that he was himself killed.
§ 16.88.4 He had ruled the Lacedemonians for twenty-three years; his son Agis succeeded to the throne and ruled for nine years.
§ 16.88.5 At this time, also, Timotheus the tyrant of Heracleia-Pontica died after having been in power for fifteen years. His brother Dionysius succeeded to the tyranny and ruled for thirty-two years.
§ 16.89.1 When Phrynichus was archon at Athens, the Romans installed as consuls Titus Manlius Torquatus and Publius Decius. In this year King Philip, proudly conscious of his victory at Chaeroneia and seeing that he had dashed the confidence of the leading Greek cities, conceived of the ambition to become the leader of all Greece.
§ 16.89.2 He spread the word that he wanted to make war on the Persians in the Greeks' behalf and to punish them for the profanation of the temples, and this won for him the loyal support of the Greeks. He showed a kindly face to all in private and in public, and he represented to the cities that he wished to discuss with them matters of common advantage.
§ 16.89.3 A general congress was, accordingly, convened at Corinth. He spoke about the war against Persia and by raising great expectations won the representatives over to war. The Greeks elected him the general plenipotentiary of Greece, and he began accumulating supplies for the campaign. He prescribed the number of soldiers that each city should send for the joint effort, and then returned to Macedonia. This was the state of affairs as regards Philip.
§ 16.90.1 In Sicily, Timoleon the Corinthian died; he had put in order all the affairs of the Syracusans and the other Siceliot Greeks, and had been their general for eight years. The Syracusans revered him greatly because of his ability and the extent of his services to them and gave him a magnificent funeral. As the body was borne out in the presence of all the people the following decree was proclaimed by that Demetrius who had the most powerful voice of all the criers of his time: "The people of Syracuse have voted to bury this Timoleon son of Timaenetus, of Corinth, at a cost of two hundred minas, and to honour him to the end of time with musical, equestrian, and gymnastic games, because he destroyed the tyrants, defeated the barbarians, and resettled the mightiest of Greek cities, and so became the author of freedom for the Greeks of Sicily."
§ 16.90.2 In this year, also, Ariobarzanes died after ruling for twenty-six years and Mithridates, succeeding him, ruled for thirty-five. The Romans were victorious in a battle against the Latins and Campanians in the vicinity of Suessa and annexed part of the territory of the vanquished. Manlius, the consul who had won the victory, celebrated a triumph.
§ 16.91.1 When Pythodorus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Publius and Tiberius Aemilius Mamercus, and the one hundred and eleventh celebration of the Olympic Games took place, in which Cleomantis of Cleitor won the foot-race.
§ 16.91.2 In this year, King Philip, installed as leader by the Greeks, opened the war with Persia by sending into Asia as an advance party Attalus and Parmenion, assigning to them a part of his forces and ordering them to liberate the Greek cities, while he himself, wanting to enter upon the war with the god's approval, asked the Pythia whether he would conquer the king of the Persians. She gave him the following response: "Wreathed is the bull. All is done. There is also the one who will smite him."
§ 16.91.3 Now Philip found this response ambiguous but accepted it in a sense favourable to himself, namely that the oracle foretold that the Persian would be slaughtered like a sacrificial victim. Actually, however, it was not so, and it meant that Philip himself in the midst of a festival and holy sacrifices, like the bull, would be stabbed to death while decked with a garland.
§ 16.91.4 In any event, he thought that the gods supported him and was very happy to think that Asia would be made captive under the hands of the Macedonians. Straightway he set in motion plans for gorgeous sacrifices to the gods joined with the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra, whose mother was Olympias; he had given her in marriage to Alexander king of Epirus, Olympias' own brother.
§ 16.91.5 He wanted as many Greeks as possible to take part in the festivities in honour of the gods, and so planned brilliant musical contests and lavish banquets for his friends and guests.
§ 16.91.6 Out of all Greece he summoned his personal guest-friends and ordered the members of his court to bring along as many as they could of their acquaintances from abroad. He was determined to show himself to the Greeks as an amiable person and to respond to the honours conferred when he was appointed to the supreme command with appropriate entertainment.
§ 16.92.1 So great numbers of people flocked together from all directions to the festival, and the games and the marriage were celebrated in Aegae in Macedonia.a Not only did individual notables crown him with golden crowns but most of the important cities as well, and among them Athens.
§ 16.92.2 As this award was being announced by the herald, he ended with the declaration that if anyone plotted against King Philip and fled to Athens for refuge, he would be delivered up. The casual phrase seemed like an omen sent by Providence to let Philip know that a plot was coming.
§ 16.92.3 There were other like words also spoken, seemingly divinely inspired, which forecast the king's death. At the state banquet, Philip ordered the actor Neoptolemus, matchless in the power of his voice and in his popularity, to present some well-received pieces, particularly such as bore on the Persian campaign. The artist thought that his piece would be taken as appropriate to Philip's crossing and intended to rebuke the wealth of the Persian king, great and famous as it was, (suggesting) that it could some day be overturned by fortune. Here are the words that he first sang: "Your thoughts reach higher than the air; You dream of wide fields' cultivation. The homes you plan surpass the homes That men have known, but you do err, Guiding your life afar. But one there is who'll catch the swift, Who goes a way obscured in gloom, And sudden, unseen, overtakes And robs us of our distant hopes — Death, mortals' source of many woes." He continued with the rest of the song, all of it dealing with the same theme.
§ 16.92.4 Philip was enchanted with the message and was completely occupied with the thought of the overthrow of the Persian king, for he remembered the Pythian oracle which bore the same meaning as the words quoted by the tragic actor.
§ 16.92.5 Finally the drinking was over and the start of the games set for the following day. While it was still dark, the multitude of spectators hastened into the theatre and at sunrise the parade formed. Along with lavish display of every sort, Philip included in the procession statues of the twelve gods wrought with great artistry and adorned with a dazzling show of wealth to strike awe in the beholder, and along with these was conducted a thirteenth statue, suitable for a god, that of Philip himself, so that the king exhibited himself enthroned among the twelve gods.
§ 16.93.1 Every seat in the theatre was taken when Philip appeared wearing a white cloak, and by his express orders his bodyguard held away from him and followed only at a distance, since he wanted to show publicly that he was protected by the goodwill of all the Greeks, and had no need of a guard of spearmen.
§ 16.93.2 Such was the pinnacle of success that he had attained, but as the praises and congratulations of all rang in his ears, suddenly without warning the plot against the king was revealed as death struck.
§ 16.93.3 We shall set forth the reasons for this in order that our story may be clear. There was a Macedonian Pausanias who came of a family from the district Orestis.He was a bodyguard of the king and was beloved of him because of his beauty.
§ 16.93.4 When he saw that the king was becoming enamoured of another Pausanias (a man of the same name as himself), he addressed him with abusive language, accusing him of being a hermaphrodite and prompt to accept the amorous advances of any who wished.
§ 16.93.5 Unable to endure such an insult, the other kept silent for the time, but, after confiding to Attalus, one of his friends, what he proposed to do, he brought about his own death voluntarily and in a spectacular fashion.
§ 16.93.6 For a few days after this, as Philip was engaged in battle with Pleurias, king of the Illyrians, Pausanias stepped in front of him and, receiving on his body all the blows directed at the king, so met his death.
§ 16.93.7 The incident was widely discussed and Attalus, who was a member of the court circle and influential with the king, invited the first Pausanias to dinner and when he had plied him till drunk with unmixed wine, handed his unconscious body over to the muleteers to abuse in drunken licentiousness.
§ 16.93.8 So he presently recovered from his drunken stupor and, deeply resenting the outrage to his person, charged Attalus before the king with the outrage. Philip shared his anger at the barbarity of the act but did not wish to punish Attalus at that time because of their relationship, and because Attalus's services were needed urgently.
§ 16.93.9 He was the nephew of the Cleopatra whom the king had just married as a new wife and he had been selected as a general of the advanced force being sent into Asia, for he was a man valiant in battle. For these reasons, the king tried to mollify the righteous anger of Pausanias at his treatment, giving him substantial presents and advancing him in honour among his bodyguards.
§ 16.94.1 Pausanias, nevertheless, nursed his wrath implacably, and yearned to avenge himself, not only on the one who had done him wrong, but also on the one who failed to avenge him. In this design he was encouraged especially by the sophist Hermocrates. He was his pupil, and when he asked in the course of his instruction how one might become most famous, the sophist replied that it would be by killing the one who had accomplished most, for just as long as he was remembered, so long his slayer would be remembered also. Pausanias connected this saying with his private resentment, and admitting no delay in his plans because of his grievance he determined to act under cover of the festival in the following manner.
§ 16.94.2 He posted horses at the gates of the city and came to the entrance of the theatre carrying a Celtic dagger under his cloak.
§ 16.94.3 When Philip directed his attending friends to precede him into the theatre, while the guards kept their distance, he saw that the king was left alone, rushed at him, pierced him through his ribs, and stretched him out dead; then ran for the gates and the horses which he had prepared for his flight.
§ 16.94.4 Immediately one group of the bodyguards hurried to the body of the king while the rest poured out in pursuit of the assassin; among these last were Leonnatus and Perdiccas and Attalus. Having a good start, Pausanias would have mounted his horse before they could catch him had he not caught his boot in a vine and fallen. As he was scrambling to his feet, Perdiccas and the rest came up with him and killed him with their javelins.
§ 16.95.1 Such was the end of Philip, who had made himself the greatest of the kings in Europe in his time, and because of the extent of his kingdom had made himself a throned companion of the twelve gods. He had ruled twenty-four years.
§ 16.95.2 He is known to fame as one who with but the slenderest resources to support his claim to a throne won for himself the greatest empire in the Greek world, while the growth of his position was not due so much to his prowess in arms as to his adroitness and cordiality in diplomacy.
§ 16.95.3 Philip himself is said to have been prouder of his grasp of strategy and his diplomatic successes than of his valour in actual battle.
§ 16.95.4 Every member of his army shared in the successes which were won in the field but he alone got credit for victories won through negotiation.
§ 16.95.5 Now that we have come to the death of Philip, we shall conclude this book here according to our original statement. Beginning the next one with Alexander's accession as king we shall try to include all of his career in one book.
§ 17.1.1 The preceding book, which was the sixteenth of the Histories, began with the coronation of Philip the son of Amyntas and included his whole career down to his death, together with those events connected with other kings, peoples and cities which occurred in the years of his reign, twenty-four in number.
§ 17.1.2 In this book we shall continue the systematic narrative beginning with the accession of Alexander, and include both the history of this king down to his death as well as contemporary events in the known parts of the world. This is the best method, I think, of ensuring that events will be remembered, for thus the material is arranged topically, and each story is told without interruption.
§ 17.1.3 Alexander accomplished great things in a short space of time, and by his acumen and courage surpassed in the magnitude of his achievements all kings whose memory is recorded from the beginning of time.
§ 17.1.4 In twelve years he conquered no small part of Europe and practically all of Asia, and so acquired a fabulous reputation like that of the heroes and demigods of old. But there is really no need to anticipate in the introduction any of the accomplishments of this king; his deeds reported one by one will attest sufficiently the greatness of his glory.
§ 17.1.5 On his father's side Alexander was a descendant of Heracles and on his mother's he could claim the blood of the Aeacids, so that from his ancestors on both sides he inherited the physical and moral qualities of greatness. Pointing out as we proceed the chronology of events, we shall pass on to the happenings which concern our history.
§ 17.2.1 When Evaenetus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Furius and Gaius Manius. In this year Alexander, succeeding to the throne, first inflicted due punishment on his father's murderers, and then devoted himself to the funeral of his father.
§ 17.2.2 He established his authority far more firmly than any did in fact suppose possible, for he was quite young and for this reason not uniformly respected, but first he promptly won over the Macedonians to his support by tactful statements. He declared that the king was changed only in name and that the state would be run on principles no less effective than those of his father's administration. Then he addressed himself to the embassies which were present and in affable fashion bade the Greeks maintain towards him the loyalty which they had shown to his father.
§ 17.2.3 He busied his soldiers with constant training in the use of their weapons and with tactical exercises, and established discipline in the army. A possible rival for the throne remained in Attalus, who was the brother of Cleopatra, the last wife of Philip, and Alexander determined to kill him. As a matter of fact, Cleopatra had borne a child to Philip a few days before his death.
§ 17.2.4 Attalus had been sent on ahead into Asia to share the command of the forces with Parmenion and had acquired great popularity in the army by his readiness to do favours and his easy bearing with the soldiers. Alexander had good reason to fear that he might challenge his rule, making common cause with those of the Greeks who opposed him,
§ 17.2.5 and selected from among his friends a certain Hecataeus and sent him off to Asia with a number of soldiers, under orders to bring back Attalus alive if he could, but if not, to assassinate him as quickly as possible.
§ 17.2.6 So he crossed over into Asia, joined Parmenion and Attalus and awaited an opportunity to carry out his mission.
§ 17.3.1 Alexander knew that many of the Greeks were anxious to revolt, and was seriously worried.
§ 17.3.2 In Athens, where Demosthenes kept agitating against Macedon, the news of Philip's death was received with rejoicing, and the Athenians were not ready to concede the leading position among the Greeks to Macedon. They communicated secretly with Attalus and arranged to co operate with him, and they encouraged many of the cities to strike for their freedom.
§ 17.3.3 The Aetolians voted to restore those of the Acarnanians who had experienced exile because of Philip. The Ambraciots were persuaded by one Aristarchus to expel the garrison placed in their city by Philip and to transform their government into a democracy.
§ 17.3.4 Similarly, the Thebans voted to drive out the garrison in the Cadmeia and not to concede to Alexander the leadership of the Greeks. The Arcadians alone of the Greeks had never acknowledged Philip's leadership nor did they now recognize that of Alexander.
§ 17.3.5 Otherwise in the Peloponnese the Argives and Eleians and Lacedemonians, with others, moved to recover their independence. Beyond the frontiers of Macedonia, many tribes moved toward revolt and a general feeling of unrest swept through the natives in that quarter.
§ 17.3.6 But, for all the problems and fears that beset his kingdom on every side, Alexander, who had only just reached manhood, brought everything into order impressively and swiftly. Some he won by persuasion and diplomacy, others he frightened into keeping the peace, but some had to be mastered by force and so reduced to submission.
§ 17.4.1 First he dealt with the Thessalians, reminding them of his ancient relationship to them through Heracles and raising their hopes by kindly words and by rich promises as well, and prevailed upon them by formal vote of the Thessalian League to recognize as his the leadership of Greece which he had inherited from his father.
§ 17.4.2 Next he won over the neighbouring tribes similarly, and so marched down to Pylae, where he convened the assembly of the Amphictyons and had them pass a resolution granting him the leadership of the Greeks.
§ 17.4.3 He gave audience to the envoys of the Ambraciots and, addressing them in friendly fashion, convinced them that they had been only a little premature in grasping the independence that he was on the point of giving them voluntarily.
§ 17.4.4 In order to overawe those who refused to yield otherwise, he set out at the head of the army of the Macedonians in full battle array. With forced marches he arrived in Boeotia and encamping near the Cadmeia threw the city of the Thebans into a panic.
§ 17.4.5 As the Athenians immediately learned that the king had passed into Boeotia, they too abandoned their previous refusal to take him seriously. So much the rapid moves and energetic action of the young man shook the confidence of those who opposed him.
§ 17.4.6 The Athenians, accordingly, voted to bring into the city their property scattered throughout Attica and to look to the repair of their walls, but they also sent envoys to Alexander, asking forgiveness for tardy recognition of his leadership.
§ 17.4.7 Even Demosthenes was included among the envoys; he did not, however, go with the others to Alexander, but turned back at Cithaeron and returned to Athens, whether fearful because of the anti-Macedonian course that he had pursued in politics, or merely wishing to leave no ground of complaint to the king of Persia.
§ 17.4.8 He was generally believed to have received large sums of money from that source in payment for his efforts to check the Macedonians, and indeed Aeschines is said to have referred to this in a speech when he taunted Demosthenes with his venality: "At the moment, it is true, his extravagance has been glutted by the king's gold, but even this will not satisfy him; no wealth has ever proved sufficient for a greedy character."
§ 17.4.9 Alexander addressed the Athenian envoys kindly and freed the people from their acute terror. Then he called a meeting at Corinth of envoys and delegates, and when the usual representatives came, he spoke to them in moderate terms and had them pass a resolution appointing him general plenipotentiary of the Greeks and undertaking themselves to join in an expedition against Persia seeking satisfaction for the offences which the Persians had committed against Greece. Successful in this, the king returned to Macedonia with his army.
§ 17.5.1 Now that we have described what took place in Greece, we shall shift our account to the events in Asia. Here, immediately after the death of Philip, Attalus actually had set his hand to revolt and had agreed with the Athenians to undertake joint action against Alexander, but later he changed his mind. Preserving the letter which had been brought to him from Demosthenes, he sent it off to Alexander and tried by expressions of loyalty to remove from himself any possible suspicion.
§ 17.5.2 Hecataeus, however, following the instructions of the king literally, had him killed by treachery, and thereafter the Macedonian forces in Asia were free from any incitement to revolution, Attalus being dead and Parmenion completely devoted to Alexander.
§ 17.5.3 As our narrative is now to treat of the kingdom of the Persians, we must go back a little to pick up the thread. While Philip was still king, Ochus ruled the Persians and oppressed his subjects cruelly and harshly. Since his savage disposition made him hated, the chiliarch Bagoas, a eunuch in physical fact but a militant rogue in disposition, killed him by poison administered by a certain physician and placed upon the throne the youngest of his sons, Arses.
§ 17.5.4 He similarly made away with the brothers of the new king, who were barely of age, in order that the young man might be isolated and tractable to his control. But the young king let it be known that he was offended at Bagoas's previous outrageous behaviour and was prepared to punish the author of these crimes, so Bagoas anticipated his intentions and killed Arses and his children also while he was still in the third year of his reign.
§ 17.5.5 The royal house was thus extinguished, and there was no one in the direct line of descent to claim the throne. Instead Bagoas selected a certain Dareius, a member of the court circle, and secured the throne for him. He was the son of Arsanes, and grandson of that Ostanes who was a brother of Artaxerxes, who had been king.
§ 17.5.6 As to Bagoas, an odd thing happened to him and one to point a moral. Pursuing his habitual savagery he attempted to remove Dareius by poison. The plan leaked out, however, and the king, calling upon Bagoas, as it were, to drink to him a toast and handing him his own cup compelled him to take his own medicine.
§ 17.6.1 Dareius's selection for the throne was based on his known bravery, in which quality he far surpassed the other Persians. Once when King Artaxerxes was campaigning against the Cadusians, one of them with a wide reputation for strength and courage challenged a volunteer among the Persians to fight in single combat with him. No other dared accept, but Dareius alone entered the contest and slew the challenger, being honoured in consequence by the king with rich gifts, while among the Persians he was conceded the first place in prowess,
§ 17.6.2 It was because of this prowess that he was thought worthy to take over the kingship. This happened about the same time as Philip died and Alexander became king.
§ 17.6.3 Such was the man whom fate had selected to be the antagonist of Alexander's genius, and they opposed one another in many and great struggles for the supremacy. These our detailed narrative will describe in each case. And we may now proceed with our story.
§ 17.7.1 Dareius became king before the death of Philip and thought to turn the coming war back upon Macedonia, but when Philip died, Dareius was relieved of his anxiety and despised the youth of Alexander.
§ 17.7.2 Soon, however, when Alexander's vigour and rapidity of action had secured for him the leadership of all Greece and made evident the ability of the young man, then Dareius took warning and began to pay serious attention to his forces. He fitted out a large number of ships of war and assembled numerous strong armies, choosing at the same time his best commanders, among whom was Memnon of Rhodes, outstanding in courage and in strategic grasp.
§ 17.7.3 The king gave him five thousand mercenaries and ordered him to march to Cyzicus and to try to get possession of it. With this force, accordingly, Memnon marched on across the range of Mt. Ida.
§ 17.7.4 Some tell the story that this mountain got its name from Ida, the daughter of Melisseus. It is the highest mountain in the region of the Hellespont and there is in its midst a remarkable cave in which they say the goddesses were judged by Alexander.
§ 17.7.5 On this mountain are supposed to have lived the Idaean Dactyls who first worked iron, having learned the skill from the Mother of the Gods. An odd occurrence has been observed in connection with this mountain which is known nowhere else.
§ 17.7.6 About the time of the rising of the Dog Star, if one stands upon the highest peak, the stillness of the surrounding atmosphere gives the impression that the summit is elevated above the motion of the winds, and the sun can be seen rising when it is still night. Its rays are not circumscribed in a circle orb but its flame is dispersed in many places, so that you would think that there were many patches of fire burning along the horizon.
§ 17.7.7 Presently, then, these draw together into one huge flame the width of which reaches three plethra. Finally, as the day dawns, the usually observed size of the sun's ball is attained and produces normal daylight.
§ 17.7.8 Memnon traversed this mountain and suddenly falling upon the city of Cyzicus came within an ace of taking it. Failing in this, he wasted its territory and collected much booty.
§ 17.7.9 While he was thus occupied, Parmenion took by storm the city of Grynium and sold its inhabitants as slaves, but when he besieged Pitane Memnon appeared and frightened the Macedonians into breaking off the siege.
§ 17.7.10 Later Callas with a mixed force of Macedonians and mercenaries joined battle in the Troad against a much larger force of Persians and, finding himself inferior, fell back on the promontory of Rhoeteium. That was the situation in Asia.
§ 17.8.1 Now that the unrest in Greece had been brought under control, Alexander shifted his field of operations into Thrace. Many of the tribes in this region had risen but, terrified by his appearance, felt constrained to make their submission. Then he swung west to Paeonia and Illyria and the territories that bordered on them. Many of the local tribesmen had revolted, but these he overpowered, and established his control over all the natives in the area.
§ 17.8.2 This task was not yet finished when messengers reached him reporting that many of the Greeks were in revolt. Many cities had actually taken steps to throw off the Macedonian alliance, the most important of these being Thebes. At this intelligence, the king was roused to return in haste to Macedonia in his anxiety to put an end to the unrest in Greece.
§ 17.8.3 The Thebans sought first of all to expel the Macedonian garrison from the Cadmeia and laid siege to this citadel; this was the situation when the king appeared suddenly before the city and encamped with his whole army near by.
§ 17.8.4 Before the king's arrival, the Thebans had had time to surround the Cadmeia with deep trenches and heavy stockades so that neither reinforcements nor supplies could be sent in,5 and they had sent an appeal to the Arcadians, Argives, and Eleians for help. They appealed for support from the Athenians also, and when they received from Demosthenes a free gift of weapons, they equipped all of their citizens who lacked heavy armour. 6 Of those who were asked for reinforcements, however, the Peloponnesians sent soldiers as far as the Isthmus and waited to see what would happen, since the king's arrival was now expected, and the Athenians, under the influence of Demosthenes, voted to support the Thebans, but failed to send out their forces, waiting to see how the war would go. 7 In the Cadmeia, the garrison commander Philotas observed the Thebans making great preparations for the siege, strengthened his walls as well as he could, and made ready a stock of missiles of all sorts.
§ 17.9.1 So when the king appeared suddenly out of Thrace with all his army, the alliances of the Thebans had furnished them with only a hesitant support while the power of their opponents possessed an obvious and evident superiority. Nevertheless their leaders assembled in council and prepared a resolution about the war; they were unanimous in deciding to fight it out for their political freedom. The measure was passed by the assembly, and with great enthusiasm all were ready to see the thing through.
§ 17.9.2 At first the king made no move, giving the Thebans time to think things over and supposing that a single city would never dare to match forces with such an army.
§ 17.9.3 For at that time Alexander had more than thirty thousand infantry and no less than three thousand cavalry, all battle-seasoned veterans of Philip's campaigns who had hardly experienced a single reverse. This was the army on the skill and loyalty of which he relied to overthrow the Persian empire.
§ 17.9.4 If the Thebans had yielded to the situation and had asked the Macedonians for peace and an alliance, the king would have accepted their proposals with pleasure and would have conceded everything they asked, for he was eager to be rid of these disturbances in Greece so that he might without distraction pursue the war with Persia. Finally, however, he realized that he was despised by the Thebans, and so decided to destroy the city utterly and by this act of terror take the heart out of anyone else who might venture to rise against him.
§ 17.9.5 He made his forces ready for battle, then announced through a herald that any of the Thebans who wished might come to him and enjoy the peace which was common to all the Greeks. In response, the Thebans with equal spirit proclaimed from a high tower that anyone who wished to join the Great King and Thebes in freeing the Greeks and destroying the tyrant of Greece should come over to them.
§ 17.9.6 This epithet stung Alexander. He flew into a towering rage and declared that he would pursue the Thebans with the extremity of punishment. Raging in his heart, he set to constructing siege engines and to preparing whatever else was necessary for the attack.
§ 17.10.1 Elsewhere in Greece, as people learned the seriousness of the danger hanging over the Thebans, they were distressed at their expected disaster but had no heart to help them, feeling that the city by precipitate and ill-considered action had consigned itself to evident annihilation.
§ 17.10.2 In Thebes itself, however, men accepted their risk willingly and with good courage, but they were puzzled by certain sayings of prophets and portents of the gods. First there was the light spider's web in the sanctuary of Demeter which was observed to have spread itself out to the size of an himation, and which all about shone iridescent like a rainbow in the sky.
§ 17.10.3 About this, the oracle at Delphi gave them the response: "The gods to mortals all have sent this sign; To the Boeotians first, and to their neighbours." The ancestral oracle of Thebes itself had given this response: "The woven web is bane to one, to one a boon."
§ 17.10.4 This sign had occurred three months before Alexander's descent on the city, but at the very moment of the king's arrival the statues in the agora were seen to burst into perspiration and be covered with great drops of moisture. More than this, people reported to the city officials that the marsh at Onchestus was emitting a sound very like a bellow, while at Dirce a bloody ripple ran along the surface of the water.
§ 17.10.5 Finally, travellers coming from Delphi told how the temple which the Thebans had dedicated from the Phocian spoils was observed to have blood-stains on its roof. Those who made a business of interpreting such portents stated that the spider web signified the departure of the gods from the city, its iridescence meant a storm of mixed troubles, the sweating of the statues was the sign of an overwhelming catastrophe, and the appearance of blood in many places foretold a vast slaughter throughout the city.
§ 17.10.6 They pointed out that the gods were clearly predicting disaster for the city and recommended that the outcome of the war should not be risked upon the battlefield, but that a safer solution be sought for in negotiations. Still the Thebans' spirits were not daunted. On the contrary they were so carried away with enthusiasm that they reminded one another of the victory at Leuctra and of the other battles where their own fighting qualities had won unhoped for victories to the astonishment of the Greek world. They indulged their nobility of spirit bravely rather than wisely, and plunged headlong into the total destruction of their country.
§ 17.11.1 Now the king in the course of only three days made everything ready for the assault. He divided his forces into three parts and ordered one to take the palisades which had been erected before the city, the second to face the Theban battle line, and the third as a reserve to support any hard pressed unit of his forces and to enter the battle in its turn.
§ 17.11.2 For their part, the Thebans stationed the cavalry within the palisades, assigned their enfranchised slaves, along with refugees and resident aliens, to face those who drove at the walls, and themselves made ready to fight before the city with the Macedonian force about the king which was many times their number.
§ 17.11.3 Their children and wives flocked to the temples and implored the gods to rescue city from its dangers. When the Macedonians approached and each division encountered the opposing force of Thebans, the trumpets blew the call to arms and the troops on both sides raised the battle cry in unison and hurled their missiles at the enemy.
§ 17.11.4 These were soon expended and all turned to the use of the sword at close quarters, and a mighty struggle ensued. The Macedonians exerted a force that could hardly be withstood because of the numbers of their men and the weight of the phalanx, but the Thebans were superior in bodily strength and in their constant training in the gymnasium. Still more, in exaltation of spirit they were lifted out of themselves and became indifferent to personal danger.
§ 17.11.5 Many were wounded in both armies and not a few fell facing the blows of the enemy. The air was filled with the roar of fighters locked in the struggle, moans and shouts and exhortations: on the Macedonian side, not to be unworthy of their previous exploits, and on the Theban, not to forget children and wives and parents threatened with slavery and their every household lying exposed to the fury of the Macedonians, and to remember the battles of Leuctra and of Mantineia and the glorious deeds which were household words throughout Greece. So for a long time the battle remained evenly poised because of the surpassing valour of the contestants.
§ 17.12.1 At length Alexander saw that the Thebans were still fighting unflinchingly for their freedom, but that his Macedonians were wearying in the battle, and ordered his reserve division to enter the struggle. As this suddenly struck the tired Thebans, it bore heavily against them and killed many.
§ 17.12.2 Still the Thebans did not concede the victory, but on the contrary, inspired by the will to win, despised all dangers. They had the courage to shout that the Macedonians now openly confessed to being their inferiors. Under normal circumstances, when an enemy attacks in relays, it is usual for soldiers to fear the fresh strength of the reinforcements, but the Thebans alone then faced their dangers ever more boldly, as the enemy sent against them new troops for those whose strength flagged with weariness.
§ 17.12.3 So the Theban spirit proved unshakable here, but the king took note of a postern gate that had been deserted by its guards and hurried Perdiccas with a large detachment of troops to seize it and penetrate into the city.
§ 17.12.4 He quickly carried out the order and the Macedonians slipped through the gate into the city, while the Thebans, having worn down the first assault wave of the Macedonians, stoutly faced the second and still had high hopes of victory. When they knew that a section of the city had been taken, however, they began immediately to withdraw within the walls, 5 but in this operation their cavalry galloped along with the infantry into the city and trampled upon and killed many of their own men; they themselves rode into the city in disorder and, encountering a maze of narrow alleys and trenches, lost their footing and fell and were killed by their own weapons. At the same time the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmeia burst out of the citadel, engaged the Thebans, and attacking them in their confusion made a great slaughter among them.
§ 17.13.1 So while the city was being taken, many and varied were the scenes of destruction within the walls. Enraged by the arrogance of the Theban proclamation, the Macedonians pressed upon them more furiously than is usual in war, and shrieking curses flung themselves on the wretched people, slaying all whom they met without sparing any.
§ 17.13.2 The Thebans, for their part, clinging desperately to their forlorn hope of victory, counted their lives as nothing and when they met a foeman, grappled with him and drew his blows upon themselves. In the capture of the city, no Theban was seen begging the Macedonians to spare his life, nor did they in ignoble fashion fall and cling to the knees of their conquerors.
§ 17.13.3 But neither did the agony of courage elicit pity from the foe nor did the day's length suffice for the cruelty of their vengeance. All the city was pillaged. Everywhere boys and girls were dragged into captivity as they wailed piteously the names of their mothers. In sum, households were seized with all their members, and the city's enslavement was complete.
§ 17.13.4 Of the men who remained, some, wounded and dying, grappled with the foe and were slain themselves as they destroyed their enemy; others, supported only by a shattered spear, went to meet their assailants and, in their supreme struggle, held freedom dearer than life.
§ 17.13.5 As the slaughter mounted and every corner of the city was piled high with corpses, no one could have failed to pity the plight of the unfortunates. For even Greeks — Thespians, Plataeans and Orchomenians and some others hostile to the Thebans who had joined the king in the campaign — invaded the city along with him and now demonstrated their own hatred amid the calamities of the unfortunate victims.
§ 17.13.6 So it was that many terrible things befell the city. Greeks were mercilessly slain by Greeks, relatives were butchered by their own relatives, and even a common dialect induced no pity. In the end, when night finally intervened, the houses had been plundered and children and women and aged persons who had fled into the temples were torn from sanctuary and subjected to outrage without limit.
§ 17.14.1 Over six thousand Thebans perished, more than thirty thousand were captured, and the amount of property plundered was unbelievable. The king gave burial to the Macedonian dead, more than five hundred in number, and then calling a meeting of the representatives of the Greeks put before the common council the question what should be done with the city of the Thebans.
§ 17.14.2 When the discussion was opened, certain men who were hostile to the Thebans began to recommend that they should be visited with the direst penalties, and they pointed out that they had taken the side of the barbarians against the Greeks. For in the time of Xerxes they had actually joined forces with the Persians and campaigned against Greece, and alone of the Greeks were honoured as benefactors by the Persian kings, so that the ambassadors of the Thebans were seated on thrones set in front of the kings.
§ 17.14.3 They related many other details of similar tenor and so aroused the feelings of the council against the Thebans that it was finally voted to raze the city, to sell the captives, to outlaw the Theban exiles from all Greece, and to allow no Greek to offer shelter to a Theban.
§ 17.14.4 The king, in accordance with the decree of the council, destroyed the city, and so presented possible rebels among the Greeks with a terrible warning. By selling off the prisoners he realized a sum of four hundred and forty talents of silver.
§ 17.15.1 After this he sent men to Athens to demand the surrender of ten political leaders who had opposed his interest, the most prominent of whom were Demosthenes and Lycurgus. So an assembly was convened and the ambassadors were introduced, and after they had spoken, the people were plunged into deep distress and perplexity. They were anxious to uphold the honour of their city but at the same time they were stunned with horror at the destruction of Thebes and, warned by the calamities of their neighbours, were alarmed in face of their own danger.
§ 17.15.2 After many had spoken in the assembly, Phocion, the "Good," who was opposed to the party of Demosthenes, said that the men demanded should remember the daughters of Leos and Hyacinthus and gladly endure death so that their country would suffer no irremediable disaster, and he inveighed against the faint-heartedness and cowardice of those who would not lay down their lives for their city. The people nevertheless rejected his advice and riotously drove him from the stand,
§ 17.15.3 and when Demosthenes delivered a carefully prepared discourse, they were carried away with sympathy for their leaders clearly wished to save them. In the end, Demades, influenced, it is reported, by a bribe of five silver talents from Demosthenes's supporters, counselled them to save those whose lives were threatened, and read a decree that had been subtly worded. It contained a plea for the men and a promise to impose the penalty prescribed by the law, if they deserved punishment.
§ 17.15.4 The people approved the suggestion of Demades, passed the decree and dispatched a delegation including Demades as envoys to the king, instructing them to make a plea to Alexander in favour of the Theban fugitives as well, that he would allow the Athenians to provide a refuge for them.
§ 17.15.5 On this mission, Demades achieved all his objectives by the eloquence of his words and prevailed upon Alexander to absolve the men from the charges against them and to grant all the other requests of the Athenians.
§ 17.16.1 Thereupon the king returned with his army to Macedonia, assembled his military commanders and his noblest Friends and posed for discussion the plan for crossing over to Asia. When should the campaign be started and how should he conduct the war?
§ 17.16.2 Antipater and Parmenion advised him to produce an heir first and then to turn his hand to so ambitious an enterprise, but Alexander was eager for action and opposed to any postponement, and spoke against them. It would be a disgrace, he pointed out, for one who had been appointed by Greece to command the war, and who had inherited his father's invincible forces, to sit at home celebrating a marriage and awaiting the birth of children.
§ 17.16.3 He then proceeded to show them where their advantage lay and by appeals aroused their enthusiasm for the contests which lay ahead. He made lavish sacrifices to the gods at Dium in Macedonia and held the dramatic contests in honour of Zeus and the Muses which Archelaus, one of his predecessors, had instituted.
§ 17.16.4 He celebrated the festival for nine days, naming each day after one of the Muses. He erected a tent to hold a hundred couches and invited his Friends and officers, as well as the ambassadors from the cities, to the banquet. Employing great magnificence, he entertained great numbers in person besides distributing to his entire force sacrificial animals and all else suitable for the festive occasion, and put his army in a fine humour.
§ 17.17.1 When Ctesicles was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Sulpicius and Lucius Papirius. Alexander advanced with his army to the Hellespont and transported it from Europe to Asia.
§ 17.17.2 He personally sailed with sixty fighting ships to the Troad, where he flung his spear from the ship and fixed it in the ground, and then leapt ashore himself the first of the Macedonians, signifying that he received Asia from the gods as a spear-won prize.
§ 17.17.3 He visited the tombs of the heroes Achilles, Ajax, and the rest and honoured them with offerings and other appropriate marks of respect, and then proceeded to make an accurate count of his accompanying forces. There were found to be, of infantry, twelve thousand Macedonians, seven thousand allies, and five thousand mercenaries, all of whom were under the command of Parmenion.
§ 17.17.4 Odrysians, Triballians, and Illyrians accompanied him to the number of seven thousand; and of archers and the so called Agrianians one thousand, making up a total of thirty-two thousand foot soldiers. Of cavalry there were eighteen hundred Macedonians, commanded by Philotas son of Parmenion; eighteen hundred Thessalians, commanded by Callas son of Harpalus; six hundred from the rest of Greece under the command of Erigyius; and nine hundred Thracian and Paeonian scouts with Cassander in command, making a total of forty-five hundred cavalry. These were the men who crossed with Alexander to Asia.
§ 17.17.5 The soldiers who were left behind in Europe under the command of Antipater numbered twelve thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse.
§ 17.17.6 As the king began his march out of the Troad and came to the sanctuary of Athena, the sacrificant named Alexander noticed in front of the temple a statue of Ariobarzanes, a former satrap of Phrygia, lying fallen on the ground, together with some other favourable omens that occurred. He came to the king and affirmed that he would be victor in a great cavalry battle and especially if he happened to fight within the confines of Phrygia;
§ 17.17.7 he added that the king with his own hands would slay in battle a distinguished general of the enemy. Such, he said, were the portents the gods disclosed to him, and particularly Athena who would help him in his success.
§ 17.18.1 Alexander welcomed the prediction of the seer and made a splendid sacrifice to Athena, dedicating his own armour to the goddess. Then, taking the finest of the panoplies deposited in the temple, he put it on and used it in his first battle. And this he did in fact decide through his own personal fighting ability and won a resounding victory. But this did not take place till a few days later.
§ 17.18.2 Meanwhile, the Persian satraps and generals had not acted in time to prevent the crossing of the Macedonians, but they mustered their forces and took counsel how to oppose Alexander. Memnon, the Rhodian, famed for his military competence, advocated a policy of not fighting a pitched battle, but of stripping the countryside and through the shortage of supplies preventing the Macedonians from advancing further, while at the same time they sent naval and land forces across to Macedonia and transferred the impact of war to Europe.
§ 17.18.3 This was the best counsel, as after-events made clear, but, for all that, Memnon failed to win over the other commanders, since his advice seemed beneath the dignity of the Persians.
§ 17.18.4 So they decided to fight it out, and summoning forces from every quarter and heavily outnumbering the Macedonians, they advanced in the direction of Hellespontine Phrygia. They pitched camp by the river Granicus, using the bed of the river as a line of defence.
§ 17.19.1 When Alexander learned of the concentration of the Persian forces, he advanced rapidly and encamped opposite the enemy, so that the Granicus flowed between the encampments.
§ 17.19.2 The Persians, resting on high ground, made no move, intending to fall upon the foes as he crossed the river, for they supposed they could easily carry the day when the Macedonian phalanx was divided.
§ 17.19.3 But Alexander at dawn boldly brought his army across the river and deployed in good order before they could stop him. In return, they posted their mass of horsemen all along the front of the Macedonians since they had decided to press the battle with these.
§ 17.19.4 Memnon of Rhodes and satrap Arsamenes held the left wing each with his own cavalry; Arsites was stationed next with the horsemen from Paphlagonia; then came Spithrobates satrap of Ionia at the head of the Hyrcanian cavalry. The right wing was held by a thousand Medes and two thousand horse with Rheomithres as well as Bactrians of like number. Other national contingents occupied the centre, numerous and picked for their valour. In all, the cavalry amounted to more than ten thousand.
§ 17.19.5 The Persian foot soldiers were not fewer than one hundred thousand, but they were posted behind the line and did not advance since the cavalry was thought to be sufficient to crush the Macedonians.
§ 17.19.6 As the horse of each side joined battle spiritedly, the command of Parmenion gallantly met the attack of the troops posted opposite them; and Alexander, who had the finest of the riders on the right wing with him, personally led the attack upon the Persians and closing with them, began to inflict substantial losses upon them.
§ 17.20.1 But the Persians resisted bravely and opposed their spirit to the Macedonian valour, as Fortune brought together in one and the same place the finest fighters to dispute the victory.
§ 17.20.2 The satrap of Ionia Spithrobates, a Persian by birth and son-in law of King Dareius, a man of superior courage, hurled himself at the Macedonian lines with a large body of cavalry, and with an array of forty companions, all Royal Relatives of outstanding valour, pressed hard on the opposite line and in a fierce attack slew some of his opponents and wounded others.
§ 17.20.3 As the force of this attack seemed dangerous, Alexander turned his horse toward the satrap and rode at him. To the Persian, it seemed as if this opportunity for a single combat was god-given. He hoped that by his individual gallantry Asia might be relieved of its terrible menace, the renowned daring of Alexander arrested by his own hands, and the glory of the Persians saved from disgrace. He hurled his javelin first at Alexander with so mighty an impulse and so powerful a cast that he pierced Alexander's shield and right epomis and drove through the breastplate.
§ 17.20.4 The king shook off the weapon as it dangled by his arm, then applying spurs to his horse and employing the favouring momentum of his charge drove his lance squarely into the satrap's chest.
§ 17.20.5 At this, adjacent ranks in both armies cried out at the superlative display of prowess. The point, however, snapped off against the breastplate and the broken shaft recoiled, and the Persian drew his sword and drove at Alexander; but the king recovered his grip upon his lance in time to thrust at the man's face and drive the blow home.
§ 17.20.6 The Persian fell, but just at this moment, Rhosaces, his brother, galloping up brought his sword down on Alexander's head with such a fearsome blow that it split his helmet and inflicted a slight scalp wound.
§ 17.20.7 As Rhosaces aimed another blow at the same break, Cleitus, surnamed the Black, dashed up on his horse and cut off the Persian's arm.
§ 17.21.1 The Relatives now pressed in a solid body about the two fallen men; at first they rained their javelins on Alexander, and then closing went all out to slay the king.
§ 17.21.2 But exposed as he was to many and fierce attacks he nevertheless was not overborne by the numbers of the foe. Though he took two blows on the breastplate, one on the helmet, and three on the shield which he had taken down from the temple of Athena, he still did not give in, but borne up by an exaltation of spirit surmounted every danger.
§ 17.21.3 After this, several of the other noble Persians fighting against him fell, of whom the most illustrious were Atizyes and Pharnaces, brother of Dareius's queen, and also Mithrobuzanes who commanded the Cappadocians.
§ 17.21.4 Now that many of their commanders had been slain and all the Persian squadrons were worsted by the Macedonians, those facing Alexander were put to flight first, and then the others also. Thus the king by common consent won the palm for bravery and was regarded as the chief author of the victory, and next to him the Thessalian cavalry won a great reputation for valour because of the skilful handling of their squadrons and their unmatched fighting quality.
§ 17.21.5 After the rout of the cavalry, the foot soldiers engaged one another in a contest that was soon ended. For the Persians, dismayed by the route of the cavalry and shaken in spirit, were quick to flee.
§ 17.21.6 The total of the Persian infantry killed was more than ten thousand; of the cavalry not less than two thousand; and there were taken alive upwards of twenty thousand. After the battle the king gave magnificent obsequies to the dead, for he thought it important by this sort of honour to create in his men greater enthusiasm to face the hazards of battle.
§ 17.21.7 Recovering his forces, Alexander led them down through Lydia and took over the city of the Sardians with its citadels and, what is more, the treasures stored therein, for Mithrines the satrap surrendered them without resistance.
§ 17.22.1 Since the Persian survivors of the battle together with the general Memnon had taken refuge in Miletus, the king set up camp near the city and every day, using his men in relays, made continuous assaults on the walls.
§ 17.22.2 At first the besieged easily defended themselves from the walls, for many soldiers were gathered in from the city, and they had abundant provision of missiles and other things useful for the emergency.
§ 17.22.3 But when the king, in a more determined fashion, brought up siege engines and rocked the walls and pressed the siege very actively both by land and by sea, and the Macedonians forced an entry through the crumbling walls, then at last yielding to superior force, they took to flight.
§ 17.22.4 Immediately the Milesians, falling before the king with suppliant olive boughs, put themselves and their city into his hands. Some of the Persians were slain by the Macedonians, others, breaking out of the city, sought refuge in flight, and all the remainder were taken captive.5 Alexander treated the Milesians kindly but sold all the rest as slaves. Since the naval force was now useless and entailed great expense, he dismissed the fleet with the exception of a few ships which he employed for the transport of his siege engines. Among these was the Athenian contingent of twenty ships.
§ 17.23.1 There are those who say that Alexander's strategic conception was sound, when he dismissed his fleet. For Dareius was still to be reckoned with and there was bound to be a great battle, and he judged that the Macedonians would fight more desperately if he deprived them of all hope of escape by flight.
§ 17.23.2 He employed the same device, they say, at the battle of the Granicus, where he placed the stream at his rear, for no one could think of flight when destruction of any who were followed into the bed of the river was a certainty. There is also, they note, in later years the case of Agathocles, king of the Syracusans, who copied the strategy of Alexander and won an unexpected and decisive victory.
§ 17.23.3 He had crossed to Libya with a small force and by burning his ships deprived his men of any hope of escape by flight, thus constraining them to fight like heroes and thereby win a victory over the Carthaginians, who had an army numbering many tens of thousands.
§ 17.23.4 After the capture of Miletus, the bulk of the Persians and mercenaries, as well as the most enterprising of the commanders, concentrated their forces at Halicarnassus. This was the largest city in Caria, containing the palace of the kings of the Carians, and was well provided with interior fortresses.
§ 17.23.5 About the same time Memnon sent his wife and children to Dareius, because he calculated that leaving them in the king's care was a good way to ensure their safety, while at the same time the king, now that he had good hostages, would be more willing to entrust Memnon with the supreme command. And so it turned out.
§ 17.23.6 For Dareius straightway sent letters to those who dwelt next the sea, directing them one and all to take orders from Memnon. Accordingly, having assumed the supreme command, he made all the necessary dispositions for a siege in the city of the Halicarnassians.
§ 17.24.1 King Alexander had his siege engines and provisions conveyed by sea to Halicarnassus while he himself with all his army marched into Caria, winning over the cities that lay on his route by kind treatment. He was particularly generous to the Greek cities, granting them independence and exemption from taxation, adding the assurance that the freedom of the Greeks was the object for which he had taken upon himself the war against the Persians.
§ 17.24.2 On his journey he was met by a woman named Ada, who belonged by blood to the ruling house of Caria. When she presented a petition to recover the position of her ancestors and requested his assistance, he gave orders that she should become the ruler of Caria. Thus he won the loyal support of the Carians by the favour that he bestowed on this woman.
§ 17.24.3 For straightway all the cities sent missions and presented the king with golden crowns and promised to cooperate with him in everything. Alexander encamped near the city and set in motion an active and formidable siege.
§ 17.24.4 At first he made continued assaults on the walls with relays of attackers and spent whole days in active fighting. Later he brought up all sorts of engines of war, filled in the trenches in front of the city with the aid of sheds to protect the workers, and rocked the towers and the curtains between them with his battering rams. Whenever he overthrew a portion of the wall, he attempted by hand-to hand fighting to force an entry into the city overthrow rubble.
§ 17.24.5 But Memnon at first easily beat off the Macedonians assaulting the walls, for he had large numbers of men in the city. Where the siege engines were attacking, he issued from the city at night with numbers of soldiers and applied fire to the machines.
§ 17.24.6 Fierce fights occurred in front of the city, in which the Macedonians showed far superior prowess, but the Persians had the advantage of numbers and of fire power. For they had the support of men who fought from the walls using engines to shoot darts, with which they killed some of the enemy and disabled others.
§ 17.25.1 At the same moment, the trumpets sounded the battle signal on both sides and cheers came from all parts as the soldiers applauded in concert the feats of brave men on one side or the other.
§ 17.25.2 Some tried to put out the fires that rose aloft among the siege engines; others joined with the foe in close combat and wrought great slaughter; others erected secondary walls behind those which crumbled, heavier by far in construction than the preceding.
§ 17.25.3 The commanders under Memnon took their places in the front line and offered great rewards to those who distinguished themselves, so that the desire for victory rose very high on both sides.
§ 17.25.4 There could be seen men encountering frontal wounds or being carried unconscious out of the battle, others standing over the fallen bodies of their companions and struggling mightily to recover them, while others who were on the point of yielding to the storm of terrors were again put in heart by the appeals of their officers and were renewed in spirit.
§ 17.25.5 At length, some of the Macedonians were killed at the very gates, among them an officer Neoptolemus, a man of distinguished family. Presently two towers were levelled with the ground and two curtains overthrown, and some of Perdiccas's soldiers, getting drunk, made a wild night attack on the walls of the citadel. Memnon's men noticed the awkwardness of these attackers and issuing forth themselves in considerably larger numbers routed the Macedonians and killed many of them.
§ 17.25.6 As this situation became known, large numbers of Macedonians rushed up to help and a great struggle took place, and when Alexander and his staff came up, the Persians, forced back, were confined within the city, and the king through a herald asked for a truce to recover the Macedonians who had fallen in front of the walls. Now Ephialtes and Thrasybulus, Athenians fighting on the Persian side, advised not to give up the dead bodies for burial, but Memnon granted the request.
§ 17.26.1 After this at a council of the commanders, Ephialtes advised them not to wait till the city was taken and they found themselves captives; he proposed that the leaders of the mercenaries should go out themselves in the front rank and lead an attack on the enemy.
§ 17.26.2 Memnon recognized that Ephialtes was eager to prove himself and, having great hopes of him because of his courage and bodily strength, allowed him to do as he wished.
§ 17.26.3 Accordingly he collected two thousand picked men and, giving half of them lighted torches and forming the others so as to meet the enemy, he suddenly threw all the gates wide open. It was daybreak, and sallying forth with his band he employed the one group to set fire to the siege engines, causing a great conflagration to flame up at once,
§ 17.26.4 while he personally led the rest deployed in a dense phalanx many ranks deep and charged the Macedonians as they issued forth to help extinguish the fire. When the king saw what was happening, he placed the best fighters of the Macedonians in front and he posted a third group also consisting of others who had a good record for stout fighting. He himself at the head of all took command and made a stand against the enemy, who had supposed that because of their mass they would be invincible. He also sent men out to extinguish the fire and to rescue the siege engines.
§ 17.26.5 As violent shouts arose at the same time on both sides and the trumpets sounded the attack, a terrific contest ensued because of the valour of the contestants and their consummate fighting spirit.
§ 17.26.6 The Macedonians prevented the fire from spreading, but Ephialtes's men had the advantage in the battle, and he himself, who had far greater bodily strength than the rest, slew with his own hand many who traded blows with him. From the top of the recently erected replacement wall, the defenders slew many of the Macedonians with dense showers of missiles — for there had been erected a wood tower, a hundred cubits high, which was filled with dart-hurling catapults.
§ 17.26.7 As many Macedonians fell and the rest recoiled before the thick fire of missiles, Memnon threw himself into the battle with heavy reinforcements and even Alexander found himself quite helpless.
§ 17.27.1 Just at that moment as the men from the city were prevailing, the tide of battle was surprisingly reversed. For the oldest Macedonians, who were exempt from combat duty by virtue of their age, but who had served with Philip on his campaigns and had been victorious in many battles,
§ 17.27.2 were roused by the emergency to show their valour, and, being superior in pride and war experience, sharply rebuked the faintheartedness of the youngsters who wished to avoid the battle. Then they closed ranks with their shields overlapping and confronted the foe, who thought himself already victorious.
§ 17.27.3 They succeeded in slaying Ephialtes and many others, and finally forced the rest to take refuge in the city.
§ 17.27.4 Night had already fallen as the Macedonians pushed within the walls along with their fleeing enemies, but the king ordered the trumpeter to sound the recall and they withdrew to their camp.5 Memnon, however, assembled his generals and satraps, held a meeting, and decided to abandon the city. They installed their best men in the acropolis with sufficient provision and conveyed the rest of the army and the stores to Cos. 6 When Alexander at daybreak learned what had taken place he razed the city and surrounded the citadel with a formidable wall and trench. A portion of his force under certain generals he dispatched into the interior with orders to subdue the neighbouring tribes. These commanders, campaigning vigorously, subdued the whole region as far as greater Phrygia, supporting their men on the land. 7 Alexander, for his part, overran the litoral as far as Cilicia, acquiring many cities and actively storming and reducing the strong points. One of these he captured surprisingly with such a curious reversal of fortune that the account of it cannot be omitted.
§ 17.28.1 Near the frontiers of Lycia there is a great rock fortress of unusual strength inhabited by people named Marmares. As Alexander marched by, these people attacked the Macedonian rear guard and killed many, carrying off as booty numerous men and pack animals.
§ 17.28.2 The king was enraged at this, established a siege, and exerted every effort to take the place by force. The Marmares were very brave and had confidence in the strength of their fortifications, and manfully withstood the attack. For two whole days there were constant assaults and it was clear that the king would not leave until he had captured the "rock."
§ 17.28.3 First, then, the older men of the Marmares advised their younger countrymen to end their resistance and make peace with the king on whatever terms were possible. They would have none of this, however, but all were eager to die together simultaneously with the end of the freedom of their state, so next the elders urged upon them that they should kill with their own hands their children and wives and aged relatives, and those who were strong enough to save themselves should break out through the midst of the enemy at night and take refuge in the neighbouring mountain.
§ 17.28.4 The young men agreed, and consequently gave orders to go each to his own house and there, enjoying the best of food and drink with their families, await the dread event. Some of them, however (these were about six hundred), decided not to kill their relatives with their own hands, but to burn them in the houses, and so issuing forth from the gates to make their way to the mountain.
§ 17.28.5 These carried out their decision and so caused each family to be entombed at its own hearth, while they themselves slipped through the midst of the enemy encamped about them and made their way to the near-by hills under cover of darkness. This is what happened in this year.
§ 17.29.1 When Nicocrates was archon at Athens, Caeso Valerius and Lucius Papirius became consuls at Rome. In this year Dareius sent money to Memnon and appointed him commanding general of the whole war.
§ 17.29.2 He gathered a force of mercenaries, manned three hundred ships, and pursued conflict vigorously. He secured Chios, and then coasting along to Lesbos easily mastered Antissa and Methymna and Pyrrha and Eressus. Mitylene also, large and possessd of rich stores of supplies as well as plenty of fighting men, he nevertheless captured with difficulty by assault after a siege of many days and with the loss of many of his soldiers.
§ 17.29.3 News of the general's activity spread like wildfire and most of the Cyclades sent missions to him. As word came to Greece that Memnon was about to sail to Euboea with his fleet, the cities of that island became alarmed, while those Greeks who were friendly to Persia, notably Sparta, began to have high hopes of a change in the political situation.
§ 17.29.4 Memnon distributed bribes freely and won many Greeks over to share the Persian hopes, but Fortune nevertheless put an end to his career. He fell ill and died, seized by a desperate malady, and with his death Dareius's fortunes also collapsed.
§ 17.30.1 The king had counted on Memnon's transferring the impact of the war from Asia into Europe, but learning of his death called a session of his Council of Friends and laid before them the alternatives, either to send generals with an army down to the coast or for himself, the king, to march down with all his armed forces and fight the Macedonians in person.
§ 17.30.2 Some said that the king must join in battle personally, and they argued that the Persians would fight better in that event. Charidemus, however, the Athenian, a man generally admired for his bravery and skill as a commander — he had been a comrade-in arms of King Philip and had led or counselled all his successes — recommended that Dareius should on no account stake his throne rashly on a gamble, but should keep in his own hands the reserve strength and the control of Asia while sending to the war a general who had given proof of his ability.
§ 17.30.3 One hundred thousand men would be an adequate force, so long as a third of these were Greek mercenaries, and Charidemus hinted that he himself would assume the responsibility for the success of the plan.
§ 17.30.4 The kings moved by his arguments at first but his Friends opposed them stoutly, and even brought Charidemus into suspicion of wanting to get the command so that he could betray the Persian empire to the Macedonians. At this, Charidemus became angry and made free with slurs on Persian lack of manliness. This offended the king, and as his wrath blinded him to his advantage, he seized Charidemus by the girdle according to the custom of the Persians, turned him over to the attendants, and ordered him put to death.
§ 17.30.5 So Charidemus was led away, but as he went to his death, he shouted that the king would soon change his mind and would receive a prompt requital for this unjust punishment, becoming the witness of the overthrow of the kingdom. Charidemus's prospects had been high, but he missed their fulfilment because of his ill-timed frankness and he ended his life in this fashion.
§ 17.30.6 Once the king's passion had cooled he promptly regretted his act and reproached himself for having made a serious mistake, but all his royal power was not able to undo what was done.
§ 17.30.7 He was haunted by dreams of the Macedonian fighting qualities and the vision of Alexander in action was constantly before his eyes. He searched for a competent general to take over Memnon's command but could find no one, and finally felt constrained to go down himself to take part in the contest for the kingdom.
§ 17.31.1 He wasted no time in summoning his forces from all directions and ordered them to muster in Babylon. He canvassed his Friends and Relatives and selected those who were suitable, giving to some commands suited to their abilities and ordering others to fight at his side as his personal staff.
§ 17.31.2 When the time set for the march had come, they had all arrived in Babylon. The number of the soldiers was over four hundred thousand infantry and not less than one hundred thousand cavalry. This was the force with which Dareius marched out of Babylon in the direction of Cilicia; he had with him his wife and children — a son and two daughters — and his mother.
§ 17.31.3 As to Alexander, he had been watching how, prior to his death, Memnon had won over Chios and the cities in Lesbos and had taken Mitylene by storm. He learned that Memnon planned to carry the war into Macedonia with three hundred ships of war and a land army also, while the greater part of the Greeks were ready to revolt.
§ 17.31.4 This caused him no little anxiety, but when persons came with the news of Memnon's death, he was relieved of this fear; but shortly thereafter he became seriously ill, and afflicted by severe pain, sent for his physicians.
§ 17.31.5 All the rest were hesitant to treat him, but Philip the Acarnanian offered to employ risky but quick-acting remedies and by the use of drugs to break the hold of the disease.
§ 17.31.6 This proposal the king accepted gladly, for he had heard that Dareius had already left Babylon with his army. The physician gave him a drug to drink and, aided by the natural strength of the sufferer as well as by Fortune, promptly relieved Alexander of the trouble. Making an astonishing recovery, the king honoured the physician with magnificent gifts and assigned him to the most loyal category of Friends.
§ 17.32.1 Alexander's mother wrote at this time to him, giving him other useful advice and warning him to be on his guard against the Lyncestian Alexander. This was a man distinguished for bravery and high spirit who accompanied the king in the group of Friends in a trusted capacity.
§ 17.32.2 There were many other plausible circumstances joining to support the charge, and so the Lyncestian was arrested and bound and placed under guard, until he should face a court. Alexander learned that Dareius was only a few days march away, and sent off Parmenion with a body of troops to seize the passage of the so called . . . Gates.When the latter reached the place, he forced out the Persians who were holding the pass and remained master of it.
§ 17.32.3 Dareius decided to make his army mobile and diverted his baggage train and the non-combatants to Damascus in Syria; then, learning that Alexander was holding the passes and thinking that he would never dare to fight in the plain, made his way quickly to meet him.
§ 17.32.4 The people of the country, who had little respect for the small numbers of the Macedonians but were much impressed with the great size of the Persian army, abandoned Alexander and came over to Dareius. They brought the Persians food and other materials with great goodwill, and mentally predicted victory for them. Alexander, however, occupied Issus, a considerable city, which was terrified into submission.
§ 17.33.1 When his scouts reported that Dareius was only thirty stades away and advancing in alarming fashion with his forces drawn up for battle, a frightening spectacle, Alexander grasped that this was a god-given opportunity to destroy the Persian power in a single victory. He roused his soldiers with appropriate words for a decisive effort and marshalled the battalions of foot and the squadrons of horse appropriately to the location. He set the cavalry along the front of the whole army, and ordered the infantry phalanx to remain in reserve behind it.
§ 17.33.2 He himself advanced at the head of the right wing to the encounter, having with him the best of the mounted troops. The Thessalian horse was on the left, and this was outstanding in bravery and skill.
§ 17.33.3 When the armies were within missile range, the Persians launched at Alexander such a shower of missiles that they collided with one another in the air, so thickly did they fly, and weakened the force of their impact.
§ 17.33.4 On both sides the trumpeters blew the signal of attack and then the Macedonians first raised an unearthly shout followed by the Persians answering, so that the whole hillside bordering the battlefield echoed back the sound, and this second roar in volume surpassed the Macedonian warcry as five hundred thousand men shouted with one voice.
§ 17.33.5 Alexander cast his glance in all directions in his anxiety to see Dareius, and as soon as he had identified him, he drove hard with his cavalry at the king himself, wanting not so much to defeat the Persians as to win the victory with his own hands.
§ 17.33.6 By now the rest of the cavalry on both sides was engaged and many were killed as the battle raged indecisively because of the evenly matched fighting qualities of the two sides. The scales inclined now one way, now another, as the lines swayed alternately forward and backward.
§ 17.33.7 No javelin cast or sword thrust lacked its effect as the crowded ranks offered a ready target. Many fell with wounds received as they faced the enemy and their fury held to the last breath, so that life failed them sooner than courage.
§ 17.34.1 The officers of each unit fought valiantly at the head of their men and by their example inspired courage in the ranks. One could see many forms of wounds inflicted, furious struggles of all sorts inspired by the will to win.
§ 17.34.2 The Persian Oxathres was the brother of Dareius and a man highly praised for his fighting qualities; when he saw Alexander riding at Dareius and feared that he would not be checked, he was seized with the desire to share his brother's fate.
§ 17.34.3 Ordering the best of the horsemen in his company to follow him, he threw himself with them against Alexander, thinking that this demonstration of brotherly love would bring him high renown among the Persians. He took up the fight directly in front of Dareius's chariot and there engaging the enemy skilfully and with a stout heart slew many of them.
§ 17.34.4 The fighting qualities of Alexander's group were superior, however, and quickly many bodies lay piled high about the chariot. No Macedonian had any other thought than to strike the king, and in their intense rivalry to reach him took no thought for their lives.
§ 17.34.5 Many of the noblest Persian princes perished in this struggle, among them Antizyes and Rheomithres and Tasiaces, the satrap of Egypt. Many of the Macedonians fell also, and Alexander himself was wounded in the thigh, for the enemy pressed about him.
§ 17.34.6 The horses which were harnessed to the yoke of Dareius's chariot were covered with wounds and terrified by the piles of dead about them. They refused to answer to their bridles, and came close to carrying off Dareius into the midst of the enemy, but the king himself, in extreme peril, caught up the reins, being forced to throw away the dignity of his position and to violate the ancient custom of the Persian kings.
§ 17.34.7 A second chariot was brought up by Dareius's attendants and in the confusion as he changed over to it in the face of constant attack he fell into a panic terror. Seeing their king in this state, the Persians with him turned to flee, and as each adjacent unit in turn did the same, the whole Persian cavalry was soon in full retreat.
§ 17.34.8 As their route took them through narrow defiles and over rough country, they clashed and trampled on one another and many died without having received a blow from the enemy. For men lay piled up in confusion, some without armour, others in full battle panoply. Some with their swords still drawn killed those who spitted themselves upon them. Most of the cavalry, however, bursting out into the plain and driving their horses at full gallop succeeded in reaching the safety of the friendly cities.
§ 17.34.9 Now the Macedonian phalanx and the Persian infantry were engaged only briefly, for the rout of the cavalry had been, as it were, a prelude of the whole victory. Soon all of the Persians were in retreat and so many tens of thousands were making their escape through narrow passes the whole countryside was soon covered with bodies.
§ 17.35.1 When night fell, the remainder of the Persian army easily succeeded in scattering in various directions while the Macedonians gave over the pursuit and turned to plunder, being particularly attracted by the royal pavilions because of the mass of wealth that was there.
§ 17.35.2 This included much silver, no little gold, and vast numbers of rich dresses from the royal treasure, which they took, and likewise a great store of wealth belonging to the King's Friends, Relatives, and military commanders.
§ 17.35.3 Not only the ladies of the royal house but also those of the King's Relatives and Friends, borne on gilded chariots, had accompanied the army according to an ancestral custom of the Persians,
§ 17.35.4 and each of them had brought with her a store of rich future and feminine adornment, in keeping with their vast wealth and luxury. The lot of these captured women was pathetic in the extreme.
§ 17.35.5 They who previously from daintiness only with reluctance had been conveyed in luxurious carriages and had exposed no part of their bodies unveiled now burst wailing out of the tents clad only in a single chiton, rending their garments, calling on the gods, and falling at the knees of the conquerors.
§ 17.35.6 Flinging off their jewelry with trembling hands and with their hair flying, they fled for their lives over rugged ground and, collecting into groups, they called to help them those who were themselves in need of help from others.
§ 17.35.7 Some of their captors dragged this unfortunates by the hair, others, ripping off their clothing, drove them with blows of their hands or spear-butts against their naked bodies, thus outraging the dearest and proudest of the Persian possessions by virtue of Fortune's generosity to them.
§ 17.36.1 Now the most prudent of the Macedonians looked on this reversal of Fortune with compassion and felt pity for the case of those who had seen their former lot so violently changed; everything belonging to their high rank was far removed from them, and they were encompassed by what was foreign and hostile. (This, however, was not the attitude of most of the soldiery,) and the women were herded off into a luckless and humiliating captivity.
§ 17.36.2 What particularly moved to tears of pity those who saw it was the family most Dareius, his mother, wife, two daughters of marriageable age, and a son who was a mere boy.
§ 17.36.3 In their case, the change in fortune and the magnitude of their loss of position, incredible as it were, was a spectacle that might well inspire compassion in those who beheld it.
§ 17.36.4 They knew nothing of Dareius, whether he lived and survived or had perished in the general disaster, but they saw their tent plundered by armed men who were unaware of the identity of their captives and committed many improper acts through ignorance. They saw the whole of Asia taken prisoner with them, and as the wives of the satraps fell at their feet and implored their help, they were not able to assist any one of them, but themselves sought the assistance of the others in their own misfortunes.
§ 17.36.5 The royal pages now took over the tent of Dareius and prepared Alexander's bath and dinner and, lighting a great blaze of torches, waited for him, that he might return from the pursuit and, finding ready for him all the riches of Dareius, take it as an omen for his conquest of the empire of all Asia.
§ 17.36.6 In the course of the battle there died on the Persian side more than one hundred thousand infantry and not less than ten thousand cavalry; on the Macedonian side, the casualties were three hundred infantry and one hundred and fifty cavalry. This was the conclusion of the battle at Issus of Cilicia.
§ 17.37.1 The kings, however, were still occupied. When he knew that he was decisively defeated, Dareius gave himself up to flight and mounting in turn one after another of his best horses galloped on at top speed, desperately seeking to escape from Alexander's grasp and anxious to reach the safety of the upper satrapies.
§ 17.37.2 Alexander followed him with the companion cavalry and the best of the other horsemen, eager to get possession of Dareius's person. He continued on for two hundred furlongs and then turned back, returning to his camp about midnight. Having dispelled his weariness in the bath, he turned to relaxation and to dinner.
§ 17.37.3 Someone came to the wife and the mother of Dareius and told them that Alexander had come back from the pursuit after stripping Dareius of his arms. At this, a great outcry and lamentation arose among the women; and the rest of the captives, joining in their sorrow at the news, sent up a loud wail, so that the king heard it and sent Leonnatus, one of his friends, to quiet the uproar and to reassure Sisyngambris by explaining that Dareius was still alive and that Alexander would show them the proper consideration. In the morning he would come to address them and to demonstrate his kindness by deeds.
§ 17.37.4 As they heard this welcome and altogether unexpected good news, the captive women hailed Alexander as a god and ceased from their wailing.
§ 17.37.5 So at daybreak, the king took with him the most valued of his Friends, Hephaestion, and came to the women. They both were dressed alike, but Hephaestion was taller and more handsome. Sisyngambris took him for the king and did him obeisance. As the others present made signs to her and pointed to Alexander with their hands she was embarrassed by her mistake, but made a new start and did obeisance to Alexander.
§ 17.37.6 He, however, cut in and said, "Never mind, Mother. For actually he too is Alexander." By thus addressing the aged woman as "Mother," with this kindliest of terms he gave the promise of coming benefactions to those who had been wretched a moment before. Assuring Sisyngambris that she would be his second mother he immediately ratified in action what he had just promised orally.
§ 17.38.1 He decked her with her royal jewelry and restored her to her previous dignity, with its proper honours. He made over to her all her former retinue of servants which she had been given by Dareius and added more in addition not less in number than the preceding. He promised to provide for the marriage of the daughters even more generously than Dareius had promised and to bring up the boy as his own and to show him royal honour.
§ 17.38.2 He called the boy to him and kissed him, and as he saw him fearless in countenance and not frightened at all, he remarked to Hephaestion that at the age of six years the boy showed a courage beyond his years and was much braver than his father. As to the wife of Dareius, he said that he would see that her dignity should be so maintained that she would experience nothing inconsistent with her former happiness.
§ 17.38.3 He added many other assurances of consideration and generosity, so that the women broke out into uncontrolled weeping, so great was their unexpected joy. He gave them his hand as pledge of all this and was not only showered with praises by those who had been helped, but won universal recognition throughout his own army for his exceeding propriety of conduct.
§ 17.38.4 In general I would say that of many good deeds done by Alexander there is none that is greater or more worthy of record and mention in history than this.
§ 17.38.5 Sieges and battles and the other victories scored in war are due for the most part either to Fortune or valour, but when one in a position of power shows pity for those who have been overthrown, this is an action due only to wisdom.
§ 17.38.6 Most people are made proud by their successes because of their good fortune and, becoming arrogant in their success, are forgetful of the common weakness of mankind. You can see how very many are unable to bear success, just as if it were a heavy burden.
§ 17.38.7 Although Alexander lived many generations before our time, let him continue to receive in future ages also the just and proper praise for his good qualities.
§ 17.39.1 Dareius hurried to Babylon and gathered together the survivors of the battle at Issus. He was not crushed in spirit in spite of the tremendous setback he had received, but wrote to Alexander advising him to bear his success as one who was only human and to release the captives in return for a large ransom. He added that he would yield to Alexander the territory and cities of Asia west of the Halys River if he would sign a treaty of friendship with him.
§ 17.39.2 Alexander summoned his Friends to a council and concealed the real letter. Forging another more in accord with his interests he introduced it to his advisers and sent the envoys away empty handed.
§ 17.39.3 So Dareius gave up the attempt to reach an agreement with Alexander by diplomatic means and set to work on vast preparations for war. He re-equipped those who had lost their armour in the defeat and he enlisted others and assigned them to military units. He sent for the levies from the upper satrapies, which he had previously left unemployed because of the haste of the last campaign.
§ 17.39.4 He took such pains over the constitution of the army that he ended up with one twice the size of that which had been engaged at Issus. He assembled eight hundred thousand infantry and two hundred thousand cavalry, and a force of scythe-bearing chariots in addition. These were the events of this year.
§ 17.40.1 When Niceratus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Atilius and Marcus Valerius, and the one hundred and twelfth Olympic Games were held, in which Grylus of Chalcis was the victor. In this year, Alexander buried the dead from his victory at Issus, including even those of the Persians who had distinguished themselves by courage. Then he performed rich sacrifices to the gods and rewarded those who had borne themselves well in battle with gifts appropriate to each, and rested the army for some days.
§ 17.40.2 Then he marched on towards Egypt, and as he came into Phoenicia, received the submission of all the other cities, for their inhabitants accepted him willingly. At Tyre, however, when the king wished to sacrifice to the Tyrian Heracles, the people overhastily barred him from entering the city;
§ 17.40.3 Alexander became angry and threatened to resort to force, but the Tyrians cheerfully faced the prospect of a siege. They wanted to gratify Dareius and keep unimpaired their loyalty to him, and thought also that they would receive great gifts from the king in return for such a favour. They would draw Alexander into a protracted and difficult siege and give Dareius time for his military preparations, and at the same time they had confidence in the strength of their island and the military forces in it. They also hoped for help from their colonists, the Carthaginians.
§ 17.40.4 The king saw that the city could hardly be taken by sea because of the engines mounted along its walls and the fleet that it possessed, while from the land it was almost unassailable because it lay four furlongs away from the coast. Nevertheless he determined to run every risk and make every effort to save the Macedonian army from being held in contempt by a single undistinguished city.
§ 17.40.5 Immediately he demolished what was called Old Tyre and set many tens of thousands of men to work carrying stones to construct a mole two plethra in width. He drafted into service the entire population of the neighbouring cities and the project advanced rapidly because the workers were numerous.
§ 17.41.1 At first, the Tyrians sailed up to the mole and mocked the king, asking if he thought that he would get the better of Poseidon. Then, as the work proceeded with unexpected rapidity, they voted to transport their children and women and old men to Carthage, assigned the young and able-bodied to the defence of the walls, and made ready for a naval engagement with their eighty triremes.
§ 17.41.2 They did succeed in getting a part of their children and women to safety with the Carthaginians, but they were outstripped by the abundance of Alexander's labour force, and, not being able to stop his advance with their ships, were compelled to stand the siege with almost their whole preparation still in the city.
§ 17.41.3 They had a wealth of catapults and other engines employed for sieges and they had no difficulty in constructing more because of engineers and artisans of all sorts who were in the city.
§ 17.41.4 All kinds of novel devices were fashioned by them, so that the entire circuit of the walls was covered with machines, especially on that side where the mole was approaching the city.
§ 17.41.5 As the Macedonian construction came within range or missiles, portents were sent by the gods to them in their danger. Out of the sea a tidal wave tossed a sea-monster of incredible size into the midst of the Macedonian operations. It crashed into the mole but did it no harm, remained resting a portion of its body against it for a long time and then swam off into the sea again.
§ 17.41.6 This strange event threw both sides into superstition, each imagining that the portent signified that Poseidon would come to their aid, for they were swayed by their own interest in the matter.
§ 17.41.7 There were other strange happenings too, calculated to spread confusion and terror among the people. At the distribution of rations on the Macedonian side, the broken pieces of bread had a bloody look. Someone reported, on the Tyrian side, that he had seen a vision in which Apollo told him that he would leave the city.
§ 17.41.8 Everyone suspected that the man had made up the story in order to curry favour with Alexander, and some of the younger citizens set out to stone him; he was, however, spirited away by the magistrates and took refuge in the sanctuary of Heracles, where as a suppliant he escaped the people's wrath, but the Tyrians were so credulous that they tied the xoanon of Apollo to its base with golden cords, preventing, as they thought, the god from leaving the city.
§ 17.42.1 Now the Tyrians were alarmed at the advance of the mole, and they equipped many small vessels with both light and heavy catapults together with archers and slingers, and, attacking the workers on the mole, wounded many and killed not a few.
§ 17.42.2 As missiles of all sorts in large numbers rained upon unarmed and densely packed men, no soldier missed his mark since the targets were exposed and unsuspecting. The missiles struck not only from the front but also from the back, as men were working on both sides of a rather narrow structure and no one could protect himself from those who shot from two directions.
§ 17.42.3 Alexander moved immediately to rectify what threatened to be a shocking disaster, and manning all his ships and taking personal command of them, made with all speed for the harbour of Tyre to cut off the retreat of the Phoenicians.
§ 17.42.4 They in turn were terrified lest he seize the harbour and capture the city while it was empty of soldiers, and rowed back to Tyre as fast as they could. Both fleets plied their oars at a fast stroke in a fury of determination, and the Macedonians were already nearing the entrance, but the Phoenicians, by a narrow margin, escaped losing their whole force and, thrusting their way in, got safely to the city with the loss only of the ships at the tail of the column.
§ 17.42.5 So the king failed of this important objective, but nevertheless pushed on with the mole, protecting his workers with a thick screen of ships. As his engines drew close to the city and its capture seemed imminent, a powerful north-west gale blew up and damaged a large part of the mole.
§ 17.42.6 Alexander was at a loss to deal with the harm done to his project by the forces of nature and thought of give up the siege attempt, but driven by ambition he sent to the mountain and felling huge trees, he brought them branches and all and, placing them besides the mole, broke the force of the waves.
§ 17.42.7 It was not long before he had restored the collapsed parts of the mole, and pushing on with an ample labour force until he came within missiles' range, he moved his engines out to the end of the causeway, and attacked the walls with his stone throwers, while he employed his light catapults against the men stationed along the battlements. The archers and slingers joined in the barrage, and wounded many in the city who rushed to the defence.
§ 17.43.1 The Tyrians had bronze workers and machinists, and contrived ingenious counter-measures. Against the projectiles from the catapults they made wheels with many spokes, and, setting these to rotate by a certain device, they destroyed some of the missiles and deflected other, and broke the force of all. They caught the balls from the stone throwers in soft and yielding materials and so weakened their force.
§ 17.43.2 While this attack was going on from the mole, the king sailed around the city with his whole fleet and inspected the walls, and made it clear that he was about to attack the city alike by land and sea.
§ 17.43.3 The Tyrians did not dare to put to sea again with their whole fleet but kept three ships moored at the harbour mouth. The king, however, sailed up to these, sank them all, and so returned to his camp. Wanting to double the security of their walls, the Tyrians built a second one at a distance of five cubits within the first; this was ten cubits in thickness, and the passage between the walls they filled with stones and earth,
§ 17.43.4 but Alexander lashed triremes together, mounted his various siege engines upon them, and overthrew the wall for the space of a plethron.
§ 17.43.5 Through this breach the Macedonians burst into the city, but the Tyrians rained on them a shower of missiles and managed to turn them back, and when night came, they rebuilt the fallen part of the wall. Now the causeway had reached the wall and made the city mainland, and sharp fighting took place along the walls.
§ 17.43.6 The Tyrians had the present danger before their eyes and easily imagined what a disaster the actual capture of the city would be, so that they spent themselves so freely in the contest as to despise mortal danger.
§ 17.43.7 When the Macedonians moved up towers as high as the walls and in this way, extending bridges, boldly assaulted the battlements, the Tyrians fell back on the ingenuity of their engineers and applied many counter-measures to meet the assault.
§ 17.43.8 They forged great tridents armed with barbs and struck with these at close range the assailants standing on the towers. These stuck in the shields, and as ropes were attached to the tridents, they could haul on the ropes and pull them in.
§ 17.43.9 Their victims were faced the alternative of releasing their arms and exposing their bodies to be wounded by the missiles which showered upon them, or clinging to their shields for shame and perishing in the fall from the lofty towers.
§ 17.43.10 Other Tyrians cast fishing nets over those Macedonians who were fighting their way across the bridges and, making their hands helpless, pulled them off and tumbled them down from bridge to earth.
§ 17.44.1 They thought of another ingenious device also to offset the Macedonian fighting qualities, by which they involved the bravest of the enemy in a horrible torment which could not be avoided. They fashioned shields of bronze and iron and, filling them with sand, roasted them continuously over a strong fire and made the sand red hot.
§ 17.44.2 By means of a certain apparatus they then scattered this over those Macedonians who were fighting most boldly and brought those within its range into utter misery. The sand sifted down under breastplates and shirts, and scorching the skin with the intense heat inflicted upon them irremediable disaster.
§ 17.44.3 They shrieked supplications like those under torture and there was no one to help them, but with the excruciating agony they fell into madness and died, the victims of a pitiable and helpless lot.
§ 17.44.4 At the same time, the Phoenicians poured down fire and flung javelins and stones, and by the volume of their missiles weakened the resolution of the attackers. They let down long poles or spars equipped with concave cutting edges and cut the ropes supporting the rams, thus rendering these instruments useless. With their fire-throwers they discharged huge red-hot masses of metal into the press of the enemy, and where so many men were packed together they did not miss their mark. With "crows" and "iron hands" they dragged over the edge many who were stationed behind the breastworks on the towers.
§ 17.44.5 With many hands at work they kept all their engines busy and caused many deaths among the besiegers.
§ 17.45.1 They caused extreme terror by all of this and the fury of their fighting became hardly resistible, but the Macedonians did not lose their boldness.
§ 17.45.2 As those in front kept falling, those behind moved up and were not deterred by the sufferings of their comrades. Alexander mounted the stone-throwing catapults in proper places and made the walls rock with the boulders that they threw. With the dart-throwers on the wooden towers he kept up a constant fire of all kinds of missiles and terribly punished the defenders of the walls.
§ 17.45.3 In response, the Tyrians rigged marble wheels in front of the walls and causing these to rotate by some mechanism they shattered the flying missiles of the catapults and, deflecting them from their course, rendered their fire ineffective.
§ 17.45.4 In addition, they stitched up hides or pairs of skins and stuffed them with seaweed so as to receive the blows of the stones on these. As these were soft and yielding, the force of the flying stones was lessened.
§ 17.45.5 In sum, the Tyrians defended themselves strongly in all regards and showed themselves well provided with the means of defence. They were bold in face of their enemies, and left the shelter of the walls and their position with within the towers to push out onto the very bridges and match the courage of the Macedonians with their own valour.
§ 17.45.6 They grappled with the enemy and, fighting hand to hand, put up a stout battle for their city. Some of them used axes to chop off any part of the body of an opponent that presented itself. There was one of the Macedonian commanders named Admetus who was a conspicuously brave and powerful man. He withstood the fury of the Tyrians with high courage and died heroically, killed instantly when his skull was split by the stroke of an axe.
§ 17.45.7 Alexander saw that the Macedonians were held in check by the resistance of the Tyrians, and, as it was now night, recalled his soldiers by a trumpet call. His first impulse was to break off the siege and march on to Egypt, but he changed his mind as he reflected that it would be disgraceful to leave the Tyrians with all the glory of the operation. He found support in only one of his Friends, Amyntas the son of Andromenes, but turned again to the attack.
§ 17.46.1 Alexander addressed the Macedonians, calling on them to dare no less than he. Fitting out his ships for fighting, he began a general assault upon the walls by land and sea and this was pressed furiously. He saw that the wall on the side of the naval base was weaker than elsewhere, and brought up to that point his triremes lashed together and supporting his best siege engines.
§ 17.46.2 Now he performed a feat of daring which was hardly believable even to those who saw it. He flung a bridge across from a wooden tower to the city walls and crossing by it alone gained a footing on the wall, neither concerned for the envy of Fortune nor fearing the menace of the Tyrians. Having as witness of his prowess the great army which had defeated the Persians, he ordered the Macedonians to follow him, and leading the way he slew some of those who came within reach with his spear, and others by a blow of his sabre. He knocked down still others with the rim of his shield, and put an end to the high confidence of the enemy.
§ 17.46.3 Simultaneously in another part of the city the battering ram, put to its work, brought down a considerable stretch of wall; and when the Macedonians entered through this breach and Alexander's party poured over the bridge on to the wall, the city was taken. The Tyrians, however, kept up the resistance with mutual cries of encouragement and blocked the alleys with barricades, so that all except a few were cut down fighting, in number more than seven thousand.
§ 17.46.4 The king sold the women and children into slavery and crucified all the men of military age. These were not less than two thousand. Although most of the non-combatants had been removed to Carthage, those who remained to become captives were found to be more than thirteen thousand.
§ 17.46.5 So Tyre had undergone the siege bravely rather than wisely and come into such misfortunes, after a resistance of seven months.
§ 17.46.6 The king removed the golden chains and fetters from Apollo and gave orders that the god should be called "Apollo Philalexander." He carried out magnificent sacrifices to Heracles, rewarded those of his men who had distinguished themselves, and gave a lavish funeral for his own dead. He installed as king of Tyre a man named Ballonymus, the story of whose career I cannot omit because it is an example of a quite astonishing reversal of fortune.
§ 17.47.1 The former king, Straton, was deprived of his throne because of his friendship for Dareius, and Alexander invited Hephaestion to nominate as king of Tyre any personal guest-friend whom he wished.
§ 17.47.2 At first he favoured the host with whom he found pleasant lodging, and proposed that he should be designated master of the city. He was prominent among the citizens in wealth and position, but not being related to those who had been kings he would not accept the offer.
§ 17.47.3 Hephaestion then asked him to make a choice from among the members of the royal family, and he said that he knew a man of royal descent who was wise and good in all respects, but he was poor in the extreme.
§ 17.47.4 Hephaestion nevertheless agreed that he should be given the royal power, and the one who had been given the choice went off to find the man he had named, bearing with him the royal dress, and came upon him drawing water for hire in a garden, dressed in common rags.
§ 17.47.5 He informed him of the transformation in his position, dressed him in the king's robe, and gave him the other appropriate trappings of office. Then he conducted him to the market place and proclaimed him king of Tyre.
§ 17.47.6 Everyone accepted him with enthusiasm and marvelled at the vicissitudes of Fortune. Thus he became a Friend of Alexander's and took over the kingdom, an instructive example to those who do not know the incredible changes which Fortune can effect. Now that we have described Alexander's activity, we shall turn our narrative in another direction.
§ 17.48.1 In Europe, Agis king of Sparta engaged the services of those mercenaries who had escaped from the battle at Issus, eight thousand in number, and sought to change the political situation in Greece in favour of Dareius.
§ 17.48.2 He received from the Persian king ships and money and sailed to Crete, where he captured most of the cities and forced them to take the Persian side. That Amyntas who had fled from Macedonia and had gone up to Dareius had fought on the Persian side in Cilicia. He escaped, however, from the battle at Issus with four thousand mercenaries and got to Tripolis in Phoenicia before Alexander's arrival. Here he chose from the whole Persian fleet enough ships to transport his soldiers, and burned the rest.
§ 17.48.3 He sailed over to Cyprus, took on additional soldiers and ships, and continued on down to Pelusium. Becoming master of that city, he proclaimed that he had been sent by King Dareius as military commander because the satrap of Egypt had been killed fighting at Issus in Cilicia.
§ 17.48.4 He sailed up the river to Memphis and defeated the local forces in a battle before the city, but then, as his soldiers turned to plunder, the Egyptians issued out of the city, attacked his men as they were scattered looting estates located in the countryside, and killed Amyntas and all who came with him to the last man.
§ 17.48.5 And that was the end of Amyntas, who had set his hand to great undertakings and failed when he had every prospect of success. His experience was paralleled by those of the other officers and troop leaders who escaped at the head of their military units from the battle at Issus and attempted to maintain the Persian cause.
§ 17.48.6 Some got to important cities and held them for Dareius, others raised tribes and furnishing themselves with troops from them performed appropriate duties in the time under review. The delegates of the League of Corinth voted to send fifteen envoys with a golden wreath as a prize of valour from Greece to Alexander, instructing them to congratulate him on his victory in Cilicia.
§ 17.48.7 Alexander, in the meantime, marched down to Gaza, which was garrisoned by the Persians, and took the city by storm after a siege of two months.
§ 17.49.1 In the archonship of Aristophanes at Athens, the consuls at Rome were Spurius Postumius and Titus Veturius. In this year King Alexander set in order the affairs of Gaza and sent off Amyntas with ten ships to Macedonia, with orders to enlist the young men who were fit for military service. He himself with all his army marched on to Egypt and secured the adhesion of all its cities without striking a blow.
§ 17.49.2 For since the Persians had committed impieties against the temples and had governed harshly, the Egyptians welcomed the Macedonians. Having settled the affairs of Egypt, Alexander went off to the Temple of Ammon, where he wished to consult the oracle of the god. When he had advanced half way along the coast, he was met by envoys from the people of Cyrene, who brought him a crown and magnificent figures, among which were three hundred chargers and five handsome four-horse chariots.
§ 17.49.3 He received the envoys cordially and made a treaty of friendship and alliance with them; then he continued with his travelling companions on to the temple. When he came to the desert and waterless part, he took on water and began to cross a country covered with an infinite expanse of sand. In four days their water had given out and they suffered from fearful thirst.
§ 17.49.4 All fell into despair, when suddenly a great storm of rain burst from the heavens, ending their shortage of water in a way which had not been foreseen, and which, therefore, seemed to those so unexpectedly rescued to have been due to the action of divine Providence.
§ 17.49.5 They refilled their containers from a hollow in the ground, and again with a four days' supply in case marched for four days and came out of the desert.at one point, when their road could not be traced because of the sand dunes, the guide pointed out to the king that crows cawing on their right were calling their attention to the route which led to the temple.
§ 17.49.6 Alexander took this for an omen, and thinking that the god was pleased by his visit pushed on with speed. First he came to the so called Bitter Lake, and then, proceeding another hundred furlongs, he passed by the Cities of Ammon. Then, after a journey of one day, he approached the sanctuary.
§ 17.50.1 The land where this temple lies is surrounded by a sandy desert and waterless waste, destitute of anything good for man. The oasis is fifty furlongs in length and breadth and is watered by many fine springs, so that it is covered with all sorts of trees, especially those valued for their fruit. It has a moderate climate like our spring and, surrounded as it is by very hot regions, alone furnishes to its people a contrasting mildness of temperature.
§ 17.50.2 It is said that the sanctuary was built by Danaus the Egyptian. The land, which is sacred to the god, is occupied on the south and west by Ethiopians, and on the north by the Libyans, a nomadic people, and the so called Nasamonians who reach on into the interior.
§ 17.50.3 All the people of Ammon dwell in villages. In the midst of their country there is a fortress secured by triple walls. The innermost circuit encloses the palace of the ancient rulers; the next, the women's court, the dwellings of the children, women, and relatives, and the guardrooms of the scouts, as well as the sanctuary of the godand the sacred spring, from the waters of which offerings addressed to the god take on holiness; the outer circuit surrounds the barracks of the king's guards and the guardrooms of those who protect the person of the ruler.
§ 17.50.4 Outside of the fortress at no great distance there is another temple of Ammon shaded by many large trees, and near this is the spring which is called the Spring of the Sun from its behaviour. Its waters change in temperature oddly in accordance with the times of day.
§ 17.50.5 At sunrise it sends forth a warm stream, but as the day advances it grows cooler proportionally with the passage of the hours, until under the noonday heat it reaches the extreme degree of cold. Then again in the same proportion it grows warmer toward evening and as the night advances it continues to heat up until midnight when again the trend is reversed, and at daybreak once more the waters have returned to their original temperature.
§ 17.50.6 The image of the god is encrusted with emeralds and other precious stones, and answers those who consult the oracle in a quite peculiar fashion. It is carried about upon a golden boat by eighty priests, and these, with the god on their shoulders, go without their own volition wherever the god directs their path.
§ 17.50.7 A multitude of girls and women follows them singing hymns as they go and praising the god in a traditional hymn.
§ 17.51.1 When Alexander was conducted by the priests into the temple and had regarded the god for a while, the one who held the position of prophet, an elderly man, came to him and said, "Rejoice, son; take this form of address as from the god also."
§ 17.51.2 He replied, "I accept, father; for the future I shall be called thy son. But tell me if thou givest me the rule of the whole earth." The priest now entered the sacred enclosure and as the bearers now lifted the god and were moved according to certain prescribed sounds of the voice, the prophet cried that of a certainty the god had granted him his request, and Alexander spoke again: "The last, O spirit, of my questions now answer; have I punished all those who were the murderers of my father or have some escaped me?"
§ 17.51.3 The prophet shouted: "Silence! There is no mortal who can plot against the one who begot him. All the murders of Philip, however, have been punished. The proof of his divine birth will resist in the greatness of his deeds; as formerly he has been undefeated, so now he will be unconquerable for all time."
§ 17.51.4 Alexander was delighted with these responses. He honoured the god with rich gifts and returned to Egypt.
§ 17.52.1 He decided to found a great city in Egypt, and gave orders to the men left behind with this mission to build the city between the marsh and the sea. He laid out the site and traced the streets skilfully and ordered that the city should be called after him Alexandria.
§ 17.52.2 It was conveniently situated near the harbour of Pharos, and by selecting the right angle of the streets, Alexander made the city breathe with the etesian winds so that as these blow across a great expanse of sea, they cool the air of the town, and so he provided its inhabitants with a moderate climate and good health.
§ 17.52.3 Alexander also laid out the walls so that they were at once exceedingly large and marvellously strong. Lying between a great marsh and the sea, it affords by land only two approaches, both narrow and very easily blocked. In shape, it is similar to a chlamys, a and it is approximately bisected by an avenue remarkable for its size and beauty. From gate to gate it runs a distance of forty furlongs; it is a plethron in width, and is bordered throughout its length with rich facades of houses and temples.
§ 17.52.4 Alexander gave orders to build a palace notable for its size and massiveness. And not only Alexander, but those who after him ruled Egypt down to our own time, with few exceptions have enlarged this with lavish additions.
§ 17.52.5 The city in general has grown so much in later times that many reckon it to be the first city of the civilized world, and it is certainly far ahead of all the rest in elegance and extent and riches and luxury.
§ 17.52.6 The number of its inhabitants surpasses that of those in other cities. At the time when we were in Egypt, those who kept the census returns of the population said that its free residents were more than three hundred thousand, and that the king received from the revenues of the country more than six thousand talents.
§ 17.52.7 However that may be, King Alexander charged certain of his Friends with the construction of Alexandria, settled all the affairs of Egypt, and returned with his army to Syria.
§ 17.53.1 By the time he heard of his arrival, Dareius had already assembled his forces from all directions and made everything ready for battle. He had fashioned swords and lances much longer than his earlier types because it was thought Alexander had had a great advantage in this respect in the battle in Cilicia. He had also constructed two hundred scythe-bearing chariots well designed to astonish and terrify the enemy.
§ 17.53.2 From each of these there projected out beyond the trace horses scythes three spans long, attached to the yoke, and presenting their cutting edges to the front. At the axle housings there were two more scythes pointing straight out with their cutting edges turned to the front like the others, but longer and broader. Curved blades were fitted to the ends of these.
§ 17.53.3 All of the force the king adorned with shining armour and with brilliant commanders. As he marched out of Babylon, he had with him eight hundred thousand infantry and no less than two hundred thousand cavalry. He kept the Tigris on the right of his route and the Euphrates on the left, and proceeded through a rich country capable of furnishing ample fodder for the animals and food enough for so many soldiers.
§ 17.53.4 He had in mind to deploy for battle in the vicinity of Nineveh, since the plains there were well suited to his purpose and afforded ample manoeuvre room for the huge forces at his disposal. Pitching camp at a village named Arbela, he drilled his troops daily and made them well disciplined by continued training and practice. He was most concerned lest some confusion should arise in the battle from the numerous peoples assembled who differed in speech.
§ 17.54.1 On the other hand, just as he had previously sent envoys to Alexander to treaty for peace, offering to concede to him the land west of the Halys River, and also to give him twenty thousand talents of silver, but Alexander would not agree,
§ 17.54.2 so now again Dareius sent other envoys praising Alexander for his generous treatment of Dareius's mother and the other captives and inviting him to become a friend. He offered him all the territory west of the Euphrates, thirty thousand talents of silver, and the hand of one of his daughters. Alexander would become Dareius's son-in law and occupy the place of a son, while sharing in the rule of the whole empire.
§ 17.54.3 Alexander brought together all his Friends into a council and laid before them the alternatives. He urged each to speak his own mind freely.
§ 17.54.4 None of the rest, however, dared to give an opinion in a matter of this importance, but Parmenion spoke up and said" "If I were Alexander, I should accept what was offered and make a treaty."
§ 17.54.5 Alexander cut in and said: "So should I, if I were Parmenion." He continued with proud words and refuted the arguments of the Persians, preferring glory to the gifts which were extended to him. Then he told the envoys that the earth could not preserve its plan and order if there were two suns nor could the inhabited world remain calm and free from war so long as two kings shared the rule.
§ 17.54.6 He bade them tell Dareius that, if he desired the supremacy, he should do battle with him to see which of them would have sole and universal rule. If, on the other hand, he despised glory and chose profit and luxury with a life of ease, then let him obey Alexander, but be king over all other rulers, since this privilege was granted him by Alexander's generosity.
§ 17.54.7 Alexander dismissed the council and ordering his forces to resume their march, he advanced on the camp of the enemy. At this juncture the wife of Dareius died and Alexander gave her a sumptuous funeral.
§ 17.55.1 Dareius heard Alexander's answer and gave up any hope of a diplomatic settlement. He continued drilling his troops each day and brought their battle discipline to a satisfactory state. He sent off one of his Friends, Mazaeus, with a picked body of men to guard the crossing of the river and to seize and hold the ford. Other troops he sent out to scorch the earth over which the enemy must come. He thought of using the bed of the Tigris as a defence against the advance of the Macedonians.
§ 17.55.2 Mazaeus, however, looked upon the river as uncrossable because of its depth and the swiftness of the current, and neglected to guard it. Instead he joined forces with those who were burning the countryside, and having wasted a great stretch of it, judged that it would be unusable by the enemy because of the lack of forage.
§ 17.55.3 Alexander, nevertheless, when he came to the crossing of the Tigris River, learned of the ford from some of the local natives, and transferred his army to the east bank. This was accomplished not only with difficulty but even at substantial risk.
§ 17.55.4 The depth of the water at the ford was above a man's breast and the force of the current swept away many who were crossing and deprived them of their footing, and as the water struck their shields, it bore many off their course and brought them into extreme danger.
§ 17.55.5 But Alexander contrived a defence against the violence of the river. He ordered all to lock arms with each other and to construct a sort of bridge out of the compact union of their persons.
§ 17.55.6 Since the crossing had been hazardous and the Macedonians had had a narrow escape, Alexander rested the army that day, and on the following he deployed it and led it forward toward the enemy, then pitched camp not far from the Persians.
§ 17.56.1 Casting over in his mind the number of the Persian forces and the decisive nature of the impending battle, since success or failure lay now entirely in the strength of their arms, Alexander lay awake throughout the night occupied with concern for the next day. About the morning watch he fell asleep, and slept so soundly that he could not be wakened when the sun rose.
§ 17.56.2 At first his Friends were delighted, thinking that the king would be all the keener for the battle for his thorough relaxation. As time passed, however, and sleep continued to possess him, Parmenion, the senior among the Friends, issued on his own responsibility the order to the troops to make ready for the battle,
§ 17.56.3 and since his sleep continued, the Friends came to Alexander and at last succeeded in waking him. As all expressed astonishment at the matter and pressed him to tell the reason for his unconcern, Alexander said that Dareius had freed him from all anxiety by assembling all his forces into one place.
§ 17.56.4 Now in one day the decision would be reached on all issues, and they would be saved toils and dangers extending over a long period of time. Nevertheless, Alexander summoned his officers and encouraged them for the battle which they faced with suitable words, and then led out his army deployed for battle against the Persians, ordering the cavalry squadrons to ride ahead of the infantry phalanx.
§ 17.57.1 On the right wing Alexander stationed the royal squadron under the command of Cleitus the Black (as he was called), and next to this the other Friends under the command of Parmenion's son Philotas, then in succession the other seven squadrons under the same commander.
§ 17.57.2 Behind these was stationed the infantry battalion of the Silver Shields, distinguished for the brilliance of their armour and the valour of the men; they were led by Nicanor, the son of Parmenion. Next to them was the battalion from Elimiotis, as it was called, under the command of Coenus; next he stationed the battalion of the Orestae and the Lyncestae, of which Perdiccas held the command. Meleager commanded the next battalion and Polyperchon the one after that, the people called Stymphaeans being under him.
§ 17.57.3 Philip the son of Balacrus held the next command and, after him, Craterus. As for the cavalry, the line of the squadrons which I have mentioned was continued with the combined Peloponnesian and Achaean horse, then cavalry from Phthiotis and Malis, then Locrians and Phocians, all under the command of Erigyius of Mitylene.
§ 17.57.4 Next were posted the Thessalians who had Philip as their commander; they were far superior to the rest in their fighting qualities and in their horsemanship. And next to these he stationed the Cretan archers and the mercenaries from Achaia.
§ 17.57.5 On both flanks he kept his wings back so that the enemy with their superior numbers could not envelop the shorter line of the Macedonians.
§ 17.57.6 Against the threat of the scythed chariots, he ordered the infantry of the phalanx to join shields as soon as these went into action against them and to beat the shields with their spears, creating such a din as to frighten the horses into bolting to the rear, or, if they persevered, to open gaps in the ranks such that they might ride through harmlessly. He himself took personal command of the right wing and advancing obliquely planned to settle the issue of the battle by his own actions.
§ 17.58.1 Dareius based his formation for battle on the characteristics of his national contingents, and posting himself opposite Alexander gave the command to advance on the Macedonians. As the lines approached each other, the trumpeters on both sides sounded the attack and the troops charged each other with a loud shout.
§ 17.58.2 First the scythed chariots swung into action at full gallop and created great alarm and terror among the Macedonians, especially since Mazaeus in command of the cavalry made their attack more frightening by supporting with his dense squadrons of horse.
§ 17.58.3 As the phalanx joined shields, however, all beat upon their shields with their spears as the king had commanded and a great din arose.
§ 17.58.4 As the horses shied off, most of the chariots were turned about and bore hard with irresistible impact against their own ranks. Others continued on against the Macedonian lines, but as the soldiers opened wide gaps in their ranks the chariots were channelled through these. In some instances the horses were killed by javelin casts and in others they rode through and escaped, but some of them, using the full force of their momentum and applying their steel blades actively, wrought death among the Macedonians in many and various forms.
§ 17.58.5 Such was the keenness and the force of the scythes ingeniously contrived to do harm that they severed the arms of many, shields and all, and in no small number of cases they cut through necks and sent heads tumbling to the ground with the eyes still open and the expression of the countenance unchanged, and in other cases they sliced through ribs with mortal gashes and inflicted a quick death.
§ 17.59.1 As the main bodies now neared each other and, employing bows and slings and throwing javelins, expended their missiles, they turned to hand to hand fighting.
§ 17.59.2 The cavalry first joined battle, and as the Macedonians were on the right wing, Dareius, who commanded his own left, led his kinsman cavalry against them. These were men chosen for courage and for loyalty, the whole thousand included in one squadron.
§ 17.59.3 Knowing that the king was watching their behaviour, they cheerfully faced all of the missiles which were cast in his direction. With them were engaged the Apple Bearers, brave and numerous, and in addition to these Mardi and Cossaei, who were admired for their strength and daring,
§ 17.59.4 as well as all the household troops belonging to the palace and the best fighters among the Indians. They all raised a loud battle cry and, attacking, engaged the enemy valiantly and pressed hard upon the Macedonians because of their superior numbers.
§ 17.59.5 Mazaeus was in command of the Persian right wing with the best of the cavalry under him and killed not a few of his opponents at the first onslaught, but sent off two thousand Cadusii and a thousand picked Scythian horsemen with orders to ride around the enemy's flank and to continue on to their camp and capture the baggage.
§ 17.59.6 This they did promptly, and as they burst into the camp of the Macedonians, some of the captives seized weapons and aided the Scythians in seizing the baggage. There was shouting and confusion throughout the whole camp area at this unexpected event.
§ 17.59.7 Most of the female captives rushed off to welcome the Persians, but the mother of Dareius, Sisyngambris, did not heed when the women called upon her, but remained placidly where she was, since she neither trusted the uncertain turns of Fortune nor would sully her gratitude toward Alexander.
§ 17.59.8 Finally, after the Scythians had rounded up much of the baggage, they rode off to Mazaeus to report their success. During this time, also, part of the cavalry of Dareius in superior numbers continued their pressure on the opposing Macedonians and forced them to give ground.
§ 17.60.1 This was a second success for the Persians, and Alexander saw that it was time for him to offset the discomfiture of his forces by his own intervention with the royal squadron and the rest of the elite horse guards, and rode hard against Dareius.
§ 17.60.2 The Persian king received their attack and fighting from a chariot hurled javelins against his opponents, and many supported him. As the kings approached each other, Alexander flung a javelin at Dareius and missed him, but struck the driver standing beside him and knocked him to the ground.
§ 17.60.3 A shout went up at this from the Persians around Dareius, and those at a greater distance thought that the king had fallen. They were the first to take to flight, and they were followed by those next to them, and steadily, little by little, the solid ranks of Dareius's guard disintegrated.
§ 17.60.4 As both flanks became closed, the king himself was alarmed and retreated. The flight thus became general. Dust raised by the Persian cavalry rose to a height, and as Alexander's squadrons followed on their heels, because of their numbers and the thickness of the dust, it was impossible to tell in what direction Dareius was fleeing. The air was filled with the groans of the fallen, the din of the cavalry, and the constant sound of lashing of whips.
§ 17.60.5 At this time Mazaeus, the commander of the Persian right wing, with the most and the best of the cavalry, was pressing hard on those opposing him, but Parmenion with the Thessalian cavalry and the rest of his forces put up a stout resistance.
§ 17.60.6 For a time, fighting brilliantly, he even seemed to have the upper hand thanks to the fighting qualities of the Thessalians, but the weight and numbers of Mazaeus's command brought the Macedonian cavalry into difficulties.
§ 17.60.7 A great slaughter took place, and despairing of withstanding the Persian power, Parmenion sent off some of his horsemen to Alexander, begging him to come to their support quickly. They carried out their orders with dispatch, but finding that Alexander was already in full pursuit at a great distance from the battlefield they returned without accomplishing their mission.
§ 17.60.8 Nevertheless Parmenion handled the Thessalian squadrons with the utmost skill and finally, killing many of the enemy, routed the Persians who were by now much disheartened by the withdrawal of Dareius.
§ 17.61.1 Dareius was a clever strategist. He took advantage of the great cloud of dust and did not withdraw to the rear like the other barbarians, but swinging in the opposite direction and covering his movement by the dust, got away safely himself and brought all his troops into villages which lay behind the Macedonian position.
§ 17.61.2 Finally all the Persians had fled, and as the Macedonians kept slaughtering the stragglers, before long the whole region in which the battle had taken place was covered with dead.
§ 17.61.3 On the Persian side in the battle fell, cavalry and infantry together, more than ninety thousand. About five hundred of the Macedonians were killed and there were very many wounded. Of the most prominent group of commanders, Hephaestion was wounded with a spear thrust in the arm; he had commanded the bodyguards. Perdiccas and Coenus, of the general's group, were also wounded, so also Menidas and others of the higher commanders. That was the outcome of the battle near Arbela.
§ 17.62.1 When Aristophon was archon at Athens, the consular office at Rome was assumed by Gaius Domitius and Aulus Cornelius. In this year word was brought to Greece about the battle near Arbela, and many of the cities became alarmed at the growth of Macedonian power and decided that they should strike for their freedom while the Persian cause was still alive.
§ 17.62.2 They expected that Dareius would help them and send them much money so that they could gather great armies of mercenaries, while Alexander would not be able to divide his forces.
§ 17.62.3 If, on the other hand, they watched idly while the Persians were utterly defeated, the Greeks would be isolated and never again be able to think of recovering their freedom.
§ 17.62.4 There was also an upheaval in Thrace at just this time which seemed to offer the Greeks an opportunity for freeing themselves.
§ 17.62.5 Memnon, who had been designated governor-general there, had a military force and was a man of spirit. He stirred up the tribesmen, revolted against Alexander, quickly possessed a large army, and was openly bent upon war.
§ 17.62.6 Antipater was forced to mobilize his entire army and to advance through Macedonia into Thrace to settle with him. While Antipater was occupied with this, the Lacedemonians thought that the time had come to undertake a war and issued an appeal to the Greeks to unite in defence of their freedom.
§ 17.62.7 The Athenians had been favoured beyond all the other Greeks by Alexander and did not move. Most of the Peloponnesians, however, and some of the northern Greeks reached an agreement and signed an undertaking to go to war. According to the capacity of the individual cities they enlisted the best of their youth and enrolled as soldiers not less than twenty thousand infantry and about two thousand cavalry.
§ 17.62.8 The Lacedemonians had the command and led out their entire levy for the decisive battle, their king Agis having the position of commander in chief.
§ 17.63.1 When Antipater learned of this Greek mobilization, he ended the Thracian campaign on what terms he could and marched down into the Peloponnesus with his entire army. He added soldiers from those of the Greeks who were still loyal and built up his force until it numbered not less than forty thousand.
§ 17.63.2 When it came to a general engagement, Agis was struck down fighting, but the Lacedemonians fought furiously and maintained their position for a long time; when the Greek allies were forced out of position they themselves fell back on Sparta.
§ 17.63.3 More than five thousand three hundred of the Lacedemonians and their allies were killed in the battle, and three thousand five hundred of Antipater's troops.
§ 17.63.4 An interesting event occurred in connection with Agis's death. He had fought gloriously and fell with many frontal wounds. As he was being carried by his soldiers back to Sparta, he found himself surrounded by the enemy. Despairing of his own life, he ordered the rest to make their escape with all speed and to save themselves for the service of their country, but he himself armed and rising to his knees defended himself, killed some of the enemy and was himself slain by a javelin cast; he had reigned nine years. (This is the end of the first half of the seventeenth book.)
§ 17.63.5 Now that we have run through the events in Europe, we may in turn pass on to what occurred in Asia.
§ 17.64.1 After his defeat in the battle near Arbela, Dareius directed his course to the upper satrapies, seeking by putting distance between himself and Alexander to gain a respite and time enough to organize an army. He made his way first to Ecbatana in Media and paused there, picking up the stragglers from the battle and rearming those who had lost their weapons.
§ 17.64.2 He sent around to the neighbouring tribes demanding soldiers, and he posted couriers to the satraps and generals in Bactria and the upper satrapies, calling upon them to preserve their loyalty to him.
§ 17.64.3 After the battle, Alexander buried his dead and entered Arbela, finding there abundant stores of food, no little barbaric dress and treasure, and three thousand talents of silver. Judging that the air of the region would be polluted by the multitude of unburied corpses, he continued his advance immediately and arrived with his whole army at Babylon.
§ 17.64.4 Here the people received him gladly, and furnishing them billets feasted the Macedonians lavishly. Alexander refreshed his army from its private labours and remained more than thirty days in the city because food was plentiful and the population friendly.
§ 17.64.5 At this time he designated Agathon of Pydna to guard the citadel, assigning to him seven hundred Macedonian soldiers. He appointed Apollodorus of Amphipolis and Menes of Pella as military governors of Babylon and the other satrapies as far as Cilicia, giving them one thousand talents of silver with instructions to enlist as many soldiers as possible.
§ 17.64.6 He assigned Armenia as a province to Mithrines, who had surrendered to him the citadel of Sardes. From the money which was captured he distributed to each of the cavalrymen six minas, to each of the allied cavalrymen five, and to the Macedonians of the phalanx two, and he gave to all the mercenaries two months' pay.
§ 17.65.1 After the king had marched out of Babylon and while he was still on the road, there came to him, sent by Antipater, five hundred Macedonian cavalry and six thousand infantry, six hundred Thracian cavalry and three thousand five hundred Trallians, and from the Peloponnese four thousand infantry and little less than a thousand cavalry. From Macedonia also came fifty sons of the king's Friends sent by their fathers to serve as bodyguards.
§ 17.65.2 The king welcomed all of these, continued his march, and on the sixth day crossed over into the province of Sittacene. This was a rich country abounding in provisions of all sorts, and he lingered here for a number of days, at once anxious to rest his army from the fatigue of their long marches and concerned to review the organization of his army. He wanted to advance some officers and to strengthen the forces by the number and the ability of the commanders.
§ 17.65.3 This he effected. He scrutinized closely the reports of good conduct and promoted many from a high military command to an even higher responsibility, so that by giving all the commanders greater prestige he bound them to himself by strong ties of affection.
§ 17.65.4 He also examined the situation of the individual soldiers and introduced many improvements by considering which was useful. He brought the whole force up to an outstanding devotion to its commander and obedience to his commands, and to a high degree of effectiveness, looking toward the battles to come.
§ 17.65.5 From there he entered Susiane without opposition and took over the fabulous palace of the kings. The satrap Abuletes surrendered the city to him voluntarily, and some have written that he did this in compliance with orders given by Dareius to his trusted officials. The king Persia hoped by this policy, it is suggested, that Alexander would be kept busy with dazzling distractions and the acquisition of brilliant cities and huge treasures, while he, Dareius, won time by his flight to prepared for a renewed warfare.
§ 17.66.1 Alexander entered the city and found the treasure in the palace to include more than forty thousand talents of gold and silver bullion,
§ 17.66.2 which the kings had accumulated unused over a long period of time as a protection against the vicissitudes of Fortune. In addition there were nine thousand talents of minted gold in the form of darics.
§ 17.66.3 A curious thing happened to the king when he was shown the precious objects. He seated himself upon the royal throne, which was larger than the proportions of his body. When one of the pages saw that his feet were a long way from reaching the footstool which belonged to the throne, he picked up Dareius's table and placed it under the dangling legs.
§ 17.66.4 This fitted, and the king was pleased by the aptness of the boy, but a eunuch standing by was troubled in his heart at this reminder of the changes of Fortune and wept.
§ 17.66.5 Alexander noticed him and asked, "What wrong have you seen that you are crying?" The eunuch replied, "Now I am your slave as formerly I was the slave of Dareius. I am by nature devoted to my masters and I was grieved at seeing what was most held in honour by your predecessor now become an ignoble piece of furniture."
§ 17.66.6 This answer reminded the king how great a change had come over the Persian kingdom. He saw that he had committed an act of arrogance quite the reverse of his gentleness to the captives,
§ 17.66.7 and calling the page who had placed the table ordered him to remove it. Then Philotas, who was present, said, "But this was not insolence, for the action was not commanded by you; it occurred through the providence and design of a good spirit." So the king took this remark for an omen, and ordered the table to be left standing at the foot of the throne.
§ 17.67.1 After this Alexander left Dareius's mother, his daughters, and his son in Susa, providing them with persons to teach them the Greek language, and marching on with his army on the fourth day reached the Tigris River.
§ 17.67.2 This flows down from the mountains of the Uxii and passes at first for a thousand furlongs through rough country broken by great gorges, but then traverses a level plain and becomes ever quieter, and after six hundred furlongs empties into the Persian sea.
§ 17.67.3 This he crossed, and entered the country of the Uxii, which was rich, watered by numerous streams, and productive of many fruits of all kinds. At the season when the ripe fruit is dried, the merchants who sail on the Tigris are able to bring down to Babylonia all sorts of confections good for the pleasures of the table.
§ 17.67.4 Alexander found the passages guarded by Madetes, a cousin of Dareius, with a substantial force, and he saw at once the difficulty of the place. The sheer cliffs offered no passage, but an Uxian native who knew the country offered to lead soldiers by a narrow and hazardous path to a position above the enemy.
§ 17.67.5 Alexander accepted the proposal and sent off with him a body of troops, while he himself expedited the move as far as possible and attacked the defenders in waves. The assault was pressed vigorously and the Persians were preoccupied with the struggle when to their astonishment above their heads appeared the flying column of the Macedonians. The Persians were frightened and took to their heels. Thus Alexander won the pass and soon after took all the cities in Uxiane.
§ 17.68.1 Thereafter Alexander marched on in the direction of Persis and on the fifth day came to the so called Susian Rocks. Here the passage was held by Ariobarzanes with a force of twenty-five thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry.
§ 17.68.2 The king first thought to force his way through and advanced to the pass through narrow defiles in rough country, but without opposition. The Persians allowed him to proceed along the pass for some distance, but when he was about half-way through the hard part, they suddenly attacked him and rolled down from above huge boulders, which falling suddenly upon the massed ranks of the Macedonians killed many of them. Many of the enemy threw javelins down from the cliffs into the crowd, and did not miss their mark. Still others coming to close quarters flung stones at the Macedonians who pressed on. The Persians had a tremendous advantage because of the difficulty of the country, killed many and injured not a few.
§ 17.68.3 Alexander was quite helpless to avert the sufferings of his men and seeing that no one of the enemy was killed or even wounded, while of his own force many were slain and practically all the attacking force were disabled, he recalled the soldiers from the battle with a trumpet signal.
§ 17.68.4 Withdrawing from the pass for a distance of three hundred furlongs, he pitched camp and from the natives sought to learn whether there was any other route through the hills. All insisted that there was no other way through, although it was possible to go around them at the cost of several days' travel. It seemed to Alexander, however, discreditable to abandon his dead and unseemly to ask for them, since this carried with it the acknowledgement of defeat, so he ordered all his captives to be brought up.
§ 17.68.5 Among these came hopefully a man who was bilingual, and knew the Persian language. He said that he was a Lycian, had been brought there as a captive, and had pastured goats in these mountains for a number of years. He had come to know the country well and could lead a force of men over a path concealed by bushes and bring them to the rear of the Persians guarding the pass.
§ 17.68.6 The king promised that he would load him with gifts, and under his direction Alexander did make his way over the mountain at night struggling through deep snow. The route crossed a very broken country, seamed by deep ravines and many gorges.
§ 17.68.7 Coming into sight of the enemy outposts, he cut down their first line and captured those who were stationed in the second position, then routed the third line and won the pass, and killed most of the troops of Ariobarzanes.
§ 17.69.1 Now he set out on the road to Persepolis, and while he was on the road received a letter from the governor of the city, whose name was Tiridates. It is stated that if he arrived ahead of those who planned to defend the city for Dareius, he would become master of it, for Tiridates would betray it to him.
§ 17.69.2 Accordingly Alexander led his army on by forced marches; he bridged the Araxes River and so brought his men to the other bank. At this point in his advance the king was confronted by a strange and dreadful sight, one to provoke indignation against the perpetrators and sympathetic pity for the unfortunate victims.
§ 17.69.3 He was met by Greeks bearing branches of supplication. They had been carried away from their homes by previous kings of Persia and were about eight hundred in number, most of them elderly. All had been mutilated, some lacking hands, some feet, and some ears and noses.
§ 17.69.4 They were persons who had acquired skills or crafts and made good progress in their instruction; then their other extremities had been amputated and they were left only those which were vital to their profession. All the soldiers, seeing their venerable years and the losses which their bodies had suffered, pitied the lot of the wretches. Alexander most of all was affected by them and unable to restrain his tears.
§ 17.69.5 They all cried with one voice and besought Alexander to help them in their misfortunes. The king called their leaders to come forward and, greeting them with a respect in keeping with his own greatness of spirit, promised to make it a matter of utmost concern that they should be restored to their homes.
§ 17.69.6 They gathered to debate the matter, and decided that it would be better for them to remain where they were rather than to return home. If they were brought back safely, they would be scattered in small groups, and would find their abuse at the hands of Fortune an object of reproach as they lived on in their cities. If, however, they continued living together, as companions in misfortune, they would find a solace for their mutilation in the similar mutilation of the others.
§ 17.69.7 So they again appeared before the king, told them of their decision, and asked him to give them help appropriate to this proposal.8 Alexander applauded their decision and gave each of them three thousand drachmae, five men's robes and the same number for women, two yoke of oxen, fifty sheep, and fifty bushels of wheat. He made them also exempt from all royal taxes and charged his administrative officials to see that they were harmed in no way. 9 Thus Alexander mitigated the lot of these unfortunate persons by such benefactions in keeping his natural kindness.
§ 17.70.1 Persepolis was the capital of the Persian kingdom. Alexander described it to the Macedonians as the most hateful of the cities of Asia, and gave it over to his soldiers to plunder, all but the palaces.
§ 17.70.2 It was the richest city under the sun and the private houses had been furnished with every sort of wealth over the years. The Macedonians raced into it slaughtering all the men whom they met and plundering the residences; many of the houses belonged to the common people and were abundantly supplied with furniture and wearing apparel of every kind.
§ 17.70.3 Here much silver was carried off and no little gold, and many rich dresses gay with sea purple or with gold embroidery became the prize of the victors. The enormous palaces, famed throughout the whole civilized world, fell victim to insult and utter destruction.
§ 17.70.4 The Macedonians gave themselves up to this orgy of plunder for a whole day and still could not satisfy their boundless greed for more.
§ 17.70.5 Such was their exceeding lust for loot withal that they fought with each other and killed many of their fellows who had appropriated a greater portion of it. The richest of the finds some cut through with their swords so that each might have his own part. Some cut off the hands of those who were grasping at disputed property, being driven mad by their passions.
§ 17.70.6 They dragged off women, clothes and all, converting their captivity into slavery. As Persepolis had exceeded all other cities in prosperity, so in the same measure it now exceeded all others in misery.
§ 17.71.1 Alexander ascended to the citadel terrace and took possession of the treasure there. This had been accumulated from the state revenues, beginning with Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, down to that time, and the vaults were packed full of silver and gold.
§ 17.71.2 The total was found to be one hundred and twenty thousand talents, when the gold was estimated in terms of silver. Alexander wanted to take some money with him to meet the costs of the war, and to deposit the rest in Susa and keep it under guard in that city. Accordingly he sent for a vast number of mules from Babylon and Mesopotamia, as well as from Susa itself, both pack and harness animals as well as three thousand pack camels. By these means Alexander transported everything to the desired places.
§ 17.71.3 He felt bitter enmity to the inhabitants He did not trust them, and he meant to destroy Persepolis utterly. I think that it is not inappropriate to speak briefly about the palace area of the city because of the richness of its buildings.
§ 17.71.4 The citadel is a noteworthy one, and is surrounded by a triple wall. The first part of this is built over an elaborate foundation. It is sixteen cubits in height and is topped by battlements.
§ 17.71.5 The second wall is in all other respects like the first but of twice the height. The third circuit is rectangular in plan, and is sixty cubits in height, built of a stone hard and naturally durable.
§ 17.71.6 Each of the sides contains a gate with bronze doors, beside each of which stand bronze poles twenty cubits high; these were intended to catch the eye of the beholder, but the gates were for security.
§ 17.71.7 At the eastern side of the terrace at a distance of four plethra is the so called royal hill in which were the graves of the kings. This was a smooth rock hollowed out into many chambers in which were the sepulchres of the dead kings. These have no other access but receive the sarcophagi of the dead which are lifted by certain mechanical hoists.
§ 17.71.8 Scattered about the royal terrace were residences of the kings and members of the royal family as well as quarters for the great nobles, all luxuriously furnished, and buildings suitably made for guarding the royal treasure.
§ 17.72.1 Alexander held games in honour of his victories. He performed costly sacrifices to the gods and entertained his friends bountifully. While they were feasting and the drinking was far advanced, as they began to be drunken a madness took possession of the minds of the intoxicated guests.
§ 17.72.2 At this point one of the women present, Thais by name and Attic by origin, said that for Alexander it would be the finest of all his feats in Asia if he joined them in a triumphal procession, set fire to the palaces, and permitted women's hands in a minute to extinguish the famed accomplishments of the Persians.
§ 17.72.3 This was said to men who were still young and giddy with wine, and so, as would be expected, someone shouted out to form the comus and to light torches, and urged all to take vengeance for the destruction of the Greek temples.
§ 17.72.4 Others took up the cry and said that this was a deed worthy of Alexander alone. When the king had caught fire at their words, all leaped up from their couches and passed the word along to form a victory procession in honour of Dionysus.
§ 17.72.5 Promptly many torches were gathered. Female musicians were present at the banquet, so the king led them all out for the comus to the sound of voices and flutes and pipes, Thais the courtesan leading the whole performance.
§ 17.72.6 She was the first, after the king, to hurl her blazing torch into the palace. As the others all did the same, immediately the entire palace area was consumed, so great was the conflagration. It was most remarkable that the impious act of Xerxes, king of the Persians, against the acropolis of at Athens should have been repaid in kind after many years by one woman, a citizen of the land which had suffered it, and in sport.
§ 17.73.1 When all this was over, Alexander visited the cities of Persis, capturing some by storm and winning over others by his own fair dealing. Then he set out after Dareius.
§ 17.73.2 The Persian king had planned to bring together the armed forces of Bactria and the other satrapies, but Alexander was too quick for him. Dareius directed his flight toward the city of Bactra with thirty thousand Persians and Greek mercenaries, but in the course of this retirement he was seized and murdered by Bessus, the satrap of Bactria.
§ 17.73.3 Just after his death, Alexander rode up in hot pursuit with his cavalry, and, finding him dead, gave him a royal funeral.
§ 17.73.4 Some, however, have written that Alexander found him still breathing and commiserated with him on his disasters. Dareius urged him to avenge his death, and Alexander, agreeing, set out after Bessus, but the satrap had a long start and got away into Bactria, so Alexander suspended the chase and returned. That was the situation in Asia.
§ 17.73.5 In Europe the Lacedemonians were forced by their defeat in a decisive battle to make overtures to Antipater. He referred his reply to the council of the Hellenic League. When the delegates came together in Corinth, there was a long discussion on both sides, and they decided to pass the issue on without a decision to Alexander.6 Antipater took as hostages fifty of the most notable of the Spartiates, and the Lacedemonians sent envoys to Asia asking forgiveness for their mistakes.
§ 17.74.1 After this year was over, Cephisophoron became archon at Athens, and Gaius Valerius and Marcus Clodius consuls in Rome. In this year, now that Dareius was dead, Bessus with Nabarnes and Barxaes and many others of the Iranian nobles got to Bactria, eluding the hands of Alexander. Bessus had been appointed satrap of this region by Dareius and being known to everyone because of his administration, now called upon the population to defend their freedom.
§ 17.74.2 He pointed out that the nature of their country would assist them very much, since the region was hard for an enemy to penetrate and furnished enough men for them to establish their independence. He proclaimed that he would take personal command of the war and designated himself king, with the approval of the people. Then he set to work enrolling soldiers, manufacturing an adequate stock of weapons, and busily making everything ready for the approaching time of need.
§ 17.74.3 Alexander, for his part, was aware that the Macedonians regarded Dareius's death as the end of the campaign and were impatient to go home. He called them all to a meeting and, addressing them with effective arguments, made them willing to follow him in the part of the war which remained, but he assembled the allied troops from the Greek cities and praising them for their services released them from their military duty. He gave to each of the cavalry a talent and to each of the infantry ten minas. Besides this he paid them their wages up to date and added more to cover the period of their march back until they should return to their homes.
§ 17.74.4 To those who would remain with him in the royal army, he gave a bonus of three talents each. He treated the soldiers with such lavishness in part because of his native generosity and in part because he had come into possession of very much money in the course of his pursuit of Dareius.
§ 17.74.5 He had received from the royal treasures the sum of eight thousand talents. Apart from this, what was distributed to the soldiers, including clothing and goblets, came to thirteen thousand talents, while what was stolen or taken as plunder was thought to be even more still.
§ 17.75.1 Alexander started out for Hyrcania and on the third day encamped near a city called Hecatonpylus, This was a wealthy city with a profusion of everything contributing to pleasure, so he rested his army there for some days.
§ 17.75.2 Then, advancing one hundred and fifty furlongs, he encamped near a huge rock; under its base there was a marvellous cave from which flowed a great river known as the Stiboeites. This tumbles out with a rapid current for a distance of three furlongs, and then divides into two courses on either side of a breast-shaped "rock," beneath which there is a vast cavern. Into this the river plunges with a great river, foaming from its clash against the rock. After flowing underground a distance of three hundred furlongs, it again breaks its way to the surface.
§ 17.75.3 Alexander entered Hyrcania with his army and took possession of all the cities there as far as the so called Caspian Sea, which some name the Hyrcanian. In this they say are spawned many large serpents and fish of all sorts quite different in colour from ours.
§ 17.75.4 He passed through Hyrcania and came to the Fortunate Villages, as they are called, and truly such they are, for their land produces crops far more generously than elsewhere.
§ 17.75.5 They say that each vine produces a metretes of wine, while there are some fig trees which produce ten medimni of dried figs. The grain which is overlooked at the harvest and falls to the ground germinates without being sown and brings of the maturity an abundant harvest.
§ 17.75.6 There is a tree known to the natives like an oak in appearance, from the leaves of which honey drips; this some collect and take their pleasure from it abundantly.
§ 17.75.7 There is a winged animal in this country which they call anthredon, smaller than the bee but very useful. It roams the mountains gathering nectar from every kind of flower. Dwelling in hollow rocks and lightning-blasted trees it forms combs of wax and fashions a liquor of surpassing sweetness, not far inferior to our honey.
§ 17.76.1 Thus Alexander acquired Hyrcania and the tribes which were its neighbours, and many of the Iranian commanders who had fled with Dareius came to him and gave themselves up. He received them kindly and gained wide repute for fair dealing;
§ 17.76.2 for instance, the Greeks who had served with Dareius, one thousand five hundred in number, and accomplished soldiers, also promptly turned themselves over to Alexander, and receiving a full pardon for their previous hostility were assigned to units of his army on the same pay scale as the rest.
§ 17.76.3 Alexander followed the coastline to the west and entered the country of the people known as Mardians. They prided themselves on their fighting ability and thinking little of Alexander's growth in power sent him no petition or mark of honour,
§ 17.76.4 but held the passes with eight thousand soldiers and confidently awaited the Macedonian approach. The king attacked them and joining battle killed most of them and drove the rest into the fastnesses of the mountains.
§ 17.76.5 As he was wasting the countryside with fire and the pages who led the royal horses were at a little distance from the king, some of the natives made a sudden rush and carried off the best one of them.
§ 17.76.6 This animal had come to Alexander as a gift from Demaratus of Corinth and had carried the king in all of his battles in Asia. So long as he was not caparisoned, he would permit only the groom to mount him, but when he had received the royal trappings, he would no longer allow even him, but for Alexander alone stood quietly and even lowered his body to assist in the mounting.
§ 17.76.7 Because of the superior qualities of this animal the king was infuriated at his loss and ordered that every tree in the land be felled, while he proclaimed to the natives through interpreters that if the horse were not returned, they should see the country laid waste to its furthest limit and its inhabitants slaughtered to a man.
§ 17.76.8 As he began immediately to carry out these threats, the natives were terrified and returned the horse and sent with it their costliest gifts. They sent also fifty men to beg forgiveness. Alexander took the most important of these as hostages.
§ 17.77.1 When Alexander returned to Hyrcania, there came to him the queen of the Amazons name Thallestris, who ruled all the country between the rivers Phasis and Thermodon. She was remarkable for beauty and for bodily strength, and was admired by her countrywomen for bravery. She had left the bulk of her army on the frontier of Hyrcania and had arrived with an escort of three hundred Amazons in full armour.
§ 17.77.2 The king marvelled at the unexpected arrival and the dignity of the women. When he asked Thallestris why she had come, she replied that it was for the purpose of getting a child.
§ 17.77.3 He had shown himself the greatest of all men in his achievements, and she was superior to all women in strength and courage, so that presumably the offspring of such outstanding parents would surpass all other mortals in excellence. At this the king was delighted and granted her request and consorted with her for thirteen days, afterwards he honoured her with fine gifts and sent her home.
§ 17.77.4 It seemed to Alexander that he had accomplished his objective and now held his kingdom without contest, and he began to imitate the Persian luxury and the extravagant display of the kings of Asia. First he installed ushers of Asiatic race in his court, and then he ordered the most distinguished persons to act as his guards; among these was Dareius' brother Oxathres.
§ 17.77.5 Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple borders and dressed the horses in Persian harness.
§ 17.77.6 In addition to all this, he added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Dareius, in number not less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia.
§ 17.77.7 Each night these paraded around the couch of the king so that he might select the one with whom he would lie that night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed these customs rather sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed routine, not wishing to offend the Macedonians.
§ 17.78.1 Many, it is true, did reproach him for these things, but he silenced them with gifts. At this juncture he learned that the satrap of Areia, Satibarzanes, had put to death the soldiers who were left with him, had made common cause with Bessus and with him had decided to attack the Macedonians, so Alexander set out against the man. This Satibarzanes had brought his forces into Chortacana, a notable city of that region and one of great natural strength,
§ 17.78.2 but as the king approached, he became alarmed at the size of the latter's forces and at the fighting reputation of the Macedonians. He himself with two thousand horsemen rode off to the protection of Bessus, asking him to send help with all speed, but told his other followers to take refuge in a mountain called . . ., which afforded difficult terrain and a secure refuge for those who did not dare to meet their eyes face to face.
§ 17.78.3 After they had done so, and had secured themselves upon a steep and high "rock," the king with his accustomed spirit invested the place, attacked them vigorously, and compelled them to surrender.
§ 17.78.4 In the course of thirty days thereafter, he brought into the submission all the cities of the satrapy. Then he left Hyrcania and marched to the capital of Drangine, where he paused and rested his army.
§ 17.79.1 At this same time, Alexander stumbled into a base action which was quite foreign to his goodness of nature. One of the king's Friends named Dimnus found fault with him for some reason, and in a rash fit of anger formed a plot against him.
§ 17.79.2 He had a beloved named Nicomachus and persuaded him to take part in it. Being very young, the boy disclosed the plan to his brother Cebalinus, who, however, was terrified lest one of the conspirators should get ahead of the rest in revealing the plot to the king, and decided himself to be the informer.
§ 17.79.3 He went to the court, met Philotas and talked with him, and urged him to tell the whole story to the king as quickly as he could. It may be that Philotas was actually a party to the plot; he may merely have been slow to act. At all events, he heard Cebalinus with indifference, and although he visited Alexander and took part in a long conversation on a variety of subjects, said no word about what had just been told him.
§ 17.79.4 When he returned to Cebalinus, he said that he had not found a suitable occasion to mention it, but would surely see the king alone the next day and tell him everything. Philotas did the same thing on the next day also, and Cebalinus, to insure himself against someone else betraying the plot and put him in danger, dropped Philotas and accosted one of the royal pages, telling him all that had happened and begging him to report it to the king immediately.
§ 17.79.5 The page brought Cebalinus into the armoury and hid him there, went on in to the king as he was bathing and told him the story, adding that he had Cebalinus concealed in the vicinity. The king's reaction was sharp. He arrested Dimnus at once and learned everything from him; then he sent for Cebalinus and Philotas.
§ 17.79.6 The whole story was investigated and the fact established. Dimnus stabbed himself on the spot, but Philotas, while acknowledging his carelessness, nevertheless denied that he had any part in the plot and agreed to leave judgement concerning him to the Macedonians.
§ 17.80.1 After many arguments had been heard, the Macedonians condemned Philotas and the other accused persons to death. Among these was Parmenion, he who seemed to be the first of Alexander's Friends; he was not with the army, but it was thought that he had contrived the conspiracy by means of his son Philotas.
§ 17.80.2 Philotas, then, was first tortured and confessed to the plot, and then was killed in the Macedonian manner with the other condemned persons. This was the occasion for bringing up the case of Alexander the Lyncestian. He was charged with the crime of plotting against the king and had been kept for three years under guard. He had been delayed a hearing because of his relationship to Antigonus, but now he was brought before the court of the Macedonians and was put to death, lacking words to defend himself.
§ 17.80.3 Alexander dispatched riders on racing camels, who travelled faster than the report of Philotas's punishment and murdered his father Parmenion. He had been appointed governor of Media and was in charge of the royal treasures in Ecbatana, amounting to one hundred and eighty thousand talents.
§ 17.80.4 Alexander selected from among the Macedonians those who made remarks hostile to him and those who were distressed at the death of Parmenion, as well as those who wrote in letters sent home to Macedonia to their relatives anything contrary to the king's interests. These he assembled into one unit which he called the Disciplinary Company, so that the rest of the Macedonians might not be corrupted by their improper remarks and criticism.
§ 17.81.1 After his hands were free of this affair and he had settled things in Drangine, Alexander marched with his army against a people who used to be called Arimaspians but are now known as Benefactors for the following reason. That Cyrus who had transferred the rule from the Medes to the Persians was once engaged in a campaign in the desert and running out of provisions was brought into extreme danger, so that for lack of food the soldiers were constrained to eat each other, when the Arimaspians appeared bringing thirty thousand wagons laden with provisions. Saved from utter despair, then, Cyrus gave them exemption from taxation and other marks of honour, and abolishing their former appellation, named them Benefactors.
§ 17.81.2 So now, when all led his army into their country, they received him kindly and he honoured the tribe with suitable gifts. Their neighbours, the so called Cedrosians, did the same, and them too he rewarded with appropriate favours. He gave the administration of these two peoples to Tiridates.
§ 17.81.3 While he was thus occupied reports were brought to him that Satibarzanes had returned from Bactria with a large force of cavalry to Areia, and had caused the population to revolt from Alexander. At this news, the king dispatched against him a portion of his army under the command of Erigyius and Stasanor, while he himself conquered Arachosia and in a few days made it subject to him.
§ 17.82.1 When this year was over, Euthycritus became archon at Athens and at Rome Lucius Platius and Lucius Papirius became consuls. The one hundred and thirteenth Olympic Games were held. In this year Alexander marched against so called Paropanisadae,
§ 17.82.2 whose country lies in the extreme north; it is snow-covered and not easily approached by other tribe because of the extreme cold. The most of it is a plain and woodless, and divided up among many villages.
§ 17.82.3 These contain houses with roofs of tile drawn up at the top into a peaked vault. In the middle of each roof an aperture is left through which smoke escapes, and since the building is enclosed all around the people find ample protection against the weather.
§ 17.82.4 Because of the depth of the snow, they spend the most of the year indoors, having their own supplies at hand. They heap up soil about vines and fruit trees, and leave it so for the winter season, removing the earth again at the time of budding.
§ 17.82.5 The landscape nowhere shows any verdure or cultivation; all is white and dazzling because of the snow and the ice which form in it. No bird, therefore, alights there nor does any animal pass, and all parts of the country are unvisited and inaccessible.
§ 17.82.6 The king, nevertheless, in spite of all those obstacles confronting the army, exercised the customary boldness and hardihood of the Macedonians and surmounted the difficulties of the region.
§ 17.82.7 Many of the soldiers and of the camp followers became exhausted and were left behind. Some too because of the glare of the snow and the hard brilliance of the reflected light lost their sight.
§ 17.82.8 Nothing could be seen clearly from a distance. It was only as the villages were revealed by their smoke that the Macedonians discovered where the dwellings were, even when they were standing right on top of them. By this method the villages were taken and the soldiers recovered from their hardships amidst a plenty of provisions. Before long the king made himself master of all the population.
§ 17.83.1 Now in his advance Alexander encamped near the Caucasus, which some call Mt. Paropanisum. In sixteen days he marched across this range from side to side, and founded a city in the pass which leads down to Media, calling it Alexandria. In the midst of the Caucasus there is a "rock" ten furlongs in perimeter and four furlongs in height, in which the cave of Prometheus was pointed out by the natives, as well as the nesting place of the eagle in the story and the marks of the chains.
§ 17.83.2 Alexander founded other cities also at the distance of a day's march from Alexandria. Here he settled seven thousand natives, three thousand of the camp followers, and volunteers from among the mercenaries.
§ 17.83.3 Then he marched his forces into Bactria, since news came that Bessus had assumed the diadem and was enrolling an army. Such was the state of Alexander's affairs.
§ 17.83.4 The generals who had been sent back to Areia found that the rebels had gathered substantial forces under the command of Satibarzanes, who was distinguished both for generalship and for personal bravery, and they encamped near them. There was constant skirmishing for a time, and numerous small engagements;
§ 17.83.5 then it came to a general battle. The Iranians were holding their own when their general Satibarzanes raised his hands and removed his helmet so that all could see who he was, and challenged any of the Macedonian generals who wished to fight with him alone.
§ 17.83.6 Erigyius accepted and a contest of heroic nature ensued, which resulted in Erigyius's victory. Disheartened at the death of their commander, the Iranians sought their safety in surrender, and gave themselves up to Alexander.
§ 17.83.7 Bessus proclaimed himself king, sacrificed to the gods, and invited his friends to a banquet. In the course of the drinking, he fell into an argument with one of them, Bagodaras by name. As the quarrel increased, Bessus lost his temper and proposed to put Bagodaras to death, but was persuaded by his friends to think better of it.8 Bagodaras, however, saved from this danger, escaped by night to Alexander. His safe reception and the gifts promised by Alexander attracted Bessus's leading generals. They banded together, seized Bessus, and carried him off to Alexander. 9 The king gave them substantial gifts, and turned Bessus over to Dareius's brother and his other relatives for punishment. They inflicted upon him every humiliation and abuse, and cutting his body up into little pieces they scattered them abroad.
§ 17.84.1 A truce was concluded on these terms, and the queen, impressed by Alexander's generosity, sent him valuable gifts and promised to follow his orders in everything. The mercenaries straightway under the terms of the truce left the city and encamped without interference at a distance of eighty furlongs, without an inkling of what would happen.
§ 17.84.2 Alexander, nevertheless, nursed an implacable hostility toward them; he held his forces in readiness, followed them, and falling upon them suddenly wrought a great slaughter. At first they kept shouting that this attack was in contravention of the treaty and they called to witness the gods against whom he had transgressed. Alexander shouted back that he had granted them the right to leave the city but not that of being friends of the Macedonians forever.
§ 17.84.3 Not daunted at the greatness of their danger, the mercenaries joined ranks and, forming a full circle, placed their children and women in the centre so that they might effectively face those who were attacking from all directions. Filled with desperate courage and fighting stoutly with native toughness and the experience of previous contests, they were opposed by Macedonians anxious not to show themselves inferior to barbarians in fighting ability, so that the battle was a scene of horror.
§ 17.84.4 They fought hand to hand, and as the contestants engaged each other every form of death and wounds was to be seen. The Macedonians thrust with their long spears through the light shields of the mercenaries and pressed the iron points on into their lungs, while they in turn flung their javelins into the close ranks of their enemies and could not miss the mark, so near was the target.
§ 17.84.5 As many were wounded and not a few killed, the women caught up the weapons of the fallen and fought beside their men, since the acuteness of the danger and the fierceness of the action forced them to be brave beyond their nature. Some of them, clad in armour, sheltered behind the same shields as their husbands, while others rushed in without armour, grasped the opposing shields, and hindered their use by the enemy.
§ 17.84.6 Finally, fighting women and all, they were overborne by numbers and cut down, winning a glorious death in preference to basely saving their lives at any cost. Alexander removed the feeble and unarmed together with the surviving women to another place, and put the cavalry in charge of them.
§ 17.85.1 After he had taken a number of other cities by storm and had slaughtered their defenders, he came to the "rock" called Aornus. Here the surviving natives had taken refuge because of its great strength.
§ 17.85.2 It is said that Heracles of old thought to lay siege to this "rock" but refrained because of the occurrence of certain sharp earthquake shocks and other divine signs, and this made Alexander even more eager to capture the stronghold when he heard it, and so to rival the god's reputation.
§ 17.85.3 The circumference of the "rock" was one hundred furlongs, and its height sixteen. Its surface was even and circular on all sides. Its southern side was washed by the Indus River, the largest of those in India, and on the other sides it was surrounded by deep gorges and sheer cliffs.
§ 17.85.4 Alexander surveyed these difficulties and decided that its forcible capture was impossible, but then there came at once him an old man with two sons.
§ 17.85.5 He lived in extreme poverty and had for a long time supported himself in the region, occupying a cave in which three beds had been cut out of the rock.a Here the old man camped with his sons, and had come to know the country intimately. When he appeared before the king, he told his story and offered to guide the king through the hills and bring him to a point where he would be above the people who occupied the rock.
§ 17.85.6 Alexander promised him rich gifts. Using the old man as a guide, he first occupied the path which led up to the rock; since there was no other egress, he had thus enclosed the defenders in a hopeless siege. Then he put many hands to work filling up the chasm at the foot of the rock, drew near to it, and mounted a vigorous attack, assaulting continuously for seven days and seven nights with relays of troops.
§ 17.85.7 At first the defenders had the advantage because of holding the higher ground, and they killed many of those who attacked rashly. As the embankment was finished, however, and the dart-throwing catapults and other engines were emplaced, and the king also made it evident that he would not break off the siege, the Indians were alarmed, and Alexander, craftily anticipating what would happen, removed the guard which had been left in the path, allowing those who wished to withdraw from the rock. In fear of the Macedonian fighting qualities and the king's determination, the Indians left the rock under cover of darkness.
§ 17.86.1 So Alexander employed the false alarms of war to outgeneral the Indians and to gain possession of the "rock" without fighting. He gave the promised reward to his guide and marched off with his army.
§ 17.86.2 About this time, a certain Indian named Aphrices with twenty thousand troops and fifteen elephants was encamped in the vicinity. Some of his followers killed him and cut off his head and brought it to Alexander, and saved their own lives by this favour.
§ 17.86.3 The king took them into his service, and rounded up the elephants, which were wandering about the countryside. Alexander now advanced to the Indus River and found his thirty-oared boats in readiness and fully equipped, and the stream spanned by a floating bridge. He rested his army for thirty days and offered splendid sacrifices to the gods, and then moved his army across and experienced a startling fright and relief.
§ 17.86.4 Taxiles, the king, had died, and his son Mophis had succeeded to the throne. He had sent word to Alexander earlier when he was in Sogdiana, promising to join him in a campaign against his enemies among the Indians, and now he stated through his messengers that he turned his kingdom over to him.
§ 17.86.5 When Alexander was still forty furlongs off, Mophis deployed his force as if for war and marched forward, his elephants gaily caparisoned, surrounded by his Friends. Alexander saw a great army in warlike array approaching and concluded at once that the Indian's promises were made in order to deceive him, so that the Macedonians might be attacked before they had time to prepare themselves. He ordered the trumpeters to sound the call to arms, and when the soldiers had found their battle stations, marched against the Indians.6 Mophis saw the excited activity of the Macedonians and guessed the reason. He left his army and accompanied only by a few horsemen galloped forward, corrected the misapprehension of the Macedonians, and gave himself and his army over to the king. 7 Alexander, much relieved, restored his kingdom to him and thereafter held him as a friend and ally. He also changed name to Taxiles. That is what happened in that year.
§ 17.87.1 In the archonship of Chremes at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Publius Cornelius and Aulus Postumius. In this year Alexander repaired his army in the land of Taxiles and then marched against Porus, the king of the neighbouring Indians.
§ 17.87.2 He had more than fifty thousand infantry, about three thousand cavalry, more than a thousand chariots of war, and one hundred and thirty elephants. He had enlisted the support of a second king of the neighbouring regions, whose name was Embisarus; he had an army little smaller than that of Porus.
§ 17.87.3 When Alexander received word that this king was four hundred furlongs away, he decided to attack Porus before the arrival of his ally.
§ 17.87.4 As he approached, Porus learned of his advance and deployed his forces promptly. He stationed his cavalry upon both flanks, and arranged his elephants, arrayed so as to strike terror in an opponent, in a single line at equal intervals along his front. Between these beasts he placed the rest of his infantry, with the mission of helping them and preventing their being attacked with javelins from the sides.
§ 17.87.5 His whole array looked very much like a city, for the elephant resembled towers, and the soldiers between them curtain walls. Alexander viewed the enemy's dispositions and arranged his own troops appropriately.
§ 17.88.1 The fighting began, and practically all of the Indians' chariots were put out of action by Alexander's cavalry. Then the elephants came into play, trained to make good use of their height and strength. Some of the Macedonians were trodden under foot, armour and all, by the beasts and died, their bones crushed. Others were caught up by the elephants' trunks and, lifted on high, were dashed back down to the ground again, dying a fearful death. Many soldiers were pierced through by the tusks and died instantly, run through the whole body. Nevertheless the Macedonians faced the frightening experience manfully.
§ 17.88.2 They used their long spears to good effect against the Indians stationed beside the elephants, and kept the battle even.
§ 17.88.3 Then, as javelins began to find their marks in the sides of the great beasts and they felt the pains of the wounds, the Indian riders were no longer able to control their movements. The elephants veered and, no longer manageable, turned upon their own ranks and trampled friendly troops.
§ 17.88.4 As his formations grew more confused, Porus observed what was happening. He was mounted on the largest of the elephants and gathered about him forty others which were not yet out of hand, then attacked the enemy with their combined weight and inflicted many losses. He was himself outstanding in bodily strength beyond any of his followers, being five cubits in height and with a breadth of chest double that of his mightiest soldiers.
§ 17.88.5 His javelins were flung with such force that they were little inferior to the darts of the catapults. The Macedonians who opposed him were amazed at his fighting ability, but Alexander called up the bowmen and other light armed troops and ordered them to concentrate their fire upon Porus. This was done promptly.
§ 17.88.6 Many weapons flew toward the Indian at the same time and none missed its mark because of his great size. He continued to fight heroically until, fainting from loss of blood from his many wounds, he collapsed upon his elephant and fell to the ground.
§ 17.88.7 The word went about that the king was killed, and the rest of the Indians fled.
§ 17.89.1 Many were slain in their flight, but then Alexander, satisfied with his brilliant victory, ordered the trumpets to sound the recall. Of the Indians, there fell in the battle more than twelve thousand, among whom were the two sons of Porus and his best generals and officers.
§ 17.89.2 Above nine thousand men were taken alive, together with eighty elephants. Porus himself was still breathing, and was turned over to the Indians for medical attention.
§ 17.89.3 On the Macedonian side, the losses were two hundred and eighty cavalry and more than seven hundred infantry. The king buried the dead, rewarded those who had distinguished themselves in accordance with their deserts, and sacrificed to Helius who had given him the eastern regions to conquer.
§ 17.89.4 There were mountains not far away where grew thriving firs in quantity, together with no little cedar and pine and an ample supply of other woods suitable for shipbuilding, and Alexander constructed a large number of ships.
§ 17.89.5 He intended to reach the borders of India and to subdue all of its inhabitants, and then to sail downstream to the Ocean.
§ 17.89.6 He founded two cities, one beyond the river where he had crossed and the other on the spot where he had defeated Porus. These were built quickly because there was a plentiful supply of labour. When Porus had recovered, Alexander appointed him, in recognition of his valour, king over the country where he formerly ruled. The Macedonian army rested for thirty days in the midst of a vast plenty of provisions.
§ 17.90.1 Odd phenomena were observed in these mountains. In addition to the wood for shipbuilding, the region contained a large number of snakes remarkable for their size; they reached a length of sixteen cubits. There were also many varieties of monkey, differing in size, which had themselves taught the Indians the method of their capture.
§ 17.90.2 They imitate every action that they see, but cannot well be taken by force because of their strength and cleverness. The hunters, however, in the sight of the beasts, smear their eyes with honey, or fasten sandals about their ankles, or hang mirrors about their necks. Then they go away, having attached fastenings to the shoes, having substituted birdlime for honey, and having fastened slip nooses to the mirrors.
§ 17.90.3 So when the animals try to imitate what they had seen, they are rendered helpless, their eyes stuck together, their feet bound fast, and their bodies held immovable. That is the way in which they become easy to catch.
§ 17.90.4 Sasibisares, the king who had not moved in time to help Porus in the battle, was frightened, and Alexander forced him to accept his orders. Then Alexander resumed his march to the east, crossed the river, and continued on through a region of remarkable fertility.
§ 17.90.5 It possessed strange kinds of trees which reached a height of seventy cubits, were so thick that they could scarcely be embraced by four men, and cast a shadow of three plethra. The country possessed a multitude of snakes, small and variously coloured.
§ 17.90.6 Some of them looked like bronze rods, others had thick, shaggy crests, and their bites brought sudden death. The person bitten suffered fearful pains and was covered with a bloody sweat.
§ 17.90.7 The Macedonians, who were much affected by the bites, slung their hammocks from trees and remained awake most of the night. Later, however, they learned from the natives the use of a medicinal root and were freed from these fears.
§ 17.91.1 As he continued his march, word came to Alexander that King Porus (a cousin of the Porus who had been defeated) had left his kingdom and fled to the people of Gandara.
§ 17.91.2 This annoyed Alexander, and he sent Hephaestion with an army into his country and ordered that the kingdom should be transferred to the friendly Porus. He campaigned against the people known as the Adrestians, and got possession of their cities, partly by force and partly by agreement. Then he came into the country of the Cathaeans,
§ 17.91.3 among whom it was the custom for wives to be cremated together with their husbands. This law had been put into effect there because of a woman who had killed her husband with poison. 4b Here he captured their greatest and strongest city after much fighting and burned it. He was in process of besieging another notable city when the Indians came to him with suppliant branches and he spared them further attack. Next he undertook a campaign against the cities under the rule of Sopeithes. These are exceedingly well-governed. All the functions of this state are directed toward the acquiring of good repute, and beauty is valued there more than anything. 5 From birth, their children are subjected to a process of selection. Those who are well formed and designed by nature to have a fine appearance and bodily strength are reared, while those who are bodily deficient are destroyed as not worth bringing up. 6 So they plan their marriages without regard to dower or any other financial consideration, but consider only beauty and physical excellence. 7 In consequence, most of the inhabitants of these cities enjoy a higher reputation than those elsewhere. Their king Sopeithes was strikingly handsome and tall beyond the rest, being over four cubits in height. He came out of his capital city and gave over himself and his kingdom to Alexander, but received it back through the kindness of the conqueror.8 Sopeithes with great goodwill feasted the whole army bountifully for several days.
§ 17.92.1 To Alexander he presented many impressive gifts, among them one hundred and fifty dogs remarkable for their size and courage and other good qualities. People said that they had a strain of tiger blood.
§ 17.92.2 He wanted Alexander to test their mettle in action, and he brought into a ring a full grown lion and two of the poorest of the dogs. He set these on the lion, and when they were having a hard time of it he released two others to assist them.
§ 17.92.3 The four were getting the upper hand over the lion when Sopeithes sent in a man with a scimitar who hacked at the right leg of one of the dogs. At this Alexander shouted out indignantly and the guards rushed up and seized the arm of the Indian, but Sopeithes said that he would give him three other dogs for that one, and the handler, taking a firm grip on the leg, severed it slowly. The dog, in the meanwhile, uttered neither yelp nor whimper, but continued with his teeth clamped shut until, fainting with loss of blood, he died on top of the lion.
§ 17.93.1 While all this was going on, Hephaestion returned with his army from his mission, having conquered a big piece of India. Alexander commended him for his success, then invaded the kingdom of Phegeus where the inhabitants cheerfully accepted the appearance of the Macedonians. Phegeus himself met the king with many gifts and Alexander confirmed him in his rule. Alexander and the army were feasted bountifully for two days, and then advanced to the Hyphasis River, the width of which was seven furlongs, the depth six fathoms, and the current violent. This was difficult to cross.
§ 17.93.2 He questioned Phegeus about the country beyond the Indus River, and learned that there was a desert to traverse for twelve days, and then the river called Ganges, which was thirty-two furlongs in width and the deepest of all the Indian rivers. Beyond this in turn dwelt the peoples of the Tabraesians and the Gandaridae, whose king was Xandrames. He had twenty thousand cavalry, two hundred thousand infantry, two thousand chariots, and four thousand elephants equipped for war. Alexander doubted this information and sent for Porus, and asked him what was the truth of these reports.
§ 17.93.3 Porus assured the king that all the rest of the account was quite correct, but that the king of the Gandaridae was an utterly common and undistinguished character, and was supposed to be the son of a barber. His father had been handsome and was greatly loved by the queen; when she had murdered her husband, the kingdom fell to him.
§ 17.93.4 Alexander saw that the campaign against the Gandaridae would not be easy, but he was not discouraged. He had confidence in the fighting qualities of his Macedonians, as well as in the oracles which he had received, and expected that he would be victorious. He remembered that the Pythia had called him "unconquerable," and Ammon had given him the rule of the whole world.
§ 17.94.1 Alexander observed that his soldiers were exhausted with their constant campaigns. They had spent almost eight years among toils and dangers, and it was necessary to raise their spirits by an effective appeal if they were to undertake the expedition against the Gandaridae.
§ 17.94.2 There had been many losses among the soldiers, and no relief from fighting was in sight. The hooves of the horses had been worn thin by steady marching. The arms and armour were wearing out, and Greek clothing was quite gone. They had to clothe themselves in foreign materials, recutting the garments of the Indians.
§ 17.94.3 This was the season also, as luck would have it, of the heavy rains. These had been going on for seventy days, to the accompaniment of continuous thunder and lightning. All this he accounted adverse to his project, and he saw only one hope of gaining his wish, if he might gain the soldiers' great goodwill through gratitude.
§ 17.94.4 Accordingly he allowed them to ravage the enemy's country, which was full of every good thing. During these days when the army was busy foraging, he called together the wives of the soldiers and their children; to the wives he undertook to give a monthly ration, to the children he distributed a service bonus in proportion to the military records of their fathers.
§ 17.94.5 When the soldiers returned laden with wealth from their expedition, he brought them together to a meeting. He delivered a carefully prepared speech about the expedition against the Gandaridae but the Macedonians did not accept it, and he gave up the undertaking.
§ 17.95.1 Thinking how best to mark the limits of his campaign at this point, he first erected altars of the twelve gods each fifty cubits high and then traced the circuit of a camp thrice the size of the existing one. Here he dug a ditch fifty feet wide and forty feet deep, and throwing up the earth on the inside, constructed out of it a substantial wall.
§ 17.95.2 He directed the infantry to construct huts each containing two beds five cubits long, and the cavalry, in addition to this, to build two mangers twice the normal size. In the same way, everything else which could be left behind was exaggerated in size. His idea in this was to make a camp of heroic proportions and to leave to the natives evidence of men of huge stature, displaying the strength of giants.
§ 17.95.3 After all this had been done, Alexander marched back with all his army to the Acesines River by the same route by which he had come. There he found the ships built which he had ordered. He fitted these out and built others.
§ 17.95.4 At this juncture there arrived from Greece allied and mercenary troops under their own commanders, more than thirty thousand infantry and a little less than six thousand cavalry. They brought with them elegant suits of armour for twenty-five thousand foot soldiers, and a hundred talents of medical supplies. These he distributed to the soldiers.
§ 17.95.5 Now the naval flotilla was ready; he had prepared two hundred open galleys and eight hundred service ships. He gave names to the two cities which had been founded on either side of the river, calling one of them Nicaea in celebration of his victory in war, and the other Bucephala in honour of his horse, who had died in the battle against Porus.
§ 17.96.1 He himself embarked with his Friends, and sailed down the river toward the southern Ocean. The bulk of his army marched along the bank of the river, under the command of Craterus and Hephaestion. When they came to the junction of the Acesines and the Hydaspes, he disembarked his soldiers and led them against the people called Sibians.
§ 17.96.2 They say that these are the descendants of the soldiers who came with Heracles to the rock of Aornus and were unsuccessful in its siege, and then were settled in this spot by him. Alexander encamped beside a very fine city, and the leading notables of the citizens came out to see him. They were brought before the king, renewed their ties of kinship, and undertook to help him enthusiastically in every way, as being his relatives. They also brought him magnificent gifts.
§ 17.96.3 Alexander accepted their goodwill, declared their cities to be free, and marched on against the next tribes. He found that the Agalasseis, as they were called, were drawn up in battle formation. Their strength was forty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry. He engaged them and, conquering, cut down most of them. Those who escaped into the neighbouring cities he besieged, captured, and sold as slaves.
§ 17.96.4 Other groups of natives had collected also. He took by storm a large city in which twenty thousand persons had taken refuge. The Indians barricaded the streets and fought stoutly from the houses, and he lost not a few Macedonians in pressing his victory home.
§ 17.96.5 This made him angry. He set fire to the city and burned up most of the inhabitants with it. The remaining natives to the number of three thousand had fled to the citadel, whence they appealed for mercy with suppliant branches. Alexander pardoned them.
§ 17.97.1 Again he embarked with his Friends upon the ships and continued his voyage down the river until he came to the confluence of the rivers named above with the Indus. As these mighty streams flowed together, many dangerous eddies were created and these, making the ships collide with each other, caused much damage. The current was swift and violent and overcame the skill of the helmsmen. Two of the galleys were sunk and not a few of the other vessels ran aground.
§ 17.97.2 The flagship was swept into a great cataract and the king was brought into extreme danger. With death staring him in the face, Alexander flung off his clothing and leaping into the water naked saved himself as best he could. His Friends swam with him, concerned to help the king to safety now that his ship was foundering.
§ 17.97.3 Aboard the ship itself there was wild confusion. The crew struggled against the might of the water but the river was superior to all human skill and power. Nevertheless, Alexander and the ships with him got safely ashore with difficulty. Thus narrowly escaping, he sacrificed to the gods as having come through mortal danger, reflecting that he, like Achilles, had done battle with a river.
§ 17.98.1 Next Alexander undertook a campaign against the Sydracae and the people known as Mallians, populous and warlike tribes. He found them mobilized in force, eighty thousand infantry, ten thousand cavalry, and seven hundred chariots. Before the arrival of Alexander they had been at war with each other; but as he approached, they patched up their quarrel and made peace, giving and receiving ten thousand young women to establish a friendly relationship through marriage.
§ 17.98.2 Even so they did not come out to fight together but fell into a dispute over the command and retired into the neighbouring cities. Alexander neared the first city and thought to take it by storm,
§ 17.98.3 but one of the seers, named Demophon, came to him and reported that there had been revealed to him by numerous portents a great danger which would come to the king from a wound in the course of the operation. He begged Alexander to leave that city alone for the present and to turn his mind to other activities.
§ 17.98.4 The king scolded him for dampening the enthusiasm of the soldiers, and then, disposing his army for the attack, led the way in person to the city, eager to reduce it by force. The engines of war were slow to come up, but he broke open a postern gate and was the first to burst into the city. He struck down many defenders and, driving the others before him, pursued them to the citadel.
§ 17.98.5 The Macedonians were still busy fighting along the wall. Alexander seized a ladder, leaned it against the walls of the citadel, and clambered up holding a light shield above his head. So quick was he to act that he reached the top of the wall before the defenders could forestall him.
§ 17.98.6 The Indians did not dare to come within his reach, but flung javelins and shot arrows at him from a distance. He was staggering under the weight of their blows when the Macedonians raised two ladders and swarmed up in a mass, but both broke and the soldiers tumbled back upon the ground.
§ 17.99.1 Thus the king was left alone, and boldly took a step which was as little expected as it is worthy of mention. It seemed to him out of keeping with his tradition of success to descend from the wall to his troops without accomplishing anything. Instead, he leapt down with his armour alone inside the city.
§ 17.99.2 As the Indians thronged about him, he withstood their attack undismayed. He protected himself on the right by a tree which grew close by the wall and on the left by the wall itself and kept the Indians off, displaying such courage as you would expect from a king who had his record of achievement. He was eager to make this, if it were the last feat of his life, a supremely glorious one.
§ 17.99.3 He took many blows upon the helmet, not a few upon the shield. At length he was struck by an arrow below the breast and fell upon one knee, overborne by the blow. Straightway the Indian who had shot him, thinking that he was helpless, ran up and struck at him; Alexander thrust his sword up into the man's side, inflicting a mortal wound. The Indian fell, and the king caught hold of a branch close by and getting on his feet, defied the Indians to come forward and fight with him.
§ 17.99.4 At this point Peucestes, one of the guards, who had mounted another ladder, was the first to cover the king with his shield. After him a good many appeared together, which frightened the natives and saved Alexander. The city was taken by storm. In a fury at the injury to their king, the Macedonians killed all whom they met and filled the city with corpses.
§ 17.99.5 For many days the king lay helpless under his treatment, and the Greeks who had been settled in Bactria and Sogdiana, who had long borne unhappily their sojourn among peoples of another race and now received word that the king had died of his wounds, revolted against the Macedonians.
§ 17.99.6 They formed a band of three thousand men and underwent great hardship on their homeward route. Later they were massacred by the Macedonians after Alexander's death.
§ 17.100.1 Alexander recovered from his wound, sacrificed to the gods, and held a great banquet for his Friends.
§ 17.100.2 In the course of the drinking a curious event occurred which is worth mention. Among the king's companions there was a Macedonian named Coragus, strong in body, who had distinguished himself many times in battle. His temper was sharpened by the drink, and he challenged to single combat Dioxippus the Athenian, an athlete who had won a crown in the foremost games.
§ 17.100.3 As you would expect, the guests at the banquet egged them on and Dioxippus accepted. The king set a day for the contest, and when the time came, many myriads of men gathered to see the spectacle.
§ 17.100.4 The Macedonians and Alexander backed Coragus because he was one of them, while the Greeks favoured Dioxippus. The two advanced to the field of honour, the Macedonian clad in his expensive armour
§ 17.100.5 but the Athenian naked, his body oiled, carrying a well-balanced club. Both men were fine to look upon with their magnificent physiques and their ardour for combat. Everyone looked forward, as it were, to a battle of gods. By his carriage and the brilliance of his arms, the Macedonian inspired terror as if he were Ares, while Dioxippus excelled in sheer strength and condition; still more because of his club he bore a certain resemblance to Heracles.
§ 17.100.6 As they approached each other, the Macedonian flung his javelin from a proper distance, but the other inclined his body slightly and avoided its impact. Then the Macedonian poised his long lance and charged, but the Greek, when he came within reach, struck the spear with his club and shattered it.
§ 17.100.7 After these two defeats, Coragus was reduced to continuing the battle with his sword, but as he reached for it, the other leaped upon him and seized his swordhand with his left, while with his right the Greek upset the Macedonian's balance and made his lose his footing.
§ 17.100.8 As he fell to the earth, Dioxippus placed his foot upon his neck and, holding his club aloft, looked to the spectators.
§ 17.101.1 The crowd was in an uproar because of the stunning quickness and superiority of the man's skill, and the king signed to let Coragus go, then broke up the gathering and left. He was plainly annoyed at the defeat of the Macedonian.
§ 17.101.2 Dioxippus released his fallen opponent, and left the field winner of a resounding victory and bedecked with ribands by his compatriots, as having brought a common glory to all Greeks. Fortune, however, did not allow him to boast of his victory for long.
§ 17.101.3 The king continued more and more hostile to him, and Alexander's friends and all the other Macedonians about the court, jealous of the accomplishment, persuaded one of the butlers to secrete a golden cup under his pillow; then in the course of the next symposium they accused him of theft, and pretending to find the cup, placed Dioxippus in a shameful and embarrassing position.
§ 17.101.4 He saw that the Macedonians were in league against him and left the banquet. After a little he came to his own quarters, wrote Alexander a letter about the trick that had been played on him, gave this to his servants to take to the king, and then took his own life. He had been ill-advised to undertake the single combat, but he was much more foolish to make an end of himself in this way.
§ 17.101.5 Hence many of those who reviled him, mocking his folly, said that it was a hard fate to have great strength of body but little sense.
§ 17.101.6 The king read the letter and was very angry at the man's death. He often mourned his good qualities, and the man whom he had neglected when he was alive, he regretted when he was dead. After it was no longer of use, he discovered the excellence of Dioxippus by contrast with the vileness of his accusers.
§ 17.102.1 Alexander gave orders to the army to march beside the river and escort the ships, while he resumed his river voyage in the direction of the ocean and sailed down to the country of the people called Sambastae.
§ 17.102.2 These, in numbers of men and in good qualities, were inferior to none of the Indian peoples. They lived in cities governed in a democratic manner, and learning of the coming of the Macedonians assembled sixty thousand infantry, six thousand cavalry, and five hundred armoured chariots.
§ 17.102.3 When the fleet put in to them, they were amazed at the strange and unanticipated manner of its arrival and trembled at the great reputation of the Macedonians. Besides, their own men advised them not to risk a fight, so they sent out fifty of their leading citizens as envoys, begging Alexander to treat them kindly.
§ 17.102.4 The king praised them and agreed to a peace, and was showered with large gifts and heroic honours by them. Next Alexander received the submission of those who dwelt on either side of the river; they were called Sodrae and Massani. Here he built a city Alexandria by the river, and selected for it ten thousand inhabitants.
§ 17.102.5 Next he came to the country of King Musicanus; getting him into his hands he killed him and made the country subject. Then he invaded the kingdom of Porticanus, took two cities by storm, allowed the soldiers to plunder the houses, and then set them on fire. Porticanus himself escaped to a stronghold, but Alexander captured it and slew him, still fighting. Then he proceeded to take all of the other cities of his kingdom and destroyed them, and spread the terror of his name throughout the whole region.
§ 17.102.6 Next he ravaged the kingdom of Sambus. He enslaved the population of most of the cities and, after destroying the cities, killed more than eighty thousand of the natives.
§ 17.102.7 He inflicted a similar disaster upon the tribe of the Brahmins, as they are called; the survivors came supplicating him with branches in their hands, and punishing the most guilty he forgave the rest. King Sambus fled with thirty elephants into the country beyond the Indus and escaped.
§ 17.103.1 The last city of the Brahmins, called Harmatelia, was proud of the valour of its inhabitants and of the strength of its location. Thither he sent a small force of mobile troops with orders to engage the enemy and retire if they came out against them.
§ 17.103.2 These were five hundred in number, and were despised when they attacked the walls. Some three thousand soldiers issued out of the city, whereupon Alexander's task force pretended to be frightened and fled.
§ 17.103.3 Presently the king launched an unexpected attack against the pursuing natives and charging them furiously killed some of the natives, and captured others. A number of the king's forces were wounded, and these met a new and serious danger.
§ 17.103.4 The Brahmins had smeared their weapons with a drug of mortal effect; that was their source of confidence when they joined the issue of battle. The power of the drug was derived from certain snakes which were caught and killed and left in the sun.
§ 17.103.5 The heat melted the substance of the flesh and drops of moisture formed; in this moisture the poison of the animals was secreted. When a man was wounded, the body became numb immediately and then sharp pains followed, and convulsions and shivering shook the whole frame. The skin became cold and livid and bile appeared in the vomit, while a black froth was exuded from the wound and gangrene set in. As this spread quickly and overran to the vital parts of the body, it brought a horrible death to the victim.
§ 17.103.6 The same result occurred to those who had received large wounds and to those whose wounds were small, or even a mere scratch. So the wounded were dying in this fashion, and for the rest Alexander was not so much concerned, but he was deeply distressed for Ptolemy, the future king, who was much beloved by him.
§ 17.103.7 An interesting and quite extraordinary event occurred in the case of Ptolemy, which some attributed to divine Providence. He was loved by all because of his character and his kindnesses to all, and he obtained a succour appropriate to his good deeds. The king saw a vision in his sleep. It seemed to him that a snake appeared carrying a plant in its mouth, and showed him its nature and efficacy and the place where it grew.
§ 17.103.8 When Alexander awoke, he sought out the plant, and grinding it up plastered it on Ptolemy's body. He also prepared an infusion of the plant and gave Ptolemy a drink of it. This restored him to health. Now that the value of the remedy had been demonstrated, all the other wounded received the same therapy and became well. Then Alexander prepared to attack and capture the city of Harmatelia, which was large and strongly fortified, but the inhabitants came to him with suppliant branches and handed themselves over. He spared them any punishment.
§ 17.104.1 Now he resumed his voyage down the river and sailed out into the Ocean with his Friends. There he discovered two islands and on them performed rich sacrifices. He threw many large cups of gold into the sea following the libations which he poured from them. He erected altars to Tethys and Oceanus and judged that his projected campaign was at an end. Setting sail from there, he proceeded back up the river to Patala, a fine city.
§ 17.104.2 It had a government organized very much like that of Sparta. Two kings descended from two houses inherited their office from their fathers. They had charge of all arrangements concerning war, while the council of elders was the principal administrative body.
§ 17.104.3 Alexander burned such of his boats as were damaged. The rest of his fleet he turned over to Nearchus and others of his Friends with orders to coast along through the Ocean and, having observed everything, to meet him at the mouth of the Euphrates River.
§ 17.104.4 He set his army in motion and traversed much territory and defeated his opponents, while those who submitted were received kindly. He brought over without fighting the so called Abritae and the tribesmen of Cedrosia.
§ 17.104.5 Then he marched through a long stretch of waterless and largely desert country as far as the frontiers of Oreitis. There he divided his force into three divisions and named as commander of the first, Ptolemy, and of the second, Leonnatus. He ordered Ptolemy to plunder the district by the sea and Leonnatus to lay waste the interior.
§ 17.104.6 At one and the same time much country was wasted, so that every spot was filled with fire and devastation and great slaughter.
§ 17.104.7 The soldiers soon became possessed of much booty, and the number of persons killed reached many myriads. By the destruction of these tribes, all their neighbours were terrified and submitted to the king.
§ 17.104.8 Alexander wanted to found a city by the sea. He found a sheltered harbour with suitable terrain near by, and established there a city called Alexandria.
§ 17.105.1 He advanced into country of the Oreitae through the passes and quickly brought it all into submission. These Oreitae have the same customs as the Indians in other respects, but have one part which is strange and quite unbelievable.
§ 17.105.2 The bodies of the dead are carried out by their relatives, who strip themselves naked and carry spears. They place the bodies in the thickets which exist in the country and remove the clothing from them, leaving them to be the prey of wild beasts. They divide up the clothing of the dead, sacrifice to the heroes of the nether world, and give a banquet to their friends.
§ 17.105.3 Next Alexander advanced into Cedrosia, marching near the sea, and encountered a people unfriendly and utterly brutish.
§ 17.105.4 Those who dwelt here let the nails of their fingers and toes grow from birth to old age. They also let their hair remain matted like felt. Their colour is burned black by the heat of the sun, and they clothe themselves in the skins of beasts.
§ 17.105.5 They subsist by eating the flesh of stranded whales. They build up the walls of their houses from . . . and construct roofs with whale's ribs, which furnish them rafters eighteen cubits in length. In the place of tiles, they covered their roofs with the scales of these beasts.
§ 17.105.6 Alexander passed through this territory with difficulty because of the shortage of provisions and entered a region which was desert, and lacking in everything which could be used to sustain life. Many died of hunger. The army of the Macedonians was disheartened, and Alexander sank into no ordinary grief and anxiety. It seemed a dreadful thing that they who had excelled all in fighting ability and in equipment for war should perish ingloriously from lack of food in a desert country.
§ 17.105.7 He determined, therefore, to send out swift messengers into Parthyaea and Drangine and Areia and the other areas bordering on the desert, ordering these to bring quickly to the gates of Carmania racing camels and other animals trained to carry burdens, loading them with food and other necessities.
§ 17.105.8 These messengers hurried to the satraps of these provinces and caused supplies to be transported in large quantities to the specified place. Alexander lost many of his soldiers, nevertheless, first because of shortages that were not relieved, and then at a later stage of this march, when some of the Oreitae attacked Leonnatus's division and inflicted severe losses, afterwards they escaped to their own territory.
§ 17.106.1 So with great difficulty Alexander passed through the desert and came into a well-populated country provided with everything needful. Here he rested his army, and for seven days proceeded with his troops in festive dress. He himself led a Dionysiac comus, feasting and drinking as he travelled.
§ 17.106.2 After this celebration was over, Alexander learned that many of his officials who had used their powers arbitrarily and selfishly had committed serious offences, and he pursued a number of his satraps and generals. As the word spread of his righteous indignation against his offending subordinates, many of the generals recalled acts of insolence or illegality which they had performed and became alarmed. Some who had mercenary troops revolted against the king's authority, and others got together sums of money and fled.
§ 17.106.3 As news of this was brought to the king, he wrote to all his generals and satraps in Asia, ordering them, as soon as they had read his letter, to disband all their mercenaries instantly.
§ 17.106.4 At this juncture the king was resting in a seaside city called Salmus and was holding a dramatic contest in the theatre, when into the harbour there sailed the fleet which had been ordered to return by way of the Ocean and to explore the coastal waters. The officer came immediately into the theatre, greeted also, and reported what they had done.
§ 17.106.5 The Macedonians were delighted at their arrival and welcomed their safe return with loud applause, so that the whole theatre was filled with the wildest rejoicing.
§ 17.106.6 The mariners told how they had encountered astonishing ebbings and flowings in the Ocean. In the former case, many large and unsuspected islands appeared along the coast, but in the latter all such places were flooded over as a copious and strong current bore in towards the land, while the surface of the water was white with much foam. But their most remarkable experience was an encounter with a large school of incredibly big whales.
§ 17.106.7 The sailors had been terrified and despaired of their lives, thinking that they would be dashed to pieces immediately, ships and all. But when they all shouted in unison, beating upon their shields to make a great din, and the trumpets were blow loudly in addition, the beasts were alarmed by the strange noise and plunged into the depths of the sea.
§ 17.107.1 After this recital, the king ordered the officers of the fleet to sail on to the Euphrates, while he continued on a great distance with the army, and came to the frontier of Susiane. Here the Indian Caranus, who had advanced far in philosophy and was highly regarded by Alexander, put a remarkable end to his life.
§ 17.107.2 He had lived for seventy-three years without ever having experienced an illness, and now decided to remove himself from life, since he had received the utmost limit of happiness both from nature and from Fortune.
§ 17.107.3 He had been taken ill and each day becoming more exhausted he asked the king to erect for him a huge pyre and, after he had ascended, to order the attendants to ignite it.
§ 17.107.4 At first Alexander tried to dissuade him from this plan, but when he was unsuccessful, he agreed to do what was asked. After the project had become generally known, the pyre was erected, and everybody came to see the remarkable sight. True to his own creed, Caranus cheerfully mounted the pyre and perished, consumed along with it.
§ 17.107.5 Some of those who were present thought him mad, others vainglorious about his ability to bear pain, while others simply marvelled at his fortitude and contempt for death.
§ 17.107.6 The king gave Caranus a magnificent funeral and then proceeded to Susa, where he married Stateira, the elder daughter of Dareius, and gave her younger sister Drypetis as wife to Hephaestion. He prevailed upon the most prominent of his Friends to take wives also, and gave them in marriage the noblest Persian ladies.
§ 17.108.1 Now there came to Susa at this time a body of thirty thousand Persians, all very young and selected for their bodily grace and strength.
§ 17.108.2 They had been enrolled in compliance with the king's orders and had been under supervisors and teachers in the arrest of war for as long as necessary. They were splendidly equipped with the full Macedonian armament and encamped before the city, where they were warmly commended by the king after demonstrating their skill and discipline in the use of their weapons.
§ 17.108.3 The Macedonians had not only mutinied when ordered to cross the Ganges River but were frequently unruly when called into an assembly and ridiculed Alexander's pretence that Ammon was his father. For these reasons Alexander had formed this unit from a single age-group of the Persians which was capable of serving as a counter-balance to the Macedonian phalanx. These were the concerns of Alexander.
§ 17.108.4 Harpalus had been given the custody of the treasury in Babylon and of the revenues which accrued to it, but as soon as the king had carried his campaign into India, he assumed that Alexander would never come back, and gave himself up to comfortable living. Although he had been charged as satrap with the administration of a great country, he first occupied himself with the abuse of women and illegitimate amours with the natives and squandered much of the treasure under his control on incontinent pleasure. He fetched all the long way from the Red Sea a great quantity of fish and introduced an extravagant way of life, so that he came under general criticism.
§ 17.108.5 Later, moreover, he sent and brought from Athens the most dazzling courtesan of the day, whose name was Pythonice. As long as she lived he gave her gifts worthy of a queen, and when she died, he gave her a magnificent funeral and erected over her grave a costly monument of the Attic type.
§ 17.108.6 After that, he brought out a second Attic courtesan named Glycera and kept her in exceeding luxury, providing her with a way of life which was fantastically expensive. At the same time, with an eye on the uncertainties of fortune, he established himself a place of refuge by benefactions to the Athenians. When Alexander did come back from India and put to death many of the satraps who had been charged with neglect of duty, Harpalus became alarmed at the punishment which might befall him. He packed up five thousand talents of silver, enrolled six thousand mercenaries, departed from Asia and sailed across to Attica.
§ 17.108.7 When no one there accepted him, he shipped his troops off to Taenarum in Laconia, and keeping some of the money with him threw himself on the mercy of the Athenians. Antipater and Olympias demanded his surrender, and although he had distributed large sums of money to those persons who spoke in his favour, he was compelled to slip away and repaired to Taenarum and his mercenaries.
§ 17.108.8 Subsequently he sailed over to Crete, where he was murdered by Thibron, one of his Friends. At Athens, an accounting was undertaken of the funds of Harpalus, and Demosthenes and certain other statesmen were convicted of having accepted money from this source.
§ 17.109.1 While the Olympic Games were being celebrated, Alexander had it proclaimed in Olympia that all exiles should return to their cities, except those who had been charged with sacrilege or murder. He selected the oldest of his soldiers who were Macedonians and released them from service; there were ten thousand of these.
§ 17.109.2 He learned that many of them were in debt, and in a single day he paid their obligations, which were little short of ten thousand talents. The Macedonians who remained with him were becoming insubordinate, and when he called them to an assembly, they interrupted him by shouting. In a fury, he denounced them without regard to his own personal risk; then, having cowed the throng, he leaped down from the platform, seized the ringleaders of the tumult with his own hands, and handed them over to his attendants for punishment.
§ 17.109.3 This made the soldiers' hostility even more acute, so that the king appointed generals from specially selected Persians and advanced them into positions of responsibility. At this, the Macedonians were repentant. Weeping, they urgently petitioned Alexander to forgive them, and with difficulty persuaded him to take them back into favour.
§ 17.110.1 In the archonship of Anticles at Athens, the Romans installed as consuls Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Popillius. In this year Alexander secured replacements from the Persians equal to the number of these soldiers whom he had released, and assigned a thousand of them to the bodyguards stationed at the court. In all respects he showed the same confidence in them as in the Macedonians.
§ 17.110.2 At this time Peucestes arrived with twenty thousand Persian bowmen and slingers. Alexander placed these in units with his other soldiers, and by the novelty of this innovation created a force blended and adjusted to his own idea.
§ 17.110.3 Since there were by now sons of the Macedonians born of captive women, he determined the exact number of these. There were about ten thousand, and he set aside for them revenues sufficient to provide them with an upbringing proper for freeborn children, and set over them teachers to give them their proper training. After this he marched with his army from Susa, crossed the Tigris, and encamped in the villages called Carae.
§ 17.110.4 Thence for four days he marched through Sittacene and came to the place called Sambana. There he remained seven days and, proceeding with the army, came on the third day to the Celones, as they are called. There dwells here down to our time a settlement of Boeotians who were moved in the time of Xerxes's campaign, but still have not forgotten their ancestral customs.
§ 17.110.5 They are bilingual and speak like the natives in the one language, while in the other they preserve most of the Greek vocabulary, and they maintain some Greek practices. After a stay of some days he resumed his march at length and diverging from the main road for the purpose of sight-seeing he entered the region called Bagistane, a magnificent country covered with fruit trees and rich in everything which makes for good living.
§ 17.110.6 Next he came to a land which could support enormous herds of horses, where of old they say that there were one hundred and sixty thousand horses grazing, but at the time of Alexander's visit there were counted only sixty thousand. After a stay of thirty days he resumed the march and on the seventh day came to Ecbatana of Media.
§ 17.110.7 They say that its circuit is two hundred and fifty stades. It contains the palace which is the capital of all Media and storehouses filled with great wealth. Here he refreshed his army for some time and staged a dramatic festival, accompanied by constant drinking parties among his friends.
§ 17.110.8 In the course of these, Hephaestion drank very much, fell ill, and died. The king was intensely grieved at this and entrusted his body to Perdiccas to conduct to Babylon, where he proposed to celebrate a magnificent funeral for him.
§ 17.111.1 During this period Greece was the scene of disturbances and revolutionary movements from which arose the war called Lamian. The reason was this. The king had ordered all his satraps to dissolve their armies of mercenaries, and as they obeyed his instructions, all Asia was overrun with soldiers released from service and supporting themselves by plunder. Presently they began assembling from all directions at Taenarum in Laconia,
§ 17.111.2 whither came also such of the Persian satraps and generals as had survived, bringing their funds and their soldiers, so that they constituted a joint force.
§ 17.111.3 Ultimately they chose as supreme commander the Athenian Leosthenes, who was a man of unusually brilliant mind, and thoroughly opposed to the cause of Alexander. He conferred secretly with the council at Athens and was granted fifty talents to pay the troops and a stock of weapons sufficient to meet pressing needs. He sent off an embassy to the Aetolians, who were unfriendly to the king, looking to the establishment of an alliance with them, and otherwise made every preparation for war.
§ 17.111.4 So Leosthenes was occupied with such matters, being in no doubt about the seriousness of the proposed conflict, but Alexander launched a campaign with a mobile force against the Cossaeans, for they would not submit to him. This is a people outstanding in valour which occupied the mountains of Media; and relying upon the ruggedness of their country and their ability in war, they had never accepted a foreign master, but had remained unconquered throughout the whole period of the Persian kingdom, and now they were too proudly self-confident to be terrified of the Macedonian arms.
§ 17.111.5 The king, nevertheless, seized the routes of access into their country before they were aware of it, lay waste most of Cossaea, was superior in every engagement, and both slew many of the Cossaeans and captured many times more. So the Cossaeans were utterly defeated, and, distressed at the number of their captives, were constrained to buy their recovery at the price of national submission.
§ 17.111.6 They placed themselves in Alexander's hands and were granted peace on condition that they should do his bidding. In forty days at most, he had conquered this people. He founded strong cities at strategic points and rested his army.
§ 17.112.1 After the conclusion of his war with the Cossaeans, Alexander set his army in motion and marched towards Babylon in easy stages, interrupting the march frequently and resting the army.
§ 17.112.2 While he was still three hundred furlongs from the city, the scholars called Chaldaeans, who have gained a great reputation in astrology and are accustomed to predict future events by a method based on age-long observations, chose from their number the eldest and most experienced. By the configuration of the stars they had learned of the coming death of the king in Babylon, and they instructed their representatives to report to the king the danger which threatened. They told their envoys also to urge upon the king that he must under no circumstances make his entry into the city;
§ 17.112.3 that he could escape the danger if he re-erected the tomb of Belus which had been demolished by the Persians, but he must abandon his intended route and pass the city by. The leader of the Chaldaean envoys, whose name was Belephantes, was not bold enough to address the king directly but secured a private audience with Nearchus, one of Alexander's Friends, and told him everything in detail, requesting him to make it known to the king.
§ 17.112.4 When Alexander, accordingly, learned from Nearchus about the Chaldaeans' prophecy, he was alarmed and more and more disturbed, the more he reflected upon the ability and high reputation of these people. After some hesitation, he sent most of his Friends into Babylon, but altered his own route so as to avoid the city and set up his headquarters in a camp at a distance of two hundred furlongs. This act caused general astonishment and many of the Greeks came to see him, notably among the philosophers Anaxarchus.
§ 17.112.5 When they discovered the reason for his action, they plied him with arguments drawn from philosophy and changed him to the degree that he came to despise all prophetic arts, and especially that which was held in high regard by the Chaldaeans. It was as if the king had been wounded in his soul and then healed by the words of the philosophers, so that he now entered Babylon with his army.
§ 17.112.6 As on the previous occasion, the population received the troops hospitably, and all turned their attention to relaxation and pleasure, since everything necessary was available in profusion. These were the events of this year.
§ 17.113.1 When Agesias was archon at Athens, the Romans installed as consuls Gaius Publius and Papirius, and the one hundred and fourteenth celebration of the Olympic Games took place, in which Micinas of Rhodes won the foot race. Now from practically all the inhabited world came envoys on various missions, some congratulating Alexander on his victories, some bringing him crowns, other concluding treaties of friendship and alliance, many bringing handsome presents, and some prepared to defend themselves against accusations.
§ 17.113.2 Apart from the tribes and cities as well as the local rulers of Asia, many of their counterparts in Europe and Libya put in an appearance; from Libya, Carthaginians and Libyphoenicians and all those who inhabit the coast as far as the Pillars of Heracles; from Europe, the Greek cities and the Macedonians also sent embassies, as well as the Illyrians and most of those who dwell about the Adriatic Sea, the Thracian peoples and even those of their neighbours the Gauls, whose people became known then first in the Greek world.
§ 17.113.3 Alexander drew up a list of the embassies and arranged a schedule of those to whom first he would give his reply and then the others in sequence. First he heard those who came on matters concerning religion; second, those who brought gifts; next, those who had disputes with their neighbours; fourth, those who had problems concerning themselves alone; and fifth, those who wished to present arguments against receiving back their exiles.
§ 17.113.4 He dealt with the Eleians first, then with the Ammonians and the Delphians and the Corinthians, as well as with the Epidaurians and the rest, receiving their petitions in the order of importance of the sanctuaries. In all cases he made every effort to deliver replies which would be gratifying, and sent everyone content so far as he was able.
§ 17.114.1 When the embassies had been dismissed, Alexander threw himself into preparations for the burial of Hephaestion. He showed such zeal about the funeral that it not only surpassed all those previously celebrated on earth but also left no possibility for anything greater in later ages. He had loved Hephaestion most of the group of Friends who were thought to have been high in his affections, and after his death showed him superlative honour. In his lifetime, he had preferred him to all, although Craterus had a rival claim to his love;
§ 17.114.2 so, for example, that when one of the companions said that Craterus was loved no less than Hephaestion, Alexander had answered that Craterus was king-loving, but Hephaestion was Alexander-loving. At their first meeting with Dareius's mother, when she from ignorance had bowed to Hephaestion supposing him to be the king and was distressed when this was called to her attention, Alexander had said: "Never mind, mother. For actually he too is Alexander."
§ 17.114.3 As a matter of fact, Hephaestion enjoyed so much power and freedom of speech based on this friendship that when Olympias was estranged from him because of jealousy and wrote sharp criticisms and threats against him in her letters, he felt strong enough to answer her reproachfully and ended his letter as follows: "Stop quarrelling with us and do not be angry or menacing. If you persist, we shall not be much disturbed. You know that Alexander means more to us than anything."
§ 17.114.4 As part of the preparations for the funeral, the king ordered the cities of the region to contribute to its splendour in accordance with their ability, and he proclaimed to all the peoples of Asia that they should sedulously quench what the Persians call the sacred fire, until such time as the funeral should be ended. This was the custom of the Persians when their kings died, and people thought that the order was an ill omen, and that heaven was foretelling the king's own death.
§ 17.114.5 There were also at this time other strange signs pointing to the same event, as we shall relate shortly, after we have finished the account of the funeral.
§ 17.115.1 Each of the generals and Friends tried to meet the king's desires and made likenesses of Hephaestion in ivory and gold and other materials which men hold in high regard. Alexander collected artisans and an army of workmen and tore down the city wall to a distance of ten furlongs. He collected the baked tiles and levelled off the place which was to receive the pyre, and then constructed this square in shape, each side being a furlong in length.
§ 17.115.2 He divided up the area into thirty compartments and laying out the roofs upon the trunks of palm trees wrought the whole structure into a square shape. Then he decorated all the exterior walls. Upon the foundation course were golden prows of quinqueremes in close order, two hundred and forty in all. Upon the cat-heads each carried two kneeling archers four cubits in height, and (on the deck) armed male figures five cubits high, while the intervening spaces were occupied by red banners fashioned out of felt.
§ 17.115.3 Above these, on the second level, stood torches fifteen cubits high with golden wreaths about their handles. At their flaming ends perched eagles with outspread wings looking downward, while about their bases were serpents looking up at the eagles. On the third level were carved a multitude of wild animals being pursued by hunters.
§ 17.115.4 The fourth level carried a centauromachy rendered in gold, while the fifth showed lions and bulls alternating, also in gold. The next higher level was covered with Macedonian and Persian arms, testifying to the prowess of the one people and to the defeats of the other. On top of all stood Sirens, hollowed out and able to conceal within them persons who sang a lament in mourning for the dead.
§ 17.115.5 The total height of the pyre was more than one hundred and thirty cubits. All of the generals and the soldiers and the envoys and even the natives rivalled one another in contributing to the magnificence of the funeral, so, it is said, that the total expense came to over twelve thousand talents.
§ 17.115.6 In keeping with this magnificence and the other special marks of honour at the funeral, Alexander ended by decreeing that all should sacrifice to Hephaestion as god coadjutor. As a matter of fact, it happened just at this time that Philip, one of the Friends, came bearing a response from Ammon that Hephaestion should be worshipped as a god. Alexander was delighted that the god had ratified his own opinion, was himself the first to perform the sacrifice, and entertained everybody handsomely. The sacrifice consisted of ten thousand victims of all sorts.
§ 17.116.1 After the funeral, the king turned to amusements and festivals, but just when it seemed that he was at the peak of his power and good fortune, Fate cut off the time allowed him by nature to remain alive. Straightway heaven also began to foretell his death, and many strange portents and signs occurred.
§ 17.116.2 Once when the king was being rubbed with oil and the royal robe and diadem were lying on a chair, one of the natives who was kept in bonds was spontaneously freed from his fetters, escaped his guards' notice, and passed through the doors of the palace with no one hindering.
§ 17.116.3 He went to the royal chair, put on the royal dress and bound his head with the diadem, then seated himself upon the chair and remained quiet. As soon as the king learned of this, he was terrified at the odd event, but walked to the chair and without showing his agitation asked the man quietly who he was and what he meant by doing this.
§ 17.116.4 When he made no reply whatsoever, Alexander referred the portent to the seers for interpretation and put the man to death in accordance with their judgement, hoping that the trouble which was forecast by his act might light upon the man's own head. He picked up the clothing and sacrificed to the gods who avert evil, but continued to be seriously troubled. He recalled the prediction of the Chaldaeans and was angry with philosophers who had persuaded him to enter Babylon. He was impressed anew with the skill of the Chaldaeans and their insight, and generally railed at those who used specious reasoning to argue away the power of Fate.
§ 17.116.5 A little while later heaven sent him a second portent about his kingship. He had conceived the desire to see the great swamp of Babylonia and set sail with his friends in a number of skiffs. For some days his boat became separated from the others and he was lost and alone, fearing that he might never get out alive.
§ 17.116.6 As his craft was proceeding through a narrow channel where the reeds grew thickly and overhung the water, his diadem was caught and lifted from his head by one of them and then dropped into the swamp. One of the oarsmen swam after it and, wishing to return it safely, placed it on his head and so swam back to the boat.
§ 17.116.7 After three days and nights of wandering, Alexander found his way to safety just as he had again put on his diadem when this seemed beyond hope. Again he turned to the soothsayers for the meaning of all this.
§ 17.117.1 They bade him sacrifice to the gods on a grand scale and with all speed, but he was then called away by Medius, the Thessalian, one of his Friends, to take part in a comus. There he drank much unmixed wine in commemoration of the death of Heracles, and finally, filling a huge beaker, downed it at a gulp.
§ 17.117.2 Instantly he shrieked aloud as if smitten by a violent blow and was conducted by his Friends, who led him by the hand back to his apartments. His chamberlains put him to bed and attended him closely,
§ 17.117.3 but the pain increased and the physicians were summoned. No one was able to do anything helpful and Alexander continued in great discomfort and acute suffering. When he, at length, despaired of life, he took off his ring and handed it to Perdiccas.
§ 17.117.4 His Friends asked: "To whom do you leave the kingdom?" and he replied: "To the strongest." He added, and these were his last words, that all of his leading Friends would stage a vast contest in honour of his funeral.
§ 17.117.5 This was how he died after a reign of twelve years and seven months. He accomplished greater deeds than any, not only of the kings who had lived before him but also of those who were to come later down to our time. Since some historians disagree about the death of Alexander, and state that this occurred in consequence of a draught of poison, it seems necessary for us to mention their account also.
§ 17.118.1 They say that Antipater, who had been left by Alexander as viceroy in Europe, was at variance with the king's mother Olympias. At first he did not take her seriously because Alexander did not heed her complaints against him, but later, as their enmity kept growing and the king showed an anxiety to gratify his mother in everything out of piety, Antipater gave many indications of his disaffection. This was bad enough, but the murder of Parmenion and Philotas struck terror into Antipater as into all of Alexander's Friends, so by the hand of his own son, who was the king's wine-pourer, he administered poison to the king.
§ 17.118.2 After Alexander's death, Antipater held the supreme authority in Europe and then his son Casander took over the kingdom, so that many historians did not dare write about the drug. Casander, however, is plainly disclosed by his own actions as a bitter enemy to Alexander's policies. He murdered Olympias and threw out her body without burial, and with great enthusiasm restored Thebes, which had been destroyed by Alexander.
§ 17.118.3 After the king's death Sisyngambris, Dareius's mother, mourned his passing and her own bereavement, and coming to the limit of her life she refrained from food and died on the fifth day, abandoning life painfully but not ingloriously.
§ 17.118.4 Having reached the death of Alexander as we proposed to do at the beginning of the book, we shall try to narrate the actions of the Successors in the books which follow.
§ 18.1.1 Pythagoras of Samos and some others of the ancient philosophers declared that the souls of men are immortal, and also that, in accordance with this doctrine, souls foreknow the future at that moment in death when they are departing from the bodies.
§ 18.1.2 It seems that the poet Homer agreed with them, for he introduced Hector at the time of his decease foretelling to Achilles the death that was soon to come upon him.
§ 18.1.3 Likewise it is reported that even in more recent times what we have described above has happened in the case of many men as they were coming to the end of life, and in particular on the occasion of the death of Alexander of Macedon.
§ 18.1.4 When he was quitting life in Babylon and at his last breath was asked by his friends to whom he was leaving the kingdom, he said, "To the best man; for I foresee that a great combat of my friends will be my funeral games."
§ 18.1.5 And this actually happened; for after the death of Alexander the foremost of his friends quarrelled about the primacy and joined in many great combats.
§ 18.1.6 This Book, which contains an account of the deeds accomplished by these friends, will make the philosopher's saying clear to the interested reader. The preceding Book included all the acts of Alexander up to his death; this one, containing the deeds of those who succeeded to his kingdom, ends with the year before the tyranny of Agathocles and includes seven years.
§ 18.2.1 When Cephisodorus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected Lucius Frurius and Decius Junius consuls. During this term the throne was vacant, since Alexander the king had died without issue, and great contention arose over the leadership.
§ 18.2.2 The phalanx of the infantry was supporting Arrhidaeus, son of Philip, for the kingship, although he was afflicted with an incurable mental illness. The most influential of the Friends and of the Bodyguard, however, taking counsel together and joining to themselves the corps of horsemen known as the Companions, at first decided to take up arms against the phalanx and sent to the infantry envoys chosen from men of rank, of whom the most prominent was Meleager, demanding submission to their orders. Meleager, however, when he came to the men of the phalanx, made no mention of his mission but, on the contrary, praised them for the resolution that they had taken and sharpened their anger against their opponents. As a result the Macedonians made Meleager their leader and advanced under arms against those who disagreed with them; 4 but when the Bodyguard had withdrawn from Babylon and was making ready for war, the men most inclined toward conciliation persuaded the parties to come to an agreement. Straightway they made Arrhidaeus, son of Philip, their king and changed his name to Philip; Perdiccas, to whom the king had given his ring as he died, they made regent of the kingdom; and they decided that the most important of the Friends and of the Bodyguard should take over the satrapies and obey the king and Perdiccas.
§ 18.3.1 After Perdiccas had assumed the supreme command and had taken counsel with the chief men, he gave Egypt to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, Syria to Laomedon of Mitylene, Cilicia to Philotas, and Media to Pithon. To Eumenes he gave Paphlagonia and Cappadocia and all the lands bordering on these, which Alexander did not invade, having been prevented from doing so by the urgency of his affairs when he was finishing the war with Darius; to Antigonus he gave Pamphylia, Lycia, and what is called Great Phrygia; then to Asander, Caria; to Menander, Lydia; and to Leonnatus, Hellespontine Phrygia. These satrapies, then, were distributed in that way.
§ 18.3.2 In Europe, Thrace and the neighbouring tribes near the Pontic sea were given to Lysimachus, and Macedonia and the adjacent peoples were assigned to Antipater. Perdiccas, however, decided not to disturb the remaining satrapies in Asia but to permit them to remain under the same rulers; likewise he determined that Taxiles and Porus should be masters of their own kingdoms as Alexander himself had arranged.
§ 18.3.3 To Pithon he gave the satrapy next to Taxiles and the other kings; and the satrapy that lies along the Caucasus, called that of the Paropanisadae, he assigned to Oxyartes the Bactrian, whose daughter Roxane Alexander had married. He gave Arachosia and Cedrosia to Sibyrtius, Aria and Drangine to Stasanor of Soli, Bactriane and Sogdiane to Philip, Parthia and Hyrcania to Phrataphernes, Persia to Peucestes, Carmania to Tlepolemus, Media to Atropates, Babylonia to Archon, and Mesopotamia to Arcesilaus.
§ 18.3.4 He placed Seleucus in command of the cavalry of the Companions, a most distinguished office; for Hephaestion commanded them first, Perdiccas after him, and third the above-named Seleucus.
§ 18.3.5 The transportation of the body of the deceased king and the preparation of the vehicle that was to carry the body to Ammon they assigned to Arrhidaeus.
§ 18.4.1 It happened that Craterus, who was one of the most prominent men, had previously been sent away by Alexander to Cilicia with those men who had been discharged from the army, ten thousand in number. At the same time he had received written instructions which the king had given him for execution; nevertheless, after the death of Alexander, it seemed best to the successors not to carry out these plans.
§ 18.4.2 For when Perdiccas found in the memoranda of the king orders for the completion of the pyre of Hephaestion, which required a great deal of money, and also for the other designs of Alexander, which were many and great and called for an unprecedented outlay, he decided that it was inexpedient to carry them out.
§ 18.4.3 But that he might not appear to be arbitrarily detracting anything from the glory of Alexander, he laid these matters before the common assembly of the Macedonians for consideration.
§ 18.4.4 The following were the largest and most remarkable items of the memoranda. It was proposed to build a thousand warships, larger than triremes, in Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and Cyprus for the campaign against the Carthaginians and the others who live along the coast of Libya and Iberia and the adjoining coastal region as far as Sicily; to make a road along the coast of Libya as far as the Pillars of Heracles and, as needed by so great an expedition, to construct ports and shipyards at suitable places; to erect six most costly temples, each at an expense of fifteen hundred talents; and, finally, to establish cities and to transplant populations from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia, in order to bring the largest continents to common unity and to friendly kinship by means of intermarriages and family ties.
§ 18.4.5 The temples mentioned above were to be built at Delos, Delphi, and Dodona, and in Macedonia a temple to Zeus at Dium, to Artemis Tauropolus at Amphipolis, and to Athena at Cyrnus. Likewise at Ilium in honour of this goddess there was to be built a temple that could never be surpassed by any other. A tomb for his father Philip was to be constructed to match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt, buildings which some persons count among the seven greatest works of man.
§ 18.4.6 When these memoranda had been read, the Macedonians, although they applauded the name of Alexander, nevertheless saw that the projects were extravagant and impracticable and decided to carry out none of those that have been mentioned.
§ 18.4.7 Perdiccas first put to death those soldiers who were fomenters of discord and most at enmity with himself, thirty in number. After that he also punished Meleager, who had been a traitor on the occasion of the contention and his mission, using as a pretext a private quarrel and a charge that Meleager was plotting against him.
§ 18.4.8 Then, since the Greeks who had been settled in the upper satrapies had revolted and raised an army of considerable size, he sent one of the nobles, Pithon, to fight it out with them.
§ 18.5.1 Considering the events that are to be narrated, I think it proper first to set forth the causes of the revolt, the situation of Asia as a whole, and the size and characteristics of the satrapies; for by placing before my readers' eyes the topography in general and the distances I shall best make the narrative easy for them to follow.
§ 18.5.2 Now from the Cilician Taurus a continuous range of mountains extends through the whole of Asia as far as the Caucasus and the Eastern Ocean. This range is divided by crests of varying heights, and each part has its proper name.
§ 18.5.3 Asia is thus separated into two parts, one sloping to the north, the other to the south. Corresponding to these slopes, the rivers flow in opposite directions. Of those on one side, some enter the Caspian Sea, some the Pontus Euxinus, and some the Northern Ocean. Of the rivers that lie opposite to these, some empty into the ocean that faces India, some into the ocean that is adjacent to this continent, and some flow into what is called the Red Sea.
§ 18.5.4 The satrapies likewise are divided, some sloping toward the north, the others toward the south. The first of those that face the north lie along the Tanais River: Sogdiane and Bactriane; and next to these are Aria, Parthia, and Hyrcania, by which the Hyrcanian Sea, a detached body of water, is surrounded. Next is Media, which embraces many regions with distinctive names and is the greatest of all the satrapies. Armenia, Lycaonia, and Cappadocia, all having a very wintry climate, are next. Bordering on them in a straight line are both Great Phrygia and Hellespontine Phrygia; Lydia and Caria are to the side; above Phrygia and beside it is Pisidia, with Lycia next to it.
§ 18.5.5 In the coastal regions of these satrapies are established the cities of the Greeks; to give their names is not necessary for our present purposes. The satrapies that face the north are situated in the way described.
§ 18.6.1 Of those satrapies that face the south, the first one along the Caucasus is India, a great and populous kingdom, inhabited by many Indian nations, of which the greatest is that of the Gandaridae, against whom Alexander did not make a campaign because of the multitude of their elephants.
§ 18.6.2 The river Ganges, which is the deepest of the region and has a width of thirty stades, separates this land from the neighbouring part of India. Adjacent to this is the rest of India, which Alexander conquered, irrigated by water from the rivers and most conspicuous for its prosperity. Here were the dominions of Porus and Taxiles, together with many other kingdoms, and through it flows the Indus River, from which the country received its name.
§ 18.6.3 Next to the Indian satrapy Arachosia was marked off, and Cedrosia and Carmania, and Persia next to them, in which are Susiane and Sittacine. Next comes Babylonia extending to the Arabian Desert. On the other side, in the direction from which we make the march inland, is Mesopotamia encompassed by two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, to which it owes its name. Next to Mesopotamia are Upper Syria, as it is called, and the countries adjacent thereto along the sea: Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Coele Syria, which encloses Phoenicia. Along the frontiers of Coele Syria and along the desert that lies next to it, through which the Nile makes its way and divides Syria and Egypt, the best satrapy of all and one that has the greatest revenues, was set up, Egypt.
§ 18.6.4 All these countries are very hot, since the air in the south is different from that which extends to the north. The satrapies, then, that were conquered by Alexander, are situated as described, and were distributed to the most noteworthy men.
§ 18.7.1 The Greeks who had been settled by Alexander in the upper satrapies, as they were called, although they longed for the Greek customs and manner of life and were cast away in the most distant part of the kingdom, yet submitted while the king was alive through fear; but when he was dead they rose in revolt.
§ 18.7.2 After they had taken counsel together and elected Philon the Aenianian as general, they raised a considerable force. They had more than twenty thousand foot soldiers and three thousand horse, all of whom had many times been tried in the contests of war and were distinguished for their courage.
§ 18.7.3 When Perdiccas heard of the revolt of the Greeks, he drew by lot from the Macedonians three thousand infantry and eight hundred horsemen. As commander of the whole he selected Pithon, who had been of the Bodyguard of Alexander, a man full of spirit and able to command, and assigned to him the troops that had been drawn. After giving him letters for the satraps, in which it was written that they should furnish Pithon ten thousand footmen and eight thousand horsemen, he sent him against the rebels.
§ 18.7.4 Pithon, who was a man of great ambition, gladly accepted the expedition, intending to win the Greeks over through kindness, and, after making his army great through an alliance with them, to work in his own interests and become the ruler of the upper satrapies.
§ 18.7.5 But Perdiccas, suspecting his design, gave him definite orders to kill all the rebels when he had subdued them, and to distribute the spoils to the soldiers. Pithon, setting out with the troops that had been given to him and receiving the auxiliaries from the satraps, came upon the rebels with all his forces. Through the agency of a certain Aenianian he corrupted Letodorus, who had been made a commander of three thousand among the rebels, and won a complete victory.
§ 18.7.6 For when the battle was begun and the victory was doubtful, the traitor left his allies without warning and withdrew to a certain hill, taking his three thousand men. The rest, believing that these were bent on flight, were thrown into confusion, turned about, and fled.
§ 18.7.7 Pithon, being victorious in the battle, sent a herald to the conquered, ordering them to lay down their arms and to return to their several colonies after receiving pledges.
§ 18.7.8 When oaths to this effect had been sworn and the Greeks were interspersed among the Macedonians, Pithon was greatly pleased, seeing that the affair was progressing according to his intentions; but the Macedonians, remembering the orders of Perdiccas and having no regard for the oaths that had been sworn, broke faith with the Greeks.
§ 18.7.9 Setting upon them unexpectedly and catching them off their guard, they shot them all down with javelins and seized their possessions as plunder. Pithon then, cheated of his hopes, came back with the Macedonians to Perdiccas. This was the state of affairs in Asia.
§ 18.8.1 In Europe the Rhodians drove out their Macedonian garrison and freed their city, and the Athenians began what is called the Lamian war against Antipater. It is necessary to set forth the causes of this war in order that the events that took place in it may be made clearer.
§ 18.8.2 A short time before his death, Alexander decided to restore all the exiles in the Greek cities, partly for the sake of gaining fame, and partly wishing to secure many devoted personal followers in each city to counter the revolutionary movements and seditions of the Greeks.
§ 18.8.3 Therefore, the Olympic games being at hand, he sent Nicanor of Stageira to Greece, giving him a decree about the restoration, which he ordered him to have proclaimed by the victorious herald to the crowds at the festival.
§ 18.8.4 Nicanor carried out his instructions, and the herald received and read the following message: "King Alexander to the exiles from the Greek cities. We have not been the cause of your exile, but, save for those of you who are under a curse, we shall be the cause of your return to your own native cities. We have written to Antipater about this to the end that if any cities are not willing to restore you, he may constrain them."
§ 18.8.5 When the herald had announced this, the crowd showed its approval with loud applause; for those at the festival welcomed the favour of the king with cries of joy, and repaid his good deed with praises. All the exiles had come together at the festival, being more than twenty thousand in number.
§ 18.8.6 Now people in general welcomed the restoration of the exiles as a good thing, but the Aitolians had exiled the Oiniadae from their native city and expected the punishment appropriate to their wrongdoing; for the king himself had threatened that no sons of the Oiniadae, but he himself, would punish them.
§ 18.8.7 Likewise the Athenians, who had distributed Samos in allotments to their citizens, were by no means willing to abandon that island. Being no match, however, for the forces of the king, they remained quiet for the time being, waiting for a favourable opportunity, which Fortune quickly gave them.
§ 18.9.1 When Alexander died a short time thereafter and left no sons as successors to the kingdom, the Athenians ventured to assert their liberty and to claim the leadership of the Greeks. As a resource for the war they had the sum of money left by Harpalus, the story of which we told in full in the preceding Book, and likewise the mercenaries who, some eight thousand in number, had been dismissed from service by the satraps and were waiting near Taenarum in the Peloponnesus.
§ 18.9.2 They therefore gave secret instructions about these to Leosthenes the Athenian, ordering him at first to enrol them as if acting on his own responsibility without authority from the city, in order that Antipater, regarding Leosthenes with contempt, might be less energetic in his preparations, and the Athenians, on the other hand, might gain leisure and time for preparing some of the things necessary for the war.
§ 18.9.3 Accordingly Leosthenes had very quietly hired the troops mentioned above and, contrary to general belief, had secured a considerable number of men ready for action; for these men, who had campaigned throughout Asia for a long time and had taken part in many great conflicts, had become masters of warfare.
§ 18.9.4 Now these things were being done while the death of Alexander was not yet certainly known; but when some came from Babylon who had been eyewitnesses of the king's death, then the popular government openly disclosed its intention of war and sent Leosthenes part of the money of Harpalus and many suits of armour, bidding him no longer act in secret but do openly whatever was advantageous.
§ 18.9.5 After Leosthenes had distributed their pay to the mercenaries and had fully armed those who lacked armour, he went to Aitolia to arrange for common action. When the Aitolians listened to him gladly and gave him seven thousand soldiers, he sent to the Locrians and the Phocians and the other neighbouring peoples and urged them to assert their freedom and rid Greece of the Macedonian despotism.
§ 18.10.1 In the Assembly at Athens, while the men of property were advising that no action be taken and the demagogues were rousing the people and urging them to prosecute the war vigorously, those who preferred war and were accustomed to make their living from paid military service were far superior in numbers. These were the men of whom Philip once said that war was peace and peace was war for them.
§ 18.10.2 Straightway, then, the orators gave shape to the wishes of the commons by writing a decree to the effect that the people should assume responsibility for the common freedom of the Greeks and liberate the cities that were subject to garrisons; that they should prepare forty quadriremes and two hundred triremes; that all Athenians up to the age of forty should be enrolled; that three tribes should guard Attica, and that the other seven should be ready for campaigns beyond the frontiers;
§ 18.10.3 that envoys should be sent to visit the Greek cities and tell them that formerly the Athenian people, convinced that all Greece was the common fatherland of the Greeks, had fought by sea great those barbarians who had invaded Greece to enslave her, and that now too Athens believed it necessary to risk lives and money and ships in defence of the common safety of the Greeks.
§ 18.10.4 When this decree had been ratified more promptly than was wise, those of the Greeks who were superior in understanding said that the Athenian people had counselled well for glory but had missed what was expedient; for they had left the mark before the proper time and, with no necessity compelling them, were venturing to meet forces that were great and undefeated, and moreover, although they enjoyed a reputation for excelling in judgement, they had learned nothing even from the well-known misfortunes to Thebans.
§ 18.10.5 Nevertheless, as the ambassadors made the circuit of the cities and roused them for war with their accustomed eloquence, most of the Greeks joined the alliance, some by national groups and some by cities.
§ 18.11.1 Of the rest of the Greeks, some were well disposed toward the Macedonians, others remained neutral. The Aitolians in full force were the first to join the alliance, as has been said, and after them all the Thessalians except those from Pelinnaion, the Oitaeans except the inhabitants of Heracleia, the Achaeans of Phthiotis except the people of Thebae, the Melians except those of Lamia, then in succession all the Dorians, the Locrians, and the Phocians, also the Aenianians, the Alyzaeans, and the Dolopians, and in addition the Athamanians, the Leucadians, and those of the Molossians who were subject to Aryptaeus. The last named, after making a hollow alliance, later treacherously co operated with the Macedonians.
§ 18.11.2 Next, the Carystians from Euboea undertook a share in the war, and finally, of the peoples of the Peloponnesus, the Argives, the Sikyonians, the Eleans, the Messenians, and those who dwell on Acte. Now those of the Greeks who joined the alliance were as I have listed them.
§ 18.11.3 Athens sent citizen soldiers to Leosthenes as reinforcements, five thousand foot and five hundred horse, and also two thousand mercenaries. These were to go through Boeotia, but it happened that the Boeotians were hostile to the Athenians for some such reason as the following. After Alexander had razed Thebes, he had given the land to the neighbouring Boeotians.
§ 18.11.4 They, having portioned out the property of the unfortunate people, were receiving a large income from the land. Therefore, since they knew that the Athenians, if they were successful in the war, would restore both fatherland and fields to the Thebans, they were inclined toward the Macedonians.
§ 18.11.5 While the Boeotians were in camp near Plataea, Leosthenes, taking part of his own forces, came into Boeotia. Drawing up his own men along with the Athenians against the inhabitants, he defeated the latter in battle and, after erecting a trophy, hurried back to Thermopylae. For there, where he had spent some time in occupying the passes in advance of the enemy, he intended to meet the Macedonian forces.
§ 18.12.1 When Antipater, who had been left by Alexander as general of Europe, heard of the death of the king in Babylon and of the distribution of the satrapies, he sent into Cilicia to Craterus, asking him to come to his aid as soon as possible (for the latter, having been previously dispatched to Cilicia, was going to bring back to Macedonia the Macedonians who had been mustered out of service, being more than ten thousand in number). He also sent to Philotas, who had received Hellespontine Phrygia as his satrapy, asking him likewise for aid and promising him to give him one of his own daughters in marriage.
§ 18.12.2 As soon, however, as he learned of the movement concerted against him by the Greeks, he left Sippas as general of Macedonia, giving him a sufficient army and bidding him enlist as many men as possible, while he himself, taking thirteen thousand Macedonians and six hundred horsemen (for Macedonia was short of citizen soldiers because of the number of those who had been sent to Asia as replacements for the army), set out from Macedonia to Thessaly, accompanied by the entire fleet which Alexander had sent to convoy a sum of money from the royal treasury to Macedonia, being in all one hundred and ten triremes.
§ 18.12.3 At first the Thessalians were allies of Antipater and sent out to him many good horsemen; but later, won over by the Athenians, they rode off to Leosthenes and, arrayed with the Athenians, fought for the liberty of the Greeks.
§ 18.12.4 Now that this great force had been added to the Athenians, the Greeks, who far outnumbered the Macedonians, were successful. Antipater was defeated in battle, and subsequently, since he neither dared to engage in battle nor was able to return in safety to Macedonia, he took refuge in Lamia. He kept his troops in this city and strengthened its walls, besides preparing arms, engines, and food, while anxiously waiting for his allies from Asia.
§ 18.13.1 Leosthenes, when he had come near Lamia with all his forces, fortified a camp with a deep ditch and a palisade. At first he would draw up his forces, approach the city, and challenge the Macedonians to battle; then, as the latter did not dare risk an encounter, he made daily attacks on the walls with relays of soldiers.
§ 18.13.2 As the Macedonians defended themselves stoutly, many of the Greeks who pushed on rashly were killed; for the besieged, since there was a considerable force in the city and an abundance of all sorts of missiles, and the wall, moreover, had been constructed at great expense, easily had the better of the fighting.
§ 18.13.3 Leosthenes, giving up hope of capturing the city by storm, shut off all the supplies that were going into it, thinking that he would easily reduce by hunger the forces besieged in the city. He also built a wall and dug a deep, wide ditch, thereby cutting off all escape for the beleaguered troops.
§ 18.13.4 After this the Aitolians all returned to Aitolia, having asked Leosthenes for permission to go home for the present because of some national business. Antipater and his men, however, were nearly exhausted and the city was in danger of being taken because of the anticipated famine, when chance gave the Macedonians an unexpected turn of good fortune.
§ 18.13.5 For when Antipater made an attack on the men who were digging the moat and a struggle ensued, Leosthenes, coming to aid his men, was struck on the head by a stone and at once fell and was carried to camp in a swoon. On the third day he died and was buried with the honours of a hero because of the glory he had gained in war. The Athenian people caused the funeral oration to be delivered by Hypereides, foremost of the orators in eloquence and in hostility toward the Macedonians;
§ 18.13.6 for at that time Demosthenes, the chief of the orators of Athens, was in exile, convicted of having taken some of the money of Harpalus. In place of Leosthenes, Antiphilus was made general, a man outstanding in military genius and courage. Such was the situation in Europe.
§ 18.14.1 In Asia, of those who had shared in the division of the satrapies, Ptolemy took over Egypt without difficulty and was treating the inhabitants with kindness. Finding eight thousand talents in the treasury, he began to collect mercenaries and to form an army. A multitude of friends also gathered about him on account of his fairness.
§ 18.14.2 With Antipater he carried on a diplomatic correspondence that led to a treaty of co operation, since he well knew that Perdiccas would attempt to wrest from him the satrapy of Egypt. Lysimachus, when he entered the Thracian region and found that the king of that country, Seuthes, had taken the field with twenty thousand infantry and eight thousand cavalry, was not frightened by the size of the army. And although he had in all no more than four thousand foot soldiers and only two thousand horsemen, he joined battle with the barbarians.
§ 18.14.3 In truth he was superior to them in the quality of his troops though inferior in numbers, and the battle was a stubborn one. After losing most of his own men but killing many times that number, he returned to his camp with but a doubtful claim to victory.
§ 18.14.4 Therefore for the moment the forces of both sides withdrew from the locality and busied themselves with greater preparations for the final conflict. As for Leonnatus, when Hecataeus came to him as envoy and begged him to aid Antipater and the Macedonians with all speed, he promised to give military aid.
§ 18.14.5 He crossed over, therefore, into Europe and went on to Macedonia, where he enlisted many additional Macedonian soldiers. When he had gathered together in all more than twenty thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry, he led them through Thessaly against the enemy.
§ 18.15.1 The Greeks, giving up the siege and burning their camp, sent away to the town of Melitia the camp followers, who were useless in a pitched battle, and the baggage train, while they themselves went forward with light equipment and ready for battle in order to engage the forces of Leonnatus before Antipater joined them and both armies came together in one place.
§ 18.15.2 They had in all twenty-two thousand foot soldiers, for all the Aitolians had previously departed to their own country and not a few of the other Greeks had at that time scattered to their native states. More than thirty-five hundred horsemen took part in the campaign, two thousand being Thessalians exceptional for their courage. In these especially the Greeks trusted for victory.
§ 18.15.3 Now when a fierce cavalry battle had gone on for some time and the Thessalians, thanks to their valour, were gaining the upper hand, Leonnatus, after fighting brilliantly even when cut off in a swampy place, was worsted at every point. Stricken with many wounds and at the point of death, he was taken up by his followers and carried, already dead, to the baggage train.
§ 18.15.4 The cavalry battle having been gloriously won by the Greeks under the command of Menon the Thessalian, the Macedonian phalanx, for fear of the cavalry, at once withdrew from the plain to the difficult terrain above and gained safety for themselves by the strength of the position. When the Thessalian cavalry, which continued to attack, was unable to accomplish anything because of the rough ground, the Greeks, who had set up a trophy and gained control of the dead, left the field of battle.
§ 18.15.5 On the next day, however, when Antipater came up with his troops and joined the defeated, all the Macedonians united in a single camp, and Antipater took command of the whole.
§ 18.15.6 He decided to avoid fighting for the present and, in view of the fact that the enemy were superior in cavalry, determined not to retreat through the plain. Instead, by going through the rough country and seizing in advance any points of vantage, he made good his retreat from the region.
§ 18.15.7 Antiphilus, the Greek commander, having defeated the Macedonians in a glorious battle, played a waiting game, remaining in Thessaly and watching for the enemy to move. The affairs of the Greeks were thus in thriving condition,
§ 18.15.8 but since the Macedonians had command of the sea, the Athenians made ready other ships in addition to those which they already had, so that there were in all one hundred and seventy. Cleitus was in command of the Macedonian fleet, which numbered two hundred and forty.
§ 18.15.9 Engaging with the Athenian admiral Evetion he defeated him in two naval battles and destroyed a large number of the ships of the enemy near the islands that are called the Echinades.
§ 18.16.1 While these things were going on, Perdiccas, taking with him King Philip and the royal army, campaigned against Ariarathes, the ruler of Cappadocia. His failure to take orders from the Macedonians had been overlooked by Alexander, owing to the struggle with Darius and its distractions, and he had enjoyed a very long respite as king of Cappadocia.
§ 18.16.2 As a result he had amassed a great sum of money from the revenues and had formed a large body of native troops and mercenaries. He was thus ready to enter the lists against Perdiccas in defence of his kingdom with thirty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry. Perdiccas joined battle with him, and, defeating him in the conflict, slew men to the number of four thousand and took captive more than five thousand, among them Ariarathes himself.
§ 18.16.3 Now the king and all his relatives Perdiccas tortured and impaled; but to the conquered people he granted immunity, and after putting in order the affairs of Cappadocia, he gave the satrapy to Eumenes of Cardia, just as it had originally been assigned.
§ 18.16.4 About the same time Craterus also departed from Cilicia and arrived in Macedonia to reinforce Antipater and to make good the defeats that the Macedonians had suffered. He brought with him six thousand foot soldiers from those who had crossed into Asia with Alexander and four thousand from those who had been enlisted on the march, one thousand Persian bowmen and slingers, and fifteen hundred horsemen.
§ 18.16.5 Entering Thessaly and freely yielding the chief command to Antipater, he shared a camp with him beside the Peneius River. Including those who had been under Leonnatus, there were gathered together in all more than forty thousand heavy armed infantry, three thousand bowmen and slingers, and five thousand cavalry.
§ 18.17.1 The Greeks who were encamped against them at this time were far inferior in numbers; for many of them, despising the enemy because of their former good fortune, had gone away to their own cities to look after their private affairs.
§ 18.17.2 Since many soldiers were absent from duty for this reason, there remained in camp only twenty-five thousand foot soldiers and thirty-five hundred cavalry. They placed their chief hope of victory in the latter, because the men were brave and the ground was level.
§ 18.17.3 At last Antipater began to draw up his forces each day and challenge the Greeks to battle. For a while these waited for their men to return from their cities, but since time was pressing, they were forced to come out and stake all. They drew up their lines, placing the cavalry in front of the phalanx of infantry, since they were eager to decide the battle by means of this arm.
§ 18.17.4 When the cavalry had met in battle and the Thessalian horsemen were getting the advantage because of their valour, Antipater led out his own phalanx and, rushing upon the infantry of the enemy, began to make great slaughter. The Greeks, since they were not able to withstand the weight and number of the enemy, immediately withdrew to the rough ground, carefully keeping their ranks. Thus they occupied the higher ground and easily repulsed the Macedonians thanks to their possession of the superior position.
§ 18.17.5 Although the Greek cavalry had gained the advantage, as soon as the horsemen learned of the withdrawal of the infantry, they at once retired toward them. Then, after such a combat as I have described, the battle was broken off, as the scales of victory swung in favour of the Macedonians. More than five hundred of the Greeks were killed in the battle, and one hundred and thirty of the Macedonians.
§ 18.17.6 On the next day Menon and Antiphilus, the leaders of the Greeks, came together and took counsel whether they should wait for the allies from the cities and then, when they were in position to fight on equal terms, seek a final decision, or, yielding to the present situation, should send envoys to seek a truce. They decided to dispatch heralds to treat for peace.
§ 18.17.7 These carried out their orders, but Antipater answered that the cities must negotiate separately, for he would by no means make a mass settlement. Since the Greeks refused to agree to peace terms city by city, Antipater and Craterus began to lay siege to the cities in Thessaly and to take them by storm, since the Greeks could not send aid to them. When the cities were thus badly frightened and each on its own account began to send envoys about a settlement, Antipater came to terms with all of them, granting them peace on easy terms.
§ 18.17.8 This resulted in a movement among the cities to secure their safety separately, and all quickly obtained terms of peace; but those who were most hostile to the Macedonians, the Aitolians and the Athenians, deserted by their allies, took counsel about the war with their own generals.
§ 18.18.1 Antipater, after he had destroyed the alliance of the Greeks by this device, led all his forces against the Athenians. The people, bereft of the aid of their allies, were in great perplexity. All turned to Demades and shouted that he must be sent as envoy to Antipater to sue for peace; but, although he was called on by name to give advice, he did not respond.
§ 18.18.2 He had been convicted three times of introducing illegal decrees, and for this reason he had been deprived of his rights as a citizen and was prevented by the laws from advising; yet, on being restored to full rights by the possible, he was at once sent as envoy along with Phocion and some others.
§ 18.18.3 When Antipater had heard what they had to say, he made answer that he would end the war against the Athenians on no other condition than that they surrender all their interests to his discretion; for, after they had shut Antipater up in Lamia, they had made that same reply to him when he had sent envoys about peace. The people, not being in position to fight, were forced to grant to Antipater such discretion and complete authority over the city.
§ 18.18.4 He dealt humanely with them and permitted them to retain their city and their possessions and everything else; but he changed the government from a democracy, ordering that political power should depend on a census of wealth, and that those possessing more than two thousand drachmas should be in control of the government and of the elections. He removed from the body of citizens all who possessed less than this amount on the ground that they were disturbers of the peace and warmongers, offering to those who wished it a place for settlement in Thrace.
§ 18.18.5 These men, more than twelve thousand in number, were removed from their fatherland; but those who possessed the stated rating, being about nine thousand, were designated as masters of both city and territory and conducted the government according to the constitution of Solon. All were permitted to keep their property uncurtailed. They were, however, forced to receive a garrison with Menyllus as its commander, its purpose being to prevent anyone from undertaking changes in the government.
§ 18.18.6 The decision in regard to Samos was referred to the kings. The Athenians, being thus humanely treated beyond their hopes, secured peace; and, since henceforth they conducted their public affairs without disturbance and enjoyed the produce of the land unmolested, they quickly made great progress in wealth.
§ 18.18.7 When Antipater had returned to Macedonia, he presented Craterus with suitable honours and gifts, giving him also his eldest daughter Phila in marriage, and helped him to prepare for his return to Asia.
§ 18.18.8 He likewise showed moderation in dealing with the other Greek cities, both reducing their citizen bodies and wisely reforming them, for which he received eulogies and crowns.
§ 18.18.9 Perdiccas, restoring their city and territory to the Samians, brought them back to their fatherland after they had been exiles for forty-three years.
§ 18.19.1 Now that we have narrated all the actions in the course of the Lamian War, we shall turn to the war that took place in Cyrene, so that the course of our history may not deviate too much from the chronological sequence. But it is necessary to go back a little in time in order to make clearer the several series of events.
§ 18.19.2 When Harpalus had fled from Asia and sailed to Crete with the mercenaries, as we have shown in the preceding Book, Thibron, who was regarded as one of his friends, treacherously murdered him and gained control of the money and the soldiers, who numbered seven thousand.
§ 18.19.3 He also took possession of the ships, embarked the soldiers on them, and sailed to the land of the Cyrenians. He had taken with him the exiles from Cyrene and was using them as instructors in his project because of their knowledge of the locality. When the Cyrenians opposed him and a battle took place, Thibron was victorious, killing many and taking captive no small number.
§ 18.19.4 By gaining control of the harbour and besieging and frightening the Cyrenians, he forced them to come to terms, and to agree to give him five hundred talents of silver and to contribute half of their chariots to aid his campaign.
§ 18.19.5 He sent envoys, moreover, to the other cities, asking them to make an alliance on the ground that he was going to subdue the neighbouring parts of Libya. He also treated as spoil the property of the traders that had been captured in the port and gave it to his soldiers as plunder, calling forth their zeal for the war.
§ 18.20.1 Although the affairs of Thibron were thus prospering, Fortune by a sudden shift humbled him through the following circumstances. One of his leaders, a Cretan by birth, whose name was Mnasicles, a man of experience in warfare, quarrelled with him, having complained about the distribution of the booty; and being contentious by nature and bold, he deserted to the Cyrenians.
§ 18.20.2 Moreover, he made many complaints against Thibron, charging him with cruelty and faithlessness, and persuaded the Cyrenians to break the treaty and make a bid for liberty. And so when sixty talents only had been paid, and the rest of the money was not being given, Thibron denounced the rebels, seized any Cyrenians who were in the port, some eighty in number, and then, leading his forces directly against the city, laid siege to it. As he was unable to accomplish anything, he returned to the port.
§ 18.20.3 Since the people of Barca and of Hesperis were allied with Thibron, the Cyrenians, leaving part of their forces in Cyrene, took the field with part and plundered the land of their neighbours.
§ 18.20.4 When these called on Thibron to give them aid, he led all his soldiers against the alliance. At this the Cretan, concluding that the harbour was deserted, persuaded those who were left in Cyrene to attack it.
§ 18.20.5 When they obeyed him, he at once made an attack on the port, leading the way himself; and, easily gaining control of it thanks to the absence of Thibron, he restored to the merchants what was left of the cargoes and zealously guarded the port.
§ 18.20.6 At first Thibron was disheartened, since he had lost an advantageous position and the equipment of his soldiers; but afterwards, when he had recovered his spirits and captured by siege the city called Tauchira, his hopes again rose. It chanced, however, that in a short time he again encountered great misfortunes.
§ 18.20.7 The crews of his ships, having been deprived of their harbour and resulting short of food, were accustomed each day to go out into the country and gather supplies there; but the Libyans ambushed them as they were wandering about the country, killed many, and took no small number captive. Those who escaped the danger fled to the ships and sailed away for the allied cities. But when a great storm overtook them, most of the ships were swallowed by the sea; of the rest, some were cast ashore in Cyprus, others in Egypt.
§ 18.21.1 Nevertheless Thibron, although he had encountered such a misfortune, did not give up the campaign. Selecting those of his friends who were fitted for the task, he sent them to the Peloponnesus to hire those of the mercenaries who were waiting about near Taenarum; for many of the discharged mercenaries were still roaming about seeking paymasters; and at that time there were more than twenty-five hundred of them at Taenarum.
§ 18.21.2 His messengers engaged these and set out upon the voyage to Cyrene. But before their arrival the Cyrenians, encouraged by their successes, joined battle and defeated Thibron, killing many of his soldiers.
§ 18.21.3 But when, on account of these failures, Thibron was now ready to abandon the operations against Cyrene, he unexpectedly regained courage; for as soon as the soldiers from Taenarum put into port and a large force was added to his strength, he became confident in spirit.
§ 18.21.4 As the Cyrenians saw the tide of war again rising, they summoned the allied forces from the neighbouring Libyans and from the Carthaginians, and having collected in all thirty thousand men including their citizen soldiers, they made ready to reach a final decision in battle. When a great battle had taken place, Thibron, having won the victory with great slaughter of the enemy, was overjoyed, believing that he would at once capture the adjacent cities;
§ 18.21.5 but the Cyrenians, whose commanders had all been killed in the battle, elected the Cretan Mnasicles general along with others. Thibron, elated by the victory, laid siege to the port of the Cyrenians and made daily assaults on Cyrene.
§ 18.21.6 As the war continued a long time, the Cyrenians, who were in want of food, quarrelled among themselves; and the commons, gaining the upper hand, drove out the rich, who, bereft of their fatherland, fled, some to Thibron, others to Egypt.
§ 18.21.7 The latter, after persuading Ptolemy to restore them, returned bringing with them a considerable force, both infantry and naval, with Ophellas as general. The exiles who were with Thibron, hearing of the approach of these men and attempting to go over to them secretly at night, were detected and cut down to a man.
§ 18.21.8 The democratic leaders of Cyrene, becoming alarmed at the return of the exiles, made terms with Thibron and prepared to fight against Ophellas in common with him;
§ 18.21.9 but Ophellas, after defeating and capturing Thibron and also gaining control of the cities, delivered both the cities and the country over the Ptolemy the king. Thus the Cyrenians and the surrounding cities lost their freedom and were annexed to the kingdom of Ptolemy.
§ 18.22.1 Now when Perdiccas and King Philip had defeated Ariarathes and delivered his satrapy to Eumenes, they departed from Cappadocia. And having arrived in Pisidia, they determined to lay waste two cities, that of the Larandians and that of the Isaurians; for while Alexander was still alive these cities had put to death Balacrus the son of Nicanor, who had been appointed general and satrap.
§ 18.22.2 Now the city of the Larandians they took by assault, and after killing the men of fighting age and enslaving the rest of the population, razed it to the ground. The city of the Isaurians, however, was strongly fortified and large and moreover was filled with stout warriors; so when they had besieged it vigorously for two days and had lost many of their own men, they withdrew;
§ 18.22.3 for the inhabitants, who were well provided with missiles and other things needed for withstanding a siege and were enduring the dreadful ordeal with desperate courage in their hearts, were readily giving their lives to preserve their freedom. On the third day, when many had been slain and the walls had few defenders because of the lack of men, the citizens performed a heroic and memorable deed. Seeing that the punishment that hung over them could not be averted, and not having a force that would be adequate to stave the enemy off, they determined not to surrender the city and place their fate in the hands of the enemy, since in that way their punishment combined with outrage was certain; but at night all with one accord, seeking the noble kind of death, shut up their children, wives, and parents in their houses, and set the houses on fire, choosing by means of the fire a common death and burial. 5 As the blaze suddenly flared aloft, the Isaurians cast into the fire their goods and everything that could be of use to the victors; Perdiccas and his officers, astounded at what was taking place, stationed their troops about the city and made a strong effort to break into the city on all sides. 6 When now the inhabitants defended themselves from the walls and struck down many of the Macedonians, Perdiccas was even more astonished and sought the reason why men who had given their homes and all else to the flames should be so intent upon defending the walls. 7 Finally Perdiccas and the Macedonians withdrew from the city, and the Isaurians, throwing themselves into the fire, found burial in their homes along with their families. 8 When the night was over, Perdiccas gave the city to his soldiers for booty. They, when they had put out the fire, found an abundance of silver and gold, as was natural in a city that had been prosperous for a great many years.
§ 18.23.1 After the destruction of the cities there came two women to marry Perdiccas, Nicaea, the daughter of Antipater, for whose hand Perdiccas himself had sued, and Cleopatra, who was Alexander's own sister, daughter of Philip son of Amyntas.
§ 18.23.2 Perdiccas had formerly planned to work in harmony with Antipater, and for this reason he had pressed his suit when his position was not yet firmly established; but when he had gained control of the royal armies and the guardianship of the kings, he changed his calculations.
§ 18.23.3 For since he was now reaching out for the kingship, he was bent upon marrying Cleopatra, believing that he could use her to persuade the Macedonians to help him gain the supreme power. But not wishing as yet to reveal his design, he married Nicaea for the time, so that he might not render Antipater hostile to his own undertakings. Presently, however, Antigonus learned his intentions, and since Antigonus was a friend of Antipater and, moreover, the most energetic of the commanders, Perdiccas decided to put him out of the way.
§ 18.23.4 So, by bringing false slanders and unjust charges against him, he clearly revealed his intention of destroying him. Antigonus, however, who excelled in keenness and daring, outwardly let it be known that he wished to defend himself against these charges, but secretly he made arrangements for flight and, with his personal friends and his son Demetrius, boarded the Athenian ships unexpectedly at night. And having been brought to Europe in these, he travelled on to join forces with Antipater.
§ 18.24.1 At this time Antipater and Craterus had taken the field against the Aitolians with thirty thousand infantry and twenty-five hundred cavalry; for of those who had taken part in the Lamian War, the Aitolians alone were left unconquered.
§ 18.24.2 Although such great forces were sent against them, they were in no panic-stricken mood, but gathering together all who were in the full vigour of manhood to the number of ten thousand, they retired to the mountainous and rough places, in which they placed the children, the women, and the old, together with the greater part of their wealth. The cities that could not be defended they abandoned, but those that were particularly strong they secured, each with a considerable garrison, and boldly awaited the approach of the enemy.
§ 18.25.1 Antipater and Craterus, coming into Aitolia and finding that the cities which were easy to capture were deserted, moved against the men who had withdrawn into the difficult regions. At first, then, the Macedonians, violently attacking positions that were strongly fortified and in broken terrain, lost many of their soldiers; for the hardihood of the Aitolians joined with the strength of their positions easily turned back men who rushed headlong into dangers beyond reach of succour. Afterward, however, when Craterus had built shelters and was forcing the enemy to stay through the winter and to hold out in regions that were covered with snow and lacking in food, the Aitolians were brought into the greatest dangers;
§ 18.25.2 for they had either to come down from their mountains and fight against forces numbering many times their own and against famous generals, or to remain and be utterly destroyed by want and cold. When they were already giving up hope of salvation, relief from their troubles appeared of its own accord, just as if one of the gods had been moved to pity by their high courage.
§ 18.25.3 For Antigonus, he who had fled from Asia, joined Antipater and told him the whole plot of Perdiccas, and that Perdiccas, after marrying Cleopatra, would come at once with his army to Macedonia as king and deprive Antipater of the supreme command.
§ 18.25.4 Craterus and Antipater, dumbfounded by the unexpected news, met in council with their commanders. When the situation had been presented for deliberation, it was unanimously decided to make peace with the Aitolians on whatever terms were possible, to transport the armies with all speed to Asia, to assign the command of Asia to Craterus and that of Europe to Antipater, and also to send an embassy to Ptolemy to discuss concerted action, since he was utterly hostile to Perdiccas but friendly to them, and he in common with them was an object of the plot.
§ 18.25.5 Therefore they at once made a treaty with the Aitolians, firmly resolved to conquer them later and to move them all — men, women, and children — to the most distant desert of Asia. When they had recorded a decree embodying these plans, they made preparations for the campaign. Perdiccas, gathering his friends and generals, referred to them for consideration the question whether it was better to march against Macedonia or first to take the field against Ptolemy. When all favoured defeating Ptolemy first in order that there might be no obstacle in the way of their Macedonian campaign, he sent Eumenes off with a considerable army, ordering him to watch over the region of the Hellespont and prevent a crossing; and he himself, taking the army from Pisidia, proceeded against Egypt. Such, then, were the events of this year.
§ 18.26.1 When Philocles was archon in Athens, Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Aelius were elected consuls in Rome. In this year Arrhidaeus, who had been placed in charge of bringing home the body of Alexander, having completed the vehicle on which the royal body was to be carried, was making preparations for the journey.
§ 18.26.2 Since the structure that had been made ready, being worthy of the glory of Alexander, not only surpassed all others in cost — it had been constructed at the expense of many talents — but was also famous for the excellence of its workmanship, I believe that it is well to describe it. First they prepared a coffin of the proper size for the body, made of hammered gold, and the space about the body they filled with spices such as could make the body sweet smelling and incorruptible. 4 Upon this chest there had been placed a cover of gold, matching it to a nicety, and fitting about its upper rim. Over this was laid a magnificent purple robe embroidered with gold, beside which they placed the arms of the deceased, wishing the design of the whole to be in harmony with his accomplishments. Then they set up next to it the covered carriage that was to carry it. At the top of the carriage was built a vault of gold, eight cubits wide and twelve long, covered with overlapping scales set with precious stones. Beneath the roof all along the work was a rectangular cornice of gold, from which projected heads of goat-stags in high relief. Gold rings two palms broad were suspended from these, and through the rings there ran a festive garland beautifully decorated in bright colours of all kinds. 6 At the ends there were tassels of network suspending large bells, so that any who were approaching heard the sound from a great distance. On each corner of the vault on each side was a golden figure of Victory holding a trophy. The colonnade that supported the vault was of gold with Ionic capitals. Within the colonnade was a golden net, made of cords the thickness of a finger, which carried four long painted tablets, their ends adjoining, each equal in length to a side of the colonnade.
§ 18.27.1 On the first of these tablets was a chariot ornamented with work in relief, and sitting in it was Alexander holding a very splendid sceptre in his hands. About the king were groups of armed attendants, one of Macedonians, a second of Persians of the bodyguard, and armed soldiers in front of them. The second tablet showed the elephants arrayed for war who followed the bodyguard. They carried Indian mahouts in front with Macedonians fully armed in their regular equipment behind them. The third tablet showed troops of cavalry as if in formation for battle; and the fourth, ships made ready for naval combat. Beside the entrance to the chamber there were golden lions with eyes turned toward those who would enter.
§ 18.27.2 There was a golden acanthus stretching little by little up the centre of each column from below to the capital. Above the chamber in the middle of the top under the open sky there was a purple banner blazoned with a golden olive wreath of great size, and when the sun cast upon it its rays, it sent forth such a bright and vibrant gleam that from a great distance it appeared like a flash of lightning.
§ 18.27.3 The body of the chariot beneath the covered chamber had two axles upon which turned four Persian wheels, the naves and spokes of which were gilded, but the part that bore upon the ground was of iron. The projecting parts of the axle were made of gold in the form of lion heads, each holding a spear in its teeth.
§ 18.27.4 Along the middle of their length the axles had a bearing ingeniously fitted to the middle of the chamber in such a way that, thanks to it, the chamber could remain undisturbed by shocks from rough places.
§ 18.27.5 There were four poles, and to each of them were fastened four teams with four mules harnessed in each team, so that in all there were sixty-four mules, selected for their strength and size. Each of them was crowned with a gilded crown, each had a golden bell hanging by either cheek, and about their necks were collars set with precious stones.
§ 18.28.1 In this way the carriage was constructed and ornamented, and it appeared more magnificent when seen than when described. Because of its widespread fame it drew together many spectators; for from every city into which it came the whole people went forth to meet it and again escorted it on its way out, not becoming sated with the pleasure of beholding it.
§ 18.28.2 To correspond to this magnificence, it was accompanied by a crowd of roadmenders and mechanics, and also by soldiers sent to escort it. When Arrhidaeus had spent nearly two years in making ready this work, he brought the body of the king from Babylon to Egypt.
§ 18.28.3 Ptolemy, moreover, doing honour to Alexander, went to meet it with an army as far as Syria, and, receiving the body, deemed it worthy of the greatest consideration. He decided for the present not to send it to Ammon, but to entomb it in the city that had been founded by Alexander himself, which lacked little of being the most renowned of the cities of the inhabited earth. There he prepared a precinct worthy the glory of Alexander in size and construction. Entombing him in this and honouring him with sacrifices such as are paid to demigods and with magnificent games, he won fair requital not only from men but also from the gods. 5 For men, because of his graciousness and nobility of heart, came together eagerly from all sides to Alexandria and gladly enrolled for the campaign, although the army of the kings was about to fight against that of Ptolemy; and, even though the risks were manifest and great, yet all of them willingly took upon themselves at their personal risk the preservation of Ptolemy's safety. 6 The gods also saved him unexpectedly from the greatest dangers on account of his courage and his honest treatment of all his friends.
§ 18.29.1 For Perdiccas, viewing with suspicion Ptolemy's increase in power, decided that he himself and the kings would make a campaign against Egypt with most of the army, but Eumenes he sent to the Hellespont to prevent Antipater and Craterus from crossing into Asia, giving him a suitable force.
§ 18.29.2 He also sent with him enough of the commanders of note, of whom the most prominent were his brother Alcetas and Neoptolemus; and he ordered them to obey Eumenes in all things because of his skill as general and his firm loyalty.
§ 18.29.3 Eumenes, with the forces that had been given him, went to the Hellespont; and there, having already prepared a large body of cavalry from his own satrapy, he marshalled his army, which had previously been deficient in that branch.
§ 18.29.4 When Craterus and Antipater had brought their forces across from Europe, Neoptolemus, who was jealous of Eumenes and had a considerable number of Macedonians in his following, secretly entered into negotiations with Antipater, came to an agreement with him, and plotted against Eumenes. On being discovered and forced to fight, he himself was in danger of being killed, and he lost almost all his forces;
§ 18.29.5 for Eumenes, after he had won the victory and had killed many, won over the remaining soldiers and increased his own power, not only by the victory but also by having acquired a large number of stout Macedonians.
§ 18.29.6 But Neoptolemus, who had saved himself from the battle with three hundred horsemen, rode off with them to Antipater. A council of war was held, and it was decided to divide the forces into two parts. Antipater was to take one part and set out for Cilicia to fight against Perdiccas, and Craterus with the other part was to attack Eumenes and, after defeating him, to join Antipater. In this way, when they had combined their forces and had added Ptolemy to the alliance, they might be able to overmatch the royal armies.
§ 18.30.1 As soon as Eumenes heard that the enemy was advancing upon him, he collected his forces, particularly his cavalry, from all sides. Since he could not equal the Macedonian phalanx with his foot soldiers, he made ready a noteworthy corps of horsemen, by means of whom he hoped to defeat those opposed to him.
§ 18.30.2 When the forces were near each other, Craterus summoned the whole army to an assembly and spurred them to battle with suitable words, saying that, if the soldiers were victorious in battle, he would give them all the baggage of the enemy to plunder.
§ 18.30.3 Now that all had become eager for battle, he drew up the army, taking command of the right wing himself, and giving the command of the left to Neoptolemus.
§ 18.30.4 He had in all twenty thousand foot soldiers, chiefly Macedonians famed for their courage, on whom in particular he placed his hopes of victory, and more than two thousand horsemen as auxiliaries.
§ 18.30.5 Eumenes had twenty thousand foot soldiers, men of every race, and five thousand cavalry, by whom he had resolved to decide the encounter. After both leaders had disposed their cavalry on the wings and had ridden far in advance of the line of infantry, Craterus was the first to charge upon the enemy with his picked troops, and he fought admirably; but his horse stumbled, and he fell to the ground, where he was trampled under foot and ended his life ingloriously, unrecognized in the confusion and dense array of the charge.
§ 18.30.6 By his death the enemy were so encouraged that they rushed upon the mass from every side, and great slaughter ensued. The right wing, crushed in this way, was compelled to flee to the phalanx of the foot soldiers, overwhelmingly defeated.
§ 18.31.1 On the left wing, however, where Neoptolemus was arrayed against Eumenes himself, there occurred a great display of ambitious rivalry as the leaders rushed full at each other.
§ 18.31.2 For as soon as they recognized one another by their horses and other insignia, they engaged each other in close combat; and they made the victory depend upon the duel between themselves. After the opening exchange of sword strokes they engaged in a strange and most extraordinary duel; for, carried away by their anger and their mutual hatred, they let the reins fall from their left hands and grappled each other. As a result of this, their horses were carried out from under them by their own momentum, and the men themselves fell to the ground.
§ 18.31.3 Although it was difficult for either of them to get up because of the suddenness and force of the fall, especially as the armour hampered their bodies, Eumenes rose up first and forestalled Neoptolemus by striking him in the back of the knee.
§ 18.31.4 Since the gash proved to be severe and his legs gave way, the stricken man lay disabled, prevented by his wound from rising to his feet. Yet his courage overcame the weakness of his body, and, resting on his knees, he wounded his opponent with three blows on the arm and the thighs.
§ 18.31.5 As none of these blows was fatal and the wounds were still fresh, Eumenes struck Neoptolemus in the neck with a second blow and slew him.
§ 18.32.1 Meanwhile the rest of the cavalry had joined battle and were making great slaughter. So, while some fell and others were wounded, the battle at first was even, but afterwards, when they became aware of the death of Neoptolemus and of the rout of the other wing, all made off and fled for refuge to the phalanx of their infantry as to a strong fortress. Eumenes, satisfied with his advantage and master of the bodies of both generals, recalled his soldiers with the sound of the trumpet.
§ 18.32.2 After he had set up a trophy and buried the dead, he sent to the phalanx of the vanquished, inviting them to unite with him and giving permission to them severally to withdraw to whatever places they wished.
§ 18.32.3 When the Macedonians had accepted the terms of surrender and had pledged their faith by oaths, they received permission to go for food to certain villages that lay near. And they deceived Eumenes; for when they had recovered their strength and collected supplies, they set out at night and went off secretly to join Antipater.
§ 18.32.4 Eumenes attempted to punish the faithlessness of these men who had broken their oath and to follow at the heels of the phalanx; but, owing to the hardihood of those who were retreating and to the weakness caused by his wounds, he was unable to accomplish anything and gave up the pursuit. So by winning a notable victory and by slaying two mighty leaders, Eumenes gained great glory.
§ 18.33.1 As soon as Antipater had received and enrolled those who escaped from the rout, he went on to Cilicia, making haste to go to the aid of Ptolemy. And Perdiccas, on learning of the victory of Eumenes, became much more confident in regard to the Egyptian campaign; and when he approached the Nile, he camped not far from the city of Pelusium.
§ 18.33.2 But when he undertook to clear out an old canal, and the river broke out violently and destroyed his work, many of his friends deserted him and went over to Ptolemy.
§ 18.33.3 Perdiccas, indeed, was a man of blood, one who usurped the authority of the other commanders and, in general, wished to rule all by force; but Ptolemy, on the contrary, was generous and fair and granted to all the commanders the right to speak frankly. What is more, he had secured all the most important points in Egypt with garrisons of considerable size, which had been well equipped with every kind of missile as well as with everything else.
§ 18.33.4 This explains why he had, as a rule, the advantage in his undertakings, since he had many persons who were well disposed to him and ready to undergo danger gladly for his sake.
§ 18.33.5 Still Perdiccas, in an effort to correct his deficiencies, called the commanders together, and by gifts to some, by great promises to others, and by friendly intercourse with all, won them over to his service and inspired them to meet the coming dangers. After warning them to be ready to break camp, he set out with his army at evening, disclosing to no one the point to which he intended to go.
§ 18.33.6 After marching all night at top speed he made camp beside the Nile near a certain fortified post that is called the Fort of Camels. And as day was dawning, he began to send the army across, the elephants in the van, then following them the shield-bearers and the ladder-carriers, and others whom he expected to use in the attack on the fort. Last of all came the bravest of the cavalry, whom he planned to send against the troops of Ptolemy if they happened to appear.
§ 18.34.1 When they were halfway over, Ptolemy and his troops did appear, coming at a run to the defence of the post. Although these got the start of the attackers, threw themselves into the fort, and made their arrival known by blasts of the trumpet and by shouts, the troops of Perdiccas were not frightened, but boldly assaulted the fortifications.
§ 18.34.2 At once the shield-bearers set up the scaling ladders and began to mount them, while the elephant-borne troops were tearing the palisades to pieces and throwing down the parapets. Ptolemy, however, who had the best soldiers near himself and wished to encourage the other commanders and friends to face the dangers, taking his long spear and posting himself on the top of the outwork, put out the eyes of the leading elephant, since he occupied a higher position, and wounded its Indian mahout. Then, with utter contempt of the danger, striking and disabling those who were coming up the ladders, he sent them rolling down, in their armour, into the river.
§ 18.34.3 Following his example, his friends fought boldly and made the beast next in line entirely useless by shooting down the Indian who was directing it.
§ 18.34.4 The battle for the wall lasted a long time, as the troops of Perdiccas, attacking in relays, bent every effort to take the stronghold by storm, while many heroic conflicts were occasioned by the personal prowess of Ptolemy and by his exhortations to his friends to display both their loyalty and their courage.
§ 18.34.5 Many men were killed on both sides, such was the surpassing rivalry of the commanders, the soldiers of Ptolemy having the advantage of the higher ground and those of Perdiccas being superior in number. Finally, when both sides had spent the whole day in the engagement, Perdiccas gave up the siege and went back to his own camp.
§ 18.34.6 Breaking camp at night, he marched secretly and came to the place that lies opposite Memphis, where it happens that the Nile is divided and makes an island large enough to hold with safety a camp of a very large army.
§ 18.34.7 To this island he began to transfer his men, the soldiers crossing with difficulty because of the depth of the river; for the water, which came up to the chins of those who were crossing, buffeted their bodies, especially as they were impeded by their equipment.
§ 18.35.1 But Perdiccas, seeing the difficulty caused by the current, in an effort to break the downward rush of the river, placed the elephants in line on the left, thus mitigating the strength of the current, and placed on the right side the horsemen, through whose agency he kept catching the men who were being carried away by the river and bringing them safe to the other side.
§ 18.35.2 A peculiar and surprising thing took place during the crossing of this army, namely, that after the first men had crossed in safety, those who tried to cross afterwards fell into great danger. For although there was no visible cause, the river became much deeper, and, their bodies being totally submerged, they would one and all become completely helpless.
§ 18.35.3 When they sought the cause of this rise, the truth could not be found by reasoning. Some said that somewhere upstream a canal that had been closed had been opened and, joining with the river, had made the ford deeper; others said that rain falling in the regions above had increased the volume of the Nile.
§ 18.35.4 It was, however, neither of these things, but what happened was that the first crossing of the ford had been freer from danger because the sand at the crossing had been undisturbed, but in the course of the other crossings by the horses and elephants which had gone over before and then by the infantry, the sand, trodden by their feet and set in motion by the current, was carried down stream, and the place of crossing being hollowed out in this way, the ford became deeper in the middle of the river.
§ 18.35.5 Since the rest of his army was unable to cross the river for this reason, Perdiccas was in great difficulty; and, as those who had crossed were not strong enough to fight the enemy and those on the nearer bank were not able to go to the aid of their fellows, he ordered all to come back again.
§ 18.35.6 When all were thus forced to cross the stream, those who knew how to swim well and were strongest of body succeeded in swimming across the Nile with great distress, after throwing away a good deal of their equipment; but of the rest, because of their lack of skill some were swallowed by the river, and others were cast up on the shore toward the enemy, but most of them, carried along for some time, were devoured by the animals in the river.
§ 18.36.1 Since more than two thousand men were lost, among them some of the prominent commanders, the rank and file of the army became ill disposed toward Perdiccas. Ptolemy, however, burned the bodies of those who were cast up on his side of the river and, having bestowed on them a proper funeral, sent the bones to the relatives and friends of the dead.
§ 18.36.2 These things having been done, the Macedonians with Perdiccas became much more exasperated with him, but they turned with favour toward Ptolemy.
§ 18.36.3 When night had come, the encampment was filled with lamentations and mourning, so many men having been senselessly lost without a blow from an enemy, and of these no fewer than a thousand having become food for beasts.
§ 18.36.4 Therefore many of the commanders joined together and accused Perdiccas, and all the phalanx of the infantry, now alienated from him, made clear their own hostility with threatening shouts.
§ 18.36.5 Consequently about a hundred of the commanders were the first to revolt from him, of whom the most illustrious was Pithon, who had suppressed the rebellious Greeks, a man second to none of the Companions of Alexander in courage and reputation; next, some also of the cavalry conspired together and went to the tent of Perdiccas, where they fell on him in a body and stabbed him to death.
§ 18.36.6 On the next day when there was an assembly of the soldiers, Ptolemy came, greeted the Macedonians, and spoke in defence of his own attitude; and as their supplies had run short, he provided at his own expense grain in abundance for the armies and filled the camp with the other needful things. Although he gained great applause and was in position to assume the guardianship of the kings through the favour of the rank and file, he did not grasp at this, but rather, since he owed a debt of gratitude to Pithon and Arrhidaeus, he used his influence to give them the supreme command.
§ 18.36.7 For the Macedonians, when the question of the primacy was raised in the assembly and Ptolemy advocated this course, without a dissenting voice enthusiastically elected as guardians of the kings and regents Pithon and that Arrhidaeus who had conveyed the body of Alexander. So Perdiccas, after he had ruled for three years, lost both his command and his life in the manner described.
§ 18.37.1 Immediately after the death of Perdiccas there came men announcing that, in a battle fought near Cappadocia, Eumenes had been victorious and Craterus and Neoptolemus had been defeated and killed. If this had become known two days before the death of Perdiccas, no one would have dared raise a hand against him because of his great good fortune.
§ 18.37.2 Now, however, the Macedonians, on learning the news about Eumenes, passed sentence of death upon him and upon fifty of the chief men of his following, among whom was Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas. They also slew the most faithful of Perdiccas' friends and his sister Atalante, the wife of Attalus, the man who had received command of the fleet.
§ 18.37.3 After the murder of Perdiccas, Attalus, who had the command of the fleet, was waiting at Pelusium; but when he learned of the murder of his wife and of Perdiccas, he set sail and came to Tyre with the fleet.
§ 18.37.4 The commandant of the garrison of that city, Archelaus, who was a Macedonian by race, welcomed Attalus and surrendered the city to him and also the funds that had been given him by Perdiccas for safe-keeping and had now been honourably repaid, being in amount eight hundred talents. Attalus remained in Tyre, receiving those of the friends of Perdiccas who escaped in safety from the camp before Memphis.
§ 18.38.1 After the departure of Antipater for Asia, the Aitolians, in accordance with their compact with Perdiccas, made a campaign into Thessaly for the purpose of diverting Antipater. They had twelve thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen, and their general was Alexander, an Aitolian.
§ 18.38.2 On the march they besieged the city of the Amphissian Locrians, overran their country, and captured some of the neighbouring towns. They defeated Antipater's general Polycles in battle, killing him and no small number of his soldiers. Some of those who were taken captive they sold, others they released on receiving ransoms.
§ 18.38.3 Invading Thessaly next, they persuaded most of the Thessalians to join them in the war against Antipater, and a force was quickly gathered, numbering in all twenty-five thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry.
§ 18.38.4 While they were gaining the cities, however, the Acarnanians, who were hostile to the Aitolians, invaded Aitolia, where they began to plunder the land and to besiege the cities. When the Aitolians learned that their own country was in danger, they left the other troops in Thessaly, putting Menon of Pharsalus in command, while they themselves with the citizen soldiers went swiftly into Aitolia and, by striking fear into the Acarnanians, freed their native cities from danger. 6 While, however, they were engaged in these matters, Polyperchon, who had been left in Macedonia as general, came into Thessaly with a considerable army and, by defeating the enemy in a battle in which he killed the general Menon and cut most of his army to pieces, recovered Thessaly.
§ 18.39.1 In Asia Arrhidaeus and Pithon, the guardians of the kings, setting out from the Nile with the kings and the army, came to Triparadeisus in upper Syria.
§ 18.39.2 There Eurydice, the queen, was interfering in many matters and working against the efforts of the guardians. Pithon and his colleague were distressed by this, and when they saw that the Macedonians were paying more and more attention to her commands, they summoned a meeting of the assembly and resigned the guardianship; whereupon the Macedonians elected Antipater guardian with full power.
§ 18.39.3 When Antipater arrived at Triparadeisus a few days later, he found Eurydice stirring up discord and turning the Macedonians away from him.
§ 18.39.4 There was great disorder in the army; but a general assembly was called together, and Antipater put an end to the tumult by addressing the crowd, and by thoroughly frightening Eurydice he persuaded her to keep quiet.
§ 18.39.5 Thereafter he distributed the satrapies anew. To Ptolemy he assigned what was already his, for it was impossible to displace him, since he seemed to be holding Egypt by virtue of his own prowess as if it were a prize of war.
§ 18.39.6 He gave Syria to Laomedon of Mitylene and Cilicia to Philoxenus. Of the upper satrapies Mesopotamia and Arbelitis were given to Amphimachus, Babylonia to Seleucus, Susiane to Antigenes because he had been foremost in making the attack on Perdiccas, Persia to Peucestes, Carmania to Tlepolemus, Media to Pithon, Parthia to Philip, Aria and Drangene to Stasander of Cyprus, Bactriane and Sogdiane to Stasanor of Soli, who was from that same island. He added Paropanisadae to the domain of Oxyartes, father of Alexander's wife Roxane, and the part of India bordering on Paropanisadae to Pithon son of Agenor. Of the two neighbouring kingdoms, the one along the Indus River was assigned to Porus and that along the Hydaspes to Taxiles, for it was not possible to remove these kings without employing a royal army and an outstanding general. Of the satrapies that face the north, Cappadocia was assigned to Nicanor, Great Phrygia and Lycia to Antigonus as before, Caria to Asander, Lydia to Cleitus, and Hellespontine Phrygia to Arrhidaeus.
§ 18.39.7 As general of the royal army he appointed Antigonus, assigning him the task of finishing the war against Eumenes and Alcetas; but he attached his own son Cassander to Antigonus as chiliarch so that the latter might not be able to pursue his own ambitions undetected. Antipater himself with the kings and his own army went on into Macedonia in order to restore the kings to their native land.
§ 18.40.1 Antigonus, who had been designated general of Asia for the purpose of finishing the war with Eumenes, collected his troops from their winter quarters. After making preparations for the battle, he set out against Eumenes, who was still in Cappadocia. Now one of Eumenes' distinguished commanders named Perdiccas had deserted him and was encamped at a distance of three days' march with the soldiers who had joined him in the mutiny, three thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. Eumenes, accordingly, sent against him Phoenix of Tenedos with four thousand picked foot-soldiers and a thousand horsemen. 3 After a forced night march Phoenix fell unexpectedly on the deserters at about the second watch of the night, and catching them asleep, took Perdiccas alive and secured control of his troops. 4 Eumenes put to death the leaders who had been most responsible for the desertion, but by distributing the common soldiers among the other troops and treating them with kindness, he secured them as loyal supporters. 5 Thereafter Antigonus sent messages to a certain Apollonides, who commanded the cavalry in the army of Eumenes, and by great promises secretly persuaded him to become a traitor and to desert during the battle. 6 While Eumenes was encamped in a plain of Cappadocia well suited for cavalry fighting, Antigonus fell upon him with all his men and took the foothills that commanded the plain. 7 Antigonus at that time had more than ten thousand foot soldiers, half of whom were Macedonians admirable for their hardihood, two thousand mounted troops, and thirty elephants; while Eumenes commanded not less than twenty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry. 8 But when the battle became hot and Apollonides with his cavalry unexpectedly deserted his own side, Antigonus won the day and slew about eight thousand of the enemy. He also became master of the entire supply train, so that Eumenes' soldiers were both dismayed by the defeat and despondent at the loss of their supplies.
§ 18.41.1 After this Eumenes undertook to escape into Armenia and to bring over to his alliance some of the inhabitants of that land; but as he was being overtaken and saw that his soldiers were going over to Antigonus, he occupied a stronghold called Nora. This fortress was very small with a circuit of not more than two stades, but of wonderful strength, for its buildings had been constructed close together on the top of a lofty crag, and it had been marvellously fortified, partly by nature, partly by the work of men's hands. 3 Furthermore, it contained a stock of grain, firewood, and salt, ample to supply for many years all the needs of those who took refuge there. Eumenes was accompanied in his flight by those of his friends who were exceptionally loyal and had determined to die along with him if it came to the worst straits. In all, counting both cavalry and infantry, there were about six hundred souls. 4 Now that Antigonus had taken over the army that had been with Eumenes, had become master of Eumenes' satrapies together with their revenues, and had seized a great sum of money besides, he aspired to greater things; for there was no longer any commander in all Asia who had an army strong enough to compete with him for supremacy. 5 Therefore, although maintaining for the time being a pretence of being well disposed toward Antipater, he had decided that, as soon as he had made his own position secure, he would no longer take orders either from the kings or from Antipater. 6 Accordingly he first surrounded those who had fled to the stronghold with double walls, ditches, and amazing palisades; but then he parleyed with Eumenes, renewed the former friendship, and tried to persuade him to cast his lot with him. Eumenes, however, being well aware that Fortune changes quickly, insisted upon greater concessions than his existing circumstances justified; 7 in fact, he thought that he ought to be given back the satrapies that had been originally assigned to him and be cleared of all the charges. But Antigonus referred these matters to Antipater, and then, after placing a sufficient guard about the fortress, he set out to meet those commanders of the enemy who survived and had troops, namely Alcetas, who was brother of Perdiccas, and Attalus, who commanded the whole fleet.
§ 18.42.1 Eumenes later sent envoys to Antipater to discuss the terms of surrender. Their leader was Hieronymus, who has written the history of the Successors. Eumenes himself, who had experienced many and various changes in the circumstances of his life, was not cast down in spirit, since he knew well that Fortune makes sudden changes in both directions.
§ 18.42.2 He saw, on the one hand, that the kings of the Macedonians held an empty pretence of royalty, and on the other, that many men of lofty ambitions were succeeding to the positions of command, and that each of them wished to act in his own interests. He hoped, therefore, as truly happened, that many would have need of him because of his judgement and his experience in warfare, and even more because of his unusual steadfastness to any pledge.
§ 18.42.3 Seeing that the horses, unable to exercise themselves because of the rough and confined space, would become unfit for use in mounted battle, Eumenes devised a certain strange and extraordinary exercise for them.
§ 18.42.4 Attaching their heads by ropes to beams or pegs and lifting them two or three double palms, he forced them to rest their weight upon their hind feet with their forefeet just clearing the ground. At once each horse, in effort to find footing for its forefeet, began to struggle with its whole body and with its legs, all its members sharing in the exertion. At such activity sweat poured freely from the body and thus kept the animals in top condition through their excessive labours.
§ 18.42.5 He gave the same rations to all the soldiers, sharing in their simple food himself; and by his unchanging affability he gained great goodwill for himself and secured harmony among all his fellow refugees. Such was the situation of Eumenes and of those who had fled to the rock with him.
§ 18.43.1 As for Egypt, Ptolemy, after he had unexpectedly rid himself of Perdiccas and the royal forces, was holding that land as if it were a prize of war. Seeing that Phoenicia and Coele Syria, as it was called, were conveniently situated for an offensive against Egypt, he set about in earnest to become master of those regions.
§ 18.43.2 Accordingly he dispatched an adequate army with Nicanor as general, a man selected from among his friends. The latter marched into Syria, took the satrap Laomedon captive, and subdued the whole land. After he had likewise secured the allegiance of the cities of Phoenicia and placed garrisons in them, he returned to Egypt, having made a short and effective campaign.
§ 18.44.1 When Apollodorus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected Quintus Popillius and Quintus Poplius to the consulship. During their term Antigonus, who had defeated Eumenes, decided to make war against Alcetas and Attalus; for these two remained from the friends and household of Perdiccas, noteworthy generals with soldiers enough to make a bid for power. Therefore Antigonus set out with all his forces from Cappadocia and pushed on toward Pisidia, where Alcetas and his army were staying. Making a forced march that strained the endurance of his men to the utmost, he traversed two thousand five hundred stades in seven days and the same number of nights, reaching Cretopolis, as it is called. He escaped the notice of the enemy because of the rapidity of his march, and drawing close to them while they were still ignorant of his coming, he stole a march on them by occupying certain rugged ridges. 3 As soon as Alcetas learned that the enemy was at hand, he drew up his phalanx at top speed and with a mounted force attacked the troops that were holding the ridge, trying with all his might to get the best of them by force and hurl them from the hill. 4 A stubborn battle was waged and many fell on both sides; then Antigonus led six thousand horsemen in a violent charge against the phalanx of the enemy in order to cut Alcetas' line of retreat to it. 5 When this manoeuvre had been successfully completed, the forces on the ridge, who were far superior in number and also had an advantage from the difficulty of the terrain, routed the attackers. Alcetas, whose retreat to the infantry had been cut off and who was caught in a trap by the superior numbers of the enemy, faced imminent destruction. Therefore now that survival itself was difficult, he abandoned many of his men and hardly escaped to the phalanx of the footmen.
§ 18.45.1 Antigonus, however, led his elephants and his whole army down from a higher position and struck panic into his opponents, who were far inferior to him in number; for they were in all sixteen thousand foot and nine hundred horse, while Antigonus, in addition to the elephants, had more than forty thousand foot soldiers and above seven thousand horsemen.
§ 18.45.2 The elephants were now attacking the army of Alcetas from the front, and at the same time the horsemen because of superior numbers were pouring about them on all sides, while a force of infantry, which far outnumbered them and also surpassed them in valour, was holding a position above them. At this, tumult and panic began to grip Alcetas' soldiers; and because of the great rapidity and force of the attack, he was unable to draw up the phalanx properly.
§ 18.45.3 The rout was complete. Attalus, Docimus, Polemon, and many of the more important officers were taken captive; but Alcetas, accompanied by his own guards and attendants, escaped with his Pisidian allies to a city of Pisidia called Termessus.
§ 18.45.4 Antigonus obtained the surrender of all the rest by negotiation and enrolled them in his own ranks; by his kind treatment of them he brought no small addition to his forces.
§ 18.45.5 The Pisidians, however, who numbered six thousand and were of outstanding prowess, bade Alcetas be of good courage, promising that they would in no way fail him; for they were exceedingly well disposed to him for the following reasons.
§ 18.46.1 Since Alcetas had had no supporters in Asia after the death of Perdiccas, he had decided to show kindness to the Pisidians, thinking that he would thus secure as allies men who were warlike and who possessed a country difficult to invade and well supplied with strongholds.
§ 18.46.2 For this reason during the campaigns he honoured them exceedingly above all the allies and distributed to them spoils from the hostile territory, assigning them half the booty. By employing the most friendly language in his conversation with them, by each day inviting the most important of them in turn to his table at banquets, and finally by honouring many of them with gifts of considerable value, he secured them as loyal supporters.
§ 18.46.3 Therefore even at this time Alcetas placed his hopes upon them, and they did not disappoint his hopes. For when Antigonus encamped near Termessus with all his army and demanded Alcetas, and even when the older men advised that he be surrendered, the younger, forming a compact group in opposition to their parents, voted to meet every danger in the interest of his safety.
§ 18.46.4 The older men at first tried to persuade the younger not to permit their native land to become the spoil of war for the sake of a single Macedonian; but when they saw the young men's determination was not to be shaken, after taking counsel in secret, they sent an embassy to Antigonus by night, promising to surrender Alcetas either alive or dead.
§ 18.46.5 They asked him to attack the city for a number of days and, drawing the defenders forward by light skirmishing, to withdraw as if in flight. They said that, when this had happened and the young men were engaged in the battle at a distance from the city, they would seize a suitable occasion for their own undertaking.
§ 18.46.6 Antigonus, prevailed on by them, shifted his camp a long way from the city, and by skirmishing with the young men kept drawing them into battle outside the city.
§ 18.46.7 When the older men saw that Alcetas had been left alone, selecting the most trustworthy of the slaves and those of the citizens in the prime of life who were not working in his behalf, they made their attempt while the young men were still away. They could not, it is true, take him alive, for he laid hands on himself first in order not to come into the power of his enemies while still living; but his body, laid on a bier and covered with a coarse cloak, they carried out through the gates and delivered to Antigonus without attracting the attention of the skirmishers.
§ 18.47.1 By thus delivering their state from danger by their own devices, they averted the war, but they could not escape the disaffection of the younger men; for as soon as these on their return from the fighting heard what had happened, they became enraged at their kinsfolk on account of their own excessive devotion to Alcetas.
§ 18.47.2 At first they gained possession of part of the town and voted to set the buildings on fire and then, rushing from the town under arms and keeping to the mountains, to plunder the country that was subject to Antigonus; later, however, they changed their minds and refrained from burning the city, but they devoted themselves to brigandage and guerrilla warfare, ravaging much of the hostile territory.
§ 18.47.3 As for Antigonus, he took the body of Alcetas and maltreated it for three days; then, as the corpse began to decay, he threw it out unburied and departed from Pisidia. But the young men of Termessus, still preserving their goodwill for the victim, recovered the body and honoured it with splendid obsequies. Thus kindness in its very nature possesses the peculiar power of a love charm in behalf of benefactors, preserving unchanged men's goodwill toward them.
§ 18.47.4 Be that as it may, Antigonus set out from Pisidia and marched toward Phrygia with all his forces. When he had come to Cretopolis, Aristodemus of Miletus met him with the news that Antipater had died, and that the supreme command and the guardianship of the kings had fallen to Polyperchon the Macedonian.
§ 18.47.5 Being delighted at what had happened, he was carried away by hope and made up his mind to maintain a firm grip upon the government of Asia and to yield the rule of that continent to no one. This was the situation in regard to Antigonus.
§ 18.48.1 As to Macedonia, after Antipater had been stricken by a rather serious illness, which old age was tending to make fatal, the Athenians sent Demades as envoy to Antipater, a man who had the reputation of serving the city well in relation to Macedonia. They requested Antipater that he, as had been agreed from the beginning, remove the garrison from Munychia. Antipater at first had been well disposed to Demades, but after the death of Perdiccas certain letters were found in the royal archives in which Demades invited Perdiccas to cross over swiftly into Europe against Antipater. At this Antipater was alienated from him and kept his enmity hidden. 3 Therefore when Demades in accordance with the instructions given him by the people demanded the fulfilment of the promise and indulged rather freely in threats about the garrison, Antipater gave him no answer but delivered Demades himself and his son Demeas, who had accompanied his father as an envoy, to those ministers who were in charge of punishments. 4 They were taken away to a common prison and put to death for the reasons mentioned above. Antipater, who was already at the point of death, appointed as guardian of the kings and supreme commander, Polyperchon, who was almost the oldest of those who had campaigned with Alexander and was held in honour by the Macedonians. Antipater also made his own son Cassander chiliarch and second in authority. 5 The position and rank of chiliarch had first been brought to fame and honour by the Persian kings, and afterwards under Alexander it gained great power and glory at the time when he became an admirer of this and all other Persian customs. For this reason Antipater, following the same course, appointed his son Cassander, since he was young, to the office of chiliarch.
§ 18.49.1 Cassander, however, did not approve of the arrangement made by his father, regarding it as outrageous that one not related by blood should succeed to the command of his father, and this while there was a son who was capable of directing public affairs and who had already given sufficient proof of his ability and courage.
§ 18.49.2 First going with his friends into the country where he had plenty of opportunity and leisure, he talked to them about the supreme command; then, taking them apart one by one, he kept urging them privately to join him in establishing his dominion, and having won them by great promises, he made them ready for the joint enterprise.
§ 18.49.3 He also sent envoys in secret to Ptolemy, renewing their friendship and urging him to join the alliance and to send a fleet as soon as possible from Phoenicia to the Hellespont. In like manner he sent messengers to the other commanders and cities to urge them to ally themselves with him. He himself, however, by making arrangements for a hunt to last many days, avoided suspicion of complicity in the revolt.
§ 18.49.4 After Polyperchon had assumed the guardianship of the kings and had consulted with his friends, with their approval he summoned Olympias, asking her to assume the care of Alexander's son, who was still a child, and to live in Macedonia with regal dignity. It so happened that some time before this Olympias had fled to Epirus as an exile because of her quarrel with Antipater. This was the state of affairs in Macedonia.
§ 18.50.1 In Asia, as soon as the death of Antipater was noised abroad, there was a first stirring of revolution, since each of those in power undertook to work for his own ends. Antigonus, who was foremost of these, had already won a victory over Eumenes in Cappadocia and had taken over his army, and he had also completely defeated Alcetas and Attalus in Pisidia and had annexed their troops. Moreover, he had been chosen supreme commander of Asia by Antipater, and at the same time he had been appointed general of a great army, for which reasons he was filled with pride and haughtiness.
§ 18.50.2 Already hopefully aspiring to the supreme power, he decided to take orders neither from the kings nor from their guardians; for he took it for granted that he himself, since he had a better army, would gain possession of the treasures of all Asia, there being no one able to stand against him.
§ 18.50.3 For at that time he had sixty thousand foot-soldiers, ten thousand horsemen, and thirty elephants; and in addition to these he expected to make ready other forces also if there should be need, since Asia could provide pay without end for the mercenaries he might muster.
§ 18.50.4 With these plans in mind he summoned Hieronymus the historian, a friend and fellow citizen of Eumenes of Cardia, who had taken refuge in the stronghold called Nora. After endeavouring to attach Hieronymus to himself by great gifts, he sent him as an envoy to Eumenes, urging the latter to forget the battle that had been fought against him in Cappadocia, to become his friend and ally, to receive gifts many times the value of what he had formerly possessed and a greater satrapy, and in general to be the first of Antigonus' friends and his partner in the whole undertaking.
§ 18.50.5 Antigonus also at once called a council of his friends and, after he had made them acquainted with his design for gaining imperial power, assigned satrapies to some of the more important friends and military commands to others; and by holding up great expectations to all of them, he filled them with enthusiasm for his undertakings. Indeed he had in mind to go through Asia, remove the existing satraps, and reorganize the positions of command in favour of his friends.
§ 18.51.1 While Antigonus was engaged in these matters, Arrhidaeus, the satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, discovering his plan, decided to provide for the safety of his own satrapy and also to secure the most considerable cities by means of garrisons. As the city of the Cyziceni was strategically most important and very large, he set out against it with an infantry force consisting of more than ten thousand mercenaries, a thousand Macedonians, and five hundred Persian bowmen and slingers. He had also eight hundred horsemen, all kinds of missiles, catapults both for bolts and for stones, and all the other equipment proper for storming a city.
§ 18.51.2 After falling suddenly upon the city and intercepting a great multitude in the outlying territory, he applied himself to the siege and, by terrifying those who were in the city, tried to force them to receive a garrison. Since the attack had been unexpected, most of the Cyziceni had been cut off in the country; and with only a few people left in the city, they were completely unprepared for the siege.
§ 18.51.3 Deciding, nevertheless, to maintain their freedom, they openly sent envoys to confer with Arrhidaeus about raising the siege, saying that the city would do anything for him except receive a garrison; but secretly, after assembling the young men and selecting the slaves who were suitable for the purpose, they armed them and manned the wall with defenders.
§ 18.51.4 When Arrhidaeus insisted that the city admit a garrison, the envoys said that they wished to consult the people in regard to this. As the satrap agreed, they obtained a truce, and during that day and the following night they improved their preparations for withstanding the siege.
§ 18.51.5 Arrhidaeus, outwitted, missed his opportunity and was balked of his expected success; for since the Cyziceni possessed a city that was strong and very easy to defend from attacks by land thanks to its being a peninsula, and since they controlled the sea, they easily warded off the enemy.
§ 18.51.6 Moreover, they sent for soldiers from Byzantium and for missiles and whatever else was of use for withstanding the attack. When the people of Byzantium supplied all this quickly and willingly, the Cyziceni became confident and set themselves courageously against the danger.
§ 18.51.7 They also launched ships of war at once and, coasting along the shore, recovered and brought back those who were in the country. Soon they had plenty of soldiers, and after killing many of the besieging force, they rid themselves of the siege. Thus Arrhidaeus, outgeneralled by the Cyziceni, returned to his own satrapy without accomplishing anything.
§ 18.52.1 Antigonus happened to be tarrying in Celaenae when he learned that Cyzicus was being besieged. Deciding to get possession of the endangered city in view of his forthcoming undertakings, he selected the best from all his army, twenty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry.
§ 18.52.2 Taking these he set out in haste to aid the Cyziceni. He was a little too late, but he made his goodwill toward the city manifest, even though failing to gain his entire object.
§ 18.52.3 He sent envoys to Arrhidaeus, bringing against him these charges: first, that he had dared to besiege a Greek city that was an ally and not guilty of any offence; and second, that he clearly intended rebellion and was converting his satrapy into a private domain. Finally, he ordered him to retire from his satrapy and, retaining a single city as a residence, to remain quiet.
§ 18.52.4 Arrhidaeus, however, after listening to the envoys and censuring the arrogance of their words, refused to retire from his satrapy, and said that in occupying the cities with garrisons he was making the first move in his war to a finish with Antigonus. In accordance with this decision, after making the cities secure, he sent away a part of his army and a general in command of it. He ordered the latter to get in touch with Eumenes, relieve the fortress from siege, and when he had freed Eumenes from danger, make him an ally.
§ 18.52.5 Antigonus, who was anxious to retaliate upon Arrhidaeus, sent a force to carry on the war against him, but he himself with a sufficient army set out for Lydia, from which province he wished to expel the satrap, Cleitus.
§ 18.52.6 The latter, foreseeing the attack, secured the more important cities with garrisons, but he himself went by ship to Macedonia to reveal to the kings and to Polyperchon the bold revolt of Antigonus and to beg for aid.
§ 18.52.7 Antigonus took Ephesus at the first assault with the aid of certain confederates within the city. After this, when Aeschylus of Rhodes sailed to Ephesus conveying from Cilicia in four ships six hundred talents of silver that were being sent to Macedonia for the kings, Antigonus laid hands on it, saying that he needed it to pay his mercenaries.
§ 18.52.8 By doing this he made it clear that he had begun to act for his own ends and was opposing the kings. Then after storming Syme, he advanced against the cities in order, taking some of them by force and winning others by persuasion.
§ 18.53.1 Now that we have finished the activities of Antigonus, we shall turn our narrative to the fortunes of Eumenes. This man experienced great and incredible reversals of fortune, continually having a share in good and evil beyond expectation.
§ 18.53.2 For example, in the period preceding these events, when he was fighting for Perdiccas and the kings, he had received as his satrapy Cappadocia and the adjacent regions, in which as master of great armies and much wealth his good fortune became famous.
§ 18.53.3 For he defeated in a pitched battle Craterus and Neoptolemus, famous generals in command of the invincible forces of the Macedonian, and killed them on the field.
§ 18.53.4 But although he won the reputation of being irresistible, he experienced such a change of fortune that he was defeated by Antigonus in a great battle and compelled to take refuge with a few friends in a certain very small fortress. Shut up there and surrounded by the enemy with a double wall, he had no one to give him aid in his own misfortune. When the siege had lasted a year and hope of safety had been abandoned, there suddenly appeared an unexpected deliverance from his plight; for Antigonus, who was besieging him and bent on destroying him, changed his plan, invited him to share in his own undertakings, and after receiving an oath-bound pledge, freed him from the siege. 6 Thus unexpectedly saved after a considerable time, he stayed for the present in Cappadocia, where he gathered together his former friends and those who had once served under him and were now wandering about the country. Since he was highly esteemed, he quickly found many men to share in his expectations and to enlist for the campaign with him. 7 In the end, within a few days, in addition to the five hundred friends who had been besieged in the fortress with him, he had more than two thousand soldiers who followed him of their own free will. With the aid of Fortune he gained so great an increase in power that he took over the royal armies and championed the kings against those who had boldly tried to end their rule. But we shall relate these events in more detail a little later in their proper place.
§ 18.54.1 Now that we have said enough about affairs throughout Asia, we shall turn our attention to what had taken place at the same time in Europe. Although Cassander had failed to gain the ruling position in Macedonia, he was not dismayed; but he determined to maintain his claim to it, holding it disgraceful that his father's office should be administered by others.
§ 18.54.2 Since he perceived that the favour of the Macedonians inclined to Polyperchon, he had further private conversations with the friends in whom he most trusted and sent them to the Hellespont without arousing suspicion; and he himself, by spending several days at leisure in the country and organizing a hunt, created the general opinion that he would not try to gain the office.
§ 18.54.3 When everything necessary for his departure was ready, however, he set out from Macedonia unobserved. He came to the Chersonese and departing thence arrived at the Hellespont. Sailing across into Asia to Antigonus he begged him to aid him, saying that Ptolemy also had promised to be an ally. Antigonus eagerly received him and promised to co operate with him actively in every way and to give him at once a force of infantry and a fleet.
§ 18.54.4 In doing this he pretended to be aiding him because of his own friendship for Antipater, but in truth it was because he wished Polyperchon to be surrounded by many great distractions, so that he himself might proceed against Asia without danger and secure the supreme power for himself.
§ 18.55.1 Meanwhile in Macedonia, Polyperchon, the guardian of the kings, after Cassander had slipped away, foresaw the serious character of the war that was to be fought with him, and since he had made up his mind to do nothing without the advice of his friends, he called together all the commanders and the most important of the other Macedonians.
§ 18.55.2 It was clear that Cassander, reinforced by Antigonus, would hold the Greek cities against them, since some of the cities were guarded by his father's garrisons and others, dominated by Antipater's friends and mercenaries, were ruled by oligarchies, and since Cassander would also gain as allies both Ptolemy the ruler of Egypt, and Antigonus, who had already openly rebelled against the kings, and each of them possessed great armies and abundant wealth and was master of many nations and cities of consequence. After the question how to fight against these had been laid before them and many shrewd suggestions had been made about the war, it was decided to free the cities throughout Greece and to overthrow the oligarchies established in them by Antipater;
§ 18.55.3 for in this way they would best decrease the influence of Cassander and also win for themselves great glory and many considerable allies.
§ 18.55.4 At once, therefore, they called together the envoys who were present from the cities, and after bidding them be of good cheer, they promised to re establish democratic governments in the cities. As soon as they had drafted the decree that had been adopted, they gave it to the envoys, in order that they might quickly return to their native cities and report to their assemblies the goodwill that the kings and the generals entertained for the Greeks. The edict was in such terms as these:
§ 18.56.1 "Inasmuch as it has fallen to the lot of our ancestors to perform many acts of kindness to the Greeks, we wish to maintain their policy and to make evident to all the goodwill which we continue to have for that people.
§ 18.56.2 Formerly, indeed, when Alexander departed from among men and the kingship descended upon us, since we believed it necessary to restore all to peace and to the forms of government that Philip our sire established, we sent letters to all the cities in regard to these matters.
§ 18.56.3 But whereas it happened that, while we were far away, certain of the Greeks, being ill advised, waged war against the Macedonians and were defeated by our generals, and many bitter things befell the cities, know ye that the generals have been responsible for these hardships, but that we, holding fast to the original policy, are preparing peace for you and such governments as you enjoyed under Philip and Alexander, and that we permit you to act in all other matters according to the decrees formerly issued by them. Moreover, we restore those who have been driven out or exiled from the cities by our generals from the time when Alexander crossed into Asia; and we decree that those who are restored by us, in full possession of their property, undisturbed by faction, and enjoying a complete amnesty, shall exercise their rights as citizens in their native states; and if any measures have been passed to their disadvantage, let such measures be void, except as concerning those who had been exiled for blood guilt or impiety in accordance with the law. 5 Not to be restored are the men of Megalopolis who were exiled for treason along with Polyaenetus, nor those of Amphissa, Tricca, Pharcadon, or Heraclea; but let the cities receive back the others before the thirtieth day of Xanthicus. 6 If in any case Philip or Alexander published regulations that are inconsistent with each other, let the cities concerned present themselves before us so that, after bringing the provisions into harmony, they may follow a course of action advantageous both to us and to themselves. The Athenians shall possess everything as at the time of Philip and Alexander, save that Oropus shall belong to its own people as at present. 7 Samos we grant to Athens, since Philip our sire also gave it to them. Let all the Greeks pass a decree that no one shall engage either in war or in public opposition to us, and that if anyone disobeys, he and his family shall be exiled and his goods shall be confiscated. We have commanded Polyperchon to take in hand these and other matters. 8 Do you obey him, as we also have written to you formerly; for if anyone fails to carry out any of these injunctions, we shall not overlook him."
§ 18.57.1 When this edict had been published and dispatched to all the cities, Polyperchon wrote to Argos and the other cities, ordering them to exile those who had been leaders of the governments in the time of Antipater — even to condemn certain of them to death and to confiscate their property — in order that these men, completely stripped of power, might be unable to co operate with Cassander in any way.
§ 18.57.2 He also wrote to Olympias, the mother of Alexander, who was staying in Epirus because of her quarrel with Cassander, asking her to return to Macedonia as soon as possible, to take charge of the son of Alexander, and to assume responsibility for him until he should become of age and receive his father's kingdom.
§ 18.57.3 He also sent to Eumenes, writing a letter in the name of the kings, urging him not to put an end to his enmity toward Antigonus, but turning from him to the kings, either to cross over to Macedonia, if he wished, and become a guardian of the kings in co operation with himself, or if he preferred, to remain in Asia and after receiving an army and money fight it out with Antigonus, who had already clearly shown that he was a rebel against the kings. He said that the kings were restoring to him the satrapy that Antigonus had taken away and all the prerogatives that he had ever possessed in Asia.
§ 18.57.4 Finally he set forth that it was especially fitting for Eumenes to be careful and solicitous for the royal house in conformity with his former public services in its interest. If he needed greater military power, Polyperchon promised that he himself and the kings would come from Macedonia with the entire royal army. This is what happened in that year.
§ 18.58.1 When Archippus was archon of Athens, the Romans elected Quintus Aelius and Lucius Papirius consuls. While these held office Eumenes, just after he had made good his retreat from the fortress, received the letters that had been dispatched by Polyperchon. They contained, apart from what has been told above, the statement that the kings were giving him a gift of five hundred talents as recompense for the losses that he had experienced, and that to effect this they had written to the generals and treasurers in Cilicia directing them to give him the five hundred talents and whatever additional money he requested for raising mercenaries and for other pressing needs. The letter also added that they were writing to the commanders of the three thousand Macedonian Silver Shields ordering them to place themselves at the disposal of Eumenes and in general to co operate wholeheartedly with him, since he had been appointed supreme commander of all Asia.
§ 18.58.2 There also came to him a letter from Olympias in which she begged and besought him to aid the kings and herself, saying that he alone was left, the most faithful of her friends and the one able to remedy the isolation of the royal house.
§ 18.58.3 Olympias asked him to advise her whether he thought it better for her to remain in Epirus and place no trust in those who were from time to time supposed to be guardians of the kings, but were in truth trying to transfer the kingdom to themselves, or to return to Macedonia.
§ 18.58.4 Eumenes at once replied to Olympias, advising her to remain in Epirus for the present until the war should come to some decision. As for himself, since he had always observed the most unwavering loyalty toward the kings, he decided not to take orders from Antigonus, who was trying to appropriate the kingship for himself; but since the son of Alexander was in need of help because of his orphaned state and the greediness of the commanders, he believed that it was incumbent upon himself to run every risk for the safety of the kings.
§ 18.59.1 Immediately, therefore, Eumenes bade his men break camp and departed from Cappadocia with about five hundred horsemen and more than two thousand foot soldiers. Indeed, he did not have time to wait for the laggards among those who had promised to join him, for a considerable army was drawing near, sent from Antigonus under the general Menander to prevent Eumenes from staying in Cappadocia now that he had become an enemy of Antigonus.
§ 18.59.2 In fact, when this army arrived three days later, although it had missed its opportunity, it undertook to follow those who had gone with Eumenes; but since it was not able to come up with them, it returned to Cappadocia.
§ 18.59.3 Eumenes himself quickly passed over the Taurus by forced marches and entered Cilicia. Antigenes and Teutamus, the leaders of the Silver Shields, in obedience to the letters of the kings, came from a considerable distance to meet Eumenes and his friends. After bidding him welcome and congratulating him on his unexpected escape from very great dangers, they promised to co operate willingly with him in everything. The Macedonian Silver Shields, about three thousand in number, likewise met him with friendship and zeal.
§ 18.59.4 All wondered at the incredible fickleness of Fortune, when they considered that a little while before the kings and the Macedonians had condemned Eumenes and his friends to death, but now, forgetting their own decision, they not only had let him off scot-free of punishment, but also had entrusted to him the supreme command over the entire kingdom.
§ 18.59.5 And it was with good reason that these emotions were shared by all who then beheld the reversals in Eumenes' fortunes; for who, taking thought of the inconstancies of human life, would not be astonished at the alternating ebb and flow of fortune? Or who, putting his trust in the predominance he enjoys when Fortune favours him, would adopt a bearing too high for mortal weakness?
§ 18.59.6 For human life, as if some god were at the helm, moves in a cycle through good and evil alternately for all time. It is not strange, then, that some one unforeseen event has taken place, but rather that all that happens is not unexpected. This is also a good reason for admitting the claim of history, for in the inconstancy and irregularity of events history furnishes a corrective for both the arrogance of the fortunate and the despair of the destitute.
§ 18.60.1 Eumenes, who at this time also kept these things in mind, prudently made his own position secure, for he foresaw that Fortune would change again. He perceived that he himself was a foreigner and had no claim to the royal power, that the Macedonians who were now subject to him had previously decreed his death, and that those who occupied the military commands were filled with arrogance and were aiming at great affairs. He therefore understood that he would soon be despised and at the same time envied, and that his life would eventually be in danger; for no one will willingly carry out orders given by those whom he regards as his inferiors, or be patient when he has over him as masters those who ought themselves to be subject to others.
§ 18.60.2 Reasoning about these matters with himself, when the five hundred talents for refitting and organization were offered him in accordance with the kings' letters, he at first refused to accept them, saying that he had no need of such a gift as he had no desire to attain any position of command.
§ 18.60.3 Even now, he said, it was not of his own will that he had yielded with respect to his present office, but he had been compelled by the kings to undertake this great task. In any case, owing to his continuous military service, he was no longer able to endure the skirmishes and journeyings, especially since no magistracy was in prospect for one who was an alien and hence was excluded from the power that belonged of right to the Macedonians.
§ 18.60.4 He declared, however, that in his sleep he had seen a strange vision, which he considered it necessary to disclose to all, for he thought it would contribute much to harmony and the general good.
§ 18.60.5 He said that in his sleep he had seemed to see Alexander the king, alive and clad in his kingly garb, presiding over a council, giving orders to the commanders, and actively administering all the affairs of the monarchy.
§ 18.60.6 "Therefore," he said, "I think that we must make ready a golden throne from the royal treasure, and that after the diadem, the sceptre, the crown, and the rest of the insignia have been placed on it, all the commanders must at daybreak offer incense to Alexander before it, hold the meetings of the council in its presence, and receive their orders in the name of the king just as if he were alive and at the head of his own kingdom."
§ 18.61.1 As all agreed to his proposal, everything needed was quickly made ready, for the royal treasure was rich in gold. Straightway then, when a magnificent tent had been set up, the throne was erected, upon which were placed the diadem, the sceptre, and the armour that Alexander had been wont to use. Then when an altar with a fire upon it had been put in place, all the commanders would make sacrifice from a golden casket, presenting frankincense and the most costly of the other kinds of incense and making obeisance to Alexander as to a god.
§ 18.61.2 After this those who exercised command would sit in the many chairs that had been placed about and take counsel together, deliberating upon the matters that from time to time required their attention. Eumenes, by placing himself on an equality with the other commanders in all the matters that were discussed and by seeking their favour through the most friendly intercourse, wore down the envy with which he had been regarded and secured for himself a great deal of goodwill among the commanders.
§ 18.61.3 As their reverence for the king grew stronger, they were all filled with happy expectations, just as if some god were leading them. And by conducting himself toward the Macedonian Silver Shields in a similar way, Eumenes gained great favour among them as a man worthy of the solicitude of the kings.
§ 18.61.4 Eumenes selected the most able of his friends, gave them ample funds, and sent them out to engage mercenaries, establishing a notable rate of pay. Some of them went at once into Pisidia, Lycia, and the adjacent regions, where they zealously enrolled troops. Others travelled through Cilicia, others through Coele Syria and Phoenicia, and some through the cities in Cyprus.
§ 18.61.5 Since the news of this levy spread widely and the pay offered was worthy of consideration, many reported of their own free will even from the cities of Greece and were enrolled for the campaign. In a short time more than ten thousand foot soldiers and two thousand horsemen were gathered together, not including the Silver Shields and those who had accompanied Eumenes.
§ 18.62.1 At Eumenes' unexpected and sudden rise to power, Ptolemy, who had sailed to Zephyrium in Cilicia with a fleet, kept sending to the commanders of the Silver Shields, exhorting them not to pay any attention to Eumenes, whom all the Macedonians had condemned to death.
§ 18.62.2 Likewise he sent to those who had been placed in command of the garrisons in Cyinda, protesting solemnly against their giving any of the money to Eumenes, and promised to guarantee their safety. But no one paid any attention to him because the kings and Polyperchon their guardian and also Olympias, the mother of Alexander, had written to them that they should serve Eumenes in every way, since he was the commander-in chief of the kingdom.
§ 18.62.3 Antigonus in particular was displeased with the advancement of Eumenes and the magnitude of the power that was being concentrated in him; for he assumed that Eumenes was being made ready by Polyperchon as the strongest antagonist of himself now that he had become a rebel against the monarchy.
§ 18.62.4 Deciding, therefore, to organize a plot against Eumenes, he selected Philotas, one of his friends, and gave him a letter that he had written to the Silver Shields and to the other Macedonians with Eumenes. With him he also sent thirty other Macedonians, meddlesome and talkative persons, whom he instructed to meet separately with Antigenes and Teutamus, the commanders of the Silver Shields, and through them to organize some plot against Eumenes by promising great gifts and greater satrapies. Antigonus also told them to get in touch with their acquaintances and fellow citizens among the Silver Shields and secure their support for the plot against Eumenes by corrupting them with bribes.
§ 18.62.5 Now although they were unable to persuade any others, Teutamus, the leader of the Silver Shields, was bribed and undertook to persuade his fellow commander, Antigenes, to share in the enterprise.
§ 18.62.6 Antigenes, however, who was a man of great shrewdness and trustworthiness, not only argued against this, but he even won back the man who had been bribed; for he showed him that it was to his advantage that Eumenes rather than Antigonus should remain alive.
§ 18.62.7 The latter, indeed, if he became more powerful, would take away their satrapies and set up some of his friends in their places; Eumenes, however, since he was a foreigner, would never dare to advance his own interests, but, remaining a general, would treat them as friends and, if they co operated with him, would protect their satrapies for them and perhaps give them others also. So those who were contriving plots against Eumenes met with failure in the way described.
§ 18.63.1 When, however, Philotas gave the commanders the letter that had been addressed to all in common, the Silver Shields and the other Macedonians came together privately without Eumenes and ordered the letter to be read.
§ 18.63.2 In it Antigonus had written an accusation against Eumenes and had exhorted the Macedonians to seize Eumenes quickly and put him to death. If they should not do this, he said that he would come with his whole army to wage war against them, and that upon those who refused to obey he would inflict suitable punishment.
§ 18.63.3 At the reading of this letter the commanders and all the Macedonians found themselves in great perplexity, for it was necessary for them either to side with the kings and receive punishment from Antigonus, or to obey Antigonus and be chastised by Polyperchon and the kings.
§ 18.63.4 While the troops were in this confused state, Eumenes entered and, after reading the letter, urged the Macedonians to follow the decrees of the kings and not listen to one who had become a rebel.
§ 18.63.5 He discussed many matters pertinent to the subject and not only freed himself from the imminent danger but also gained greater favour with the crowd than before.
§ 18.63.6 Thus once more Eumenes, after falling into unforeseen danger, unexpectedly made his own power greater. Therefore he ordered the soldiers to break camp and led them to Phoenicia, desiring to gather ships from all the cities and assemble a considerable fleet, so that Polyperchon, by the addition of the Phoenician ships, might have control of the sea and be able to transport the Macedonian armies safely to Asia against Antigonus whenever he wished. Accordingly he remained in Phoenicia preparing the naval force.
§ 18.64.1 Meanwhile Nicanor, the commander of Munychia, on hearing that Cassander had gone from Macedonia to Antigonus and that Polyperchon was expected to come shortly into Attica with his army, asked the Athenians to continue to favour Cassander. 2 No one approved, but all thought that it was necessary to get rid even of the garrison as soon as possible. Nicanor therefore at first deceived the Assembly and persuaded them to wait for a few days, saying that Cassander would do what was for the advantage of the city; but then, while the Athenians remained inactive for a short time, he secretly introduced soldiers into Munychia by night, a few at a time, so that there was a force there strong enough to maintain the guard and fight against any who undertook to besiege the garrison. 3 The Athenians, when they found out that Nicanor was not acting honourably with them, sent an embassy to the kings and to Polyperchon, asking them to send aid in accordance with the edict that had been issued concerning the autonomy of the Greeks; and they themselves, holding frequent meetings of the Assembly, considered what ought to be done about the war with Nicanor. 4 While they were still engaged in this discussion, Nicanor, who had hired many mercenaries, made a secret sally by night and took the walls of the Piraeus and the harbour boom. The Athenians, who not only had failed to recapture Munychia but also had lost the Piraeus, were angry. 5 They therefore selected as envoys some of the prominent citizens who were friends of Nicanor — Phocion the son of Phocus, Conon the son of Timotheus, and Clearchus the son of Nausicles — and sent them to Nicanor to complain about what he had done and also to request him to restore their autonomy according to the edict that had been issued. 6 Nicanor however, answered that they should direct their mission to Cassander, since as a garrison commander appointed by Cassander he himself had no power of independent action.
§ 18.65.1 At this time a letter came at once Nicanor from Olympias, in which she ordered him to restore Munychia and the Piraeus to the Athenians. Since Nicanor had heard that the kings and Polyperchon were going to bring Olympias back to Macedonia, entrust to her the upbringing of the boy, and re establish her in the state and honour that she had enjoyed during the lifetime of Alexander, he was frightened and promised to make the restoration, but he avoided the fulfilment of the promise by constantly making excuses.
§ 18.65.2 The Athenians, who had had great respect for Olympias in former times and now regarded the honours that had been decreed for her as actually in effect, were filled with joy, hoping that through her favour the recovery of their autonomy might be accomplished without risk.
§ 18.65.3 While the promise was still unfulfilled, however, Alexander the son of Polyperchon arrived in Attica with an army. The Athenians, indeed, believed that he had come to give back Munychia and the Piraeus to the people; this, however, was not the truth, but on the contrary he had come from interested motives to take both of them himself for use in the war.
§ 18.65.4 Now certain Athenians who had been friends of Antipater, of whom Phocion was one, fearing the punishment due them in accordance with the laws, went to Alexander and, by showing him what was to his own advantage, persuaded him to hold the forts for himself and not deliver them to the Athenians until after the defeat of Cassander.
§ 18.65.5 Alexander, who had pitched his camp near the Piraeus, did not admit the Athenians to his parley with Nicanor; but by conferring with him in private and negotiating secretly, he made it evident that he did not intend to deal fairly with the Athenians.
§ 18.65.6 The people, coming together in an assembly, removed from office the existing magistrates, filling the offices with men from the extreme democrats; and they condemned those who had held office under the oligarchy, decreeing the death penalty for some of them, exile and confiscation of property for others, among whom was Phocion, who had held supreme authority under Antipater.
§ 18.66.1 These men, on being driven from the city, fled to Alexander the son of Polyperchon and strove to secure safety for themselves through his good offices. They were well received by him and given letters to his father, Polyperchon, urging that Phocion and his friends should suffer no ill, since they had favoured his interests and now promised to co operate with him in every way.
§ 18.66.2 The Athenian people also sent an embassy to Polyperchon laying charges against Phocion and praying Polyperchon to restore to them Munychia and their autonomy. Now Polyperchon was eager to occupy the Piraeus with a garrison because the port could be of great service to him in meeting the needs of the wars; but since he was ashamed of acting contrary to the edict that he himself had issued, believing that he would be held faithless among the Greeks if he broke his word to the most famous city, he changed his purpose.
§ 18.66.3 When he had heard the embassies, he gave a favourable answer in friendly terms to the one sent by the people, but he arrested Phocion and his companions and sent them bound to Athens, granting the people the authority either to put them to death or to dismiss the charges as they pleased.
§ 18.66.4 When an assembly was called together in Athens and the case of Phocion and his fellows was brought forward, many of those who had been exiles in the days of Antipater and many of those who had been political opponents of the prisoners demanded the death penalty.
§ 18.66.5 The whole basis the accusation was that after the Lamian War these men had been responsible for the enslavement of the fatherland and the overthrow of the democratic constitution and laws. When opportunity was given the defendants for their defence, Phocion began to deliver a plea in his own behalf, but the mob by its tumult rejected his defence, so that the defendants were left in utter helplessness.
§ 18.66.6 When the tumult subsided, Phocion tried again to defend himself, but the crowd shouted him down and prevented the voice of the accused from being fully heard; for the many supporters of democracy, who had been expelled from citizenship and then, beyond their hopes, had been restored, were bitter against those who had deprived Athens of its independence.
§ 18.67.1 As Phocion attempted to overcome the opposition and fought for his life in desperate circumstances, those who were near heard the justice of his plea, but those who were at a greater distance heard nothing because of the great uproar caused by the rioters and only beheld his gestures, which because of his great danger were impassioned and varied.
§ 18.67.2 Finally, abandoning hope of safety, Phocion shouted in a loud voice, begging them to condemn him to death but to spare the others. As the fury and violence of the mob remained unalterable, certain of Phocion's friends kept coming forward to add their pleas to his. The mob would listen to their opening words, but when, as they went on, they made it clear that they were speaking for the defence, they would be driven away by the tumult and by the jeers that greeted them.
§ 18.67.3 Finally by the universal voice of the people the accused were condemned and led off to the prison on the way to death. They were accompanied by many good men, mourning and sympathizing with them at their great misfortune.
§ 18.67.4 For that men who were second to none in reputation and birth and had done many acts of human kindness during life would obtain neither a chance to defend themselves nor a fair trial turned many to arresting thoughts and fear, Fortune being not only unstable but impartial to all alike.
§ 18.67.5 But many of the popular party, men who were bitter in their opposition to Phocion, kept reviling him mercilessly and cruelly charging him with their misfortunes. For when hatred, that in prosperity finds no utterance, after a change of Fortune breaks out in adversity, it loses all human semblance in its rage against its object.
§ 18.67.6 So when, by taking the draught of hemlock according to the ancient custom, these men had ended their lives, they were all thrown unburied beyond the boundaries of Attica. In this manner died Phocion and those who had been falsely accused with him.
§ 18.68.1 Cassander, after receiving from Antigonus thirty-five warships and four thousand soldiers, sailed into the Piraeus. Welcomed by Nicanor, the garrison commander, he took over the Piraeus and the harbour booms, while Munychia was retained by Nicanor himself, who had enough soldiers of his own to man the fortress.
§ 18.68.2 Polyperchon and the kings happened to be staying in Phocis, but when Polyperchon learned of Cassander's arrival in the Piraeus, he moved into Attica and camped near the Piraeus. He had with him twenty thousand Macedonian infantry and about four thousand of the other allies, a thousand cavalry, and sixty-five elephants. It was his intention to besiege Cassander; but since he was short of supplies and supposed that the siege would be long, he was forced to leave in Attica under the command of his son Alexander the part of the army that could be supplied with food, while he himself with the larger part of the forces moved into the Peloponnesus to enforce obedience to the kings upon the people of Megalopolis, who were in sympathy with Cassander and were governed by the oligarchy that had been established by Antipater.
§ 18.69.1 While Polyperchon was busy with these affairs, Cassander with the fleet secured the allegiance of the people of Aigina and closely invested the Salaminians, who were hostile to him. Since he made continuous onslaughts day after day and was well supplied with both missiles and men, he reduced the Salaminians to the most desperate straits.
§ 18.69.2 The city was already in danger of being taken by storm when Polyperchon sent a considerable force of infantry and ships to attack the besiegers. At this Cassander was alarmed, abandoned the siege, and sailed back to the Piraeus.
§ 18.69.3 But Polyperchon, in anxiety to settle affairs in the Peloponnesus to his own advantage, went there and discussed with delegates, whom he had gathered from the cities, the question of their alliance with himself. He also sent envoys to the cities, ordering that those who through Antipater's influence had been made magistrates in the oligarchical governments should be put to death and that the people should be given back their autonomy. Many in fact obeyed him, there were massacres throughout the cities, and some were driven into exile; the friends of Antipater were destroyed, and the governments, recovering the freedom of action that came with autonomy, began to form alliances with Polyperchon. Since the Megalopolitans alone held to their friendship with Cassander, Polyperchon decided to attack their city.
§ 18.70.1 When the Megalopolitans learned the intention of Polyperchon, they voted to bring all their property into the city from the country. On taking a census of citizens, foreigners, and slaves, they found that there were fifteen thousand men capable of performing military service. Some of these they at once attached to military formations, others they assigned to work gangs, and others they detailed to take care of the city wall.
§ 18.70.2 At one and the same time one group of men was digging a deep moat about the city, and another was bringing from the country timber for a palisade; some were repairing the weakened portions of the wall, while others were engaged in making weapons and in preparing engines for hurling bolts, and the whole city was deep in activity, owing both to the spirit of the population and to the danger that was foreseen.
§ 18.70.3 Indeed, word had spread abroad concerning the magnitude of the royal army and the multitude of the accompanying elephants, which were reputed to possess a fighting spirit and a momentum of body that were irresistible.
§ 18.70.4 When all had been hastily made ready, Polyperchon arrived with his entire army and took up his position near the city, building two camps, one for the Macedonians, the other for the allies. Having constructed wooden towers higher than the walls, he brought them up to the city in those places that were convenient for the purpose, supplied them with missiles of many kinds and men to hurl these, and drove back those who were arrayed against him on the battlements.
§ 18.70.5 Meantime his sappers drove mines under the wall and then, by burning the mine props, caused the ruin of three very large towers and as many intervening sections of the wall. At this great and unexpected collapse the crowd of Macedonians shouted with joy, but those in the city were stunned by the seriousness of the event.
§ 18.70.6 Immediately the Macedonians began to pour through the breach into the city, while the Megalopolitans divided themselves, some of them opposing the enemy and, aided by the difficulty of the passage through the breach, putting up a stout fight, the rest cutting off the area inside the breach with a palisade and throwing up a second wall, applying themselves day and night without intermission to the task.
§ 18.70.7 Since this work was soon finished owing to the multitude of workmen and the ample supply of all the needed material, the Megalopolitans quickly made good the loss they had suffered by the breaching of the wall. Moreover, against those of the enemy who were fighting from the wooden towers they used bolt-shooting catapults, slingers, and bowmen, and mortally wounded many.
§ 18.71.1 When many were falling or being disabled on each side and night had closed in about them, Polyperchon recalled his troops by a trumpet signal and returned to his own camp.
§ 18.71.2 On the next day he cleared the area of the breach, making it passable for the elephants, whose might he planned to use in capturing the city. The Megalopolitans, however, under the leadership of Damis, who had been in Asia with Alexander and knew by experience the nature and the use of these animals, got the better of him completely.
§ 18.71.3 Indeed, by pitting his native wit against the brute force of the elephants, Damis rendered their physical strength useless. He studded many great frames with sharp nails and buried them in shallow trenches, concealing the projecting points; over them he left a way into the city, placing none of the troops directly in the face of it, but posting on the flanks a great many javelin throwers, bowmen, and catapults.
§ 18.71.4 As Polyperchon was clearing the debris from the whole extent of the breach and making an attack through it with all the elephants in a body, a most unexpected thing befell them. There being no resistance in front, the Indian mahouts did their part in urging them to rush into the city all together; but the animals, as they charged violently, encountered the spike-studded frames. Wounded in their feet by the spikes, their own weight causing the points to penetrate, they could neither go forward any farther nor turn back because it hurt them to move.
§ 18.71.5 At the same time some of the mahouts were killed by the missiles of all kinds that poured upon them from the flanks, and others were disabled by wounds and so lost such use of the elephants as the situation permitted.
§ 18.71.6 The elephants, suffering great pain because of the cloud of missiles and the natures of the wounds caused by the spikes, wheeled about through their friends and trod down many of them. Finally the elephant that was the most valiant and formidable collapsed; of the rest, some became completely useless, and others brought death to many of their own side.
§ 18.72.1 After this piece of good fortune the Megalopolitans were more confident, but Polyperchon repented of the siege; and as he himself could not wait there for a long time, he left a part of the army for the siege, while he himself went off about other more necessary business.
§ 18.72.2 He sent Cleitus the admiral out with the whole fleet, ordering him to lie in wait in the region of the Hellespont and block the forces that were being brought across from Asia into Europe. Cleitus was also to pick up Arrhidaeus, who had fled with all his soldiers to the city of the Cianoi since he was an enemy of Antigonus.
§ 18.72.3 After Cleitus had sailed to the Hellespont, had won the allegiance of the cities of the Propontis, and had received the army of Arrhidaeus, Nicanor, the commander of Munychia, reached that region, Cassander having sent him with his entire fleet. Nicanor had also taken over the ships of Antigonus so that he had in all more than a hundred.
§ 18.72.4 A naval battle took place not far from Byzantium in which Cleitus was victorious, sinking seventeen ships of the enemy and capturing not less than forty together with their crews, but the rest escaped to the harbour of Chalcedon.
§ 18.72.5 After such a victory Cleitus believed that the enemy would no longer dare fight at sea owing to the severity of their defeat, but Antigonus, after learning of the losses that the fleet had suffered, unexpectedly made good by his own keen wit and generalship the setback that he had encountered.
§ 18.72.6 Gathering auxiliary vessels from Byzantium by night, he employed them in transporting bowmen, slingers, and a sufficient number of other light-armed troops to the other shore. Before dawn they fell upon those who had disembarked from the ships of the enemy and were encamped on the land, spreading panic in the forces of Cleitus. At once these were all thrown into a tumult of fear, and when they leaped into the ships, there was great confusion because of the baggage and the large number of prisoners.
§ 18.72.7 At this point Antigonus, who had made his warships ready and had placed in them as marines many of his bravest infantry, sent them into the fight, urging them to fall on the enemy with confidence, since the victory would depend entirely upon them.
§ 18.72.8 During the night Nicanor had put to sea, and, as dawn appeared, his men fell suddenly upon the confused enemy and at once put them to flight at the first attack, destroying some of the ships by ramming them with the beaks, sweeping off the oars of others, and gaining possession of certain of them without danger when they surrendered with their crews. They finally captured all the ships together with their crews save for the one that carried the commander.
§ 18.72.9 Cleitus fled to the shore and abandoned his ship, endeavouring to make his way through Macedonia to safety, but he fell into the hands of certain soldiers of Lysimachus and was put to death.
§ 18.73.1 As for Antigonus, by inflicting so disastrous a blow upon the enemy, he gained a great reputation for military genius. He now set out to gain command of the sea and to place his control of Asia beyond dispute. For this end he selected from his entire army twenty thousand lightly equipped infantry and four thousand cavalry and set out for Cilicia, hoping to destroy Eumenes before the latter should gather stronger forces.
§ 18.73.2 After Eumenes had news of Antigonus' move, he thought to recover for the kings Phoenicia, which had been unjustly occupied by Ptolemy; but being forestalled by events, he moved from Phoenicia and marched with his army through Coele Syria with the design of making contact with what are called the upper satrapies.
§ 18.73.3 Near the Tigris, however, the inhabitants fell on him by night, causing him the loss of some soldiers. Likewise in Babylonia when Seleucus attacked him near the Euphrates he was in danger of losing his whole army; for a canal was breached and his entire camp inundated, but by a piece of strategy of his own he escaped to a mound, diverted the canal to its old course, and saved himself and his army.
§ 18.73.4 Thus unexpectedly slipping through the hands of Seleucus, he won through into Persia with his army, which consisted of fifteen thousand infantry and thirty-three hundred cavalry. After letting the army recover from its hardships, he sent word to the satraps and generals in the upper satrapies, requesting soldiers and money. And the affairs of Asia progressed to such a point during this year.
§ 18.74.1 In Europe, as Polyperchon had come to be regarded with contempt because of his failure at the siege of Megalopolis, most of the Greek cities deserted the kings and went over to Cassander. When the Athenians were unable to get rid of the garrison by the aid of either Polyperchon or Olympias, one of those citizens who were accepted leaders risked the statement in the Assembly that it was for the advantage of the city to come to terms with Cassander.
§ 18.74.2 At first a clamour was raised, some opposing and some supporting his proposal, but when they had considered more carefully what was the expedient course, it was unanimously determined to send an embassy to Cassander and to arrange affairs with him as best they could.
§ 18.74.3 After several conferences peace was made on the following terms: the Athenians were to retain their city and territory, their revenues, their fleet, and everything else, and to be friends and allies of Cassander; Munychia was to remain temporarily under the control of Cassander until the war against the kings should be concluded; the government was to be in the hands of those possessing at least ten minae; and whatever single Athenian citizen Cassander should designate was to be overseer of the city. Demetrius of Phalerum was chosen, who, when he became overseer, ruled the city peacefully and with goodwill toward the citizens.
§ 18.75.1 Afterwards Nicanor sailed into the Piraeus with his fleet ornamented with the beaks of the ships taken at his victory. At first Cassander regarded him with great approval because of his success, but later, when he saw that he was filled with arrogance and puffed up, and that he was, moreover, garrisoning Munychia with his own men, he decided that he was planning treachery and had him assassinated. He also made a campaign into Macedonia, where he found many of the inhabitants coming over to him.
§ 18.75.2 The Greek cities, too, felt an impulse to join the alliance of Cassander; for Polyperchon seemed to lack both energy and wisdom in representing the kings and his allies, but Cassander, who treated all fairly and was active in carrying out his affairs, was winning many supporters of his leadership.
§ 18.75.3 Since Agathocles became tyrant of Syracuse in the following year, we shall bring this book to an end at this point as was proposed at the beginning. We shall begin the next Book with the tyranny of Agathocles and include in it the events that deserve commemoration in our account.
§ 19.1.1 An old saying has been handed down that it is not men of average ability but those of outstanding superiority who destroy democracies. For this reason some cities, suspecting those of their public men who are the strongest, take away from them their outward show of power.
§ 19.1.2 It seems that the step to the enslavement of the fatherland is a short one for men who continue in positions of power, and that it is difficult for those to abstain from monarchy who through eminence have acquired hopes of ruling; for it is natural that men who thirst for greatness should seek their own aggrandizement and cherish desires that know no bounds. The Athenians, for example, exiled the foremost of their citizens for this reason, having established by law what was known among them as ostracism; and this they did, not to inflict punishment for any injustice previously committed, but in order that those citizens who were strong enough to disregard the laws might not get an opportunity to do wrong at the expense of their fatherland. 4 Indeed, they used to recite as an oracle that saying of Solon in which, while foretelling the tyranny of Peisistratus, he inserts this couplet: Destruction cometh upon a city from its great men; and through ignorance the people fall into slavery to a tyrant. 5 More than anywhere else this tendency toward the rule of one man prevailed in Sicily before the Romans became rulers of that island; for the cities, deceived by demagogic wiles, went so far in making the weak strong that these became despots over those whom they had deceived. 6 The most extraordinary instance of all is that of Agathocles who became tyrant of the Syracusans, a man who had the lowest beginnings, but who plunged not only Syracuse but also the whole of Sicily and Libya into the gravest misfortunes.
§ 19.1.7 Although, compelled by lack of means and slender fortune, he turned his hand to the potter's trade, he rose to such a peak of power and cruelty that he enslaved the greatest and fairest of all islands, for a time possessed the larger part of Libya and parts of Italy, and filled the cities of Sicily with outrage and slaughter.
§ 19.1.8 No one of the tyrants before him brought any such achievements to completion nor yet displayed such cruelty toward those who had become his subjects. For example, he used to punish a private individual by slaughtering all his kindred, and to exact reckoning from cities by murdering the people from youth up; and on account of a few who were charged with a crime, he would compel the many, who had done no evil at all, to suffer the same fate, condemning to death the entire population of cities.
§ 19.1.9 But since this Book embraces all other events as well as the tyranny of Agathocles, we shall forgo preliminary statements about it and set forth the events that follow those already related, stating first the time covered by the account. In the preceding eighteen Books we have described to the best of our ability the events that have occurred in the known parts of the inhabited world from the earliest times down to the year before the tyranny of Agathocles, up to which time the years from the destruction of Troy are eight hundred and sixty-six; in this Book, beginning with that dynasty, we shall include events up to the battle at Himera between Agathocles and the Carthaginians, embracing a period of seven years.
§ 19.2.1 When Demogenes was archon in Athens, the Romans elected to the consulship Lucius Plotius and Manius Fulvius, and Agathocles of Syracuse became tyrant of his city. In order to make clearer the series of events, we shall briefly take up the life of that dynast at an earlier point.
§ 19.2.2 Carcinus of Rhegium, an exile from his native city, settled in Therma in Sicily, a city that had been brought under the rule of the Carthaginians. Having formed a union with a native woman and made her pregnant, he was constantly troubled in his sleep.
§ 19.2.3 Being thus made anxious about the begetting of the child, he instructed certain Carthaginian envoys who were setting out for Delphi to ask the god about his expected son. They duly carried out their commission, and an oracle was given forth that the child whom he had begotten would be the cause of great misfortunes to the Carthaginians and to all Sicily.
§ 19.2.4 Learning this and being frightened, Carcinus exposed the infant in a public place and set men to watch him that he might die. After some days had passed the child had not died, and those who had been set to watch him began to be negligent.
§ 19.2.5 At this time, then, the mother came secretly by night and took the child; and, although, fearing her husband, she did not bring him to her own home, she left him with her brother Heracleides and called him Agathocles, the name of her own father.
§ 19.2.6 The boy was brought up in the home of Heracleides and became much fairer in face and stronger in body than was to be expected at his age. When the child was seven years old, Carcinus was invited by Heracleides to some festival and, seeing Agathocles playing with some children of his own age, wondered at his beauty and strength. On the woman's remarking that the child who had been exposed would have been of the same age if he had been brought up, he said that he regretted what he had done and began to weep incessantly.
§ 19.2.7 Then she, seeing that the desire of the man was in harmony with her own past act, disclosed the entire truth. Gladly hearing her words, he accepted his son, but in fear of the Carthaginians removed to Syracuse with his whole household. Since he was poor he taught Agathocles the trade of pottery while he was still a boy.
§ 19.2.8 At this time Timoleon the Corinthian, after having defeated the Carthaginians in the battle at the Crimisus River, conferred Syracusan citizenship on all who wished. Carcinus was enrolled as a citizen together with Agathocles, and died after living only a short time longer.
§ 19.2.9 The mother dedicated a stone image of her son in a certain precinct, and a swarm of bees settled upon it and built their honeycomb about its hips. When this prodigy was reported to those who devoted themselves to such matters, all of them declared that at the prime of his life the boy would attain great fame; and this prophecy was fulfilled.
§ 19.3.1 A certain Damas, who was counted among the notable men of Syracuse, fell in love with Agathocles and since in the beginning he supplied him lavishly with everything, was the cause of his accumulating a suitable property; and thereafter, when Damas had been elected general against Acragas and one of his chiliarchs died, he appointed Agathocles in his place.
§ 19.3.2 Even before his military service Agathocles had been much respected on account of the great size of his armour, for in military reviews he was in the habit of wearing equipment so heavy that no one of the others was able to use it handily because of the weight of the armour. When he became a chiliarch, he gained even more fame since he was venturesome and daring in battle and bold and ready in haranguing the people. When Damas died of illness and left his property to his wife, Agathocles married her and was counted among the richest men.
§ 19.3.3 Thereafter when the people of Croton were being besieged by the Bruttii, the Syracusans sent a strong force to their aid. Antandrus, the brother of Agathocles, was one of the generals of this army, but the commanders of the whole were Heracleides and Sostratus, men who had spent the greater part of their lives in plots, murders, and great impieties; their careers in detail are contained in the Book before this one.
§ 19.3.4 Agathocles also took part in that campaign with them, having been recognized for his ability by the people and assigned to the rank of chiliarch. Although he had distinguished himself at first in the battles with the barbarians, he was deprived of the award for his deeds of valour by Sostratus and his friends because of jealousy.
§ 19.3.5 Agathocles was deeply offended at them and denounced before the people their resolve to establish an autocratic government. As the people of Syracuse paid no attention to the charges, the cabal of Sostratus did gain control of their native city after the return from Croton.
§ 19.4.1 Since Agathocles was hostile to them, he remained at first in Italy with those who made common cause with him. Undertaking to establish himself in Croton, he was driven out and with a few others escaped to Tarentum. While among the Tarentines he was enrolled in the ranks of the mercenaries, and because he took part in many hazardous actions he was suspected of revolutionary designs.
§ 19.4.2 When he for this reason was released from this army also, he gathered together the exiles from all parts of Italy and went to the aid of Rhegium, which was then being attacked by Heracleides and Sostratus.
§ 19.4.3 Then when the cabal in Syracuse was brought to an end and the party of Sostratus was expelled, Agathocles returned to his own city. Many citizens of repute had been exiled along with the cabal on the ground that they had been members of the oligarchy of the Six Hundred Noblest, and now war arose between these exiles and those who were supporting the democracy. As the Carthaginians became allies of the exiles with Sostratus, there were constant engagements and pitched battles between strong forces, in which Agathocles, sometimes as a private soldier, sometimes appointed to a command, was credited with being energetic and ingenious, for in each emergency he contrived some helpful device. One instance of the kind is well worth mentioning.
§ 19.4.4 Once when the Syracusans were in camp near Gela, he stole into the city at night with a thousand men, but Sostratus with a large force in battle array appeared suddenly, routed those who had made their way in, and struck down about three hundred of them.
§ 19.4.5 When the remainder tried to escape through a certain narrow passage and had abandoned hope of safety, Agathocles unexpectedly saved them from the danger.
§ 19.4.6 Fighting most brilliantly of all, he had received seven wounds, and because of the quantity of blood he had lost, he was weak in body; but when the enemy were upon them, he ordered the trumpeters to go out to the walls on each side and sound the signal for battle.
§ 19.4.7 When they quickly carried out the order, those who had sallied out from Gela to give aid were not able to learn the truth because of the darkness, but supposing that the remaining force of the Syracusans had broken in on both sides, they abandoned further pursuit, divided their forces into two parts, and went quickly to meet the danger, running toward the sound made by the trumpeters. In this situation Agathocles and his men gained a respite from fighting and came safe to their fortified camp in complete security. Thus on this occasion, by outwitting the enemy in this way, he not only saved his own companions by a miracle but also seven hundred of the allies.
§ 19.5.1 Thereafter, at the time when Acestorides the Corinthian had been elected general in Syracuse, Agathocles was reputed to have made an attempt at tyranny, but he escaped from this danger by his own shrewdness. For Acestorides, who was wary of factional strife and therefore was not willing to destroy him openly, ordered him to leave the city and sent out men to kill him on the road during the night.
§ 19.5.2 But Agathocles, who had shrewdly guessed the intention of the general, selected from his slaves the one who was most like himself in stature and face, and by equipping him with his own armour, horse, and even his own clothing, he deceived those who had been dispatched to kill him.
§ 19.5.3 As for himself, he put on rags and by avoiding the roads completed the journey. They, supposing from the armour and the other indications that it was Agathocles and not observing more closely because of the darkness, accomplished a murder indeed, but failed to carry out the task that had been assigned to them.
§ 19.5.4 Afterwards the Syracusans received back those who had been expelled with Sostratus and made peace with the Carthaginians; but Agathocles as an exile gathered together an army of his own in the interior. After he had become an object of dread not only to his own fellow citizens but also to the Carthaginians, he was persuaded to return to his own city; and at the shrine of Demeter, to which he was taken by the citizens, he swore that he would undertake nothing against the democracy.
§ 19.5.5 And it was by pretending to be a supporter of democracy and by winning the favour of the people in artful ways that he secured his own election as general and protector of the peace until such time as real harmony might be established among the exiles who had returned to the city.
§ 19.5.6 For it happened that the political clubs of those who were holding meetings were divided into many factions and that important differences of opinion existed among them; but the chief group opposed to Agathocles was the society of the Six Hundred, which had directed the city in the time of the oligarchy; for the Syracusans who were first in reputation and in property had been enrolled in this society.
§ 19.6.1 Agathocles, who was greedy for power, had many advantages for the accomplishment of his design. Not only as general was he in command of the army, but moreover, when news came that some rebels were assembling an army in the interior near Erbita, without rousing suspicion he obtained authority to enrol as soldiers what men he chose.
§ 19.6.2 Thus by feigning a campaign against Herbita he enrolled in the army the men of Morgantina and the other cities of the interior who had previously served with him against the Carthaginians.
§ 19.6.3 All these were very firmly attached to Agathocles, having received many benefits from him during the campaigns, but they were unceasingly hostile to the Six Hundred, who had been magistrates of the oligarchy in Syracuse, and hated the populace in general because they were forced to carry out its orders. These soldiers numbered about three thousand, being both by inclination and by deliberate choice most suitable tools for the overthrow of the democracy. To them he added those of the citizens who because of poverty and envy were hostile to the pretensions of the powerful.
§ 19.6.4 As soon as he had everything ready, he ordered the soldiers to report at daybreak at the Timoleonteum; and he himself summoned Peisarchus and Diocles, who were regarded as the leaders of the society of the Six Hundred, as if he wished to consult them on some matter of common interest. When they had come bringing with them some forty of their friends, Agathocles, pretending that he himself was being plotted against, arrested all of them, accused them before the soldiers, saying that he was being seized by the Six Hundred because of his sympathy for the common people, and bewailed his fate.
§ 19.6.5 When, however, the mob was aroused and with a shout urged him not to delay but to inflict the just penalty on the wrongdoers out of hand, he gave orders to the trumpeters to give the signal for battle and to the soldiers to kill the guilty persons and to plunder the property of the Six Hundred and their supporters.
§ 19.6.6 All rushed out to take part in the plunder, and the city was filled with confusion and great calamity; for the members of the aristocratic class, not knowing the destruction that had been ordained for them, were dashing out of their homes into the streets in their eagerness to learn the cause of the tumult, and the soldiers, made savage both by greed and by anger, kept killing these men who, in their ignorance of the situation, were presenting their bodies bare of any arms that would protect them.
§ 19.7.1 The narrow passages were severally occupied by soldiers, and the victims were murdered, some in the streets, some in their houses. Many, too, against whom there had been no charge whatever, were slain when they sought to learn the cause of the massacre. For the armed mob having seized power did not distinguish between friend and foe, but the man from whom it had concluded most profit was to be gained, him it regarded as an enemy.
§ 19.7.2 Therefore one could see the whole city filled with outrage, slaughter, and all manner of lawlessness. For some men because of long-existing hatred abstained from no form of insult against the objects of their enmity now that they had the opportunity to accomplish whatever seemed to gratify their rage; others, thinking by the slaughter of the wealthy to redress their own poverty, left no means untried for their destruction.
§ 19.7.3 Some broke down the doors of houses, others mounted to the housetops on ladders, still others struggled against men who were defending themselves from the roofs; not even to those who fled into the temples did their prayers to the gods bring safety, but reverence due the gods was overthrown by men.
§ 19.7.4 In time of peace and in their own city Greeks dared commit these crimes against Greeks, relatives against kinsfolk, respecting neither common humanity nor solemn compacts nor gods, crimes such that there is no one — I do not say no friend but not even any deadly enemy if he but have a spark of compassion in his soul — who would not pity the fate of the victims.
§ 19.8.1 All the gates of the city were closed, and more than four thousand persons were slain on that day whose only crime was to be of gentler birth than the others. Of those who fled, some who rushed for the gates were arrested, while others who cast themselves from the walls escaped to the neighbouring cities; some, however, who in panic cast themselves down before they looked, crashed headlong to their doom.
§ 19.8.2 The number of those who were driven from their native city was more than six thousand, most of whom fled to the people of Acragas where they were accorded proper care.
§ 19.8.3 The party of Agathocles spent the day in the murder of their fellow citizens, nor did they abstain from outrage and crime against women, but they thought that those who had escaped death would be sufficiently punished by the violation of their kindred. For it was reasonable to suppose that the husbands and fathers would suffer something worse than death when they thought of the violence done their wives and the shame inflicted upon their unmarried daughters.
§ 19.8.4 We must keep our accounts of these events free from the artificially tragic tone that is habitual with historians, chiefly because of our pity for the victims, but also because no one of our readers has a desire to hear all the details when his own understanding can readily supply them.
§ 19.8.5 For men who by day in the streets and throughout the market place were bold to butcher those who had done no harm need no writer to set forth what they did at night when by themselves in the homes, and how they conducted themselves toward orphaned maidens and toward women who were bereft of any to defend them and had fallen into the absolute power of their direst enemies.
§ 19.8.6 As for Agathocles, when two days had passed, since he was now sated with the slaughter of his fellow citizens, after gathering together the prisoners, he let Deinocrates go because of their former friendship, but of the others he killed those who were most bitterly hostile and exiled the rest.
§ 19.9.1 Next he called together the Assembly and accused the Six Hundred and the oligarchy that they had brought into existence, saying that he had cleansed the state of those men who were trying to become her masters; and he proclaimed that he was restoring liberty undefiled to the people, and that he wished to be relieved at last of his burdens and become a private citizen on terms of equality with all.
§ 19.9.2 As he said this, he tore off his military cloak and, assuming civil garb, set out to leave, showing that he himself was one of the many. But in doing this he was merely playing the part of a democrat with full knowledge that the majority of the members of the Assembly had had a share in his unholy acts and for this reason would not be willing to vote the generalship to anyone else.
§ 19.9.3 At any rate, those who had plundered the property of the victims instantly cried out, begging him not to leave them but to accept the general administration of the state. At first he maintained silence; then, as the mob pressed more insistently upon him, he said that he accepted the generalship, but that he would not rule jointly with others,
§ 19.9.4 for he would not consent as one member of a board to be held legally accountable for acts illegally committed by the others. Since the majority agreed that he should rule alone, he was elected general with absolute power, and thereafter he openly exercised authority and governed the city.
§ 19.9.5 Of the Syracusans who were uncorrupted, some were forced to endure in patience because of their fears, and others, outmatched by the mob, did not venture to make an unavailing display of their hostility. On the other hand, many of those who were poor and involved in debt welcomed the revolution, for Agathocles promised in the Assembly both to abolish debts and to distribute land to the poor.
§ 19.9.6 When he had finished with these matters, he made an end of further slaughter and punishment. With a complete change of humour he showed himself affable to the common people and won no slight popularity by aiding many, by encouraging no small number with promises, and by currying favour from all by philanthropic words.
§ 19.9.7 Although he possessed such power, he neither assumed a diadem, nor employed a bodyguard, nor affected a haughty demeanour, as is the custom of almost all tyrants. He kept a careful watch over the public revenues and over the preparation of armour and weapons, and he had warships constructed in addition to those already at hand. He also gained control of most of the regions and cities of the interior. This, then, was the situation in Sicily.
§ 19.10.1 In Italy the Romans were now in the ninth year of their war with the Samnites. Although in the previous period they had fought with large forces, at this time they accomplished nothing great or worthy of mention by the incursions that they were making upon the hostile territory; yet they did not cease attacking the strongholds and plundering the country.
§ 19.10.2 In Apulia also they plundered all Daunia and won back the Canusians, from whom they took hostages. They added two new tribes to those already existing: Falerna and Oufentina.
§ 19.10.3 While this was going on, the people of Croton made peace with the Bruttii, but they were still waging war against those of their own citizens who had been exiled by the democracy because of their alliance with Heracleides and Sostratus, about which we have told in detail in the preceding Book. This war was now in second year, Paron and Menedemus, both outstanding men, having been elected generals.
§ 19.10.4 The exiles, setting out from Thurii and taking with them three hundred mercenaries, tried to enter their native city by night, were driven off by the people of Croton, and encamped on the boundaries of the land of the Bruttii. Soon afterwards, however, they were attacked by the army of citizens, which far outnumbered them, and all were slaughtered in the fight. Now that we have finished the affairs of Sicily and Italy, we turn to the remaining parts of Europe.
§ 19.11.1 In Macedonia, when Eurydice, who had assumed the administration of the regency, heard that Olympias was making preparations for a return, she sent a courier into the Peloponnesus to Cassander, begging him to come to her aid as soon as possible; and, by plying the most active of the Macedonians with gifts and great promises, she was trying to make them personally loyal to herself.
§ 19.11.2 But Polyperchon, with Aeacides of Epirus as his ally, collected an army and restored Olympias and the son of Alexander to the throne. So, as soon as he heard that Eurydice was at Euia in Macedonia with her army, he hastened against her with the intention of deciding the campaign in a single battle. When, however, the armies were drawn up facing each other, the Macedonians, out of respect for the position of Olympias and remembering the benefits that they had received from Alexander, changed their allegiance.
§ 19.11.3 King Philip with his court was captured at once, while Eurydice was taken as she was making her way to Amphipolis with Polycles, one of her counsellors.
§ 19.11.4 But after Olympias had thus captured the royal persons and had seized the kingdom without a fight, she did not carry her good fortune as a human being should, but first she placed Eurydice and her husband Philip under guard and began to maltreat them. Indeed she walled them up in a small space and supplied them with what was necessary through a single narrow opening.
§ 19.11.5 But after she had for many days unlawfully treated the unfortunate captives, she ordered certain Thracians to stab Philip to death, who had been king for six years and four months; but she judged that Eurydice, who was expressing herself without restraint and declaring that the kingdom belonged to herself rather than to Olympias, was worthy of greater punishment.
§ 19.11.6 She therefore sent to her a sword, a noose, and some hemlock, and ordered her to employ whichever of these she pleased as a means of death, neither displaying any respect whatever for the former dignity of the victim whom she was unlawfully treating, nor moved to pity for the fate that is common to all.
§ 19.11.7 Accordingly, when she herself met with a similar reversal, she experienced a death that was worthy of her cruelty. Eurydice, indeed, in the presence of the attendant prayed that like gifts might fall to the lot of Olympias. She next laid out the body of her husband, cleansing its wounds as well as circumstances permitted, then ended her life by hanging herself with her girdle, neither weeping for her own fate nor humbled by the weight of her misfortunes.
§ 19.11.8 After these two had been made away with, Olympias killed Nicanor, Cassander's brother, and overturned the tomb of Iollas, avenging, as she said, the death of Alexander. She also selected the hundred most prominent Macedonians from among the friends of Cassander and slaughtered them all.
§ 19.11.9 But by glutting her rage with such atrocities, she soon caused many of the Macedonians to hate her ruthlessness; for all of them remembered the words of Antipater, who, as if uttering a prophecy on his death bed, advised them never to permit a woman to hold first place in the kingdom. This situation, then, in the internal affairs of Macedonia gave clear indication of the impending revolution.
§ 19.12.1 In Asia Eumenes with the Macedonian Silver Shields and their commander Antigenes wintered in the villages of Babylonia known as the villages of the Carians. He sent embassies to Seleucus and Pithon asking them to aid the kings and to join him in the struggle against Antigonus.
§ 19.12.2 Of these men, Pithon had been appointed satrap of Media and the other had been named satrap of Babylonia at the time when the second distribution of satrapies was made at Triparadeisus. Seleucus said that he was willing to be of service to the kings, but that nevertheless he would never consent to carrying out the orders of Eumenes, whom the Macedonians in assembly had condemned to death. After much discussion in respect to this policy, they sent an ambassador from themselves to Antigenes and the Silver Shields, asking them to remove Eumenes from his command.
§ 19.12.3 Since the Macedonians paid no heed to this message, Eumenes, after praising their loyalty, set out with the army and pitched camp on reaching the Tigris River at a distance of three hundred stades from Babylon. It was his purpose to direct his course to Susa, where he intended to summon the armies from the upper satrapies and to make use of the royal treasure for his urgent needs.
§ 19.12.4 He was forced, however, to cross the river because the country behind him had been plundered, whereas that on the other side was untouched and able to furnish abundant food for his army.
§ 19.12.5 When he, accordingly, had gathered boats from all sides for the crossing, Seleucus and Pithon sailed down with two triremes and a good many punts, for these craft still survived from those that had been built by Alexander near Babylon.
§ 19.13.1 Directing these craft to the landing place, Seleucus and Pithon again tried to persuade the Macedonians to remove Eumenes from his command and to cease preferring against their own interests a man who was a foreigner and who had killed very many Macedonians.
§ 19.13.2 But when Antigenes and his men were in no way persuaded, Seleucus sailed off to a certain ancient canal and cleared its intake, which had been filled up in the course of time. Since the Macedonian camp was surrounded by water and the neighbouring land on all sides was now inundated, there was danger that the entire encamped army would be destroyed by the flood.
§ 19.13.3 On that day the Macedonians remained inactive, not knowing how to deal with the situation; but on the next day they brought up the punts, about three hundred in number, and carried the best part of the army across, no one hindering them at the landing; for Seleucus had cavalry only and that too far inferior in number to its opponents.
§ 19.13.4 But when night was overtaking them, Eumenes, since he was anxious about the baggage, got the Macedonians back across the river; and under the guidance of one of the inhabitants of the region he began to excavate a certain place through which it was easy to turn the canal and make the neighbouring land passable.
§ 19.13.5 Seleucus saw this, and since he wished to get them out of his satrapy as soon as possible, he sent envoys to propose a truce, conceding to Eumenes his passage across the river. But at the same time he also sent dispatch carriers into Mesopotamia to Antigonus, asking him to come with his army as soon as possible before the satraps should arrive with their forces.
§ 19.13.6 Eumenes, however, after crossing the Tigris and arriving in Susiane, divided his army into three parts because of the dearth of food. Marching through the country in separate columns, he was completely without grain, but he distributed to his soldiers rice, sesame, and dates, since the land produced such fruits as these in plenty.
§ 19.13.7 He had already sent to the commanders of the upper satrapies the letter from the kings in which it was written that they should obey Eumenes in every way; and at this time he again sent couriers bidding the satraps all to assemble in Susiane each with his own army. But it happened that at this very time they had themselves mobilized their forces and had assembled for other reasons, with which it is necessary to deal first.
§ 19.14.1 Pithon had been appointed satrap of Media, but when he became general of all the upper satrapies, he put to death Philotas, the former general of Parthia, and set up his own brother Eudamus in his place.
§ 19.14.2 At this all the other satraps joined forces, fearing that they might suffer a similar fate since Pithon was seditious and had included great undertakings in his plans. But they got the better of him in a battle, killed many of his supporters, and drove him out of Parthia.
§ 19.14.3 At first he withdrew to Media, but after a little he went on to Babylon, where he invited Seleucus to aid him and to share in his expectations.
§ 19.14.4 So, since the upper satraps had for this reason concentrated their armies in a single place, the couriers from Eumenes found the forces ready. The most eminent of the commanders and the one who by common consent had assumed command of all the forces was Peucestes, who had been a Bodyguard of Alexander and had been promoted by the king because of his courage.
§ 19.14.5 He had held the satrapy of Persia for many years and had gained great favour with the inhabitants. They say that for this reason Alexander permitted him alone of the Macedonians to wear the Persian raiment, wishing to please the Persians and believing that through Peucestes he could keep the nation in all respects obedient. At this time Peucestes had ten thousand Persian archers and slingers, three thousand men of every origin equipped for service in the Macedonian array, six hundred Greek and Thracian cavalry, and more than four hundred Persian horsemen.
§ 19.14.6 Tlepolemus the Macedonian, who had been appointed satrap of Carmania, had one thousand five hundred foot soldiers and seven hundred mounted men. Sibyrtius, the commander of Arachosia, brought a thousand foot and six hundred and ten horse. Androbazus had been dispatched from Paropanisadae, of which satrapy Oxyartes was governor, with twelve hundred infantry and four hundred cavalry.
§ 19.14.7 Stasander, the satrap of Aria and Drangine, who brought also the troops from Bactriane, had fifteen hundred infantry and a thousand horse.
§ 19.14.8 From India came Eudamus with five hundred horsemen, three hundred footmen, and one hundred and twenty elephants. These beasts he had secured after the death of Alexander by treacherously slaying King Porus. In all there were assembled with the satraps more than eighteen thousand seven hundred infantry and four thousand six hundred cavalry.
§ 19.15.1 When the satraps had come into Susiane and had joined Eumenes, they called together a general assembly in which there was found to be a good deal of rivalry for the chief command. Peucestes thought that because of the number of soldiers who followed him on the campaign and because of his high rank under Alexander he ought to have the supreme command;
§ 19.15.2 but Antigenes, who was general of the Silver Shields, said that the right to make the selection ought to be granted to his Macedonians, since they had conquered Asia with Alexander and had been unconquered because of their valour.
§ 19.15.3 Eumenes, however, fearing that through their rivalry with each other they would become an easy prey for Antigonus, advised that they should not set up a single commander, but that all the satraps and generals who had been selected by the mass of the army should gather in the royal tent each day and take counsel together about what was to the common advantage.
§ 19.15.4 For a tent had been set up for Alexander although he was dead, and in the tent a throne, before which they were accustomed to make offerings and then to sit as a council in regard to matters that demanded attention. Since all approved his proposal as made in the general interest, he called a council each day like that of some city ruling itself on democratic principles.
§ 19.15.5 Later, when they arrived at Susa, Eumenes received from those in charge of the treasury a sum of money sufficient for his needs; for it was to him alone that the kings in their letter had ordered the treasurers to give whatever sum he should ask. After paying the Macedonians for six months, he gave two hundred talents to Eudamus, who had brought down the elephants from India, saying that this was for the cost of maintaining the animals, but really trying to win the favour of the man by this gift; for he would tip the scales decisively in favour of any one of the rivals to whom he might attach himself, since the employment of the beasts strikes terror. Each of the other satraps provided for the support of the troops who had followed him from the territory under his command.
§ 19.15.6 While Eumenes remained in Susiane refreshing his forces, Antigonus, who had wintered in Mesopotamia, at first had planned to follow Eumenes close on his heels before his strength should be increased; but on hearing that the satraps and their armies had joined the Macedonians, he checked his speed and began to refresh his forces and to enrol additional soldiers, for he perceived that the war called for large armies and for no ordinary preparation.
§ 19.16.1 While these things were happening, Attalus, Polemon, and Docimus, together with Antipater and Philotas, the commanders who had been captured along with the army of Alcetas, were being kept under guard in a certain exceedingly strong fortress; but when they heard that Antigonus was leading his expedition into the upper satrapies, believing that they had a favourable opportunity, they persuaded certain of their custodians to release them, and then, gaining possession of arms, they set upon the guard at about midnight. They themselves numbered only eight and were guarded by four hundred soldiers, but they excelled in daring and dexterity, thanks to their service with Alexander. They laid violent hands upon Xenopeithes, the captain of the garrison, and threw him from the wall at a point where the cliff was six hundred feet high; and then, after slaughtering some of the remaining guards and casting the others down, they set fire to the buildings.
§ 19.16.2 From those who had been standing aside to observe the outcome they increased their number to fifty. Since the stronghold held a large amount of grain and other provisions, they took counsel together whether they ought to remain and take advantage of the strength of the position, awaiting the aid to be expected from Eumenes, or should flee as quickly as possible and move about the country while waiting for a change in the situation.
§ 19.16.3 There was a considerable argument, for Docimus advised flight while Attalus declared that he would not be able to endure hardship because of the bad physical condition that had been caused by his imprisonment. But while they were disputing with each other, troops had already assembled from the adjacent fortresses, more than five hundred foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen; and in addition, others had come from the native peoples, men of every kind to a number exceeding three thousand, who had selected a commander from their own ranks and encamped about the stronghold.
§ 19.16.4 When they had unexpectedly been shut in again, Docimus, who had learned that a certain way of descent was unguarded, sent an ambassador to Antigonus' wife Stratonice, who was in the neighbourhood. When he and one companion escaped by arrangement with her, he was accorded no confidence but was handed over to a guard; and the man who had gone out with him became a guide for the enemy, conducted a considerable number of them into the stronghold, and occupied one of the peaks.
§ 19.16.5 Although the followers of Attalus were far outnumbered, their courage enabled them to hold their ground, and keeping up the fight day after day they resisted stubbornly; only after they had been besieged for a year and four months were they taken by assault.
§ 19.17.1 When Democleides was archon at Athens, the Romans elected Gaius Junius and Quintus Aemilius consuls. This was the one hundred and sixteenth celebration of the Olympic Games, at which Deinomenes the Laconian won the footrace.
§ 19.17.2 At this time Antigonus set out from Mesopotamia and came into Babylonia, where he made an agreement for common action with Seleucus and Pithon. He received soldiers from them also, made a pontoon bridge over the Tigris River, took his army across, and set out against the enemy.
§ 19.17.3 When Eumenes learned what had taken place, he ordered Xenophilus, who was guarding the citadel of Susa, not to give any of the money to Antigonus nor to have any conference with him. Eumenes himself with his forces set out for the Tigris River, which is a day's march from Susa at the place where it flows out of the mountainous country that is occupied by the unconquered tribesmen called the Uxii. Its width in many places is three stades, and in some places even four; and in the middle of the stream the depth is about the height of an elephant. After flowing along for some seven hundred stades from the mountains, it empties into the Red Sea, and it contains abundant salt-water fishes as well as sharks, which appear just about the time of the rising of the Dog Star.
§ 19.17.4 Keeping this river in front of them as a protection and holding the bank from its source to the sea with pickets, they awaited the onset of the enemy. Since this guard because of its length required no small number of soldiers, Eumenes and Antigenes requested Peucestes to summon ten thousand bowmen from Persia.
§ 19.17.5 At first he paid no heed to them, since he still bore a grudge for not having received the generalship; but later, reasoning with himself, he admitted that should Antigonus be victorious the result would be that he himself would lose his satrapy and also be in danger of his life.
§ 19.17.6 In his anxiety, therefore, about himself, and thinking also that he would be more likely to gain the command if he had as many soldiers as possible, he brought up ten thousand bowmen as they requested. Although some of the Persians were distant a thirty days' journey, they all received the order on that very day, thanks to the skilful arrangement of the posts of the guard, a matter that it is not well to pass over in silence.
§ 19.17.7 Persia is cut by many narrow valleys and has many lookout posts that are high and close together, on which those of the inhabitants who had the loudest voices had been stationed. Since these posts were separated from each other by the distance at which a man's voice can be heard, those who received the order passed it on in the same way to the next, and then these in turn to others until the message had been delivered at the border of the satrapy.
§ 19.18.1 While Eumenes and Peucestes were engaged in these matters, Antigonus advanced with his army and came to Susa, the capital. He appointed Seleucus satrap of that country, gave him troops, and ordered him to lay siege to the citadel, since the treasurer, Xenophilus, refused to accept his orders. He himself with his army broke camp and set out against the enemy although the road was very hot and very dangerous for a foreign army to traverse. For this reason they were forced to march at night and make camp near the river before sunrise.
§ 19.18.2 Nevertheless, he was not able to escape altogether untouched by the hardships characteristic of the country; although he did everything in his power, he lost a large number of men because of the extreme heat, for it was in fact the season when the Dog Star rises.
§ 19.18.3 When he reached the Coprates River, he began to make preparations for crossing. This river, running from a certain mountainous region, enters the Pasitigris, which was at a distance of about eighty stades from Eumenes' camp. It is about four plethra in width, but since it is swift in current, it required boats or a bridge.
§ 19.18.4 Seizing a few punts, he sent some of the infantry across in them, ordering them to dig a moat and build a palisade in front of it, and to receive the rest of the army. But as soon as Eumenes heard from scouts of the enemy's move, he crossed the pontoon bridge over the Tigris with four thousand foot soldiers and thirteen hundred horsemen and surprised the soldiers of Antigonus who had crossed — more than three thousand foot soldiers, four hundred cavalry, and not less than six thousand of those soldiers who were in the habit of crossing in scattered groups in search of forage.
§ 19.18.5 Falling suddenly upon them while they were in disorder, Eumenes routed the rest of them at once, and those of the Macedonians who resisted he overcame by his onset and by weight of numbers and compelled them all to flee to the river.
§ 19.18.6 They all rushed to the boats, but these were submerged by the great number of the men who embarked, and most of those who ventured to swim were carried away by the current and drowned, only a few getting safely over.
§ 19.18.7 Those who did not know how to swim, preferring captivity to death in the river, were taken prisoners to the number of four thousand. Antigonus, although he saw that great number being destroyed, could not go to their aid on account of his lack of boats.
§ 19.19.1 Believing that the crossing was impossible, Antigonus set out toward the city of Badace, which is situated on the bank of the Eulaeus River. Since the march was scorching hot because of the intensity of the sun's rays, many soldiers perished, and the army became discouraged.
§ 19.19.2 Nevertheless, after staying in the above mentioned city for a few days and letting the army recover from its sufferings, he decided that the best course was to march to Ecbatana in Media and with that as a base to gain control of the upper satrapies. There were two roads leading into Media, each having a disadvantage: the road leading to Colon was a good royal highway, but it was hot and long, extending for almost forty days' march; while the other, which passed through the Cossaean tribes, was difficult and narrow, skirting precipices and passing through enemy territory, and moreover lacking in supplies, but it was short and cool.
§ 19.19.3 It is not easy for an army to follow this route without having gained the consent of the tribesmen who inhabited the mountain ranges. These men, who have been independent from ancient times, live in caves, eating acorns and mushrooms, and also the smoked flesh of wild beasts.
§ 19.19.4 Since Antigonus regarded it as beneath his dignity to use persuasion on these people or to make them presents when he had so great an army following him, he selected the finest of the peltasts and divided the bowmen, the slingers, and the other light-armed troops into two bodies, one of which he gave to Nearchus, ordering him to go on ahead and occupy in advance the places that were narrow and difficult. After arranging the other group along the entire line of march, he himself advanced with the phalanx, putting Pithon in command of the rear guard.
§ 19.19.5 Now Nearchus' detachment going on ahead occupied a few of the lookouts; but since they were too late in the case of most of them and those the most important, they lost many men and barely made their way through with the barbarians pressing hard upon them.
§ 19.19.6 As for the troops led by Antigonus, whenever they came to these difficult passes, they fell into dangers in which no aid could reach them. For the natives, who were familiar with the region and had occupied the heights in advance, kept rolling great rocks in quick succession upon the marching troops; and at the same time, sending arrows thick and fast, they wounded men who were able neither to turn aside the missiles nor to avoid them because of the difficulties of the terrain.
§ 19.19.7 Since the road was precipitous and nearly impassable, the elephants, the cavalry, and even the heavy armed soldiers found themselves forced at the same time to face death and to toil hard, without being able to help themselves.
§ 19.19.8 Caught in such toils, Antigonus regretted that he had not heeded Pithon when he advised him to purchase the right of passage with money; nevertheless, after losing many men and endangering the entire undertaking, he came with difficulty on the ninth day safe into the settled part of Media.
§ 19.20.1 The soldiers of Antigonus, however, because of the continuous misfortunes and their own extreme misery, became so critical of him that they let fall hostile remarks; for in forty days they had met with three great disasters. Nevertheless, by mingling with the soldiers on friendly terms and by making ready an abundant supply of all provisions, he restored the army from its miserable state.
§ 19.20.2 He sent Pithon out, ordering him to go through all Media and gather as many horsemen and war horses as he could, and also a quantity of baggage animals.
§ 19.20.3 As that land always abounds in four-footed beasts, Pithon readily accomplished his mission and returned bringing two thousand horsemen, more than a thousand horses with their trappings, a sufficient number of beasts of burden to equip the entire army, and in addition to this, five hundred talents of the royal treasure.
§ 19.20.4 Antigonus organized the horsemen in troops, and by giving horses to men who had lost their own and by distributing most of the pack animals as presents, he regained the goodwill of the soldiers.
§ 19.21.1 When the satraps and generals with Eumenes learned that the enemy was encamped in Media, they disagreed among themselves; for Eumenes, Antigenes, who commanded the Silver Shields, and all those who had made the march up from the sea, believed that they should go back to the coast; but those who had come down from the satrapies, anxious about their own private affairs, asserted that it was essential to maintain control of the upper country.
§ 19.21.2 As the disagreement became more violent, Eumenes, seeing that if the army should be divided neither part would be capable of fighting by itself, deferred to the wishes of the satraps who had come from the interior. Leaving the Pasitigris, accordingly, they proceeded to Persepolis, the capital of Persia, a march of twenty-four days. The first part of the road as far as the so called Ladder was through an enclosed valley, torrid and lacking in provisions, but the rest was over high land, blessed with a very healthful climate and full of the fruits appropriate to the season.
§ 19.21.3 For there were glens heavily overgrown and shady, cultivated trees of various kinds in parks, also natural converging glades full of trees of every sort and streams of water, so that travellers lingered with delight in places pleasantly inviting repose. Also there was an abundance of cattle of every kind, which Peucestes gathered together from the inhabitants and distributed without stint to the soldiers, seeking their goodwill. But those who inhabited this country were the most warlike of the Persians, every man being a bowman and a slinger, and in density of population, too, this country far surpassed the other satrapies.
§ 19.22.1 When they had arrived in Persepolis, the capital, Peucestes, who was general of this land, performed a magnificent sacrifice to the gods and to Alexander and Philip; and, after gathering from almost the whole of Persia a multitude of sacrificial animals and of whatever else was needed for festivities and religious gatherings, he gave a feast to the army.
§ 19.22.2 With the company of those participating he filled four circles, one within the other, with the largest circle inclosing the others. The circuit of the outer ring was of ten stades and was filled with the mercenaries and the mass of the allies; the circuit of the second was of eight stades, and in it were the Macedonian Silver Shields and those of the Companions who had fought under Alexander; the circuit of the next was of four stades and its area was filled with reclining men — the commanders of lower rank, the friends and generals who were unassigned, and the cavalry; lastly in the inner circle with a perimeter of two stades each of the generals and hipparchs and also each of the Persians who was most highly honoured occupied his own couch.
§ 19.22.3 In the middle of these there were altars for the gods and for Alexander and Philip. The couches were formed of heaps of leaves covered by hangings and rugs of every kind, since Persia furnished in plenty everything needed for luxury and enjoyment; and the circles were sufficiently separated from each other so that the banqueters should not be crowded and that all the provisions should be near at hand.
§ 19.23.1 While all were being duly served, the crowd applauded the generosity of Peucestes, and it was clear that he had made a great advance in popularity. But Eumenes, seeing this and reasoning that Peucestes was playing up to the crowd in furtherance of his desire for the chief command, had fabricated a false letter, through which he made the soldiers confident of the outcome of the battles and, by lowering the pomp and circumstance of Peucestes, improved his own standing and increased his prospects of success in the eyes of the crowd.
§ 19.23.2 The purport of what he had written was that Olympias, associating Alexander's son with herself, had recovered firm control of the kingdom of Macedonia after slaying Cassander, and that Polyperchon had crossed into Asia against Antigonus with the strongest part of the royal army and the elephants and was already advancing in the neighbourhood of Cappadocia.
§ 19.23.3 The letter, written in the Syrian writing, was sent from Orontes, who held the satrapy of Armenia and who was a friend of Peucestes. Since the letter was believed because of the previous friendship between the satraps, Eumenes ordered it to be carried around and shown to the commanders and also to most of the other soldiers. The sentiment of the entire encampment was changed and all began to turn their attention to Eumenes' prospects in the belief that he would be able by help of the kings both to promote whomever he wished and to exact punishment from those who wronged him.
§ 19.23.4 After the feast Eumenes, in his desire to overawe those who did not obey him or who craved a command, brought to trial Sibyrtius, who was satrap of Arachosia and a very close friend of Peucestes. Without Sibyrtius' knowledge, Eumenes sent some horsemen into Arachosia, and by ordering the seizure of his baggage, he brought him into such danger that, if he had not escaped secretly, he would have been condemned to death by the assembly.
§ 19.24.1 After Eumenes had frightened the others in this manner and had surrounded himself with pomp and circumstance, he changed once more and, having won Peucestes over with kind words and great promises, rendered him loyal toward himself and eager to join in the struggle in behalf of the kings.
§ 19.24.2 Desiring to exact from the other satraps and generals hostages, as it were, to prevent their deserting him, he pretended to be in need of money and called on each of them to lend all the money he could to the kings.
§ 19.24.3 By taking four hundred talents from those leaders from whom he considered it expedient, he converted men whom he had formerly suspected of plotting against him or of intending to abandon him into most faithful guards of his person and partners in the contest.
§ 19.24.4 While Eumenes was making these strategic moves with an eye to the future, there came men from Media with information that Antigonus and his army had broken camp and set out for Persia. When he heard this, he also set out, having made up his mind to meet the enemy and risk the issue.
§ 19.24.5 On the second day of the journey he performed a sacrifice to the gods and entertained the army sumptuously; the large majority he had indeed encouraged to loyalty, but he himself during the drinking bout was led on by those of the invited guests who were eagerly engaged in drinking, and he became ill. For this reason he delayed the march for some days, since he was overcome by his ailment; and the army was disheartened, for the enemy were expected to engage them shortly and the ablest of their generals was handicapped by his illness.
§ 19.24.6 Nevertheless, when the attack had passed its crisis and he had recovered a little, Eumenes advanced with the army, which Peucestes and Antigenes were leading, while he himself, carried in a litter, followed the rearguard so that he might not be disturbed by the confusion and the congestion of the road.
§ 19.25.1 When the armies were a day's march from each other, they both sent scouts, and after learning the size and the intentions of the enemy, they both made ready for the fray; but they separated without a battle;
§ 19.25.2 for each had drawn up his army with a river and a ravine in front of him, and because of the difficulty of the terrain they were not able to come to blows. The armies, encamped at a distance of three stades from each other for four days, continued to skirmish and to plunder the country, for they were entirely without supplies; but on the fifth day Antigonus sent envoys to the satraps and the Macedonians, urging them not to obey Eumenes but to put trust in himself.
§ 19.25.3 He said that he would allow the satraps to keep their own satrapies, that to some of the Macedonians he would give a large gift of land, would send back others to their homes with honours and gifts, and would assign to appropriate posts those who wished to serve in his army.
§ 19.25.4 When, however, the Macedonians paid no heed to these offers and even threatened the envoys, Eumenes came forward and praised them and told them a tale, one of the traditional time-worn stories it is true, but one not unsuited to the situation.
§ 19.25.5 He said that a lion, having fallen in love with a maiden, spoke to the girl's father about marriage. The father said that he was ready to give her to him, but that he was afraid of the lion's claws and teeth, fearing that after he had married her he might lose his temper about something and turn on the maiden in the manner of a beast. When, however, the lion had pulled out his claws and his teeth, the father, perceiving that the lion had thrown away everything which had made him formidable, killed him easily with a club. "It is this same sort of thing," he added, "that Antigonus is doing now; 7 he will only keep his promises until he becomes master of the army, and in that very moment will execute its leaders." While the crowd was shouting approval and saying "Right," he dismissed the assembly.
§ 19.26.1 That night, however, there appeared certain deserters from Antigonus' army with the report that Antigonus had given his soldiers orders to break camp at about the second watch. Eumenes, on considering the matter, concluded rightly that the enemy intended to withdraw into Gabene,
§ 19.26.2 as this place, distant about three days' march, was unplundered and filled with grain, fodder, and in general with that which could amply supply the provisions for a great army.
§ 19.26.3 Furthermore, the terrain itself supplemented these advantages, since it had rivers and ravines that were hard to cross. Being anxious, therefore, to occupy this place before the enemy, he imitated him. He caused certain mercenaries, whose consent he had won by money, to go away as if they were deserting, ordering them to say that Eumenes had decided to attack the camp during that night. He himself, however, sent the baggage on ahead and ordered the soldiers to break camp after having taken a very hasty meal.
§ 19.26.4 When all this had been swiftly accomplished, Antigonus, who had heard from the deserters that the enemy had decided to fight during the night, postponed his departure and drew up his forces for the battle.
§ 19.26.5 While he was distracted by these operations and concentrating on the coming battle, he failed to notice that Eumenes had got the start of him and was marching at top speed for Gabene. For some time Antigonus kept his army under arms; but when he learned from his scouts that his opponent had departed, although he knew that he had been outgeneralled, none the less he held to his original purpose.
§ 19.26.6 So, ordering his soldiers to break camp, he led them on a forced march that resembled a pursuit. Eumenes, however, had a start of two watches; therefore Antigonus, knowing that it was not easy to overtake with his whole army a force that was so far ahead, devised a stratagem as follows.
§ 19.26.7 He gave the rest of the army to Pithon and ordered him to follow at leisure, but he himself with the cavalry pursued at top speed; and overtaking the rearguard of the enemy at daybreak just as it was coming down from some hilly country, he took position on the ridges, where he was visible to the enemy.
§ 19.26.8 When Eumenes from a considerable distance beheld cavalry of the enemy and supposed that the entire army was near, he halted the march and drew up his army on the assumption that there would be an engagement immediately.
§ 19.26.9 Thus in the manner described the generals of the two armies each outwitted the other as if they were taking part in a preliminary contest of skill and showing that each placed his hope of victory in himself. In any case, Antigonus by this device prevented the enemy from going forward while securing for himself a respite in which to bring up his army, and then when the army arrived, he drew it all up for battle and marched down in awe-inspiring array against the enemy.
§ 19.27.1 Including reinforcements brought by Pithon and Seleucus, Antigonus had in all more than twenty-eight thousand foot soldiers, eight thousand five hundred horsemen, and sixty-five elephants. The generals employed different formations in drawing up the armies, vying with each other in regard to their competence in tactical skill as well.
§ 19.27.2 On his left wing Eumenes stationed Eudamus, who had brought the elephants from India, with his squadron of one hundred and fifty horsemen, and as an advance guard for them two troops of selected mounted lancers with a strength of fifty horsemen.
§ 19.27.3 He placed them in contact with the higher land of the base of the hill, and next to them he put Stasander, the general, who had his own cavalry to the number of nine hundred and fifty.
§ 19.27.4 After them he stationed Amphimachus, the satrap of Mesopotamia, whom six hundred horsemen followed, and in contact with these were the six hundred horsemen from Arachosia, whose leader formerly had been Sibyrtius, but, because of the latter's flight, Cephalon had assumed command of them.
§ 19.27.5 Next were five hundred from Paropanisadae and an equal number of Thracians from the colonies of the upper country. In front of all these he drew up forty-five elephants in a curved line with a suitable number of bowmen and slingers in the spaces between the animals.
§ 19.27.6 When Eumenes had made the left wing strong in this way, he placed the phalanx beside it. The outer end of this consisted of the mercenaries, who numbered more than six thousand; next were about five thousand men who had been equipped in the Macedonian fashion although they were of all races.
§ 19.28.1 After them he drew up the Macedonian Silver Shields, more than three thousand in number, undefeated troops, the fame of whose exploits caused much fear among the enemy, and finally the men from the hypaspists, more than three thousand, with Antigenes and Teutamus leading both them and the Silver Shields.
§ 19.28.2 In front of the whole phalanx he placed forty elephants, filling the spaces between them with light armed soldiers.
§ 19.28.3 On the right wing he stationed cavalry: next to the phalanx, eight hundred from Carmania led by the satrap Tlepolemus, then the nine hundred called the Companions and the squadron of Peucestes and Antigenes, which contained three hundred horsemen arranged in a single unit. At the outer end of the wing was Eumenes' squadron with the same number of horsemen, and as an advance-guard for them two troops of Eumenes' slaves, each composed of fifty mounted men, while at an angle beyond the end of the wing and guarding it were four troops, in which there were two hundred selected horsemen.
§ 19.28.4 In addition to these, three hundred men selected from all the cavalry commands for swiftness and strength were stationed by Eumenes behind his own squadron. Along the whole of the wing he drew up forty elephants. The entire army of Eumenes consisted of thirty-five thousand foot soldiers, sixty-one hundred horsemen, and one hundred and fourteen elephants.
§ 19.29.1 As Antigonus looked down from a high position, he saw the battle line of his enemy and disposed his own army accordingly. Seeing that the right wing of the enemy had been strengthened with the elephants and the strongest of the cavalry, he arrayed against it the lightest of his horsemen, who, drawn up in open order, were to avoid a frontal action but maintain a battle of wheeling tactics and in this way thwart that part of the enemies' forces in which they had the greatest confidence.
§ 19.29.2 On this wing he stationed the mounted archers and lancers from Media and Parthia, a thousand in number, men well trained in the execution of the wheeling movement; and next he placed the twenty-two hundred Tarentines who had come up with him from the sea, men selected for their skill in ambushing, and very well disposed to himself, the thousand cavalry from Phrygia and Lydia, the fifteen hundred with Pithon, the four hundred lancers with Lysanias, and in addition to all these, the cavalry who are called the "two-horse men," and the eight hundred cavalry from the colonists established in the upper country.
§ 19.29.3 The left wing was made up of these cavalrymen, all of whom were under the command of Pithon. Of the infantry, more than nine thousand mercenaries were placed first, next to them three thousand Lycians and Pamphylians, then more than eight thousand mixed troops in Macedonian equipment, and finally the nearly eight thousand Macedonians, whom Antipater had given him at the time when he was appointed regent of the kingdom.
§ 19.29.4 The first of the horsemen on the right wing adjacent to the phalanx were five hundred mercenaries of mixed origin, then a thousand Thracians, five hundred from the allies, and next to them the thousand known as the Companions with Antigonus' son Demetrius as commander, now about to fight in company with his father for the first time.
§ 19.29.5 At the outer end of the wing was the squadron of three hundred horsemen with whom Antigonus himself was entering the battle. As an advance guard for these there were three troops from his own slaves, and parallel to them were as many units reinforced by a hundred Tarentines.
§ 19.29.6 Along the whole wing he drew up the strongest thirty of the elephants, making a curved line, and he filled the interval between them with selected light armed men. Most of the other elephants he placed before the phalanx, but a few were with the cavalry on the left wing.
§ 19.29.7 When he had drawn up the army in this fashion, he advanced down the hill against the enemy keeping an oblique front, for he thrust forward the right wing, in which he had most confidence, and held the left back, having determined to avoid battle with the one and to decide the contest with the other.
§ 19.30.1 When the armies were close to each other and the signal had been raised in each of them, the troops shouted the battle-cry alternately several times and the trumpeters gave the signal for battle. First Pithon's cavalry, who had no stability or any advance-guard worth mentioning yet were superior to those arrayed against them in numbers and in mobility, began trying to make use of their own advantages.
§ 19.30.2 They did not consider it safe to make a frontal attack against elephants, yet by riding out around the wing and making an attack on the flanks, they kept inflicting wounds with repeated flights of arrows, suffering no harm themselves because of their mobility but causing great damage to the beasts, which because of their weight could neither pursue nor retire when the occasion demanded.
§ 19.30.3 When Eumenes, however, observed that the wing was hard pressed by the multitude of mounted archers, he summoned the most lightly equipped of his cavalry from Eudamus, who had the left wing.
§ 19.30.4 Leading the whole squadron in a flanking movement, he made an attack upon his opponents with light armed soldiers and the most lightly equipped of the cavalry. Since the elephants also followed, he easily routed the forces of Pithon, and pursued them to the foothills. At the same time that this was going on, it so happened that the infantry for a considerable time had been engaged in a battle of phalanxes, but finally, after many had fallen on both sides, Eumenes' men were victorious because of the valour of the Macedonian Silver Shields. 6 These warriors were already well on in years, but because of the great number of battles they had fought they were outstanding in hardihood and skill, so that no one confronting them was able to withstand their might. Therefore, although there were then only three thousand of them, they had become, so to speak, the spearhead of the whole army. 7 Although Antigonus saw that his own left wing had been put to flight and that the entire phalanx had been defeated, he did not heed those who advised him to retire to the mountains and furnish a rallying point for those who escaped from the rout, while keeping the part of the army under his immediate command an unbroken unit; but rather, by cleverly taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the situation, he both saved the fugitives and gained the victory. 8 For as soon as Eumenes' Silver Shields and the remaining body of his infantry had routed those who opposed them, they pursued them as far as the nearer hills; 9 but Antigonus, now that a break was thus caused in the line of his enemy, charged through with a detachment of cavalry, striking on the flank the troops who had been stationed with Eudamus on the left wing. Because the attack was unexpected, he quickly put to flight those who faced him, destroying many of them; then he sent out the swiftest of his mounted men and by means of them he assembled those of his soldiers who were fleeing and once more formed them into a line along the foothills. As soon as Eumenes learned of the defeat of his own soldiers he recalled the pursuers by a trumpet signal, for he was eager to aid Eudamus.
§ 19.31.1 Although it was already lamp-lighting time, both rallied their fleeing troops and began to put their entire forces in battle or once more, such zeal for victory filled not only the generals but also the mass of the contestants.
§ 19.31.2 Since the night was clear and lighted by a full moon and the armies were forming parallel to each other at a distance of about four plethra, the clatter of arms and the snorting of the horses seemed close at hand to all the contestants. But as they were moving from column into line, being distant about thirty stades from those who had fallen in the battle, the hour of midnight overtook them, and both armies were so exhausted by marching, by their suffering in the battle, and by lack of food,
§ 19.31.3 that they were forced to give up the battle and go into camp. Eumenes undertook to march back to the dead, desiring to control the disposal of the bodies and to put his claim to victory beyond dispute. When, however, the soldiers would not listen to him, insisting with shouts that they return to their own baggage train, which was some distance away, he was forced to yield to the majority;
§ 19.31.4 for he was not able to punish the soldiers severely when there were many who disputed his right to command, and he saw that the time was not suitable for chastising those who disobeyed. On the other hand, Antigonus, who firmly held the command without need of courting popular favour, forced his army to make camp by the bodies; and since he gained control of their burial, he claimed the victory, declaring that to possess the fallen is to be victorious in battle.
§ 19.31.5 In this battle three thousand seven hundred foot and fifty-four horse from the army of Antigonus were slain and more than four thousand men were wounded; five hundred and forty of Eumenes' infantry and very few of his cavalry fell, and the wounded were more than nine hundred.
§ 19.32.1 When after leaving the battle Antigonus saw that his men were disheartened, he decided to move as far as possible from the enemy with the utmost speed. Wishing to have the army unencumbered for the retirement, he sent the wounded men and the heaviest part of the baggage ahead to one of the neighbouring cities. He began to bury the dead at dawn and detained the herald who had come from the enemy to treat for the recovery of the bodies; and he ordered his men to eat dinner at once.
§ 19.32.2 When the day had passed he sent the herald back, assigning the removal of the bodies to the next morning, but he himself at the beginning of the first watch broke camp with the whole army, and by making forced marches withdrew a long distance from the enemy and gained an unplundered country in which to refresh his soldiers. He went, indeed, as far as Gamarga in Media, a land that was subject to Pithon and that was able to supply great armies abundantly with everything needed for their support.
§ 19.32.3 When Eumenes learned through scouts of the departure of Antigonus, he refrained from following him because his own soldiers also had lacked food and had suffered great hardship; but he attended to the taking up of the dead and saw to it that they received a magnificent burial. Then an event took place that was amazing and very different from Greek custom.
§ 19.33.1 Ceteus, the general of the soldiers who had come from India, was killed in the battle after fighting brilliantly, but he left two wives who had accompanied him in the army, one of them a bride, the other married to him some years before, but both of them loving him deeply.
§ 19.33.2 It is an ancient custom among the Indians that the men who marry and the maidens who are married do not do so as a result of the decision of their parents but by mutual persuasion. Formerly, since the wooing was done by persons who were too young, it often happened that, the choice turning out badly, both would quickly regret their act, and that many wives were first seduced, then through wantonness gave their love to other men, and finally, not being able without disgrace to leave the mates whom they had first selected, would kill their husbands by poison. The country, indeed, furnished no few means for this, since it produced many and varied deadly poisons, some of which when merely spread upon the food or the wine cups cause death.
§ 19.33.3 But when this evil became fashionable and many were murdered in this way, the Indians, although they punished those guilty of the crime, since they were not able to deter the others from wrongdoing, established a law that wives, except such as were pregnant or had children, should be cremated along with their deceased husbands, and that one who was not willing to obey this law should not only be a widow for life but also be entirely debarred from sacrifices and other religious observances as unclean.
§ 19.33.4 When these laws had been established, the lawlessness of the women changed into the opposite, for as each one because of the great loss of caste willingly met death, they not only cared for the safety of their husbands as if it were their own, but they even vied with each other as for a very great honour.
§ 19.34.1 Such rivalry appeared on this occasion. Although the law ordered only one of Ceteus' wives to be cremated with him, both of them appeared at his funeral, contending for the right of dying with him as for a prize of valour.
§ 19.34.2 When the generals undertook to decide the matter, the younger wife claimed that the other was pregnant and for that reason could not take advantage of the law; and the elder asserted that more justly should the one who had the precedence in years have precedence in honour, for in all other matters those who are older are regarded as having great precedence over the younger in respect and honour.
§ 19.34.3 The generals, ascertaining from those skilled in midwifery that the elder was pregnant, decided for the younger. When this happened, the one who had lost the decision departed weeping, rending the wreath that was about her head and tearing her hair, just as if some great disaster had been announced to her; but the other, rejoicing in her victory, went off to the pyre crowned with fillets that her maidservants bound upon her head, and magnificently dressed as if for a wedding she was escorted by her kinsfolk, who sang a hymn in honour of her virtue.
§ 19.34.4 As she drew near the pyre, she stripped off her ornaments and gave them to her servants and friends, leaving keepsakes, as one might say, to those who loved her. These were the ornaments: upon her hands a number of rings set with precious stones of various colours, about her head no small number of golden stars interspersed with stones of every kind, and about her neck numerous necklaces, some of them smaller, the others each a little larger in a constant progression.
§ 19.34.5 Finally, after taking leave of the household, she was assisted to mount the pyre by her brother, and while the multitude that had gathered for the spectacle watched with amazement, she ended her life in heroic fashion.
§ 19.34.6 For the entire army under arms marched three times about the pyre before it was lighted, and she herself, reclining beside her husband and letting no ignoble cry escape her during the onset of the fire, stirred some of those who beheld her to pity, others to extravagant praise. Nevertheless some of the Greeks denounced the custom as barbarous and cruel.
§ 19.34.7 When Eumenes had completed the burial of the dead, he moved the army from among the Paraetaceni into Gabene, which was unplundered and capable of supplying everything in abundance for the armies.
§ 19.34.8 It happened that this country was a twenty-five days' march from Antigonus if one went through inhabited country, but if one went through waterless desert, a march of nine days. In these regions and at this distance from each other Eumenes and Antigonus passed the winter and at the same time refreshed their men.
§ 19.35.1 In Europe when Cassander, who was besieging Tegea in the Peloponnesus, learned of the return of Olympias to Macedonia and of the murder of Eurydice and King Philip, and moreover what had befallen the tomb of his brother Iollas, he came to terms with the people of Tegea and set out for Macedonia with his army, leaving his allies in complete confusion; for Polyperchon's son Alexander with an army was waiting to attack the cities of the Peloponnesus.
§ 19.35.2 The Aitolians, who wished to please Olympias and Polyperchon, had occupied the pass at Thermopylae and barred Cassander from the passage. Cassander decided against forcing his way through this region, which was difficult to attack, but he secured boats and barges from Euboea and Locris and transported his army to Thessaly.
§ 19.35.3 Hearing that Polyperchon and his army were in position in Perrhaebia, he dispatched his general Callas with an army, ordering him to carry on the war with Polyperchon. Deinias, however, in order to occupy the passes, went to meet the soldiers who had been sent out by Olympias and gained control of the defiles ahead of them.
§ 19.35.4 But Olympias, on learning that Cassander and a large army were near Macedonia, designated Aristonous general, ordering him to fight Cassander,
§ 19.35.5 and she herself went to Pydna accompanied by the following: Alexander's son, his mother Roxane, and Thessalonice, daughter of Philip son of Amyntas; also Deidameia, daughter of Aeacides king of the Epirotes and sister of that Pyrrhus who later fought against the Romans, the daughters of Attalus, and finally the kinsfolk of Olympias' other more important friends. Thus there were gathered about her a large number of persons, but persons for the most part useless in war; and there was not a sufficient supply of food for people who were about to endure a very long siege.
§ 19.35.6 Although the risk involved in all these circumstances was clear, none the less she decided to remain there, hoping that many Greeks and Macedonians would come to her aid by sea.
§ 19.35.7 She had with her some of the Ambracian horse and most of the soldiers who were accustomed to serve about the court, also those of Polyperchon's elephants that remained, for Cassander had gained possession of the rest of the elephants in his previous expedition into Macedonia.
§ 19.36.1 Cassander, going through the passes of Perrhaebia and arriving near Pydna, surrounded the city from sea to sea with a stockade and requisitioned ships, missile weapons of all sorts, and engines of war from those who wished to become his allies, with the intention of laying siege to Olympias by land and sea.
§ 19.36.2 Being informed that Aeacides king of the Epirotes was about to come to the aid of Olympias with an army, he sent out Atarrhias as general, giving him an army and ordering him to meet the Epirotes.
§ 19.36.3 Atarrhias carried out his orders quickly and by occupying the passes from Epirus succeeded in holding Aeacides inactive. Indeed, most of the Epirotes set out for Macedonia against their will and were mutinying in the camp; and Aeacides, who wished at all costs to aid Olympias, by releasing from the army those who were disaffected and taking those who wished to share the fortunes of war with him, although he showed his zeal for a fight to the finish, was not a match for his opponents because few of his army remained.
§ 19.36.4 Those of the Epirotes who went back to their native land rebelled against their absent king, condemned him to exile by a public decree, and made an alliance with Cassander. This was something that had never happened in Epirus from the time when Neoptolemus the son of Achilles was king of the land; for sons had always succeeded to their fathers' authority and had died on the throne up to this time.
§ 19.36.5 Cassander received Epirus in his alliance and sent Lyciscus to it as regent and general, at which the people throughout Macedonia who had previously held apart from the alliance abandoned the fortunes of Olympias in despair and joined themselves to Cassander. Her only hope of aid was from Polyperchon, and this was also unexpectedly crushed;
§ 19.36.6 for when Callas, who had been sent by Cassander as general, drew near Polyperchon in Perrhaebia and camped there, he corrupted most of Polyperchon's soldiers by bribes so that there remained only a few and these the most faithful. Thus Olympias' hopes were humbled in a brief time.
§ 19.37.1 In Asia Antigonus, who was wintering in Gadamala in Media, seeing that his force was weaker than that of the enemy, was anxious to get the better of them by attacking them without warning. It happened that the enemy were occupying winter quarters which were divided in many parts, so that some of the detachments were six days' march distant from others.
§ 19.37.2 So Antigonus disapproved of the idea of marching through the inhabited country because the route was long and easily observed by the enemy, and decided that to venture the journey through the waterless desert although difficult, would be most suitable for the attack that he had planned; for not only was it possible to go quickly by that route, but it was also easy to escape attention and fall unexpectedly upon an army that, because ignorant of his movements, would be scattered among villages and at its ease.
§ 19.37.3 Having formed this plan he ordered the soldiers to be ready to break camp and to prepare ten days' supply of food that would not require cooking. He himself, after spreading the report that he was going to lead the army against Armenia, suddenly and contrary to the assumption of all set out across the desert, it being about this time of the winter solstice.
§ 19.37.4 He gave orders to build the fires in the camps by day, but to extinguish them completely at night, so that no one seeing them from the higher ground might take word to the enemy of what was happening;
§ 19.37.5 for almost the entire desert was a plain, but it was surrounded by high hills from which it was easy to see the gleam of fire from a great distance. After the army had been marching five days with great suffering, the soldiers because of the cold and to satisfy their urgent needs burned fires in the camps both by day and by night.
§ 19.37.6 On seeing this, certain of those who lived near the desert sent men to report it on the same day to Eumenes and Peucestes, giving them dromedaries, for this animal can travel continuously for almost fifteen hundred stades.
§ 19.38.1 When Peucestes learned that a camp had been seen in the middle of the route, he made up his mind to withdraw to the most distant part of the territory in which they were wintering, for he was afraid that they might be overtaken by the enemy before the allied force assembled from all directions.
§ 19.38.2 Seeing his lack of spirit, Eumenes urged him to take courage and to remain on the borders of the desert; for, he said, he had found a way through which he would delay Antigonus' arrival by three or four days. If this took place, he added, their own force would easily be assembled, and the enemy would be delivered over into their hands when utterly worn out and lacking everything.
§ 19.38.3 While all were wondering at this strange promise and were trying to learn what in the world it would be that could prevent the enemy from advancing, he ordered all the commanders to follow him with their own soldiers bringing fire in many jars. He then selected a place in the higher ground that faced toward the desert and was well situated to be clearly visible from every direction and by setting up markers laid out a space with a perimeter of seventy stades. Assigning an area to each of those who followed him, he ordered them at night to light fires about twenty cubits apart and to keep the flames bright in the first watch as if men were still awake and busy with the care of their bodies and the preparation of food, but dimmer in the second watch, and in the third watch to leave only a very few, so that to those who watched from a distance it would seem to be a genuine camp.
§ 19.38.4 The soldiers carried out the directions. The flames were seen by some of those who pastured flocks on the hills opposite and who were friendly toward Pithon, the satrap of Media. Believing that this truly was a camp, they hurried down into the plain and carried the news to Antigonus and Pithon.
§ 19.38.5 These were astonished at this unexpected news and halted the march while they took counsel how they should use this information, for it was dangerous to lead an army that had been undergoing hardship and was in need of everything against hostile forces that were already assembled and were well provided with everything.
§ 19.38.6 Believing that there had been treachery and that the enemy had assembled because they knew in advance what was to happen, they gave up the plan of going straight forward and, turning to the right, went to unplundered parts of the inhabited country, since they wished to refresh the army after its hardships.
§ 19.39.1 When Eumenes had outgeneralled the enemy in the manner described, he called together from all sides those of his soldiers who had been widely scattered while wintering in the villages. After building a palisade as a protection and strengthening the encampment by a deep ditch, he received those of the allies who came down from time to time, and he filled the camp with all the necessary supplies.
§ 19.39.2 But Antigonus, having got across the desert, learned from the inhabitants that, although almost all the rest of Eumenes' army had assembled, the elephants were slow in leaving their winter quarters and were near at hand, cut off from all assistance. He sent cavalry against them — two thousand Median lancers and two hundred Tarentines — and all his light infantry,
§ 19.39.3 for he hoped that, by attacking the elephants when they were isolated, he could easily gain control of them and deprive the enemy of the strongest element in his army. Eumenes, however, guessing what was on foot, sent to the rescue fifteen hundred of the strongest cavalry and three thousand light infantry.
§ 19.39.4 Since the soldiers of Antigonus arrived first, the commanders of the elephants arranged them in a square and advanced, placing the baggage train in the centre and in the rear the cavalry that accompanied the elephants, consisting of a force of not more than four hundred men.
§ 19.39.5 As the enemy fell upon them with all its weight and pressed ever more heavily, the cavalry was routed, overwhelmed by numbers; but those who were in charge of the elephants resisted at first and held firm even though they were receiving wounds from all directions and were not able to injure the enemy in return in any way;
§ 19.39.6 and then, when they were now becoming exhausted, the troops sent by Eumenes suddenly appeared and rescued them from their danger. A few days later, when the armies were encamped opposite each other at a distance of forty stades, each general drew up his army for battle, expecting to decide the issue.
§ 19.40.1 Antigonus placed his cavalry on the wings, giving the command of the left to Pithon and that of the right to his own son Demetrius, beside whom he himself planned to fight. He stationed the foot soldiers in the centre and extended the elephants across the whole front, filling the spaces between them with light armed troops. The total number of his army was twenty-two thousand foot, nine thousand horse including the additional troops enlisted in Media, and sixty-five elephants.
§ 19.40.2 When Eumenes learned that Antigonus had taken his place on the right with his best cavalry, he drew up his army against him, stationing his best troops on the left wing. In fact, he placed there most of the satraps with the selected bodies of cavalry that accompanied them in battle, and he himself intended to take part in the fight along with them. There was also present with them Mithridates, the son of Ariobarzanes and a descendant of one of the seven Persians who slew the Magian Smerdis, a man remarkable for courage and trained from childhood as a soldier.
§ 19.40.3 In front of the whole wing he drew up in a curved line the sixty strongest of the elephants and screened the interval with light troops. Of the foot soldiers he placed first the hypaspists, then the Silver Shields, and finally the mercenaries and those of the other soldiers who were armed in the Macedonian fashion.
§ 19.40.4 In front of the infantry he stationed elephants and an adequate force of his light troops. On the right wing he drew up the weaker of the cavalry and of the elephants, putting all of them under the command of Philip, whom he ordered to avoid battle and to observe the outcome on the other wing. In all there were in Eumenes' army at this time thirty-six thousand seven hundred foot soldiers, six thousand horsemen and one hundred and fourteen elephants.
§ 19.41.1 A short time before the battle Antigenes, the general of the Silver Shields, sent one of the Macedonian horsemen toward the hostile phalanx, ordering him to draw near to it and make proclamation. This man, riding up alone to within earshot opposite the place where the phalanx of Antigonus' Macedonians was stationed, shouted: "Wicked men, are you sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander?" and added that in a little while they would see that these veterans were worthy both of the kings and of their own past battles.
§ 19.41.2 At this time the youngest of the Silver Shields were about sixty years old, most of the others about seventy, and some even older; but all of them were irresistible because of experience and strength, such was the skill and daring acquired through the unbroken series of their battles.
§ 19.41.3 When this proclamation had been delivered as we have said, there arose from the soldiers of Antigonus angry cries to the effect that they were being forced to fight against their kinsfolk and their elders, but from the ranks of Eumenes there came a cheer and a demand that he lead them against the enemy as soon as possible. When Eumenes saw their enthusiasm, he gave the sign by which he directed the trumpeters to sound the signal for combat and the whole army to raise the battle cry.
§ 19.42.1 The first to join in battle were the elephants, and after them the main body of the cavalry. Since the plain was of great extent and entirely uncultivated because of the salt that permeated it, such a cloud of dust was raised by the cavalry that from a little distance one could not easily see what was happening.
§ 19.42.2 When Antigonus perceived this, he dispatched the Median cavalry and an adequate force of Tarentines against the baggage of the enemy; for he hoped, as indeed happened, that this manoeuvre might not be discovered because of the dust, and that by the capture of the baggage he might prevail over the enemy without labour.
§ 19.42.3 The detachment rode around the flank of their opponents and without being noticed attacked the baggage train, which was about five stades distant from the battle. They found that it was packed with a multitude of persons who were useless for fighting but had few defenders, and after quickly defeating those who resisted, they captured all the others.
§ 19.42.4 While this was taking place, Antigonus joined battle with those who were opposite him and by appearing with a large number of cavalry struck panic into Peucestes, satrap of Persia, who in retiring from the dust cloud with his own cavalry drew away fifteen hundred others as well.
§ 19.42.5 Eumenes, although he and a few troopers were left unsupported at the extremity of the wing, regarded it as shameful to yield to fortune and flee; preferring to die while still upholding with noble resolution the trust that had been given him by the kings, he forced his way toward Antigonus himself.
§ 19.42.6 A fierce cavalry battle ensued, in which Eumenes' men were superior in spirit but those of Antigonus had the advantage in number, and many were falling on both sides. It was at this time, while the elephants also were struggling against each other, that Eumenes' leading elephant fell after having been engaged with the strongest of those arrayed against it.
§ 19.42.7 Thereupon Eumenes, seeing that his forces were everywhere having the worst of it, led what remained of the cavalry out of the battle and went around to the other wing, where he assumed command of those troops whom he had assigned to Philip and had ordered to avoid fighting. This was the outcome of the cavalry engagement.
§ 19.43.1 As for the infantry, the Silver Shields in close order fell heavily upon their adversaries, killing some of them in hand to hand fighting and forcing others to flee. They were not to be checked in their charge and engaged the entire opposing phalanx, showing themselves so superior in skill and strength that of their own men they lost not one, but of those who opposed them they slew over five thousand and routed the entire force of foot soldiers, whose numbers were many times their own.
§ 19.43.2 When Eumenes learned that his baggage train was taken but that the cavalry force of Peucestes was not far away, he tried to collect all his mounted men and renew the cavalry battle against Antigonus; for he hoped, if superior in battle, not only to save his own baggage, but also to capture that of the enemy.
§ 19.43.3 Since Peucestes, however, would not listen to him but on the contrary retired still farther to a certain river, and since night was now coming on, Eumenes was forced to yield to the situation.
§ 19.43.4 Antigonus divided his cavalry into two bodies with one of which he himself lay in wait for Eumenes, watching for his first move; but the other he gave to Pithon and ordered him to attack the Silver Shields now that they had been cut off from their cavalry support.
§ 19.43.5 When Pithon promptly carried out his orders, the Macedonians formed themselves into a square and withdrew safely to the river, where they accused Peucestes of being responsible for the defeat of the mounted forces. After Eumenes joined them at about the time for lighting lamps, they took counsel together what should be done.
§ 19.43.6 The satraps, indeed, said that it was necessary to retire to the upper satrapies as rapidly as possible, but Eumenes declared that they should stay and fight it out, for the phalanx of the enemy had been shattered and the cavalry forces on the two sides were equal.
§ 19.43.7 The Macedonians, however, refused to heed either party since their baggage had been taken, and their children, their wives, and many other relatives were in the hands of the enemy.
§ 19.43.8 The meeting accordingly broke up without having adopted any generally approved plan, whereupon the Macedonians secretly entered into negotiations with Antigonus, seized and surrendered Eumenes, recovered their baggage, and after receiving pledges were enrolled in Antigonus' army.
§ 19.43.9 In the same way the satraps and most of the other commanders and soldiers deserted their general, thinking only of their own safety.
§ 19.44.1 Now that Antigonus had unexpectedly mastered Eumenes and all the army that had been opposing him, he seized Antigenes, the commander of the Silver Shields, put him into a pit, and burned him alive. He slew Eudamus, who had brought the elephants from India, and Celbanus, as well as certain others of those who had always been hostile to him.
§ 19.44.2 Putting Eumenes under guard, he considered how best to dispose of him. He wished, indeed, to have at his side a man who was a good general and who would be under obligations to him, but he had little faith in Eumenes' promises because of the latter's loyalty to Olympias and the kings; in fact, on the previous occasion, after Eumenes had been spared by Antigonus at Nora in Phrygia, he had none the less supported the kings most whole-heartedly. When Antigonus saw also that the ardent desire of the Macedonians for the punishment of Eumenes was not to be turned aside, he put him to death; but because of his former friendship for him, he burned his body, and after placing his bones in an urn, he sent them to his relatives.
§ 19.44.3 Among the wounded there was also brought in as a captive the historian Hieronymus of Cardia, who hitherto always had been held in honour by Eumenes, but after Eumenes' death enjoyed the favour and confidence of Antigonus.
§ 19.44.4 After Antigonus had taken his entire army into Media, he himself spent the winter in a village that is near Ecbatana, where the capital of this country is situated, but he distributed the soldiers throughout the entire satrapy and particularly in the eparchy called Rhagae, which had received this name from a catastrophe that had occurred there in former times.
§ 19.44.5 Of all the lands in that part of the world, its cities had been the most numerous and the most prosperous, but it had experienced so violent an earthquake that both the cities and all their inhabitants vanished, and, in general, the land was altered and new rivers and marshy lakes appeared in place of the former ones.
§ 19.45.1 At this time occurred the third inundation of the city of Rhodes, which destroyed many of its inhabitants. Of these floods, the first did little damage to the population since the city was newly founded and therefore contained much open space; the second was greater and caused the death of more persons.
§ 19.45.2 The last befell at the beginning of spring, great rain storms suddenly bursting forth with hail of incredible size. Indeed, hail-stones fell weighing a mina and sometimes more, so that many of the houses collapsed because of the weight, and no small number of the inhabitants were killed.
§ 19.45.3 Since Rhodes is shaped like a theatre and since the streams of water were thus deflected chiefly into a single region, the lower parts of the city were straightway flooded; for, because it was thought that the rainy season of winter had passed, the drains had been neglected and the drainage openings through the city walls had become clogged.
§ 19.45.4 The water that suddenly gathered filled the whole region about the Market and the Temple of Dionysus; and then, as the flood was already advancing to the Temple of Asclepius, all were struck with fear and began to follow various plans for gaining safety.
§ 19.45.5 Some of them fled to ships, others ran to the theatre; certain of those overthrown by the calamity in their extremity climbed upon the highest altars and the bases of statues.
§ 19.45.6 When the city and all its inhabitants were in danger of being utterly destroyed, relief of a sort came of itself; for, as the walls gave way over a long stretch, the water that had been confined poured out through this opening into the sea, and each man soon returned again to his former place.
§ 19.45.7 It was to the advantage of those who were endangered that the flood came by day, for most of the people escaped in time from their houses to the higher parts of the city; and also that the houses were not constructed of sun-dried brick but of stone and that for this reason those who took refuge upon the roofs were safe.
§ 19.45.8 Yet in this great disaster more than five hundred persons lost their lives, while some houses collapsed completely and others were badly shaken. Such was the disaster which befell Rhodes.
§ 19.46.1 When Antigonus, who was wintering in Media, was informed that Pithon was winning the support of many of the soldiers in the winter quarters by promises and gifts and that he planned to revolt, he concealed his own intentions and, pretending not to believe those who were spreading the charges, he rebuked them, in the hearing of many, for trying to disrupt his friendship, and caused a report to be spread abroad that he was about to leave Pithon as general of the upper satrapies with an army sufficient for their safety.
§ 19.46.2 He even wrote to Pithon himself a letter asking him to come as soon as possible, so that he might discuss the necessary matters with him in person and then quickly make his journey to the sea. He devised this plan because he wished to prevent Pithon from suspecting the truth and to persuade him to come within reach on the assumption that he was about to be left behind as satrap; for it was no easy matter to arrest a man by force who had gained preferment for merit while serving under Alexander and who at that very time was satrap of Media and had curried favour with the entire army.
§ 19.46.3 Pithon, who was wintering in the most distant parts of Media, had already corrupted a large number who promised to join him in the revolt, but when his friends wrote to him about the plans of Antigonus and hinted at his own great prospects, he was deceived by empty expectations and came to Antigonus.
§ 19.46.4 The latter, when he had gained possession of his person and had accused him before the members of the council, easily won a conviction and had him executed at once.
§ 19.46.5 Then, gathering the army into one place, he appointed Orontobates, a Mede, satrap of Media, but he made Hippostratus general with an infantry force of thirty-five hundred mercenaries. . . .
§ 19.46.6 Antigonus himself moved to Ecbatana with his army. There he took possession of five thousand talents of uncoined silver and then led the army into Persia, the march to the capital, which is called Persepolis, lasting about twenty days.
§ 19.47.1 While Antigonus was on the march, Pithon's friends who had shared in his conspiracy, of whom the most notable were Meleager and Menoetas, collected the scattered comrades of Eumenes and of Pithon to the number of eight hundred mounted men. At first they harried the territory of those Medes who refused to join the revolt, but afterwards, on learning that Hippostratus and Orontobates were encamped with no thought of danger, they set upon the camp by night. They almost took the outer works, but were overcome by numbers and withdrew after winning certain of the soldiers to join the revolt. 3 Since these were without heavy equipment and were all mounted on horses, their raids were unexpected, and the country was filled with confusion. After some time, however, they were hemmed up in a narrow place that was surrounded by cliffs, where some of them were killed and the others were taken alive. 4 Meleager and Ocranes the Mede, who were among the commanders, and some of the outstanding men were killed while resisting the attack. This was the outcome of the revolt in Media.
§ 19.48.1 As soon as Antigonus came into Persia, he was granted the dignity of kingship by the inhabitants as if he was the acknowledged lord of Asia, and he himself sitting in council with his friends considered the question of the satrapies. He permitted Tlepolemus to retain Carmania, and likewise Stasanor to retain Bactriane, for it was not easy to remove them by sending a message since they had conducted themselves well toward the inhabitants and had many supporters.
§ 19.48.2 He sent Evitus to Aria, but when Evitus died soon afterwards he put Evagoras in his place, a man admired for both courage and shrewdness. He permitted Oxyartes, the father of Roxane, to keep the satrapy in Paropanisadae as before, for he too could not be removed without a long campaign and a strong army.
§ 19.48.3 From Arachosia he summoned Sibyrtius, who was well disposed to him, permitted him to retain the satrapy, and assigned to him the most turbulent of the Silver Shields, ostensibly that they might be useful in the war, but in reality to insure their destruction; for he privately directed the satrap to send a few of them at a time on duties in which they were bound to be killed.
§ 19.48.4 Among them there were, as it happened, those who had betrayed Eumenes, so that punishment for their treachery to their general came upon them speedily. Unholy acts, in truth, are of advantage to princes because of their power, but to private individuals who have merely obeyed orders they are usually the cause of great evil.
§ 19.48.5 Now Antigonus, perceiving that Peucestes was enjoying great favour among the Persians, first took his satrapy away from him. Then when the Persians were angry, and when Thespius, one of their leading men, even said frankly that the Persians would not obey anyone else, Antigonus had this man killed and set up Asclepiodorus as ruler of Persia, giving him a sufficient number of soldiers. As for Peucestes, Antigonus, after leading him on to hope for other things and filling him with vain expectations, removed him from the country.
§ 19.48.6 While Antigonus himself was journeying to Susa, he was met at the Pasitigris River by Xenophilus, the supervisor of the treasury at Susa, who had been sent by Seleucus with orders to carry out Antigonus' every command. Antigonus received him and pretended to honour him among his closest friends, taking care lest he change his mind and shut him out again.
§ 19.48.7 When he himself had occupied the citadel of Susa, he found in it the golden climbing vine and a great number of other objects of art, weighing all told fifteen thousand talents. There was collected for him, besides, a great amount of money from the crowns and the other gifts, and also from the spoils.
§ 19.48.8 This came to five thousand talents; and there was another equal amount in Media apart from the treasury in Susa, so that in all twenty-five thousand talents were gathered together. Such was the state of the affairs of Antigonus.
§ 19.49.1 Now that we have completed the account of events in Asia, we shall turn our attention to Europe and set forth what took place there following the events previously described. Although Cassander had shut Olympias into Pydna in Macedonia, he was not able to assault the walls because of the winter storms, but by encamping about the city, throwing up a palisade from sea to sea, and blockading the port, he prevented any who might wish to aid the queen from doing so.
§ 19.49.2 And as supplies were rapidly exhausted, he created such famine among those within that they were completely incapacitated. In truth, they were brought to such extreme need that they gave each soldier five choenices of grain per month, sawed up wood and fed the sawdust to the imprisoned elephants, and slaughtered the pack animals and horses for food.
§ 19.49.3 While the situation of the city was so serious and while Olympias was still clinging to hopes of rescue from outside, the elephants died from lack of nourishment, the horsemen that were not in the ranks and did not receive any food whatever nearly all perished, and no small number of the soldiers also met the same fate.
§ 19.49.4 Some of the non-Greeks, their natural needs overcoming their scruples, found flesh to eat by collecting the bodies of the dead. Since the city was being quickly filled with corpses, those in charge of the queen's company, though they buried some of the bodies, threw others over the city wall. The sight of these was horrible, and their stench was unbearable, not merely to ladies who were of the queen's court and addicted to luxury, but also to those of the soldiers who were habituated to hardship.
§ 19.50.1 As spring came on and their want increased from day today, many of the soldiers gathered together and appealed to Olympias to let them go because of the lack of supplies. Since she could neither issue any food at all nor break the siege, she permitted them to withdraw.
§ 19.50.2 Cassander, after welcoming all the deserters and treating them in most friendly fashion, sent them to the various cities; for he hoped that when the Macedonians learned from them how weak Olympias was, they would despair of her cause.
§ 19.50.3 And he was not mistaken in his surmise about what would happen: those who had resolved to fight on the side of the besieged forces changed their minds and went over to Cassander; and the only men in Macedonia to preserve their loyalty were Aristonous and Monimus, of whom Aristonous was ruler of Amphipolis and Monimus of Pella.
§ 19.50.4 But Olympias, when she saw that most of her friends had gone over to Cassander and that those who remained were not strong enough to come to her aid, attempted to launch a quinquereme and by this means to save herself and her friends.
§ 19.50.5 When, however, a deserter brought news of this attempt to the enemy and Cassander sailed up and took the ship, Olympias, recognizing that her situation was beyond hope, sent envoys to treat of terms. When Cassander gave his opinion that she must put all her interests into his hands, she with difficulty persuaded him to grant the single exception that he guarantee her personal safety.
§ 19.50.6 As soon as he had gained possession of the city, he sent men to take over Pella and Amphipolis.
§ 19.50.7 Now Monimus, the ruler of Pella, on hearing the fate of Olympias, surrendered his city; but Aristonous at first was minded to cling to his position, since he had many soldiers and had recently enjoyed a success. That is, a few days before this in a battle against Cassander's general Cratevas he had killed most of those who faced him, and when Cratevas himself with two thousand men had fled to Bedyndia in Bisaltia, he invested him, took him by siege, and dismissed him on terms after taking away his arms.
§ 19.50.8 Aristonous, encouraged by this and ignorant of the death of Eumenes, believing, moreover, that Alexander and Polyperchon would support him, refused to surrender Amphipolis. But when Olympias wrote to him demanding his loyalty and ordering him to surrender, he perceived that it was necessary to do as ordered and delivered the city to Cassander, receiving pledges for his own safety.
§ 19.51.1 Cassander, seeing that Aristonous was respected because of the preferment he had received from Alexander, and being anxious to put out of the way any who were able to lead a revolt, caused his death through the agency of the kinsfolk of Cratevas. He also urged the relatives of those whom Olympias had slain to accuse the aforesaid woman in the general assembly of the Macedonians.
§ 19.51.2 They did as he had ordered; and, although Olympias was not present and had none to speak in her defence, the Macedonians condemned her to death. Cassander, however, sent some of his friends to Olympias advising her to escape secretly, promising to provide a ship for her and to carry her to Athens.
§ 19.51.3 He acted thus, not for the purpose of securing her safety, but in order that she, condemning herself to exile and meeting death on the voyage, might seem to have met a punishment that was deserved; for he was acting with caution both because of her rank and because of the fickleness of the Macedonians.
§ 19.51.4 As Olympias, however, refused to flee but on the contrary was ready to be judged before all the Macedonians, Cassander, fearing that the crowd might change its mind if it heard the queen defend herself and was reminded of all the benefits conferred on the entire nation by Alexander and Philip, sent to her two hundred soldiers who were best fitted for such a task, ordering them to slay her as soon as possible.
§ 19.51.5 They, accordingly, broke into the royal house, but when they beheld Olympias, overawed by her exalted rank, they withdrew with their task unfulfilled. But the relatives of her victims, wishing to curry favour with Cassander as well as to avenge their dead, murdered the queen, who uttered no ignoble or womanish plea.
§ 19.51.6 Such was the end of Olympias, who had attained to the highest dignity of the women of her day, having been daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Epirotes, sister of the Alexander who made a campaign into Italy, and also wife of Philip, who was the mightiest of all who down to this time had ruled in Europe, and mother of Alexander, whose deeds were the greatest and most glorious.
§ 19.52.1 As for Cassander, now that his affairs had succeeded according to his intentions, he began to embrace in his hopes the Macedonian kingdom. For this reason he married Thessalonice, who was Philip's daughter and Alexander's half-sister, since he desired to establish a connection with the royal house.
§ 19.52.2 He also founded on Pallene a city called Cassandreia after his own name, uniting with it as one city the cities of the peninsula, Potidaea, and a considerable number of the neighbouring towns. He also settled in this city those of the Olynthians who survived, not few in number.
§ 19.52.3 Since a great deal of land, and good land too, was included within the boundaries of Cassandreia, and since Cassander was very ambitious for the city's increase, it quickly made great progress and became the strongest of the cities of Macedonia.
§ 19.52.4 Cassander had determined to do away with Alexander's son and the son's mother, Roxane, so that there might be no successor to the kingdom; but for the present, since he wished to observe what the common people would say about the slaying of Olympias and since he had no news of Antigonus' success, he placed Roxane and the child in custody, transferring them to the citadel of Amphipolis, in command of which he placed Glaucias, one of his most trusted henchmen. Also he took away the pages who, according to custom, were being brought up as companions of the boy, and he ordered that he should no longer have royal treatment but only such as was proper for any ordinary person of private station.
§ 19.52.5 After this, already conducting himself as a king in administering the affairs of the realm, he buried Eurydice and Philip, the queen and king, and also Cynna, whom Alcetas had slain, in Aegae as was the royal custom. After honouring the dead with funeral games, he enrolled those of the Macedonians who were fit for military service, for he had decided to make a campaign into the Peloponnesus.
§ 19.52.6 While Cassander was engaged with these matters, Polyperchon was being besieged in Azorius in Perrhaebia, but on hearing of the death of Olympias he finally, despairing of success in Macedonia, escaped from the city with a few followers. Leaving Thessaly and taking over the troops led by Aeacides, he withdrew into Aitolia, believing that he could wait there with greatest safety and observe the changes in the situation; for as it chanced he was on friendly terms with this people.
§ 19.53.1 But Cassander, after assembling an adequate force, set out from Macedonia, desiring to drive Polyperchon's son Alexander from the Peloponnesus; for of those who opposed Cassander he alone was left with an army, and he had occupied strategically situated cities and districts. Cassander crossed Thessaly without loss, but when he found the pass at Thermopylae guarded by Aitolians, he with difficulty dislodged them and entered Boeotia.
§ 19.53.2 Summoning from all sides those of the Thebans who survived, he undertook to re-establish Thebes, for he assumed that this was a most excellent opportunity to set up once more a city that had been widely known both for its achievements and for the myths that had been handed down about it; and he supposed that by this benevolent act he would acquire undying fame.
§ 19.53.3 The fact is that this city has experienced very many changes of fortune and has been destroyed on no few occasions; and it will not be out of place to recount here the chief events of its history.
§ 19.53.4 When, after the flood that occurred in the days of Deucalion, Cadmus built the Cadmeia, which was called after his name, there came together there with him a folk whom some call the Spartoi because they had been gathered together from all sides, and others the Thebagenes because they were originally from Thebes but had been driven out and scattered by the flood.
§ 19.53.5 Be that as it may, these people then settled in the city but later the Encheleans defeated them in war and drove them out, at which time Cadmus and his followers also were driven to Illyria. Later Amphion and Zethus became masters of the site and then built the lower city for the first time, as the poet says: First by them was established Thebes of the seven gates. Then the inhabitants of the place were exiled a second time, for Polydorus, son of Cadmus, came back and was dissatisfied with the situation because of the misfortunes that had befallen Amphion in connection with his children.
§ 19.53.6 Next, when Polydorus' own descendants were kings and the whole country had already received the name Boeotia from Boeotus, who was the son of Melanippe and Poseidon and had been ruler of the region, the Thebans for the third time suffered exile, for the Epigoni from Argos took the city by siege.
§ 19.53.7 The survivors of those driven out took refuge in Alalcomenia and on Mount Tilphosium, but after the Argives had departed they returned to their native city. After that, when the Thebans had gone to Asia for the Trojan War, those who were left behind were expelled along with the rest of the Boeotians by Pelasgians.
§ 19.53.8 Thereafter they met with many misfortunes, and only with difficulty in the fourth generation according to the prophecy of the ravens did they return to Boeotia and re-establish Thebes. From that time the city persisted for nearly eight hundred years, the Thebans at first becoming the leaders of their own people and later disputing for the leadership of the Greeks, until Alexander, son of Philip, captured the city by storm and destroyed it.
§ 19.54.1 In the twentieth year thereafter Cassander in his desire for glory, after first obtaining the consent of the Boeotians, rebuilt the city for those of the Thebans who survived.
§ 19.54.2 Many of the Greek cities shared in the resettlement both because of their pity for the unfortunate and because of the glory of the city. The Athenians, for example, rebuilt the greater part of the wall, and of the other Greeks, not alone from Greece itself but from Sicily and Italy as well, some erected buildings to the extent of their ability, and others sent money for the pressing needs.
§ 19.54.3 In this way the Thebans recovered their city. To return to Cassander, he set out with his army for the Peloponnesus, but on finding that Alexander, son of Polyperchon, had blocked the Isthmus with guards, he turned aside to Megara. There he constructed barges upon which he transported the elephants to Epidaurus, taking the rest of the army in boats. Coming to the city of the Argives, he forced it to abandon its alliance with Alexander and to join him,
§ 19.54.4 after which he won over the cities of Messenia except Ithome, and gained Hermionis through negotiation. As Alexander, however, did not come out to fight, he left at the end of the Isthmus toward Gerania two thousand soldiers commanded by Molyccus and returned to Macedonia.
§ 19.55.1 When this year had passed, Praxibulus was archon at Athens and in Rome Nautius Spurius and Marcus Poplius were consuls. While these held office Antigonus left Aspisas, a native, as satrap of Susiane, while he himself, having decided to convey all the money to the sea, prepared waggons and camels and, taking the treasure, set out for Babylonia with the army.
§ 19.55.2 In twenty-two days he arrived in Babylon, and Seleucus, the satrap of the country, honoured him with gifts suitable for a king and feasted the whole army.
§ 19.55.3 When Antigonus, however, demanded an accounting for the revenues, Seleucus answered that he was not bound to undergo a public investigation of his administration of this country which the Macedonians had given him in recognition of his services rendered while Alexander was alive.
§ 19.55.4 As the dispute grew more serious each day, Seleucus, reasoning from the fate of Pithon, feared that Antigonus would some day seize a pretext and undertake to destroy him; for Antigonus seemed eager to put out of the way all of his associates who were of high rank and were capable of claiming a share in the government.
§ 19.55.5 Therefore to avoid this, he escaped with fifty horsemen, intending to retire into Egypt to Ptolemy; for word had spread abroad of Ptolemy's kindness and of his cordiality and friendliness toward those who fled to him.
§ 19.55.6 When Antigonus learned of the flight, he was pleased, since it seemed that he himself had been spared the necessity of laying violent hands upon a man who had been his friend and had actively co-operated with him, and that Seleucus, by condemning himself to exile, had surrendered his satrapy without struggle or danger.
§ 19.55.7 But then the Chaldean astrologers came to him and foretold that if ever he let Seleucus escape from his hands, the consequence would be that all Asia would become subject to Seleucus, and that Antigonus himself would lose his life in a battle against him. At this, Antigonus repented his former course and sent men to pursue Seleucus, but they, after tracking him for a certain distance, returned with their mission unaccomplished.
§ 19.55.8 Although Antigonus was accustomed to despise prophecies of this kind on other occasions, he was not a little troubled at this time, being disturbed by the reputation of the men, for they are reputed to possess a great deal of experience and to make most exact observations of the stars. Indeed they declare that for many myriads of years the study of these matters has been pursued among them. It is also believed that they foretold to Alexander, that, if he entered Babylon, he would die.
§ 19.55.9 And just as was the case with the prophecy about Alexander, it came to pass that this prophecy in regard to Seleucus was fulfilled according to the assertion of these men. Of this we shall speak in detail when we come to the proper period.
§ 19.56.1 Seleucus, arriving safely in Egypt, met with nothing but kindness from Ptolemy. He bitterly accused Antigonus, saying that Antigonus had determined to remove from their satrapies all who were men of rank and in particular those who had served under Alexander; as examples of this he mentioned the slaying of Pithon, the removal of Peucestes from Persia, and his own experiences;
§ 19.56.2 for all of these men, who were guiltless of wrongdoing and had even performed great services out of friendship, had been patiently awaiting a reward for virtue. He reviewed also the magnitude of Antigonus' armed forces, his vast wealth, and his recent successes, and went on to intimate that in consequence he had become arrogant and had encompassed in his ambitious plans the entire kingdom of the Macedonians.
§ 19.56.3 When by such arguments he had induced Ptolemy to prepare for war, he sent certain of his friends to Europe, directing them to try by similar arguments to convert Cassander and Lysimachus into enemies of Antigonus.
§ 19.56.4 They quickly carried out their instructions, and the seed of a quarrel and of great wars began to grow. But Antigonus, who had deduced by reasoning from probabilities what course of action Seleucus was following, sent envoys to Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, urging them to maintain the existing friendship. He next established as satrap of Babylonia that Pithon who had come from India, and then, setting out with his army, he marched toward Cilicia.
§ 19.56.5 He arrived at Malus and, after the setting of Orion, divided the army for passing the winter. He also took the money at Cyinda, which amounted to ten thousand talents. Apart from this there fell to him from the annual revenue eleven thousand talents. As a result he was a formidable antagonist both because of the size of his armies and because of the amount of his wealth.
§ 19.57.1 While Antigonus was going into upper Syria, envoys arrived from Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander. When they had been brought into the council, they demanded that Cappadocia and Lycia be given to Cassander, Hellespontine Phrygia to Lysimachus, all Syria to Ptolemy, and Babylonia to Seleucus, and that Antigonus should divide the treasures that he had captured after the battle with Eumenes, since they too had had a share in the war.
§ 19.57.2 They said that if he did none of these things, they would all join in waging war on him. Antigonus answered rather harshly and bade them make ready for war, with the result that the envoys went away with their mission unaccomplished. At this Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, after making a mutual alliance, gathered their forces and prepared stocks of arms, missiles, and the other needful things.
§ 19.57.3 But now that Antigonus saw that many men of great repute had combined against him, and computed the extent of the war that was springing up, he summoned the nations, cities, and rulers to join his alliance.
§ 19.57.4 He sent Agesilaus to the kings in Cyprus, Idomeneus and Moschion to Rhodes, and his own nephew Ptolemy with an army to Cappadocia to raise the siege of Amisus, to drive out all who had been sent by Cassander into Cappadocia, and finally to take a position on the Hellespont and lie in wait for Cassander if he should try to cross over from Europe.
§ 19.57.5 He sent Aristodemus of Miletus to the Peloponnesus with a thousand talents, instructing him to establish friendship with Alexander and Polyperchon and, after raising an adequate force of mercenaries, to carry on the war against Cassander. He himself established at intervals throughout all that part of Asia of which he was master a system of fire-signals and dispatch-carriers, by means of which he expected to have quick service in all his business.
§ 19.58.1 After attending to these matters, Antigonus set out for Phoenicia, hastening to organize a naval force; for it so happened that his enemies then ruled the sea with many ships, but that he had, altogether, not even a few. Camping at Old Tyre in Phoenicia and intending to besiege Tyre, he called together the kings of the Phoenicians and the viceroys of Syria.
§ 19.58.2 He instructed the kings to assist him in building ships, since Ptolemy was holding in Egypt all the ships from Phoenicia with their crews. He ordered the viceroys to prepare quickly four and a half million measures of wheat . . ., for such was the annual consumption. He himself collected wood cutters, sawyers, and shipwrights from all sides, and carried wood to the sea from Lebanon. There were eight thousand men employed in cutting and sawing the timber and one thousand pair of draught animals in transporting it.
§ 19.58.3 This mountain range extends along the territory of Tripolis, Byblus, and Sidon, and is covered with cedar and cypress trees of wonderful beauty and size.
§ 19.58.4 He established three shipyards in Phoenicia — at Tripolis, Byblus, and Sidon — and a fourth in Cilicia, the timber for which was brought from Mount Taurus.
§ 19.58.5 There was also another in Rhodes, where the state agreed to make ships from imported timber. While Antigonus was busy with these matters and after he had established his camp near the sea, Seleucus arrived from Egypt with a hundred ships, which were royally equipped and which sailed excellently. As he sailed contemptuously along past the very camp, men from the allied cities and all who were co-operating with Antigonus were downhearted;
§ 19.58.6 for it was very clear that, since the enemy dominated the sea, they would plunder the lands of those who aided their opponents out of friendship for Antigonus. Antigonus, however, bade them be of good courage, affirming that in that very summer he would take the sea with five hundred vessels.
§ 19.59.1 While Antigonus was thus engaged, Agesilaus, the envoy whom he had sent to Cyprus, arrived with the information that Nicocreon and the most powerful of the other kings had made an alliance with Ptolemy, but that the kings of Cition, Lapithus, Marion, and Cerynia had concluded a treaty of friendship with himself.
§ 19.59.2 On learning this, Antigonus left three thousand soldiers under Andronicus to carry on the siege, but he himself set out with the army and took by storm Joppa and Gaza, cities that had refused obedience. The soldiers of Ptolemy whom he captured he distributed among his own ranks, but he placed in each city a garrison to force the inhabitants to obey him.
§ 19.59.3 He himself then went back to the camp at Old Tyre and made preparations for the siege. At this time Ariston, to whose care the bones of Craterus had been entrusted by Eumenes, gave them for burial to Phila, who had formerly been the wife of Craterus, but now was married to Demetrius, the son of Antigonus.
§ 19.59.4 This woman seems to have been of exceptional sagacity; for example, she would quell the trouble-makers in the camp by dealing with each individual in a manner appropriate to his case, she would arrange marriages at her own expense for the sisters and daughters of the poor, and she would free from jeopardy many who had been trapped by false accusations.
§ 19.59.5 It is even said that her father Antipater, who is reputed to have been the wisest of the rulers of his own time, used to consult with Phila about the most important matters when she was still a child.
§ 19.59.6 But the character of the woman will be more clearly revealed by my narrative as it progresses and by the events that brought change and a final crisis to the reign of Demetrius. This was the situation of the affairs of Antigonus and of Phila, the wife of Demetrius.
§ 19.60.1 Of the generals who had been sent out by Antigonus, Aristodemus sailed to Laconia and, on receiving permission from the Spartans to recruit mercenaries, enrolled eight thousand soldiers from the Peloponnesus. Meeting Alexander and Polyperchon, he established friendship between them and Antigonus. He appointed Polyperchon general of the Peloponnesus, and he persuaded Alexander to sail to Antigonus in Asia.
§ 19.60.2 The other general, Ptolemy, proceeded with his army to Cappadocia where he found Amisus under siege by Asclepiodorus, a general of Cassander. He delivered the city from danger and recovered the satrapy after dismissing Asclepiodorus and his men under a truce. Thereafter advancing through Bithynia and finding Zibytes, the king of the Bithynians, laying siege to the city of the Astacenians and the Chalcedonians, he forced him to abandon the siege.
§ 19.60.3 After making alliances with these cities and with Zibytes and also taking hostages from them, he proceeded toward Ionia and Lydia; for Antigonus had written ordering him to go quickly to the support of the coast, since Seleucus was about to make a naval expedition into that region.
§ 19.60.4 It so happened that, as he finally drew near to this area, Seleucus was laying siege to Erythrae, but when he heard that the hostile force was near, he sailed away with nothing accomplished.
§ 19.61.1 Antigonus, after Polyperchon's son Alexander had come to him, made a pact of friendship with him, and then, calling a general assembly of the soldiers and of the aliens who were dwelling there, laid charges against Cassander, bringing forward the murder of Olympias and the treatment of Roxane and the king.
§ 19.61.2 Moreover, he said that Cassander had married Thessalonice by force, and was clearly trying to establish his own claim to the Macedonian throne; and also that, although the Olynthians were very bitter enemies of the Macedonians, Cassander had re-established them in a city called by his own name and had rebuilt Thebes, which had been razed by the Macedonians.
§ 19.61.3 When the crowd showed that it shared his wrath, he introduced a decree according to the terms of which it was voted that Cassander was to be an enemy unless he destroyed these cities again, released the king and his mother Roxane from imprisonment and restored them to the Macedonians, and, in general, yielded obedience to Antigonus the duly established general who had succeeded to the guardianship of the throne. It was also stated that all the Greeks were free, not subject to foreign garrisons, and autonomous. When the soldiers had voted in favour of these measures, Antigonus sent men in every direction to carry the decree,
§ 19.61.4 for he believed that through their hope of freedom he would gain the Greeks as eager participants with him in the war, and that the generals and satraps in the upper satrapies, who had suspected that he was determined to depose the kings who inherited from Alexander, would, if he publicly took upon himself the war in their behalf, all change their minds and promptly obey his orders.
§ 19.61.5 Having finished these matters, he gave Alexander five hundred talents and, after leading him to hope for great things to come, sent him back to the Peloponnesus. He himself, after summoning ships from Rhodes and equipping most of those that had been built, sailed against Tyre. Although he pressed the siege with vigour for a year and three months, controlling the sea and preventing food from being brought in, yet after he had reduced the besieged to extreme want, he permitted the soldiers who had come from Ptolemy to depart each with his own possessions; but when the city capitulated, he introduced into it a garrison to watch it closely.
§ 19.62.1 While these things were going on, Ptolemy, who had heard what had been decreed by the Macedonians with Antigonus in regard to the freedom of the Greeks, published a similar decree himself, since he wished the Greeks to know that he was no less interested in their autonomy than was Antigonus.
§ 19.62.2 Each of them, indeed, perceiving that it was a matter of no little moment to gain the goodwill of the Greeks, rivalled the other in conferring favours upon this people. Ptolemy also brought into his alliance Asander, satrap of Caria, who was strong and had a considerable number of cities subject to him.
§ 19.62.3 To the kings on Cyprus, to whom he had previously sent three thousand soldiers, he now dispatched a strong army, for he was anxious to force those who were opposing to carry out his commands.
§ 19.62.4 Myrmidon the Athenian, therefore, was sent with ten thousand men, and Polycleitus with a hundred ships, while Menelaus, his own brother, was made commander of the whole force. When these had sailed to Cyprus and there had found Seleucus and his fleet, they met together and considered what they ought to do.
§ 19.62.5 They decided that Polycleitus with fifty ships should sail to the Peloponnesus and carry on the war against Aristodemus, Alexander, and Polyperchon; that Myrmidon and the mercenaries should go to Caria to aid Asander, who was being attacked by Ptolemy the general; and that Seleucus and Menelaus, left in Cyprus with King Nicocreon and the other allies, should carry on the war against those who opposed them.
§ 19.62.6 After the forces had been divided in this way, Seleucus took Cerynia and Lapithus, secured the support of Stasioecus, king of the Marienses, forced the ruler of the Amathusii to give a guaranty, and laid unremitting siege with all his forces to the city of the Citienses, which he had not been able to induce to join him.
§ 19.62.7 At about this time forty ships under the command of Themison came to Antigonus from the Hellespont, and likewise Dioscorides put in with eighty vessels from the Hellespont and Rhodes.
§ 19.62.8 The first to be finished of the ships that had been made in Phoenicia were also at hand fully equipped; including those captured at Tyre, they were one hundred and twenty, so that in all there were gathered together about Antigonus two hundred and forty fully equipped ships of war. Of these there were ninety with four orders of oarsmen, ten with five, three with nine, ten with ten, and thirty undecked boats.
§ 19.62.9 Dividing this naval force, he sent fifty ships to the Peloponnesus, and ordered his nephew, Dioscorides, whom he had made commander of the rest, to make a circuit of the sea, guaranteeing the safety of the allies and winning the support of the islands that had not yet joined the alliance. Such was the state of Antigonus' affairs.
§ 19.63.1 Now that we have related the events that took place in Asia, we shall in turn discuss the affairs of Europe. Apollonides, who had been appointed general over Argos by Cassander, made a raid into Arcadia by night and captured the city of the Stymphalians.
§ 19.63.2 But while he was engaged in this, those of the Argives who were hostile to Cassander sent for Alexander, Polyperchon's son, promising to hand the city over to him. Alexander, however, delayed, and Apollonides arrived back in Argos before him. Finding about five hundred of his antagonists gathered in the prytaneion, he prevented them from leaving the building and burned them alive. He exiled most of the others, but arrested and killed a few.
§ 19.63.3 When Cassander learned of Aristodemus' arrival in the Peloponnesus and of the multitude of mercenaries that he had collected there, his first effort was to turn Polyperchon from his alliance with Antigonus. When Polyperchon, however, would not listen to him, he brought his army through Thessaly into Boeotia.
§ 19.63.4 After aiding the Thebans in building their walls, he went on into the Peloponnesus. First he took Cenchreae and plundered the fields of the Corinthians. Then, after taking two fortresses by storm, he dismissed under a truce the garrisons that had been placed in them by Alexander.
§ 19.63.5 Next he attacked the city of Orchomenus. Being admitted by the faction hostile to Alexander, he installed a garrison in the city, and when the friends of Alexander took refuge in the shrine of Artemis, he permitted the citizens to treat them as they wished. The people of Orchomenus, accordingly, dragged the suppliants away by force and slew them all, contrary to the universal custom of the Greeks.
§ 19.64.1 Cassander passed on into Messenia, but finding the city garrisoned by Polyperchon, he temporarily relinquished his plan of laying siege to it. Passing over into Arcadia, he left Damis as governor of Megalopolis, while he himself, after going into Argolis and presiding at the Nemean games, returned into Macedonia.
§ 19.64.2 After he had gone, Alexander visited the cities of the Peloponnesus accompanied by Aristodemus and tried to drive out the garrisons that had been established by Cassander and to restore freedom to the cities.
§ 19.64.3 As soon as Cassander learned this, he sent Prepelaus to Alexander, asking him to desert Antigonus and conclude with himself an alliance in due form. He said that if he did this, he would give him the command of all the Peloponnesus, make him general of an army, and honour him according to his deserts.
§ 19.64.4 Alexander, since he saw that the thing for which he had originally made war against Cassander was being granted to him, made the alliance and was appointed general of the Peloponnesus. While all this was taking place, Polycleitus, who had been sent by Seleucus from Cyprus, sailed into Cenchreae,
§ 19.64.5 but when he heard of Alexander's change in allegiance and saw that there was no hostile force in existence, he sailed for Pamphylia. He sailed along the coast from Pamphylia to Aphrodisias in Cilicia; and, hearing that Theodotus, the admiral of Antigonus, was sailing from Patara in Lycia in Rhodian ships with Carian crews, and that Perilaus was accompanying him with an army on land, thus securing the safety of the fleet in its voyage, he outgeneralled both of them.
§ 19.64.6 Disembarking his soldiers, he concealed them in a suitable place where it was necessary for the enemy to pass, taking cover behind a promontory while awaiting the coming of the enemy. The army was first to fall into the ambush; Perilaus was captured, some of the rest fell while fighting, and others were taken prisoners.
§ 19.64.7 When the Rhodian ships tried to go to the aid of their own forces, Polycleitus sailed up suddenly with his fleet drawn up for battle and easily routed the disorganized enemy. The result was that all the ships were captured and a considerable number of the men also, among them Theodotus himself, who was wounded and a few days later died.
§ 19.64.8 After Polycleitus had gained so great an advantage without danger, he sailed away to Cyprus and thence to Pelusium. Ptolemy praised him, honoured him with great gifts, and gave him much greater preferment as having been the author of an important victory. He released Perilaus and some of the other captives when an envoy in their behalf came from Antigonus. He himself went to Ecregma, as it is called, where he conferred with Antigonus, returning again since Antigonus would not agree to his demands.
§ 19.65.1 Now that we have related the deeds of the European Greeks in Greece and Macedonia, we shall consider in due order the history of the western regions. Agathocles, the dynast of Syracuse, who was holding a fort of the Messenians, promised to surrender the position on receiving from them thirty talents;
§ 19.65.2 but when the Messenians gave him the money, he not only failed to keep his promise to those who had put faith in him, but he also undertook to capture Messene itself. On learning that a certain section of the wall of the city was in ruins, he sent his cavalry by land from Syracuse while he himself sailed close to the city by night with light vessels.
§ 19.65.3 Since, however, the intended victims of the plot learned of it beforehand, this attack failed; but he sailed to Mylae and besieged the fort, which surrendered by capitulation. He then departed for Syracuse, but at the time of the harvest he made another expedition against Messene.
§ 19.65.4 He camped near the city and made repeated attacks, but he was not able to inflict any considerable damage upon his enemies, for many of the exiles from Syracuse had taken refuge in the city, and these fought furiously both for the sake of their own safety and because of their hatred for the tyrant.
§ 19.65.5 At this time there came envoys from Carthage, who censured Agathocles for what he had done on the ground that he had violated the treaty. They also secured peace for the people of Messene, and then, when they had forced the tyrant to restore the fort, they sailed back to Libya.
§ 19.65.6 Agathocles, however, went on to Abacaenon, an allied city, where he put to death those who appeared to be hostile to him, being more than forty in number.
§ 19.65.7 While these things were taking place, the Romans in their war with the Samnites took Ferentum, a city of Apulia, a by storm. The inhabitants of Nuceria, which is called Alfaterna, yielding to the persuasion of certain persons, abandoned their friendship for Rome and made an alliance with the Samnites.
§ 19.66.1 After this year had passed, Nicodorus was archon at Athens, and at Rome Lucius Papirius was consul for the fourth time and Quintus Publius for the second. While these held office,
§ 19.66.2 Aristodemus, who had been made general by Antigonus, on learning of the defection of Polyperchon's son Alexander, presented his own side of the matter to the common assembly of the Aitolians and persuaded the majority to support the fortunes of Antigonus. He himself, however, with his mercenaries crossed from Aitolia to the Peloponnesus, where he found Alexander and the Eleans laying siege to Cyllene, and, arriving at a moment opportune for the endangered people, raised the siege.
§ 19.66.3 Leaving troops there to insure the safety of the stronghold, he advanced into Achaia and freed Patrae, which was subject to a garrison of Cassander's troops. After a successful siege of Aegium he became master of its garrison; but, although he wished to establish freedom for the people of Aegium according to the decree, he was blocked by the following incident: for while the soldiers were engaged in pillaging, many of the Aegienses were killed and very many of their buildings were destroyed.
§ 19.66.4 Thereafter, when Aristodemus had sailed to Aitolia, the Dymaeans, who were subject to a garrison sent by Cassander, cut off their city by a dividing wall in such a way that it was isolated and separated from the citadel. Then, after encouraging each other to assert their freedom, they invested the citadel and made unremitting attacks upon it.
§ 19.66.5 But Alexander on learning of this came with his army, forced his way within the wall, and became master of the city, slaying some of the Dymaeans, imprisoning others, and sending many into exile.
§ 19.66.6 When Alexander had departed from the city, the survivors remained quiet for some time, stunned by the magnitude of the disaster and also bereft of allies. After a little while, however, they summoned from Aegium the mercenaries of Aristodemus and once more made an attack on the garrison. Taking the citadel, they freed the city; and when they had massacred most of those who had been left there, they likewise slew all those of their own citizens who maintained friendship with Alexander.
§ 19.67.1 While this was taking place, Polyperchon's son Alexander, as he was setting out from Sikyon with his army, was killed by Alexion of Sikyon and certain others who pretended to be friends. His wife, Cratesipolis, however, succeeded to his power and held his army together, since she was most highly esteemed by the soldiers for her acts of kindness; for it was her habit to aid those who were in misfortune and to assist many of those who were without resources.
§ 19.67.2 She possessed, too, skill in practical matters and more daring than one would expect in a woman. Indeed, when the people of Sikyon scorned her because of her husband's death and assembled under arms in an effort to gain their freedom, she drew up her forces against them and defeated them with great slaughter, but arrested and crucified about thirty. When she had a firm hold on the city, she governed the Sikyonians, maintaining many soldiers, who were ready for any emergency. Such, then, was the situation in the Peloponnesus.
§ 19.67.3 When Cassander saw that the Aitolians were supporting Antigonus and were also engaged in a border war with the Acarnanians, he decided that it was to his advantage at a single stroke to make the Acarnanians his allies and to humble the Aitolians. For this reason, setting out from Macedonia with a large army, he moved into Aitolia and camped beside the river called the Campylus.
§ 19.67.4 When he had summoned the Acarnanians to a common assembly and had related to them in detail how they had been engaged in border warfare from ancient days, he advised them to move from their villages, which were small and unfortified, into a few cities so that they would no longer, because their homes were scattered, be powerless to aid each other and find difficulty in assembling to meet the unexpected raids of their enemies. The Acarnanians were persuaded, and most of them came to live together in Stratus, since this was their strongest and largest city; but the Oiniadae and some others gathered at Sauria, and the Derians and the rest settled at Agrinium.
§ 19.67.5 Cassander left Lyciscus in command with adequate troops, ordering him to aid the Acarnanians; but he himself moved upon Leucas with an army and secured the allegiance of the city through an embassy. Thereafter, directing his campaign to the Adriatic, he took Apollonia at the first assault. Advancing into Illyria and crossing the Hebrus River, he drew up his army against Glaucias, the king of the Illyrians. 7 Being successful in the battle, he made a treaty with the king according to which Glaucias was not to wage war on Cassander's allies; then he himself, after securing the city of Epidamnus and establishing a garrison therein, returned to Macedonia.
§ 19.68.1 When Cassander had departed from Aitolia, the Aitolians, gathering together to the number of three thousand, invested Agrinium and began a siege. The inhabitants of the place came to terms with them, agreeing to surrender the city and depart under safe conduct; but when, trusting in the treaty, they were leaving, the Aitolians violated the terms, pursued hotly after these men while they were anticipating no danger, and slaughtered all but a few of them.
§ 19.68.2 When Cassander had arrived in Macedonia and heard that war was being waged on all the cities in Caria that were allied to Ptolemy and Seleucus, he sent an army into Caria, for he both wished to aid his allies and at the same time was eager to force Antigonus into distracting undertakings so that he might not have leisure for crossing over into Europe.
§ 19.68.3 He also wrote to Demetrius of Phalerum and to Dionysius, who commanded the garrison on Munychia, bidding them dispatch twenty ships to Lemnos. They at once sent the boats with Aristotle in command of them. After the latter had sailed to Lemnos and had summoned Seleucus and a fleet, he undertook to persuade the Lemnians to revolt from Antigonus; but as they did not assent, he ravaged their land, invested the city, and began a siege. Afterwards, however, Seleucus sailed off to Cos; and Dioscurides, who had been made admiral by Antigonus, on learning of Seleucus' departure, swooped down upon Lemnos, drove Aristotle himself from the island, and captured most of his ships together with their crews. 5 Asander and Prepelaus were in command of the expedition sent by Cassander into Caria; and, on being informed that Ptolemaeus, the general of Antigonus, had divided his army for wintering and was himself engaged in burying his father, they dispatched Eupolemus to lie in wait for the enemy near Caprima in Caria, sending with him eight thousand foot soldiers and two hundred horse. 6 But at this time Ptolemaeus, who had heard from some deserters of the plan of the enemy, gathered from the troops who were wintering near by eight thousand three hundred foot soldiers and six hundred horse. 7 Falling unexpectedly upon the fortified camp of the enemy about midnight and catching them off guard and asleep, he captured Eupolemus himself alive and forced the soldiers to give themselves up. This, then, is what befell the generals who were sent by Cassander into Asia.
§ 19.69.1 When Antigonus perceived that Cassander was trying to win Asia for himself, he left his son Demetrius in Syria, ordering him to lie in wait for Ptolemy, whom he suspected of intending to advance from Egypt with an army against Syria; with Demetrius he left an infantry force consisting of ten thousand mercenaries, two thousand Macedonians, five hundred Lycians and Pamphylians, and four hundred Persian archers and slingers, a cavalry force of five thousand, and forty-three elephants. He assigned to him four counsellors: Nearchus of Crete, Pithon, son of Agenor, who had returned a few days before from Babylon, also Andronicus of Olynthus and Philip, men advanced in years who had accompanied Alexander on his whole campaign; for Demetrius was still youthful, being twenty-two years of age.
§ 19.69.2 Antigonus himself, taking the rest of the army, first tried to cross the Taurus Range, where he encountered deep snow and lost large numbers of his soldiers. Turning back therefore into Cilicia and seizing another opportunity, he crossed the aforesaid range in greater safety; and, on reaching Celaenae in Phrygia, he divided his army for wintering.
§ 19.69.3 Thereafter he summoned from Phoenicia his fleet under the command of Medius, who fell in with the ships of the Pydnaeans, thirty-six in number, defeated them in an engagement, and captured the vessels together with their crews. This was the situation in Greece and in Asia.
§ 19.70.1 In Sicily those of the Syracusan exiles who were tarrying in Acragas urged the rulers of that city not to watch complacently while Agathocles organized the cities; for it was better, they said, to fight it out of their own free will before the tyrant became strong than to await the increase of his power and then be forced to struggle against him when he had grown stronger.
§ 19.70.2 Since they seemed to speak the truth, the popular assembly of the Acragantines voted for the war, added the people of Gela and Messene to the alliance, and sent some of the exiles to Lacedemon, instructing them to try to bring back a general capable of taking charge of affairs;
§ 19.70.3 for they were suspicious of their own statesmen as being inclined toward tyranny, but, remembering the generalship of Timoleon the Corinthian, assumed that leaders from abroad would honestly devote themselves to the common cause.
§ 19.70.4 The envoys, when they arrived in Laconia, found that Acrotatus, the son of King Cleomenes, had given offence to many of the younger men and for this reason was eager for activity away from home.
§ 19.70.5 This was because, when the Lacedemonians after the battle against Antipater relieved from ignominy those who had survived the defeat, he alone opposed the decree. He thus gave offence to many others and in particular to those who were subject to the penalties of the laws; indeed, these persons gathered together and gave him a beating, and they were constantly plotting against him.
§ 19.70.6 Being therefore anxious for a foreign command, he gladly accepted the invitation of the men from Acragas. Taking his departure from the state without the consent of the ephors, he set sail with a few ships as if to cross to Acragas.
§ 19.70.7 He was, however, carried by the winds into the Adriatic and landed in the territory of Apollonia. Finding that city besieged by Glaucias, the king of the Illyrians, he brought the siege to an end, persuading the king to make a treaty with the people of Apollonia.
§ 19.70.8 Thence he sailed to Tarentum, where he urged the people to join in freeing the Syracusans; and he persuaded them to vote to assist with twenty ships; for because of ties of kinship and on account of the dignity of his family, they ascribed to his words a high degree of sincerity and great importance.
§ 19.71.1 While the Tarentines were engaged in their preparations, Acrotatus immediately sailed to Acragas where he assumed the office of general. At first he buoyed up the common people with great expectations and caused all to anticipate a speedy overthrow of the tyrant;
§ 19.71.2 however, as time advanced, he accomplished nothing worthy either of his fatherland or of the distinction of his family, but on the contrary, being bloodthirsty and more cruel than the tyrants, he continually gave offence to the common people. Moreover, he abandoned his native manner of living and devoted himself so unrestrainedly to pleasure that he seemed to be a Persian and not a Spartan. 4 When he had squandered the larger part of the revenue, partly by his public activity, partly by private peculation, he finally invited to dinner Sosistratus, who was the most distinguished of the exiles and had often commanded armies, and treacherously killed him, not having any charge whatever to bring against him and yet being eager to put out of the way a man who was accustomed to act and who was capable of keeping under surveillance those who misused positions of leadership. 5 When this deed became known, the exiles at once began to join forces against Acrotatus, and all the rest were alienated from him. First they removed him from his generalship, and soon afterwards they attempted to stone him, whereupon, terrified by the popular uprising, he took flight by night and sailed secretly to Laconia. 6 After his departure the Tarentines, who had sent their fleet to Sicily, recalled it; and the peoples of Acragas, Gela, and Messene brought their war against Agathocles to an end, Hamilcar the Carthaginian acting as mediator in making the treaty. 7 The chief points of the agreement were as follows: of the Greek towns in Sicily, Heraclea, Selinus, and Himera were to be subject to the Carthaginians as they had been before, and all the others were to be autonomous under the hegemony of Syracuse.
§ 19.72.1 Afterwards, however, when Agathocles perceived that Sicily was clear of hostile armies, he began unhampered to subject the cities and strongholds to himself. Mastering many of them quickly, he made his power secure; in fact, he built up for himself a host of allies, ample revenues, and a considerable army.
§ 19.72.2 Indeed, without counting the allies and those of the Syracusans who had enlisted for military service, he had picked a mercenary force comprising ten thousand foot soldiers and thirty-five hundred horse. Moreover, he prepared a store of weapons and of missiles of all kinds, since he knew that the Carthaginians, who had censured Hamilcar for the terms of peace, would shortly wage war against him. This was the situation of Sicilian affairs at this time.
§ 19.72.3 In Italy the Samnites, fighting bitterly against the Romans for supremacy in a struggle lasting many years, took by siege Plestice, which had a Roman garrison, and persuaded the people of Sora to slay the Romans who were among them and to make an alliance with themselves.
§ 19.72.4 Next, as the Romans were besieging Saticula, the Samnites suddenly appeared with a strong army intent on raising the siege. A great battle then took place in which many were slain on both sides, but eventually the Romans gained the upper hand. After the battle the Romans carried the siege of the city to completion and then advanced at will, subjecting the near-by towns and strongholds.
§ 19.72.5 Now that the struggle for the cities of Apulia had been joined, the Samnites enrolled all who were of age for military service and encamped near the enemy as if intending to decide the whole issue.
§ 19.72.6 When the Roman people learned this, they became anxious about what was impending and sent out a large army. As it was their custom in a dangerous crisis to appoint as military dictator one of their eminent men, they now elected Quintus Fabius and with him Quintus Aulius as master-of horse.
§ 19.72.7 These, after assuming command of the army, took the field and fought against the Samnites at Laustolae, as it is called, losing many of their soldiers. As panic spread through the whole army, Aulius, in shame at the flight, stood alone against the mass of the enemy, not that he hoped to prevail, but he was maintaining his fatherland undefeated as far as he was concerned.
§ 19.72.8 Thus he, by not sharing with his fellow citizens in the disgrace of flight, gained a glorious death for himself alone; but the Romans, fearing that they might completely lose control throughout Apulia, sent a colony to Luceria, which was the most noteworthy of the cities of that region. Using it as a base, they continued the war against the Samnites, having made no mean provision for their future security;
§ 19.72.9 for not only were the Romans victorious in this war because of this city, but also in the wars that have subsequently taken place down to our own time they have continued to use Luceria as a base of operations against the neighbouring peoples.
§ 19.73.1 When the activities of this year had come to an end, Theophrastus obtained the archonship in Athens, and Marcus Publius and Gaius Sulpicius became consuls in Rome. While these were in office, the people of Callantia, who lived on the left side of the Pontus and who were subject to a garrison that had been sent by Lysimachus, drove out this garrison and made an effort to gain autonomy.
§ 19.73.2 In like manner they freed the city of the Istrians and other neighbouring cities, and formed an alliance with them binding them to fight together against the prince. They also brought into the alliance those of the Thracians and Scythians whose lands bordered upon their own, so that the whole was a union that had weight and could offer battle with strong forces.
§ 19.73.3 As soon, however, as Lysimachus learned what had taken place, he set out against the rebels. After marching through Thrace and crossing the Haemus Mountains, he encamped near Odessus. Beginning a siege, he quickly frightened the inhabitants and took the city by capitulation.
§ 19.73.4 Next, after recovering the Istrians in a similar way, he set out against the Callantians. At this very time the Scythians and the Thracians arrived with large forces to aid their allies in accordance with the treaty.
§ 19.73.5 Lysimachus, meeting them and engaging them at once, terrified the Thracians and induced them to change sides; but the Scythians he defeated in a pitched battle, slaying many of them and pursuing the survivors beyond the frontiers. Then, encamping about the city of the Callantians, he laid siege to it, since he was very eager to chastise in every way those who were responsible for the revolt.
§ 19.73.6 While he was thus engaged, there came certain men bringing word that Antigonus had sent two expeditions to the support of the Callantians, one by land and one by sea, that the general Lycon with the fleet had sailed through into the Pontus, and that Pausanias with a considerable number of soldiers was in camp at a place called Hieron.
§ 19.73.7 Perturbed at this, Lysimachus left an adequate body of soldiers to carry on the siege; but with the strongest part of the army he himself pushed on, intent on making contact with the enemy.
§ 19.73.8 When, however, he reached the pass over the Haemus, he found Seuthes, the Thracian king, who had gone over to Antigonus, guarding the crossing with many soldiers.
§ 19.73.9 Engaging him in a battle that lasted a considerable time, Lysimachus lost not a few of his own men; but he destroyed a vast number of the enemy and overpowered the barbarians.
§ 19.73.10 He also came suddenly upon the forces of Pausanias, catching them after they had taken refuge in a place difficult of access. This he captured; and, after slaying Pausanias, he dismissed some of the soldiers on receiving ransom and enrolled others in his own army. This was the situation of Lysimachus.
§ 19.74.1 Antigonus, after he had failed in this undertaking, dispatched Telesphorus into the Peloponnesus, giving him fifty ships and a suitable force of infantry, and he ordered him to free the cities, for he hoped by doing this to establish among the Greeks the belief that he truly was concerned for their independence; and at the same time he gave him a hint to note the activities of Cassander.
§ 19.74.2 As soon as Telesphorus had reached port in the Peloponnesus, he advanced upon the cities that were occupied by Alexander's garrisons and freed all of them except Sicyon and Corinth; for in these cities Polyperchon had his quarters, maintaining strong forces and trusting in these and in the strength of the positions.
§ 19.74.3 While this was being done, Philip, who had been sent by Cassander to the war against the Aetolians as commander, immediately on arriving in Acarnania with his army undertook to plunder Aetolia, but soon, hearing that Aeacides the Epirote had returned to his kingdom and had collected a strong army, he set out very quickly against him, for he was eager to bring this struggle to an end separately before the army of the Aetolians joined forces with the king.
§ 19.74.4 Although he found the Epirotes ready for battle, he attacked them at once, slaying many and taking captive no small number, among whom there chanced to be about fifty of those responsible for the return of the king; these he bound and sent to Cassander.
§ 19.74.5 As Aeacides and his men rallied from the fight and joined the Aetolians, Philip again advanced and overpowered them in battle, slaying many, among whom was King Aeacides himself.
§ 19.74.6 By gaining such victories a few days Philip so terrified many of the Aetolians that they abandoned their unfortified cities and fled to the most inaccessible of their mountains with their children and their women. Such was the outcome of the campaign in Greece.
§ 19.75.1 In Asia, Asander, the ruler of Caria, being hard pressed by the war, came to terms with Antigonus, agreeing to transfer to him all his soldiers, to relinquish the Greek cities and leave them autonomous, and to hold as a grant the satrapy that he had formerly had, remaining a steadfast friend of Antigonus.
§ 19.75.2 Having given his brother Agathon as a hostage for the fulfilment of these terms and then after a few days having repented of the agreement, he secretly removed his brother from custody and sent emissaries to Ptolemy and Seleucus, begging them to aid him as soon as possible.
§ 19.75.3 Antigonus, enraged at this, dispatched a force both by sea and by land to liberate the cities, appointing Medius admiral of the fleet and making Docimus general of the army.
§ 19.75.4 These men, coming to the city of the Milesians, encouraged the citizens to assert their freedom; and, after taking by siege the citadel, which was held by a garrison, they restored the independence of the government.
§ 19.75.5 While they were thus engaged, Antigonus besieged and took Tralles; then, proceeding to Caunus and summoning the fleet, he captured that city also except for its citadel. Investing this, he kept making continuous attacks on the side where it was most easily assailed. Ptolemaeus, who had been sent to Issus with an adequate force, compelled that city to support Antigonus.
§ 19.75.6 In this way, then, these cities, which were in Caria, were made subject to Antigonus. A few days later, when ambassadors came to the latter from the Aetolians and the Boeotians, he made an alliance with them; but, when he entered into negotiations with Cassander about peace in the Hellespontine region, he accomplished nothing since they could in no way agree. For this reason Cassander gave up hope of settlement and decided to play a part once more in the affairs of Greece.
§ 19.75.7 Setting out for Oreus, therefore, with thirty ships, he laid siege to the city. While he was vigorously attacking and was already at the point of taking the city by storm, reinforcements appeared for the people of Oreus: Telesphorus from the Peloponnesus with twenty ships and a thousand soldiers, and Medius from Asia with a hundred ships.
§ 19.75.8 They saw the ships of Cassander blockading the harbour and threw fire into them, burning four and almost destroying them all; but when reinforcements for the defeated came from Athens, Cassander sailed out against the enemy, who were off their guard. When they met, he sank one ship and seized three with their crews. Such were the activities in Greece and the Pontus.
§ 19.76.1 In Italy, the Samnites were advancing with a large army, destroying whatever cities in Campania were supporting their enemies; and the Roman consuls, coming up with an army, were trying to aid those of their allies who were in danger.
§ 19.76.2 They took the field against the enemy near Tarracina and at once relieved that city from its immediate fears; then a few days later, when both sides had drawn up their armies, a hard-fought battle took place and very many fell on both sides. Finally the Romans, pressing on with all their strength, got the better of their enemies and, pushing the pursuit for a long time, slew more than ten thousand.
§ 19.76.3 While this battle was still unknown to them, the Campanians, scorning the Romans, rose in rebellion; but the people at once sent an adequate force against them with the dictator Gaius Manius as commander and accompanying him, according to the national custom, Manius Fulvius as master-of horse.
§ 19.76.4 When these were in position near Capua, the Campanians at first endeavoured to fight; but afterwards, hearing of the defeat of the Samnites and believing that all the forces would come against themselves, they made terms with the Romans.
§ 19.76.5 They surrendered those guilty of the uprising, who without awaiting the judgement of the trial that was instituted killed themselves. But the cities gained pardon and were reinstated in their former alliance.
§ 19.77.1 When this year had passed, Polemon was archon in Athens, and in Rome the consuls were Lucius Papirius for the fifth time and Gaius Iunius; and in this year the Olympic Games were celebrated for the one hundred and seventeenth time, Parmenion of Mitylene winning the footrace.
§ 19.77.2 In this year Antigonus ordered his general Ptolemaeus into Greece to set the Greeks free and sent with him one hundred and fifty warships, placing Medius in command of them as admiral, and an army of five thousand foot and five hundred horse.
§ 19.77.3 Antigonus also made an alliance with the Rhodians and received from them for the liberation of the Greeks ten ships fully equipped for war.
§ 19.77.4 Ptolemaeus, putting in with the entire fleet at the harbour of Boeotia known as Bathys, received from the Boeotian League two thousand two hundred foot soldiers and one thousand three hundred horse. He also summoned his ships from Oreus, fortified Salganeus, and gathered there his entire force; for he hoped to be admitted by the Chalcidians, who alone of the Euboeans were garrisoned by the enemy.
§ 19.77.5 But Cassander, in his anxiety for Chalcis, gave up the siege of Oreus, moved to Chalcis, and summoned his forces. When Antigonus heard that in Euboea the armed forces were watching each other, he recalled Medius to Asia with the fleet, and at once with his armies set out at top speed for the Hellespont as if intending to cross over into Macedonia, in order that, if Cassander remained in Euboea, he might himself occupy Macedonia while it was stripped of defenders, or that Cassander, going to the defence of his kingdom, might lose his supremacy in Greece.
§ 19.77.6 But Cassander, perceiving Antigonus' plan, left Pleistarchus in command of the garrison in Chalcis and setting out himself with all his forces took Oropus by storm and brought the Thebans into his alliance. Then, after making a truce with the other Boeotians and leaving Eupolemus as general for Greece, he went into Macedonia, for he was apprehensive of the enemy's crossing.
§ 19.77.7 As for Antigonus, when he came to the Propontis, he sent an embassy to the Byzantines, asking them to enter the alliance. But there had arrived envoys from Lysimachus also who were urging them to do nothing against either Lysimachus or Cassander; and the Byzantines decided to remain neutral and to maintain peace and friendship toward both parties. Antigonus, because he had been foiled in these undertakings and also because the winter season was closing in upon him, distributed his soldiers among the cities for the winter.
§ 19.78.1 While these things were going on, the Corcyraeans, who had gone to the aid of the people of Apollonia and Epidamnus, dismissed Cassander's soldiers under a truce; and of these cities they freed Apollonia, but Epidamnus they gave over to Glaucias, the king of the Illyrians.
§ 19.78.2 After Cassander had departed for Macedonia, Antigonus' general Ptolemaeus, striking fear into the garrison that was holding Chalcis, took the city; and he left the Chalcidians without a garrison in order to make it evident that Antigonus in very truth proposed to free the Greeks, for the city is well placed for any who wish to have a base from which to carry through a war for supremacy.
§ 19.78.3 However that may be, when Ptolemaeus had taken Oropus by siege, he gave it back to the Boeotians and made captive the troops of Cassander. Thereafter, having received the people of Eretria and Carystus into the alliance, he moved into Attica, where Demetrius of Phalerum was governing the city.
§ 19.78.4 At first the Athenians kept sending secretly to Antigonus, begging him to free the city; but then, taking courage when Ptolemaeus drew near the city, they forced Demetrius to make a truce and to send envoys to Antigonus about an alliance.
§ 19.78.5 Ptolemaeus, moving from Attica into Boeotia, took the Cadmea, drove out the garrison, and freed Thebes. After this he advanced into Phocis where he won over most of the cities and from all of these expelled the garrisons of Cassander. He also marched against Locris; and, since the Opuntians belonged to the party of Cassander, he began a siege and made continuous attacks.
§ 19.79.1 In that same summer the people of Cyrene revolted from Ptolemy, invested the citadel, and seemed on the point of immediately casting out the garrison; and, when envoys came from Alexandria and bade them cease from their sedition, they killed them and continued the attack on the citadel with greater vigour.
§ 19.79.2 Enraged at them, Ptolemy dispatched Agis as general with a land army and also sent a fleet to take part in the war, placing Epaenetus in command.
§ 19.79.3 Agis attacked the rebels with vigour and took the city by storm. Those who were guilty of the sedition he bound and sent to Alexandria; and then, after depriving the others of their arms and arranging the affairs of the city in whatever way seemed best to himself, he returned to Egypt.
§ 19.79.4 But Ptolemy, now that the matter of Cyrene had been disposed of according to his wishes, crossed over with an army from Egypt into Cyprus against those of the kings who refused to obey him. Finding that Pygmalion was negotiating with Antigonus, he put him to death; and he arrested Praxippus, king of Lapithia and ruler of Cerynia, whom he suspected of being ill disposed toward himself, and also Stasioecus, ruler of Marion, destroying the city and transporting the inhabitants to Paphos.
§ 19.79.5 After accomplishing these things, he appointed Nicocreon as general of Cyprus, giving him both the cities and the revenues of the kings who had been driven out;
§ 19.79.6 but he himself with his army, sailing toward Upper Syria, as it is called, captured and sacked Poseidium and Potami Caron. Sailing without delay to Cilicia, he took Malus and sold as booty those who were captured there. He also plundered the neighbouring territory and, after sating his army with spoil, sailed back to Cyprus.
§ 19.79.7 His playing up to the soldiers in this way was designed to evoke enthusiasm in face of the encounters that were approaching.
§ 19.80.1 Now Antigonus' son Demetrius was staying on in Coele Syria lying in wait for the Egyptian armies. But when he heard of the capture of the cities, he left Pithon as general in charge of the region, giving him the elephants and the heavy-armed units of the army; and he himself, taking the cavalry and the light-armed units, moved rapidly toward Cilicia to give aid to those who were in danger.
§ 19.80.2 Arriving after the opportunity had passed and finding that the enemy had sailed away, he went rapidly back to his camp, having lost most of his horses during the march; for in six days' march towards Malus he covered twenty-four stages, with the result that on account of the excessive hardship not one of his sutlers or of his grooms kept up the pace.
§ 19.80.3 Ptolemy, since his undertakings had turned out as he wished, now sailed away to Egypt; but after a little while, spurred on by Seleucus because of his hostility toward Antigonus, he decided to make a campaign into Coele Syria and take the field against the army of Demetrius.
§ 19.80.4 He therefore gathered together his forces from all sides and marched from Alexandria to Pelusium with eighteen thousand foot and four thousand horse. Of his army some were Macedonians and some were mercenaries, but a great number were Egyptians, of whom some carried the missiles and the other baggage but some were armed and serviceable for battle.
§ 19.80.5 Marching through the desert from Pelusium, he camped near the enemy at Old Gaza in Syria. Demetrius, who had likewise summoned his soldiers to Old Gaza from their winter quarters on all sides, awaited the approach of his opponents.
§ 19.81.1 Although his friends were urging him not to take the field against so great a general and a superior force, Demetrius paid no heed to them but confidently prepared for the conflict even though he was very young and was about to engage in so great a battle apart from his father.
§ 19.81.2 When he had called together an assembly under arms and, anxious and agitated, had taken his position on a raised platform, the crowd shouted with a single voice, bidding him be of good courage; and then, before the herald bade the shouting men cease their tumult, they all became silent.
§ 19.81.3 For, because he had just been placed in command, neither soldiers nor civilians had for him any ill will such as usually develops against generals of long standing when at a particular time many minor irritations are combined in a single mass grievance; for the multitude becomes exacting when it remains under the same authority, and every group that is not preferred welcomes change. Since his father was already an old man, the hopes of the kingdom, centring upon his succession, were bringing him the command and at the same time the goodwill of the multitude.
§ 19.81.4 Moreover, he was outstanding both in beauty and in stature, and also when clad in royal armour he had great distinction and struck men with awe, whereby he created great expectations in the multitude. Furthermore, there was in him a certain gentleness becoming to a youthful king, which won for him the devotion of all, so that even those outside the ranks ran together to hear him, feeling sympathetic anxiety on account of his youth and the critical struggle that impended.
§ 19.81.5 For he was about to fight a decisive battle not only against more numerous forces, but also against generals who were almost the greatest, Ptolemy and Seleucus. Indeed, these generals, who had taken part with Alexander in all his wars and had often led armies independently, were unconquered up to this time.
§ 19.81.6 At all events, Demetrius, after encouraging the crowd with words suitable to the occasion and promising to give gifts to them as they were deserved and to yield the booty to the soldiers, drew up his army for the battle.
§ 19.82.1 On the left wing, where he himself was going to take part in the battle, he placed first the two hundred selected horsemen of his guard, among whom were all his other friends and, in particular, Pithon, who had campaigned with Alexander and had been made by Antigonus co-general and partner in the whole undertaking.
§ 19.82.2 As an advanced guard he drew up three troops of cavalry and the same number as guards on the flank, and in addition to these and stationed separately outside the wing, three troops of Tarentines; thus those that were drawn up about his person amounted to five hundred horsemen armed with the lance and one hundred Tarentines.
§ 19.82.3 Next he posted those of the cavalry who were called the Companions, eight hundred in number, and after them no less than fifteen hundred horsemen of all kinds. In front of the whole wing he stationed thirty of his elephants, and he filled the intervals between them with units of light-armed men, of whom a thousand were javelin-throwers and archers and five hundred were Persian slingers.
§ 19.82.4 In this fashion then he formed the left wing, with which he intended to decide the battle. Next to it he drew up the infantry phalanx composed of eleven thousand men, of whom two thousand were Macedonians, one thousand were Lycians and Pamphylians, and eight thousand were mercenaries. On the right wing he drew up the rest of his cavalry, fifteen hundred men commanded by Andronicus. This officer was ordered to hold his line back at an angle and avoid fighting, awaiting the outcome of the conflict fought by Demetrius. The thirteen other elephants he stationed in front of the phalanx of the infantry with the normal complement of light troops in the intervals. In this manner, then, Demetrius arrayed his army.
§ 19.83.1 Ptolemy and Seleucus at first made strong the left part of their line, not knowing the intention of the enemy; but when they learned from scouts the formation he had adopted, they quickly reformed their army in such a way that their right wing should have the greatest strength and power and be matched against those arrayed with Demetrius on his left. They drew up on this wing the three thousand strongest of their cavalry, along with whom they themselves had decided to fight.
§ 19.83.2 In front of this position they placed the men who were to handle the spiked devices made of iron and connected by chains that they had prepared against the onset of the elephants; for when this contrivance had been stretched out, it was easy to prevent the beasts from moving forward.
§ 19.83.3 In front of this wing they also stationed their light-armed units, ordering the javelin-men and archers to shoot without ceasing at the elephants and at those who were mounted upon them. When they had made their right wing strong in this manner and had drawn up the rest of their army as circumstances permitted, they advanced upon the enemy with a great shout. Their opponents also advanced; and first there was a cavalry action on the extreme wings between the troops of the advance guards in which the men of Demetrius had much the better of it.
§ 19.83.4 But after a little, when Ptolemy and Seleucus had ridden around the wing and charged upon them more heavily with cavalry drawn up in depth, there was severe fighting because of the zeal of both sides.
§ 19.83.5 In the first charge, indeed, the fighting was with spears, most of which were shattered, and many of the antagonists were wounded; then, rallying again, the men rushed into battle at sword's point, and, as they were locked in close combat, many were slain on each side. The very commanders, endangering themselves in front of all, encouraged those under their command to withstand the danger stoutly; and the horsemen upon the wings, all of whom had been selected for bravery, vied with each other since as witnesses of their valour they had their generals, who were sharing the struggle with them.
§ 19.84.1 After the cavalry battle had continued for a long time on equal terms, the elephants, urged on into the combat by their Indian mahouts, advanced for a certain distance in a way to inspire terror, just as if no one were going to withstand them. When, however, they came up to the barrier of spikes, the host of javelin-throwers and archers, who were sending their missiles unremittingly, began to wound severely the elephants themselves and those who were mounted upon them;
§ 19.84.2 and while the mahouts were forcing the beasts forward and were using their goads, some of the elephants were pierced by the cleverly devised spikes and, tormented by their wounds and by the concentrated efforts of the attackers, began to cause disorder.
§ 19.84.3 For on smooth and yielding ground these beasts display in direct onset a might that is irresistible, but on terrain that is rough and difficult their strength is completely useless because of the tenderness of their feet.
§ 19.84.4 Thus, too, on this occasion, since Ptolemy shrewdly foresaw what would result from the setting up of the spikes, he rendered the power of the elephant unavailing.
§ 19.84.5 The final outcome was that, after most of the mahouts had been shot down, all the elephants were captured. When this happened, most of Demetrius' horsemen were panic-stricken and rushed into flight; and he himself was left with a few and then, since no one heeded him when he begged them each to stand and not desert him, was forced to leave the field with the rest.
§ 19.84.6 Now as far as Gaza most of the cavalry who were following with him listened to orders and remained in formation, so that no one of those who were pursuing at random lightly risked attacking; for the plain was open and yielding, and favourable to men who wished of the withdraw in formation.
§ 19.84.7 There followed also those of the infantry who preferred to leave their lines and, abandoning their heavy arms, save themselves by travelling light. But as Demetrius was passing Gaza at about sunset, some of the cavalry dropped out and entered the city since they wished to carry away their baggage.
§ 19.84.8 Then, when the gates were opened and a large number of pack animals were gathered together and when each man tried to lead out his own beasts first, there arose such confusion around the gates that when the troops of Ptolemy came up no one was able to close the gates in time. Hence the enemy dashed within the walls, and the city came into the possession of Ptolemy.
§ 19.85.1 After the battle had ended in this fashion, Demetrius reached Azotus about the middle of the night, covering two hundred and seventy stades. Thence he sent a herald about the burial of the dead since he was very anxious at any cost to honour those who had perished with the funeral that was their due;
§ 19.85.2 for it happened that most of his friends had fallen, the most distinguished of whom were Pithon, who had shared the command on equal terms with himself, and Boeotus, who for a long time had lived with his father Antigonus and had shared in all his state secrets.
§ 19.85.3 In the battle there had fallen more than five hundred men, the majority of whom were cavalry and men of distinction; and more than eight thousand had been captured. Ptolemy and Seleucus permitted the recovery of the dead, and they returned to Demetrius without ransom the royal baggage, which had been captured, and those of the prisoners who had been accustomed to be in attendance at the court; for, they said, it was not about these that they were at variance with Antigonus but because, although he and they had made war in command, first against Perdiccas and later again Eumenes, he had not turned over to his companions their share of the captured territory, and again because, after making a compact of friendship with Seleucus, he had nevertheless taken away from him his satrapy of Babylonia contrary to all right.
§ 19.85.4 Ptolemy sent the captured soldiers off into Egypt, ordering them to be distributed among the nomes; but he himself, after giving a magnificent burial to all those of his own men who had died in the battle, went with his forces against the cities of Phoenicia, besieging some of them and winning others by persuasion.
§ 19.85.5 But Demetrius, since he did not have a sufficiently strong army, sent a messenger to his father, asking him to aid him as quickly as possible. He himself, moving to Tripolis in Phoenicia, summoned the soldiers from Cilicia and also those of his other men who were guarding cities or strongholds far removed from the enemy.
§ 19.86.1 Ptolemy, after he had gained control of the open country, first won Sidon to his side; and then, camping near Tyre, he summoned Andronicus, the commander of the garrison, to surrender the city, and he promised to give him gifts and abundant honours.
§ 19.86.2 Andronicus, however, said that he would in no wise betray the trust that had been placed in him by Antigonus and Demetrius, and he vilely insulted Ptolemy. Later, when his soldiers mutinied and he was expelled from the city and fell into the hands of Ptolemy, he expected to receive punishment both for the insults and for his unwillingness to surrender Tyre. But in truth Ptolemy bore no malice; on the contrary, he gave him gifts and kept him in his court, making him one of his friends and advancing him in honour.
§ 19.86.3 For indeed, that prince was exceptionally gentle and forgiving and inclined toward deeds of kindness. It was this very thing that most increased his power and made many men desire to share his friendship.
§ 19.86.4 For example, when Seleucus had been driven from Babylonia, he received him with friendship; and he used to share his own prosperity with him and with his other friends.
§ 19.86.5 Therefore on this occasion also, when Seleucus asked him to give him soldiers for an expedition into Babylonia, he readily consented; and in addition, he promised to aid him in every way until he should regain the satrapy that had formerly been his. Such was the situation of affairs in Asia.
§ 19.87.1 In Europe, Antigonus' admiral Telesphorus, who was tarrying near Corinth, when he saw Ptolemaeus preferred to himself and entrusted with all affairs throughout Greece, charged Antigonus with this, sold what ships he had, enlisted such of the soldiers as volunteered to join his cause, and organized an enterprise of his own.
§ 19.87.2 Entering Elis as if still preserving his friendship for Antigonus, he fortified the citadel and enslaved the city. He even plundered the sacred precinct at Olympia and, after collecting more than five hundred talents of silver, began hiring mercenaries.
§ 19.87.3 In this manner then, Telesphorus, because he was jealous of the advancement of Ptolemaeus, betrayed the friendship of Antigonus. Ptolemaeus, the general of Antigonus, had been placed in charge of affairs throughout Greece; and he, on hearing of the revolt of Telesphorus, the capture of the city of the Eleans, and the plundering of the wealth of Olympia, moved into the Peloponnesus with an army. When he had come into Elis and levelled the citadel that had been fortified, he gave the Eleans back their freedom and restored the treasure to the god. Then by winning Telesphorus' consent he recovered Cyllene, which the latter had garrisoned, and restored it to the Eleans.
§ 19.88.1 While this was happening, the Epirotes, their king Aeacides being dead, gave the kingship to Alcetas, who had been banished by his father Arymbus and who was hostile to Cassander.
§ 19.88.2 For this reason, Lyciscus, who had been placed as general over Acarnania by Cassander, entered Epirus with an army, hoping to remove Alcetas easily from his throne while the affairs of the kingdom were still in disorder.
§ 19.88.3 While Lyciscus was in camp before Cassopia, Alcetas sent his sons Alexander and Teucer to the cities, ordering them to levy as many soldiers as possible; and he himself, taking the field with what force he had, came near the enemy and awaited the return of his sons.
§ 19.88.4 However, since the forces of Lyciscus were at hand and were far superior in number, the Epirotes were frightened and went over to the enemy; and Alcetas, deserted, fled for refuge to Eurymenae, a city of Epirus.
§ 19.88.5 While he was being besieged there, Alexander came up bringing reinforcements to his father. A violent battle took place in which many of the soldiers were slain, among whom were certain others of the followers of Lyciscus and in particular the general Micythus and Lysander, an Athenian who had been put in charge of Leucas by Cassander.
§ 19.88.6 But afterwards, when Deinias brought reinforcements to the defeated army, there was another battle, in which Alexander and Teucer were defeated and fled with their father to a certain stronghold, while Lyciscus took Eurymenae, plundered it, and destroyed it.
§ 19.89.1 At this time Cassander, who had heard of the defeat of his forces but did not know of the victory that had followed, moved into Epirus in haste to assist Lyciscus. On finding that the latter had gained the upper hand, he made terms and established friendship with Alcetas; and then, taking a part of his army, he moved to the Adriatic to lay siege to Apollonia because the people of that city had driven out his garrison and gone over to the Illyrians.
§ 19.89.2 Those in the city, however, were not frightened, but summoned aid from their other allies and drew up their army before the walls. In a battle, which was hard fought and long, the people of Apollonia, who were superior in number, forced their opponents to flee; and Cassander, who had lost many soldiers, since he did not have an adequate army with him and saw that the winter was at hand, returned into Macedonia.
§ 19.89.3 After his departure, the Leucadians, receiving help from the Corcyraeans, drove out Cassander's garrison. For some time the Epirotes continued to be ruled by Alcetas; but then, since he was treating the common people too harshly, they murdered him and two of his sons, Esioneus and Nisus, who were children.
§ 19.90.1 In Asia, after the defeat of Demetrius at Gaza in Syria, Seleucus, receiving from Ptolemy no more than eight hundred foot soldiers and about two hundred horse, set out for Babylon. He was so puffed up with great expectations that, even if he had had no army whatever, he would have made the expedition into the interior with his friends and his own slaves; for he assumed that the Babylonians, on account of the goodwill that had previously existed, would promptly join him, and that Antigonus, by withdrawing to a great distance with his army, had given him a suitable opportunity for his own enterprises.
§ 19.90.2 While such was his own enthusiasm, those of his friends who accompanied were no little disheartened when they saw that the men who were making the campaign with them were very few and that the enemy against whom they were going possessed large armies ready for service, magnificent resources, and a host of allies.
§ 19.90.3 When Seleucus saw that they were terror-stricken, he encouraged them, saying that men who had campaigned with Alexander and had been advanced by him because of their prowess ought not to rely solely on armed force and wealth when confronting difficult situations, but upon experience and skill, the means whereby Alexander himself had accomplished his great and universally admired deeds. He added that they ought also to believe the oracles of the gods which had foretold that the end of his campaign would be worthy of his purpose;
§ 19.90.4 for, when he had consulted the oracle in Branchidae, the god had greeted him as King Seleucus, and Alexander standing beside him in a dream had given him a clear sign of the future leadership that was destined to fall to him in the course of time.
§ 19.90.5 Moreover, he pointed out that everything that is good and admired among men is gained through toil and danger. But he also sought the favour of his fellow soldiers and put himself on an equality with them all in such a way that each man respected him and willingly accepted the risk of the daring venture.
§ 19.91.1 When in his advance he entered Mesopotamia, he persuaded some of the Macedonians who were settled at Carae to join his forces, and compelled the rest. When he pushed into Babylonia, most of the inhabitants came to meet him, and, declaring themselves on his side, promised to aid him as he saw fit;
§ 19.91.2 for, when he had been for four years satrap of that country, he had shown himself generous to all, winning the goodwill of the common people and long in advance securing men who would assist him if an opportunity should ever be given to him to make a bid for supreme power.
§ 19.91.3 He was joined also by Polyarchus, who had been placed in command of a certain district, with more than a thousand soldiers. When those who remained loyal to Antigonus saw that the impulse of the people could not be checked, they took refuge together in the citadel, of which Diphilus had been appointed commander.
§ 19.91.4 But Seleucus, by laying siege to the citadel and taking it by storm, recovered the persons of all his friends and slaves who had been placed there under guard by the order of Antigonus after Seleucus' own departure from Babylon into Egypt.
§ 19.91.5 When he had finished this, he enlisted soldiers, and, having brought up horses, he distributed them to those who were able to handle them. Associating with all on friendly terms and raising high hopes in all, he kept his fellow adventurers ready and eager under every condition. In this way, then, Seleucus regained Babylonia.
§ 19.92.1 But when Nicanor, the general in Media, gathered about him from Media and Persia and the neighbouring lands more than ten thousand foot soldiers and about seven thousand horse, Seleucus set out at full speed to oppose the enemy.
§ 19.92.2 He himself had in all more than three thousand foot and four hundred horse. He crossed the Tigris River; and, on hearing that the enemy were a few days' march distant, he hid his soldiers in the adjacent marshes, intending to make his attack a surprise.
§ 19.92.3 When Nicanor arrived at the Tigris River and did not find the enemy, he camped at one of the royal stations, believing that they had fled to a greater distance than was the case. When night was come and the army of Nicanor was keeping a perfunctory and negligent guard, Seleucus fell on them suddenly, causing great confusion and panic;
§ 19.92.4 for it happened that when the Persians had joined battle, their satrap Evager fell together with some of the other leaders. When this occurred, most of the soldiers went over to Seleucus, in part because they were frightened at the danger but in part because they were offended by the conduct of Antigonus.
§ 19.92.5 Nicanor, who was left with only a few men and feared lest he be delivered over to the enemy, took flight with his friends through the desert. But Seleucus, now that he had gained control of a large army and was comporting himself in a way gracious to all, easily won over Susiane, Media, and some of the adjacent lands; and he wrote to Ptolemy and his other friends about his achievements, already possessing a king's stature and a reputation worthy of royal power.
§ 19.93.1 Meanwhile Ptolemy remained in Coele Syria after having conquered Antigonus' son Demetrius in a great battle. On hearing that Demetrius had returned from Cilicia and was encamped in Upper Syria, he chose from the friends who were with him Cilles the Macedonian; 2 and, giving him an adequate army, he ordered him to drive Demetrius completely out of Syria or to entrap and crush him. While Cilles was on the way, Demetrius, hearing from spies that he was carelessly encamped at Myus, left his baggage behind and with his soldiers in light equipment made a forced march; then, falling suddenly upon the enemy during the early morning watch, he captured the army without a battle and took the general himself prisoner. By achieving such a success he believed that he had wiped out the defeat. 3 Nevertheless, assuming that Ptolemy would march against him with all his army, he went into camp, using as the outworks of his defence swamps and marshes. He also wrote to his father about the success that had been gained, urging him either to send an army as soon as possible or to cross over into Syria himself. 4 Antigonus chanced to be in Celaenae in Phrygia; and, on receiving the letter, he rejoiced greatly that his son, young as he was, seemed to have got out of his difficulties by himself and to have shown himself worthy to be a king. He himself with his army set out from Phrygia, crossed the Taurus, and within a few days joined Demetrius. 5 Ptolemy, however, on hearing of the arrival of Antigonus, called together his leaders and friends and took counsel with them whether it was better to remain and reach a final decision in Syria or to withdraw to Egypt and carry on the war from there as he had formerly done against Perdiccas. 6 Now all advised him not to risk a battle against an army that was many times stronger and had a larger number of elephants as well as against an unconquered general; for, they said, it would be much easier for him to settle the war in Egypt where he had plenty of supplies and could trust to the difficulty of the terrain. 7 Deciding, therefore, to leave Syria, he razed the most noteworthy of the cities that he had captured: Ake in Phoenician Syria, and Ioppe, Samaria, and Gaza in Syria; then he himself, taking the army and what of the booty it was possible to drive or carry, returned into Egypt.
§ 19.94.1 Now that Antigonus without a fight had gained possession of all Syria and Phoenicia, he desired to make a campaign against the land of the Arabs who are called Nabataeans. Deciding that this people was hostile to his interests, he selected one of his friends, Athenaeus, gave him four thousand light foot-soldiers and six hundred horsemen fitted for speed, and ordered him to set upon the barbarians suddenly and cut off all their cattle as booty.
§ 19.94.2 For the sake of those who do not know, it will be useful to state in some detail the customs of these Arabs, by following which, it is believed, they preserve their liberty. They live in the open air, claiming as native land a wilderness that has neither rivers nor abundant springs from which it is possible for a hostile army to obtain water.
§ 19.94.3 It is their custom neither to plant grain, set out any fruit-bearing tree, use wine, nor construct any house; and if anyone is found acting contrary to this, death is his penalty. They follow this custom because they believe that those who possess these things are, in order to retain the use of them, easily compelled by the powerful to do their bidding. Some of them raise camels, others sheep, pasturing them in the desert. While there are many Arabian tribes who use the desert as pasture, the Nabataeans far surpass the others in wealth although they are not much more than ten thousand in number; 5 for not a few of them are accustomed to bring down to the sea frankincense and myrrh and the most valuable kinds of spices, which they procure from those who convey them from what is called Arabia Eudaemon. 6 They are exceptionally fond of freedom; and, whenever a strong force of enemies comes near, they take refuge in the desert, using this as a fortress; for it lacks water and cannot be crossed by others, but to them alone, since they have prepared subterranean reservoirs lined with stucco, it furnishes safety. 7 As the earth in some places is clayey and in others is of soft stone, they make great excavations in it, the mouths of which they make very small, but by constantly increasing the width as they dig deeper, they finally make them of such size that each side has a length of one plethrum. 8 After filling these reservoirs with rain water, they close the openings, making them even with the rest of the ground, and they leave signs that are known to themselves but are unrecognizable by others. 9 They water their cattle every other day, so that, if they flee through waterless places, they may not need a continuous supply of water. They themselves use as food flesh and milk and those of the plants that grow from the ground which are suitable for this purpose; 10 for among them there grow the pepper and plenty of the so called wild honey from trees, which they drink mixed with water. There are also other tribes of Arabs, some of whom even till the soil, mingling with the tribute-paying peoples, and have the same customs as the Syrians, except that they do not dwell in houses.
§ 19.95.1 It appears that such are the customs of the Arabs. But when the time draws near for the national gathering at which those who dwell round about are accustomed to meet, some to sell goods and others to purchase things that are needful to them, they travel to this meeting, leaving on a certain rock their possessions and their old men, also their women and their children.
§ 19.95.2 This place is exceedingly strong but unwalled, and it is distant two days' journey from the settled country. After waiting for this season, Athenaeus set out for the rock with his army in light marching order. Covering the twenty-two hundred stades from the district of Idumaea in three days and the same number of nights, he escaped the attention of the Arabs and seized the rock at about midnight.
§ 19.95.3 Of those that were caught there, some he slew at once, some he took as prisoners, and others who were wounded he left behind; and of the frankincense and myrrh he gathered together the larger part, and about five hundred talents of silver. Delaying no longer than the early morning watch, he at once departed at top speed, expecting to be pursued by the barbarians. When he and his men had marched without pause for two hundred stades, they made camp, being tired and keeping a careless watch as if they believed that the enemy could not come before two or three days.
§ 19.95.4 But when the Arabs heard from those who had seen the expedition, they at once gathered together and, leaving the place of assembly, came to the rock; then, being informed by the wounded of what had taken place, they pursued the Greeks at top speed.
§ 19.95.5 While the men of Athenaeus were encamped with little thought of the enemy and because of their weariness were deep in sleep, some of their prisoners escaped secretly; and the Nabataeans, learning from them the condition of the enemy, attacked the camp at about the third watch, being no less than eight thousand in number. Most of the hostile troops they slaughtered where they lay; the rest they slew with their javelins as they awoke and sprang to arms. In the end all the foot-soldiers were slain, but of the horsemen about fifty escaped, and of these the larger part were wounded.
§ 19.95.6 And so Athenaeus, after being successful at first, later because of his own folly failed in this manner; for carelessness and indifference are, in general, wont to follow success.
§ 19.95.7 For this reason some rightly believe that it is easier to meet disaster with skill than very great success with discretion; for disaster, because of the fear of what is to follow, forces men to be careful, but success, because of the previous good fortune, tempts men to be careless about everything.
§ 19.96.1 When the Nabataeans had manfully punished the enemy they themselves returned to the rock with the property that they had recovered; but to Antigonus they wrote a letter in Syrian characters in which they accused Athenaeus and vindicated themselves.
§ 19.96.2 Antigonus replied to them, agreeing that they had been justified in defending themselves; but he found fault with Athenaeus, saying that he had made the attack contrary to the instructions that had been given. He did this, hiding his own intentions and desiring to delude the barbarians into a sense of security so that, by making an unexpected attack, he might accomplish his desire; for it was not easy without some deception to get the better of men who zealously pursued a nomadic life and possessed the desert as an inaccessible refuge.
§ 19.96.3 The Arabs were highly pleased because they seemed to have been relieved of great fears; yet they did not altogether trust the words of Antigonus, but, regarding their prospects as uncertain, they placed watchmen upon the hills from which it was easy to see from a distance the passes into Arabia, and they themselves, after having arranged their affairs in proper fashion, anxiously awaited the issue.
§ 19.96.4 But Antigonus when he had treated the barbarians as friends for some time and believed that they had been thoroughly deceived and thus had given him his opportunity against themselves, selected from his whole force four thousand foot-soldiers, who were lightly armed and well fitted by nature for rapid marching, and more than four thousand mounted men. He ordered them to carry several days' supply of food that would not require cooking, and, after placing his son Demetrius in command, he sent them off during the first watch, ordering him to punish the Arabs in whatever way he could.
§ 19.97.1 Demetrius, therefore, advanced for three days through regions with no roads, striving not to be observed by the barbarians; but the lookouts, having seen that a hostile force had entered, informed the Nabataeans by means of prearranged fire signals. The barbarians, having thus learned at once that the Greeks had come, sent their property to the rock and posted there a garrison that was strong enough since there was a single artificial approach; and they themselves divided their flocks and drove them into the desert, some into one place and some into another.
§ 19.97.2 Demetrius, on arriving at the rock and finding that the flocks had been removed, made repeated assaults upon the stronghold. Those within resisted stoutly, and easily had the upper hand because of the height of the place; and so on this day, after he had continued the struggle until evening, he recalled his soldiers by a trumpet call.
§ 19.97.3 On the next day, however, when he had advanced upon the rock, one of the barbarians called to him, saying: "King Demetrius, with what desire or under what compulsion do you war against us who live in the desert and in a land that has neither water nor grain nor wine nor any other thing whatever of those that pertain to the necessities of life among you?
§ 19.97.4 For we, since we are in no way willing to be slaves, have all taken refuge in a land that lacks all the things that are valued among other peoples and have chosen to live a life in the desert and one altogether like that of wild beasts, harming you not at all. We therefore beg both you and your father to do us no injury but, after receiving gifts from us, to withdraw your army and henceforth regard the Nabataeans as your friends.
§ 19.97.5 For neither can you, if you wish, remain here many days since you lack water and all the other necessary supplies, nor can you force us to live a different life; but you will have a few captives, disheartened slaves who would not consent to live among strange ways."
§ 19.97.6 When words such as these had been spoken, Demetrius withdrew his army and ordered the Arabs to send an embassy about these matters. They sent their oldest men, who, repeating arguments similar to those previously uttered, persuaded him to receive as gifts the most precious of their products and to make terms with them.
§ 19.98.1 Demetrius received hostages and the gifts that had been agreed upon and departed from the rock. After marching for three hundred stades, he camped near the Dead Sea, the nature of which ought not to be passed over without remark. It lies along the middle of the satrapy of Idumaea, extending in length about five hundred stades and in width about sixty. Its water is very bitter and of exceedingly foul odour, so that it can support neither fish nor any of the other creatures usually found in water. Although great rivers whose waters are of exceptional sweetness flow into it, it prevails over these by reason of its foulness; and from its centre each year it sends forth a mass of solid asphalt, sometimes more than three plethra in area, sometimes a little less than one plethrum. When this happens the barbarians who live near habitually call the larger mass a bull and the smaller one a calf. When the asphalt is floating on the sea, its surface seems to those who see it from a distance just like an island. It appears that the ejection of the asphalt is indicated twenty days in advance, for on every side about the sea for a distance of many stades the odour of the asphalt spreads with a noisome exhalation, and all the silver, gold, and bronze in the region lose their proper colours. These, however, are restored as soon as all the asphalt has been ejected; but the neighbouring region is very torrid and ill smelling, which makes the inhabitants sickly in body and exceedingly short-lived. Yet the land is good for raising palm trees in whatever part it is crossed by serviceable rivers or is supplied with springs that can irrigate it. In a certain valley in this region there grows what is called balsam, from which there is a great income since nowhere else in the inhabited world is this plant found, and its use as a drug is very important to physicians.
§ 19.99.1 When the asphalt has been ejected, the people who live about the sea on both sides carry it off like plunder of war since they are hostile to each other, making the collection without boats in a peculiar fashion. They make ready large bundles of reeds and cast them into the sea. On these not more than three men take their places, two of whom row with oars, which are lashed on, but one carries a bow and repels any who sail against them from the other shore or who venture to interfere with them.
§ 19.99.2 When they have come near the asphalt they jump upon it with axes and, just as it were soft stone, they cut out pieces and load them on the raft, after which they sail back. If the raft comes to pieces and one of them who does not know how to swim falls off, he does not sink as he would in other waters, but stays afloat as well as do those who know.
§ 19.99.3 For this liquid by its nature supports heavy bodies that have the power of growth or of breathing, except for solid ones that seem to have a density like that of silver, gold, lead, and the like; and even these sink much more slowly than do these exact bodies if they are cast into other lakes. The barbarians who enjoy this source of income take the asphalt to Egypt and sell it for the embalming of the dead; for unless this is mixed with the other aromatic ingredients, the preservation of the bodies cannot be permanent. 1
§ 19.100.1 Antigonus, when Demetrius returned and made a detailed report of what he had done, rebuked him for the treaty with the Nabataeans, saying that he had made the barbarians much bolder by leaving them unpunished, since it would seem to them that they had gained pardon not through his kindness but through his inability to overcome them; but he praised him for examining the lake and apparently having found a source of revenue for the kingdom. In charge of this he placed Hieronymus, the writer of the history,
§ 19.100.2 and instructed him to prepare boats, collect all the asphalt, and bring it together in a certain place. But the result was not in accord with the expectations of Antigonus; for the Arabs, collecting to the number of six thousand and sailing up on their rafts of reeds against those on the boats, killed almost all of them with their arrows.
§ 19.100.3 As a result, Antigonus gave up this source of revenue because of the defeat he had suffered and because his mind was engaged with other and weightier matters. For there came to him at this time a dispatch-bearer with a letter from Nicanor, the general of Media and the upper satrapies. In this letter was written an account of Seleucus' march inland and of the disasters that had been suffered in connection with him.
§ 19.100.4 Therefore Antigonus, worried about the upper satrapies, sent his son Demetrius with five thousand Macedonian and ten thousand mercenary foot-soldiers and four thousand horse; and he ordered him to go up as far as Babylon and then, after recovering the satrapy, to come down to the sea at full speed.
§ 19.100.5 So Demetrius, having set out from Damascus in Syria, carried out his father's orders with zeal. Patrocles, who had been established as general of Babylonia by Seleucus, hearing that the enemy was on the frontiers of Mesopotamia, did not dare await their arrival since he had few men at hand; but he gave orders to the civilians to leave the city, bidding some of them cross the Euphrates and take refuge in the desert and some of them pass over the Tigris and go into Susiane to Euteles and to the Red Sea;
§ 19.100.6 and he himself with what soldiers he had, using river courses and canals as defences, kept moving about in the satrapy, watching the enemy and at the same time sending word into Media to Seleucus about what was taking place from time to time and urging him to send aid as soon as possible.
§ 19.100.7 When Demetrius on his arrival at Babylon found the city abandoned, he began to besiege the citadels. He took one of these and delivered it to his own soldiers for plundering; the other he besieged for a few days and then, since the capture required time, left Archelaus, one of his friends, as general for the siege, giving him five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry, while he himself, the time being close at hand at which he had been ordered to return, made the march down to the sea with the rest of his army.
§ 19.101.1 While this was taking place, in Italy the Romans were charge on their war with the Samnites, and there were repeated raids through the country, sieges of cities, and encampments of armies in the field, for the two most war-like of the peoples of Italy were struggling as rivals for the supremacy and meeting in conflicts of every sort.
§ 19.101.2 Now the Roman consuls with part of the army had taken a position in the face of the encampments of the enemy and were awaiting an opportune time for battle while at the same time furnishing protection to the allied cities.
§ 19.101.3 With the rest of the army Quintus Fabius, who had been chosen dictator, captured the city of the Fregellani and made prisoners the chief men among those who were hostile to the Romans. These to the number of more than two hundred he took to Rome; and, bringing them into the Forum, he beat them with rods and beheaded them according to the ancestral custom. Soon afterwards, entering the hostile territory, he took by siege Calatia and the citadel of Nola; and he sold a large amount of spoil but allotted much of the land to his soldiers. The people, since matters were progressing according to their will, sent a colony to the island that is called Pontia. 1
§ 19.102.1 In Sicily, where peace had just been established between Agathocles and the Sicilians except the Messenians, the exiles of Syracuse gathered in Messene since they saw that this was the only city remaining of those that were hostile to the dynast;
§ 19.102.2 but Agathocles, who was eager to break up their group, sent Pasiphilus with an army to Messene as general, telling him in secret instructions what he should do.
§ 19.102.3 Pasiphilus, entering the region unexpectedly and gaining possession of many prisoners and much other booty, urged the Messenians to choose friendship with him and not be forced to seek terms in common with his bitterest foes.
§ 19.102.4 The Messenians, gaining hope of a bloodless termination of the war, expelled the Syracusan exiles and welcomed Agathocles when he came near with his army.
§ 19.102.5 At first he treated them in a friendly manner and persuaded them to receive back the exiles who were in his army, men who had been legally banished by the Messenians.
§ 19.102.6 But then he brought together from Tauromenium and Messene those who had previously been opposed to his rule and put them all to death, being no less than six hundred in number;
§ 19.102.7 for his intention was to wage war on the Carthaginians, and he was getting rid of all opposition throughout Sicily. When the Messenians had driven out of the city those non-citizens who were most favourably disposed to them and best able to protect them from the tyrant, and saw that those of their own citizens who were opposed to the dynast had been put to death, and when, moreover, they had been forced to receive back men who had been convicted of crime, they regretted what they had done; but they were forced to submit, since they were completely cowed by the superior power of those who had become their masters.
§ 19.102.8 Agathocles first set out for Acragas, intending to organize that city also in his own interest; when, however, the Carthaginians sailed in with sixty ships, he abandoned that purpose; but he entered the territory subject to the Carthaginians and plundered it, taking some of the fortified places by force and winning others by negotiation.
§ 19.103.1 While this was taking place, Deinocrates, the leader of the Syracusan exiles, sent a message to the Carthaginians, asking them to send aid before Agathocles should bring all Sicily under his sway;
§ 19.103.2 and he himself, since he had a strong army after receiving those exiles who had been driven out of Messene, dispatched one of his friends, Nymphodorus, with part of the soldiers to the city of the Centoripini.
§ 19.103.3 Although this city was garrisoned by Agathocles, some of its chief men had promised to betray it on condition that the people be given autonomy. But when Nymphodorus broke into the city by night, the commanders of the garrison, perceiving what had taken place, slew both the man himself and those who pressed fiercely on within the walls.
§ 19.103.4 Seizing upon this opportunity, Agathocles brought accusations against the Centoripini and slaughtered all who were thought to have been guilty of the sedition. While the dynast was thus engaged, the Carthaginians sailed into the great harbour of Syracuse with fifty light boats. They were able to do nothing more, but falling upon two merchant ships from Athens, they sank the ships themselves and cut off the hands of the crews.
§ 19.103.5 They had clearly treated with cruelty men who had done them no harm at all, and the gods quickly gave them a sign of this; for immediately, when some of the ships were separated from the fleet in the vicinity of Brettia, they were captured by the generals of Agathocles, and those of the Phoenicians who were taken alive suffered a fate similar to that with they had inflicted upon their captives.
§ 19.104.1 The exiles who were with Deinocrates, having more than three thousand foot-soldiers and not less than two thousand mounted men, occupied the place called Galeria, the citizens of their own free will inviting them; and they exiled the followers of Agathocles, but they themselves encamped before the city.
§ 19.104.2 When, however, Agathocles quickly dispatched against them Pasiphilus and Demophilus with five thousand soldiers, a battle was fought with the exiles, who were led by Deinocrates and Philonides, each in command of a wing. For some time the conflict was evenly balanced, both of the armies fighting with zest; but when one of the generals, Philonides, fell and his part of the army was put to flight, Deinocrates also was forced to withdraw. Pasiphilus killed many of his opponents during the flight and, after gaining possession of Galeria, punished those guilty of the uprising.
§ 19.104.3 Agathocles, on hearing that the Carthaginians had seized the hill called Ecnomus in the territory of Gela, decided to fight them to a finish with his whole army. When he had set out against them and had drawn near, he challenged them to battle since he was elated by his previous victory.
§ 19.104.4 But the barbarians not venturing to meet him in battle, he assumed that he now completely dominated the open country without a fight and went off to Syracuse, where he decorated the chief temples with the spoils. These are the events of this year that we have been able to discover.
§ 19.105.1 When Simonides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected to the consulship Marcus Valerius and Publius Decius. While these held office, Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus came to terms with Antigonus and made a treaty. In this it was provided that Cassander be general of Europe until Alexander, the son of Roxane, should come of age; that Lysimachus rule Thrace, and that Ptolemy rule Egypt and the cities adjacent thereto in Libya and Arabia; that Antigonus have first place in all Asia; and that the Greeks be autonomous. However, they did not abide by these agreements but each of them, putting forward plausible excuses, kept seeking to increase his own power.
§ 19.105.2 Now Cassander perceived that Alexander, the son of Roxane, was growing up and that word was being spread throughout Macedonia by certain men that it was fitting to release the boy from custody and give him his father's kingdom; and, fearing for himself, he instructed Glaucias, who was in command of the guard over the child, to murder Roxane and the king and conceal their bodies, but to disclose to no one else what had been done.
§ 19.105.3 When Glaucias had carried out the instructions, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy, and Antigonus as well, were relieved of their anticipated danger from the king;
§ 19.105.4 for henceforth, there being no longer anyone to inherit the realm, each of those who had rule over nations or cities entertained hopes of royal power and held the territory that had been placed under his authority as if it were a kingdom won by the spear. This was the situation in Asia and in Greece and Macedonia.
§ 19.105.5 In Italy the Romans with strong forces of foot and horse took the field against Pollitium, a city of the Marrucini. They also sent some of their citizens as a colony and settled the place called Interamna.
§ 19.106.1 In Sicily, where Agathocles was constantly increasing in power and collecting stronger forces, the Carthaginians, since they heard that the dynast was organizing the cities of the island for his own ends and that with his armed forces he surpassed their own soldiers, decided to wage the war with more energy.
§ 19.106.2 Accordingly they at once made ready one hundred and thirty triremes, chose as general Hamilcar, one of their most distinguished men, gave him two thousand citizen soldiers among whom were many of the nobles, ten thousand men from Libya, a thousand mercenaries and two hundred zeugippae from Etruria, a thousand Baliaric slingers, and also a large sum of money and the proper provision of missiles, food, and the other things necessary for war.
§ 19.106.3 After the whole fleet had sailed from Carthage and was at sea, a storm fell suddenly upon it, sank sixty triremes, and completely destroyed two hundred of the ships that were carrying supplies. The rest of the fleet, after encountering severe storms, with difficulty reached Sicily in safety.
§ 19.106.4 Not a few of the Carthaginian nobles were lost, for whom the city instituted public mourning; for it is their custom whenever any major disaster has befallen the city, to cover the walls with black sackcloth.
§ 19.106.5 Hamilcar, the general, gathered together the men who had survived the storm, enrolled mercenaries, and enlisted those troops of the Sicilian allies who were fit for service. He also took over the forces that were already in Sicily and, having attended to all things expedient for war, mustered his armies in the open country, about forty thousand foot-soldiers and nearly five thousand mounted men. Since he had quickly rectified the misfortune that he had suffered and won the reputation of being a good general, he revived the shattered spirits of his allies and presented no ordinary problem to his enemies.
§ 19.107.1 As Agathocles saw that the forces of the Carthaginians were superior to his own, he surmised that not a few of the strongholds would go over to the Phoenicians, and also those of the cities that were offended with him.
§ 19.107.2 He was particularly concerned for the city of the Geloans since he learned that all the forces of the enemy were in their land. At about this time he also suffered a considerable naval loss, for at the straits twenty of his ships with their crews fell into the hands of the Carthaginians.
§ 19.107.3 Deciding nevertheless to make the city of Gela secure with a garrison, he did not venture to lead an army in openly lest the result be that the Geloans, who were looking for an excuse, forestall him and he lose the city, which provided him with great resources.
§ 19.107.4 He therefore sent in his soldiers a few at a time as if for particular needs until his troops far surpassed those of the city in number. Soon he himself also arrived and charged the Geloans with treason and desertion, either because they were actually planning to do something of this sort, or because he was persuaded by false charges made by exiles, or again because he wished to gain possession of wealth; and he slew more than four thousand of the Geloans and confiscated their property. He also ordered all the other Geloans to turn over to him their money and their uncoined silver and gold, threatening to punish those who disobeyed.
§ 19.107.5 Since all quickly carried out the command because of fear, he gathered together a large amount of money and caused a dreadful panic among all who were subject to him. Being thought to have treated the Geloans more cruelly than was proper, he heaped together in the ditches outside the walls those who had been slain; and, leaving behind in the city an adequate garrison, he took the field against the enemy.
§ 19.108.1 The Carthaginians held the hill Ecnomus, which men say had been a stronghold of Phalaris. Here it is reported that the tyrant had constructed the bronze bull that has become famous, the device being heated by a fire beneath for the torment of those subjected to the ordeal; and so the place has been called Ecnomus because of the impiety practised upon his victims.
§ 19.108.2 On the other side Agathocles held another of the strongholds that had belonged to Phalaris, the one which was called Phalarium after him. In the space between the encamped armies was a river, which each of them used as a defence against the enemy; and sayings from earlier times were current that near this place a great number of men were destined to perish in battle. Since, however, it was not clear to which of the two sides the misfortune would happen, the armies were filled with superstitious fear and shrank from battle.
§ 19.108.3 Therefore for a long time neither dared to cross the river in force, until an unexpected cause brought them into general battle. The raids made by the Libyans through the enemy's country aroused Agathocles into doing the same; and while the Greeks were engaged in plundering and were driving away some beasts of burden taken from the Carthaginian camp, soldiers issued from that encampment to pursue them.
§ 19.108.4 Agathocles, foreseeing what was about to happen, placed beside the river an ambush of men selected for courage. These, as the Carthaginians crossed the river in their pursuit of those who were driving the beasts, sprang suddenly from the ambush, fell upon the disordered soldiers, and easily drove them back.
§ 19.108.5 While the barbarians were being slaughtered and were fleeing to their own camp, Agathocles, thinking that the time had come to fight to a finish, led his whole army against the camp of the enemy. Falling on them unexpectedly and quickly filling up a part of the moat, he overthrew the palisade and forced an entrance into the camp.
§ 19.108.6 The Carthaginians, who had been thrown into a panic by the unexpected attack and could find no opportunity for forming their lines, faced the enemy and fought against them at random. Both sides fought fiercely for the moat, and the whole place round about was quickly covered with dead; for the most notable of the Carthaginians rushed up to give aid when they saw the camp being taken, and the forces of Agathocles, encouraged by the advantage gained and believing that they would end the whole war by a single battle, pressed hard upon the barbarians.
§ 19.109.1 But when Hamilcar saw that his men were being overpowered and that the Greeks in constantly increasing numbers were making their way into the camp, he brought up his slingers, who came from the Baliaric Islands and numbered at least a thousand.
§ 19.109.2 By hurling a shower of great stones, they wounded many and even killed not a few of those who were attacking, and they shattered the defensive armour of most of them. For these men, who are accustomed to sling stones weighing a mina, contribute a great deal toward victory in battle, since from childhood they practise constantly with the sling.
§ 19.109.3 In this way they drove the Greeks from the camp and defeated them. But Agathocles continued to attack at other points, and indeed the camp was already being taken by storm when unexpected reinforcements from Libya arrived by water for the Carthaginians.
§ 19.109.4 Thus again gaining heart, those from the camp fought against the Greeks in front, and the reinforcements surrounded them on all sides. Since the Greeks were now receiving wounds from an unexpected quarter, the battle quickly reversed itself; and some of them fled into the Himeras River, others into the camp. The withdrawal was for a distance of forty stades; and since it was almost entirely over level country, they were hotly pursued by the barbarian cavalry, numbering not less than five thousand. As a result the space between was filled with dead; and the river itself contributed greatly to the destruction of the Greeks.
§ 19.109.5 Since it was the season of the Dog Star and since the pursuit took place in the middle of the day, most of the fugitives became very thirsty because of the heat and the distress caused by the flight and drank greedily, and that too although the stream was salt. Therefore no fewer men than those killed in the pursuit itself were found dead beside the river without a wound. In this battle about five hundred of the barbarians fell, but of the Greeks no less than seven thousand.
§ 19.110.1 Agathocles, having met with such a disaster, collected those who had survived the rout and after burning his camp withdrew into Gela. After he had given it out that he had decided to set out quickly for Syracuse, three hundred of the Libyan cavalry fell in with some of the soldiers of Agathocles in the open country. Since these said that Agathocles had departed from Syracuse, the Libyans entered Gela as friends, but they were cheated of their expectations and shot down.
§ 19.110.2 Agathocles, however, shut himself up in Gela, not because he was unable to go safely to Syracuse, but because he wished to divert the Carthaginians to the siege of Gela in order that the Syracusans might quite fearlessly gather in their crops as the season demanded.
§ 19.110.3 Hamilcar at first attempted to besiege Gela, but discovering that there were troops in the city defending it and that Agathocles had ample supplies of all kinds, he gave up the attempt; instead, by visiting the fortresses and cities, he won them over and treated all the people with kindness, seeking to win the goodwill of the Sicilians. And the people of Camarina and Leontini, also those of Catana and Tauromenium, at once sent embassies and went over to the Carthaginian;
§ 19.110.4 and within a few days Messene and Abacaenum and very many of the other cities vied with each other in deserting to Hamilcar, for such was the desire that came upon the common people after the defeat because of their hatred of the tyrant.
§ 19.110.5 But Agathocles conducted what survived of his army to Syracuse, repaired the ruined parts of the walls, and carried off the grain from the countryside, intending to leave an adequate garrison for the city, but with the strongest part of his army to cross to Libya and transfer the war from the island to the continent. But we, following the plan laid down at the beginning, will make Agathocles's expedition into Libya the beginning of the following book.
§ 20.1.1 One might justly censure those who in their histories insert over-long orations or employ frequent speeches; for not only do they rend asunder the continuity of the narrative by the ill-timed insertion of speeches, but also they interrupt the interest of those who are eagerly pressing on toward a full knowledge of the events.
§ 20.1.2 Yet surely there is opportunity for those who wish to display rhetorical prowess to compose by themselves public discourses and speeches for ambassadors, likewise orations of praise and blame and the like; for by recognizing the classification of literary types and by elaborating each of the two by itself, they might reasonably expect to gain a reputation in both fields of activity.
§ 20.1.3 But as it is, some writers by excessive use of rhetorical passages have made the whole art of history into an appendage of oratory. Not only does that which is poorly composed give offence, but also that which seems to have hit the mark in other respects yet has gone far astray from the themes and occasions that belong to its peculiar type.
§ 20.1.4 Therefore, even of those who read such works, some skip over the orations although they appear to be entirely successful, and others, wearied in spirit by the historian's wordiness and lack of taste, abandon the reading entirely;
§ 20.1.5 and this attitude is not without reason, for the genius of history is simple and self-consistent and as a whole is like a living organism. If it is mangled, it is stripped of its living charm; but if it retains its necessary unity, it is duly preserved and, by the harmony of the whole composition, renders the reading pleasant and clear.
§ 20.2.1 Nevertheless, in disapproving rhetorical speeches, we do not ban them wholly from historical works; for, since history needs to be adorned with variety, in certain places it is necessary to call to our aid even such passages — and of this opportunity I should not wish to deprive myself — so that, whenever the situation requires either a public address from an ambassador or a statesman, or some such thing from the other characters, whoever does not boldly enter the contest of words would himself be blameworthy.
§ 20.2.2 For one would find no small number of reasons for which on many occasions the aid of rhetoric will necessarily be enlisted; for when many things have been said well and to the point, one should not in contempt pass over what is worthy of memory and possesses a utility not alien to history, nor when the subject matter is great and glorious should one allow the language to appear inferior to the deeds; and there are times when, an event turning out contrary to expectation, we shall be forced to use words suitable to the subject in order to explain the seeming paradox.
§ 20.2.3 But let this suffice on this subject; we must now write about the events that belong to my theme, first setting forth the chronological scheme of our narrative. In the preceding Books we have written of the deeds of both the Greeks and the barbarians from the earliest times down to the year before Agathocles' Libyan campaign; the years from the sack of Troy to that event total eight hundred and eighty-three. In this Book, adding what comes next in the account, we shall begin with Agathocles' crossing into Libya, and end with the year in which the kings, after reaching an agreement with each other, began joint operations against Antigonus, son of Philip, embracing a period of nine years.
§ 20.3.1 When Hieromnemon was archon in Athens, the Romans elected to the consulship Gaius Julius and Quintus Aemilius; and in Sicily Agathocles, who had been defeated by the Carthaginians in the battle at the Himeras River and had lost the largest and strongest part of his army, took refuge in Syracuse.
§ 20.3.2 When he saw that all his allies had changed sides and that barbarians were masters of almost all Sicily except Syracuse and were far superior in both land and sea forces, he carried out an undertaking that was unexpected and most reckless.
§ 20.3.3 For when all had concluded that he would not even try to take the field against the Carthaginians, he determined to leave an adequate garrison for the city, to select those of the soldiers who were fit, and with these to cross over into Libya. For he hoped that, if he did this, those in Carthage, who had been living luxuriously in long-continued peace and were therefore without experience in the dangers of battle, would easily be defeated by men who had been trained in the school of danger; that the Libyan allies of the Carthaginians, who had for a long time resented their exactions, would grasp an opportunity for revolt; most important of all, a that by appearing unexpectedly, he would plunder a land which had not been ravaged and which, because of the prosperity of the Carthaginians, abounded in wealth of every kind; and in general, that he would divert the barbarians from his native city and from all Sicily and transfer the whole war to Libya. And this last, indeed, was accomplished.
§ 20.4.1 Disclosing this intention to none of his friends, he set up his brother Antander as curator of the city with an adequate garrison; and he himself selected and enrolled those of the soldiers who were fit for service, bidding the infantry be ready with their arms, and giving special orders to the cavalry that, in addition to their full armour, they should have with them saddle-pads and bridles, in order that, when he got possession of horses, he might have men ready to mount them, equipped with what was needed for the service;
§ 20.4.2 for in the earlier defeat the greater part of the foot-soldiers had been killed, but almost all the horsemen had survived uninjured, whose horses he was not able to transport to Libya.
§ 20.4.3 In order that the Syracusans might not attempt a revolution after he had left them, he separated relatives from each other, particularly brothers from brothers and fathers from sons, leaving the one group in the city and taking the others across with him;
§ 20.4.4 for it was clear that those who remained in Syracuse, even if they were most ill disposed toward the tyrant, because of their affection for their relatives would do nothing unbecoming against Agathocles.
§ 20.4.5 Since he was in need of money he exacted the property of the orphans from those who were their guardians, saying that he would guard it much better than they and return it more faithfully to the children when they became of age; and he also borrowed from the merchants, took some of the dedications in the temples, and stripped the women of their jewels. Then, seeing that the majority of the very wealthy were vexed by his measures and were very hostile to him, he summoned an assembly in which, deploring both the past disaster and the expected hardships, he said that he himself would endure the siege easily because he was accustomed to every manner of hardship, but that he pitied the citizens if they should be shut in and forced to endure a siege. 7 He therefore ordered those to save themselves and their own possessions who were unwilling to endure whatever fortune might see fit that they should suffer. But when those who were wealthiest and most bitter against the tyrant had set out from the city, sending after them some of his mercenaries, he killed the men themselves and confiscated their property. When, through a single unholy act, he had gained an abundance of wealth and had cleared the city of those who were opposed to him, he freed those of their slaves who were fit for military service.
§ 20.5.1 When everything was ready, Agathocles manned sixty ships and awaited a suitable time for the voyage. Since his purpose was unknown, some supposed that he was making an expedition into Italy, and others that he was going to plunder the part of Sicily that was under Carthaginian control; but all despaired of the safety of those who were about to sail away and condemned the prince for his mad folly.
§ 20.5.2 But since the enemy was blockading the port with triremes many times more numerous than his own, Agathocles at first for some days was compelled to detain his soldiers in the ships since they could not sail out; but later, when some grain ships were putting in to the city, the Carthaginians with their whole fleet made for these ships, and Agathocles, who already despaired of his enterprise, as he saw the mouth of the harbour freed of the blockading ships, sailed out, his men rowing at top speed.
§ 20.5.3 Then when the Carthaginians, who were already close to the cargo vessels, saw the enemy sailing with their ships in close order, assuming at first that Agathocles was hastening to the rescue of the grain ships, they turned and made their fleet ready for battle; but when he saw the ships sailing straight past and getting a long start of them, they began to pursue. Thereupon, while these were contending with each other, the ships that were bringing grain, unexpectedly escaping the danger, brought about a great abundance of provisions in Syracuse, when a scarcity of food was already gripping the city; and Agathocles, who was already at the point of being overtaken and surrounded, gained unhoped-for safety as night closed in. 5 On the next day there occurred such an eclipse of the sun that utter darkness set in and the stars were seen everywhere; wherefore Agathocles' men, believing that the prodigy portended misfortune for them, fell into even greater anxiety about the future.
§ 20.6.1 After they had sailed for six days and the same number of nights, just as day was breaking, the fleet of the Carthaginians was unexpectedly seen not far away. At this both fleets were filled with zeal and vied with each other in rowing, the Carthaginians believing that as soon as they destroyed the Greek ships they would have Syracuse in their hands and at the same time free their fatherland from great dangers; and the Greeks foreseeing that, if they did not get to land first,
§ 20.6.2 punishment was in store for themselves and the perils of slavery for those who had been left at home. When Libya came into sight, the men on board began to cheer and the rivalry became very keen; the ships of the barbarians sailed faster since their crews had undergone very long training, but those of the Greeks had sufficient lead. The distance was covered very quickly, and when the ships drew near the land they rushed side by side for the beach like men in a race; indeed, since they were within range, the first of the Carthaginian ships were sending missiles at the last of those of Agathocles.
§ 20.6.3 Consequently, when they had fought for a short time with bows and slings and the barbarians had come to close quarters with a few of the Greek ships, Agathocles got the upper hand since he had his complement of soldiers. At this the Carthaginians withdrew and lay offshore a little beyond bowshot; but Agathocles, having disembarked his soldiers at the place called Latomiae, and constructed a palisade from sea to sea, beached his ships.
§ 20.7.1 When he had thus carried through a perilous enterprise, Agathocles ventured upon another even more hazardous. For after surrounding himself with those among the leaders who were ready to follow his proposal and after making sacrifice to Demeter and Core, he summoned an assembly;
§ 20.7.2 next he came forward to speak, crowned and clad in a splendid himation, and when he had made prefatory remarks of a nature appropriate to the undertaking, he declared that to Demeter and Core, the goddesses who protected Sicily, he had at the very moment when they were pursued by the Carthaginians vowed to offer all the ships as a burnt offering.
§ 20.7.3 Therefore it was well, since they had succeeded in gaining safety, that they should pay the vow. In place of these ships he promised to restore many times the number if they would but fight boldly; and in truth, he added, the goddesses by omens from the victims had foretold victory in the entire war.
§ 20.7.4 While he was saying this, one of his attendants brought forward a lighted torch. When he had taken this and had given orders to distribute torches likewise to all the ship captains, he invoked the goddesses and himself first set out to the trireme of the commander. Standing by the stern, he bade the others also to follow his example. Then as all the captains threw in the fire and the flames quickly blazed high, the trumpeters sounded the signal for battle and the army raised the war-cry, while all together prayed for a safe return home.
§ 20.7.5 This Agathocles did primarily to compel his soldiers in the midst of dangers to have no thought at all of flight; for it was clear that, if the retreat to the ships was cut off, in victory alone would they have hope of safety. Moreover, since he had a small army, he reasoned that if he guarded the ships he would be compelled to divide his forces and so be by no means strong enough to meet the enemy in battle, and if he left the ships without defenders, he would put them into the hands of the Carthaginians.
§ 20.8.1 Nevertheless, when all the ships were aflame and the fire was spreading widely, terror laid hold upon the Sicilians. Carried away at first by the wiles of Agathocles and by the rapidity of his undertakings, which gave no time for reflection, all acquiesced in what was being done; but when time made possible detailed consideration, they were plunged into regret, and as they considered the vastness of the sea that separated them from home, they abandoned hope of safety.
§ 20.8.2 Agathocles, however, in an effort to rid his soldiers of their despondency, led his army against the place called Megalepolis, a city of the Carthaginians.
§ 20.8.3 The intervening country through which it was necessary for them to march was divided into gardens and plantations of every kind, since many streams of water were led in small channels and irrigated every part. There were also country houses one after another, constructed in luxurious fashion and covered with stucco, which gave evidence of the wealth of the people who possessed them.
§ 20.8.4 The farm buildings were filled with everything that was needful for enjoyment, seeing that the inhabitants in a long period of peace had stored up an abundant variety of products. Part of the land was planted with vines, and part yielded olives and was also planted thickly with other varieties of fruit-bearing trees. On each side herds of cattle and flocks of sheep pastured on the plain, and the neighbouring meadows were filled with grazing horses. In general there was a manifold prosperity in the region, since the leading Carthaginians had laid out there their private estates and with their wealth had beautified them for their enjoyment.
§ 20.8.5 Therefore the Sicilians, amazed at the beauty of the land and at its prosperity, were buoyed up by expectation, for they beheld prizes commensurate with their dangers ready at hand for the victors;
§ 20.8.6 and Agathocles, seeing that the soldiers were recovering from their discouragement and had become eager for battle, attacked the city walls by direct assault. Since the onset was unforeseen and the inhabitants, because they did not know what was happening and because they had no experience in the wars, resisted only a short time, he took the city by storm; and giving it over to his soldiers for pillage, he at a single stroke loaded his army with booty and filled it with confidence.
§ 20.8.7 Then, setting out immediately for White Tunis, as it is called, he subdued this city, which lies about two thousand stades from Carthage. The soldiers wished to garrison both of the captured cities and deposit the booty in them; but Agathocles, meditating actions conforming to those that had already been accomplished and telling the crowd that it was advantageous to leave behind them no places of refuge until they should have been victorious in battle, destroyed the cities and camped in the open.
§ 20.9.1 When the Carthaginians who lay at anchor off the station where the Sicilian fleet was beached saw the ships burning, they were delighted, thinking that it was through fear of themselves that the enemy had been forced to destroy his ships; but when they saw that the army of their opponents was moving into the country, as they reckoned up the consequences, they concluded that the destruction of the fleet was their own misfortune. Therefore they spread hides over the prows of their ships as they were in the habit of doing whenever it seemed that any public misfortune had befallen the city of Carthage;
§ 20.9.2 and, after taking the bronze beaks of the ships of Agathocles on board their own triremes, they sent to Carthage messengers to report exactly what had happened.
§ 20.9.3 But before these had explained the situation, the country folk who had seen the landing of Agathocles, reported it quickly to the Carthaginians. Panic-stricken at the unexpected event, they supposed that their own forces in Sicily, both army and navy, had been destroyed; for Agathocles, they believed, would never have ventured to leave Syracuse stripped of defenders unless he had been victorious, nor to transport an army across the straits while the enemy controlled the sea.
§ 20.9.4 Therefore panic and great confusion seized upon the city; the crowds rushed to the market place, and the council of elders consulted what should be done. In fact there was no army at hand that could take the field against the enemy; the mass of the citizens, who had had no experience in warfare, were already in despair; and the enemy was thought to be near the walls.
§ 20.9.5 Accordingly, some proposed to send envoys to Agathocles to sue for peace, these same men serving also as spies to observe the situation of the enemy; but some urged that they should delay until they had learned precisely what had taken place. However, while such confusion prevailed in the city, the messengers sent by the commander of the fleet sailed in and made clear the true explanation of what had happened.
§ 20.10.1 Now that all had regained their courage, the council reprimanded all the commanders of the fleet because, although controlling the sea, they had allowed a hostile army to set foot on Libya; and it appointed as generals of the armies Hanno and Bormilcar, men who had an inherited feud.
§ 20.10.2 The councillors thought, indeed, that because of the private mistrust and enmity of the generals the safety of the city as a whole would be secured; but they completely missed the truth. For Bormilcar, who had long had his heart set on tyranny but had lacked authority and a proper occasion for his attempt, now gained an excellent starting point by getting the command as general.
§ 20.10.3 The basic cause in this matter was the Carthaginians' severity in inflicting punishments. In their wars they advance their leading men to commands, taking it for granted that these should be first to brave danger for the whole state; but when they gain peace, they plague these same men with suits, bring false charges against them through envy, and load them down with penalties.
§ 20.10.4 Therefore some of those who are placed in positions of command, fearing the trials in the courts, desert their posts, but others attempt to become tyrants; and this is what Bormilcar, one of the two generals, did on this occasion; about him we shall speak a little later.
§ 20.10.5 But to resume, the generals of the Carthaginians, seeing that the situation was not at all consistent with delay, did not await soldiers from the country and from the allied cities; but they led the citizen soldiers themselves into the field, in number not less than forty thousand foot-soldiers, one thousand horsemen, and two thousand chariots.
§ 20.10.6 Occupying a slight elevation not far from the enemy, they drew up their army for battle. Hanno had command of the right wing, those enrolled in the Sacred Band fighting beside him; and Bormilcar, commanding the left, made his phalanx deep since the terrain prevented him from extending it on a broader front. The chariots and the cavalry they stationed in front of the phalanx, having determined to strike with these first and test the temper of the Greeks.
§ 20.11.1 After Agathocles had viewed the array of the barbarians, he entrusted the right wing to his son Archagathus, giving him twenty-five thousand foot-soldiers; and he drew up the Syracusans, who were thirty-five hundred in number, then three thousand Greek mercenaries, and finally three thousand Samnites, Etruscans, and Celts. He himself with his bodyguard fought in front of the left wing, opposing with one thousand hoplites the Sacred Band of the Carthaginians. The five hundred archers and slingers he divided between the wings.
§ 20.11.2 There was hardly enough equipment for the soldiers; and when he saw the men of the crews unarmed he had the shield covers stretched with sticks, thus making them similar in appearance to the round shields, and distributed them to these men, of no use at all for real service but when seen from a distance capable of creating the impression of arms in the minds of men who did not know the truth.
§ 20.11.3 Seeing that his soldiers were frightened by the great numbers of barbarian cavalry and infantry, he let loose into the army in many places owls, which he had long since prepared as a means of relieving the discouragement of the common soldiers.
§ 20.11.4 The owls, flying through the phalanx and settling on the shields and helmets, encouraged the soldiers, each man regarding this as an omen because the bird is held sacred to Athena.
§ 20.11.5 Such things as this, although they might seem to some an inane device, have often been responsible for great successes. And so it happened on this occasion also; for when courage inspired the common soldiers and word was passed along that the deity was clearly foretelling victory for them, they awaited the battle with greater steadfastness.
§ 20.12.1 Indeed, when the chariots charged against them, they shot down some, and allowed others to pass through, but most of them they forced to turn back against the line of their own infantry.
§ 20.12.2 In the same way they withstood also the charge of the cavalry; and by bringing down many of them, they made them flee to the rear. While they were distinguishing themselves in these preliminary contests, the infantry force of the barbarians had all come to close quarters.
§ 20.12.3 A gallant battle developed, and Hanno, who had fighting under him the Sacred Band of selected men and was intent upon gaining the victory by himself, pressed heavily upon the Greeks and slew many of them. Even when all kinds of missiles were hurled against him, he would not yield but pushed on though suffering many wounds until he died from exhaustion.
§ 20.12.4 When he had fallen, the Carthaginians who were drawn up in that part of the line were disheartened, but Agathocles and his men were elated and became much bolder than before.
§ 20.12.5 When Bormilcar, the other general, heard of this from certain persons, thinking the gods had given him the opportunity for gaining a position from which to make a bid for the tyranny, he reasoned thus with himself: If the army of Agathocles should be destroyed, he himself would not be able to make his attempt at supremacy since the citizens would be strong; but if the former should win the victory and quench the pride of the Carthaginians, the already defeated people would be easy for him to manage, and he could defeat Agathocles readily whenever he wished.
§ 20.12.6 When he had reached this conclusion, he withdrew with the men of the front rank, presenting to the enemy an inexplicable retirement but making known to his own men the death of Hanno and ordering them to withdraw in formation to the high ground; for this, he said, was to their advantage.
§ 20.12.7 But as the enemy pressed on and the whole retreat was becoming like a rout, the Libyans of the next ranks, believing that the front rank was being defeated by sheer force, broke into flight; those, however, who were leading the Sacred Band after the death of its general Hanno, at first resisted stoutly and, stepping over the bodies of their own men as they fell, withstood every danger, but when they perceived that the greater part of the army had turned to flight and that the enemy was surrounding them in the rear, they were forced to withdraw.
§ 20.12.8 And so, when rout spread throughout the entire army of the Carthaginians, the barbarians kept fleeing towards Carthage; but Agathocles, after pursuing them to a certain point, turned back and plundered the camp of the enemy.
§ 20.13.1 There fell in this battle Greeks to the number of two hundred, and of Carthaginians not more than a thousand, but as some have written, upwards of six thousand. In the camp of the Carthaginians were found, along with other goods, many waggons, in which were being transported more than twenty thousand pairs of manacles;
§ 20.13.2 for the Carthaginians, having expected to master the Greeks easily, had passed the word along among themselves to take alive as many as possible and, after shackling them, to throw them into slave pens.
§ 20.13.3 But, I think, the divinity of set purpose in the case of men who are arrogant in their calculations, changes the outcome of their confident expectations into its contrary. Now Agathocles, having surprisingly defeated the Carthaginians, was holding them shut up within their walls; but fortune, alternating victories with defeats, humbled the victors equally with the vanquished.
§ 20.13.4 For in Sicily the Carthaginians, who had defeated Agathocles in a great battle, were besieging Syracuse, but in Libya Agathocles, having gained the upper hand in a battle of such importance, had brought the Carthaginians under siege; and what was most amazing, on the island the tyrant, though his armaments were unscathed, had proved inferior to the barbarians, but on the continent with a portion of his once defeated army he got the better of those who had been victorious.
§ 20.14.1 Therefore the Carthaginians, believing that the misfortune had come to them from the gods, betook themselves to every manner of supplication of the divine powers; and, because they believed that Heracles, who was worshipped in their mother city, was exceedingly angry with them, they sent a large sum of money and many of the most expensive offerings to Tyre.
§ 20.14.2 Since they had come as colonists from that city, it had been their custom in the earlier period to send to the god a tenth of all that was paid into the public revenue; but later, when they had acquired great wealth and were receiving more considerable revenues, they sent very little indeed, holding the divinity of little account. But turning to repentance because of this misfortune, they bethought them of all the gods of Tyre.
§ 20.14.3 They even sent from their temples in supplication the golden shrines with their images, believing that they would better appease the wrath of the god if the offerings were sent for the sake of winning forgiveness.
§ 20.14.4 They also alleged that Cronus had turned against them inasmuch as in former times they had been accustomed to sacrifice to this god the noblest of their sons, but more recently, secretly buying and nurturing children, they had sent these to the sacrifice; and when an investigation was made, some of those who had been sacrificed were discovered to have been supposititious.
§ 20.14.5 When they had given thought to these things and saw their enemy encamped before their walls, they were filled with superstitious dread, for they believed that they had neglected the honours of the gods that had been established by their fathers. In their zeal to make amends for their omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than three hundred.
§ 20.14.6 There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire. It is probable that it was from this that Euripides has drawn the mythical story found in his works about the sacrifice in Tauris, in which he presents Iphigeneia being asked by Orestes: But what tomb shall receive me when I die? A sacred fire within, and earth's broad rift.
§ 20.14.7 Also the story passed down among the Greeks from ancient myth that Cronus did away with his own children appears to have been kept in mind among the Carthaginians through this observance.
§ 20.15.1 However this may be, after such a reversal in Libya, the Carthaginians sent messengers into Sicily to Hamilcar, begging him to send aid as soon as possible; and they dispatched to him the captured bronze beaks of Agathocles' ships. Hamilcar ordered those who had sailed across to keep silent about the defeat that had been sustained, but to spread abroad to the soldiers word that Agathocles had utterly lost his fleet and his whole army.
§ 20.15.2 Hamilcar himself, dispatching into Syracuse as envoys some of those who had come from Carthage and sending with them the beaks, demanded the surrender of the city; for, he said, the army of the Syracusans had been cut to pieces by the Carthaginians and their ships had been burned, and the production of the beaks offered proof to those who disbelieved.
§ 20.15.3 When the inhabitants of the city heard the reported misfortune of Agathocles, the common people believed; the magistrates, however, being in doubt, watched closely that there might be no disorder, but they sent the envoys away at once; and the relatives and friends of the exiles and any others who were displeased with the actions of the magistrates they cast out of the city, in number not less than eight thousand.
§ 20.15.4 Thereupon, when so great a multitude was suddenly forced to leave its native place, the city was filled with running to and fro and with uproar and the lamentation of women; for there was no household that did not have its share of mourning at that time.
§ 20.15.5 Those who were of the party of the tyrant lamented at the misfortune of Agathocles and his sons; and some of the private citizens wept for the men believed to have been lost in Libya, and others for those who were being driven from hearth and ancestral gods, who could neither remain nor yet go outside the walls since the barbarians were besieging the city, and who, in addition to the aforesaid evils, which were great enough, were being compelled to drag along with them in their flight infant children and women.
§ 20.15.6 But when the exiles took refuge with Hamilcar, he offered them safety; and, making ready his army, he led it against Syracuse, expecting to take the city both because it was bereft of defenders and because of the disaster that had been reported to those who had been left there.
§ 20.16.1 After Hamilcar had sent an embassy in advance and had offered safety to Antander and those with him if they surrendered the city, those of the leaders who were held in highest esteem came together in council. After prolonged discussion Antander thought it necessary to surrender the city, since he was unmanly by nature and of a disposition the direct opposite of the boldness and energy of his brother; but Erymnon the Aitolian, who had been set up by Agathocles as co-ruler with his brother, expressing the contrary opinion persuaded all of them to hold out until they should hear the truth.
§ 20.16.2 When Hamilcar learned the decision of those in the city, he constructed engines of all kinds, having determined to attack.
§ 20.16.3 But Agathocles, who had built two thirty-oared ships after the battle, sent one of them to Syracuse, placing on board his strongest oarsmen and Nearchus, one of his trusted friends, who was to report the victory to his own people.
§ 20.16.4 Having had a fair voyage, they approached Syracuse during the night of the fifth day, and wearing wreaths and singing paeans as they sailed they reached the city at daybreak.
§ 20.16.5 But the picket ships of the Carthaginians caught sight of them and pursued them vigorously, and since the pursued had no great start, there arose a contest in rowing. While they were vying with each other, the folk of the city and the besiegers, seeing what was happening, both ran to the port, and each group, sharing in the anxiety of its own men, encouraged them with shouts.
§ 20.16.6 When the dispatch boat was already at the point of being taken, the barbarians raised a shout of triumph, and the inhabitants of the city, since they could give no aid, prayed the gods for the safety of those who were sailing in. But when, not far from the shore, the ram of one of the pursuers was already bearing down to deliver its blow, the pursued ship succeeded in getting inside of the range of missiles and, the Syracusans having come to its aid, escaped from the danger.
§ 20.16.7 But when Hamilcar saw that the inhabitants of the city, because of their anxiety and because of the surprising nature of the message they now anticipated, had run together to the port, surmising that some portion of the wall was unguarded, he advanced his strongest soldiers with scaling ladders. These, finding that the guard-posts had been abandoned, ascended without being discovered; but, when they had almost taken the wall between two towers, the guard, making its rounds according to custom, discovered them.
§ 20.16.8 In the fighting that ensued the men of the city ran together and arrived in advance of those who were coming to reinforce the men who had scaled the wall, of whom they killed some and hurled others down from the battlements.
§ 20.16.9 Hamilcar, greatly distressed at this, withdrew his army from the city and sent to those in Carthage a relief expedition of five thousand men.
§ 20.17.1 Meanwhile Agathocles, who had control of the open country, was taking the strongholds about Carthage by storm; and he prevailed on some of the cities to come over to him because of fear, others because of their hatred for the Carthaginians. After fortifying a camp near Tunis and leaving there an adequate garrison, he moved against the cities situated along the sea. Taking by storm the first, Neapolis, he treated the captured people humanely; then, marching against Hadrumetum, he began a siege of that city, but received Aelymas, the king of the Libyans, into alliance.
§ 20.17.2 On hearing of these moves the Carthaginians brought their entire army against Tunis and captured the encampment of Agathocles; then, after bringing siege engines up to the city, they made unremitting attacks.
§ 20.17.3 But Agathocles, when some had reported to him the reverses suffered by his men, left the larger part of his army for the siege, but with his retinue and a few of the soldiers went secretly to a place in the mountains whence he could be seen both by the people of Hadrumetum and by the Carthaginians who were besieging Tunis.
§ 20.17.4 By instructing his soldiers to light fires at night over a great area, he caused the Carthaginians to believe that he was coming against them with a large army, while the besieged thought that another strong force was at hand as an ally for their enemy.
§ 20.17.5 Both of them, deceived by the deceptive stratagem, suffered an unexpected defeat: those who were besieging Tunis fled to Carthage abandoning their siege engines, and the people of Hadrumetum surrendered their home-land because of their fright.
§ 20.17.6 After receiving this city on terms, Agathocles took Thapsus by force; and of the other cities of the region some he took by storm and some he won by persuasion. When he had gained control of all the cities, which were more than two hundred in number, he had in mind to lead his army into the inland regions of Libya.
§ 20.18.1 After Agathocles had set out and had marched for a good many days, the Carthaginians, advancing with the force that had been brought across from Sicily and their other army, again undertook the siege of Tunis; and they recaptured many of the positions that were in the hands of the enemy. But Agathocles, since dispatch bearers had come to him from Tunis and disclosed what the Phoenicians had done, at once turned back.
§ 20.18.2 When he was at a distance of about two hundred stades from the enemy, he pitched camp and forbade his soldiers to light fires. Then, making a night march, he fell at dawn upon those who were foraging in the country and those who were wandering outside their camp in disorder, and by killing over two thousand and taking captive no small number he greatly strengthened himself for the future.
§ 20.18.3 For the Carthaginians, now that their reinforcements from Sicily had arrived and that their Libyan allies were fighting along with them, seemed to be superior to Agathocles; but as soon as he gained this success, the confidence of the barbarians again waned. In fact, he defeated in battle Aelymas, the king of the Libyans, who had deserted him, and slew the king and many of the barbarians. This was the situation of affairs in Sicily and Libya.
§ 20.19.1 In Macedonia, Cassander, going to the aid of Audoleon, king of the Paeonians, who was fighting against the Autariatae, freed the king from danger, but the Autariatae with the children and women who were following them, numbering in all twenty thousand, he settled beside the mountain called Orbelus.
§ 20.19.2 While he was thus engaged, in the Peloponnesus Ptolemaeus, the general of Antigonus, who had been entrusted with an army but had taken offence at the prince because, as he said, he was not being honoured according to his deserts, revolted from Antigonus and made an alliance with Cassander. And having left as governor of the satrapy along the Hellespont one of his most faithful friends, Phoenix, Ptolemaeus sent soldiers to him, bidding him garrison the strongholds and the cities and not to obey Antigonus.
§ 20.19.3 Since the agreements common to the leaders provided for the liberation of the Greek cities, Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt, charged Antigonus with having occupied some of the cities with garrisons, and prepared to go to war.
§ 20.19.4 Sending his army and Leonides as its commander, Ptolemy subdued the cities in Cilicia Trachea which were subject to Antigonus; and he sent also to the cities that were controlled by Cassander and Lysimachus, asking them to co-operate with him and prevent Antigonus from becoming too powerful.
§ 20.19.5 But Antigonus sent Philip, the younger of his sons, to the Hellespont to fight it out with Phoenix and the rebels; and to Cilicia he sent Demetrius, who, carrying on the campaign with vigour, defeated the generals of Ptolemy and recovered the cities.
§ 20.20.1 Meanwhile Polyperchon, who was biding his time in the Peloponnesus, and who was nursing grievances against Cassander and had long craved the leadership of the Macedonians, summoned from Pergamon Barsine's son Heracles, who was the son of Alexander but was being reared in Pergamon, being about seventeen years of age.
§ 20.20.2 Moreover, Polyperchon, sending to his own friends in many places and to those who were at odds with Cassander, kept urging them to restore the youth to his ancestral throne.
§ 20.20.3 He also wrote to the Federal League of the Aitolians, begging them to grant a safe conduct and to join forces with him and promising to repay the favour many times over if they would aid in placing the youth on his ancestral throne. Since the affair proceeded as he wished, the Aitolians being in hearty agreement and many others hurrying to aid in the restoration of the king, in all there were assembled more than twenty thousand infantry and at least one thousand horsemen.
§ 20.20.4 Meanwhile Polyperchon, intent on the preparations for the war, was gathering money; and sending to those to Macedonians who were friendly, he kept urging them to join in the undertaking.
§ 20.21.1 Ptolemy, however, who was master of the cities of Cyprus, on learning from certain persons that Nicocles, the king of Paphos, had secretly and privately formed an alliance with Antigonus, dispatched two of his friends, Argaeus and Callicrates, ordering them to slay Nicocles; for he was taking all precautions lest any others also should hasten to shift allegiance when they saw that those were left unpunished who had previously rebelled. These two men, accordingly, after sailing to the island and obtaining soldiers from Menelaus the general, surrounded the house of Nicocles, informed him of the king's wishes and ordered him to take his own life.
§ 20.21.2 At first he tried to defend himself against the charges, but then, since no one heeded him, he slew himself. Axiothea, the wife of Nicocles, on learning of her husband's death, slew her daughters, who were unwed, in order that no enemy might possess them; and she urged the wives of Nicocles' brothers to choose death along with her, although Ptolemy had given no instructions in regard to the women but had agreed to their safety.
§ 20.21.3 When the palace had thus been filled full of death and unforeseen disaster, the brothers of Nicocles, after fastening the doors, set fire to the building and slew themselves. Thus the house of the kings of Paphos, after meeting such tragic suffering, was brought to its end in the way described. Now that we have followed to its end the tale of what took place in Cyprus, we shall turn the course of our narrative toward the events which follow.
§ 20.22.1 At about this same time in the region of the Pontus, after the death of Parysades, who was king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, his sons Eumelus, Satyrus, and Prytanis were engaged in a struggle against each other for the primacy.
§ 20.22.2 Of these, Satyrus, since he was the eldest, had received the government from his father, who had been king for thirty-eight years; but Eumelus, after concluding a treaty of friendship with some of the barbarians who lived near by and collecting a strong army, set up a rival claim to the throne.
§ 20.22.3 On learning this, Satyrus set out against him with a strong army; and, after he had crossed the river Thates and drawn near the enemy, he surrounded his camp with the waggons in which he carried his abundant supplies, and drew up his army for battle, taking his own place in the centre of the phalanx as is the Scythian custom.
§ 20.22.4 Enrolled in his army were not more than two thousand Greek mercenaries and an equal number of Thracians, but all the rest were Scythian allies, more than twenty thousand foot-soldiers and not less than ten thousand horse. Eumelus, however, had as ally Aripharnes, the king of the Siraces, with twenty thousand horse and twenty-two thousand foot.
§ 20.22.5 In a stubborn battle that took place, Satyrus with picked cavalry about him charged against Aripharnes, who had stationed himself in the middle of the line; and after many had fallen on both sides, he finally forced back and routed the king of the barbarians.
§ 20.22.6 At first he pushed on, slaying the enemy as he overtook them; but after a little, hearing that his brother Eumelus was gaining the upper hand on the right wing and that his own mercenaries had been turned to flight, he gave up the pursuit. Going to the aid of those who had been worsted and for the second time becoming the author of victory, he routed the entire army of the enemy, so that it became clear to all that, by reason both of his birth and of his valour, it was proper that he should succeeded to the throne of his fathers.
§ 20.23.1 Aripharnes and Eumelus, however, after having been defeated in the battle, escaped to the capital city. This was situated on the Thates River, which made the city rather difficult of access since the river encircled it and was of considerable depth. The city was surrounded also by great cliffs and thick woods, and had only two entrances, both artificial, of which one was within the royal castle itself and was strengthened with high towers and outworks, and the other was on the opposite side in swampy land, fortified by wooden palisades, and it rested upon piles at intervals and supported houses above the water. Since the strength of the position was so great, Satyrus at first plundered the country of the enemy and fired the villages, from which he collected prisoners and much booty.
§ 20.23.2 Afterwards, however, he attempted to make his way by force through the approaches. At the outworks and towers he lost many of his soldiers and withdrew, but he forced a passage through the swamp and captured the wooden barricades.
§ 20.23.3 After destroying these and crossing the river, he began to cut down the woods through which it was necessary to advance to reach the palace. While this was being energetically carried on, King Aripharnes, alarmed lest his citadel should be taken by storm, fought against him with great boldness since he believed that in victory alone lay hope of safety.
§ 20.23.4 He stationed archers on both sides of the passage, by whose aid he easily inflicted mortal wounds on the men who were cutting down the woods, for because of the density of the trees they could neither see the missiles in time nor strike back at the archers.
§ 20.23.5 The men of Satyrus for three days went on cutting down the woods and making a roadway, bearing up amid hardship; on the fourth day they drew near to the wall but they were overcome by the great number of missiles and by the confined space, and sustained great losses.
§ 20.23.6 Indeed, Meniscus, the leader of the mercenaries, a man excelling in sagacity and boldness, after pushing forward through the passage to the wall and fighting brilliantly together with his men, was forced to withdraw when a much stronger force came out against him.
§ 20.23.7 Seeing him in danger, Satyrus quickly came to his aid; but, while withstanding the onrush of the enemy, he was wounded with a spear through the upper arm. Grievously disabled because of the wound, he returned to the camp and when night came on he died, having reigned only nine months after the death of his father Parysades.
§ 20.23.8 But Meniscus, the leader of the mercenaries, giving up the siege, led the army back to the city Gargaza, whence he conveyed the king's body by way of the river to Panticapaion to his brother, Prytanis.
§ 20.24.1 Prytanis, after celebrating a magnificent funeral and placing the body in the royal tombs, came quickly to Gargaza and took over both the army and the royal power. When Eumelus sent envoys to discuss a partition of the kingdom, he did not heed him but he left a garrison in Gargaza and returned to Panticapaion in order to secure the royal prerogatives for himself. During this time Eumelus with the co-operation of the barbarians captured Gargaza and several of the other cities and villages.
§ 20.24.2 When Prytanis took the field against him, Eumelus defeated his brother in battle; and, after shutting him up in the isthmus near the Maeotic Lake, he forced him to accept terms according to which he gave over his army and agreed to vacate his place as king. However, when Prytanis entered Panticapaion, which had always been the capital of those who had ruled in Bosporus, he tried to recover his kingdom; but he was overpowered and fled to the so called Kepoi (Gardens), where he was slain.
§ 20.24.3 After his brothers' death Eumelus, wishing to establish his power securely, slew the friends of Satyrus and Prytanis, and likewise their wives and children. The only one to escape him was Parysades, the son of Satyrus, who was very young; he, riding out of the city on horseback, took refuge with Agarus, the king of the Scythians.
§ 20.24.4 Since the citizens were angry at the slaughter of their kinsmen, Eumelus summoned the people to an assembly in which he defended himself in this matter and restored the constitution of their fathers. He even granted to them the immunity from taxation that those who lived in Panticapaion had enjoyed under his ancestors. He promised also to free all of them from special levies, and he discussed many other measures as he sought the favour of the people.
§ 20.24.5 When all had been promptly restored to their former goodwill by his benevolence, from that time on he continued to be king, ruling in a constitutional way over his subjects and by his excellence winning no little admiration.
§ 20.25.1 For Eumelus continued to show kindness to the people of Byzantium and to those of Sinope and to most of the other Greeks who lived on the Pontus; and when the people of Callantia were besieged by Lysimachus and were hard pressed by lack of food, he took under his care a thousand who had left their homes because of the famine. Not only did he grant them a safe place of refuge, but he gave them a city in which to live and allotted to them the region called Psoancaetice.
§ 20.25.2 In the interests of those who sailed on the Pontus he waged war against the barbarians who were accustomed to engage in piracy, the Heniochians, the Taurians, and the Achaeans; and he cleared the sea of pirates, with the result that, not only throughout his own kingdom but even throughout almost all the inhabited world, since the merchants carried abroad the news of his nobility, he received that highest reward of well-doing — praise.
§ 20.25.3 He also gained possession of much of the adjacent region inhabited by the barbarians and made his kingdom far more famous. In sum, he undertook to subdue all the nations around the Pontus, and possibly he would have accomplished his purpose if his life had not been suddenly cut off. For, after he had been king for five years and an equal number of months, he died, suffering a very strange mishap.
§ 20.25.4 As he was returning home from Sindice and was hurrying for a sacrifice, riding to his palace in a four-horse carriage which had four wheels and a canopy, it happened that the horses were frightened and ran away with him. Since the driver was unable to manage the reins, the king, fearing lest he be carried to the ravines, tried to jump out; but his sword caught in the wheel, and he was dragged along by the motion of the carriage and died on the spot.
§ 20.26.1 About the death of the brothers, Eumelus and Satyrus, prophecies have been handed down, rather silly yet accepted among the people of the land. They say that the god had told Satyrus to be on his guard against the mouse lest it sometime cause his death. For this reason he permitted neither slave nor freeman of those assigned to his service to have this name; and he also feared domestic and field mice and was always ordering his slaves to kill them and block up their holes. But, although he did everything possible by which he thought to ward off his doom, he died, struck in the upper arm through the "mouse."
§ 20.26.2 In the case of Eumelus the warning was that he should be on guard against the house that is on the move. Therefore he never afterward entered a house freely unless his servants had previously examined the roof and the foundations. But when he died because of the canopy that was carried on the four-horse chariot, all agreed that the prophecy had been fulfilled.
§ 20.26.3 Concerning the events that took place in the Bosporus, let this suffice us. In Italy the Roman consuls with an army invaded the hostile territory and defeated the Samnites in battle at the place called Talium. When the defeated had occupied the place named the Holy Mount, the Romans for the moment withdrew to their own camp since night was coming on; but on the next day a second battle was waged in which many of the Samnites were killed and more than twenty-two hundred were taken prisoners.
§ 20.26.4 After such successes had been won by the Romans, it came to pass that their consuls from then on dominated the open country with impunity and overcame the cities which did not submit. Taking Cataracta and Ceraunilia by siege, they imposed garrisons upon them, but some of the other cities they won over by persuasion.
§ 20.27.1 When Demetrius of Phalerum was archon in Athens, in Rome Quintus Fabius received the consulship for the second time and Gaius Marcius for the first. While these were in office, Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, hearing that his own generals had lost the cities of Cilicia, sailed with an army to Phaselis and took this city. Then, crossing into Lycia, he took by storm Xanthus, which was garrisoned by Antigonus.
§ 20.27.2 Next he sailed to Caunus and won the city; and violently attacking the citadels, which were held by garrisons, he stormed the Heracleum, but he gained possession of the Persicum when its soldiers delivered it to him. Thereafter he sailed to Cos
§ 20.27.3 and sent for Ptolemaeus, who, although he was the nephew of Antigonus and had been entrusted by him with an army, had deserted his uncle and was offering co-operation to Ptolemy. When Ptolemaeus had sailed from Chalcis and had come to Cos, Ptolemy at first received him graciously; then, on discovering that he had become presumptuous and was trying to win over the leaders to himself by conversing with them and giving them gifts, fearing lest he should devise some plot, he forestalled this by arresting him and compelled him to drink hemlock. As for the soldiers who had followed Ptolemaeus, after Ptolemy had won their favour through promises, he distributed them among the men of his own army.
§ 20.28.1 Meanwhile Polyperchon, who had collected a strong army, brought back to his father's kingdom Heracles, the son of Alexander and Barsine; but when he was in camp at the place called Stymphaion, Cassander arrived with his army. As the camps were not far distant from each other and the Macedonians regarded the restoration of the king without disfavour, Cassander, since he feared lest the Macedonians, being by nature prone to change sides easily, should sometime desert to Heracles, sent an embassy to Polyperchon.
§ 20.28.2 As for the king, Cassander tried to show Polyperchon that if the restoration should take place he would do what was ordered by others; but, he said, if Polyperchon joined with him and slew the stripling, he would at once recover what had formerly been granted him throughout Macedonia, and then, after receiving an army, he would be appointed general in the Peloponnesus and would be partner in everything in Cassander's realm, being honoured above all. Finally he won Polyperchon over by many great promises, made a secret compact with him, and induced him to murder the king.
§ 20.28.3 When Polyperchon had slain the youth and was openly co-operating with Cassander, he recovered the grants in Macedonia and also, according to the agreement, received four thousand Macedonian foot-soldiers and five hundred Thessalian horse.
§ 20.28.4 Enrolling also those of the others who wished, he attempted to lead them through Boeotia into the Peloponnesus; but, when he was prevented by Boeotians and Peloponnesians, he turned aside, advanced into Locris, and there passed the winter.
§ 20.29.1 While these events were taking place, Lysimachus founded a city in the Chersonesus, calling it Lysimachia after himself. Cleomenes, the king of the Lacedemonians, died after having ruled sixty years and ten months; and Areus, grandson of Cleomenes and son of Acrotatus, succeeded to the throne and ruled for forty-four years.
§ 20.29.2 At about this time Hamilcar, the general of the armies in Sicily, after gaining possession of the remaining outposts, advanced with his army against Syracuse, intending to take that city also by storm.
§ 20.29.3 He prevented the importation of grain since he had controlled the sea for a long time; and after destroying the crops on the land he now undertook to capture the region about the Olympieum, which lies before the city. Immediately on his arrival, however, he also decided to attack the walls, since the soothsayer had said to him at the inspection of the victims that on the next day he would certainly dine in Syracuse.
§ 20.29.4 But the people of the city, learning the intention of their enemy, sent out at night about three thousand of their infantry and about four hundred of their cavalry, ordering them to occupy Euryelus.
§ 20.29.5 These quickly carried out the orders; but the Carthaginians advanced during the night, believing that they would not be seen by the enemy. Now Hamilcar was in the foremost place with those who were regularly arrayed about him, and he was followed by Deinocrates, who had received command of the cavalry.
§ 20.29.6 The main body of the foot-soldiers was divided into two phalanxes, one composed of the barbarians and one of the Greek allies. Outside the ranks a mixed crowd of rabble also followed along for the sake of booty, men who are of no use whatever to an army, but are the source of tumult and irrational confusion, from which the most extreme dangers often arise.
§ 20.29.7 And on this occasion, since the roads were narrow and rough, the baggage train and some of the camp-followers kept jostling each other as they competed for the right of way; and, since the crowd was pressed into a narrow space and for this reason some became involved in brawls and many tried to help each side, great confusion and tumult prevailed in the army.
§ 20.29.8 At this point the Syracusans who had occupied Euryelus, perceiving that the enemy were advancing in confusion whereas they themselves occupied higher positions, charged upon their opponents.
§ 20.29.9 Some of them stood on the heights and sent missiles at those who were coming up, some by occupying advantageous positions forced the fleeing soldiers to cast themselves down the cliffs; for on account of the darkness and the lack of information the enemy supposed that the Syracusans had arrived with a large force for the attack. The Carthaginians, being at a disadvantage partly because of the confusion in their own ranks and partly because of the sudden appearance of the enemy, and in particular at a loss because of their ignorance of the locality and their cramped position, were driven into flight. But since there was no broad passage through the place, some of them were trodden down by their own horsemen, who were numerous, and others fought among themselves as if enemies, ignorance prevailing because of the darkness. Hamilcar at first withstood the enemy stoutly and exhorted those drawn up near him to join with him in the fighting; but afterwards the soldiers abandoned him on account of the confusion and panic, and he, left alone, was pounced upon by the Syracusans.
§ 20.30.1 One might with reason note the inconsistency of Fortune and the strange manner in which human events turn out contrary to expectation. For Agathocles, who was outstanding in courage and who had had a large army fighting in his support, not only was defeated decisively by the barbarians at the Himeras River, but he even lost the strongest and largest part of his army; whereas the garrison troops left behind in Syracuse, with only a small part of those who had previously been defeated, not only got the better of the Carthaginian army that had besieged them, but even captured alive Hamilcar, the most famous of their citizens. And what was most amazing, one hundred and twenty thousand foot-soldiers and five thousand horsemen were defeated in battle by a small number of the enemy who enlisted deception and terrain on their side; so that the saying is true that many are the empty alarms of war.
§ 20.30.2 After the rout the Carthaginians, scattered some here some there, were with difficulty gathered on the next day; and the Syracusans, returning to the city with much plunder, delivered Hamilcar over to those who wished to take vengeance upon him. They recalled also the word of the soothsayer who had said that Hamilcar would enter Syracuse and dine there on the next day, the divinity having presented the truth in disguise. The kinsmen of the slain, after leading Hamilcar through the city in bonds and inflicting terrible tortures upon him, put him to death with the utmost indignities. Then the rulers of the city cut off his head and dispatched men to carry it into Libya to Agathocles and report to him the successes that had been gained.
§ 20.31.1 When the Carthaginian army after the disaster had taken place learned the cause of its misfortune, it was with difficulty relieved from its fears. There being no established commander, the barbarians separated from the Greeks.
§ 20.31.2 Then the exiles along with the other Greeks elected Deinocrates general, and the Carthaginians gave the command to those who had been second in rank to Hamilcar. About this time the Acragantines, seeing that the situation in Sicily was most favourable for an attempt, made a bid for the leadership of the whole island;
§ 20.31.3 for they believed that the Carthaginians would scarcely sustain the war against Agathocles; that Deinocrates was easy to conquer since he had collected an army of exiles; that the people of Syracuse, pinched by famine, would not even try to compete for the primacy; and, what was most important, that if they took the field to secure the independence of the cities, all would gladly answer the summons both through hatred for the barbarians and through the desire for self-government that is implanted in all men.
§ 20.31.4 They therefore elected Xenodicus as general, gave him an army suitable for the undertaking, and sent him forth to the war. He at once set out against Gela, was admitted at night by certain personal friends, and became master of the city together with its strong army and its wealth.
§ 20.31.5 The people of Gela, having been thus freed, joined in his campaign very eagerly and unanimously, and set about freeing the cities. As news of the undertaking of the Acragantines spread throughout the whole island, an impulse toward liberty made itself manifest in the cities. And first the people of Enna sent to the Acragantines and delivered their city over to them; and when they had freed Enna, the Acragantines went on to Erbessus, although a garrison stationed there was keeping watch over the city. After a bitter battle had taken place in which the citizens aided the Acragantines, the garrison was captured and, although many of the barbarians fell, at least five hundred of them laid down their arms and surrendered.
§ 20.32.1 While the Acragantines were thus engaged, some of the soldiers who had been left in Syracuse by Agathocles, after seizing Echetla, plundered Leontini and Camarina.
§ 20.32.2 Since the cities were suffering from the plundering of their fields and the destruction of all their crops, Xenodicus entered the region and freed the peoples of Leontini and Camarina from the war; and after taking Echetla, a walled town, by siege, he re-established democracy for its citizens and struck fear into the Syracusans; and, in general, as he advanced he liberated the strongholds and the cities from Carthaginian domination.
§ 20.32.3 Meantime the Syracusans, hard pressed by famine and hearing that grain ships were about to make the voyage to Syracuse, manned twenty triremes and, watching the barbarians who were accustomed to lie at anchor off the harbour to catch them off guard, sailed out unseen and coasted along to Megara, where they waited for the approach of the traders.
§ 20.32.4 Afterwards, however, when the Carthaginians sailed out against them with thirty ships, they first tried to fight at sea, but were quickly driven to land and leapt from their ships at a certain shrine of Hera.
§ 20.32.5 Then a battle took place for the ships; and the Carthaginians, throwing grappling irons into the triremes and with great force dragging them off from the shore, captured ten of them, but the others were saved by men who came to the rescue from the city. And this was the condition of affairs in Sicily.
§ 20.33.1 In Libya, when those who were carrying the head of Hamilcar had come into port, Agathocles took the head and, riding near the hostile camp to within hearing distance, showed it to the enemy and related to them the defeat of their expedition.
§ 20.33.2 The Carthaginians, deeply grieved and prostrating themselves on the ground in barbarian fashion, regarded the death of the king as their own misfortune, and they fell into deep despair in regard to the whole war. But Agathocles, who was already elated by his successes in Libya, when such strokes of fortune were now added, was borne aloft by soaring hopes, thinking himself freed from all dangers.
§ 20.33.3 Fortune notwithstanding did not permit success to remain long on the same side but brought the greatest danger to the prince from his own soldiers. For Lyciscus, one of those who had been placed in command, invited to dinner by Agathocles, became drunk and insulted the prince.
§ 20.33.4 Now Agathocles, who valued the man for his services in the war, turned aside with a joke what had been said in bitterness; but his son, Archagathus, becoming angry, censured and threatened Lyciscus.
§ 20.33.5 When the drinking was concluded and the men were going away to their quarters, Lyciscus taunted Archagathus on the score of his adultery with his stepmother; for he was supposed to possess Alcia, for this was the woman's name, without his father's knowledge.
§ 20.33.6 Archagathus, driven into an overpowering rage, seized a spear from one of the guard and thrust Lyciscus through his ribs. Now he died at once and was carried away to his own tent by those whose task it was; but at daybreak the friends of the murdered man came together, and many of the other soldiers hastened to join them, and all were indignant at what had happened and filled the camp with uproar.
§ 20.33.7 Many, too, of those who had been placed in command, as they also were subject to accusation and feared for themselves, turned the crisis to their own advantage and kindled no inconsiderable sedition. When the whole army was full of indignation, the troops severally donned full armour to punish the murderer; and finally the mob made up its mind that Archagathus should be put to death, and that, if Agathocles did not surrender his son, he himself should pay the penalty in his place. And they also kept demanding the pay that was due them, and they elected generals to lead the army; and finally some of them seized the walls of Tunis and surrounded the princes with guards on every side.
§ 20.34.1 The Carthaginians, on learning of the discord among the enemy, sent men to them urging them to change sides, and promised to give them greater pay and noteworthy bonuses. And indeed many of the leaders did agree to take the army over to them;
§ 20.34.2 but Agathocles, seeing that his safety was in the balance and fearing that, if he should be delivered to the enemy, he would end his life amid insults, decided that it was better, if he had to suffer, to die at the hands of his own men.
§ 20.34.3 Therefore, putting aside the purple and donning the humble garb of a private citizen, he came out into the middle of the crowd. Silence fell because his action was unexpected, and when a crowd had run together, he delivered a speech suitable to the critical situation. After recalling his earlier achievements, he said that he was ready to die if that should seem best for his fellow soldiers;
§ 20.34.4 for never had he, constrained by cowardice, consented to endure any indignity through love of life. And declaring that they themselves were witnesses of this, he bared his sword as if to slay himself. When he was on the point of striking the blow, the army shouted bidding him to stop, and from every side came voices clearing him from the charges.
§ 20.34.5 And when the crowd kept pressing him to resume his royal garb, he put on the dress of his rank, weeping and thanking the people, the crowd meanwhile acclaiming his restoration with a clash of arms. While the Carthaginians were waiting intently, expecting that the Greeks would very soon come over to them, Agathocles, not missing the opportunity, led his army against them.
§ 20.34.6 The barbarians, believing that their opponents were deserting to them, had no idea at all of what had actually taken place; and when Agathocles had drawn near the enemy, he suddenly ordered the signal for battle to be given, fell upon them, and created great havoc. The Carthaginians, stunned by the sudden reversal, lost many of their soldiers and fled into their camp.
§ 20.34.7 Thus Agathocles, after having fallen into the most extreme danger on account of his son, through his own excellence not only found a way out of his difficulties, but even defeated the enemy. Those, however, who were chiefly responsible for the sedition and any of the others who were hostile to the prince, more than two hundred in number, found the courage to desert to the Carthaginians. Now that we have completed the account of events in Libya and Sicily, we shall relate what took place in Italy.
§ 20.35.1 When the Etruscans had taken the field against the city Sutrium, a Roman colony, the consuls, coming out to its aid with a strong army, defeated them in battle and drove them into their camp;
§ 20.35.2 but the Samnites at this time, when the Roman army was far distant, were plundering with impunity those Iapyges who supported the Romans. The consuls, therefore, were forced to divide their armies; Fabius remained in Etruria, but Marcius, setting out against the Samnites, took the city Allifae by storm and freed from danger those of the allies who were being besieged. Fabius, however, while the Etruscans in great numbers were gathering against Sutrium, marched without the knowledge of the enemy through the country of their neighbours into upper Etruria, which had not been plundered for a long time.
§ 20.35.3 Falling upon it unexpectedly, he ravaged a large part of the country; and in a victory over those of the inhabitants who came against him, he slew many of them and took no small number of them alive as prisoners.
§ 20.35.4 Thereafter, defeating the Etruscans in a second battle near the place called Perusia and destroying many of them, he overawed the nation since he was the first of the Romans to have invaded that region with an army.
§ 20.35.5 He also made truces with the peoples of Arretium and Crotona, likewise with those of Perusia; and, taking by siege the city called Castola, he forced the Etruscans to raise the siege of Sutrium.
§ 20.36.1 In Rome in this year censors were elected, and one of them Appius Claudius, who had his colleague, Lucius Plautius, under his influence, changed many of the laws of the fathers; for since he was following a course of action pleasing to the people, he considered the Senate of no importance. In the first place he built the Aqua Appia, as it is called, from a distance of eighty stades to Rome, and spent a large sum of public money for this construction without a decree of the Senate.
§ 20.36.2 Next he paved with solid stone the greater part of the Appian Way, which was named for him, from Rome to Capua, the distance being more than a thousand stades. And since he dug through elevated places and levelled with noteworthy fills the ravines and valleys, he expended the entire revenue of the state but left behind a deathless monument to himself, having been ambitious in the public interest.
§ 20.36.3 He also mixed the Senate, enrolling not merely those who were of noble birth and superior rank as was the custom, but also including many sons of freedmen. For this reason those were incensed with him who boasted of their nobility.
§ 20.36.4 He also gave each citizen the right to be enrolled in whatever tribe he wished, and to be placed in the census class he preferred. In short, seeing hatred toward himself treasured up by the most distinguished men, he avoided giving offence to any of the other citizens, securing as a counterpoise against the hostility of the nobles the goodwill of the many.
§ 20.36.5 At the inspection of the equestrian order he deprived no man of his horse, and in drawing up the album of the Senate he removed no one of the unworthy Senators, which it was the custom of the censors to do. Then the consuls, because of their hatred for him and their desire to please the most distinguished men, called together the Senate, not as it had been listed by him but as it had been entered in the album by the preceding censors;
§ 20.36.6 and the people in opposition to the nobles and in support of Appius, wishing also to establish firmly the promotion of their own class, elected to the more distinguished of the aedileships the son of a freedman, Gnaeus Flavius, who was the first Roman whose father had been a slave to gain that office. When Appius had completed his term of office, as a precaution against the ill will of the Senate, he professed to be blind and remained in his house.
§ 20.37.1 When Charinus was archon at Athens, the Romans gave the consulship to Publius Decius and Quintus Fabius; and in Elis the Olympian Games were celebrated for the one hundred and eighteenth time, at which celebration Apollonides of Tegea won the foot race. At this time, while Ptolemy was sailing from Myndus with a strong fleet through the islands, he liberated Andros as he passed by and drove out the garrison. Moving on to the Isthmus, he took Sikyon and Corinth from Cratesipolis. Since the causes that explain her becoming ruler of famous cities were made clear in the preceding Book, we shall refrain from again discussing the same subject.
§ 20.37.2 Now Ptolemy planned to free the other Greek cities also, thinking that the goodwill of the Greeks would be a great gain for him in his own undertakings; but when the Peloponnesians, having agreed to contribute food and money, contributed nothing of what had been promised, the prince in anger made peace with Cassander, by the terms of which peace each prince was to remain master of the cities that he was holding; and after securing Sikyon and Corinth with a garrison, Ptolemy departed for Egypt.
§ 20.37.3 Meanwhile Cleopatra quarrelled with Antigonus and, inclining to cast her lot with Ptolemy, she started from Sardis in order to cross over to him. She was the sister of Alexander the conqueror of Persia and daughter of Philip, son of Amyntas, and had been the wife of the Alexander who made an expedition into Italy.
§ 20.37.4 Because of the distinction of her descent Cassander and Lysimachus, as well as Antigonus and Ptolemy and in general all the leaders who were most important after Alexander's death, sought her hand; for each of them, hoping that the Macedonians would follow the lead of this marriage, was seeking alliance with the royal house in order thus to gain supreme power for himself.
§ 20.37.5 The governor of Sardis, who had orders from Antigonus to watch Cleopatra, prevented her departure; but later, as commanded by the prince, he treacherously brought about her death through the agency of certain women.
§ 20.37.6 But Antigonus, not wishing the murder to be laid at his door, punished some of the women for having plotted against her, and took care that the funeral should be conducted in royal fashion. Thus Cleopatra, after having been the prize in a contest among the most eminent leaders, met this fate before her marriage was brought to pass.
§ 20.37.7 Now that we have related the events of Asia and of Greece, we shall turn our narrative to the other parts of the inhabited world.
§ 20.38.1 In Libya, when the Carthaginians had sent out an army to win over the Nomads who had deserted, Agathocles left his son Archagathus before Tunis with part of the army, but he himself, selecting the strongest men — eight thousand foot, eight hundred horse, and fifty Libyan chariots — followed after the enemy at full speed.
§ 20.38.2 When the Carthaginians had come to the tribe of Nomads called the Zuphones, they won over many of the inhabitants and brought back some of the deserters to their former alliance, but on learning that the enemy were at hand, they camped on a certain hill, which was surrounded by streams that were deep and difficult to cross.
§ 20.38.3 These they used as a protection against the unexpected attacks of their opponents, but they directed the fittest of the Nomads to follow the Greeks closely and by harassing them to prevent them from advancing. When these did as they had been directed, Agathocles sent against them his slingers and bowmen, but he himself with the rest of his army advanced against the camp of the enemy.
§ 20.38.4 The Carthaginians on discovering his intention led their army out from their camp, drew it up, and took their positions ready for battle. But when they saw that Agathocles was already crossing the river, they attacked in formation, and at the stream, which was difficult to ford, they slew many of their opponents.
§ 20.38.5 However, as Agathocles pressed forward, the Greeks were superior in valour, but the barbarians had the advantage of numbers. Then when the armies had been fighting gallantly for some time, the Nomads on both sides withdrew from the battle and awaited the outcome of the struggle, intending to plunder the baggage train of those who were defeated.
§ 20.38.6 But Agathocles, who had his best men about him, first forced back those opposite to him, and by their rout he caused the rest of the barbarians to flee. Of the cavalry only the Greeks who, led by Clinon, were assisting the Carthaginians withstood Agathocles' heavy armed men as they advanced. Although they struggled brilliantly, most of these Greeks were slain while fighting gallantly, and those who survived were saved by mere chance.
§ 20.39.1 Agathocles, giving up the pursuit of the cavalry, attacked the barbarians who had taken refuge in the camp; and, since he had to force his way over terrain steep and difficult of access, he suffered losses no less great than those he inflicted on the Carthaginians. Nevertheless, he did not slacken his zeal, but rather, made confident by his victory, pressed on, expecting to take the camp by storm.
§ 20.39.2 At this the Nomads who were awaiting the outcome of the battle, not being able to fall on the baggage train of the Carthaginians since both armies were fighting near the camp, made an attack on the encampment of the Greeks, knowing that Agathocles had been drawn off to a great distance. Since the camp was without defenders capable of warding them off, they easily launched an attack, killing the few who resisted them and gaining possession of a large number of prisoners and of booty as well.
§ 20.39.3 On hearing this Agathocles led his army back quickly and recovered some of the spoil, but most of it the Nomads kept in their possession, and as night came on they withdrew to a distance.
§ 20.39.4 The prince, after setting up a trophy, divided the booty among the soldiers so that no one might complain about his losses; but the captured Greeks, who had been fighting for the Carthaginians, he put into a certain fortress.
§ 20.39.5 Now these men, dreading punishment from the prince, attacked those in the fortress at night and, although defeated in the battle, occupied a strong position, being in number not less than a thousand, of whom above five hundred were Syracusans.
§ 20.39.6 However, when Agathocles heard what had happened, he came with his army, induced them to leave their position under a truce, and slaughtered all those who had made the attack.
§ 20.40.1 After he had finished this battle, Agathocles, examining in mind every device for bringing the Carthaginians into subjection, sent Orthon the Syracusan as an envoy into Cyrene to Ophellas. The latter was one of the companions who had made the campaign with Alexander; now, master of the cities of Cyrene and of a strong army, he was ambitious for a greater realm.
§ 20.40.2 And so it was to a man in this state of mind that there came the envoy from Agathocles inviting him to join him in subduing the Carthaginians. In return for this service Orthon promised Ophellas that Agathocles would permit him to exercise dominion over Libya.
§ 20.40.3 For, he said, Sicily was enough for Agathocles, if only it should be possible for him, relieved of danger from Carthage, to rule over all the island without fear. Moreover, Italy was close at his hand for increasing his realm if he should decide to reach after greater things.
§ 20.40.4 For Libya, separated by a wide and dangerous sea, did not suit him at all, into which land he had even now come through no desire but because of necessity.
§ 20.40.5 Ophellas, now that to his long-considered judgement was added this actual hope, gladly consented and sent to the Athenians an envoy to confer about an alliance, for Ophellas had married Euthydice, the daughter of a Miltiades who traced that name back to him who had commanded the victorious troops at Marathon.
§ 20.40.6 On account of this marriage and the other marks of favour which he had habitually displayed toward their city, a good many of the Athenians eagerly enlisted for the campaign. No small number also of the other Greeks were quick to join in the undertaking whence they hoped to portion out for colonization the most fertile part of Libya and to plunder the wealth of Carthage.
§ 20.40.7 For conditions throughout Greece on account of the continuous wars and the mutual rivalries of the princes had become unstable and straitened, and they expected not only to gain many advantages, but also to rid themselves of their present evils.
§ 20.41.1 And so Ophellas, when everything for his campaign had been prepared magnificently, set out with his army, having more than ten thousand foot-soldiers, six hundred horsemen, a hundred chariots, and more than three hundred charioteers and men to fight beside them. There followed also of those who are termed non-combatants not less than ten thousand; and many of these brought their children and wives and other possessions, so that the army was like a colonizing expedition.
§ 20.41.2 When they had marched for eighteen days and had traversed three thousand stades, they encamped at Automala; thence as they advanced there was a mountain, precipitous on both sides but with a deep ravine in the centre, from which extended a smooth rock that rose up to a lofty peak.
§ 20.41.3 At the base of this rock was a large cave thickly covered with ivy and bryony, in which according to myth had been born Lamia, a queen of surpassing beauty. But on account of the savagery of her heart they say that the time that has elapsed since has transformed her face to a bestial aspect. For when all the children born to her had died, weighed down in her misfortune and envying the happiness of all other women in their children, she ordered that the new-born babes be snatched from their mothers' arms and straightway slain.
§ 20.41.4 Wherefore among us even down to the present generation, the story of this woman remains among the children and her name is most terrifying to them.
§ 20.41.5 But whenever she drank freely, she gave to all the opportunity to do what they pleased unobserved. Therefore, since she did not trouble herself about what was taking place at such times, the people of the land assumed that she could not see. And for that reason some tell in the myth that she threw her eyes into a flask, metaphorically turning the carelessness that is most complete amid wine into the aforesaid measure, since it was a measure of wine that took away her sight.
§ 20.41.6 One might also present Euripides as a witness that she was born in Libya, for he says: "Who does not know the name of Lamia, Libyan in race, a name of greatest reproach among mortals?"
§ 20.42.1 Now Ophellas with his army was advancing with great difficulty through a waterless land filled with savage creatures; for not only did he lack water, but since dry food also gave out, he was in danger of losing his entire army.
§ 20.42.2 Fanged monsters of all kinds infest the desert near the Syrtis, and the bite of most of these is fatal; therefore it was a great disaster into which they were fallen since they were not helped by remedies supplied by physicians and friends. For some of the serpents, since they had a skin very like in appearance to the ground that was beneath them, made their own forms invisible; and many of the men, treading upon these in ignorance, received bites that were fatal. Finally, after suffering great hardships on the march for more than two months, they with difficulty completed the journey to Agathocles and encamped, keeping the two forces a short distance apart.
§ 20.42.3 The Carthaginians, on hearing of their presence, were panic stricken, seeing that so great a force had arrived against them; but Agathocles, going to meet Ophellas and generously furnishing all needed supplies, begged him to relieve his army from its distress. He himself remained for some days and carefully observed all that was being done in the camp of the new arrivals. When the larger part of the soldiers had scattered to find fodder and food, and when he saw that Ophellas had no suspicion of what he himself had planned, he summoned an assembly of his own soldiers and, after accusing the man who had come to join the alliance as if he were plotting against himself and thus rousing the anger of his men, straightway led his army in full array against the Cyreneans.
§ 20.42.4 Then Ophellas, stunned by this unexpected action, attempted to defend himself; but, pressed for time, the forces that he had remaining in camp not being adequate, he died fighting.
§ 20.42.5 Agathocles forced the rest of the army to lay down its arms, and by winning them all over with generous promises, he became master of the whole army. Thus Ophellas, who had cherished great hopes and had rashly entrusted himself to another, met an end so inglorious.
§ 20.43.1 In Carthage Bormilcar, who had long planned to make an attempt at tyranny, was seeking a proper occasion for his private schemes. Time and again when circumstances put him in a position to carry out what he had planned, some little cause intervened to thwart him. For those who are about to undertake lawless and important enterprises are superstitious and always choose delay rather than action, and postponement rather than accomplishment. This happened also on this occasion and in regard to this man;
§ 20.43.2 for he sent out the most distinguished of the citizens to the campaign against the Nomads so that he might have no man of consequence to oppose him, but he did not venture to make an open bid for the tyranny, being held back by caution.
§ 20.43.3 But it happened that at the time when Agathocles attacked Ophellas, Bormilcar made his effort to gain the tyranny, each of the two being ignorant of what the enemy was doing.
§ 20.43.4 Agathocles did not know of the attempt at tyranny and of the confusion in the city when he might easily have become master of Carthage, for when Bormilcar was discovered in the act he would have preferred to co-operate with Agathocles rather than pay the penalty in his own person to the citizens. And again, the Carthaginians had not heard of Agathocles' attack, for they might easily have overpowered him with the aid of the army of Ophellas.
§ 20.43.5 But I suppose that not without reason did such ignorance prevail on both sides, although the actions were on a large scale and those who had undertaken deeds of such daring were near each other.
§ 20.43.6 For Agathocles, when about to kill a man who was his friend, paid attention to nothing that was happening among his enemies; and Bormilcar, when depriving his fatherland of its liberty, did not concern himself at all with events in the camp of the enemy, since he had as a fixed purpose in his mind to conquer at the time, not his enemies, but his fellow citizens.
§ 20.43.7 At this point one might censure the art of history, when he observes that in life many different actions are consummated at the same time, but that it is necessary for those who record them to interrupt the narrative and to parcel out different times to simultaneous events contrary to nature, with the result that, although the actual experience of the events contains the truth, yet the written record, deprived of such power, while presenting copies of the events, falls far short of arranging them as they really were.
§ 20.44.1 Be that as it may, when Bormilcar had reviewed the soldiers in what was called the New City, which is a short distance from Old Carthage, he dismissed the rest, but holding those who were his confederates in the plot, five hundred citizens and about a thousand mercenaries, he declared himself tyrant.
§ 20.44.2 Dividing his soldiers into five bands, he attacked, slaughtering those who opposed him in the streets. Since an extraordinary tumult broke out everywhere in the city, the Carthaginians at first supposed that the enemy had made his way in and that the city was being betrayed; when, however, the true situation became known, the young men ran together, formed companies, and advanced against the tyrant.
§ 20.44.3 But Bormilcar, killing those in the streets, moved swiftly in the market place; and finding there many of the citizens unarmed, he slaughtered them.
§ 20.44.4 The Carthaginians, however, after occupying the buildings about the market place, which were tall, hurled missiles thick and fast, and the participants in the uprising began to be struck down since the whole place was within range.
§ 20.44.5 Therefore, since they were suffering severely, they closed ranks and forced their way out through the narrow streets into the New City, being continuously struck with missiles from whatever houses they chanced at any time to be near. After these had occupied a certain elevation, the Carthaginians, now that all the citizens had assembled in arms, drew up their forces against those who had taken part in the uprising.
§ 20.44.6 Finally, sending as envoys such of the oldest men as were qualified and offering amnesty, they came to terms. Against the rest they invoked no penalty on account of the dangers that surrounded the city, but they cruelly tortured Bormilcar himself and put him to death, paying no heed to the oaths which had been given. In this way, then, the Carthaginians, after having been in the gravest danger, preserved the constitution of their fathers.
§ 20.44.7 Agathocles, loading cargo vessels with his spoil and embarking on them those of the men who had come from Cyrene who were useless for war, sent them to Syracuse. But storms arose, and some of the ships were destroyed, some were driven to the Pithecusan Islands off the coast of Italy, and a few came safe to Syracuse.
§ 20.44.8 In Italy the Roman consuls, going to the aid of the Marsi, against whom the Samnites were making war, were victorious in the battle and slew many of the enemy.
§ 20.44.9 Then, crossing the territory of the Umbrians, they invaded Etruria, which was hostile, and took by siege the fortress called Caerium. When the people of the region sent envoys to ask a truce, the consuls made a truce for forty years with the Tarquinians but with all the other Etruscans for one year.
§ 20.45.1 When that year had come to an end, Anaxicrates was archon in Athens and in Rome Appius Claudius and Lucius Volumnius became consuls. While these held office, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, having received from his father strong land and sea forces, also a suitable supply of missiles and of the other things requisite for carrying on a siege, set sail from Ephesus. He had instructions to free all the cities throughout Greece, but first of all Athens, which was held by a garrison of Cassander.
§ 20.45.2 Sailing into the Peiraeus with his forces, he at once made an attack on all sides and issued a proclamation. Dionysius, who had been placed in command of the garrison on Munychia, and Demetrius of Phalerum, who had been made military governor of the city by Cassander, resisted him from the walls with many soldiers.
§ 20.45.3 Some of Antigonus' men, attacking with violence and effecting an entrance along the coast, admitted many of their fellow soldiers within the wall. The result was that in this way the Peiraeus was taken; and, of those within it, Dionysius the commander fled to Munychia and Demetrius of Phalerum withdrew into the city.
§ 20.45.4 On the next day, when he had been sent with others as envoys by the people to Demetrius and had discussed the independence of the city and his own security, he obtained a safe-conduct for himself and, giving up the direction of Athens, fled to Thebes and later into Egypt to Ptolemy.
§ 20.45.5 And so this man, after he had been director of the city for ten years, was driven from his fatherland in the way described. The Athenian people, having recovered their freedom, decreed honours to those responsible for their liberation. Demetrius, however, bringing up ballistae and the other engines of war and missiles, assaulted Munychia both by land and by sea.
§ 20.45.6 When those within defended themselves stoutly from the walls, it turned out that Dionysius had the advantage of the difficult terrain and the greater height of his position, for Munychia was strong both by nature and by the fortifications which had been constructed, but that Demetrius was many times superior in the number of his soldiers and had a great advantage in his equipment.
§ 20.45.7 Finally, after the attack had continued unremittingly for two days, the defenders, severely wounded by the catapults and the ballistae and not having any men to relieve them, had the worst of it; and the men of Demetrius, who were fighting in relays and were continually relieved, after the wall had been cleared by the ballistae, broke into Munychia, forced the garrison to lay down its arms, and took the commander Dionysius alive.
§ 20.46.1 After gaining these successes in a few days and razing Munychia completely, Demetrius restored to the people their freedom and established friendship and an alliance with them.
§ 20.46.2 The Athenians, Stratocles writing the decree, voted to set up golden statues of Antigonus and Demetrius in a chariot near the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, to give them both honorary crowns at a cost of two hundred talents, to consecrate an altar to them and call it the altar of the Saviours, to add to the ten tribes two more, Demetrias and Antigonis, to hold annual games in their honour with a procession and a sacrifice, and to weave their portraits in the peplos of Athena.
§ 20.46.3 Thus the common people, deprived of power in the Lamian War by Antipater, fifteen years afterwards unexpectedly recovered the constitution of the fathers. Although Megara was held by a garrison, Demetrius took it by siege, restored their autonomy to its people, and received noteworthy honours from those whom he had served.
§ 20.46.4 When an embassy had come to Antigonus from Athens and had delivered to him the decree concerning the honours conferred upon him and discussed with him the problem of grain and of timber for ships, he gave to them one hundred and fifty thousand medimni of grain and timber sufficient for one hundred ships; he also withdrew his garrison from Imbros and gave the city back to the Athenians.
§ 20.46.5 He wrote to his son Demetrius ordering him to call together counsellors from the allied cities who should consider in common what was advantageous for Greece, and to sail himself with his army to Cyprus and finish the war with the generals of Ptolemy as soon as possible.
§ 20.46.6 Demetrius, promptly doing all according to his father's orders, moved toward Caria and summoned the Rhodians for the war against Ptolemy. They did not obey, preferring to maintain a common peace with all, and this was the beginning of the hostility between that people and Antigonus.
§ 20.47.1 Demetrius, after coasting along to Cilicia and there assembling additional ships and soldiers, sailed to Cyprus with fifteen thousand foot-soldiers and four hundred horsemen, more than one hundred and ten swift triremes, fifty-three heavier transports, and freighters of every kind sufficient for the strength of his cavalry and infantry.
§ 20.47.2 First he went into camp on the coast of Carpasia, and after beaching his ships, strengthened his encampment with a palisade and a deep moat; then, making raids on the peoples who lived near by, he took by storm Urania and Carpasia; then leaving an adequate guard for the ships, he moved with his forces against Salamis.
§ 20.47.3 Menelaus, who had been made general of the island by Ptolemy, had gathered his soldiers from the outposts and was waiting in Salamis; but when the enemy was at a distance of forty stades, he came out with twelve thousand foot and about eight hundred horse. In a battle of short duration which occurred, the forces of Menelaus were overwhelmed and routed; and Demetrius, pursuing the enemy into the city, took prisoners numbering not much less than three thousand and killed about a thousand.
§ 20.47.4 At first he freed the captives of all charges and distributed them among the units of his own soldiers; but when they ran off to Menelaus because their baggage had been left behind in Egypt with Ptolemy, recognizing that they would not change sides, he forced them to embark on his ships and sent them off to Antigonus in Syria.
§ 20.47.5 At this time Antigonus was tarrying in upper Syria, founding a city on the Orontes River, which he called Antigonia after himself. He laid it out on a lavish scale, making its perimeter seventy stades; for the location was naturally well adapted for watching over Babylon and the upper satrapies, and again for keeping an eye upon lower Syria and the satrapies near Egypt.
§ 20.47.6 It happened, however, that the city did not survive very long, for Seleucus dismantled it and transported it to the city which he founded and called Seleucia after himself. But we shall make these matters clear in detail when we come to the proper time.
§ 20.47.7 As to affairs in Cyprus, Menelaus, after having been defeated in the battle, had missiles and engines brought to the walls, assigned positions on the battlements to his soldiers, and made ready for the fight; and since he saw that Demetrius was also making preparations for siege,
§ 20.47.8 he sent messengers into Egypt to Ptolemy to inform him about the defeat and to ask him to send aid as his interests on the island were in danger.
§ 20.48.1 Since Demetrius saw that the city of the Salaminians was not to be despised and that a large force was in the city defending it, he determined to prepare siege engines of very great size, catapults for shooting bolts and ballistae of all kinds, and the other equipment that would strike terror. He sent for skilled workmen from Asia, and for iron, likewise for a large amount of wood and for the proper complement of other supplies.
§ 20.48.2 When everything was made ready for him, he constructed a device called the "helepolis," which had a length of forty-five cubits on each side and a height of ninety cubits. It was divided into nine storeys, and the whole was mounted on four solid wheels each eight cubits high.
§ 20.48.3 He also constructed very large battering rams and two penthouses to carry them. On the lower levels of the helepolis he mounted all sorts of ballistae, the largest of them capable of hurling missiles weighing three talents; on the middle levels he placed the largest catapults, and on the highest his lightest catapults and a large number of ballistae; and he also stationed on the helepolis more than two hundred men to operate these engines in the proper manner.
§ 20.48.4 Bringing the engines up to the city and hurling a shower of missiles, he cleared the battlements with the ballistae and shattered the walls with the rams.
§ 20.48.5 Since those within resisted boldly and opposed his engines of war with other devices, for some days the battle was doubtful, both sides suffering hardships and severe wounds; and when finally the wall was falling and the city was in danger of being taken by storm, the assault was interrupted by the coming of night.
§ 20.48.6 Menelaus, seeing clearly that the city would be taken unless he tried something new, gathered a large amount of dry wood, at about midnight threw this upon the siege engines of the enemy, and at the same time all shot down fire-bearing arrows from the walls and set on fire the largest of the siege engines.
§ 20.48.7 As the flames suddenly blazed high, Demetrius tried to come to the rescue; but the flames got the start of him, with the result that the engines were completely destroyed and many of those who manned them were lost.
§ 20.48.8 Demetrius, although disappointed in his expectations, did not stop but pushed the siege persistently by both land and sea, believing that he would overcome the enemy in time.
§ 20.49.1 When Ptolemy heard of the defeat of his men, he sailed from Egypt with considerable land and sea forces. Reaching Cyprus at Paphos, he received ships from the cities and coasted along to Citium, which was distant from Salamis two hundred stades.
§ 20.49.2 He had in all one hundred and forty ships of war, of which the largest were quinqueremes and the smallest quadriremes; more than two hundred transports followed, which carried at least ten thousand foot-soldiers.
§ 20.49.3 Ptolemy sent certain men to Menelaus by land, directing him, if possible, to send him quickly the ships from Salamis, which numbered sixty; for he hoped that, if he received these as reinforcement, he would easily be superior in the naval engagement since he would have two hundred ships in the battle.
§ 20.49.4 Learning of his intention, Demetrius left a part of his forces for the siege; and, manning all his ships and embarking upon them the best of his soldiers, he equipped them with missiles and ballistae and mounted on the prows a sufficient number of catapults for throwing bolts three spans in length.
§ 20.49.5 After making the fleet ready in every way for a naval battle, he sailed around the city and, anchoring at the mouth of the harbour just out of range, spent the night, preventing the ships from the city from joining the others, and at the same time watching for the coming of the enemy and occupying a position ready for battle.
§ 20.49.6 When Ptolemy sailed up toward Salamis, the service vessels following at a distance, his fleet was awe-inspiring to behold because of the multitude of its ships.
§ 20.50.1 When Demetrius observed Ptolemy's approach, he left the admiral Antisthenes with ten of the quinqueremes to prevent the ships in the city from going forth for the battle, since the harbour had a narrow exit; and he ordered the cavalry to patrol the shore so that, if any wreck should occur, they might rescue those who should swim across to the land.
§ 20.50.2 He himself drew up the fleet and moved against the enemy with one hundred and eight ships in all, including those that had been provided with crews from the captured towns. The largest of the ships were sevens and most of them were quinqueremes.
§ 20.50.3 The left wing was composed of seven Phoenician sevens and thirty Athenian quadriremes, Medius the admiral having the command. Sailing behind these he placed ten sixes and as many quinqueremes, for he had decided to make strong this wing where he himself was going to fight the decisive battle.
§ 20.50.4 In the middle of the line he stationed the lightest of his ships, which Themison of Samos and Marsyas, who compiled the history of Macedonia, commanded. The right wing was commanded by Hegesippus of Halicarnassus and Pleistias of Cos, who was the chief pilot of the whole fleet.
§ 20.50.5 At first, while it was still night, Ptolemy made for Salamis at top speed, believing that he could gain an entrance before the enemy was ready; but as day broke, the fleet of the enemy in battle array was visible at no great distance, and Ptolemy also prepared for the battle.
§ 20.50.6 Ordering the supply ships to follow at a distance and effecting a suitable formation of the other ships, he himself took command of the left wing with the largest of his warships fighting under him. After the fleet had been disposed in this way, both sides prayed to the gods as was the custom, the signalmen leading and the crews joining in the response.
§ 20.51.1 The princes, since they were about to fight for their lives and their all, were in much anxiety. When Demetrius was about three stades distant from the enemy, he raised the battle signal that had been agreed upon, a gilded shield, and this sign was made known to all by being repeated in relays.
§ 20.51.2 Since Ptolemy also gave a similar signal, the distance between the fleets was rapidly reduced. When the trumpets gave the signal for battle and both forces raised the battle cry, all the ships rushed to the encounter in a terrifying manner; using their bows and their ballistae at first, then their javelins in a shower, the men wounded those who were within range; then when the ships had come close together and the encounter was about to take place with violence, the soldiers on the decks crouched down and the oarsmen, spurred on by the signalmen, bent more desperately to their oars.
§ 20.51.3 As the ships drove together with force and violence, in some cases they swept off each other's oars so that the ships became useless for flight or pursuit, and the men who were on board, though eager for a fight, were prevented from joining in the battle; but where the ships had met prow to prow with their rams, they drew back for another charge, and the soldiers on board shot at each other with effect since the mark was close at hand for each party. Some of the men, when their captains had delivered a broadside blow and the rams had become firmly fixed, leaped aboard the ships of the enemy, receiving and giving severe wounds;
§ 20.51.4 for certain of them, after grasping the rail of a ship that was drawing near, missed their footing, fell into the sea, and at once were killed with spears by those who stood above them; and others, making good their intent, slew some of the enemy and, forcing others along the narrow deck, drove them into the sea. As a whole the fighting was varied and full of surprises: many times those who were weaker got the upper hand because of the height of their ships, and those who were stronger were foiled by inferiority of position and by the irregularity with which things happen in fighting of this kind.
§ 20.51.5 For in contests on land, valour is made clearly evident, since it is able to gain the upper hand when nothing external and fortuitous interferes; but in naval battles there are many causes of various kinds that, contrary to reason, defeat those who would properly gain the victory through prowess.
§ 20.52.1 Demetrius fought most brilliantly of all, having taken his stand on the stern of his seven. A crowd of men rushed upon him, but by hurling his javelins at some of them and by striking others at close range with his spear, he slew them; and although many missiles of all sorts were aimed at him, he avoided some that he saw in time and received others upon his defensive armour.
§ 20.52.2 Of the three men who protected him with shields, one fell struck by a lance and the other two were severely wounded. Finally Demetrius drove back the forces confronting him, created a rout in the right wing, and forthwith forced even the ships next to the wing to flee.
§ 20.52.3 Ptolemy who had with himself the heaviest of his ships and the strongest men, easily routed those stationed opposite him, sinking some of the ships and capturing others with their crews. Turning back from that victorious action, he expected easily to subdue the others also; but when he saw that the right wing of his forces had been shattered and all those next to that wing driven into flight, and further, that Demetrius was pressing on with full force, he sailed back to Citium.
§ 20.52.4 Demetrius, after winning the victory, gave the transports to Neon and Burichus, ordering them to pursue and pick up those who were swimming in the sea; and he himself, decking his own ships with bow and stern ornaments and towing the captured craft, sailed to his camp and his home port.
§ 20.52.5 At the time of the naval battle Menelaus, the general in Salamis, had manned his sixty ships and sent them as a reinforcement to Ptolemy, placing Menoetius in command. When a battle occurred at the harbour mouth with the ships on guard there, and when the ships from the city pressed forward vigorously, Demetrius' ten ships fled to the camp of the army; and Menoetius, after sailing out and arriving a little too late, returned to Salamis.
§ 20.52.6 In the naval battle, whose outcome was as stated, more than a hundred of the supply ships were taken, upon which were almost eight thousand soldiers, and of the warships forty were captured with their crews and about eighty were disabled, which the victors towed, full of sea water, to the camp before the city. Twenty of Demetrius' ships were disabled, but all of these, after receiving proper care, continued to perform the services for which they were suited.
§ 20.53.1 Thereafter Ptolemy gave up the fight in Cyprus and returned to Egypt. Demetrius, after he had taken over all the cities of the island and their garrisons, enrolled the men in companies; and when they were organized they came to sixteen thousand foot and about six hundred horse. He at once sent messengers to his father to inform him of the successes, embarking them on his largest ship.
§ 20.53.2 And when Antigonus heard of the victory that had been gained, elated by the magnitude of his good fortune, he assumed the diadem and from that time on he used the style of king; and he permitted Demetrius also to assume this same title and rank.
§ 20.53.3 Ptolemy, however, not at all humbled in spirit by his defeat, also assumed the diadem and always signed himself king.
§ 20.53.4 And in a similar fashion in rivalry with them the rest of the princes also called themselves kings: Seleucus, who had recently gained the upper satrapies, and Lysimachus and Cassander, who still retained the territories originally allotted to them. Now that we have said enough about these matters, we shall relate in their turn the events that took place in Libya and in Sicily.
§ 20.54.1 When Agathocles heard that the princes whom we have just mentioned had assumed the diadem, since he thought that neither in power nor in territory nor in deeds was he inferior to them, he called himself king. He decided not to take a diadem; for he habitually wore a chaplet, which at the time when he seized the tyranny was his because of some priesthood and which he did not give up while he was struggling to gain the supreme power. But some say that he originally had made it his habit to wear this because he did not have a good head of hair.
§ 20.54.2 However this may be, in his desire to do something worthy of this title, he made a campaign against the people of Utica, who had deserted him. Making a sudden attack upon their city and taking prisoner those of the citizens who were caught in the open country to the number of three hundred, he at first offered a free pardon and requested the surrender of the city; but when those in the city did not heed his offer, he constructed a siege engine, hung the prisoners upon it, and brought it up to the walls.
§ 20.54.3 The Uticans pitied the unfortunate men; yet, holding the liberty of all of more account than the safety of these, they assigned posts on the walls to the soldiers and bravely awaited the assault.
§ 20.54.4 Then Agathocles, placing upon the engine his catapults, slingers, and bowmen, and fighting from this, began the assault, applying, as it were, branding-irons to the souls of those within the city.
§ 20.54.5 Those standing on the walls at first hesitated to use their missiles since the targets presented to them were their own fellow-countrymen, of whom some were indeed the most distinguished of their citizens; but when the enemy pressed on more heavily, they were forced to defend themselves against those who manned the engine.
§ 20.54.6 As a result there came unparalleled suffering and despiteful treatment of fortune to the men of Utica, placed as they were in dire straits from which there was no escape; for since the Greeks had set up before them as shields the men of Utica who had been captured, it was necessary either to spare these and idly watch the fatherland fall into the hands of the enemy or, in protecting the city, to slaughter mercilessly a large number of unfortunate fellow citizens.
§ 20.54.7 And this, indeed, is what took place; for as they resisted the enemy and employed missiles of every kind, they shot down some of the men who stationed on the engine, and they also mangled some of their fellow citizens who were hanging there, and others they nailed to the engine with the bolts at whatever places on the body the missiles chanced to strike, so that the wanton violence and the punishment almost amounted to crucifixion. And this fate befell some at the hands of kinsmen and friends, if so it chanced, since necessity is not curiously concerned for what is holy among men.
§ 20.55.1 But when Agathocles saw that they were cold-bloodedly intent on fighting, he put his army in position to attack from every side and, forcing an entrance at a point where the wall had been poorly constructed, broke into the city.
§ 20.55.2 As some of the Uticans fled into their houses, others into temples, Agathocles, enraged as he was against them, filled the city with slaughter. Some he killed in hand-to hand fighting; those who were captured he hanged, and those who had fled to temples and altars of the gods he cheated of their hopes.
§ 20.55.3 When he had sacked the movable property, he left a garrison in possession of the city, and led his army into position against the place called Hippu Acra, which was made naturally strong by the marsh that lay before it. After laying siege to this with vigour and getting the better of its people in a naval battle, he took it by storm. When he had conquered the cities in this way, he became master both of most of the places along the sea and of the peoples dwelling in the interior except the Nomads, of whom some arrived at terms of friendship with him and some awaited the final issue.
§ 20.55.4 For four stocks have divided Libya: the Phoenicians, who at that time occupied Carthage; the Libyphoenicians, who have many cities along the sea and intermarry with the Carthaginians, and who received this name as a result of the interwoven ties of kinship. Of the inhabitants the race that was most numerous and oldest was called Libyan, and they hated the Carthaginians with a special bitterness because of the weight of their overlordship; a and last were the Nomads, who pastured their herds over a large part of Libya as far as the desert.
§ 20.55.5 Now that Agathocles was superior to the Carthaginians by reason of his Libyan allies and his own armies but was much troubled about the situation in Sicily, he constructed light ships and penteconters and placed upon them two thousand soldiers. Leaving his son Agatharchus in command of affairs in Libya, he put out with his ships and made the voyage to Sicily.
§ 20.56.1 While this was happening, Xenodocus, the general of the Acragantines, having freed many of the cities and roused in the Sicilians great hopes of autonomy throughout the whole island, led his army against the generals of Agathocles. It consisted of more than ten thousand foot-soldiers and nearly a thousand horsemen.
§ 20.56.2 Leptines and Demophilus, assembling from Syracuse and the fortresses as many men as they could, took up a position opposite him with eighty-two thousand foot-soldiers and twelve hundred horse. In a bitter fight that ensued, Xenodocus was defeated and fled to Acragas, losing not less than fifteen hundred of his soldiers.
§ 20.56.3 The people of Acragas after meeting with this reverse put an end to their own most noble enterprise and, at the same time, to their allies' hopes of freedom. Shortly after this battle had taken place, Agathocles put in at Selinus in Sicily and forced the people of Heraclea, who had made their city free, to submit to him once more. Having crossed to the other side of the island, he attached to himself by a treaty the people of Therma, granting safe conduct to the Carthaginian garrison. Then, after taking Cephaloedium and leaving Leptines as its governor, he himself marched through the interior and attempted to slip by night into Centuripa, where some of the citizens were to admit him. When their plan was discovered, however, and the guard came to the defence, he was thrown out of the city, losing more than five hundred of his soldiers.
§ 20.56.4 Thereupon, men from Apollonia having invited him and promised to betray their fatherland, he came to that city. As the traitors had become known and had been punished, he attacked the city but without effect for the first day, and on the next, after suffering heavily and losing a large number of men, he barely succeeded in taking it. After slaughtering most of the Apolloniates, he plundered their possessions.
§ 20.57.1 While Agathocles was engaged on these matters, Deinocrates, the leader of the exiles, taking over the policy of the Acragantines and proclaiming himself champion of the common liberty, caused many to flock to him from all sides;
§ 20.57.2 for some eagerly gave ear to his appeals because of the desire for independence inborn in all men, and others because of their fear of Agathocles. When Deinocrates had collected almost twenty thousand foot-soldiers and fifteen hundred mounted men, all of them men who had had uninterrupted experience of exile and hardship, he camped in the open, challenging the tyrant to battle.
§ 20.57.3 However, when Agathocles, who was far inferior in strength, avoided battle, he speedily followed on his heels, having secured his victory without a struggle. From this time on the fortunes of Agathocles, not only in Sicily but also in Libya, suffered a change for the worse.
§ 20.57.4 Archagathus, who had been left by him as general, after the departure of his father at first gained some advantage by sending into the inland regions a part of the army under the command of Eumachus. This leader, after taking the rather large city of Tocae, won over many of the Nomads who dwelt near by.
§ 20.57.5 Then, capturing another city called Phelline, he forced the submission of those who used the adjacent country as pasture, men called the Asphodelodes, who are similar to the Ethiopians in colour.
§ 20.57.6 The third city that he took was Meschela, which was very large and had been founded long ago by the Greeks who were returning from Troy, about whom we have already spoken in the third Book. Next he took the place called Hippu Acra, which has the same name as that captured by storm by Agathocles, and finally the free city called Acris, which he gave to his soldiers for plundering after he had enslaved the people.
§ 20.58.1 After sating his army with booty, he returned to Archagathus; and since he had gained a name for good service, he again led an army into the inland regions of Libya. Passing by the cities that he had previously mastered, he gained an entrance into the city called Miltine, having appeared before it without warning;
§ 20.58.2 but when the barbarians gathered together against him and overpowered him in the streets, he was, to his great surprise, driven out and lost many of his men. Departing thence, he marched through a high mountain range that extended for about two hundred stades and was full of wildcats, in which, accordingly, no birds whatever nested either among the trees or the ravines because of the rapacity of the aforementioned beasts.
§ 20.58.3 Crossing this range, he came out into a country containing a large number of apes and to three cities called from these beasts Pithecusae, if the name is translated into the Greek language.
§ 20.58.4 In these cities many of the customs were very different from those current among us. For the apes lived in the same houses as the men, being regarded among them as gods, just as the dogs are among the Egyptians, and from the provisions laid up in the storerooms the beasts took their food without hindrance whenever they wished. Parents usually gave their children names taken from the apes, just as we do from the gods.
§ 20.58.5 For any who killed this animal, as if he had committed the greatest sacrilege, death was established as the penalty. For this reason, among some there was current a proverbial saying about those slain with impunity that they were paying the penalty for a monkey's blood.
§ 20.58.6 However this may be, Eumachus, after taking one of these cities by storm, destroyed it, but the other two he won over by persuasion. When, however, he heard that the neighbouring barbarians were collecting great forces against him, he pushed on more vigorously, having decided to go back to the regions by the sea.
§ 20.59.1 Up to this time all the campaign in Libya had been satisfactory to Archagathus. But after this the senate in Carthage took good counsel about the war and the senators decided to form three armies and send them forth from the city, one against the cities of the coast, one into the midland regions, and one into the interior.
§ 20.59.2 They thought that if they did this they would in the first place relieve the city of the siege and at the same time of the scarcity of food; for since many people from all parts had taken refuge in Carthage, there had resulted a general scarcity, the supply of provisions being already exhausted, but there was no danger from the siege since the city was inaccessible because of the protection afforded by the walls and the sea.
§ 20.59.3 In the second place, they assumed that the allies would continue more loyal if there were more armies in the field aiding them. And, what was most important, they hoped that the enemy would be forced to divide his forces and to withdraw to a distance from Carthage. All of these aims were accomplished according to their purpose;
§ 20.59.4 for when thirty thousand soldiers had been sent out from the city, the men who were left behind as a garrison not only had enough to maintain themselves, but out of their abundance they enjoyed everything in profusion; and the allies, who hitherto, because of their fear of the enemy, were compelled to make terms with him, again gained courage and hastened to return to the formerly existing friendship.
§ 20.60.1 When Archagathus saw that all Libya was being occupied in sections by hostile armies, he himself also divided his army; part he sent into the coastal region, and of the rest of his forces he gave part to Aeschrion and sent him forth, and part he led himself, leaving an adequate garrison in Tunis.
§ 20.60.2 When so many armies were wandering everywhere in the country and when a decisive crisis in the campaign was expected, all anxiously awaited the final outcome.
§ 20.60.3 Now Hanno, who commanded the army of the midland region, laid an ambush for Aeschrion and fell on him suddenly, slaying more than four thousand foot-soldiers and about two hundred mounted troops, among whom was the general himself; of the others some were captured and some escaped in safety to Archagathus, who was about five hundred stades distant.
§ 20.60.4 As for Himilco, who had been appointed to conduct the campaign into the interior, at first he rested in a certain city lying in wait for Eumachus, who was dragging along his army heavily loaded with the spoils from the captured cities.
§ 20.60.5 Then when the Greeks drew up their forces and challenged him to battle, Himilco left part of his army under arms in the city, giving them orders that, when he retired in pretended flight, they should burst out upon the pursuers. He himself, leading out half of his soldiers and joining battle a little distance in front of the encampment, at once took to flight as if panic-stricken.
§ 20.60.6 Eumachus' men, elated by their victory and giving no thought at all to their formation, followed, and in confusion pressed hard upon those who were withdrawing; but when suddenly from another part of the city there poured forth the army all ready for battle and when a great host shouted at a single command, they became panic-stricken.
§ 20.60.7 Accordingly, when the barbarians fell upon an enemy who had been thrown into disorder and frightened by the sudden onslaught, the immediate result was the rout of the Greeks. Since the Carthaginians cut off the enemy's return to his camp, Eumachus was forced to withdraw to the near-by hill, which was ill supplied with water.
§ 20.60.8 When the Phoenicians invested the place, the Greeks, who had become weak from thirst and were being overpowered by the enemy, were almost all killed. In fact, of eight thousand foot-soldiers only thirty were saved, and of eight hundred horsemen forty escaped from the battle.
§ 20.61.1 After meeting with so great a disaster Archagathus returned to Tunis. He summoned from all sides the survivors of the soldiers who had been sent out; and he sent messengers to Sicily to report to his father what had happened and to urge him to come to his aid with all possible speed.
§ 20.61.2 In addition to the preceding disasters, another loss befell the Greeks; for all their allies except a few deserted them, and the armies of the enemy gathered together and, pitching camp near by, lay in wait for them.
§ 20.61.3 Himilco occupied the passes and shut off his opponents, who were at a distance of a hundred stades, from the routes leading from the region; and on the other side Atarbas camped at a distance of forty stades from Tunis.
§ 20.61.4 Therefore, since the enemy controlled not only the sea but also the land, the Greeks both suffered from famine and were beset by fear on every side.
§ 20.61.5 While all were in deep despair, Agathocles, when he learned of the reverses in Libya, made ready seventeen warships intending to go to the aid of Archagathus. Although affairs in Sicily had also shifted to his disadvantage because of the increase in the strength of the exiles who followed Deinocrates, he entrusted the war on the island to Leptines as general; and he himself, manning his ships, watched for a chance to set sail, since the Carthaginians were blockading the harbour with thirty ships.
§ 20.61.6 Now at this very time eighteen ships arrived from Etruria as a reinforcement for him, slipping into the harbour at night without the knowledge of the Carthaginians. Gaining this resource, Agathocles outgeneralled his enemies; ordering the allies to remain until he should have sailed out and drawn the Carthaginians into the chase, he himself, just as he had planned, put to sea from the harbour at top speed with his seventeen ships.
§ 20.61.7 The ships on guard pursued, but Agathocles, on seeing the Etruscans appearing from the harbour, suddenly turned his ships, took position for ramming, and pitted his ships against the barbarians. The Carthaginians, terror-stricken by the surprise and because their own triremes were cut off between the enemy fleets, fled.
§ 20.61.8 Thereupon the Greeks captured five ships with their crews; and the commander of the Carthaginians, when his flagship was on the point of being captured, killed himself, preferring death to the anticipated captivity. But in truth he was shown by the event to have judged unwisely; for his ship caught a favouring wind, raised its jury mast and fled from the battle.
§ 20.62.1 Agathocles, who had no hope of ever getting the better of the Carthaginians on the sea, unexpectedly defeated them in a naval battle, and thereafter he ruled the sea and gave security to his merchants. For this reason the people of Syracuse, goods being brought to them from all sides, in place of scarcity of provisions soon enjoyed an abundance of everything.
§ 20.62.2 The tyrant, encouraged by the success that had been won, dispatched Leptines to plunder the country of the enemy and, in particular, that of Acragas. For Xenodocus, vilified by his political opponents because of the defeat he had suffered, was at strife with them.
§ 20.62.3 Agathocles therefore ordered Leptines to try to entice the man out to a battle; for, he said, it would be easy to defeat him since his army was seditious and had already been overcome.
§ 20.62.4 And indeed this was accomplished; for when Leptines entered the territory of Acragas and began plundering the land, Xenodocus at first kept quiet, not believing himself strong enough for battle; but when he was reproached by the citizens for cowardice, he led out his army, which in number fell little short of that of his opponents but in morale was far inferior since the citizen army had been formed amid indulgence and a sheltered way of life and the other had been trained in military service in the field and in constant campaigns.
§ 20.62.5 Therefore when battle was joined, Leptines quickly routed the men of Acragas and pursued them into the city; and there fell in the battle on the side of the vanquished about five hundred foot soldiers and more than fifty horsemen. Then the people of Acragas, vexed over their disasters, brought charges against Xenodocus, saying that because of him they had twice been defeated; but he, fearing the impending investigation and trial, departed to Gela.
§ 20.63.1 Agathocles, having within a few days defeated his enemies both on land and sea, sacrificed to the gods and gave lavish entertainments for his friends. In his drinking bouts he used to put off the pomp of tyranny and to show himself more humble than the ordinary citizens; and by seeking through a policy of this sort the goodwill of the multitude and at the same time giving men licence to speak against him in their cups he used to discover exactly the opinion of each, since through wine the truth is brought to light without concealment.
§ 20.63.2 But by nature also a buffoon and a mimic, not even in the meetings of the assembly did he abstain from jeering at those who were present and from portraying certain of them, so that the common people would often break out into laughter as if they were watching one of the impersonators or conjurors.
§ 20.63.3 With a crowd serving as his bodyguard he used to enter the assembly unattended, unlike Dionysius the tyrant. For the latter was so distrustful of one and all that as a rule he let his hair and beard grow long so that he need not submit the most vital parts of his body to the steel of the barber; and if ever it became necessary for him to have his head trimmed, he singed off the locks, declaring that the only safety of a tyrant was distrust. Now Agathocles at the drinking bout, taking a great golden cup, said that he had not given up the potters' craft until in his pursuit of art he had produced in pottery beakers of such workmanship as this. For he did not deny his trade but on the contrary used to boast of it, claiming that it was by his own ability that in place of the most lowly position in life he had secured the most exalted one. 5 Once when he was besieging a certain not inglorious city and people from the wall shouted, "Potter and furnace-man, when will you pay your soldiers?" he said in away, "when I have taken this city." 6 None the less, however, when through the jesting at drinking bouts he had discovered which of those who were flushed with wine were hostile to his tyranny he invited them individually on another occasion to a banquet, and also those of the other Syracusans who had become particularly presumptuous, in number about five hundred; and surrounding them with suitable men from his mercenaries he slaughtered them all. For he was taking very careful precautions lest, while he was absent in Libya, they should overthrow the tyranny and recall Deinocrates and the exiles. After he had made his rule secure in this way, he sailed from Syracuse.
§ 20.64.1 When he arrived in Libya he found the army discouraged and in great want: deciding, therefore, that it was best to fight a battle, he encouraged the soldiers for the fray and, after leading forth the army in battle array, challenged the barbarians to combat.
§ 20.64.2 As infantry he had all the surviving Greeks, six thousand in number, at least as many Celts, Samnites, and Etruscans, and almost ten thousand Libyans, who, as it turned out, only sat and looked on, being always ready to change with changing conditions.
§ 20.64.3 In addition to these there followed him fifteen hundred horsemen and more than six thousand Libyan chariots. The Carthaginians, since they were encamped in high and inaccessible positions, decided not to risk a battle against men who had no thought of safety; but they hoped that, by remaining in their camp where they were plentifully supplied with everything, they would defeat their enemy by famine and the passage of time.
§ 20.64.4 But Agathocles, since he could not lure them down to the plain and since his own situation forced him to do something daring and chance the result, led his army against the encampment of the barbarians. Then when the Carthaginians came out against him, even though they were far superior in number and had the advantage of the rough terrain, Agathocles held out for some time although hard pressed on every side; but afterwards, when his mercenaries and the others began to give way, he was forced to withdraw toward his camp.
§ 20.64.5 The barbarians, as they pressed forward stoutly, passed by the Libyans without molesting them in order to elicit their goodwill; but recognizing the Greeks and the mercenaries by their weapons, they continued to slay them until they had driven them into their own camp. Now on this occasion about three thousand of Agathocles' men were killed; but on the following night it so happened that each army was visited by a strange and totally unexpected mishap.
§ 20.65.1 While the Carthaginians after their victory were sacrificing the fairest of their captives as thank-offerings to the gods by night, and while a great blaze enveloped the men who were being offered as victims, a sudden blast of wind struck them, with the result that the sacred hut, which was near the altar, caught fire, and from this the hut of the general caught and then the huts of the leaders, which were in line with it, so that great consternation and fear sprang up throughout the whole camp. Some were trapped by the conflagration while trying to put out the fire and others while carrying out their armour and the most valued of their possessions; for, since the huts were made of reeds and straw and the fire was forcibly fanned by the breeze, the aid brought by the soldiers came too late.
§ 20.65.2 Thus when almost the entire camp was in flames, many, caught in the passages which were narrow, were burned alive and suffered due punishment on the spot for their cruelty to the captives, the impious act itself having brought about a punishment to match it; and as for those who dashed from the camp amid tumult and shouting, another greater danger awaited them.
§ 20.66.1 As many as five thousand of the Libyans who had been taken into Agathocles' army had deserted the Greeks and were going over by night to the barbarians. When those who had been sent out as scouts saw these men coming toward the Carthaginian camp, believing that the whole army of the Greeks was advancing ready for battle, they quickly reported the approaching force to their fellow soldiers.
§ 20.66.2 When the report had been spread through the whole force, there arose tumult and dread of the enemy's attack. Each man placed his hope of safety in flight; and since no order had been given by the commanders nor was there any formation, the fugitives kept running into each other. When some of them failed to recognize their friends because of the darkness and others because of fright, they fought against them as if they were enemies.
§ 20.66.3 A general slaughter took place; and while the misunderstanding still prevailed, some were slain in hand to hand fighting and others, who had sped away unarmed and were fleeing three the rough country, fell from cliffs, distraught in mind by the sudden panic. Finally after more than five thousand had perished, the rest of the multitude came safe to Carthage.
§ 20.66.4 But those in the city, who had also been deceived at that time by the report of their own people, supposed that they had been conquered in a battle and that the largest part of the army had been destroyed. Therefore in great anxiety they opened the city gates and with tumult and excitement received their soldiers, fearing lest with the last of them the enemy should burst in. When day broke, however, they learned the truth and were with difficulty freed from their expectation of disaster.
§ 20.67.1 At this same time, however, Agathocles by reason of deceit and mistaken expectation met with similar disaster. For the Libyans who had deserted did not dare go on after the burning of the camp and the tumult that had arisen, but turned back again; and some of the Greeks, seeing them advancing and believing that the army of the Carthaginians had come, reported to Agathocles that the enemy's forces were near at hand.
§ 20.67.2 The dynast gave the order to take up arms, and the soldiers rushed from the camp with great tumult. Since at the same time the fire in the Carthaginian camp blazed high and the shouting of the Carthaginians became audible, the Greeks believed that the barbarians were in very truth advancing against them with their whole army. Since their consternation prevented deliberation, panic fell upon the camp and all began to flee. Then as the Libyans mingled with them and the darkness fostered and increased their uncertainty, those who happened to meet fought each other as if they were enemies. 4 They were scattered about everywhere throughout the whole night and were in the grip of panic fear, with the result that more than four thousand were killed. When the truth was at long last discovered, those who survived returned to their camp. Thus both armies met with disaster in the way described, being tricked, according to the proverb, by the empty alarms of war.
§ 20.68.1 Since after this misfortune the Libyans all deserted him and the army which remained was not strong enough to wage battle against the Carthaginians, Agathocles decided to leave Libya. But he did not believe that he would be able to transport his soldiers since he had not prepared any transports and the Carthaginians would never permit it while they controlled the sea.
§ 20.68.2 He did not expect that the barbarians would agree to a truce because they were far superior in their armies and were determined by the destruction of those who had first come across to prevent others from attacking Libya.
§ 20.68.3 He decided, therefore, to make the return voyage with a few in secret, and he took on board with him the younger of his sons, Heracleides; for he was on his guard against Archagathus, lest some time this son, who was on intimate terms with his step-mother and was bold by nature, should form a conspiracy against himself. Archagathus, however, suspecting his purpose watched for the sailing with care, being determined to reveal the plot to such of the leaders as would prevent the attempt; for he thought it monstrous that, although he had shared willingly in the battles, fighting in behalf of his father and brother, yet he alone should be deprived of a safe return and left behind as a victim to the enemy.
§ 20.68.4 He therefore disclosed to some of the leaders that Agathocles was about to sail away in secret by night. These coming quickly together not only prevented this, but also revealed Agathocles' knavery to the rank and file; and the soldiers, becoming furious at this, seized the tyrant, bound him, and put him in custody.
§ 20.69.1 Consequently, when discipline disappeared in the camp, there was tumult and confusion, and as night came on word was spread abroad that the enemy was near. When fright and panic fear fell upon them, each man armed himself and rushed forth from the encampment, no man giving orders.
§ 20.69.2 At this very time those who were guarding the tyrant, being no less frightened than the others and imagining that they were being summoned by somebody, hastily brought out Agathocles bound with chains. When the common soldiers saw him they were moved to pity and all shouted to let him go. When released, he embarked on the transport with a few followers and secretly sailed away, although this was in the winter at the season of the setting of the Pleiades. This man, then, concerned about his own safety, abandoned his sons, whom the soldiers among other things slew when they learned of his escape; and the soldiers selected generals from their own number and made peace with the Carthaginians on these terms: they were to give back the cities which they held and to receive three hundred talents, and those who chose to serve with the Carthaginians were to receive pay at the regular rates, and the others, when transported to Sicily, were to receive Solus as a dwelling-place. 4 Now, most of the soldiers abided by the terms and received what had been agreed upon; but all those who continued to occupy the cities because they still clung to hopes of Agathocles were attacked and taken by storm. 5 Their leaders the Carthaginians crucified; the others they bound with fetters and forced them by their own labour to bring back again into cultivation the country they had laid waste during the war. In this way, then, the Carthaginians recovered the liberty in the fourth year of the war.
§ 20.70.1 One might well draw attention both to the almost incredible elements in Agathocles' expedition to Libya and to the punishment that befell his children as if by divine providence. For although in Sicily he had been defeated and had lost the largest part of his army, in Libya with a small portion of his forces he defeated those who had previously been victorious.
§ 20.70.2 And after he had lost all the cities in Sicily, he was besieged at Syracuse; but in Libya, after becoming master of all the other cities, he confined the Carthaginians by a siege, Fortune, as if of set purpose, displaying her peculiar power when a situation has become hopeless.
§ 20.70.3 After he had come to such a position of superiority and had murdered Ophellas although he was a friend and a guest, the divine power clearly showed that it established through his impious acts against Ophellas a portent of that which later befell him; for in the same month and on the same day on which he murdered Ophellas and took his army, he caused the death of his own sons and lost his own army.
§ 20.70.4 And what is most peculiar of all, the god like a good lawgiver exacted a double punishment from him; for when he had unjustly slain one friend, he was deprived of two sons, those who had been with Ophellas laying violent hands upon the young men. Let these things, then, be said as our answer to those who scorn such matters.
§ 20.71.1 When with all speed Agathocles had crossed from Libya into Sicily, he summoned a part of his army and went to the city of Segesta, which was an ally. Because he was in need of money, he forced the well-to do to deliver to him the greater part of their property, the city at that time having a population of about ten thousand.
§ 20.71.2 Since many were angry at this and were holding meetings, he charged the people of Segesta with conspiring against him and visited the city with terrible disasters. For instance, the poorest of the people he brought to a place outside the city beside the river Scamander and slaughtered them; but those who were believed to have more property he examined under torture and compelled each to tell him how much wealth he had; and some of them he broke on the wheel, others he placed bound in the catapults and shot forth, and by applying knucklebones with violence to some, he caused them severe pain.
§ 20.71.3 He also invented another torture similar to the bull of Phalaris: that is, he prepared a brazen bed that had the form of a human body and was surrounded on every side by bars; on this he fixed those who were being tortured and roasted them alive, the contrivance being superior to the bull in this respect, that those who perishing in anguish were visible.
§ 20.71.4 As for the wealthy women, he tortured some of them by crushing their ankles with iron pincers, he cut off the breasts of others, and by placing bricks on the lower part of the backs of those who were pregnant, he forced the expulsion of the foetus by the pressure. While the tyrant in this way was seeking all the wealth, great panic prevailed throughout the city, some burning themselves up along with their houses, and others gaining release from life by hanging.
§ 20.71.5 Thus Segesta, encountering a single day of disaster, suffered the loss of all her men from youth upward. Agathocles then took the maidens and children across to Italy and sold them to the Bruttians, leaving not even the name of the city; but he changed the name to Dicaeopolis and gave it as dwelling to the deserters.
§ 20.72.1 On hearing of the murder of his sons Agathocles became enraged at all those who had been left behind in Libya, and sent some of his friends into Syracuse to Antander his brother, ordering him to put to death all the relatives of those who had taken part in the campaign against Carthage.
§ 20.72.2 As Antander promptly carried out the order, there occurred the most elaborately devised massacre that had taken place up to this time; for not only did they drag out to death the brothers, fathers, and sons who were in the prime of manhood, but also the grandfathers, and even the fathers of these if such survived, men who lingered on in extreme old age and were already bereft of all their senses by lapse of time, as well as infant children borne in arms who had no consciousness whatever of the fate that was bearing down upon them. They also led away any women who were related by marriage or kinship, and in sum, every person whose punishment would bring grief to those who had been left in Libya.
§ 20.72.3 When a crowd, large and composed of all kinds of people, had been driven to the sea for punishment and when the executioners had taken their places beside them, weeping and prayers and wailing arose mingled together, as some of them were mercilessly slaughtered and others were stunned by the misfortunes of their neighbours and because of their own imminent fate were no better in spirit than those who were being put to death before them.
§ 20.72.4 And what was most cruel of all, when many had been slain and their bodies had been cast out along the shore, neither kinsman nor friend dared pay the last rites to any, fearing lest he should seem to inform on himself as one who enjoyed intimacy with those who were dead.
§ 20.72.5 And because of the multitude of those who had been slain beside its waves, the sea, stained with blood over a great expanse, proclaimed afar the unequalled savagery of this outrage.
§ 20.73.1 When this year had passed, Coroebus became archon in Athens, and in Rome Quintus Marcius and Publius Cornelius succeeded to the consulship. While these held office King Antigonus, the younger of whose sons, Phoenix, had died, buried this son with royal honours; and, after summoning Demetrius from Cyprus, he collected his forces in Antigonia. He had decided to make a campaign against Egypt.
§ 20.73.2 So he himself took command of the land army and advanced through Coele Syria with more than eighty thousand foot soldiers, about eight thousand horsemen, and eighty-three elephants. Giving the fleet to Demetrius, he ordered him to follow along the coast in contact with the army as it advanced. In all there had been made ready a hundred and fifty warships and a hundred transports in which a large stock of ordnance was being conveyed.
§ 20.73.3 When the pilots thought it necessary to heed the setting of the Pleiades, which was expected to take place after eight days, Antigonus censured them as men afraid of danger; but he himself, since he was encamped at Gaza and was eager to forestall the preparations of Ptolemy, ordered his soldiers to provide themselves with ten days' rations, and loaded on the camels, which had been gathered together by the Arabs, one hundred and thirty thousand measures of grain and a good stock of fodder for the beasts; and, carrying his ordnance in waggons, he advanced through the wilderness with great hardship because many places in the region were swampy, particularly near the spot called Barathra.
§ 20.74.1 As for Demetrius, after setting sail from Gaza about midnight, since the weather at first was calm for several days, he had his transports towed by the swifter ships; then the setting of the Pleiades overtook them and a north wind arose, so that many of the quadriremes were driven dangerously by the storm to Raphia, a city which affords no anchorage and is surrounded by shoals.
§ 20.74.2 Of the ships that were carrying his ordnance, some were overwhelmed by the storm and destroyed, and others ran back to Gaza; but pressing on with the strongest of the ships he held his course as far as Casium.
§ 20.74.3 This place is not very distant from the Nile, but it has no harbour and in the stormy season it is impossible to make a landing here. They were therefore compelled to cast their anchors and ride the waves at a distance of about two stades from the land, where they were at once encompassed by many dangers; for since the surf was breaking rather heavily, there was danger that the ships would founder with their crews, and since the shore was harbourless and in enemy hands, the ships could neither approach without danger, nor could the men swim ashore, and what was worst of all, the water for drinking had given out and they were reduced to such straits that, if the storm had continued for a single day more, all would have perished of thirst.
§ 20.74.4 When all were in despair and already expecting death, the wind fell, and the army of Antigonus came up and camped near the fleet.
§ 20.74.5 They therefore left the ships and recuperated in the camp while waiting for those vessels that had become separated. In this exposure to the waves three of the quinqueremes were lost, but some of the men from these swam to the shore. Then Antigonus led his army nearer to the Nile and camped at a distance of two stades from the river.
§ 20.75.1 Ptolemy, who had occupied in advance the most strategic points with trustworthy garrisons, sent men in small boats, ordering them to approach the landing-place and proclaim that he would pay a premium to any who deserted Antigonus, two minae to each of the ordinary soldiers and one talent to each man who had been assigned to a position of command.
§ 20.75.2 When proclamations to that effect had been made, an urge to change sides fell upon the mercenaries of Antigonus, and it transpired that many even of their officers were inclined for one reason or another to desire a change.
§ 20.75.3 But when many were going over to Ptolemy, Antigonus, stationing bowmen, slingers, and many of his catapults on the edge of the river, drove back those who were drawing near in their punts; and he captured some of the deserters and tortured them frightfully, wishing to intimidate any who were contemplating such an attempt as this.
§ 20.75.4 After adding to his force the ships that were late in arriving, he sailed to the place called Pseudostomon, believing that he would be able to disembark some of the soldiers there. But when he found at that place a strong garrison and was held in check by bolts and other missiles of every kind, he sailed away as night was closing in.
§ 20.75.5 Then giving orders to the pilots to follow the ship of the general, keeping their eyes fixed on its light, he sailed to the mouth of the Nile called Phatniticum; but when day came, since many of the ships had missed their course, he was forced to wait for these and to send out the swiftest of those that had followed him to search for them.
§ 20.76.1 Since this caused considerable delay, Ptolemy, hearing of the arrival of the enemy, came quickly to reinforce his men and after drawing up his army, stationed it along the shore; but Demetrius, having failed to make this landing also and hearing that the adjacent coast was naturally fortified by swamps and marshes, retraced his course with his whole fleet.
§ 20.76.2 Then a strong north wind burst upon them and the billows rose high; and three of his quadriremes and in the same way some of the transports were cast violently upon the land by the waves and came into the possession of Ptolemy; but the other ships, whose crews had kept them from the shore by main force, reached the camp of Antigonus in safety.
§ 20.76.3 Since Ptolemy, however, had already occupied every landing-place along the river with strong guards, since many river boats had been made ready for him, and since all of these were equipped with ordnance of every kind and with men to use it, Antigonus was in no little difficulty;
§ 20.76.4 for his naval force was of no use to him since the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile had been occupied in advance by the enemy, and his land forces found their advance thwarted since they were checked by the width of the river, and what was of greatest importance, as many days had passed, food for the men and fodder for the beasts were falling short.
§ 20.76.5 Since, then, his forces for these reasons were disheartened, Antigonus called together the army and its leaders and laid before them the question whether it was better to remain and continue the war or to return for the present to Syria and later make a campaign with more complete preparation and at the time at which the Nile was supposed to be lowest.
§ 20.76.6 When all inclined toward the quickest possible withdrawal, he commanded the soldiers to break camp and speedily returned to Syria, the whole fleet coasting along beside him. After the departure of the enemy Ptolemy rejoiced greatly; and, when he had made a thank-offering to the gods, he entertained his friends lavishly.
§ 20.76.7 He also wrote to Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander about his successes and about the large number of men who had deserted to him; and he himself, having finished the second struggle for Egypt and convinced that the country was his as a prize of war, returned to Alexandria.
§ 20.77.1 While these events were taking place, Dionysius, the tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, died after having ruled for thirty-two years; and his sons, Oxathras and Clearchus, succeeding to the tyranny, ruled for seventeen years. In Sicily Agathocles visited the cities that were subject to him, making them secure with garrisons and exacting money from them; for he was taking extreme precautions lest, because of the misfortunes that had befallen him, the Sicilian Greeks should make an effort to gain their independence.
§ 20.77.2 Indeed at that very time Pasiphilus the general, having heard of the murder of Agathocles' sons and of his reverses in Libya, regarded the tyrant with contempt; and, deserting to Deinocrates and establishing friendship with him, he both kept a firm grip on the cities which had been entrusted to him and by alluring the minds of his soldiers with hopes alienated them from the tyrant.
§ 20.77.3 Agathocles, now that his hopes were being curtailed in every quarter, was so cast down in spirit that he sent an embassy to Deinocrates and invited him to make a treaty on these terms: that, on the one hand, got should withdraw from his position as tyrant and restore Syracuse to its citizens, and Deinocrates should no longer be an exile, and that, on the other hand, there should be given to Agathocles two designated fortresses, Therma and Cephaloedium, together with their territories.
§ 20.78.1 One might with good reason express wonder at this point that Agathocles, who had shown himself resolute in every other situation and had never lost confidence in himself when his prospects were at their lowest, at this time became a coward and without a fight abandoned to his enemies the tyranny for the sake of which he had previously fought many great battles, and what was the most unaccountable of all, that while he was master of Syracuse and of the other cities and had possession of ships and wealth and an army commensurate with these, he lost all power of calculating chances, recalling not one of the experiences of the tyrant Dionysius.
§ 20.78.2 For instance, when that tyrant had been driven into a situation that was confessedly desperate and when, because of the greatness of the impending dangers, he had given up hope of retaining his throne and was about to ride out from Syracuse into voluntary exile, Heloris, the eldest of his friends, opposing his impulse, said, "Dionysius, tyranny is a good winding-sheet."
§ 20.78.3 And similarly his brother-in law, Megacles, spoke his mind to Dionysius, saying that the man who was being expelled from a tyranny ought to make his exit dragged by the leg and not to depart of his own free choice. Encouraged by these exhortations, Dionysius firmly faced all the emergencies that seemed formidable, and not only made his dominion greater, but when he himself had grown old amid its blessings, he left to his sons the greatest empire of Europe.
§ 20.79.1 Agathocles, however, buoyed up by no such consideration and failing to test his mortal hopes by experience, was on the point of abandoning his empire, great as it was, on these terms. But as it happened, the treaty never went into effect, ratified indeed by the policy of Agathocles, but not accepted because of the ambition of Deinocrates.
§ 20.79.2 The latter, having set his heart upon sole rule, was hostile to the democracy in Syracuse and was well pleased with the position of leadership that he himself then had; for he commanded more than twenty thousand foot soldiers, three thousand horsemen, and many great cities, so that, although he was called general of the exiles, he really possessed the authority of a king, his power being absolute.
§ 20.79.3 But if he should return to Syracuse, it would inevitably be his lot to be a private citizen and be numbered as one of the many, since independence loves equality; and in the elections he might be defeated by any chance demagogue, since the crowd is opposed to the supremacy of men who are outspoken. Thus Agathocles might justly be said to have deserted his post as tyrant, and Deinocrates might be regarded as responsible for the later successes of the dynast.
§ 20.79.4 For Deinocrates, when Agathocles kept sending embassies to discuss the terms of peace and begging him to grant the two fortresses in which he might end his days, always trumped up specious excuses by which he cut off any hope of a treaty, now insisting that Agathocles should leave Sicily, and now demanding his children as hostages.
§ 20.79.5 When Agathocles discovered his purpose, he sent to the exiles and accused Deinocrates of hindering them from gaining their independence, and to the Carthaginians he sent envoys and made peace with them on terms such that the Phoenicians should regain all the cities which had formerly been subject to them, and in return for them he received from the Carthaginians gold to the value of three hundred talents of silver (or, as Timaeus says, one hundred and fifty), and two hundred thousand measures of grain. And affairs in Sicily were in this condition.
§ 20.80.1 In Italy the Samnites took Sora and Calatia, cities that were allied to the Romans, and enslaved the inhabitants; and the consuls with strong armies invaded Iapygia and camped near Silvium. This city was garrisoned by the Samnites, and the Romans began a siege which lasted a considerable number of days.
§ 20.80.2 Capturing the city by storm, they took prisoner more than five thousand persons and collected a considerable amount of booty besides.
§ 20.80.3 When they had finished with this, they invaded the country of the Samnites, cutting down the trees and destroying every district. For the Romans, who had for many years been fighting the Samnites for the primacy, hoped that if they deprived the enemy of their property in the country, it would force them to submit to the stronger.
§ 20.80.4 For this reason they devoted five months to the ruining of the enemy's land; and they burned nearly all the farm-buildings and laid waste the land, destroying everything that could produce cultivated fruit. Thereafter they declared war on the Anagnitae, who were acting unjustly, and taking Frusino they distributed the land.
§ 20.81.1 When this year had passed, Euxenippus became archon in Athens, and in Rome Lucius Postumius and Tiberius Minucius were consuls. While these held office war arose between the Rhodians and Antigonus for some such reasons as these.
§ 20.81.2 The city of the Rhodians, which was strong in sea power and was the best governed city of the Greeks, was a prize eagerly sought after by the dynasts and kings, each of them striving to add her to his alliance. Seeing far in advance what was advantageous and establishing friendship with each of the dynasts separately, Rhodes took no part in their wars with each other.
§ 20.81.3 As a result she was honoured by each of them with regal gifts and, while enjoying peace for a long time, made great steps forward. In fact she advanced to such strength that in behalf of the Greeks she by herself undertook her war against the pirates and purged the seas of these evil-doers; and Alexander, the most powerful of men known to memory, honouring Rhodes above all cities, both deposited there the testament disposing of his whole realm and in other ways showed admiration for her and promoted her to a commanding position.
§ 20.81.4 At any rate, the Rhodians, having established pacts of friendship with all the rulers, carefully avoided giving legitimate grounds for complaint; but in displaying goodwill they inclined chiefly toward Ptolemy, for it happened that most of their revenues were due to the merchants who sailed to Egypt, and that in general the city drew its food supply from that kingdom.
§ 20.82.1 Because Antigonus knew this and was intent on separating the Rhodians from their connection with Ptolemy, he first sent out envoys to them at the time when he was fighting with Ptolemy for Cyprus and asked him to ally themselves with him and to dispatch ships in company with Demetrius;
§ 20.82.2 and when they did not consent, he dispatched one of his generals with ships, ordering him to bring to land any merchants sailing to Egypt from Rhodes and to seize their cargoes. When this general was driven off by the Rhodians, Antigonus, declaring that they were authors of an unjust war, threatened to lay siege to the city with strong forces. The Rhodians, however, first voted great honours for him; and, sending envoys, they begged him not to force the city to rush into the war against Ptolemy contrary to their treaties.
§ 20.82.3 But then, when the king answered rather harshly and sent his son Demetrius with an army and siege equipment, they were so frightened by the superior power of the king that at first they sent to Demetrius, saying that they would join Antigonus in the war with Ptolemy, but when Demetrius demanded as hostages a hundred of the noblest citizens and ordered also that his fleet should be received in their harbours, concluding that he was plotting against the city, they made ready for war.
§ 20.82.4 Demetrius, gathering all his forces in the harbour at Loryma, made his fleet ready for the attack on Rhodes. He had two hundred warships of all sizes and more than one hundred and seventy auxiliary vessels; on these were transported not quite forty thousand soldiers besides the cavalry and the pirates who were his allies. There was also an ample supply of ordnance of all sorts and a large provision of all the things necessary for a siege.
§ 20.82.5 In addition there accompanied him almost a thousand privately owned ships, which belonged to those who were engaged in trade; for since the land of the Thracians had been unplundered for many years, there had gathered together from all quarters a host of those who were accustomed to consider the misfortunes of men at war a means of enriching themselves.
§ 20.83.1 And so Demetrius, having drawn up his fleet as if for a naval battle in a way to inspire panic, sent forward his warships, which had on their prows the catapults for bolts three spans in length; and he had the transports for men and horses follow, towed by the ships that used oarsmen; and last of all came also the cargo-ships of the pirates and of the merchants and traders, which as we have already said, were exceedingly numerous, so that the whole space between the island and the opposite shore was seen to be filled with his vessels, which brought great fear and panic to those who were watching from the city.
§ 20.83.2 For the soldiers of the Rhodians, occupying their several positions on the walls, were awaiting the approach of the hostile fleet, and the old men and women were looking on from their homes, since the city is shaped like a theatre; and all, being terror-stricken at the magnitude of the fleet and the gleam of the shining armour, were not a little anxious about the final outcome.
§ 20.83.3 Then Demetrius sailed to the island; and after disembarking his army, he took position near the city, setting up his camp out of range of missiles. He at once sent out fit and proper men from the pirates and others to plunder the island both by land and by sea.
§ 20.83.4 He also cut down the trees in the region near by and destroyed the farm buildings, and with this material he fortified the camp, surrounding it with a triple palisade and with great, close-set stockades, so that the loss suffered by the enemy became a protection for his own men. After this, using the whole army and the crews, he in a few days closed with a mole the space between the city and the exit, and made a port large enough for his ships.
§ 20.84.1 For a time the Rhodians kept sending envoys and asking him to do nothing irreparable against the city; but as no one paid any heed to these, they gave up hope of a truce and sent envoys to Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, begging them to give aid and saying that the city was fighting the war on their behalf.
§ 20.84.2 As to the metics and aliens who dwelt in the city, to those who wished they gave permission to join them in the fighting and the others who were of no service they sent forth from the city, partly as a precaution against scarcity of supplies, and partly that there might be no one to become dissatisfied with the situation and try to betray the city. When they made a count of those who were able to fight, they found that there were about six thousand citizens and as many as a thousand metics and aliens.
§ 20.84.3 They voted also to buy from their masters any slaves who proved themselves brave men in the battle, and to emancipate and enfranchise them. And they also wrote another decree, that the bodies of those who fell in the war should be given public burial and, further, that their parents and children should be maintained, receiving their support from the public treasury, that their unmarried daughters should be given dowries at the public cost, and that their sons on reaching manhood should be crowned in the theatre at the Dionysia and given a full suit of armour.
§ 20.84.4 When by these measures they had roused the spirits of all to endure the battles with courage, they also made what preparation was possible in regard to other matters. Since the whole people was of one mind, the rich contributed money, the craftsmen gave their skilled services for the preparation of the arms, and every man was active, each striving in a spirit of rivalry to surpass the others. Consequently, some were busy with the catapults and ballistae, others with the preparation of other equipment, some were repairing any ruined portions of the walls, and very many were carrying stones to the walls and stacking them. They even sent out three of their swiftest ships against the enemy and the merchant ships which brought provisions to him. 6 These ships on appearing unexpectedly sank many vessels belonging to merchants who had sailed for the purpose of plundering the land for their own profit, and even hauled not a few ships up on the beach and burned them. As for the prisoners, those who could pay a ransom they took into the city, for the Rhodians had made an agreement with Demetrius that each should pay the other a thousand drachmae as ransom for a free man and five hundred for a slave.
§ 20.85.1 Demetrius, who had an ample supply of everything required for setting up his engines of war, began to prepare two penthouses, one for the ballistae, the other for the catapults, each of them firmly mounted on two cargo vessels fastened together, and two towers of four storeys, exceeding in height the towers of the harbour, each of them mounted upon two ships of the same size and fastened there in such a way that as the towers advanced the support on each side upheld an equal weight.
§ 20.85.2 He also prepared a floating boom of squared logs studded with spikes, in order that as this was floated forward it might prevent the enemy from sailing up and ramming the ships that were carrying the engines of war.
§ 20.85.3 In the interval while these were receiving their finishing touches, he collected the strongest of the light craft, fortified them with planks, provided them with ports that could be closed, and placed upon them those of the catapults for bolts three palms long which had the longest range and the men to work them properly, and also Cretan archers; then, sending the boats within range, he shot down the men of the city who were building higher the walls along the harbour.
§ 20.85.4 When the Rhodians saw that the entire attack of Demetrius was aimed against the harbour, they themselves also took measures for its security. They placed two machines on the mole and three upon freighters near the boom of the small harbour; in these they mounted a large number of catapults and ballistae of all sizes, in order that if the enemy should disembark soldiers on the mole or should advance his machines, he might be thwarted in his design by this means. They also placed on such cargo ships as were at anchor in the harbour platforms suitable for the catapults that were to be mounted on them.
§ 20.86.1 After both sides had made their preparations in this way, Demetrius at first endeavoured to bring his engines of war against the harbour, but he was prevented when too rough a sea arose; later on, however, taking advantage of calm weather at night, he sailed in secretly, and after seizing the end of the mole of the great harbour he at once fortified the place, cutting it off with walls of planks and stones, and landed there four hundred soldiers and a supply of ordnance of all kinds. This point was five plethra distant from the city walls.
§ 20.86.2 Then at daybreak he brought his engines into the harbour with the sound of trumpets and with shouts; and with the lighter catapults, which had a long range, he drove back those who were constructing the wall along the harbour, and with the ballistae he shook or destroyed the engines of the enemy and the wall across the mole, for it was weak and low at this time.
§ 20.86.3 But since those from the city also fought stoutly, during that whole day both sides continued to inflict and suffer severe losses; and when night was already closing in, Demetrius by means of towboats drew his engines back out of range. The Rhodians, however, filled light boats with dry pitchy wood and placed fire in them; at first they went in pursuit and, drawing near to the engines of the enemy, lighted the wood, but afterwards, repelled by the floating boom and by the missiles, they were forced to withdraw.
§ 20.86.4 As the fire gained force a few put it out and sailed back with their boats, but most of them plunged into the sea as their boats were consumed. On the following day Demetrius made a similar attack by sea, but he also gave orders to assail the city at the same time by land from all sides with shouts and sound of trumpet in order to throw the Rhodians into an agony of terror because of the many distractions.
§ 20.87.1 After carrying on this kind of siege warfare for eight days, Demetrius shattered the engines of war upon the mole by means of his heavy ballistae and weakened the curtain of the cross-wall together with the towers themselves. Some of his soldiers also occupied a part of the fortifications along the harbour; the Rhodians rallying their forces joined battle against these, and now that they outnumbered the enemy, they killed some and forced the rest to withdraw. The men of the city were aided by the ruggedness of the shore along the wall, for many large rocks lay close together beside the structure outside of the wall.
§ 20.87.2 Of the ships which had conveyed these soldiers no small number ran aground in their ignorance; and the Rhodians at once, after stripping off the beaks, threw dry pitchy wood into the ships and burned them. While the Rhodians were so occupied, the soldiers of Demetrius sailing up on every side placed ladders against the walls and pressed on more strongly, and the troops who were attacking from the land also joined in the struggle from every side and raised the battle cry in unison.
§ 20.87.3 Then indeed, since many had recklessly risked their lives, and a good number had mounted the walls, a mighty battle arose, those on the outside trying to force their way in and those in the city coming to the defence with one accord. Finally, as the Rhodians contended furiously, some of the men who had mounted were thrown down and others were wounded and captured, among whom were some of their most distinguished leaders.
§ 20.87.4 Since such losses had befallen those who fought from the outside, Demetrius withdrew his engines of war to his own harbour and repaired the ships and engines that had been damaged; and the Rhodians buried those of their citizens who had perished, dedicated to the gods the arms of the enemy and the beaks of the ships, and rebuilt the parts of the wall that had been overthrown by the ballistae.
§ 20.88.1 After Demetrius had spent seven days on the repair of his engines and ships and had made all his preparations for the siege, he again attacked the harbour; for his whole effort centred upon capturing this and shutting off the people of the city from their grain supplies.
§ 20.88.2 When he was within range, with the fire-arrows, of which he had many, he made an account on the ships of the Rhodians that lay at anchor, with his ballistae he shook the walls, and with his catapults he cut down any who showed themselves.
§ 20.88.3 Then when the attack had become continuous and terrifying, the Rhodian ship-captains, after a fierce struggle to save their ships, put out the fire-arrows, and the magistrates, since the harbour was in danger of being taken, summoned the noblest citizens to undergo the perils of war for the sake of the common safety.
§ 20.88.4 When many responded with alacrity, they manned the three staunchest ships with picked men, whom they instructed to try to sink with their rams the ships that carried the engines of the enemy.
§ 20.88.5 These men, accordingly, pushed forward although missiles in large numbers were speeding against them; and at first they broke through the iron studded boom, and then by delivering repeated blows with their rams upon the ships and filling them with water, they overthrew two of the engines; but when the third was drawn back with ropes by the men of Demetrius, the Rhodians, encouraged by their successes, pressed on into the battle more boldly than was prudent.
§ 20.88.6 And so, when many large ships crowded around them and the sides of their own ships had been shattered in many places by the rams, the admiral Execestus, the trierarch, and some others were disabled by wounds and captured; and as the rest of its crew jumped into the sea and swam to their own fellows, one of the ships came into the possession of Demetrius; but the other ships escaped from the battle.
§ 20.88.7 When the naval battle had turned out in this way, Demetrius constructed another machine three times the size of the former in height and width; but while he was bringing this up to the harbour, a violent storm from the south sprang up, which swept over the ships that were anchored and overthrew the engine. And at this very time the Rhodians, shrewdly availing themselves of the situation, opened a gate and sallied out upon those who had occupied the mole.
§ 20.88.8 A severe battle ensued lasting for a long time; and since Demetrius could not send reinforcements because of the storm, and the Rhodians, on the other hand, were fighting in relays, the king's men were forced to lay down their arms and surrender, in number above four hundred.
§ 20.88.9 After the Rhodians had gained these advantages there sailed in as allies for the city one hundred and fifty soldiers from the Cnossians and more than five hundred from Ptolemy, some of whom were Rhodians serving as mercenaries in the king's army. This was the state of the siege of Rhodes.
§ 20.89.1 In Sicily Agathocles, since he had been unable to make terms with Deinocrates and the exiles, took the field against them with what forces he had, believing that it was necessary for him to fight a battle with them and stake everything on the result. Not more than five thousand foot soldiers followed him and horsemen to the number of eight hundred.
§ 20.89.2 Deinocrates and the exiles, when they saw the move made by the enemy, gladly came out to meet him in battle, being many times as strong; for their foot soldiers came to more than twenty-five thousand and their cavalry to not less than three thousand. When the armies had encamped opposite each other near the place called Torgium, and then were drawn up against each other in battle array, for a short time there was a stubborn battle because of the eagerness of both sides; but then some of those who were at odds with Deinocrates, more than two thousand in number, went over to the tyrant and were responsible for the defeat of the exiles.
§ 20.89.3 For those who were with Agathocles gained much more confidence, and those who were fighting on the side of Deinocrates were dismayed and, overestimating the number of the deserters, broke into flight. Then Agathocles, after pursuing them for a certain distance and refraining from slaughter, sent envoys to the defeated and asked them to put an end to the quarrel and return to their native cities; for, he said, they had found by experience that the exiles would never be able to prevail in a battle with him, seeing that even on this occasion, although they were many times more numerous, they had been defeated.
§ 20.89.4 Of the exiles, all the horsemen survived the fight and came safe into Ambicae; but as for the foot soldiers, although some escaped when night came on, most of them after occupying a hill made terms with Agathocles, for they had lost hope of victory by fighting and longed for their relatives and friends and for their fatherland and its comforts.
§ 20.89.5 Now when they had received pledges of good faith and had come down from the hill-fort, such as it was, Agathocles took their arms; and then, stationing his army about them, he shot them all down, their number being about seven thousand, as Timaeus says, but as some have written, about four thousand. Indeed, this tyrant always scorned faith and his oaths; and he maintained his own power, not by the strength of his armed forces but by the weakness of his subjects, fearing his allies more than his enemies.
§ 20.90.1 When he had destroyed in this manner the army that had been arrayed against him, Agathocles received any exiles who survived and, making terms with Deinocrates, appointed him general over part of his army and continued to entrust the most important matters to him. In this connection one might well wonder why Agathocles, who was suspicious of everyone and never completely trusted anybody, continued his friendship with Deinocrates alone until death.
§ 20.90.2 But Deinocrates, after betraying his allies, seized and slew Pasiphilus in Gela and handed the strongholds and the cities to Agathocles, spending two years in the delivery of the enemy.
§ 20.90.3 In Italy the Romans defeated the Paeligni and took their land, and to some of those who seemed well disposed toward Rome, they granted citizenship. Thereafter, since the Samnites were plundering Falernitis, the consuls took the field against them, and in the battle that followed the Romans were victorious.
§ 20.90.4 They took twenty standards and made prisoners of more than two thousand soldiers. The consuls at once took the city of Bola, but Gellius Gaius, the leader of the Samnites, appeared with six thousand soldiers. A hard fought battle took place in which Gellius himself was made prisoner, and of the other Samnites most were cut down but some were captured alive. The consuls, taking advantage of such victories, recovered those allied cities that had been captured: Sora, Harpina, and Serennia.
§ 20.91.1 When that year had passed, Pherecles became archon in Athens and in Rome Publius Sempronius and Publius Sulpicius received the consulship; and in Elis the Olympian Games were celebrated for the one hundred and nineteenth time, at which celebration Andromenes of Corinth won the footrace. While these held office, Demetrius, who was besieging Rhodes, failing in his assaults by sea, decided to make his attacks by land.
§ 20.91.2 Having provided therefore a large quantity of material of all kinds, he built an engine called the helepolis, 3 which far surpassed in size those which had been constructed before it. Each side of the square platform he made almost fifty cubits in length, framed together from squared timber and fastened with iron; the space within he divided by bars set about a cubit from each other so that there might be standing space for those who were to push the machine forward.
§ 20.91.3 The whole structure was movable, mounted on eight great solid wheels; the width of their rims was two cubits and these were overlaid with heavy iron plates. To permit motion to the side, pivots had been constructed, by means of which the whole device was easily moved in any direction.
§ 20.91.4 From each corner there extended upward beams equal in length and little short of a hundred cubits long, inclining toward each other in such a way that, the whole structure being nine storeys high, the first storey had an area of forty-three hundred square feet and the topmost storey of nine hundred.
§ 20.91.5 The three exposed sides of the machine he covered externally with iron plates nailed on so that it should receive no injury from fire carriers. On each storey there were ports on the front, in size and shape fitted to the individual characteristics of the missiles that were to be shot forth.
§ 20.91.6 These ports had shutters, which were lifted by a mechanical device and which secured the safety of the men on the platforms who were busy serving the artillery; for the shutters were of hides stitched together and were filled with wool so that they would yield to the blows of the stones from the ballistae.
§ 20.91.7 Each of the storeys had two wide stairways, one of which they used for bringing up what was needed and the other for descending, in order that all might be taken care of without confusion. Those who were to move the machine were selected from the whole army, three thousand four hundred men excelling in strength;
§ 20.91.8 some of them were enclosed within the machine while others were stationed in its rear, and they pushed it forward, the skilful design aiding greatly in its motion. He also constructed penthouses — some to protect the men who were filling the moat, others to carry rams — and covered passages through which those who were going to their labours might go and return safely. Using the crews of the ships, he cleared a space four stades wide through which he planned to advance the siege engines he had prepared, wide enough so that it covered a front of six curtains and seven towers. The number of craftsmen and labourers collected was not much less than thirty thousand.
§ 20.92.1 As everything, therefore, because of the many hands was finished sooner than was expected, Demetrius was regarded with alarm by the Rhodians; for not only did the size of the siege engines and the number of the army which had been gathered stun them, but also the king's energy and ingenuity in conducting sieges.
§ 20.92.2 For, being exceedingly ready in invention and devising many things beyond the art of the master builders, he was called Poliorcetes; and he displayed such superiority and force in his attacks that it seemed that no wall was strong enough to furnish safety from him for the besieged.
§ 20.92.3 Both in stature and in beauty he displayed the dignity of a hero, so that even those strangers who had come from a distance, when they beheld his comeliness arrayed in royal splendour, marvelled at him and followed him as he went abroad in order to gaze at him.
§ 20.92.4 Furthermore, he was haughty in spirit and proud and looked down not only upon common men but also upon those of royal estate; and what was most peculiar to him, in time of peace he devoted his time to winebibbing and to drinking bouts accompanied by dancing and revels, and in general he emulated the conduct said by mythology to have been that of Dionysus among men; but in his wars he was active and sober, so that beyond all others who practised this profession he devoted both body and mind to the task.
§ 20.92.5 For it was in his time that the greatest weapons were perfected and engines of all kinds far surpassing those that had existed among others; and this man launched the greatest ships after this siege and after the death of his father.
§ 20.93.1 When the Rhodians saw the progress of the enemy's siege works, they built a second wall inside parallel to the one that was on the point of failing under the attacks. They used stones obtained by tearing down the theatre's outer wall and the adjacent houses, and also some of the temples, vowing to the gods that they would build finer ones when the city had been saved.
§ 20.93.2 They also sent out nine of their ships, giving the commanders orders to sail in every direction and, appearing unexpectedly, to sink some of the ships they intercepted and bring others to the city. After these had sailed out and had been divided into three groups, Damophilus, who had ships of the kind called by the Rhodians "guard-ships," sailed to Carpathos; and finding there many of Demetrius' ships, he sank some, shattering them with his rams, and some he beached and burnt after selecting the most useful men from their crews, and not a few of those that were transporting the grain from the island, he brought back to Rhodes.
§ 20.93.3 Menedemus, who commanded three light undecked ships, sailed to Patara in Lycia; and finding at anchor there a ship whose crew was on shore, he set the hull on fire; and he took many of the freighters that were carrying provisions to the army and dispatched them to Rhodes.
§ 20.93.4 He also captured a quadrireme that was sailing from Cilicia and had on board royal robes and the rest of the outfit that Demetrius' wife Phila had with great pains made ready and sent off for her husband. The clothing Damophilus sent to Egypt since the garments were purple and proper for a king to wear; but the ship he hauled up on land, and he sold the sailors, both those from the quadrireme and those from the other captured ships.
§ 20.93.5 Amyntas, who was in command of the three remaining ships, made for islands where he fell in with many freighters carrying to the enemy materials useful for the engines of war; he sank some of these and some he brought to the city. On these ships were also captured eleven famous engineers, men of outstanding skill in making missiles and catapults.
§ 20.93.6 Thereafter, when an assembly had been convened, some advised that the statues of Antigonus and Demetrius should be pulled down, saying that it was absurd to honour equally their besiegers and their benefactors. At this the people were angry and censured these men as erring, and they altered none of the honours awarded to Antigonus, having made a wise decision with a view both to fame and to self interest.
§ 20.93.7 For the magnanimity and the soundness of this action in a democracy won plaudits from all others and repentance from the besiegers; for while the latter were setting free the cities throughout Greece, which had displayed no goodwill at all toward their benefactors, they were manifestly trying to enslave the city that in practice showed itself most constant in repaying favours; and as protection against the sudden shift of fortune if the war should result in the capture of Rhodes, the Rhodians retained as a means of gaining mercy the memory of the friendship that they had preserved. These things, then, were done prudently by the Rhodians.
§ 20.94.1 When Demetrius had undermined the wall by using his sappers, one of the deserters informed the besieged that those who were working underground were almost within the walls.
§ 20.94.2 Therefore the Rhodians by digging a deep trench parallel to the wall which was expected to collapse and by quickly undertaking mining operations themselves, made contact with their opponents underground and prevented them from advancing farther.
§ 20.94.3 Now the mines were closely watched by both sides, and some of Demetrius' men tried to bribe Athenagoras, who had been given command of the guard by the Rhodians. This man was a Milesian by descent, sent by Ptolemy as commander of the mercenaries.
§ 20.94.4 Promising to turn traitor he set a day on which one of the ranking leaders should be sent from Demetrius to go by night through the mine up into the city in order to inspect the position where the soldiers would assemble.
§ 20.94.5 But after leading Demetrius on to great hopes, he disclosed the matter to the council; and when the king sent one of his friends, Alexander the Macedonian, the Rhodians captured him as he came up through the mine. They crowned Athenagoras with a golden crown and gave him a gift of five talents of silver, their object being to stimulate loyalty to the city on the part of the other men who were mercenaries and foreigners.
§ 20.95.1 Demetrius, when his engines of war were completed and all the space before walls was cleared, stationed the helepolis in the centre, and assigned positions to the penthouses, eight in number, which were to protect the sappers. He placed four of these on each side of the helepolis and connected with each of them one covered passage so that the men who were going in and out might accomplish their assigned tasks in safety; and he brought up also two enormous penthouses in which battering rams were mounted. For each shed held a ram with a length of one hundred and twenty cubits, sheathed with iron and striking a blow like that of a ship's ram; and the ram was moved with ease, being mounted on wheels and receiving its motive power in battle from not less than a thousand men.
§ 20.95.2 When he was ready to advance the engines against the walls, he placed on each storey of the helepolis ballistae and catapults of appropriate size,
§ 20.95.3 stationed his fleet in position to attack the harbours and the adjacent area, and distributed his infantry along such parts of the wall as could be attacked.
§ 20.95.4 Then, when all at a single command and signal had raised the battle cry together, he launched attacks on the city from every side. While he was shaking the walls with the rams and the ballistae, Cnidian envoys arrived, asking him to withhold his attack and promising to persuade the Rhodians to accept the most feasible of his demands.
§ 20.95.5 The king broke off the attack, and the envoys carried on negotiations back and forth at great length; but in the end they were not able to reach any agreement, and the siege was actively resumed. Demetrius also overthrew the strongest of the towers, which was built of squared stones, and shattered the entire curtain, so that the forces in the city were not able to maintain a thoroughfare on the battlements at this point.
§ 20.96.1 At this same period King Ptolemy dispatched to the Rhodians a large number of supply ships in which were three hundred thousand measures of grain and legumes.
§ 20.96.2 While these ships were on their way to the city, Demetrius attempted to dispatch ships to bring them to his own camp. But a wind favourable to the Egyptians sprang up, and they were carried along with full sails and brought into the friendly harbours, but those sent out by Demetrius returned with their mission unaccomplished.
§ 20.96.3 Cassander also sent to the Rhodians ten thousand measures of barley, and Lysimachus sent them forty thousand measures of wheat and the same amount of barley. Consequently, when those in the city obtained such large supplies, the besieged, who were already disheartened, regained their courage. Deciding that it would be advantageous to attack the siege engines of the enemy, they made ready a large supply of fire-bearing missiles and placed all their ballistae and catapults upon the wall.
§ 20.96.4 When night had fallen, at about the second watch, they suddenly began to strike the helepolis with an unremitting shower of the fire missiles, and by using other missiles of all kinds, they shot down any who rushed to the spot.
§ 20.96.5 Since the attack was unforeseen, Demetrius, alarmed for the siege works that had been constructed, hurried to the rescue.
§ 20.96.6 The night was moonless; and the fire missiles shone bright as they hurtled violently through the air; but the catapults and ballistae, since their missiles were invisible, destroyed many who were not able to see the impending stroke.
§ 20.96.7 It also happened that some of the iron plates of the helepolis were dislodged, and where the place was laid bare the fire missiles rained upon the exposed wood of the structure. Therefore Demetrius, fearing that the fire would spread and the whole machine be ruined, came quickly to the rescue, and with the water that had been placed in readiness on the platforms he tried to put out the spreading fire. He finally assembled by a trumpet signal the men who were assigned to move the apparatus and by their efforts dragged the machine beyond range.
§ 20.97.1 Then when day had dawned he ordered the camp followers to collect the missiles that had been hurled by the Rhodians, since he wished to estimate from these the armament of the forces with in the city.
§ 20.97.2 Quickly carrying out his orders, they counted more than eight hundred fire missiles of various sizes and not less than fifteen hundred catapult bolts. Since so many missiles had been hurled in a short time at night, he marvelled at the resources possessed by the city and at their prodigality in the use of these weapons.
§ 20.97.3 Next Demetrius repaired such of his works as had been damaged, and devoted himself to the burial of the dead and the care of the wounded.
§ 20.97.4 Meanwhile the people of the city, having gained a respite from the violent attacks of the siege engines, constructed a third crescent-shaped wall and included in its circuit every part of the wall that was in a dangerous condition; but none the less they dug a deep moat around the fallen portion of the wall so that the king should not be able to break into the city easily by an assault with a heavily armed force.
§ 20.97.5 They also sent out some of their fastest ships, installing Amyntas as commander; he, sailing to Peraea in Asia, suddenly confronted some pirates who had been sent out be by Demetrius. These had three deckless ships and were supposed to be the strongest of the pirates who were fighting as allies of the king. In the brief naval battle that ensued, the Rhodians overpowered the foe and took the ships with their crews, among whom was Timocles, the chief pirate.
§ 20.97.6 They also encountered some of the merchants and, seizing a fair number of light craft loaded with grain, they sent these and the undecked ships of the pirates to harbour in Rhodes by night, escaping the notice of the enemy.7 Demetrius, after he had repaired such of his equipment as was damaged, brought his siege engines up to the wall. By using all his missiles without stint, he drove back those who were stationed on the battlements, and striking with his rams a continuous portion of the wall, he overthrew two curtains; but as the city's forces fought obstinately for the tower that was between them, there were bitter and continuous encounters, one after another, with the result that their leader Ananias was killed fighting desperately and many of the soldiers were slain also.
§ 20.98.1 While these events were taking place, King Ptolemy sent to the Rhodians grain and other supplies in no less quantity than those formerly sent, and fifteen hundred soldiers, whose leader was Antigonus, the Macedonian.
§ 20.98.2 At this very time there came to Demetrius more than fifty envoys from the Athenians and the other Greek cities, all of them asking the king to come to terms with the Rhodians.
§ 20.98.3 A truce, therefore, was made; but although many arguments of all sorts were presented to the city and to Demetrius, they could in no way agree; and so the envoys returned without accomplishing their aim.
§ 20.98.4 Demetrius, having determined to attack the city at night through the breach in the wall, selected the strongest of his fighting men and of the rest those fitted for his purpose to the number of fifteen hundred.
§ 20.98.5 These, then, he ordered to advance to the wall in silence during the second watch; as for himself, when he had made his preparations, he gave orders to those stationed on each side that when he gave the signal they should raise the battle cry and make attacks both by land and sea.
§ 20.98.6 When they all carried out the order, those who had advanced against breaches in the walls, after dispatching the advance guards at the moat, charged past into the city and occupied the region of the theatre;
§ 20.98.7 but the magistrates of the Rhodians, learning what had happened and seeing that the whole city had been thrown into confusion, sent orders to those at the harbour and the walls to remain at their own posts and oppose the enemy outside if he should attack; and they themselves, with their contingent of selected men and the soldiers who had recently sailed in from Alexandria, attacked the troops who had go the within the walls.
§ 20.98.8 When day returned and Demetrius raised the ensign, those who were attacking the port and those who had been stationed about the while on all sides shouted the battle cry, giving encouragement to the men who had occupied part of the region of the theatre; but in the city the throng of children and women were in fear and tears, thinking that their native city was being taken by storm.
§ 20.98.9 Nevertheless, fighting began between those who had made their way within the wall and the Rhodians, and many fell on both sides. At first neither side withdrew from its position; but afterwards, as the Rhodians constantly added to their numbers and were prompt to face danger — as is the way with men fighting for their native land and their most precious things, — and on the other hand the king's men were in distress, Alcimus and Mantias, their commanders, expired after receiving many wounds, most of the others were killed in hand-to hand fighting or were captured, and only a few escaped to the king and survived. Many also of the Rhodians were slain, among whom was the president Damoteles, who had won great acclaim for his valour.
§ 20.99.1 When Demetrius realized that Fortune had snatched from his hand the capture of the city, he made new preparations for the siege. When his father thereafter wrote to him to come to terms with the Rhodians as best he could, he awaited a favourable opportunity that would provide a specious excuse for the settlement.
§ 20.99.2 Since Ptolemy had written to the Rhodians, first saying that he would send them a great quantity of grain and three thousand soldiers, but then advising them, if it should be possible, to make equitable terms with Antigonus, everyone inclined toward peace.
§ 20.99.3 At just this time the Aetolian League sent envoys to urge a settlement, and the Rhodians came to terms with Demetrius on these conditions: that the city should be autonomous and ungarrisoned and should enjoy its own revenue; that the Rhodians should be allies of Antigonus unless he should be at war with Ptolemy; and that they should give as hostages a hundred of their citizens whom Demetrius should select, those holding office being exempt.
§ 20.100.1 In this way, then, the Rhodians, after they had been besieged for a year, brought the war to an end. Those who had proved themselves brave men in the battles they honoured with the prizes that were their due, and they granted freedom and citizenship to such slaves as had shown themselves courageous.
§ 20.100.2 They also set up statues of King Cassander and King Lysimachus, who though they held second place in general opinion, yet had made great contributions to the salvation of the city.
§ 20.100.3 In the case of Ptolemy, since they wanted to surpass his record by repaying his kindness with a greater one, they sent a sacred mission into Libya to ask the oracle at Ammon if it advised the Rhodians to honour Ptolemy as a god.
§ 20.100.4 Since the oracle approved, they dedicated in the city a square precinct, building on each of its sides a portico a stade long, and this they called the Ptolemaeum. They also rebuilt the theatre, the fallen portions of the walls, and the buildings that had been destroyed in the other quarters in a manner more beautiful than before.
§ 20.100.5 Now that Demetrius, in accordance with injunctions of his father, had made peace with the Rhodians, he sailed out with his whole force; and after passing through the islands, he put in at Aulis in Boeotia.
§ 20.100.6 Since he was intent on freeing the Greeks (for Cassander and Polyperchon having up to this time enjoyed impunity were engaged in plundering the greater part of Greece), he first freed the city of the Chalcidians, which was garrisoned by Boeotians, and by striking fear into the Boeotians, he forced them to renounce their friendship with Cassander; and after this he made an alliance with the Aetolians and began his preparations for carrying on war against Polyperchon and Cassander.
§ 20.100.7 While these events were taking place, Eumelus, the king of Bosporus, died in the sixth year of his reign, and his son Spartacus succeeded to the throne and reigned for twenty years.
§ 20.101.1 Now that we have carefully passed in review the happenings in Greece and Asia, we shall turn our narrative toward the other parts of the inhabited world. In Sicily, although the inhabitants of the Liparaean Islands were at peace with him, Agathocles sailed against them without warning and exacted from men who had done him no prior injury whatever, fifty talents of silver.
§ 20.101.2 To many, indeed, what I am about to relate seemed the work of a god, since his crime received its brand from the divinity. When the Liparaeans begged him to grant them time for what was lacking in the payment and said that they had never turned the sacred offerings to profane uses, Agathocles forced them to give him the dedications in the Prytaneum, of which some bore inscriptions to Aeolus and some to Hephaestus; and taking these he at once sailed away. But a wind came up and the eleven of his ships that were carrying the money were sunk.
§ 20.101.3 And so it seemed to many that the god who was said in that region to be master of the winds at once on his first voyage exacted punishment from him, and that at the end Hephaestus punished him in his own country in a way that matched the tyrant's impious actions and the god's own name by burning him alive on hot coals; for it belonged to the same character and the same justice to refrain from touching those who were saving their own parents on Aetna, and with his proper power to search after those who had been guilty of impiety toward his shrine.
§ 20.101.4 However, as regards the disaster that befell Agathocles, when we come to the proper time, the action itself will confirm what we now have said; but we must now tell of events in the adjacent parts of Italy.
§ 20.101.5 The Romans and the Samnites interchanged envoys and made peace after having fought for twenty-two years and six months; and one of the consuls, Publius Sempronius, invading the country of the Aecli with an army, captured forty cities in a total of fifty days, and after forcing the entire tribe to submit to Rome, returned home and celebrated a triumph with great applause. The Roman people made alliances with the Marsi, the Paligni, and the Marrucini.
§ 20.102.1 When the year had come to its end, Leostratus was archon in Athens, and in Rome the consuls were Servius Cornelius and Lucius Genucius. While these held office Demetrius proposed to carry on his war with Cassander and to free the Greeks; and first he planned to establish order in the affairs of Greece, for he believed that the freeing of the Greeks would bring him great honour, and at the same time he thought it necessary to wipe out Prepelaus and the other leaders before attacking Cassander, and then to go on against Macedonia itself if Cassander did not march against him.
§ 20.102.2 Now the city of Sicyon was garrisoned by King Ptolemy's soldiers, commanded by a very distinguished general, Philip. Attacking this city suddenly by night, Demetrius broke his way inside the walls. Then the garrison fled to the acropolis, but Demetrius took possession of the city and occupied the region between the houses and the acropolis. While he hesitated to bring up his siege engines, the garrison in panic surrendered the acropolis on terms and the men themselves sailed off to Egypt. After Demetrius had moved the people of Sicyon into their acropolis, he destroyed the part of the city adjacent to the harbour, since its site was quite insecure; then, after he had assisted the common people of the city in building their houses and had re-established free government for them, he received divine honours from those whom he had benefited;
§ 20.102.3 for they called the city Demetrias, and they voted to celebrate sacrifices and public festivals and also games in his honour every year and to grant him the other honours of a founder. Time, however, whose continuity has been broken by changes of conditions, has invalidated these honours; but the people of Sicyon, having thus obtained a much better location, continue to live there down to our times.
§ 20.102.4 For the enclosed area of the acropolis is level and of ample size, and it is surrounded on all sides by cliffs difficult to scale, so that on no side can engines of war be brought near; moreover, it has plenty of water by the aid of which they developed rich gardens, so that the king in his design seems to have made excellent provision both for comfort in time of peace and for safety in time of war.
§ 20.103.1 After Demetrius had settled the affairs of the people of Sicyon, he set out with his whole army for Corinth, which was held by Prepelaus, a general of Cassander. At first, after he had been admitted at night by certain citizens through a postern gate, Demetrius gained possession of the city and its harbours.
§ 20.103.2 The garrison, however, fled, some to the place called Sisyphium, some to Acrocorinth; but he brought up engines of war to the fortifications and took Sisyphium by storm after suffering heavy losses. Then, when the men there fled to those who had occupied Acrocorinth, he intimidated them also and forced them to surrender the citadel;
§ 20.103.3 for this king was exceedingly irresistible in his assaults, being particularly skilled in the construction of siege equipment. Be that as it may, when once he had freed the Corinthians he brought a garrison into Acrocorinth, since the citizens wished the city to be protected by the king until the war with Cassander should be brought to an end.
§ 20.103.4 Prepelaus, ignominiously driven out of Corinth, withdrew to Cassander, but Demetrius, advancing into Achaia, took Bura by storm and restored autonomy to its citizens; then, capturing Scyrus in a few days, he cast out its garrison.
§ 20.103.5 After this, making a campaign against Arcadian Orchomenus, he ordered the garrison commander, Strombichus, to surrender the city. When he paid no attention to the orders but even poured much abuse upon him from the wall in an insulting manner, the king brought up engines of war, overthrew the walls, and took the city by storm.
§ 20.103.6 As for Strombichus, who had been made garrison-commander by Polyperchon, and at least eighty of the others who were hostile to him, Demetrius crucified them in front of the city, but having captured at least two thousand of the other mercenaries, he incorporated them with his own men.
§ 20.103.7 After the capture of this city, those who commanded the forts in the vicinity, assuming that it was impossible to escape the might of the king, surrendered the strongholds to him. In like fashion those also who guarded the cities withdrew of their own accord, since Cassander, Prepelaus, and Polyperchon failed to come to their aid but Demetrius was approaching with a great army and with overwhelming engines of war. This was the situation of Demetrius.
§ 20.104.1 In Italy the people of Tarentum were waging war with the Lucanians and the Romans; and they sent envoys to Sparta asking for assistance and for Cleonymus as general.
§ 20.104.2 When the Lacedaemonians willingly granted them the leader whom they requested and the Tarentines sent money and ships, Cleonymus enrolled five thousand mercenaries at Taenarum in Laconia and sailed at once to Tarentum. After collecting there other mercenaries no less in number than those previously enrolled, he also enlisted more than twenty thousand citizens as foot-soldiers and two thousand as mounted troops. He won the support also of most of the Greeks in Italy and of the tribe of the Messapians.
§ 20.104.3 Then, since he had a strong army under his command, the Lucanians in alarm established friendship with the Tarentines; and when the people of Metapontum did not come over to him, he persuaded the Lucanians to invade the territory of the Metapontines and, by making a simultaneous attack himself, intimidated them. Then, entering their city as a friend, he exacted more than six hundred talents of silver; and he took two hundred maidens of the best families as hostages, not so much as a guarantee of the city's faith as to satisfy his own lust.
§ 20.104.4 Indeed, having discarded the Spartan garb, he lived in continued luxury and made slaves of those who had trusted in him; for although he had so strong an army and such ample supplies, he did nothing worthy of Sparta. He planned to invade Sicily as if to overthrow the tyranny of Agathocles and restore their independence to the Siciliots; but postponing this campaign for the present, he sailed to Corcyra, and after getting possession of the city exacted a great sum of money and installed a garrison, intending to use this place as a base and to await a chance to take part in the affairs in Greece.
§ 20.105.1 But soon, when envoys did come to him both from Demetrius Poliorcetes and from Cassander proposing alliances, he joined with neither of them; but when he learned that the Tarentines and some of the others were in revolt, he left an adequate garrison in Corcyra, and with the rest of his army sailed at top speed to Italy in order to punish those who defied his commands. Putting in to land in the district that was defended by the barbarians, he took the city, sold its people into slavery, and plundered the countryside.
§ 20.105.2 He likewise took by siege the city called Triopium, capturing about three thousand prisoners. But at this very time the barbarians throughout the region came together and attacked his camp by night, and in the battle that took place they slew more than two hundred of Cleonymus' men and made prisoners about a thousand.
§ 20.105.3 A storm rising at the time of the battle destroyed twenty of the ships that lay at anchor near his encampment. Having met with two such disasters, Cleonymus sailed away to Corcyra with his army.
§ 20.106.1 When this year had passed, Nicocles was archon in Athens, and in Rome Marcus Livius and Marcus Aemilius received the consulship. While these held office, Cassander, the king of the Macedonians, on seeing that the power of the Greeks was increasing and that the whole war was directed against Macedonia, became much alarmed about the future.
§ 20.106.2 He therefore sent envoys into Asia to Antigonus, asking him to come to terms with him. But when Antigonus replied that he recognized only one basis for a settlement — Cassander's surrender of whatever he possessed, — Cassander was alarmed and summoned Lysimachus from Thrace to take concerted action in regard to their highest interests;
§ 20.106.3 for it was his invariable custom when facing the most alarming situations to call on Lysimachus for assistance, both because of his personal character and because his kingdom lay next to Macedonia. When these kings had taken counsel together about their common interest, they sent envoys to Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, and to Seleucus, who was ruler of the upper satrapies, revealing the arrogance of Antigonus' answer and showing that the danger arising from the war was common to all.
§ 20.106.4 For they said, if Antigonus should gain control of Macedonia, he would at once take their kingdoms from the others also; indeed he had given proof many times that he was grasping and regarded any command as a possession not to be shared.
§ 20.106.5 It would therefore, they said, be advantageous for all to make plans in common and jointly undertake a war against Antigonus. Now Ptolemy and Seleucus, believing that the statements were true, eagerly agreed and arranged with Cassander to assist one another with strong forces.
§ 20.107.1 Cassander, however, thought it best not to await the attack of his enemies but to get the start of them by opening the campaign himself and seizing what he could use to advantage. Therefore Cassander gave to Lysimachus a part of his army and sent with it Prepelaus as general, while he himself moved with the rest of the army into Thessaly to carry on the war with Demetrius and the Greeks.
§ 20.107.2 Lysimachus with his army crossed from Europe to Asia, and since the inhabitants of Lampsacus and Parium came over to him willingly, he left them free, but when he took Sigeum by force, he installed a garrison there. Next, giving his general Prepelaus six thousand foot-soldiers and a thousand horse, he sent him to win over the cities throughout Aeolis and Ionia; as for himself, he first attempted to invest Abydus and set about preparing missiles and engines and the other equipment;
§ 20.107.3 but when there arrived by sea to assist the besieged a large body of soldiers sent by Demetrius, a force sufficient to secure the safety of the city, he gave up this attempt and won over Hellespontine Phrygia, and also laid siege to the city of Synnada, which possessed a great royal treasure.
§ 20.107.4 It was at this very time that he even persuaded Docimus, the general of Antigonus, to make common cause with him, and by his aid he took Synnada and also some of the strongholds that held the royal wealth. Prepelaus, the general who had been sent by Lysimachus to Aeolis and Ionia, mastered Adramyttium as he passed by, and then, laying siege to Ephesus and frightening its inhabitants, he took the city. The hundred Rhodian hostages whom he found there he sent back to their native land; and he left the Ephesians free but burned all the ships in the harbour, since the enemy controlled the sea and the whole outcome of the war was uncertain.
§ 20.107.5 After this he secured the adherence of the people of Teos and of Colophon, but since reinforcements came by sea to Erythrae and Clazomenae, he could not capture these cities; however, he plundered their territory and then set out for Sardis. There, by persuading Antigonus' general Phoenix to desert the king, he gained control of the city except the acropolis; for Philip, one of the friends of Antigonus, who was guarding the citadel, held firm his loyalty toward the man who had placed trust in him. The affairs of Lysimachus were in this position.
§ 20.108.1 Antigonus, who had made preparations to celebrate great games and a festival in Antigonia, had collected from all sides the most famous athletes and artists to compete for great prizes and fees. But when he heard of the crossing of Lysimachus and the desertion of his own generals, he abandoned the games but distributed to the athletes and artists not less than two hundred talents as compensation.
§ 20.108.2 He himself taking his army set out from Syria and made a rapid march against the enemy. Arriving at Tarsus in Cilicia, he paid the army for three months from the money he had brought down from Cyinda.
§ 20.108.3 Apart from this fund, he was carrying three thousand talents with the army in order that he might have this provision whenever he had need of money. Then, crossing the Taurus Range, he marched toward Cappadocia; and, advancing upon those who had deserted him in upper Phrygia and Lycaonia, he restored them again to the former alliance.
§ 20.108.4 At this very time Lysimachus, on hearing of the presence of the enemy, held a council considering how he ought to meet the approaching dangers.
§ 20.108.5 They decided not to join in battle until Seleucus should come down from the upper satrapies, but to occupy strong positions and, after making their encampment safe with palisade and ditch, to await the onslaught of the enemy. They therefore carried out their decision with vigour; but Antigonus, when he came near the enemy, drew up his army and challenged them to battle.
§ 20.108.6 When no one dared to issue forth, he himself occupied certain places through which it was necessary that the provisions of his opponents should be transported; and Lysimachus, fearing that if their food supply should be cut off, they would then be at the mercy of the enemy, broke camp at night, made a forced march of four hundred stades, and camped near Dorylaeum;
§ 20.108.7 for the stronghold had an ample store of grain and other supplies, and a river ran by it that could give protection to those who camped beside it. Pitching camp, they strengthened their encampment with a deep ditch and a triple stockade.
§ 20.109.1 When Antigonus learned of the departure of the enemy he at once pursued them; and, after he had approached their encampment, since they did not come out for battle, he began to surround their camp with a trench, and he sent for catapults and missiles, intending to storm it. When shots were exchanged about the excavation and Lysimachus' men tried to drive away with missiles those who were working, in every case Antigonus had the better of it.
§ 20.109.2 Then as time passed and the work was already nearing completion, since food was growing scarce for the besieged, Lysimachus, after waiting for a stormy night, set out from the camp and departed through the higher land to go into winter quarters. But when at daybreak Antigonus saw the departure of the enemy, he himself marched parallel with them through the plains.
§ 20.109.3 Great rainstorms occurred, with the result that, as the country had deep soil and became very muddy, he lost a considerable number of his pack animals and a few of his men, and in general the whole army was in serious difficulty.
§ 20.109.4 Therefore the king, both because he wished to restore his soldiers after their sufferings and because he saw that the winter season was at hand, gave up the pursuit; and selecting the places best suited for wintering, he divided his army into sections.
§ 20.109.5 But when he learned that Seleucus was coming down from the upper satrapies with a great force, he sent some of his friends into Greece to Demetrius, bidding him come to him with his army as soon as possible; for, since all the kings had united against him, he was taking every precaution not to be forced to decide the whole war in battle before the army in Europe came to join him.
§ 20.109.6 Similarly Lysimachus also divided his army in order to go into winter quarters in the plain called that of Salonia. He obtained ample supplies from Heraclea, having made a marriage alliance with the Heracleotes;
§ 20.109.7 for he had married Amestris, the daughter of Oxyartes and niece of King Darius. She had been wife of Craterus, given him by Alexander, and at the time in question was ruler of the city. Such was the situation in Asia.
§ 20.110.1 In Greece Demetrius, who was tarrying in Athens, was eager to be initiated and to participate in the mysteries at Eleusis. Since it was a considerable time before the legally established day on which the Athenians were accustomed to celebrate the mysteries, he persuaded the people because of his benefactions to change the custom of their fathers. And so, giving himself over unarmed to the priests, he was initiated before the regular day and departed from Athens.
§ 20.110.2 And first he gathered together his fleet and his land army in Chalcis of Euboea; then, learning that Cassander had already occupied the passes in advance, he gave up the attempt to advance into Thessaly by land, but sailed along the coast with the army into the port of Larisa. Disembarking the army, he captured the city at once; and taking the acropolis, he imprisoned the garrison and put them under guard, but he restored their autonomy to the people of Larisa.
§ 20.110.3 Thereafter he won over Antrones and Pteleum, and when Cassander would have transported the people of Dium and Orchomenus into Thebes, he prevented the transplanting of the cities. But when Cassander saw that Demetrius' undertakings were prospering, he first protected Pherae and Thebes with stronger garrisons; and then, after collecting his whole army into one place, he encamped over against Demetrius.
§ 20.110.4 He had in all twenty-nine thousand foot-soldiers and two thousand horsemen. Demetrius was followed by fifteen hundred horsemen, not less than eight thousand Macedonian foot-soldiers, mercenaries to the number of fifteen thousand, twenty-five thousand from the cities throughout Greece, and at least eight thousand of the light armed troops and of the freebooters of all sorts such as gather where there is fighting and plundering; so that there were in all about fifty-six thousand foot-soldiers.
§ 20.110.5 For many days the camps were pitched opposite each other, and the battle lines were drawn up on both sides, but neither came forward into battle since each was awaiting the decision of the whole matter that would take place in Asia.
§ 20.110.6 Demetrius, however, when the people of Pherae called upon him, entering their city with part of his army and taking the citadel, dismissed the soldiers of Cassander on terms and restored their liberty to the people of Pherae.
§ 20.111.1 While affairs in Thessaly were in this state, there came to Demetrius the messengers sent by Antigonus, accurately detailing the orders of his father and bidding him take his army across into Asia as swiftly as possible.
§ 20.111.2 Since he regarded obedience to his father's orders as obligatory, the king came to terms with Cassander, making the condition that the agreements should be valid only if they were acceptable to his father; for although he very well knew that his father would not accept them since he had definitely made up his mind to bring an end by force of arms the war which had set in, yet Demetrius wished to make his withdrawal from Greece appear respectable and not like a flight. Indeed, it was written among other conditions in the agreement that the Greek cities were to be free, not only those of Greece but also those of Asia.
§ 20.111.3 Then Demetrius, after preparing ships for the transportation of the soldiers and the equipment, set sail with his whole fleet and, going through the islands, put in at Ephesus. Disembarking his army and camping near the walls, he forced the city to return to its former status; then he dismissed on terms the garrison that had been introduced by Prepelaus, the general of Lysimachus, and after stationing his own garrison on the acropolis, he went on to the Hellespont. He also recovered Lampsacus and Parium, likewise some of the other cities that had changed sides; and when he arrived at the entrance of the Pontus, he constructed a camp beside the shrine of the Chalcedonians and left to guard the region three thousand foot-soldiers and thirty warships. Then he sent the rest of the army into winter quarters, dividing it among the cities.
§ 20.111.4 At about this time Mithridates, who was subject to Antigonus but appeared to be shifting his allegiance to Cassander, was slain at Cius in Mysia after having ruled that city and Myrlea for thirty-five years; and Mithridates, inheriting the kingdom, added many new subjects and was king of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia for thirty-six years.
§ 20.112.1 In these same days Cassander, after the departure of Demetrius, took possession of the cities of Thessaly and sent Pleistarchus with an army into Asia to aid Lysimachus. Those sent with him were twelve thousand foot-soldiers and five hundred horsemen.
§ 20.112.2 But when Pleistarchus came to the entrance of the Pontus, he found that the region had already been taken over by the enemy and, abandoning the crossing, he turned aside to Odessus, which lies between Apollonia and Callantia, directly opposite to Heraclea on the opposite shore, where a part of the army of Lysimachus was quartered.
§ 20.112.3 Since he did not have ships enough for transporting his soldiers, he divided his army into three contingents. Now the first force sent out came safe to Heraclea, but the second was captured by the guard-ships at the entrance to the Pontus. When Pleistarchus himself set sail with the third group, so great a tempest rose that most of the vessels and the men on them were lost;
§ 20.112.4 and indeed the large warship that carried the general sank, and of the not less than five hundred men who sailed in her, only thirty-three were saved. Among these was Pleistarchus who, holding to a piece of wreckage, was cast ashore half dead. He was carried to Heraclea and after recovering from the misfortune went to Lysimachus at winter quarters, having lost the larger part of his army.
§ 20.113.1 During these same days King Ptolemy, setting out from Egypt with an army of considerable size, subjugated all the cities of Coele-Syria; but while he was besieging Sidon certain men came to him with the false report that a battle had taken place between the kings in which Lysimachus and Seleucus had been defeated, that they had withdrawn to Heraclea, and that Antigonus, after winning the victory, was advancing with an army against Syria.
§ 20.113.2 Consequently Ptolemy, deceived by them and believing that their report was true, made a four-month's truce with the Sidonians, secured with garrisons the cities that he had captured, and went back to Egypt with his army.
§ 20.113.3 At the same time as this was taking place, some of the soldiers of Lysimachus, having left their winter quarters as deserters, went over to Antigonus, namely two thousand Autariatae and about eight hundred Lycians and Pamphylians. Now Antigonus, receiving these men in kindly fashion, not only gave them the pay which they said was due them from Lysimachus but also honoured them with gifts.
§ 20.113.4 At this time Seleucus also arrived, having crossed over from the upper satrapies into Cappadocia with a large army, and after making huts for the soldiers he went into winter quarters near by. He had foot-soldiers to the number of about twenty thousand, about twelve thousand horsemen including his mounted archers, four hundred and eighty elephants, and more than a hundred scythed chariots.
§ 20.113.5 In this way, then, the forces of the kings were being gathered together, since they all had determined to decide the war by force of arms during the coming summer. But, as we proposed in the beginning, we shall make the war that these kings waged against each other for supreme rule the beginning of the following book.
§ 21.1.1 All vice should be shunned by men of intelligence, but especially greed, for this vice, because of the expectation of profit, prompts many to injustice and becomes the cause of very great evils to mankind. Hence, since it is a very metropolis of unjust acts, it brings many great misfortunes not only on private citizens but even on the greatest kings. King Antigonus, who rose from private station to high power and became the mightiest king of his day, was not content with the gifts of Fortune, but undertook to bring unjustly into his own hands the kingdoms of all the others; thus he lost his own dominion and was deprived of life as well. Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus united against King Antigonus; not so much prompted by goodwill towards one another as compelled by the fears each had for himself, they moved readily to make common cause in the supreme struggle. In the battle, the elephants of Antigonus and Lysimachus fought as if nature had matched them equally in courage and strength.
§ 21.1.2 [After this certain Chaldaeans approached Antigonus and prophesied that if he should let Seleucus out of his grasp, it would come to pass that all Asia would be made subject to Seleucus, and that Antigonus himself would die in battle against him. . . . This stirred him deeply . . . for he was impressed by the reputation that the men enjoyed. . . . They are in fact reputed to have prophesied to Alexander that if he entered Babylon, he would die. And just as in the case of Alexander, it came about that the prophecy concerning Seleucus was fulfilled according to the pronouncements of these men. Of this prophecy we shall speak in detail when we come to the proper period.]
§ 21.1.4 Antigonus, king of Asia, made war against a coalition of four kings, Ptolemy, son of Lagus, king of Egypt, Seleucus, king of Babylonia, Lysimachus, king of Thrace, and Cassander, son of Antipater, king of Macedonia. When he engaged them in battle, he was pierced by many missiles, and his body was carried from the field and was buried with royal honours. His son Demetrius, however, joining his mother Stratonice, who had remained in Cilicia with all their valuables, sailed to Salamis in Cyprus, since it was in his possession.
§ 21.1.5 As for Seleucus, after the partition of the kingdom of Antigonus, he took his army and went to Phoenicia, where, in accordance with the terms of the agreement, he endeavoured to appropriate Coele Syria. But Ptolemy had already occupied the cities of that region, and was denouncing Seleucus because, although he and Ptolemy were friends, Seleucus had accepted the assignment to his own share of a district that was already subject to Ptolemy; in addition, he accused the kings of giving him no part of the conquered territory, even though he had been a partner in the war against Antigonus. To these charges Seleucus replied that it was only just that those who were victorious on the battlefield should dispose of the spoils; but in the matter of Coele Syria, for friendship's sake he would not for the present interfere, but would consider later how best to deal with friends who chose to encroach.
§ 21.1.6 [It so happened, however, that the city did not long abide, for Seleucus tore it down and transferred its population to the city that he had founded and called Seleuceia after himself. But as for these matters, we shall set them forth exactly and in detail when we come to the proper period.] If anyone is eager to know about the colonies sent out to this region from Greece, there are painstaking accounts of the matter by Strabo the geographer, Phlegon, and Diodorus of Sicily.
§ 21.2.1 When Corcyra was being besieged on land and sea by Cassander, king of Macedonia, and was on the point of capture, it was delivered by Agathocles, king of Sicily, who set fire to the entire Macedonian fleet.
§ 21.2.2 The utmost spirit of rivalry was not lacking on either side, for the Macedonians were bent on saving their ships, while the Siceliotes wished not only to be regarded as victors over the Carthaginians and the barbarians of Italy, but also to show themselves in the Greek arena as more than a match for the Macedonians, whose spears had subjugated both Asia and Europe.
§ 21.2.3 Had Agathocles, after landing his army, attacked the enemy, who were near at hand, he would easily have crushed the Macedonians; but since he was ignorant of the message that had been received and of the consternation of the men, he was satisfied after landing his forces, to set up a trophy, and thus to prove the truth of the proverb, "Many are the futilities of warfare." For misapprehension and deceit often accomplish as much as armed action.
§ 21.3.1 When, on his return from Corcyra, Agathocles rejoined the army that he had left behind, and learned that in his absence the Ligurians and Etruscans had mutinously demanded their pay from his son Agatharchus, he put them all to death, to the number of at least two thousand. This action alienated the Bruttians, whereupon Agathocles attempted to capture the city which is called Ethae. When the barbarians, however, assembled a large force and made an unexpected attack by night upon him, he lost four thousand men, and in consequence returned to Syracuse.
§ 21.4.1 Agathocles brought together his naval forces and sailed across to Italy. Planning to move on Croton, since he wished to besiege the city, he sent a messenger to Menedemus, the tyrant of Croton, his friend, bidding him not to be alarmed falsely and saying that he was escorting his daughter Lanassa with royal honours to Epirus for her marriage; and by this ruse he caught the Crotoniates off their guard. He then invested the city and encircled it with walls from sea to sea, and by means of a stone-thrower and by tunnelling brought down in ruins the largest of the buildings. When the Crotoniates saw this they were frightened, and opening the gate, received Agathocles and his army, who rushed into the city, plundered the houses, and slew the male inhabitants. With the neighbouring barbarians, both the Iapygians and the Peucetians, Agathocles made an alliance and supplied them with pirate ships, receiving in return a share of their booty. Then, leaving a garrison in Croton, he sailed back to Syracuse.
§ 21.5.1 Diyllus, the Athenian historian, compiled a universal history in twenty-six books and Psaon of Plataea wrote a continuation of this work in thirty books.
§ 21.6.1 In the war with the Etruscans, Gauls, Samnites, and the other allies, the Romans slew one hundred thousand men in the consulship of Fabius, according to Duris.
§ 21.6.2 Something similar is told by Duris, Diodorus, and Dio: that when the Samnites, Etruscans, and the other nations were at war with the Romans, Decius, the Roman consul, colleague of Torquatus, in like manner devoted himself to death, and on that day one hundred thousand of the enemy were slain.
§ 21.7.1 Because of envy, Antipater murdered his own mother. Alexander, the brother of Antipater, was assassinated by King Demetrius, whom he had summoned to aid him. He likewise assassinated Antipater the matricide, the brother of Alexander, not wishing to have a partner in rule.
§ 21.8.1 Agathocles assembled an army and crossed over into Italy with thirty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry. The navy he entrusted to Stilpo with orders to ravage the territory of the Bruttians; but while Stilpo was plundering the estates along the shore, he encountered a storm and lost most of his ships. Agathocles laid siege to Hipponium . . . and by means of stone-throwers they overpowered the city and captured it. This terrified the Bruttians, who sent an embassy to treat for terms. Agathocles, having obtained six hundred hostages from them and having left an occupying force, returned to Syracuse. The Bruttians, however, instead of abiding by their oath, marched out in full force against the soldiers who had been left behind, crushed them, recovered the hostages, and so freed themselves from the domination of Agathocles.
§ 21.9.1 King Demetrius, after arresting all who habitually defamed him in the public assemblies and contentiously opposed him in all things, let them go unharmed, remarking that pardon is better than punishment.
§ 21.10.1 Most leaders of armies, when confronted with serious reverses, follow the urgings of the mob rather than risk its opposition.
§ 21.11.1 The Thracians captured Agathocles, the king's son, but sent him home with gifts, partly to prepare for themselves a refuge against the surprises of Fortune, partly in the hope of recovering through this act of humanity that part of their territory which Lysimachus had seized. For they no longer hoped to be able to prevail in the war, since almost all the most powerful kings were now in agreement, and were in military alliance one with another.
§ 21.12.1 When the army of Lysimachus was hard pressed for food, and his friends kept advising him to save himself as best he could and not to hope for safety in the encampment, he replied to them that it was not honourable to provide a disgraceful safety for himself by abandoning his army and his friends. 2 Dromichaetes, the king of the Thracians, having given King Lysimachus every mark of welcome, having kissed him, and even called him "Father," then brought him and his children to a city called Helis. 3 After the capture of the army of Lysimachus, the Thracians assembling in haste shouted that the captured king should be brought into their midst for punishment. It was but right, they cried, that the multitude who had shared the hazard of battle should debate and decide what was to be done with the prisoners. Dromichaetes spoke against punishing the king and pointed out to the soldiers the advantages of preserving his life. Were he to be executed, he said, other kings, possibly more to be feared than their predecessor, would assume the authority of Lysimachus. If, on the other hand, his life were spared, he would owe a debt of gratitude to the Thracians, and with no hazard to themselves they would recover the forts that had formerly been Thracian. 4 When the multitude had given its approval to this policy, Dromichaetes searched out from among the prisoners the friends of Lysimachus and those who were accustomed to be in constant attendance upon him, and led them to the captive monarch. Then, having offered sacrifice, he invited Lysimachus and his friends to the banquet, together with the most suitable Thracians. He prepared two sets of couches, using for the company of Lysimachus the royal drapery that formed part of the spoils, but for himself and his friends cheap beds of straw. 5 In like manner, he had two different meals prepared, and set before his foreign guests a prodigal array of all kinds of viands, served on a silver table, while before the Thracians was placed a modestly prepared dish of herbs and meat, their meal being set out upon a cheap board. Finally, for his guests he poured out wine in gold and silver cups, but for his fellow-countrymen, as was the custom of the Getae, in cups of horn or wood. After they had been drinking some time, he filled the largest of the drinking-horns, and addressing Lysimachus as "Father," asked him which banquet seemed more fit for kings, the Macedonian or the Thracian. Lysimachus replied: "The Macedonian."
§ 21.12.6 "Why then," he asked, "forsaking such ways, a splendid manner of life, and a more glorious kingdom as well, did you desire to come among men who are barbarous and lead a bestial existence, and to a wintry land deficient in cultivated grains and fruit? Why did you force a way against nature to bring an army into such a place as this, where no foreign force can survive in the open?" In reply Lysimachus said that in regard to this campaign he had acted blindly; but for the future he would endeavour to aid him as a friend, and not to fall short in returning kindness for kindness. Dromichaetes received these words graciously, obtained the return of the districts that Lysimachus had seized, placed a diadem on his head, and sent him on his way.
§ 21.13.1 This Xermodigestus, as Diodorus writes, ranking as the most trusted friend, I think, of Audoleon, king of the Paeonians, reveals the treasures to Lysimachus, or to some other king of Thrace ('tis difficult for me, without books as I am, to relate all, like a god; you to whom I speak know). He revealed to the crowned head of Thrace the treasures hidden beneath the river Sargentius, which he himself, aided only by captives, had buried, turning aside the river bed, and burying the treasure beneath, then letting in the stream, and slaying the captives.
§ 21.14.1 King Demetrius laid siege to Thebes when it revolted a second time, demolished the walls with siege engines, and took the city by storm, but put to death only the ten men who were responsible for the revolt.
§ 21.14.2 King Demetrius, having gained possession of the other cities also, dealt generously with the Boeotians; for he dismissed the charges against all except the fourteen men who were chiefly responsible for the revolt.
§ 21.14.3 In many cases one should decline to fight to the bitter end, indulging one's wrath. For sometimes it is expedient to come to terms, to pay a price for security, and in general to rate forgiveness above revenge.
§ 21.15.1 Agathocles sent his son Agathocles to King Demetrius to arrange a treaty of friendship and alliance. The king welcomed the young man warmly, dressed him in princely robes, and gave him magnificent gifts. He sent back with him Oxythemis, one of his friends, ostensibly to receive pledges of the alliance, in reality to spy out Sicily.
§ 21.16.1 [But as for the death of Agathocles, when we come to its place in the narrative, what actually occurred will confirm what has just been said.] King Agathocles, who had remained on terms of peace with the Carthaginians for a long time, had now made extensive naval preparations; for he intended to transport an army once again to Libya and with his ships to prevent the Phoenicians from importing grain from Sardinia and Sicily. Indeed, in the preceding war with Libya, it was by control of the sea that the Carthaginians had brought their country safely out of danger. King Agathocles now had, fully equipped, two hundred ships, quadriremes and sexremes. Nevertheless, he did not carry out his project for the following reasons.
§ 21.16.2 There was a certain Menon, a Segestan by birth, who was taken captive on the seizure of his native city, and became the king's slave because of the beauty of his person. For a while he pretended to be content, being reckoned among the king's favourites and friends; but the disaster to his city and the outrage to his person produced a rankling enmity to the king, and he seized an opportunity to take his revenge. Now the king, being now well advanced in years, had entrusted the command of his forces in the field to Archagathus.
§ 21.16.3 He was the son of the Archagathus who was killed in Libya, and thus the grandson of King Agathocles; in manliness and fortitude he far surpassed ordinary expectations. While he was encamped near Etna, the king, wishing to promote his son Agathocles as successor to the throne, first of all presented the young man at Syracuse, and declared that he would leave him heir to his power; he then sent him to the camp. To Archagathus he wrote a letter, ordering him to hand over to Agathocles both the land and naval forces. When Archagathus thus perceived that another was to fall heir to the kingdom, he resolved to lay a plot for both men. He sent word to Menon the Segestan, and persuaded him to poison the king. He himself offered sacrifice on a certain island, and when the younger Agathocles put in there, invited him to the feast, plied him with drink, and murdered him during the night. The body was thrown into the sea, and was washed ashore by the waves, where certain men recognized it and carried it to Syracuse.
§ 21.16.4 Now it was the king's habit after dinner always to clean his teeth with a quill. Having finished his wine, therefore, he asked Menon for the quill, and Menon gave him one that he had smeared with a putrefactive drug. The king, unaware of this, applied it rather vigorously and so brought it into contact with the gums all about his teeth. The first effect was a continuous pain, which grew daily more excruciating, and this was followed by an incurable gangrene everywhere near the teeth. As he lay dying, he summoned the populace, denounced Archagathus for his impiety, aroused the masses to avenge him, and declared that he restored to the people their self-government.
§ 21.16.5 Then, when the king was already at the point of death, Oxythemis, the envoy of King Demetrius, placed him on the pyre and burned him, still alive, but because of the characteristic ravages of his affliction unable to utter a sound. Agathocles had committed numerous and most varied acts of slaughter during his reign, and since to his cruelty towards his own people he added impiety towards the gods, the manner of his death was appropriate to his lawless life. He lived for seventy-two years and ruled for twenty-eight, according to Timaeus of Syracuse, Callias, another Syracusan, the author of twenty-two books, and Antander, the brother of Agathocles, who was himself a historian.
§ 21.16.6 The Syracusans, upon the recovery of their popular government, confiscated the property of Agathocles and pulled down the statues that he had set up. Menon, who had plotted against the king, stayed with Archagathus, having fled from Syracuse. He was puffed up, however, by the credit that he enjoyed as overthrower of the kingdom; he assassinated Archagathus, gained control of the camp, and, having won over the masses by expressions of goodwill, determined to wage war on Syracuse and to claim for himself the chief power.
§ 21.16.7 In manliness and fortitude Archagathus was much in advance of his years, for he was extremely young.
§ 21.17.1 This historian, who had so sharply rebuked earlier historians for their errors, showed very high regard for the truth in the rest of his writings, but the greater part of his history of Agathocles consists of lying propaganda against the ruler because of personal enmity. For since he was banished from Sicily by Agathocles and could not strike back while the monarch lived, after his death he defamed him in his history for all time.
§ 21.17.2 For, in general, to the bad qualities that this king did in fact possess the historian adds others of his own invention. He strips him of his successes, leaving him his failures — not only those for which the king was himself responsible, but even those due to ill luck, which he transfers to the score of one who was not at all at fault. And though it is generally agreed that the king was a shrewd strategist, and that he was energetic and confident where courage in battle was called for, yet Timaeus throughout his history incessantly calls him a poltroon and coward. Yet who does not know that of all men who ever came to power, none acquired a greater kingdom with fewer resources? Reared from childhood as an artisan because of scant means and humble parentage, he later, thanks to his own ability, not only became master of nearly all Sicily, but even reduced by arms much of Italy and Libya.
§ 21.17.3 One may well marvel at the nonchalance of the historian, who throughout his work praises the people of Syracuse for their courage, but says that he who mastered them surpasses all men in cowardice. The evidence of these contradictions shows clearly that he deserted the honest standard of historical candour to gratify his personal animosity and contentiousness. Consequently we cannot fairly accept the last five books of this writer's history, in which he covers the deeds of Agathocles.
§ 21.17.4 Likewise Callias of Syracuse might justly and fittingly be held liable to censure. For ever since he was taken up by Agathocles and for a great price in gifts sold into bondage Madam History, the mouthpiece of truth, he has never ceased singing dishonest praises of his paymaster. Thus, although Agathocles' acts of impiety to the gods and of lawlessness to men were not few, yet the historian says that he far surpassed other men in piety and humanity. In general, just as Agathocles robbed the citizens of their goods and gave to the historian, contrary to all justice, what was not his to give, so this remarkable chronicler employed his pen to endow the monarch with all the virtues. It was quite easy, no doubt, in this exchange of favours for the writer not to let his praises fall short of the bribery coming from the royal family.
§ 21.18.1 The people of Syracuse dispatched Hicetas as general with an army to conduct the war against Menon. For a while he carried on the war, so long as the enemy avoided action and refused to face them in battle. But when the Carthaginians, with their vastly superior forces, began to aid Menon, the Syracusans were compelled to give four hundred hostages to the Phoenicians, to make an end of hostilities, and to restore the exiles. Then, because the mercenaries were not allowed to vote in the elections, the city was filled with civil strife. Both the Syracusans and the mercenaries had recourse to arms, and it was only with difficulty that the Elders, after long negotiations and many appeals to both factions, ended the disturbance on the condition that within a set time the mercenaries should sell their possessions and leave Sicily. After these terms had been ratified, the mercenaries left Syracuse in accordance with the agreement; and when they reached the Strait, they were welcomed by the people of Messana as friends and allies. But when they had been hospitably received into the homes of the citizens, they slew their hosts in the night, married their wives, and took possession of the city. They named this city Mamertina after Ares, since in their language he is called Mamertos. 3 When the mercenaries had left Syracuse in accordance with the agreement, they were welcomed by the people of Messana as friends and allies. But when they had been hospitably received by the citizens into their own homes, they slew their hosts in the night, married the wives of the men they had so wronged, and took possession of the city.
§ 21.18.2 Those who are not eligible for the tribunate may not participate in a vote sanctioned by a tribune.
§ 21.19.1 [The sequel of our narrative and the sudden change in circumstances, which brought on the final crisis of the kingdom of Demetrius, will reveal more clearly the character of the woman.]
§ 21.20.1 While Demetrius was held under guard in Pella, Lysimachus sent ambassadors to Seleucus with the request that he should on no account release Demetrius from his power, since he was a man of restless ambition and had plotted against all the kings; he offered to give Seleucus two thousand talents to do away with him. But the king rebuked the ambassadors for urging him not only to set at naught his solemn pledge but also to incur that pollution in respect of a man allied to him by marriage. To his son Antiochus, who was in Media, he wrote, advising him how to deal with Demetrius. For he had previously decided to release him and restore him with great pomp to his throne, but wanted to give his son joint credit for this kindness, since Antiochus had married Stratonice, the daughter of Demetrius, and had begot children by her.
§ 21.21.1 One should be most formidable to one's enemies, but to one's friends be most steadfastly cordial.
§ 21.21.2 Since on that occasion through ignorance of what was to your advantage you gave heed to flattering words, now that you have seen in actuality the misfortunes that pervade the country, be better instructed.
§ 21.21.3 For it is but human to go astray now and again in the course of one's life, but to err repeatedly in the same circumstances marks a man as totally disordered in his calculations. For the more numerous the failures we have met with, the greater is the punishment that we deserve to get.
§ 21.21.4 Some of our citizens have gone so far in their greed for gain as to wish to raise their own estates to greatness at the expense of their country's misfortunes.
§ 21.21.5 How can men who have treated unjustly those who aid their fellow men find such aid for themselves?
§ 21.21.6 We should grant pardon for the mistakes of the past, and henceforth live in peace.
§ 21.21.7 We should not punish without exception those who have made mistakes, but only those who do not learn better by the mistakes they have made.
§ 21.21.8 Among mortals fair dealing is better than anger, and an act of kindness better than punishment.
§ 21.21.9 It is right and suitable to wipe out enmity and replace it with friendship. For when a man gets into straits, he is wont to turn first to his friends for aid. When an alien soldier gets into straits, he is wont to turn first to plundering his friends. 0 The greed that is innate in kings will not hold aloof from such a city. The greed that is innate in mankind will not altogether abstain from such an enterprise. 11 For the pomp of pride and the raiment of tyranny should be kept at home, and when one enters a city of freemen, one should obey its laws. 12 When a man has inherited the blood and dominion of another, he will want to succeed to his good name also. For it is shameful to bear the name of Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and show oneself in conduct a Thersites. 13 The greater the reputation that a man possesses, the greater will be his gratitude to those who are the authors of his good fortune. Hence a man will not desire to obtain dishonestly and dishonourably the things that he can get with honour and goodwill. 14 It is therefore well, gentlemen, to find in other men's mistakes the experience you need for your own safety. 15 One should never prefer the foreign to that which is kindred, nor yet the hatred of enemies to the loyalty of comrades-in arms.
§ 22.1.1 It is traditional with the people of Epirus not only to fight for their own country but also to face danger in defence of their friends and allies.
§ 22.1.2 Decius, the Roman tribune, appointed to guard Rhegium because of King Pyrrhus, slaughtered the men of the city and appropriated their wives and property. These soldiers were Campanians, and acted just as the Mamertines did, after they slaughtered the men of Messana. Then because his distribution of the property of the victims was unjust, Decius was driven out of Rhegium and was sent into exile by his own Campanians. The Mamertines also gave assistance . . . with the money that was plundered, and made him general. On a certain occasion, being afflicted with a disease of the eye, he summoned the leading physician; and he, to avenge the outrage to his fatherland, anointed Decius' eye with a salve made from a blister-beetle, thus deprived him of his sight, and then fled from Messana. A garrison was sent to Rhegium by the Romans. Decius the tribune, a Campanian by race and a man of unusual greed and daring, imitated the lawless conduct of the Mamertines. For although the Mamertines had been received as friends by the people of Messana, they seized control of the city, slaughtered the men, each at his own hearth, married the wives of their own hosts, and possessed themselves of the property of their victims. So Decius and his Campanians, though they had been sent by Rome to guard the inhabitants of Rhegium, emulated the savagery of the Mamertines; for they slaughtered the citizens, divided up their property, and occupied the city as a prize of war. Decius, who had been appointed commander of the garrison, converted into money the property of the hapless populace, and because he made an unfair distribution of the spoils, was driven out of Rhegium and sent into exile by the Campanians, his partners in guilt. The transgressors did not, however, escape punishment, but Decius, when he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, called in the best of the physicians, who, taking revenge for his country, anointed him amply with blister-beetle salve, and having robbed Decius of his sight fled from Messana.
§ 22.2.1 Throughout Sicily there were tyrants, Hicetas in Syracuse, Phintias in Acragas, Tyndarion in Tauromenium, and others in the lesser cities. A war arose between Phintias and Hicetas, and when they met in battle near the Hyblaeus, Hicetas was victorious; in their raids against one another, they pillaged the estates and made the district a wasteland. Hicetas was so elated by his victory that he joined battle with the Carthaginians, but was defeated and lost many men near the river Terias.
§ 22.2.2 Phintias founded a city, which he named Phintias, settling in it the inhabitants of Gela, who were driven from their homes. This city, Phintias, is by the sea. He tore down the walls and houses of Gela, and transferred its people to Phintias, where he had built a wall, a notable market-place, and temples of the gods.
§ 22.2.3 Hence, since he had shown himself a bloodthirsty murderer, all the cities subject to him came to loathe him and drove out their garrisons, the first to revolt being the people of Agyrium.
§ 22.2.4 Since Phintias ruled the cities by main force and put to death many of the wealthy men, his lawlessness won him the hatred of his subjects; consequently, since all were at the point of revolt, he was soon humbled, changed his ways, and by a more humane rule held his subjects under control.
§ 22.3.1 Ptolemy, the king of the Macedonians, being quite young and inexperienced in the business of war, and being by nature rash and impetuous, exercised no prudence or foresight. For instance, when his friends advised him to wait for the troops which were tardy in arriving, he paid no attention. King Ptolemy was slain and the whole Macedonian army was cut to pieces and destroyed by the Gauls.
§ 22.4.1 During this period the Gauls attacked Macedonia and harried it, since there were many claimants to the kingship, who possessed themselves of it briefly and were driven out. One of these was Meleager, a brother of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who ruled for only a few days and was then expelled. Similarly, Antipater ruled for forty-five days. After them came Sosthenes, then Ptolemy, as well as Alexander, and Pyrrhus of Epirus. All together they ruled for three years, according to Diodorus.
§ 22.5.1 Apollodorus, who aimed at a tyranny, and thought to render the conspiracy secure, invited a young lad, one of his friends, to a sacrifice, slew him as an offering to the gods, gave the conspirators his vitals to eat, and when he had mixed the blood with wine, bade them drink it.
§ 22.5.2 This same Apollodorus, having recruited some Gauls, furnished them too with arms, and, when he had conferred gifts upon them, found them loyal guardsmen and convenient tools, because of their cruelty, to execute his punishments. By confiscating the property of the well-to do he amassed great wealth. Then, by an increase in the pay of his soldiers, and by sharing his riches with the poor, he made himself master of a formidable force. But turning then to cruelty and greed he began to exact money from the citizens at large, and by inflicting the penalty of torture upon many men and more than a few women he forced everyone to hand over gold and silver. His guide and tutor in tyranny was Calliphon the Sicel, who had lived at the court of many of the Sicilian tyrants.
§ 22.6.1 A "Cadmean victory" is a proverbial expression. It signifies that the victors suffer misfortune, while the defeated are not endangered because of the magnitude of their dominion.
§ 22.6.2 King Pyrrhus had lost many of the Epirotes who had crossed over with him, and when one of his friends asked how he had fared in the battle, he replied: "If I win a victory in one more battle with the Romans, I shall not have left a single soldier of those who crossed over with me." In very truth, all his victories were, as the proverb has it, Cadmean; for the enemy, though defeated, were in no way humbled, since their dominion was so great, whereas the victor had suffered the damage and disaster that commonly go with defeat.
§ 22.6.3 Cineas, whom Pyrrhus sent as ambassador to treat for terms with the Romans, was a persuasive diplomat, and, in addition, offered valuable presents to the appropriate persons. They did not accept these presents, but all gave him the selfsame answer, that since he was at this time an enemy, such a gift was quite unfitting; if, however, he should bring about a peace and become a friend of the Roman people, they would gladly accept his gift, which would then be above reproach.
§ 22.7.1 Phintias, the founder of the city of Phintias and tyrant of Acragas, had a dream that revealed the manner of his death: he was hunting a wild boar, when the swine rushed at him, struck his side with its tusks, pierced him through, and killed him.
§ 22.7.2 Hicetas had ruled Syracuse for nine years when he was thrust from power by Thoenon, the son of Mameus.
§ 22.7.3 When Thoenon and Sostratus had succeeded Hicetas, they once again invited King Pyrrhus to come to Sicily.
§ 22.7.4 The Mamertines, who had treacherously murdered the men of Messana, having made an alliance with the Carthaginians, decided to join them in trying to prevent Pyrrhus from crossing over into Sicily. But Tyndarion, the tyrant of Tauromenia, inclined in favour of Pyrrhus and was ready to receive his forces into the city.
§ 22.7.5 The Carthaginians, having made an alliance with the Romans, took five hundred men on board their own ships and sailed across to Rhegium; they made assaults, and though they desisted from the siege, set fire to the timber that had been brought together for ship-building, and they continued to guard the Strait, watching against any attempt by Pyrrhus to cross.
§ 22.7.6 Thoenon controlled the Island, while Sostratus ruled Syracuse. They had ten thousand soldiers, and carried on war with each other. But both, becoming exhausted in the war, sent ambassadors to Pyrrhus.
§ 22.8.1 Pyrrhus waged war in Italy for two years and four months. While he was making ready to set sail, the Carthaginians were besieging Syracuse both by land and by sea; they blockaded the Great Harbour with a hundred ships, and on land they carried on operations close to the walls with fifty thousand men. Thus they held the Syracusans pent up while they overran their territory and laid it waste.
§ 22.8.2 Consequently the Syracusans, being exhausted by the war, pinned their hopes on Pyrrhus because of his wife Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, who had borne Pyrrhus a son, Alexander; therefore they daily dispatched envoys to him, one group after the other. He embarked his men, his elephants, and his other equipment of war aboard his ships, set sail from Tarentum, and put in at Locri on the tenth day.
§ 22.8.3 Thence after adding Tyndarion, the dynast of Tauromenia, to his alliance and after obtaining soldiers from him, he sailed to Catana. There, having been welcomed by the inhabitants with great state and crowned with golden crowns, he disembarked his infantry. As they made their way to Syracuse, the fleet accompanied them in battle array. When they approached Syracuse, the Carthaginians, who had sent away thirty ships on some necessary missions, did not venture to do battle with the ships that remained.
§ 22.8.4 Thus Pyrrhus sailed unchallenged into Syracuse, and accepted delivery of the Island from Thoenon, and of the rest of the city from the citizens and Sosistratus. This Sosistratus had made himself master of Acragas and of many other cities, and had an army of more than ten thousand men. Pyrrhus effected a reconciliation between Thoenon and Sosistratus and the Syracusans and restored harmony, thinking to gain great popularity by virtue of the peace.
§ 22.8.5 The king took over the missiles, engines of war and such equipment as was in the city; the ships that he took over in Syracuse were: one hundred and twenty decked vessels, twenty without decks, and the royal "niner": the total, including the ships he had brought with him, now amounted to a fleet of more than two hundred. While he was busy with these matters envoys arrived from Leontini, sent by Heracleides the ruler, who said that he would hand over to the king the city and its forts, together with four thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. Many other embassies also came to Syracuse, offering to hand over their cities and saying that they would co-operate with Pyrrhus. He received them all courteously, and then sent them back to their several countries, hoping now to win even Libya.
§ 22.9.1 Brennus, the king of the Gauls, accompanied by one hundred and fifty thousand infantry, armed with long shields, and ten thousand cavalry, together with a horde of camp followers, large numbers of traders, and two thousand waggons, invaded Macedonia and engaged in battle. Having in this conflict lost many men . . . as lacking sufficient strength . . . when later he advanced into Greece and to the oracle at Delphi, which he wished to plunder. In the mighty battle fought there he lost tens of thousands of his comrades-in arms, and Brennus himself was three times wounded.
§ 22.9.2 Weighed down and near to death, he assembled his host there and spoke to the Gauls. He advised them to kill him and all the wounded, to burn their waggons, and to return home unburdened; he advised them also to make Cichorius king. Then, after drinking deeply of undiluted wine, Brennus slew himself.
§ 22.9.3 After Cichorius had given him burial, he killed the wounded and those who were victims of cold and starvation some twenty thousand in all; and so he began the journey homeward with the rest by the same route. In difficult terrain the Greeks would attack and cut off those in the rear, and carried off all their baggage. On the way to Thermopylae, food being scarce there, they abandoned twenty thousand more men. All the rest perished as they were going through the country of the Dardani, and not a single man was left to return home.
§ 22.9.4 Brennus, the king of the Gauls, on entering a temple found no dedications of gold or silver, and when he came only upon images of stone and wood he laughed at them, to think that men, believing that gods have human form, should set up their images in wood and stone.
§ 22.9.5 At the time of the Gallic invasion the inhabitants of Delphi, seeing that danger was at hand, asked the god if they should remove the treasures, the children, and the women from the shrine to the most strongly fortified of the neighbouring cities. The Pythia replied to the Delphians that the god commanded them to leave in place in the shrine the dedications and whatever else pertained to the adornment of the gods; for the god, and with him the White Maidens, would protect all. As there were in the sacred precinct two temples of extreme antiquity, one of Athena Pronaia and one of Artemis, they assumed that these goddesses were the "White Maidens" named in the oracle.
§ 22.10.1 Pyrrhus, after settling matters in Syracuse and Leontini, set out with an army for Acragas. While he was on the way, men of Enna arrived, saying that they had expelled the Carthaginian garrison, which they had kept to prevent Phintias from becoming their ruler, and promising to hand over their city to Pyrrhus and become his allies. Pyrrhus, taking his army with him . . . he arrived at Acragas and took over from Sosistratus the city and the soldiers, eight thousand infantry and eight hundred horsemen, all picked men, no whit inferior to the men of Epirus. He also took over thirty cities that Sosistratus ruled.
§ 22.10.2 He then sent to Syracuse and brought siege engines and a great quantity of missiles. He marched against the territory subject to the Carthaginians with an army of thirty thousand infantry, fifteen hundred cavalry and his elephants. He subdued first the city of Heracleia, which had a Carthaginian garrison. He then seized Azones. The people of Selinus then came over to the king, and then the people of Halicyae, of Segesta, and of many other cities.
§ 22.10.3 Although Eryx had a considerable garrison of Carthaginians and is by nature strong and not easily stormed, yet Pyrrhus determined to take it forcibly by siege. Hence he brought up his engines against the walls, and a mighty and violent siege took place and continued for a long time, until the king, desiring to win high renown and vying to rank with Heracles, personally led an assault on the walls; putting up an heroic fight, he slew the Carthaginians who stormed against him, and when the king's "Friends" also joined in the struggle, he took the city by storm.
§ 22.10.4 After stationing a garrison there, he set out for the city of Iaetia, a place of exceptional strength, favourably situated for an attack on Panormus. The people of Iaetia yielded of their own accord, whereupon he advanced at once to the city of Panormus, which has the finest harbour in all Sicily, whence, in fact, the city received this, its name. This place also he took by storm, and when he gained control of the fortress of Herctae, he had now overcome the whole empire of Carthage and become its master, except for Lilybaion. This city had been founded by the Carthaginians after their city of Motya had been captured by the tyrant Dionysius, for they had gathered together all the survivors of Motya and settled them in Lilybaion.
§ 22.10.5 While Pyrrhus was making ready to lay siege to this city, the Carthaginians brought over from Libya to Lilybaion a considerable army, and having control of the seas, they transported a large amount of grain, and engines of war and missiles in incredible quantities. Since most of the city is surrounded by the sea, they walled off the land approaches, constructed towers at short intervals, and dug a great ditch. They then sent an embassy to the king to discuss a truce and peace, for they were ready to come to terms and even to pay a large sum of money.
§ 22.10.6 Though the king refused to accept money he was prevailed upon to concede Lilybaion to the Carthaginians; but the king's "Friends" who were taking part in the meeting and the delegates from the cities called him aside and urged him under no circumstances to grant the barbarians a stepping-stone for an attack on Sicily, but rather to drive the Phoenicians out of the entire island and to make the sea the boundary of his domain. The king immediately encamped near the walls, and at first made constant attacks with relays of troops against them. But the Carthaginians were able to defend themselves because of the number of their fighters and the abundance of their equipment.
§ 22.10.7 For the Carthaginians had collected so great a number of catapults, both dart-shooters and stone-throwers, that there was not room on the walls for all the equipment. And so, as missiles of all sorts were hurled against the attackers, and as many of his men fell, and many others received wounds, Pyrrhus was at a disadvantage. The king undertook to construct engines of war more powerful than those he had transported from Syracuse, and to unsettle the walls by mining operations. But the Carthaginians kept up their resistance, since the ground was rocky, and after a siege of two months Pyrrhus despaired of capturing the city by force, and lifted the siege. Deciding to construct a large fleet and, when by this means he should have won mastery of the seas, to transport his forces to Libya, he now bent his efforts towards this.
§ 22.11.1 Pyrrhus, having won a famous victory, dedicated the long shields of the Gauls and the most valuable of the other spoils in the shrine of Athena Itonis with the following inscription: These shields, taken from the brave Gauls, the Molossian Pyrrhus hung here as a gift to Athena Itonis, after he had destroyed the entire host of Antigonus. Small wonder: the sons of Aeacus are warriors now even as aforetime.
§ 22.11.2 Being therefore conscious that they had committed acts of impiety so great, they expected, with good reason, to suffer punishment befitting their crimes.
§ 22.12.1 After Pyrrhus had sacked Aegeae, the seat of the Macedonian royal family, he left his Gauls there. They, learning from certain informants that in accordance with a certain ancient custom much wealth was buried with the dead at royal funerals, dug up and broke into all the graves, divided up the treasure, and scattered the bones of the dead. Pyrrhus was much reviled because of this, but did not punish the barbarians since he needed them for his wars.
§ 22.13.1 Since the Mamertines who inhabited Messana had increased in power . . . many forts . . . and they themselves, having put their army in light array, came in haste to the aid of the territory of Messana which was under attack. But Hiero, after quitting enemy territory, took Mylae by storm and acquired fifteen hundred soldiers. Straightway moving to reduce the other strongholds also, he came to Ameselum, situated between Centuripa and Agyrium. Though Ameselum was well fortified and strongly manned, he captured and razed this fortress to the ground, but dismissed all charges against the men of the garrison, whom he enrolled in his own ranks. Part of the land he gave to the people of Centuripa, part to the people of Agyrium.
§ 22.13.2 After this, Hiero with a considerable army waged war against the Mamertines. Halaesa he brought over by surrender, and having been eagerly welcomed by the inhabitants of Abacaenum and Tyndaris, he became master of these cities and drove the Mamertines into a narrow area. For on the Sicilian sea he held the city of Tauromenium, near Messana, and on the Tyrrhenian sea he held Tyndaris. He invaded the territory of Messana, and encamped along the Loitanus River with ten thousand foot-soldiers and fifteen hundred cavalry. The Mamertines faced him with eight thousand foot-soldiers and forty (?) cavalry; their general was Cios.
§ 22.13.3 Now Cios assembled diviners to inspect the entrails, and after sacrificing, he questioned them about the battle. When they replied that the gods revealed through the victims that he would pass the night in the encampment of the enemy, he was overjoyed, thinking that he was to gain possession of the king's camp. Immediately he deployed his forces and attempted to cross the river.
§ 22.13.4 But Hiero, who had in his army two hundred exiles from Messana, men noted for their courage and deeds of valour, added to them four hundred more picked soldiers, and ordered them to go around the nearby hill, named Thorax, and to fall upon the enemy from the rear. He himself deployed his forces and encountered the enemy in front. There was a cavalry engagement near the stream, and at the same time the infantry, who at the order of the king had occupied a certain mound near the river, gained the advantage of favourable terrain; yet for a while the battle was evenly balanced. But when those who had gone around the hill also charged the Mamertines unexpectedly and slew them with no difficulty, since they were fresh and the enemy were battle-worn, then the Mamertines, surrounded on all sides, took to flight, and the Syracusans, attacking in force, cut the whole army to pieces.
§ 22.13.5 The general of the Mamertines fought desperately, but after he had received many wounds and had fallen to the ground unconscious he was captured alive. He was carried still breathing to the encampment of the king, and was handed over to the physicians for treatment. Now when he thus, in accordance with the prophecy and the prediction of the soothsayers, had spent the night in the enemy's camp, and the king, moreover, was solicitous to restore Cios to health, certain men arrived bringing horses from the battle to the king,
§ 22.13.6 and Cios, recognizing his son's horse, supposed that the youth had been killed. In his excessive grief he burst the stitches of his wounds and by his own death set the price at which he rated the destruction of his son. As for the Mamertines, when the news was brought to them that Cios their general and all their soldiers as well had perished, they decided to come before the king as suppliants. Fortune did not, however, permit the utter collapse of the Mamertine cause.
§ 22.13.7 For Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, happened to be moored at the island of Lipara. When he heard the unexpected news, he came posthaste to the king, ostensibly to offer his congratulations, but in reality seeking to outmanoeuvre Hiero by deceit. The king trusted the Phoenician and remained inactive. Hannibal turned aside to Messana, and finding the Mamertines on the point of handing over the city, he dissuaded them, and on the pretext of lending aid, introduced into the city forty (?) soldiers. Thus the Mamertines, who because of their defeat had despaired of their cause, were restored to security in the manner just described. Hiero, outwitted by the Phoenician, abandoned the siege as hopeless and returned to Syracuse, having achieved a resounding success. 9 The Carthaginians and Hiero, after the former had been driven out of Messana, held a conference, and when they had arranged a treaty of alliance, they agreed on a joint attack on Messana.
§ 23.1.1 Sicily is the noblest of all islands, since it can contribute greatly to the growth of an empire.
§ 23.1.2 Hanno, the son of Hannibal, went to Sicily, and having gathered his forces at Lilybaion, advanced to Solus; his land force he left encamped near the city, while he himself went on to Acragas and fortified its citadel, after having persuaded the citizens, who were already friendly to the Carthaginians, to become their allies. Upon his return to his own encampment, envoys came to him from Hiero to discuss their common interest; for they had formed an alliance to make war on the Romans unless these should quit Sicily with all speed.
§ 23.1.3 When both had brought their armies to Messana, Hiero pitched camp on the Chalcidian Mount, while the Carthaginians encamped with their land army at a place called Eunes, and with their naval force seized the headland called Pelorias; and they kept Messana under continuous siege.
§ 23.1.4 When the Roman people learned this, they sent one of the consuls, Appius Claudius by name, with a strong force, who went straightway to Rhegium. He dispatched envoys to Hiero and the Carthaginians to discuss the raising of the siege. He kept promising in addition . . . but to state publicly that he would not proceed against Hiero with war. Hiero replied that the Mamertines, who had laid waste Camarina and Gela and had seized Messana in so impious a manner, were besieged with just cause, and that the Romans, harping as they did on the word fides, certainly ought not to protect assassins who had shown the greatest contempt for good faith; but if, on behalf of men so utterly godless, they should enter upon a war of such magnitude, it would be clear to all mankind that they were using pity for the imperilled as a cloak for their own advantage, and that in reality they coveted Sicily.
§ 23.2.1 The Phoenicians and Romans fought a naval battle; afterwards, in consideration of the magnitude of the war that lay before them, they sent envoys to the consul to discuss terms of friendship. There was much discussion, and both sides engaged in acrimonious debate: the Phoenicians said that they marvelled how the Romans could venture to cross over into Sicily, inasmuch as the Carthaginians had control of the seas; for it was obvious to all that if they did not maintain friendly relations, the Romans would not dare even to wash their hands in the sea. The Romans, for their part, advised the Carthaginians not to teach them to meddle with maritime affairs, since the Romans, so they asserted, were pupils who always outstripped their masters. For example, in ancient times, when they were using rectangular shields, the Etruscans, who fought with round shields of bronze and in phalanx formation, impelled them to adopt similar arms and were in consequence defeated. Then again, when other peoples were using shields such as the Romans now use, and were fighting by maniples, they had imitated both and had overcome those who introduced the excellent models. From the Greeks they had learned siegecraft and the use of engines of war for demolishing walls, and had then forced the cities of their teachers to do their bidding. So now, should the Carthaginians compel them to learn naval warfare, they would soon see that the pupils had become superior to their teachers.
§ 23.2.2 At first the Romans had rectangular shields for war, but later, when they saw that the Etruscans had bronze shields, they copied them and thus conquered the Etruscans.
§ 23.3.1 After the consul had crossed over to Messana, Hiero, thinking that the Carthaginians had treacherously permitted the crossing, fled to Syracuse. The Carthaginians, however, engaged in battle but were defeated, and the consul then laid siege to Echetla, but after the loss of many soldiers withdrew to Messana.
§ 23.4.1 Both consuls went to Sicily, and laying siege to the city of Hadranum took it by storm. Then, while they were besieging the city of Centuripa and were encamped by the Brazen Gates, envoys arrived, first from the people of Halaesa; then, as fear fell upon the other cities as well, they too sent ambassadors to treat for peace and to deliver their cities to the Romans. These cities numbered sixty-seven. The Romans, after adding the forces of these cities to their own, advanced upon Syracuse, intending to besiege Hiero. But Hiero, perceiving the discontent of the Syracusans, sent envoys to the consuls to discuss a settlement, and inasmuch as the Romans were eager to have as their foe the Carthaginians alone, they readily consented and concluded a fifteen-year peace; the Romans received one hundred and fifty thousand drachmas; Hiero, on condition of returning the captives of war, was to continue as ruler of the Syracusans and of the cities subject to him, Acrae, Leontini, Megara, Helorum, Neetum, and Tauromenium. While these things were taking place Hannibal arrived with a naval force at Xiphonia, intending to bring aid to the king, but when he learned what had been done, he departed.
§ 23.4.2 Though the Romans kept Macella and the village of Hadranum under siege for many days, they went away without having accomplished their purpose.
§ 23.5.1 The Segestans, though at first subject to the Carthaginians, turned to the Romans. The Halicyaeans acted in a similar fashion; but Ilarus and Tyrittus and Ascelus they took only after a siege. The Tyndarians, seeing themselves deserted, were alarmed and desired to surrender their city, too. But the Phoenicians, becoming suspicious of their intentions, took their leading men as hostages to Lilybaion, and carried off their grain, wine, and the rest of their provisions.
§ 23.6.1 Philemon the comic poet wrote ninety-seven plays and lived ninety-nine years.
§ 23.7.1 Those who with the Romans were engaged in the siege of Acragas, digging trenches and constructing palisades, numbered one hundred thousand. After prolonged resistance the Phoenicians finally yielded the city of Acragas to the Romans.
§ 23.8.1 During the siege of Acragas, Hanno the Elder transported from Libya to Sicily a large army, fifty thousand infantry, six thousand cavalry, and sixty elephants. Philinus of Acragas, the historian, has recorded this. Be that as it may, Hanno marched out from Lilybaion with all his troops and had reached Heracleia when certain men arrived and declared that they would betray Herbessus to him. Hanno fought two battles, in which he lost three thousand infantry, two hundred cavalry, and had four thousand men taken prisoner; eight elephants were killed and thirty-three disabled by wounds.
§ 23.8.2 Entella too was a city.
§ 23.8.3 Hanno adopted a clever plan and by a single stratagem destroyed both the malcontents and the public foe.
§ 23.9.1 After a siege of six months they became masters of Acragas in the manner described and carried off all the slaves, to the number of more than twenty-five thousand. But the Romans also suffered losses, thirty thousand infantry and fifteen hundred (?) cavalry.
§ 23.9.2 The Carthaginians stripped Hanno of his civic rights, fined him six thousand pieces of gold, and in his stead sent Hamilcar to Sicily as commander.
§ 23.9.3 The Romans laid siege to Mytistratus and constructed many siege engines, but seven months later, having lost many men, they went away empty-handed.
§ 23.9.4 Hamilcar encountered the Romans at Thermae, and having engaged them in battle, was victorious and slew six thousand men, very nearly the whole army. The fort of Mazarin also was taken by the Romans and the people enslaved. Hamilcar the Carthaginian, with the aid of traitors, got possession of Camarina for the second time, and a few days later made himself master of Enna in the same way. Having fortified Drepanum and set up a city, he removed thither the Erycinians and demolished Eryx except for the area about the temple. The Romans, having put Mytistratus under siege for the third time, captured it, razed the city to the ground, and sold the surviving inhabitants as spoils of war.
§ 23.9.5 They then advanced to Camarina and he encamped beside it, but was unable to take it; but later, having sent to Hiero for engines of war, he captured the city, and sold into slavery most of the inhabitants. Immediately thereafter, with the help of traitors, he captured Enna too; of the garrison some were slain, others got away safely to their allies. Then he advanced to Sittana and took it by assault. Then, having established a garrison there, as in the other cities, he went on to Camicus, a fortress belonging to Acragas. This place too he took by treachery, and stationed a garrison there. By this time Herbessus, also, had been abandoned. Still the river Halycus . . . for others also . . . farthest.
§ 23.10.1 Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, having been defeated in a naval battle, and fearing that because of the defeat he might be punished by the senate, made use of the following artifice. He dispatched one of his friends to Carthage, and gave him such orders as seemed to him expedient. This man sailed home to the city, and when he had been brought before the senate said that Hannibal had ordered him to ask if it be the council's bidding that, with a fleet of two hundred ships, he should engage in battle the Roman fleet of one hundred and twenty ships. With shouts of approval they urged him to give battle. "Very well," he said, "that is just why Hannibal did fight — and we have been beaten. But since you commanded it, he is relieved of the blame." Hannibal, then, knowing that his fellow citizens were wont to persecute their generals after the event, thus forestalled the accusations that were in the offing.
§ 23.10.2 Since in the previous battles they had been accused of being responsible for the losses incurred, they were eager to retrieve their damaged reputation by means of this naval engagement.
§ 23.11.1 No one is so shattered in spirit by defeat as are the Carthaginians. They could, for example, easily have destroyed the naval force of the enemy as they were putting in to land, but did not even attempt to repel them. For while the Romans, with thirty ships, were approaching the shore and were neither in battle array nor in compact formation because of the violence of the wind, it would have been possible without any danger to capture the vessels, men and all. And certainly if they had gone down into the plain, and had engaged in battle on even terms and put into action every part of their army, they would easily have prevailed over the enemy. Instead, since they were intent on one thing only, the security afforded by the hill, and since they let slip some of their advantages through excessive caution and failed to recognize others because of their inexperience, they suffered a crushing defeat.
§ 23.12.1 Since the Carthaginians were in a state of great despondency, the senate sent three of their most eminent citizens as ambassadors to Atilius, to discuss terms of peace. Of these, Hanno, the son of Hamilcar, was the man held in highest esteem, and after he had said what was appropriate to the occasion, he urged the consul to treat them with moderation and in manner worthy of Rome. Atilius, however, since he was elated by his success and took no account of the vicissitudes of human fortune, dictated terms of such scope and nature that the peace framed by him was no better than slavery. Seeing the ambassadors were displeased at these terms, he said that on the contrary they should be grateful, for this reason, that inasmuch as they were unable to offer resistance either on land or sea in defence of their freedom, they should accept as a gift whatever concessions he might make. But when Hanno and his companions continued to voice their opinions frankly to him, he threatened them insolently and ordered them to depart as quickly as possible, remarking that brave men ought either to conquer or to submit to those whose power is greater. Now in so acting the consul both failed to observe the custom of his country and to guard against divine retribution, and in a short time he met with the punishment that his arrogance deserved.
§ 23.13.1 Now all men are more apt to be mindful of divinity in times of misfortune, and though often, in the midst of victories and success, they scorn the gods as myths and fabrications, yet in defeat they quickly revert to their natural piety. So, in particular, the Carthaginians, because of the greatness of the fears that now hung over them, sought out the sacrifices that had been omitted for many years, and multiplied the honours paid to the gods.
§ 23.14.1 Xanthippus, the Spartan, kept advising the generals to advance against the enemy. He did this, he said, not so that by urging and spurring them on he might himself remain out of danger, but that they might know that he was confident of their ready victory if they would do so. As for himself, he added, he would lead the attack and would display his valour at the foremost point of danger.
§ 23.14.2 During the battle Xanthippus, the Spartan, rode up and down, turning back any foot-soldiers who had taken flight. But when someone remarked that it was easy for one on horseback to urge others into danger, he at once jumped down from his horse, handed it over to a servant, and going about on foot, begged his men not to bring defeat and destruction upon the whole army.
§ 23.15.1 We consider it to be a proper part of history not to pass over without comment the policy, whether good or bad, of men in positions of leadership. For by the denunciation of their errors others who are drifting into a like mistake may be set straight, while by the praise of noble behaviour the minds of many are prompted to right action. Could anyone, in all justice, fail to censure the folly and arrogance of Atilius? By his inability to bear adroitly the heavy burden, as it were, of success, he robbed himself of the highest renown and involved his country in serious disasters.
§ 23.15.2 Though he could have made peace on terms advantageous to Rome, as well as humiliating and utterly shameful to Carthage, and could in addition have won for himself among all mankind enduring remembrance for clemency and humanity, he took no account of these things, but dealt so arrogantly with the defeated in their misfortunes and dictated terms so harsh that the gods were roused to just anger and the defeated enemy were driven by his excessive severity to turn and resist.
§ 23.15.3 In consequence there now occurred, thanks to him, so great a turn of the tide that the Carthaginians, who in consternation at their defeat had previously despaired of safety, now veered round and in an access of courage cut to pieces the army of their enemies, while Rome was altogether dealt so disastrous a blow that those who were reputed to be foremost in all the world in infantry warfare no longer ventured to engage the foe in battle at the first opportunity.
§ 23.15.4 In consequence the war turned out to be the longest on record, and the conflict resolved itself into a series of naval battles, in which the Romans and their allies lost a multitude of ships and no fewer than one hundred thousand men, including those who perished by shipwreck; as for the amount of money expended, it was as great as one might expect in view of the cost of manning a navy consisting of so many ships and of carrying on the war for fifteen years after this time. But indeed the man who was the cause of all this gained as his reward no small portion of the disaster. In exchange for the esteem he already enjoyed he received dishonour and disgrace many times as great, and by his personal misfortunes he taught other men to observe moderation in the exercise of power; worst of all, since he had already deprived himself of the possibility of forgiveness and of the pity that is accorded to the fallen, he was forced to endure the insolence and arrogance of those whose ill-fortune he had treated with such disdain. Xanthippus, on the other hand, by his personal excellence not only rescued the Carthaginians from their desperate situation but reversed the course of the whole war. For he utterly humbled those whose might was altogether superior, while by the magnitude of his success he enabled those who by reason of their defeat were expecting destruction to look with scorn upon their enemies. As a result, when the fame of these achievements was spread abroad throughout almost all the world, all men marvelled, not without reason, at his ability; for its seemed incredible that by the addition of a single man to the Carthaginians so great a change in the whole situation had resulted that those who just now had been shut in and besieged should turn about and lay siege to their opponents, and that those whose bravery had given them the upper hand on land and sea should have taken refuge in a small city and be awaiting capture. Yet it is not at all surprising that the native intelligence and the practical experience of a general overcame seemingly insuperable difficulties. For intelligence makes all things accessible and possible, and in all matters skill overcomes brute force.
§ 23.15.7 After the Romans crossed over to Libya with a large army commanded by the consul Atilius, they were at first victorious over the Carthaginians, and captured many cities and forts and cut to pieces a large army. Later, however, after a Spartan general, Xanthippus, a mercenary soldier, had come from Greece, the Carthaginians defeated the Romans by main force and cut to pieces a large army. Thereafter there were naval battles and the Romans lost many ships and men, so that the number of those who perished was one hundred thousand. 11 Just as the body is the servant of the soul, so great armies respond to the intelligent control of their leaders. 12 With an eye to what was expedient the senate, prevailing over all difficulties . . .
§ 23.16.1 Learn the fate that befell Marcus Regulus, the Roman general, after his capture by the Sicels. They cut off his eyelids with a knife and left his eyes open. Then, having penned him in a very small and narrow hut, they goaded to madness a wild elephant, and incited it to draw him down under itself and mangle him. Thus the great general, as though driven by an avenging fury, breathed his last and died a most wretched death. Xanthippus the Spartan also died at the hands of the Sicels. For round about Lilybaion, a city of the Sicels, there was the clash of war between Romans and Sicels, war that had continued for twenty-four years. The Sicels, having suffered defeat in battle many times, offered to put their city in subjection to the Romans. The Romans, however, would not listen even to this offer but ordered the Sicels to go forth empty-handed. Xanthippus the Spartan, who had come from Sparta with a hundred soldiers (or alone, or with fifty soldiers, according to various authorities), approached the Sicels while they were yet hemmed in, and after conversing with them at length through an interpreter finally gave them courage to oppose their enemies. He clashed in battle with the Romans and with the aid of the Sicels cut to pieces their whole army. Yet for his good service he received a recompense worthy of and appropriate to that perverse people, since the foul wretches set him in a leaking ship and sank him beneath the swirling waters of the Adriatic, in their envy of the hero and of his nobility. Diodorus the Sicel records this story and that of Regulus.
§ 23.17.1 Philistus was an historian.
§ 23.18.1 The Romans crossed over to Libya and engaged the Carthaginian fleet in battle; having been victorious and having captured twenty-four Carthaginian vessels, they took on board the Roman survivors of the battle on land, but while sailing across to Sicily ran into danger near Camarina and lost three hundred and forty warships, as well as cavalry transports and other vessels to the number of three hundred; bodies of men and beasts and pieces of wreckage lay strewn from Camarina as far as Pachynus. Hiero received the survivors hospitably, and having refreshed them with clothing, food, and other essentials, brought them safely to Messana.
§ 23.18.2 After the shipwreck of the Romans, Carthalo the Carthaginian laid siege to Acragas, captured and burned the city, and tore down its walls. The surviving inhabitants took refuge in the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus.
§ 23.18.3 The Romans constructed another fleet after the shipwreck, and proceeding to Cephaloedium with two hundred and fifty ships got possession of that place by treason. They went on to Drepana and put it under siege, but when Carthalo came to its aid they were driven off and went to Panormus.
§ 23.18.4 There they moored their ships in the harbour close to the walls, and after disembarking their men, invested the city with a palisade and a trench; for since the countryside is heavily wooded right up to the city gates, the earthworks and trenches were made to extend from sea to sea. Thereupon the Romans by making constant assaults and by employing engines of war broke down the city wall, and having gained possession of the outer city slew many; the rest fled for refuge to the old city, and sending envoys to the consuls asked for assurances that their lives would be spared.
§ 23.18.5 An agreement was made that those who paid two minas apiece should go free, and the Romans then took over the city; at this price fourteen thousand persons were brought under the agreement upon payment of the money, and were released. All the others, to the number of thirteen thousand, as well as the household goods, were sold by the Romans as booty. The inhabitants of Iaetia expelled their Punic garrison and handed over the city to the Romans. The people of Solus, Petra, Enattaros, and Tyndaris acted in like fashion. The consuls, having stationed a garrison in Panormus, then withdrew to Messana.
§ 23.19.1 In the following year the Romans again sailed to Libya, but being prevented by the Carthaginians from mooring their ships they turned about and went to Panormus. Having set sail thence for Rome they were overtaken by a storm and again suffered shipwreck, and lost one hundred and fifty warships and all their transports and booty besides. . . . The keeper of the gate at Thermae, having gone without the walls for the needs of nature, was captured by the Roman army; he sent word to the commander that if he would release him he would open the city gate for him during the night. The commander released him and having fixed a time sent a thousand men at night. They arrived and he opened the gate at the appointed time. The leaders, men of note, entered and ordered the gate-keeper to bolt the gate and to allow no one else to enter, since they wished to carry off the wealth of the city themselves. All of these men were cut down and suffered the death that their greed deserved.
§ 23.20.1 On another occasion the Romans got possession of both Thermae and Lipara. Though the Romans also laid siege, with forty thousand men and a thousand cavalry, to the fortress of Hercte, they did not prevail against it.
§ 23.21.1 Hasdrubal, the general of the Carthaginians, being berated by his own people for not fighting, marched with his whole army through the rough country about Selinus and arrived in Panormus. And when he had brought his men across the river, which lies near by, he encamped near the city walls, but ordered neither palisade nor trench because he thought it did not matter. On this occasion again the merchants brought in a great quantity of wine; the Celts became drunk, and were in complete disorder and shouting noisily when the consul Caecilius attacked them in force. He won a victory over them and captured sixty elephants, which he sent to Rome. And the Romans were struck with wonder.
§ 23.22.1 Hamilcar the Carthaginian, surnamed Barcas, and Hannibal his son were by common consent considered the greatest generals of the Carthaginians, greater not only than their predecessors but than those of later ages as well, and by their personal achievements they very greatly increased the power of their native land.
§ 24.1.1 The Carthaginians, having razed to the ground the city of Selinus, removed its population to Lilybaion. The Romans, with a fleet of two hundred and forty warships, sixty light vessels, and a large number of transports of all types, sailed into Panormus and thence to Lilybaion, which they put under siege. On land they blockaded the city from sea to sea by means of a trench, and constructed catapults, battering rams, covered sheds, and penthouses. The entrance of the harbour they blocked with fifteen light vessels, which they had loaded with stones. The Roman host numbered one hundred and ten thousand, while the besieged had seven thousand infantry and seven hundred cavalry.
§ 24.1.2 In the course of the siege relief arrived from Carthage, four thousand men and supplies of food, and Adherbal and his men took heart again. The Romans, who had observed the force effecting an entrance, again blocked the mouth of the harbour with stones and jetties, and barred the channels with huge timbers and anchors; but when a strong wind arose, the sea grew turbulent and broke everything up. The Romans constructed an engine for hurling stones, but the Carthaginians built another wall on the inner side. The Romans then filled the moat, which was sixty cubits wide and forty deep. Joining battle at the seaward wall they placed men in ambush in front of the city, and when the defending forces had been drawn off into the battle on the seaward side the men who were lying in ambush with ladders round climbed up and captured the first wall.
§ 24.1.3 When the Carthaginian general got news of this, he fell upon them, killed large numbers in a single place, and forced the others to flee. And with the aid of a strong gale they set fire to all the Roman engines of war, their penthouses, stone-throwers, battering rams, and covered sheds. Perceiving, however, that their cavalry was of no service to them in the confined space, the Carthaginians dispatched them to Drepana; there they greatly assisted the Carthaginians.
§ 24.1.4 The Romans were rendered helpless by the burning of their engines, as well as by short rations and pestilence, for since they and their allies fed solely on flesh they were so infected that large numbers died in a few days. For this reason they were even ready to abandon the siege, but Hiero, the king of Syracuse, dispatched an abundant supply of grain, and gave them fresh courage to resume the siege.
§ 24.1.5 On the accession to office of the new consuls, the Romans gave the command to the consul Claudius, son of Appius. Upon assuming command of the army he again blocked the harbour, as his predecessors had done, and again the sea hurled all to bits. Claudius, however, in high self-confidence, equipped the best ships, two hundred and ten in number, and set off to Drepana to do battle with the Carthaginians. He was defeated with the loss of one hundred and seventeen ships and twenty thousand men. It would not be easy to discover a fierce fight at sea followed by a more glorious victory in this period — no comparable victory, I mean, for anyone, not merely for the Carthaginians. The surprising thing, however, is that though the Carthaginians were involved in so great a battle and . . . with ten ships . . . not only was no one killed but even the wounded were few.
§ 24.1.6 After this they sent Hannibal the trierarch to Panormus with thirty ships, and plundered and carried off to Drepana the stores of grain belonging to the Romans. Then, taking from Drepana whatever other provisions were of use, they went to Lilybaion, and provided the besieged population with an abundance of good things of all sorts.
§ 24.1.7 Carthalo the general also arrived from Carthage with seventy warships and a like number of provision transports. When they also had set upon the Romans, he succeeded in sinking some ships and in dragging to the shore five of those lying at anchor. Then, hearing that the Roman fleet had set sail from Syracuse, he prevailed upon his fellow commanders and put to sea with one hundred and twenty ships, the best of the fleet. When the two fleets sighted one another off the coast of Gela the Romans took fright and put in at Phintias, where they left under shelter of land the ships laden with provisions and the remainder of the fleet; when the Carthaginians bore down, there was a sharp struggle. Finally the Carthaginians disabled fifty of the large freighters, sent to the bottom seventeen men-of war, and stove in and rendered useless thirteen others.
§ 24.1.8 Afterwards, the Carthaginians, on reaching the Halycus River, gave their wounded men a period of rest. The consul, Iunius, knowing nothing of these events, put to sea from Messana with thirty-six warships and a considerable number of transports. But having rounded Cape Pachynus and anchored near Phintias, he was astounded to learn what had taken place.
§ 24.1.9 Later, when the Carthaginians advanced against them with their entire fleet, the consul, seized with fear, burned the thirteen ships that were useless, and attempted to sail back to Syracuse, thinking that Hiero would provide them safety. But being overtaken off the coast of Camarina he put in to land for refuge, at a place where the shores were rocky and the water shallow. When the wind increased in violence, the Carthaginians rounded Cape Pachynus and anchored in a relatively calm spot, whereas the Romans, placed in great peril, lost all their provision ships and likewise their warships, so that of one hundred and five of the latter only two were saved and most of the men perished. Iunius, with the two warships and the surviving men, made his way to the army encamped at Lilybaion, whence he made a sally by night and gained Eryx; he also fortified Aegithallus (now called Acellum) and left eight hundred men there as a garrison. But when Carthalo learned that Eryx and its environs had already been occupied, he brought over an army by sea at night, and by an attack on the garrison of Aegithallus got possession of that stronghold. In his success he slew some and forced others to seek refuge at Eryx. Three thousand men guarded the fortress. In the first naval battle thirty-five thousand Romans were lost, and the number of men taken captive was no less.
§ 24.2.1 The Carthaginians selected the men who were keenest to get money and most daring (some three hundred in all) for the attempt to burn the siege engines, since it is these qualities that provide the strongest motive to make men scorn all danger. In general it was the bravest who were killed in making assaults and in the storming of walls, since of their own accord they went headlong into perils that offered scant hope of succour.
§ 24.3.1 When Claudius arrived in Sicily he took command of the forces at Lilybaion, and calling an assembly bitterly assailed the consuls who had just handed over the army to him, charging that they had been remiss in their handling of the war, drunkards who lived lives of licence and luxury, and that on the whole they had been the victims of a siege rather than the besiegers. Since he was naturally hot-blooded and mentally unstable, his conduct of affairs often verged on the lunatic. In the first place, he repeated the mistake of those whose leadership he had denounced, for he likewise reconstructed the jetties and barriers in the sea; his witlessness, however, outdid theirs in so far as the error of not being able to learn from experience is greater than that of being the first to try and fail. He was also a born martinet, and applied the traditional punishments unmercifully to soldiers who were Roman citizens and flogged the allies with rods. In general, the distinction of his clan and the reputation of his family had so spoiled him that he was supercilious and looked down on everyone.
§ 24.4.1 Finding himself overtaken he fled for refuge to the shore, for he regarded the terrors of shipwreck more lightly than the risk of battle.
§ 24.5.1 Even before he became general, Hamilcar's nobility of spirit was apparent, and when he succeeded to the command he showed himself worthy of his country by his zeal for glory and scorn of danger.
§ 24.5.2 He was reputed to be a man of exceptional intelligence, and since he surpassed all his fellow citizens both in daring and in ability at arms, he was indeed Both a goodly prince and a brave warrior.
§ 24.6.1 Near Longon there was a fort, called Italium, belonging to Catana. Barcas the Carthaginian, having attacked this . . .
§ 24.7.1 He revealed to no one what had been planned; for he was of the opinion that when such stratagems are imparted to one's friends they either become known to the enemy through deserters or produce cowardice among the soldiers by their anticipation of great danger.
§ 24.7.2 For the plans and stratagems of generals, when imparted to one's friends, become known to the enemy through deserters, and engendering cowardice in the soldiers fill them with anticipations of great danger.
§ 24.8.1 Barca, after sailing in at night and disembarking his army, took the lead in person on the ascent to Eryx, a distance of thirty stades. He captured the city and slew all the . . . The survivors he removed to Drepana.
§ 24.9.1 On every occasion and in every undertaking good discipline turns out to be productive of good results. Although Hamilcar had given orders that the soldiers should not engage in plunder, Vodostor was disobedient and as a result lost many of his men. So true is it that on every occasion good discipline turns out to be productive of good results that now, though the foot-soldiers, let alone ruining the great success that had already been achieved, even risked complete destruction, the cavalry, though not more than two hundred in number, not only came through safe themselves but provided safety for the others as well.
§ 24.9.2 Hamilcar sent to Eryx to arrange for taking up the dead for burial. The consul Fundanius bade the messengers, if they were sensible men, request a truce to recover, not the dead, but the living. After giving this arrogant reply the consul straightway suffered serious losses, so that it appeared to many that his boastfulness had met with due retribution from the gods.
§ 24.9.3 When Fundanius sent heralds to arrange for the burial of the dead, Barca's reply was very different from that given on the earlier occasion. For stating that he was at war with the living, but had come to terms with the dead, he granted permission for their burial.
§ 24.10.1 Hanno, being a man of great enterprise and eager to win renown, and, above all, having at his disposal an idle army, hoped by means of this expedition to train the army while providing its maintenance from the enemy's country, thus relieving the city of its expense, and at the same time to accomplish many things that would redound to the glory and advantage of the fatherland.
§ 24.10.2 When Hanno had forced Hecatompylus to capitulate, the elders of the city approached him, bearing the olive-branches of supplication, and besought him to treat them humanely. Since the general was concerned to enjoy a good reputation, and preferred kindness to retribution, he took three thousand hostages but left the city and its estates untouched, and in consequence received crowns and other high honours from the grateful people. And his soldiers, whom the inhabitants entertained splendidly and with great cordiality, feasted on the abundance of all things provided for their enjoyment.
§ 24.11.1 The consul Lutatius, with three hundred warships and seven hundred transports and carriers, a thousand vessels in all, sailed to Sicily and cast anchor at the trading-station of the Erycinians. Likewise, Hanno himself, setting out from Carthage with two hundred and fifty warships, together with cargo ships, came to the island of Hiera. As he proceeded thence towards Eryx the Romans came out to meet him, and a battle ensued, hotly contested on both sides. In this battle the Carthaginians lost a hundred and seventeen ships, twenty of them with all men aboard (the Romans lost eighty ships, thirty of them completely, while fifty were partially destroyed), while the number of Carthaginians taken prisoner was, according to the account of Philinus, six thousand, but according to certain others, four thousand and forty. The rest of the ships, aided by a favouring wind, fled to Carthage. 3 Such heights of bravery were reached that even the generals on both sides distinguished themselves by their personal exploits and led the way amid hazards. Here the most surprising accidents on occasion befell the bravest men. For when their ships were sunk, some who were far superior in courage to their opponents were captured, not because they fell short in deeds of valour, but because they were overpowered by the irresistible force of necessity. For what does bravery profit a man when his ship goes down, and his person, robbed of its footing, is delivered by the sea into the hands of the enemy?
§ 24.12.1 The mother of the young men was bitter at the death of her husband, and believing that he had died of neglect she made her sons maltreat the prisoners. They were accordingly cooped up in an extremely narrow room, where for lack of space they were forced to make do by contorting their bodies like coiling serpents. Later, when they had been deprived of food for five days, Bodostor died of despair and privation. Hamilcar, however, being a man of exceptional spirit, held out and clung still to hope, desperate though he was. But although he repeatedly pled with the woman and recounted with tears the care he had lavished upon her husband, she was so far removed from any feelings of kindliness or considerations of humanity that for five days she shut the corpse in with him, and though she allowed him a little food her sole aim was to enable him thereby to endure ship wretched state.
§ 24.12.2 When finally he despaired of winning pity by supplications, he cried aloud and called upon Zeus Xenios and the gods who watch over the affairs of men to witness that instead of a due return of kindness he was receiving punishment beyond human endurance. Yet he did not die, whether because some god took pity on him, or because chance brought him unexpected assistance.
§ 24.12.3 For when he was at the point of death as a result of the effluvia from the corpse and his general maltreatment, some of the household slaves recounted to certain persons what was going on. They were scandalized, and reported it to the tribunes. Since in any case the cruelty that had been revealed was shocking, the magistrates summoned the Atilii and very nearly brought them to trial on a capital charge, on the ground that they were bringing disgrace upon Rome; and they threatened to exact fitting punishment from them if they should not bestow all possible care upon the prisoners. The Atilii rebuked their mother sternly, cremated the body of Bodostor and sent the ashes to his kinsmen, and brought Hamilcar relief from his dire distress.
§ 24.13.1 When the envoys of the Romans, together with Gesco, came to Barcas and read the terms of the agreement, he remained silent up to a certain point. But when he heard that they were to surrender arms and hand over the deserters, he could not restrain himself but ordered them to depart at once. He was prepared, he said, to die fighting rather than agree through cowardice to a shameful act; and he knew too that Fortune shifts her allegiance and comes over to the side of men who stand firm when all seems lost, and that the case of Atilius had provided a striking demonstration of such unexpected reversals.
§ 24.14.1 After the Romans had been at war with the Carthaginians for twenty-four years and had held Lilybaion under siege for ten years, they made peace.
§ 25.1.1 Epicurus the philosopher, in his work entitled Principal Doctrines, declared that whereas the just life in unperturbed, the unjust is heavily burdened with perturbation. Thus in a single brief sentence he encompassed much true wisdom, which has, moreover, in general the power to correct the evil that is in man. For injustice, as it is a very metropolis of evils, brings the greatest misfortunes not only upon private citizens, but also collectively upon actual nations and peoples, and upon kings.
§ 25.2.1 Though the Carthaginians had endured great struggles and perils over Sicily and had been continuously at war with the Romans for twenty-four years, they experienced no disasters so great as those brought upon them by the war against the mercenaries whom they had wronged. For as a result of defrauding their foreign troops of the arrears of pay that were due, they very nearly lost their empire and even their own country. For the mercenaries thus cheated suddenly revolted, and thereby brought Carthage into the direst distress.
§ 25.2.2 Those who had served in the Carthaginian forces were Iberians, Celts, Balearic Islanders, Libyans, Phoenicians, Ligurians, and mongrel Greek slaves; and they it was who revolted.
§ 25.3.1 The Carthaginians sent a herald to the rebels to negotiate for the recovery of the dead bodies. Spondius and the other leaders, with intensified brutality, not only refused the request for burial but forbade them ever again to send a herald about any matter whatsoever, threatening that the same punishment would await anyone who came. They also decreed that henceforth all captives who were Carthaginians should incur the same penalty as these, while any who were allies of the Phoenicians should have their hands cut off and be sent back thus mutilated to Carthage. Hence, by such impiety and cruelty as I have described, Spondius and the other leaders succeeded in undermining Barcas's strategy of leniency. For Hamilcar himself, though distressed by their cruelty, was in this way forced to abandon his kindness to prisoners and to impose a like penalty upon those who fell into his hands. Accordingly, by way of torture, he tossed to the elephants all who were taken prisoner, and it was a stern punishment as these trampled them to death.
§ 25.3.2 The inhabitants of Hippo and Utica revolted and cast the men of the garrisons down from the walls to lie unburied; and when envoys arrived from Carthage to take up the bodies, they blocked the move to bury them.
§ 25.4.1 And so it came about that the rebels, because of the scarcity of food, were as much in the position of men besieged as of besiegers.
§ 25.4.2 In courage they were fully the equals of the enemy, but they were seriously handicapped by the inexperience of their leaders. Here again, therefore, it was possible to see in the light of actual experience how great an advantage a general's judgement has over a layman's inexperience or even a soldier's unreasoned routine.
§ 25.5.1 For it was a higher power, apparently, that exacted from them this retribution for their impious deeds.
§ 25.5.2 Hamilcar crucified Spondius. But when Matho took Hannibal prisoner, he nailed him to the same cross. Thus it seemed as if Fortune of set purpose was assigning success and defeat in turn to these offenders against humanity.
§ 25.5.3 The two cities had no grounds for negotiating a settlement, because from the first onslaught they had left themselves no room for mercy or forgiveness. Such is the great advantage, even in wrongdoing, of moderation and the avoidance of practices that are beyond the pale.
§ 25.6.1 After their withdrawal from Sicily the mercenary forces of the Carthaginians rose in insurrection against them for the following reasons. They demanded excessive compensation for the horses that had died in Sicily and for the men who had been killed . . . and they carried on the war for four years and four months. They were slaughtered by the general, Hamilcar Barcas, who had also fought valiantly in Sicily against the Romans.
§ 25.7.1 [This island gained such fame for the abundance of its crops that at a later time the Carthaginians, when they had grown powerful, coveted it and faced many struggles and perils for its possession. But we shall write of these matters in connection with the period to which they belong.]
§ 25.8.1 Hamilcar, surnamed Barcas, performed many great services for his country, both in Sicily, in the war against the Romans, and in Libya, when the mercenaries and the Libyans rose in insurrection and held Carthage under siege. Since in both these wars his achievements were outstanding and his conduct of affairs prudent, he gained the well-deserved approbation of all his fellow citizens. Later on, however, after the conclusion of the Libyan War, he formed a political group of the lowest sort of men, and from this source, as well as from the spoils of war, amassed wealth; perceiving, moreover, that his successes were bringing him increased power, he gave himself over to demagoguery and to currying favour with the populace, and thus induced the people to put into his hands for an indefinite period the military command over all Iberia.
§ 25.9.1 Since the Celts were many times over more numerous, and because of their daring spirit and bold deeds had grown very arrogant, their attitude throughout the struggle was one of contempt, whereas Barcas and his men sought to remedy their deficiency in numbers by bravery and experience. That their plans were soundly conceived was generally agreed, yet it was Fortune who beyond their hopes presided over the course of events and unexpectedly brought to a happy issue an undertaking that appeared impossible and fraught with peril.
§ 25.10.1 When Hamilcar was placed in command at Carthage he soon enlarged the empire of his country and ranged by sea as far as the Pillars of Heracles, Gadeira, and the ocean. Now the city of Gadeira is a colony of the Phoenicians, and is situated at the farthest extremity of the inhabited world, on the very ocean, and it possesses a roadstead. Hamilcar made war on the Iberians and Tartessians, together with the Celts, led by Istolatius and his brother, and cut to pieces their whole force, including the two brothers and other outstanding leaders; he took over and enrolled in his own army three thousand survivors.
§ 25.10.2 Indortes then raised an army of fifty thousand men, but before the fighting even began he was put to flight and took refuge on a certain hill; there he was besieged by Hamilcar, and although, under cover of night, he again fled, most of his force was cut to pieces and Indortes himself was captured alive. After putting out his eyes and maltreating his person Hamilcar had him crucified; but the rest of the prisoners, numbering more than ten thousand, he released. He won over many cities by diplomacy and many others by force of arms.
§ 25.10.3 Hasdrubal, the son-in law of Hamilcar, having been sent by his father-in law to Carthage to take part in the war with the Numidians who had revolted against the Carthaginians, cut down eight thousand men and captured two thousand alive; the rest of the Numidians were reduced to slavery, having formerly paid tribute. As for Hamilcar, after bringing many cities throughout Iberia under his dominion, he founded a very large city which, from its situation, he named Acra Leuce. While Hamilcar was encamped before the city of Helice and had it under siege, he sent off the greater part of his army and the elephants into winter quarters at Acra Leuce, a city of his own foundation, and remained behind with the rest. The king of the Orissi, however, came to the aid of the beleaguered city, and by a feigned offer of friendship and alliance succeeded in routing Hamilcar.
§ 25.10.4 In the course of his flight Hamilcar contrived to save the lives of his sons and his friends by turning aside on another road; overtaken by the king, he plunged on horseback into a large river and perished in the flood under his steed, but his sons Hannibal and Hasdrubal made their way safely to Acra Leuce.
§ 25.10.5 As for Hamilcar, therefore, although he died many years before our time, let him have from History by way of epitaph the praise that is properly his.
§ 25.11.1 Hasdrubal, having learned that fair dealing is more effective than force, preferred peace to war.
§ 25.11.2 The entire city was constantly agog for news, and since every rumour that spread brought a change of heart, anxiety was universal.
§ 25.12.1 Hasdrubal, the son-in law of Hamilcar, immediately upon learning of the disaster to his kinsman broke camp and made for Acra Leuce; he had with him more than a hundred elephants. Acclaimed as general by the army and by the Carthaginians alike, he collected an army of fifty thousand seasoned infantry and six thousand cavalry, together with two hundred elephants. He made war first on the king of the Orissi and killed all who had been responsible for Hamilcar's rout. Their twelve cities, and all the cities of Iberia, fell into his hands. After his marriage to the daughter of an Iberian prince he was proclaimed general with unlimited power by the whole Iberian people. He thereupon founded a city on the sea coast, and called it New Carthage; later, desiring to outdo Hamilcar, he founded yet another city. He put into the field an army of sixty thousand infantry, eight thousand cavalry, and two hundred elephants. One of his household slaves plotted against him, and he was slain after he had held the command for nine years.
§ 25.13.1 The Celts and Gauls, having assembled a force of two hundred thousand men, joined battle with the Romans and in the first combat were victorious. In a second attack they were again victorious, and even killed one of the Roman consuls. The Romans, who for their part had seven hundred thousand infantry and seventy thousand cavalry, after suffering these two defeats, won a decisive victory in the third engagement. They slew forty thousand men and took the rest captive, with the result that the chief prince of the enemy slashed his own throat and the prince next in rank to him was taken alive. After this exploit Aemilius, now become proconsul, overran the territory of the Gauls and Celts, captured many cities and fortified places, and sent back to Rome an abundance of booty.
§ 25.14.1 Hiero, king of Syracuse, coming to the aid of the Romans, sent grain to them during the Celtic War, and was paid for it after the conclusion of the war.
§ 25.15.1 Since after the assassination of Hasdrubal the Carthaginian there was no one in command, they chose as general Hannibal, the elder son of Hamilcar. The people of Zacantha, whose city was under siege by Hannibal, collected their sacred objects, the gold and silver that was in their houses, and the ornaments, earrings, and silver pieces of their women, and melting them down put copper and lead into the mixture; having thus rendered their gold useless they sallied forth and after an heroic struggle were all cut down, having themselves inflicted many casualties. The women of the city put their children to death and hanged themselves. The occupation of the city, therefore, brought Hannibal no gain. The Romans requested the surrender of Hannibal to be tried for his lawless acts, and when this was refused embarked on the "Hannibalic" War.
§ 25.16.1 In the senate-chamber of the Carthaginians the eldest of the envoys sent by Rome showed to the senate the lap of his toga and said that he brought them both peace and war, and would leave there whichever the Carthaginians wished. When the suffete of the Carthaginians bade him do whichever he wished, he replied, "I send on you war." Straightway a majority of the Carthaginians cried aloud that they accepted it.
§ 25.17.1 The men of Victomela, having been forced to yield their city, hastened home to their wives and children to take pleasure in them for the last time. For indeed, what pleasure is there for men who are doomed to die save only tears and the last parting embraces of family and kindred whereby, as it seems, such hapless wretches do gain some ease from their misfortunes? Be that as it may, most of the men set their houses ablaze, were consumed in the flames together with all their household, and raised for themselves a tomb above their own hearths; others, again, with high courage killed their families first and then slew themselves, considering a self-inflicted death preferable to death with outrage at the hands of their enemies.
§ 25.18.1 Antigonus, son of Demetrius, was appointed his guardian and ruled over the Macedonians for twelve years or, according to Diodorus, for nine.
§ 25.19.1 Hannibal, as Diodorus, Dio, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus all record, was general of the Sicels and the son of Hamilcar. This Hamilcar had conquered the whole of Iberia but was killed when the Iberians treacherously set upon him. On this occasion he ordered his whole army to flee, and when his sons — Hannibal, aged fifteen, and Hasdrubal, aged twelve — clung to him and desired to share his death, he drove them off with whips and made them join the others in flight; then lifting the crest and helmet from his head he was recognized by the Iberians. Since all the Iberians, just as they were, rushed to attack him, the fugitives gained a respite and escaped. As soon as Hamilcar saw that the army was safe he turned about and strove against his own defeat by the Iberians, but when they pressed hard on every side he spurred his horse furiously and dashed into the waters of the Iber River. As he sped on someone struck him with a javelin; though he was drowned, still his corpse was not found by the Iberians — and that was his object — for it was swept away by the currents.
§ 25.19.1b Hannibal, the son of this heroic man, served under Hamilcar's son-in law, and with him ravaged all Iberia to avenge his father's death. Meanwhile the Ausonian Romans after many reverses had defeated the Sicels and had laid upon them the stern injunction that no one might retain even a sword. Hannibal, at the age of twenty-five, without the consent of the senate or of those in authority, brought together a hundred and more impetuous and spirited young men and lived by plundering Iberia, the while he constantly increased the size of his band. As its numbers passed beyond the hundreds and ran into the thousands and into the tens of thousands, and, though assembled thus without pay or bounties, when it became at last a great army of stalwart warriors, then straightway this was revealed to the Romans. One and all they arrayed themselves for war on land and sea, and seven hundred and seventy thousand strong they strove to destroy the Sicels root and branch. The Sicels besought Hannibal to desist, lest they perish utterly. He suffered such as were so inclined to talk and bluster, and without waiting for the aforesaid Romans to attack, one man alone of all the Sicels he moves on Italy and over the Alpine mountains makes his way. Where access was difficult he cut his way down rocky cliffs, and in six months had met the Roman forces. In various battles he slew large numbers of their men. But he kept waiting and watching for his brother Hasdrubal, who, after crossing the Alps in fifteen days, was approaching Hannibal leading a mighty army. Having discovered this the Romans, attacking secretly, slew him, then brought the head and cast it at the feet of Hannibal. After he had duly mourned his beloved brother, Hannibal later arrayed his forces against the Romans at Cannae; the Roman generals were Paullus and Terentius.
§ 25.19.2 Cannae is a plainland of Apulia, where Diomedes founded the city of Argyrippa, that is, in the Greek tongue, Argos Hippeion. This plain has belonged to the Daunians, thereafter to the Iapygians, then to the Sallentians, and now to the people whom all men call Calabrians; it was furthermore at the boundary between Calabrians and Lombards that the great battle between them broke forth. On the occasion of this fearsome battle there was a dreadful earthquake, which made mountains split asunder, and showers of great stones poured from heaven, but fighting hotly the warriors were unaware of anything. Finally, so many Romans fell in battle that when Hannibal, the general, sent to Sicily the rings of the commanders and other men of distinction, it was by pecks and bushels that they were measured. The noble and prominent ladies of Rome thronged weeping to the temples of the city and cleansed the statues with their hair; later, when the Roman land suffered a total dearth of males, they even consorted with slaves and barbarians, that their race might not be wiped out root and branch. At this time Rome, when absolutely all its men were lost, stood wide open for many days, and the elders sat before its gates, bewailing that most grievous calamity and asking those who passed by whether none at all was left alive. Though Rome was then gripped by such misfortunes, Hannibal neglected the chance to raze it to the ground, and showed himself too sluggish for such action by reason of victories and drinking and soft living, until the Romans again had an army of their own levied. Then he was thrice balked in his attacks on Rome, for suddenly out of a clear sky came hail most violent and a darkness that hindered his advance. At a later time Hannibal, now regarded with envy by the Sicels, ran short of food, and when they sent none, that once noble conqueror, himself now conquered by starvation, was put to flight by the Roman Scipio, and was the occasion for fearful destruction to the Sicels. He himself died by drinking poison in Bithynia, at a place called Libyssa, though he had thought to die in his own Libyan land. For Hannibal had a certain oracle, which ran somewhat like this: "A Libyan sod shall cover the body of Hannibal."
§ 26.1.1 Neither the poet nor the historian nor indeed any craftsman in literary form can in all respects satisfy all his readers; for human nature, even though carried to the highest degree of perfection, cannot succeed in winning the approval of all men and the censure of none. Pheidias, for example, was admired above all others for the fabrication of ivory statues; Praxiteles in masterly fashion embodied the emotions in works of stone; Apelles and Parrhasius by their practised skill in blending colours brought the art of painting to its peak. Yet not one of these men attained such success in his work that he could display a product of his skill in all respects above censure. Who, for instance, among poets is more illustrious than Homer? Who among orators than Demosthenes? Who among men of upright life than Aristeides and Solon? Yet even their reputations and talents have been assailed by criticism and the demonstration of mistakes.
§ 26.1.2 For they were but human, and though they achieved pre-eminence in their professions, yet through human frailty they failed in many cases. Now there are certain paltry fellows, full of envy and wise in petty things, who dismiss all that is excellent in any achievement but fasten upon whatever admits of distortion or plausible censure. Thereby, through their denunciation of others, they aspire to enhance their own skill, failing to realize that infirmity of talent is not the result of external influences, but that, on the contrary, every talent is judged in and for itself.
§ 26.1.3 We may well marvel at the industry which such foolish minds expend upon trivialities in their attempts to win a good name for themselves by reviling others. It is the very nature of some people, I think, to be stupidly mischievous, just as it is the nature of frosts and snow to blast fine young crops. Indeed, just as the eye is dimmed by the dazzling whiteness of snow and loses its power of exact vision, so there are men who neither will nor can themselves achieve anything of note, and who therefore of set purpose disparage the accomplishments of others. Hence men of good understanding should award to those who by diligent efforts have won success the praise due to excellence, but should not carp at the human frailties of those whose success is small. So much, then, for those who make a practice of evilspeaking.
§ 26.2.1 Hannibal was a born fighter, and having been reared from boyhood in the practice of warfare and having spent many years in the field as the companion of great leaders, he was well versed in war and its struggles. Nature, moreover, had richly endowed him with sagacity, and since by long years of training in war he had acquired the ability to command, he now had high hopes of success.
§ 26.3.1 As a countermeasure to the shrewd policy of Fabius the dictator Hannibal challenged him again and again to open combat, and by taunts of cowardice sought to compel him to accede to a decision by battle. When he remained unmoved, the Roman populace began to criticize the dictator, called him "Lackey," and reproached him with cowardice. Fabius, however, bore these insults calmly and with self-possession.
§ 26.3.2 Like a good athlete he entered the contest only after long training, when he had gained much experience and strength.
§ 26.3.3 Once Minucius had been worsted by Hannibal, everyone decided after the event that his total failure was the result of folly and inexperience, but that Fabius, by his sagacity and his ability as a strategist, had shown throughout a prudent concern for safety.
§ 26.4.1 Menodotus of Perinthus wrote a Treatise on Greek History in fifteen books; Sosylus of Elis wrote a History of Hannibal in seven books.
§ 26.5.1 The Roman legion consists of five thousand men.
§ 26.6.1 Men naturally rally to the banners of success, but join in attacks on the fortunes of the fallen.
§ 26.6.2 Fortune is changeable by nature and will swiftly bring about a reversal of our situation.
§ 26.7.1 Dorimachus, the Aitolian general, perpetrated an impious deed, for he plundered the oracle of Dodona and set fire to the temple, except for the cella.
§ 26.8.1 For since Rhodes had been laid low by a great earthquake, Hiero of Syracuse gave six talents of silver for the reconstruction of the city walls and, in addition to the money, gave a number of fine vases of silver; and he exempted their grain ships from the payment of duty.
§ 26.9.1 What is now called Philippopolis in Thessaly was formerly called Phthiotic Thebes.
§ 26.10.1 When the question of revolt was brought forward at a public assembly in Capua and the course of action to be taken was being debated, the Capuans allowed a certain Pancylus Paucus to express his opinion. Fear of Hannibal had driven him out of his mind, and he swore to his fellow citizens a peculiar oath. If, he said, there were still one chance in a hundred for the Romans, he would not go over to the Carthaginians; but since, in fact, the superiority of the enemy was manifest and danger now stood at their very gates, they must perforce yield to this superiority. In this way, all having agreed to join forces with the Carthaginians . . .
§ 26.11.1 After the army of Hannibal had for some time greedily taken their fill of the riches of Campania, their whole pattern of life was reversed. For constant luxury, soft couches, and perfumes and food of every sort, all in lavish abundance, relaxed their strength and their wonted ability to endure danger, and reduced both body and spirit to a soft and womanish condition. Human nature, in fact, accepts only with distaste the unaccustomed practice of hardships and meagre diet, whereas it takes eagerly to a life of ease and luxury.
§ 26.12.1 The cities shifted and floundered as the weight of public opinion tipped the scales now this way, now that.
§ 26.12.2 Even the goodwill of friends may be seen to change with changing circumstances.
§ 26.12.3 The virtues of good men sometimes win them honour even among enemies.
§ 26.12.4 Many women, unmarried girls, and freeborn boys accompanied the Capuan forces because of the shortage of food. War does, in fact, sometimes compel those who in times of peace live in high dignity to endure conditions from which their years should exempt them.
§ 26.13.1 Wreaking widespread devastation as he went, Hannibal also took over the cities of Bruttium, and later captured Croton and was about to invest Rhegium. Having set out from the west and the Pillars of Heracles, he brought into subjection all the territory of the Romans except for Rome and Naples, and he carried the war as far as Croton.
§ 26.14.1 After having denounced the Romans at length for their cruelty and dishonesty, and especially their arrogance, Hannibal singled out those who were the sons and kinsmen of senators, and in order to pursue the senate, put them to death.
§ 26.14.2 Because of his deep hostility to the Romans, Hannibal selected suitable prisoners and paired them off for single combat. He compelled brothers to fight against brothers, fathers against sons, kinsmen against kinsmen. Here, indeed, there is just cause to detest the savage cruelty of the Phoenician, and to admire the piety of the Romans and their steadfast endurance in so grievous a plight. For though they were subjected to fire and goads and were most cruelly scourged, not one of them consented to do violence to his kindred, but all in an access of noble devotion expired under torture, having kept themselves free from the mutual stain of parricide.
§ 26.15.1 Upon the death at Syracuse of Gelo and Hiero, the rulers of Sicily, and the succession to the throne of Hieronymus, who was a lad in his teens, the kingdom was left without a capable leader. As a result the youth, keeping company with flatterers who courted him, was led astray into luxurious living, profligacy, and despotic cruelty. He committed outrages against women, put to death friends who spoke frankly, summarily confiscated many estates, and presented them to those who courted his favour. This behaviour brought in its train first the hatred of the populace, then a conspiracy, and finally the downfall that usually attends wicked rulers.
§ 26.15.2 After the death of Hieronymus, the Syracusans, having met in assembly, voted to punish the whole family of the tyrant and to put them all to death, men and women alike, in order to uproot completely the tyrant stock.
§ 26.16.1 Mago sent the body of Sempronius to Hannibal. Now when the soldiers saw the corpse, they raised a clamour and demanded that it should be hacked apart and flung piecemeal to the winds. Hannibal, however, declared that it was not seemly to vent one's anger upon a senseless corpse, and confronted as he was by evidence of the uncertainty of Fortune, and at the same time moved by admiration for the man's valour, he granted the dead hero a costly funeral. Then having gathered up the bones and bestowed them decently, he sent them to the Roman camp.
§ 26.17.1 When the Roman senate heard that Capua had been completely invested with double wall, they did not persist in a policy of unalterable hostility, even though the capture of the city now appeared (imminent?). On the contrary, influenced by ties of kinship, they decreed that all Campanians who changed sides before a fixed date should be granted immunity. The Campanians, however, rejected the senate's generous proposals, and deluding themselves as to the aid received from Hannibal repented only when repentance was of no avail.
§ 26.18.1 [A man may well marvel at the ingenuity of the designer, in connection not only with this invention but with many other and greater ones as well, the fame of which has encompassed the entire inhabited world and of which we shall give a detailed and precise account when we come to the age of Archimedes.] Archimedes, the famous and learned engineer and mathematician, a Syracusan by birth, was at this time an old man, in his seventy-fifth year. He constructed many ingenious machines, and on one occasion by means of a triple pulley launched with his left hand alone a merchant ship having a capacity of fifty thousand medimni. During the time when Marcellus, the Roman general, was attacking Syracuse both by land and by sea, Archimedes first hauled up out of the water some of the enemy's barges by means of a mechanical device, and after raising them to the walls of Syracuse, sent them hurtling down, men and all, into the sea. Then, when Marcellus moved his barges a bit farther off, the old man made it possible for the Syracusans, one and all, to lift up stones the size of a wagon, and by hurling them one at a time to sink the barges. When Marcellus now moved the vessels off Carthage an arrow can fly, the old man then devised an hexagonal mirror, and at an appropriate distance from it set small quadrangular mirrors of the same type, which could be adjusted by metal plates and small hinges. This contrivance he set to catch the full rays of the sun at noon, both summer and winter, and eventually, by the reflection of the sun's rays in this, a fearsome fiery heat was kindled in the barges, and from the distance of an arrow's flight he reduced them to ashes. Thus did the old man, by his contrivances, vanquish Marcellus. Again, he used to say, in the Doric speech of Syracuse: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world." Now when Syracuse was, as Diodorus relates, suddenly betrayed to Marcellus, or according to Dio, sacked by the Romans while the citizens were celebrating a nocturnal festival of Artemis, this man was killed by one of the Romans, under the following circumstances. Engaged in sketching a mechanical diagram, he was bending over it when a Roman came upon him and began to drag him off as a prisoner of war. Archimedes, wholly intent on his diagram and not realizing who was tugging at him, said to the man: "Away from my diagram!" Then, when the man continued to drag him along, Archimedes turned and, recognizing him for a Roman, cried out: "Quick there, one of my machines, someone!" The Roman, alarmed, slew him on the spot, a weak old man, but one whose achievements were wondrous. As soon as Marcellus learned of this, he was grieved, and together with the noblemen of the city and all the Romans gave him splendid burial amid the tombs of his fathers. As for the murderer, he had him, I fancy, beheaded. Dio and Diodorus record the story.
§ 26.19.1 Diodorus the historian, in his comparison of Antioch on the Orontes to Syracuse, says that Syracuse is a tetrapolis.
§ 26.20.1 When, after the fall of Syracuse, the inhabitants approached Marcellus as suppliants, he ordered that the persons of all who were freeborn were to be spared, but that all their property was to be taken as booty.
§ 26.20.2 Being unable to procure food after the capture because of their poverty, the Syracusans agreed to become slaves, so that when sold they might receive food from those who purchased them. Thus Fortune imposed upon the defeated Syracusans, over and above their other losses, a calamity so grievous that in place of proffered freedom they voluntarily chose slavery.
§ 26.21.1 By his release of the hostages Scipio demonstrated how time and time again the virtue of a single man has been able summarily to impose kings upon nations.
§ 26.22.1 Indibeles the Celtiberian, after winning forgiveness from Scipio, again kindled the flames of war when a suitable occasion presented itself. For indeed, those who benefit knaves, in addition to wasting their favours, fail to realize that often times they are actually raising up enemies for themselves.
§ 26.23.1 The Carthaginians, after bringing the Libyan War to an end, had avenged themselves on the Numidian tribe of the Micatani, women and children included, and crucified all whom they captured. As a result their descendants, mindful of the cruelty meted out to their fathers, were firmly established as the fiercest enemies of the Carthaginians.
§ 26.24.1 He did not leave unrecorded the great ability of the man (I mean, of course, Hasdrubal), but on the contrary affirms it. For Hasdrubal was the son of Hamilcar, surnamed Barcas, the most distinguished man of his time, inasmuch as in the Sicilian War Hamilcar was the only leader who repeatedly defeated the Romans, and after bringing to an end the Civil War, was the first to carry an army across to Spain. As the son of such a father, Hasdrubal proved himself not unworthy of his father's fame. It is generally agreed that next to his brother Hannibal he was the finest general in all Carthage; accordingly Hannibal left him in command of the armies in Spain. He engaged in many battles throughout Spain, constantly building up his forces after each reverse, and he stood firm in the face of frequent and manifold dangers. Indeed, even after he had been driven back into the interior, his outstanding personal qualities enabled him to bring together a large army, and contrary to all expectations he made his way into Italy.
§ 26.24.2 If Hasdrubal had enjoyed the assistance of Fortune as well, it is generally agreed that the Romans could not have carried on the struggle simultaneously against both him and Hannibal. For this reason we should estimate his ability not on the basis of his achievements but of his aims and enterprise. For these qualities are subject to men's control, but the outcome of their actions lies in the hands of Fortune.
§ 27.1.1 Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, put to death Pelops, the son of the late king Lycurgus, who was at this time still a boy. This was a measure of precaution lest when he came of age the youth, emboldened by his noble birth, should some day restore his country's freedom. Nabis personally selected and put to death those Lacedemonians who were most accomplished, and gathered from all sides hirelings of the basest stamp to defend his regime. As a result temple-robbers, thieves, pirates, and men under sentence of death streamed into Sparta from every direction. For since it was by impious deeds that Nabis had made himself tyrant, he supposed that only by such men could he be most securely guarded.
§ 27.1.2 Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, devised many forms of punishment for the citizens, in the belief that by degrading his country he would enhance his own position. Indeed, when a knave comes to power he is not, I think, likely to bear his good fortune as a mortal should.
§ 27.2.1 As pontifex maximus he was obliged by reason of his religious duties not to absent himself from the vicinity of Rome. 2a In like manner Scipio, according to the account of Diodorus, set before the Sicilian aristocrats the choice of joining him in the expedition to Libya or of handing over to his men their horses and slaves.
§ 27.3.1 With a fleet of seven ships the Cretans began to engage in piracy, and plundered a number of vessels. This had a disheartening effect upon those who were engaged in commerce by sea, whereupon the Rhodians, reflecting that this lawlessness would affect them also, declared war upon the Cretans.
§ 27.4.1 Pleminius, whom Scipio had appointed as governor of Locri, tore down the treasure houses of Persephone, for he was indeed an impious man, and he plundered and carried off their wealth. The Locrians, deeply outraged by this, appealed for protection to the pledged word of the Romans. Moreover, two of the military tribunes affected to be shocked at the offence. Their behaviour, however, was not motivated by any indignation at what was occurring; on the contrary, it was because they had failed to receive their share in the plunder that they now brought charges against Pleminius.
§ 27.4.2 The daimonion speedily inflicted upon one and all the punishment that their wickedness deserved. For indeed this sanctuary is said to be the most renowned in all Italy and to have been kept inviolate by the men of the land at all times.
§ 27.4.3 So, for example, when Pyrrhus brought over his forces from Sicily to Locri and, faced with his soldiers' demand for pay, was driven by lack of funds to lay hand on the treasures, it is said that such a tempest arose as he was putting out again to sea that he and all his fleet suffered shipwreck; Pyrrhus, smitten with fear and awe, thereupon made propitiation to the goddess, and delayed his departure until he had restored the treasures.
§ 27.4.4 The tribunes, to resume, with pretence of righteous indignation now stood forth as champions of the Locrians, and began to inveigh against Pleminius and threaten to bring him to justice. The railings growing apace, they finally came to blows, and the tribunes, having knocked him to the ground, bit off his ears and nose and split open his lips.
§ 27.4.5 Pleminius put the tribunes under arrest, subjected them to severe torture, and did away with them. The religious fears of the Roman senate were strongly aroused by the temple-robbery; moreover, the political opponents of Scipio, having found a suitable occasion for discrediting him, charged that Pleminius had acted throughout in accordance with his wishes.
§ 27.4.6 The senate sent out an aedile and two tribunes of the people as commissioners, with orders to bring Scipio post-haste back to Rome if they should find that the sacrilege had been committed with his approval; otherwise, they were to allow him to transport his armies to Libya. While the commissioners were yet on the way, Scipio summoned Pleminius, put him in chains, and busied himself with training his army. The tribunes of the people were amazed at this, and praised Scipio.
§ 27.4.7 As for Pleminius, he was taken back to Rome, placed in custody by the senate, and, while still in prison, died; the senate confiscated his property and, after making up from the public treasury any deficiency in what had been stolen from the temple, dedicated it to the goddess. It was also decreed that the Locrians should be free, and that any soldiers possessing property belonging to Phersis should, if they failed to restore it, be liable to death.
§ 27.4.8 After these measures concerning the Pleminius affair had been voted as a gesture of goodwill towards the Locrians, the men who had stolen most of the votive offerings and who now perceived the retribution which had befallen the tribunes and Pleminius fell a prey to superstitious fear. Such is the punishment that one who is conscious of wrongdoing suffers in secret, even though he succeed in hiding his guilt from other mortals. So now these men, tortured in spirit, cast away their plunder in an effort to appease the gods.
§ 27.5.1 A lie told in the proper circumstances is sometimes productive of great benefits.
§ 27.6.1 When Syphax and the others were brought before him in chains, Scipio promptly burst into tears at the sight, as he thought of the man's former prosperity and kingly state. After a short time, in keeping with his resolve to practise moderation even in the midst of success, he ordered Syphax to be loosed from his bonds, gave him back his tent, and allowed him to retain his retinue. While still holding him prisoner, though in free custody, he treated him with kindness and frequently invited him to his table.
§ 27.6.2 Scipio, having taken King Syphax prisoner, released him from his bonds and treated him with kindness. The personal enmities of war should, he felt, be maintained up to the point of victory, but since a prisoner's lot had now befallen one of royal rank, he himself, being but human, should do nothing amiss. For there is, it would seem, a divine Nemesis that keeps watch over the life of man and swiftly reminds those whose presumption passes mortal bounds of their own weakness. Who then, with an eye to the fear and terror that Scipio inspired in the enemy, while his own heart was overcome by pity for the unfortunate, could fail to praise such a man? It is generally true, in fact, that men dreaded by their opponents in combat are apt to behave with moderation towards the defeated. So on this occasion Scipio soon won from Syphax gratitude for his considerate treatment.
§ 27.7.1 Sophonba, who was the wife first of Masinissa, then of Syphax, and who finally, as a result of her captivity, was reunited with Masinissa, was comely in appearance, a woman of many varied moods, and one gifted with the ability to bind men to her service. As a partisan of the Carthaginian cause she daily urged and entreated her husband with great importunity to revolt from Rome, for she was, indeed, deeply devoted to her country. Now Syphax knew this and informed Scipio about the woman, urging him to be on his guard. Since this tallied with the advice of Laelius as well, Scipio ordered her brought before him, and when Masinissa attempted to intercede, rebuked him sharply. Warily, Masinissa then bade him send his men to fetch her, but went himself to her tent, handed his wife a deadly potion, and forced her to drink it.
§ 27.8.1 By his compassion towards those who had blundered, Scipio rendered the alliance with Masinissa secure ever after.
§ 27.9.1 Hannibal, having called together his allies, told them that it was now necessary for him to cross over into Libya, and offered any who might wish it his permission to accompany him. Some chose to cross with Hannibal; those, however, who were set on remaining in Italy he encircled with his army, and having first given his soldiers leave to take anyone they wished as a slave, he then slaughtered the rest, some twenty thousand men, as well as three thousand horses and innumerable pack animals.
§ 27.10.1 Four thousand cavalry, men who after the defeat of Syphax had gone over to Masinissa, now deserted to Hannibal. In an access of anger, Hannibal encircled them with his army, shot them all down, and distributed their horses to his own soldiers.
§ 27.11.1 Carthage being hard pressed for food, those citizens who were disgruntled and desired the abrogation of the treaty of peace incited the populace to attack the ships and bring into port the cargo of provisions. And though the senate forbade them to violate the agreement, no one paid heed: "Bellies," they said, "have no ears."
§ 27.11.2 Wrongdoing bore the semblance of right.
§ 27.12.1 Scipio sent envoys to the Carthaginians, and the mob all but put them to death. Men of wiser counsel, however, rescued them and sent them off with an escort of triremes. But the leaders of the mob at Carthage urged the admiral to attack the envoys at sea after the escorting triremes turned back, and to kill them all. The attack took place, but the envoys managed to escape to the shore, and made their way safely back to Scipio. The gods swiftly made manifest their power to the wilful sinners. For the Carthaginian envoys who had been sent to Rome were driven by a storm on their return voyage to the very place where the Romans lay at anchor; and when they had been brought before Scipio there was a general outcry to retaliate on the oath-breakers. Scipio, however, declared that they must not commit the very crimes of which they were accusing the Carthaginians. Accordingly the men were released and made their way in safety to Carthage, marvelling at the piety of the Romans.
§ 27.12.2 The Carthaginians, having previously wronged the Romans, were on a certain occasion driven by a storm into the hands of Scipio. Though there was a general outcry to retaliate on the oath-breakers, Scipio declared that they must not commit the very crimes of which they were accusing the Carthaginians.
§ 27.13.1 To persuade men to a noble course of action is, in my opinion, of all things the most difficult, whereas words designed to please have wondrous power to suggest a semblance of advantage, even though they lead to the ruin of those who adopt such counsel.
§ 27.14.1 There is no honour in conquering the world by force of arms only to be overcome by anger directed against hapless wretches; nor yet in nursing a bitter hatred against the overweening if in prosperity we do the very things for which we blame others. Glory is the true portion of those who win success only when the conqueror bears his good fortune with moderation. When such men are mentioned everyone remarks that they are worthy of their laurels, but envy dogs those who forget their common mortality, and taints the glory of their success. It is no great thing to slay the suppliant at one's feet, no wondrous exploit to destroy the life of a defeated enemy. Not without reason do men win an ill repute when unmindful of the frailty of all things human they abolish the refuge that is the common privilege of all unfortunates.
§ 27.15.1 An act of kindness avails men more than revenge, and gentle treatment of a fallen foe more than savage cruelty.
§ 27.15.2 The more favourable the tide of fortune, the more one must beware of the Nemesis that watches over the life of man.
§ 27.15.3 In the affairs of men nothing remains stable, neither the good nor the ill, since Fortune, as if of set purpose, keeps all things in constant change. It becomes us, therefore, to put aside our high conceits, and profit by the misfortunes of others to make our own lives secure; for the man who has used the fallen gently most richly deserves whatever consideration he himself meets in the vicissitudes of life. Undying praise commonly attends such men even from those not affected, and those who have actually received the favour cherish a feeling of gratitude such as it merits. Even a bitter enemy, in fact, if he find mercy, is transformed by the act of kindness, and straightway becomes a friend as he sees his own fault.
§ 27.16.1 The intelligent man should see to it that his friendships are immortal, his enmities mortal. Thus most surely will it ensue that his friends will be legion, while those who are ill disposed will be fewer in number.
§ 27.16.2 It is less essential that men who aspire to exercise authority should be superior to their fellows in other respects than that they should altogether surpass them in clemency and moderation. For whereas the fear engendered by conquest makes the conquerors an object of hatred, consideration for the defeated is productive of goodwill, and will be a stable bond of empire. It follows from this that the greater our concern for the future welfare of our country, the more we must beware of taking some harsh and irremediable action against those who have made voluntary submission to us. For everyone pities those who have succumbed to overwhelming misfortunes, even though there be no personal bond, and everyone hates those who make arrogant use of good fortune, even though they be allies. Each of us, I suppose, regards whatever is done as though it were done to him; he shares the resentment of the unfortunate, and begrudges the prosperity of the successful.
§ 27.17.1 Whenever a city of the highest renown is thus pitilessly ravaged, then indeed do the current notions about these people spread even more readily throughout the world, since men are never so ready to agree in praising noble actions as to join with one accord in hating those who behave savagely towards a fallen foe.
§ 27.17.2 The failure to carry with due moderation whatever good fortune the gods grant usually produces many ill consequences.
§ 27.17.3 Any occasion whatsoever is sufficient to prompt a change for the worse when men are unable to carry their good fortune with due moderation. Be warned, then, and see to it that we do not force these men, made desperate, into a display of bravery. Why, even the most cowardly beasts, which turn and run if a way be open, put up an incredible struggle when cornered; in like manner the Carthaginians continue to give way as long as they retain some hopes of safety, but once driven to desperation will stand and face any possible danger in battle. If death lies in store for them whether they flee or fight, death with honour will seem to them preferable to death and disgrace.
§ 27.17.4 Life is full of the unexpected. In times of misfortune, therefore, men should take risks and pursue their venture even at great peril. But when the stream of fortune flows smoothly, it is not well to put oneself in jeopardy.
§ 27.17.5 No one who has won control over a foreign people willingly resigns to others the command of his army.
§ 27.18.1 There is a vast difference, to my mind, between misfortune and misdoing, and we should deal with each of them in the way that is appropriate to it, as befits men of wise counsel. So, for example, a man who has blundered but yet has committed no great wrong may justly take refuge in the compassion that is extended to all unfortunates. On the other hand, the man who has sinned deeply and who has perpetrated deeds overcome and brutality that are, as they say, "unutterable," puts himself wholly beyond the pale of such human feelings. It is impossible that one who has proved cruel towards others should meet with compassion when he in turn blunders and falls, or that one who has done all in his power to abolish pity among men should find refuge in the moderation of others. To apply to each the law that he has set for others is no more than just.
§ 27.18.2 One who in the name of the whole people has exacted vengeance from the common foe may, quite clearly, be considered a public benefactor. Just as those who destroy the more dangerous beasts win praise for contributing to the welfare of all, so now those who have curbed the savage cruelty of the Carthaginians and the bestial strain in humanity will by common consent gain the highest renown.
§ 27.18.3 Everyone faces danger bravely when the hope of victory is well founded, but for one who knows in advance that he will be defeated safety lies only in flight and escape.
§ 28.1.1 Philip, the king of the Macedonians, induced Dicaearchus of Aitolia, a bold adventurer, to engage in piracy, and gave him twenty ships. He ordered him to levy tribute on the islands and to support the Cretans in their war against the Rhodians.Obedient to these commands Dicaearchus harried commercial shipping, and by marauding raids exacted money from the islands.
§ 28.2.1 Philip, the king of the Macedonians, had by him a certain knavish fellow, Heracleides of Tarentum, who in private conversations with the king made many false and malicious charges against the friends whom Philip held in high esteem. Eventually Philip sank so low in impiety as to murder five leading members of the council. From that point on his situation deteriorated, and by embarking upon unnecessary wars he came near losing his kingdom at the hands of the Romans. For none of his friends any longer dared speak their minds or rebuke the king's folly for fear of his impetuous temper. He also led an expedition against the Dardanians, though they had done him no wrong, and after defeating them in pitched battle massacred more than ten thousand men.
§ 28.3.1 Quite apart from his aggressive ambition, Philip, the king of the Macedonians, was so arrogant in prosperity that he had his friends put to death without benefit of trial, destroyed the tombs of earlier generations, and razed many temples to the ground. As for Antiochus, his project of pillaging the sanctuary of Zeus at Elymais brought him to appropriate disaster, and he perished with all his host. Both men, though convinced that their armies were irresistible, found themselves compelled by the outcome of a single battle to do the bidding of others. In consequence they ascribed to their own shortcomings the misfortunes that befell them, while for the generous treatment that they were accorded they were duly grateful to those who in the hour of victory practised such moderation. So it was that, as if following a design sketched in their own acts, they beheld the decline into which heaven was leading their kingdoms. The Romans, however, who both on this occasion and thereafter engaged only in just wars and were scrupulous in the observance of oaths and treaties, enjoyed, not without reason, the active support of the gods in all their undertakings.
§ 28.4.1 Not only, we may note, do those who wickedly violate private contracts fall foul of the law and its penalties, but even among kings all who engage in acts of injustice meet with retribution from on high. Just as the law is the arbiter of men's deeds for the citizens of a democratic state, so is God the judge of men in positions of authority: to those who seek after virtue he grants rewards appropriate to their virtue, and for those who indulge in greed or any other vice he appoints prompt and fitting punishment.
§ 28.5.1 Driven by the need to obtain provisions, Philip, the king of the Macedonians, went about plundering the territory of Attalus, even to the very gates of Pergamum. He razed to the ground the sanctuaries round about the city, and did extreme violence to the richly bedecked Nicephorium and to other temples admired for their sculptures. He was, in fact, enraged with Attalus and, because he failed to find him in that part of the country, vented his spleen on the temples.
§ 28.6.1 Having sailed to Abydus to meet Philip, Marcus Aemilius announced to him the decisions of the senate respecting the allies. Philip replied that if the Romans abided by their agreements they would be acting rightly, but that, if they trampled them under foot, he would call the gods to witness their unjust aggression and would defend himself against them.
§ 28.7.1 On his arrival at Athens, Philip of Macedon encamped at Cynosarges, and proceeded to set fire to the Academy, to pull down the tombs, and even to outrage the sanctuaries of the gods. By thus indulging his anger as if it were Athens rather than the gods that he was offending, he now not only incurred the utter hatred of mankind, that had long reviled him, but also brought down upon his head swift and fitting chastisement from the gods. For through his own lack of prudence he was thoroughly defeated, and it was only through the forbearance of the Romans that he met with lenient treatment.
§ 28.8.1 Philip, observing that his men were disheartened, pointed out to them by way of encouragement that none of these ills attend a victorious army, while for those who perish in defeat it makes no difference whether their death-wounds are large or small.
§ 28.8.2 As a general rule men of base character inculcate a similar baseness in their associates.
§ 28.9.1 Philip, perceiving that most of the Macedonians were angry with him because of his friendship for Heracleidae, had him placed in custody. A native of Tarentum, Heracleidae was a man of surpassing wickedness, who had transformed Philip from a virtuous king into a harsh and godless tyrant, and had thereby incurred the deep hatred of all Macedonians and Greeks. Chap. 10: see below, after Chap. 12.
§ 28.11.1 On the occasion of the Epirote embassy to Philip and Flamininus, Flamininus held that Philip must completely evacuate Greece, which should thereafter be ungarrisoned and autonomous, and that he must offer satisfactory compensation for damage done to those who had suffered from his breaches of faith. Philip replied that he must have assured possession of what he had inherited from his father, but that he would withdraw the garrisons from whatever cities he had himself won over and would submit the question of damages to arbitration. To this Flamininus replied that there was no need of arbitration, that Philip himself must make terms with those whom he had wronged; furthermore he himself was under orders from the senate to liberate Greece, the whole of it, not merely a part. Philip retorted by asking: "What heavier condition would you have imposed if you had defeated me in war?", and with these words he departed in a rage.
§ 28.12.1 While Antiochus, the king of Asia, was engaged in refounding the city of Lysimachia, the commissioners sent by Flamininus arrived. Having been led before the council, they called upon Antiochus to retire from the cities previously subject to Ptolemy or to Philip, and said that in general they wondered what purpose he had in assembling military and naval forces, and with what intention he had crossed the strait to Europe if not to undertake war against the Romans. By way of rejoinder, Antiochus expressed surprise that the Romans claimed interests in Asia though he did not meddle in any matter that concerned Italy; in resettling the Lysimachians he was wronging neither the Romans nor anyone else; and as for his relations with Ptolemy, he himself had in mind a plan for avoiding all these disputes, for he would give him his daughter in marriage. After this exchange the Romans, though ill content, took their departure. Chap. 13: see below, after Chap. 10.
§ 28.10.1 The mere name and reputation of Hannibal had made him a celebrity the whole world through, and in every city each individual was eager for a sight of him. Chaps. 11 12: see above, after Chap. 9.
§ 28.13.1 Envoys were sent to Rome by Nabis and by Flamininus to conclude the treaty, and when they had discussed with the senate the matters contained in their instructions, the senate agreed to ratify the agreement and to withdraw its garrisons and armies in Greece. When news of the settlement reached him, Flamininus summoned the leading men of all Greece, and convoking an assembly repeated to them Rome's good services to the Greeks. In defence of the settlement made with Nabis he pointed out that the Romans had done what was in their power, and that in accordance with the declared policy of the Roman people all the inhabitants of Greece were now free, ungarrisoned, and most important of all, governed by their own laws. In return he asked the Greeks to seek out such Italians as were held in slavery among them, and to repatriate them within thirty days. This was accomplished.
§ 28.14.1 Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, was for a time regarded with approval. Aristomenes had been appointed his guardian and had been in all respects an able administrator. Now at the start Ptolemy revered him like a father and was wholly guided by his judgement. Later, however, corrupted by the flattery of his courtiers, he came to hate Aristomenes for his frankness of speech, and finally compelled him to end his life with a draught of hemlock. His ever-increasing brutality and his emulation, not of kingly authority, but of tyrannical licence, brought on him the hatred of the Egyptian people and nearly cost him his kingdom.
§ 28.15.1 Once more the senate granted audience to embassies from Greece and greeted them with friendly words, for they wanted the goodwill of the Greeks in case of war with Antiochus, which they considered imminent. The envoys of Philip were told that if he remained faithful, the senate would relieve him of the payments of indemnity and would release his son Demetrius. In the case of the envoys who had come from Antiochus a commission of ten senators was set up to hear of the matters with which they stated they had been charged by the king.
§ 28.15.2 The session having convened, Menippus, the leader of the embassy, stated that he had come with the aim of forming a pact of friendship and alliance between Antiochus and the Romans. He said, however, that the king wondered what possible reason the Romans had for ordering him not to meddle in certain European affairs, to renounce his claims to certain cities, and not to exact from some the tribute owing to him: such demands as these were unprecedented when a pact of friendship between equals was being negotiated; they were the demands of conquerors settling a war, yet the envoys sent to the king at Lysimachia had presumed to dictate to him precise instructions on these matters; Antiochus had never been at war with the Romans, and if they wished to effect a treaty of friendship with him, the king stood ready and willing.
§ 28.15.3 Flamininus replied that two possible courses lay open, and that the senate allowed the king his choice of one: if he was willing to keep his hands off Europe, the Romans would not meddle with Asiatic affairs; if, however, he did not elect this policy, he must know that the Romans would go to the aid of their friends who were being enslaved.
§ 28.15.4 The ambassadors having then made answer that they would agree to no condition of this nature, whereby they would impair the authority of the throne, the senate on the following day announced to the Greeks that if Antiochus interfered at all in European affairs the Romans would bend every effort to liberate the Asiatic Greeks. After the ambassadors of the Greek states had applauded this statement, the king's envoys called upon the senate to reflect how great was the risk to which they exposed each of the two parties, and to take no immediate action, but rather to give the king time to consider, and themselves to engage in more careful consideration of the case.
§ 29.1.1 Delium was a sanctuary, not far distant from Chalcis. . . . Because he had thus begun the war against Rome with an act of sacrilege the king was vilified by the Greeks . . . and Flamininus, who was then at Corinth, called upon all men and gods to bear him witness that the first act of aggression in the war had been committed by the king.
§ 29.2.1 Antiochus established his winter quarters at Demetrias. Being now more than fifty years old, he neglected to make preparations for the war, but having fallen in love with a beautiful maiden, whiled away the time in celebrating his marriage to her, and held brilliant assemblies and festivals. By this behaviour he not only ruined himself, body and mind, but also demoralized his army. Indeed, his soldiers, after passing the whole winter in ease and soft living, acquitted themselves poorly when confronted with scarcity, being unable to endure thirst or other hardships. In consequence, some would fall ill, and others, straggling on the march, became widely separated from their formations.
§ 29.3.1 King Antiochus, learning that the cities of Thessaly had gone over to the Romans, that his Asiatic forces were slow in arriving, and that the Aitolians were negligent and full of excuses, was deeply distressed. He was, in consequence, angry with those who, on the strength of the Aitolian alliance, had induced him to embark upon a war for which he was not prepared; for Hannibal, however, who had held the contrary opinion, he was now filled with admiration, and pinned all his hopes upon him. Whereas previously he had been disposed to regard him with suspicion, he now looked upon Hannibal as a most trustworthy friend and followed his advice in all matters.
§ 29.4.1 As to the Aitolians, from whom an embassy had come to discuss terms of peace, the senate decided that they must either place themselves at the discretion of the Romans, or pay Rome at once a thousand talents of silver. The Aitolians, who because of the severity of the reply refused to accede to these demands, were thoroughly alarmed and found themselves in grave danger; for their zealous support of the king had plunged them into hopeless difficulties, and there was no way out of their troubles.
§ 29.5.1 Humbled by his defeat Antiochus decided to withdraw from Europe and to concentrate on the defence of Asia. He ordered the inhabitants of Lysimachia to abandon their city one and all, and find residence in the cities of Asia. It was the universal opinion that this was a foolish plan, and that he had thereby abandoned to the enemy without a struggle a city most conveniently situated to prevent them from bringing their forces over from Europe into Asia. The sequel of events fully confirmed this judgement, since Scipio, on finding the city deserted, gained a gratuitous success by occupying it.
§ 29.6.1 In warfare a ready supply of money is needed, as the familiar proverb has it, the sister of success, since he who is well provided with money never lacks men able to fight. So, for example, the Carthaginians recently brought the Romans to the brink of disaster, yet it was not with an army of citizens that they won their victories in those great engagements, but by the great number of their mercenary soldiers. An abundance of foreign troops is, in fact, very advantageous to the side that employs them, and very formidable to the enemy, inasmuch as the employers bring together at trifling cost men to do battle in their behalf, while citizen soldiers, even if victorious, are nevertheless promptly faced with a fresh crop of opponents. In the case of citizen armies, a single defeat spells complete disaster, but in the case of mercenaries, however many times they suffer defeat, none the less the employers maintain their forces intact as long as their money lasts. It is not, however, the custom of the Romans to employ mercenaries, nor have they sufficient resources.
§ 29.6.2 As a general rule soldiers follow the example set by their commanders.
§ 29.6.3 Antiochus, having swiftly reaped the reward of his own folly, learned at the cost of great misfortunes not to let success turn his head.
§ 29.7.1 Antiochus, on learning that the Romans had crossed to Asia, sent Heracleides of Byzantium to the consul to sue for peace, offering to pay half the costs of the war, and also to give up the cities of Lampsacus, Smyrna, and Alexandria, which had, it was thought, been responsible for bringing on the conflict. Of the Greek cities in Asia these were, in fact, the first to dispatch embassies to the senate, invoking its aid in behalf of their independence.
§ 29.8.1 Antiochus, in addition, offered Publius Scipio, the senior member of the senate, the return of his son without ransom (he had taken him prisoner during his stay on Euboea), and a large sum of money as well, if only he would give his support to the proposed peace. Scipio replied that he would be grateful to the king for the release of his son, but that there was no need of "a large sum of money" besides; in return for this kindness, however, he advised Antiochus not to engage the Romans in battle now that he had had a sample of their prowess. Antiochus, however, finding the Roman unjustifiably harsh, rejected his counter-proposal.
§ 29.8.2 With an eye to the surprises of Fortune Antiochus deemed it advantageous to release Scipio's son, and accordingly decked him out in rich array and sent him back. Chap. 9: see below, after Chap. 10.
§ 29.10.1 Antiochus, abandoning the conflict in despair, dispatched an embassy to the consul, requesting pardon for his errors and the granting of peace on whatever terms possible. The consul, adhering to the traditional Roman policy of fair dealing, and moved by the appeals of his brother Publius, granted peace on the following terms: the king must withdraw, in favour of the Romans, from Europe and from the territory on this side Taurus and the cities and nations included therein; he must surrender his elephants and warships, and pay in full the expenses incurred in the war, which were assessed at 5, Euboean talents; and he must deliver up Hannibal the Carthaginian, Thoas the Aitolian, and certain others, together with twenty hostages to be designated by the Romans. In his desire for peace Antiochus accepted all the conditions and brought the fighting to a close.
§ 29.9.1 At Rome, before the defeat of Antiochus, the envoys from Aitolia, on being brought before the senate, said not a word of their own shortcomings, but spoke at length of their service to Rome. A member of the senate thereupon arose and asked the envoys whether or not the Aitolians were willing to put themselves in the hands of the Roman people. When the envoys made no reply, the senate, assuming that the Aitolians still had their hopes pinned on Antiochus, sent them empty-handed back to Greece. Chap. 10: see above, after Chap. 8.
§ 29.11.1 After the defeat of Antiochus envoys presented themselves from all the cities and principalities of Asia, some suing for independence, others for a return for their good services to Rome in the common struggle against Antiochus. The senate intimated to one and all that they had good reason to hope, and announced the dispatch of ten legates to Asia, who together with the generals in the field were to settle all matters. The envoys returned to their homes, and the ten legates, after first meeting in consultation with Scipio and Aemilius decided and proclaimed that the territory this side Taurus, and the elephants, were to belong to Eumenes; Caria and Lycia they added to the domain of Rhodes; the cities that had previously paid tribute to Eumenes were to be subject to Eumenes, and any that still paid tribute to Antiochus were relieved of all obligations.
§ 29.12.1 Gnaeus Manlius, the proconsul, when approached by envoys from the Galatians seeking an end to hostilities, replied that he would make a treaty of peace with them only when their kings appeared before him in person.
§ 29.13.1 Manlius proceeded to Lycaonia and received from Antiochus the grain that was due and the annual payment of a thousand talents stipulated in the agreement.
§ 29.14.1 Marcus Furius, who while praetor violated the rights of the Ligurian allies, met with fitting punishment. For coming among the Cenomani, ostensibly as a friend, and without having grounds for complaint against them, he deprived them of their arms. The consul, however, learning of the incident, restored the arms and imposed a fine on Marcus.
§ 29.15.1 Antiochus, pressed for funds and hearing that the temple of Bel in Elymais had a large store of silver and gold, derived from the dedications, resolved to pillage it. He proceeded to Elymais and after accusing the inhabitants of initiating hostilities, pillaged the temple; but though he amassed much wealth he speedily received meet punishment from the gods.
§ 29.16.1 Philip upbraided the Thessalians for reviling their former masters now that by the favour of Rome they had unexpectedly gained their freedom. They were not aware, he said, that the Macedonian sun had not yet altogether set. This sally led those who heard it to suspect that Philip intended to make war on Rome, and the commissioners, in a rage, decreed that Philip should be allowed to hold no city save those in Macedonia.
§ 29.17.1 As regards Peloponnesian affairs, the Achaean League having convened in general assembly, the Roman envoys were introduced. They stated that the senate was displeased at the dismantling of the Lacedemonian fortifications, an act that the Achaean League had carried out when it gained control of Sparta and enrolled the Lacedemonians in the League. Next the envoys of Eumenes were introduced, who brought with them a gift of twenty talents, out of which the king thought payment should be made to the members of the Achaean assembly. The Achaeans, however, rejecting an offer of money as unbecoming, refused to accept the gift. Envoys also came from Seleucus, seeking to renew the alliance that the Achaeans had had with King Antiochus. The assembly renewed the alliance and accepted his gift.
§ 29.18.1 Philopoemen, the general of the Achaean League, was a man of outstanding attainments, intellectual, military, and moral alike, and his lifelong political career was irreproachable throughout. Time and again he was preferred to the office of general, and for forty years he guided the affairs of state. More than anyone else he advanced the general welfare of the Achaean confederacy, for he not only made it his policy to treat the common man kindly, but also by force of character won the esteem of the Romans. Yet in the final scene of life he found Fortune unkind. After his death, however, as if by some divine Providence he obtained honours equal to those paid the gods, in compensation for the misfortunes that attended his demise. In addition to the decrees in his honour voted by the Achaeans jointly, his native city set up an altar, (instituted) an annual sacrifice to him, and appointed hymns and praises of his exploits to be sung by the young men of the city.
§ 29.19.1 Hannibal, who stands first among all Carthaginians in strategic skill and in the magnitude of his achievements, never at any time experienced disaffection among his troops; on the contrary his wise foresight enabled him to maintain in concord and harmony elements that were divided by the wide variety of tongues spoken. Likewise, though it is the common practice of alien troops to desert to the enemy on slight provocation, under his command no one ventured to do this. He always maintained a large army, yet never ran short of money or provisions. Most extraordinary of all, the aliens who served with him did not fall short of the citizens in their affection for him, but even far surpassed them. Naturally, therefore, his good control of his troops produced good results. Engaging in war the strongest military power in the world, he ravaged Italy for some seventeen years and remained undefeated in all his battles. So many and great were the actions in which he defeated the rulers of the world, that the casualties inflicted by him prevented anyone from being bold enough ever to face him in open battle. Many were the cities that he captured and put to the torch, and though the peoples of Italy were outstanding in numbers, he made them know a dearth of men. These world-renowned exploits he achieved at public expense, to be sure, yet with forces that were a miscellaneous collection of mercenaries and allies; and though his opponents, by virtue of sharing a common language, were hard to withstand, his personal shrewdness and his capacity as a general gave him success against them. All may read the lesson that the commander is to an army what the mind is to the body and is responsible for its success.
§ 29.20.1 Scipio, while still a very young man, handled affairs in Spain surprisingly well and vanquished the Carthaginians; and he rescued his country, which was then in dire jeopardy. For that Hannibal, whom no one had ever defeated, he forced by artful planning, without battle or risk, to withdraw from Italy. And in the end, by the use of a bold strategy he overcame the hitherto unconquered Hannibal in pitched battle, and thus brought Carthage to her knees.
§ 29.21.1 Because of his great achievements Scipio wielded more influence than seemed compatible with the dignity of the state. Once, for example, being charged with an offence punishable by a painful death, he said only, when it was his turn to speak, that it ill behooved Romans to cast a vote against the man to whom his very accusers owed their enjoyment of the right to speak freely. At these words the whole populace, shamed by the force of his remark, left the meeting at once, and his accuser, deserted and alone, returned home discredited. On another occasion, at a meeting of the senate, when funds were needed and the quaestor refused to open the treasury, Scipio took over the keys to do it himself, saying that it was thanks to him that the quaestors were in fact able to lock it. On still another occasion, when some in the senate demanded from him an accounting of the monies he had received to maintain his troops, he acknowledged that he had the account but refused to render it, on the ground that he ought not to be subjected to scrutiny on the same basis as the others. When his accuser pressed the demand, he sent to his brother, had the book brought into the senate chamber, and after tearing it to bits bade his accuser add up the reckoning from the pieces. Then, turning to the other senators, he asked why they demanded an account of the three thousand talents that had been expended, but did not demand an account of the ten thousand five hundred talents that they were receiving from Antiochus, and did not even consider how they came to be masters, almost in an instant, of Spain, Libya, and Asia too. He said no more, but the authority that went with his plain speaking silenced both his accuser and the rest of the senate.
§ 29.28.1 The city of the Cemeletae, a nest of brigands and fugitives, accepted the challenge of Rome. They dispatched envoys to Fulvius, demanding in the name of each of the men who had been killed a cloak, a dagger, and a horse; failing this, they threatened war to the finish. Fulvius, on encountering the delegation, bade them spare their pains: he would himself proceed against their city and be there before their expedition could set out. Wishing to make good his word, he straightway broke camp and marched against the barbarians, following close on the heels of the envoys.
§ 29.29.1 King Ptolemy, being asked by one of his courtiers why he neglected Coele Syria though it was rightfully his, replied that he was giving good heed to the matter. When the friend continued and asked where he would find sufficient money for the campaign, the king pointed to his friends and said: "There, walking about, are my money-bags." Chap. 30: see below, after Chap. 27.
§ 29.22.1 On the arrival at Rome of the Asiatic princes who had been sent as envoys, Attalus and his entourage received a warm welcome: they were met and escorted into the city in style, presented with rich gifts, and shown every courtesy. These princes were, indeed, steadfast friends of Rome, and since they were in all things submissive to the senate, and were, moreover, most generous and hospitable to such Romans as visited their kingdom, they were granted the finest possible reception. For their sake the senate gave audience to all the envoys, and showing the greatest concern to please Eumenes, returned them a favourable response, announcing that a senatorial commission would be sent out that would settle at all costs the conflict with Pharnaces.
§ 29.23.1 Leocritus, the general of Pharnaces, by constant assaults at last forced the mercenaries in Tius to surrender the city and, under terms of a truce that assured them safe conduct, to leave under escort. These mercenaries, who were now quitting the city in accordance with the agreement, had in times past wronged Pharnaces; and Leocritus, who had orders from Pharnaces to put them all to death, now violated the truce, and on their departure from Tius set upon them on the way and shot them down one and all with darts.
§ 29.24.1 Seleucus, leading an army of considerable size, advanced as if intending to cross the Taurus in support of Pharnaces; but on taking note of the treaty that his father had made with the Romans, the terms of which forbade . . .
§ 29.25.1 Those who perpetrated this crime and murdered Demetrius did not escape the avenging punishment of divine justice. On the contrary, the men who had fabricated the false accusations and brought them from Rome soon after fell foul of the king and were put to death. Philip himself for the remainder of his life was haunted by dreams and by terrors of a guilty conscience because of the impious crime against the noblest of sons. He survived less than two years, succumbing to the burden of an incurable sorrow. Perseus, finally, the chief contriver of all the villainy, was defeated by the Romans and fled to Samothrace, but his claim as a suppliant of the Most Pure Gods was invalidated by the monstrous impiety that he had perpetrated against his brother.
§ 29.26.1 Tiberius Gracchus, the praetor, prosecuted the war with vigour. Indeed, while still a young man he surpassed all his contemporaries in courage and intelligence, and since his abilities commanded admiration and showed great hopes for the future, he enjoyed a reputation that greatly distinguished him among his contemporaries.
§ 29.27.1 Aemilius the consul, who also became patronus, was a man of noble birth and handsome appearance, and was, in addition, gifted with superior intelligence. As a result his country honoured him with all its high magistracies, while he, for his part, continued throughout his lifetime to win men's praise, and provided for his own good repute after death along with the welfare of his country. Chaps. 28 29: see above, after Chap. 21.
§ 29.30.1 The political aims of Perseus were the same as those of his father, but since he wished to keep this from the Romans he sent ambassadors to Rome to renew his father's treaty of alliance and friendship. The senate, though aware of nearly all that was happening, nevertheless renewed the alliance, thereby deceiving the deceiver on his own ground.
§ 29.31.1 Our concerns are advanced less by fear and force of arms than by moderation towards the defeated. So, for example, when Thoas was handed over and the senate had him in their power, they behaved magnanimously and acquitted him on all charges.
§ 29.32.1 Antiochus, on first succeeding to the throne, embarked upon a quixotic mode of life foreign to other monarchs. To begin with, he would often slip out of the palace without informing his courtiers, and wander at random about the city with one or two companions. Next, he took pride in stooping to the company of common people, no matter where, and in drinking with visiting foreigners of the meanest stamp. In general, if he learned that any young men were forgathering at an early hour, he would suddenly appear at the party with a fife and other music, so that in their astonishment some of the commoners who were guests would take to their heels and others be struck dumb with fear. Finally, he would at times put off his royal garb, and wrapping himself in a toga, as he had seen candidates for office do at Rome, would accost the citizens, saluting and embracing them one by one, and ask them to give him their vote, now for the office of aedile, and again for that of tribune. Upon being elected, he would sit on an ivory chair, and in the Roman fashion listen to the opposing arguments in ordinary cases of contract. He did this with such close attention and zeal that all men of refinement were perplexed about him, some ascribing his behaviour to artless simplicity, others to folly, and some to madness.
§ 29.33.1 The cancelling of debts in Aitolia was emulated in Thessaly, and factional strife and disorder broke out in every city. The senate assumed that Perseus was at the bottom of this turmoil, and reported to his envoys that while they would drop all the other charges against him, the expulsion of Abrupolis the Thracian from his kingdom was an act that, they insisted, Perseus must rectify.
§ 29.34.1 Harpalus, the ambassador of Perseus, made no reply. The senate, after allowing Eumenes the honour of an ivory curule chair and granting him other kindly marks of favour, dispatched him on his way to Asia.
§ 29.34.2 When, following the attempt upon Eumenes' life, the rumour reached Pergamum that he was dead, Attalus made short work of wooing the queen. Yet Eumenes on his return took no notice, greeted his brother warmly, and was as friendly as before. #Book XXX fragments 7 . 1 When the Roman (envoys) reported that they had outwitted Perseus without recourse to arms, some members of the senate made a move to praise them. The older men, however, were far from pleased with what had been done, and said it did not become Romans to ape the Phoenicians, nor to get the better of their enemies by knavery rather than by bravery.
§ 30.1.1 On the same day the senate approved a declaration of war against Perseus, and though it gave an audience to his envoys, made no reply to their statements. In addition the senate ordered the consuls to make solemn proclamation before assemblies of the people, bidding the envoys and all other Macedonians depart from Rome that very day and from Italy within thirty days.
§ 30.2.1 Ptolemy, king of Egypt, knowing that his ancestors had held Coele Syria, made great preparations for war in support of his claim, hoping that since it had been detached in times past through an unjust war he might now justly recover it on the same terms. Antiochus, learning of this, dispatched envoys to Rome bidding them call the senate to witness that Ptolemy, without just cause, was bent on making war. Ptolemy, however, also sent off envoys to speak in his defence, and to inform the senate that Coele Syria had belonged to his forebears and that its subjection to Antiochus was contrary to all justice. He also instructed them to renew friendly relations with the Romans and to try to bring about peace with Perseus.
§ 30.3.1 Cotys, king of the Thracians, was a man who in matters of warfare moved with vigour and was superior in judgement, and who in other respects as well was responsible and deserving of friendship. He was abstinent and circumspect in the highest degree, and most important of all, was completely exempt from the besetting vices of the Thracian people.
§ 30.4.1 After the siege of the small township of Chalestrum Perseus put all the inhabitants to death. About five hundred, however, having made good their escape under arms to a certain stronghold, requested an assurance of safe-conduct, and Perseus consented to spare their lives on condition that they laid down arms. They complied with the terms agreed on, but the Macedonians, whether of their own accord or under orders of the king, followed those who had received the assurance and put them all to death.
§ 30.5.1 Charops of Epirus was the grandson and namesake of that Charops who, during the war against Philip, had sent to Flamininus a guide to show him unexpected paths across the mountains, whereby the Romans, making a surprise advance, won control of the pass. Thanks to that grandfather's friendship with the Romans, the younger Charops was educated in Rome and formed ties of hospitality with many prominent men. He was, however, an arrant knave and adventurer, and set out to traduce to the Romans the men of Epirus who were held in highest esteem, hurling false charges against them in the hope that once he had confounded all who were capable of opposing him he might be left master of all Epirus. It was in consequence of this that they now sent to Macedon, offering to deliver Epirus to Perseus. 5a Upon arrival of the consul Hostilius in Epirus from Rome, Theodotus and Philostratus, the chief partisans of Perseus, plotted to betray him to the king. But while they were still urgently summoning Perseus, Hostilius, whose suspicions had been aroused, departed by night, and Perseus, arriving too late, failed to capture him.
§ 30.6.1 During the siege of Abdera, Eumenes, despairing of carrying the city by storm, sent secretly to a certain Python, a man of the highest esteem among the Abderites, who with two hundred of his own slaves and freedmen was defending the key position. By beguiling him with promises they gained entrance within the walls through his assistance and took the city. Python the traitor, though moderately rewarded, had ever present to his mind's eye the vision of his country's devastation, and lived out the remainder of his days in despair and regret. Chap. 7.1: before Chap. 1.
§ 30.7.2 Andronicus, who assassinated the son of Seleucus and who was in turn put to death, willingly lent himself to an impious and terrible crimes, only to share the same fate as his victim.
§ 30.7.3 For it is the practice of potentates to save themselves from danger at the expense of their friends.
§ 30.8.1 Prudently and always alert to the needs of the moment, the senate took in hand a revision of its benevolences. For when Perseus, proving unexpectedly defiant, prolonged the war to a stalemate, many Greeks had high hopes. The senate, however, by constantly renewed acts of generosity towards the Greeks exerted a contrary influence, and on each occasion made a bid for the support of the masses. What man of affairs who aspires to leadership could fail to admire this? What intelligent historian would pass over without comment the sagacity of the senate? Indeed, one might reasonably conclude that Rome's mastery over most of mankind was achieved by means of just such refinements of policy. This justifies the observation that harmonious adaptation to all occasions — connivance at some things, the turning of a deaf ear to some reports, the timely restraint of some impulse of blind rage, or, laying aside considerations of national dignity and power to pay court to inferiors while paving the way for some success later — that such adaptation indicates consummate excellence in the individual, superb realism in the deliberating body, and virtue and intelligence in the state. All this the Roman senate of those days did, and thereby left, as it were, models and patterns for all who strive for empire and have the imagination to see how necessary it is to deal with problems in the light of circumstances.
§ 30.9.1 Perseus sent envoys to Gentius, king of the Illyrians and their most powerful chieftain at this time, proposing that they take concerted action. When Gentius asserted that he was quite willing to fight against the Romans but lacked money, Perseus again sent to him, turning, however, a deaf ear to the subject of money. On receiving the same reply he sent a third time, and though well aware what was in Gentius' mind he affected not to be, and said that if their undertaking turned out as planned he would give him ample satisfaction.
§ 30.9.2 Perseus, being still unwilling to advance money, again dispatched envoys to Gentius, saying not a word about an immediate gift of money but hinting at great things that he might expect upon the successful completion of their business. It is a nice problem whether we should consider such evasiveness stupidity or downright madness on the part of men who act thus. They set their hand to great enterprises and place their own lives in jeopardy, yet overlook the one thing that is really essential, even though they themselves see the point and have it in their power to meet the need. Assuredly Philip, the son of Amyntas, a real master of statecraft, never was sparing of money in such circumstances; on the contrary, by handing out more than was requested, he always found a ready and abundant supply of traitors and allies. Consequently, although he was at first among the least of the kings of Europe, he left at his death a power that enabled his successor, Alexander, to conquer most of the inhabited world. Perseus, however, though the possessor of great treasures, amassed over many years by his ancestors and by Perseus himself, was utterly unwilling to touch them, with the result that he stripped himself of allies and further enriched those who later conquered him. Yet it was evident to all that had he only chosen to be open-handed, his money would have persuaded many monarchs and peoples to become his allies. Actually we may be thankful that he did not do so, since, if he had, more Greeks would have been involved with him in the disaster of defeat, or else he would have become master of all and won for himself a position of proud authority and of well-nigh irresistible influence.
§ 30.10.1 Perseus, though Fortune had given him a golden opportunity to wipe out the Roman army, stayed on near Dium in Macedonia; he was not far from the place of action, but he weakly neglected the most important issues. Indeed, it would have taken only a shout and a bugle call to make captives of the enemy's whole army, enclosed as it was among cliffs and gorges from which escape was difficult. But since he had been so heedless, the Macedonians encamped on the mountain ridges were also slack about guards and patrols.
§ 30.10.2 While Perseus, at Dium, was busy with the care of his person, one of his bodyguards, bursting into the bath, announced that the enemy were upon them. The king was so distraught that as he sprang from his bath he smote his thigh furiously and exclaimed: "Ye gods above, do you then deliver us to the foe ignominiously, without time even to form our battle order?"
§ 30.11.1 Perseus, thinking that all was completely lost, and utterly crushed in spirit, dispatched Nicon, his treasurer, with orders to cast into the sea the treasures and money that were at Phacus, and sent his bodyguard Andronicus to Thessalonica, with orders to set fire to the dockyards instantly. Andronicus, showing himself wiser than his master, went to Thessalonica but did not carry out his orders, thinking . . . for the Romans to gain a complete triumph.
§ 30.11.2 Perseus also pulled down the gilded statues at Dium, and taking with him the whole population, women and children included, removed to Pydna. No greater mistake is to be found among his acts.
§ 30.12.1 The Romans turned and put their victors to flight. Sometimes, in fact, the courage born of desperation brings even an utterly hopeless situation to a conclusion that would have seemed impossible.
§ 30.13.1 The people of Cydonia carried out an action that was monstrous and utterly foreign to Greek custom. In time of peace and while enjoying the position of trusted friends, they seized the city of Apollonia, killed all the men and youths, and dividing among themselves the women and children, occupied the city.
§ 30.14.1 Though Antiochus was in a position to slaughter the defeated Egyptians, he rode about calling to his men not to kill them, but to take them alive. Before long he reaped the fruits of his shrewdness, since this act of generosity contributed very greatly to his seizure of Pelusium, and later to the acquisition of all Egypt.
§ 30.15.1 The ministers of the young Ptolemy, Eulaeus the eunuch and the Syrian Lenaeus, resorted to every possible means and device, and piled up gold, silver, and all other kinds of wealth in the royal treasury. Small wonder, then, if, through the efforts of such men, such great spectacles were set up in so brief a space of time, nor yet that one who was a eunuch and had only recently laid aside comb and scentpots should exchange the service of Aphrodite for the contests of Ares, or that he who was born a slave in Coele Syria, and from whose hands the abacus had just fallen, should have dared to take upon his shoulders the war for Syria, notwithstanding that Antiochus was second to none in the strength of his armies and his resources in general. What is more, the men who undertook these great tasks were completely without experience of warfare and battles, and they lacked even a single competent adviser or capable commander. They themselves, as might be expected, soon met with the punishment that their folly deserved, and they brought the kingdom to utter ruin as far as it was in their power to do so. It is our aim in emphasizing these and similar events to provide an accurate estimate of the causes of success and failure. We both apportion praise to those whose conduct of affairs is excellent, and denounce those whose management is faulty. We bring into clear view the principles, both good and gad, by which men live and act, and by rendering a proper account of each we direct the minds of our readers to the emulation of what is good; at the same time, to the best of our ability we make our history fruitful and useful to all men, since a bare narrative of naval battles, military engagements, and legislation too, is no better than so much fiction.
§ 30.16.1 The regents of Ptolemy, having summoned the populace to an assembly, promised to bring the war to a speedy end. In this at least they were not in error, since they swiftly succeeded in putting an end both to the war and to themselves. Because of their inexperience, however, they entertained such high hopes of gaining not only Syria but even the whole realm of Antiochus, that they took with them the greater part of the treasures they had amassed, including the goldware from the sideboard. They also packed up and took along from the palace a number of couches, mostly with silver feet, but a few actually with feet of gold, as well as a large quantity of clothes, women's jewelry, and precious stones. These things, they declared, they were taking along for those who would then promptly surrender cities or fortresses to them. The outcome, however, was very different, and the treasures they carried off were a ready means to their own destruction.
§ 30.17.1 In keeping with our policy we could not pass over without comment the ignoble flight of Ptolemy. That he, though standing in no immediate danger and though separated by such a distance from his enemies, should at once and virtually without a struggle abandon his claim to a great and opulent throne, can only, it would seem, be regarded as indicating a thoroughly effeminate spirit. Now had Ptolemy been a man endowed by Nature with such a spirit, we might perhaps have found fault with her. But since Nature finds a sufficient rebuttal to the charge in his subsequent actions and has demonstrated that the king was second to none whether in firmness to resist or in energy to act, we are forced to assign the responsibility for his ignoble cowardice on this occasion to the eunuch and to Ptolemy's close association with him. For he, by rearing the lad from boyhood amid luxury and womanish pursuits, had been undermining his character.
§ 30.18.1 Antiochus showed himself a true statesman, and a man worthy of the royal dignity, except in the stratagem that he employed at Pelusium.
§ 30.18.2 Antiochus got possession of Pelusium by means of a questionable bit of strategy. For though all warfare is an exception to humane standards of law and justice, even so it has certain quasi-laws of its own: a truce, for example, may not be broken; heralds must not be put to death; a man who has placed himself under the protection of a superior opponent may not be visited with punishment or vengeance. These and similar matters . . . one might fairly say that Antiochus, in making the seizure after the truce, rather like a pettifogging lawyer held fast to the letter of the law but not to justice and honour, which are bonds of social life. For on the grounds of kinship he should, as he said himself, have spared the lad, but on the contrary after winning his confidence he deceived him and sought to bring him to utter ruin.
§ 30.19.1 Maedice, urging them to proceed with all speed. The leader of the Gauls consented but demanded that his men be paid a fixed stipend, amounting in all to five hundred talents. Perseus agreed to pay this, but when through avarice he failed to carry out the agreement, the Gauls returned again to their own land.
§ 30.20.1 Aemilius the Roman, on taking command of the army, called together his men and exhorted them to be of good cheer. He was about sixty years old, and because of his earlier exploits he was at this time held in the highest esteem at Rome. In this war also he originated many novel devices, things that would have eluded the invention of other men, and by his personal shrewdness and audacity he defeated the Macedonians.
§ 30.21.1 Perseus, wishing to induce more of his men to join him in flight and sail with him, set before them treasure to the value of sixty talents and allowed whoever would to seize it. But after he had put to sea and reached Galepsus, he announced to those who had taken the property that he was seeking certain objects made from the spoils captured by Alexander. Promising to make full compensation to those who restored these objects to him, he asked for their immediate return. The men all complied with a will, but when he had recovered the objects, he cheated the donors of their promised reward.
§ 30.21.2 Perseus, after recovering the treasures that he had allowed his men to seize, defrauded the donors of their promised reward, thereby providing most palpable proof that avarice, in addition to the other ills that it brings in its train, also deprives men of their wits. Indeed, his failure to forget profit and the desire for gain, even when the outlook was desperate, can only be regarded as the conduct of a man completely out of his senses. It is not surprising, then, that the Macedonians were defeated by the Romans, but only that with such a leader they held out for four years.
§ 30.21.3 Alexander and Perseus were not at all alike in temperament. The former, with a greatness of mind that matched his personal aspirations, won for himself an empire; the latter, however, who from petty meanness alienated the Celts — a pattern of conduct that he followed consistently — brought down an ancient and mighty kingdom.
§ 30.21.4 When Darius, after the first battle, proposed to give up a portion of his empire and offered Alexander forty thousand talents and the hand of his daughter in marriage, he received the reply that the universe could not be governed by two suns nor the world by two masters.
§ 30.22.1 After Perseus fled, Aemilius began to look for his younger son, Publius Africanus. He was by birth the son of Aemilius but by adoption the grandson of Scipio, the conqueror of Hannibal, and was now a mere lad of about seventeen; from early youth he was present at those great battles, and gained such experience of warfare that he became a man not inferior to his grandfather. None the less, when he was found (and brought safely) into the camp the consul's anxiety was dispelled, for his feeling for the boy was not merely that of a father for his son, but something like the passion of a lover.
§ 30.23.1 The consul Aemilius, taking Perseus by the hand, seated him in the midst of his council, and with words appropriate to the occasion offered him consolation and reassurance. Then, addressing the members of the council, he exhorted them, especially the younger men, to mark well the present scene and, keeping the fate of Perseus before their eyes, never to boast of their achievements improperly, never to harbour arrogant designs towards anyone, nor, in general, to take their good fortune for granted at any time. Indeed, whenever a man's success was greatest, whether in private life or public affairs, then above all should he reflect on the reverses of fortune and be most mindful of his mortal nature. "Fools," he said, "differ from the wise in this respect, that the former are schooled by their own misfortunes, the latter by the misfortunes of others." Having discoursed at length in this vein he made those present at the council so sympathetic and humble of mood that it seemed as if they, and not their opponents, had suffered defeat.
§ 30.23.2 Aemilius, by his generous treatment of Perseus — admitting him to the mess and giving him a place in the council — demonstrated to all men that he was stern towards those who stood against him, but considerate of a defeated foe. Since there were others also who affected a similar attitude, Rome's world-wide rule brought her no odium so long as she had such men to direct her empire.
§ 30.24.1 The Rhodian envoys agreed that they had come in order to mediate a settlement, since war, they declared, was harmful to everyone.
§ 31.1.1 Antiochus at first put up a fine front, asserting that no thought of taking the throne of Egypt lay behind his extensive military preparations, and that his only motive was to assist the elder Ptolemy in securing the position that was his by right of inheritance. This was by no means true; on the contrary, he conceived that by presiding over a dispute between the youths and so making an investment in goodwill he should conquer Egypt without a blow. But when Fortune put his professions to the test and deprived him of the pretext he had alleged, he stood revealed as one of the many princes who count no point of honour more important than gain.
§ 31.2.1 As the Romans approached, Antiochus, after greeting them verbally from a distance, stretched out his hand in welcome. Popillius, however, who had in readiness the document in which the senate's decree was recorded, held it out and ordered Antiochus to read it. His purpose in acting thus, it was thought, was that he might avoid clasping the king's hand in friendship until it was evident from his decision whether he was, in fact, friend or foe. When the king, after reading the document, said that he would consult with his friends on these matters, Popillius, hearing this, acted in a manner that seemed offensive and arrogant in the extreme. Having a vinestock ready at hand, with the stick he drew a line about Antiochus, and directed him to give his answer in that circle.
§ 31.2.2 The king, astonished by what had taken place, and awed, too, by the majesty and might of Rome, found himself in a hopeless quandary, and on full consideration said that he would do all that the Romans proposed. Popillius and his colleagues then took his hand and greeted him cordially. Now the purport of the letter was that he must break off at once his war against Ptolemy. Pursuant to these instructions the king withdrew his forces from Egypt, panic-stricken by the superior might of Rome, the more so as he had just had news of the Macedonian collapse. Indeed, had he not known that this had taken place, never of his own free will would he have heeded the decree.
§ 31.3.1 It is then apparently true, as certain of the sages of old have declared, that forgiveness is preferable to revenge. We all, in fact, approve those who use their power with moderation, and we are offended by men who are quick to punish those who fall into their hands. Thus, too, we see that the former class of men have ready against the surprises of Fortune a rich store of goodwill laid up in the hearts of those to whom they have been gracious; the latter, however, whenever the situation is reversed, not only receive like vengeance from those towards whom they have been unfeeling, but find too that they have deprived themselves of the pity generally accorded to the fallen.
§ 31.3.2 Nor would it, indeed, be just that a man who has denied all humanity to others should himself, when he in turn stumbles and falls, meet with consideration from those who have him in their power. Yet many men have the temerity to pride themselves on the severity with which they avenge themselves on their foes, though this pride is ill founded. For what is splendid or great in inflicting irremediable disaster upon men whose fall has placed them in our power? What do victories profit us if in prosperity we behave with such arrogance that we cancel the fair fame that we had earlier by showing ourselves unworthy of our good fortune? Surely the honour that is gained by noble deeds is rightly considered the highest reward of men who aspire to control events.
§ 31.3.3 This being so, it is astonishing that while nearly all men acknowledge the truth and the utility of the principle that at first they acclaimed, they do not when it comes to a test endorse their own verdict. The proper course, I suggest, for men of intelligence would be to bear in mind, especially at the supreme moment of triumph, that the tables may be turned; and so, although by their courage they conquer the foe, yet on grounds of prudence they will surrender to pity for the victims of fortune. This does much to augment the influence of any man, but particularly that of the representatives of empire. For then each one of those whose strength is lost, yielding voluntary allegiance, gives eager service and is in all things a loyal collaborator.
§ 31.3.4 This principle the Romans have evidently taken much to heart. They are statesmanlike in their deliberations, and by conferring benefits on those whom they have defeated they seek to gain the undying gratitude of the recipients and the well-deserved praise of the rest of mankind.
§ 31.4.1 Since the tide of Fortune was running strongly in their favour the Romans gave careful attention to the question how to act in view of their successes. (Many suppose that a right use of victory) is easier than to subdue one's adversaries by force of arms. In point of fact, this is not true, for men who are brave in battle are to be found in greater numbers than men who are humane in seasons of prosperity.
§ 31.5.1 Just at this time envoys of the Thracians arrived in Rome to clear themselves of the allegations that had been made against them; for it was believed that during the war with Perseus their sympathies had inclined towards the king and that they had been disloyal to their friendship with Rome. Failing completely to achieve the purposes of their embassy, the envoys lost heart, and gave vent to tears as they made their petitions. Introduced before the senate by Antonius, one of the tribunes, Philophron spoke first on behalf of the delegation, and then Astymedes. At great length they pled for mercy and forgiveness, and at last, after having, as the saying goes, sung their swan-song, they only just managed to elicit a reply. This did indeed relieve them of their worst fears, though in it they were bitterly upbraided for their alleged offences. 3 Envoys of the Rhodians now arrived in Rome to clear themselves of the allegations that had been made against them. For it was believed that in the war with Perseus their sympathies had inclined towards the king and that they had been disloyal to their friendship with Rome. When the envoys perceived the coolness with which they were received, they lost heart; and when a certain praetor, convoking an assembly, urged the people to make war on Rhodes, they feared utter destruction for their country and were so dismayed that they put on mourning, and in appealing to their friends no longer spoke as advocates or claimants, but besought them with tears not to adopt measures fatal to Rhodes. When they were introduced before the senate by one of the tribunes, the same who had pulled from the Rostra the praetor who was urging to war, . . . made speeches. Only after many entreaties did they obtain an answer. This did indeed relieve them of their fear of total ruin, though they were subjected to bitter reproaches on the score of the particular charges. 2a These men presented their pleas and entreaties at great length, and at last, after having, as the saying goes, sung their swan-song, they only just managed to elicit a reply, which eased them of their fear. 2b They thought that they were now quit of the fears that had hung over them, and readily put up with all else, however distasteful. As a general rule, indeed, any enormity of anticipated suffering makes men think little of lesser misfortunes.
§ 31.6.1 Hence it is that among the Romans the most distinguished men are to be seen vying with one another for glory, and it is by their efforts that virtually all matters of chief moment to the people are brought to a successful issue. In other states men are jealous of one another, but the Romans praise their fellow citizens. The result is that the Romans, by rivalling one another in promotion of the common weal, achieve the most glorious successes, while other men, striving for an undeserved fame and thwarting one another's projects, inflict damage upon their countries.
§ 31.7.1 At about this same time envoys arrived in Rome from all quarters, to offer congratulations on the victory that had been won. The senate received them all courteously, briefly gave each a fair reply, and sent them off home. (Chap. 7.2: see after Chap. 17b).
§ 31.8.1 Earlier, when the Romans defeated Antiochus and Philip, the greatest monarchs of that age, they so far abstained from exacting vengeance that they not only allowed them to keep their kingdoms but even accepted them as friends. So, too, on this present occasion, notwithstanding their repeated struggles with Perseus and the many grave dangers that they had had to face, having now at last subjugated the kingdom of Macedon, contrary to all expectations they set the captured cities free. Not only would no one else have anticipated this but not even the Macedonians themselves had any hope of being accorded such consideration, having on their conscience many serious offences that they had committed against Rome. Indeed, since their earlier errors had been forgiven, they supposed, as well they might, that no just argument for pity or pardon was still available to them for these later shortcomings.
§ 31.8.2 The Roman senate, however, harboured no grudges but acted towards them with magnanimity, yet with due regard to the merits of the several cases. Perseus, for example, owed them an inherited debt of gratitude, and since in violation of his covenant he was the aggressor in an unjust war, they held him, after he became their prisoner, in "free custody," thereby exacting a punishment far less, certainly, than his crimes. The Macedonian people, whom they might in all justice have reduced to slavery, they set free, and they were so generous and so prompt in conferring this boon that they did not even wait for the defeated to petition them. Likewise with the Illyrians, to whom, once they had been subdued, they granted autonomy, less from any belief that the barbarians deserved their indulgence than from the conviction that it was fitting and proper for the Roman people to take the initiative in acts of beneficence and to avoid over-confidence in their day of power.
§ 31.8.3 The senate resolved that the Macedonians and the Illyrians should be free, and that they should pay one-half the amount that they formerly paid their own kings in taxes.
§ 31.8.4 Marcus Aemilius, consul of the Romans and a general of the highest ability, on taking Perseus prisoner placed him in "free custody," although Perseus had made war upon the Romans without just cause and in violation of his covenants. Moreover, to everyone's surprise he set free all the Macedonian and Illyrian cities that had been captured, despite the fact that the Romans had repeatedly faced grave dangers in the war against Perseus and, earlier still, had met and defeated Philip, his father, and Antiochus the Great, and had shown them such consideration as not only to permit them to retain their kingdoms but even to enjoy the friendship of Rome. Since in the sequel the Macedonians had behaved irresponsibly, they thought that they should have no title to mercy when, along with Perseus, they fell into the hands of the Romans. On the contrary the senate dealt with them in a forgiving and generous spirit, and instead of slavery bestowed freedom.
§ 31.8.5 In like manner they dealt with the Illyrians, whose king, Getion, they had taken prisoner along with Perseus. Having thus nobly bestowed the gift of freedom upon them, the Romans ordered them to pay one-half as much as they had formerly paid their own kings in taxes.
§ 31.8.6 They sent out ten commissioners from the senate to Macedonia, and five to the Illyrians, who met with Marcus Aemilius and agreed to dismantle the walls of Demetrias, the chief city of the Macedonians, to detach Amphilochia from Aitolia, and to bring together the prominent men of Macedon at a meeting: there they set them free and announced the removal of the garrisons.
§ 31.8.7 In addition, they cut off the revenues derived from the gold and silver mines, partly to keep the local inhabitants from being oppressed, and partly to prevent anyone from stirring up a revolution thereafter by using this wealth to get control of Macedon.
§ 31.8.8 The whole region they divided into four cantons: the first comprised the area between the Nestus River and the Strymon, the forts east of the Nestus (except those of Abdera, Maroneia, and Aenus), and, west of the Strymon, the whole of Bisaltica, together with Heracleia Sintica; the second, the area bounded on the east by the Strymon River, and on the west by the river called the Axius and the lands that border it; the third, the area enclosed on the west by the Peneus River, and on the north by Mt. Bernon, with the addition of some parts of Paeonia, including the notable cities of Edessa and Beroea; fourth and last, the area beyond Mt. Bernon, extending to Epirus and the districts of Illyria. Four cities were the capitals of the four cantons, Amphipolis of the first, Thessalonica of the second, Pella of the third, and Pelagonia of the fourth; here four governors were established and here the taxes were to be collected. Troops were stationed on the border regions of Macedonia because of the hostility of the neighbouring tribes. Subsequently Aemilius, after arranging splendid games and revelries for the assembled multitude, sent off to Rome whatever treasure had been discovered, and when he himself arrived, along with his fellow generals, he was ordered by the senate to enter the city in triumph.
§ 31.8.10 Anicius first, and Octavius, the commander of the fleet, celebrated each his triumph for a single day, but the very wise Aemilius celebrated his for three days. On the first day the procession opened with twelve hundred waggons filled with embossed white shields, then another twelve hundred filled with bronze shields, and three hundred more laden with lances, pikes, bows, and javelins; as in war, trumpeters led the way. There were many other waggons as well, carrying arms of various sorts, and eight hundred panoplies mounted on poles. On the second day there were carried in procession a thousand talents of coined money, twenty-two hundred talents of silver, a great number of drinking-cups, five hundred waggons loaded with divers statues of gods and men, and a large number of golden shields and dedicatory plaques. On the third day the procession was made up of one hundred and twenty choice white oxen, talents of gold conveyed in two hundred and twenty carriers, a ten-talent bowl of gold set with jewels, gold-work of all sorts to the value of ten talents, two hundred elephant tusks three cubits in length, an ivory chariot enriched with gold and precious stones, a horse in battle array with cheek-pieces set with jewels and the rest of its gear adorned with gold, a golden couch spread with flowered coverlets, and a golden palanquin with crimson curtains. Then came Perseus, the hapless king of the Macedonians, with his two sons, a daughter, and two hundred and fifty of his officers, four hundred garlands presented by the various cities and monarchs, and last of all, in a dazzling chariot of ivory, Aemilius himself.
§ 31.8.13 Aemilius remarked to those who were amazed at the care he devoted to the spectacle that to conduct games in proper fashion and to make suitable arrangements for a revelry call for the same qualities of mind that are needed to marshal one's forces with good strategy against an enemy.
§ 31.9.1 Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, whose relations with the Romans were often amicable, but who also repeatedly fought against them with a not inconsiderable army, was finally defeated and taken captive by Aemilius, who for this victory celebrated a magnificent triumph. The misfortunes that Perseus encountered were so great that his sufferings seem like the inventions of fiction, yet even so he was not willing to be quit of life. For before the senate had decided on the penalty he should suffer, one of the urban praetors had him cast with his children into the prison at Alba.
§ 31.9.2 This prison is a deep underground dungeon, no larger than a nine-couch room, dark, and noisome from the large numbers committed to the place, who were men under condemnation on capital charges, for most of this category were incarcerated there at that period. With so many shut up in such close quarters, the poor wretches were reduced to the physical appearance of brutes, and since their food and everything pertaining to their other needs was all foully commingled, a stench so terrible assailed anyone who drew near that it could scarcely be endured.
§ 31.9.3 There for seven days Perseus remained, in such sorry plight that he begged succour even from men of the meanest stamp, whose food was the prison ration. They, indeed, affected by the magnitude of his misfortune, in which they shared, wept and generously gave him a portion of whatever they received. A sword with which to kill himself was thrown down to him, and a noose for hanging, with full freedom to use them as he might wish.
§ 31.9.4 Nothing, however, seems so sweet to those who have suffered misfortune as life itself, even when their sufferings would warrant death. And at last he would have died under these deprivations had not Marcus Aemilius, leader of the senate, to maintain both his own principles and his country's code of equity, indignantly admonished the senate, even if they had nothing to fear from men, at least to respect the Nemesis that dogs those who arrogantly abuse their power.
§ 31.9.5 As a result, Perseus was placed in more suitable custody, and, because of the senate's kindness, sustained himself by vain hopes, only to meet at last an end that matched his earlier misfortunes. For after clinging to life for two years, he offended the barbarians who were his guards, and was prevented from sleeping until he died of it.
§ 31.10.1 While the kingdom of the Macedonians was at its height, Demetrius of Phalerum, in his treatise On Fortune, as if he were a true prophet of its future, aptly made this inspired pronouncement: "If," he said, "you were to consider, not some limitless expanse of time nor yet many generations, but merely these fifty years just past, you would perceive therein the inscrutability of Fortune. Fifty years ago, do you think that the Persians or the king of the Persians, the Macedonians or the king of the Macedonians, if some god had foretold the future, would ever have believed that at this moment not even the name of the Persians, who were then the masters of well-nigh the whole inhabited world, would still survive, and that the Macedonians, whose very name was formerly unknown, would indeed rule all?
§ 31.10.2 But nevertheless Fortune, who with her unforeseeable effect upon our lives disappoints our calculations by her shifts and demonstrates her power by marvellous and unexpected events, is now also, in my opinion, pointing much the same moral — that in seating the Macedonians on the throne of the Persians she has but lent them her riches to be used until such time as she changes her mind about them." The fulfilment came to pass in the period with which we are now concerned. Accordingly I judge it my duty to make some comment appropriate to this situation, and to recall the statement of Demetrius, an utterance of more than human inspiration. For a hundred and fifty years in advance he foretold what was to occur.
§ 31.11.1 The two sons of Aemilius having suddenly died, to the great grief of the entire populace, their father called a public assembly, where, after giving a defence of his actions in the war, he concluded his address with the following remarks. He said, namely, that after seeing the sun rise as he was about to begin transporting his army from Italy to Greece, he had then made the voyage, and at the ninth hour, without a single loss, had put in at Corcyra; thence on the fourth day he had offered sacrifice to the god at Delphi; five days later had arrived in Macedonia and taken command of the forces; and within a total of fifteen days had forced the pass at Petra, given battle, and defeated Perseus. In sum, though it was then the fourth year of the king's defiance of the Romans, he, Aemilius, had subdued the whole of Macedon in the aforesaid number of days.
§ 31.11.2 Even at the time, he said, he marvelled at the unexpectedness of his victories, and when, shortly thereafter, he captured the king, his children, and the royal treasure, he marvelled even more at the favourable tide of fortune. When, further, the treasure and his soldiers were conveyed safely and swiftly across to Italy, he was utterly puzzled by the fact that the whole affair was being brought to an end so much more fortunately than he had expected. But when all men joined in rejoicing with him, and felicitated him on his good fortune, then above all did he look for some calamity from destiny, and therefore he implored the god that the reversal might not in any way affect the state, but rather, if it was certainly the divine pleasure to bring some hardship to pass, that the burden might fall on him.
§ 31.11.3 Accordingly, as soon as this misfortune touching his sons took place, while it was a matter of deep grief to him, yet with regard to the state and its concerns he was now reassured, inasmuch as Fortune had visited her recoil and her malice, not upon the citizen body, but on his own person. As he said this, the whole people marvelled at his greatness of soul, and their sympathy at his loss was increased many times over.
§ 31.12.1 After the defeat of Perseus, King Eumenes experienced great and unexpected reverses. For whereas he assumed that his dominion was securely established, now that the kingdom most hostile to him had been broken up, at this very time he ran into very grave dangers. Fortune is indeed given to overturning such institutions as seem to be securely established, and again, if ever she lends a helping hand to a man, she redresses the balance by shifting, and so mars his record of success.
§ 31.13.1 The general of the barbarous Gauls, returning from his pursuit, gathered the prisoners together and perpetrated an act of utter inhumanity and arrogance. Those of the prisoners who were most handsome in appearance and in the full bloom of life he crowned with garlands and offered in sacrifice to the gods — if indeed there be any god who accepts such offerings; all the rest he had shot down, and though many of them were acquaintances known to him through prior exchanges of hospitality, yet no one received pity on the score of friendship. It is really not surprising, however, that savages, in the flush of unexpected success, should celebrate their good fortune with inhuman behaviour.
§ 31.14.1 Eumenes, having recruited a force of mercenary troops, not only gave all of them their pay, but honoured some with gifts and beguiled them all with promises, evoking their goodwill; in this he did not at all resemble Perseus. For Perseus, when twenty thousand Gauls arrived to join him in the war against Rome, alienated this great body of allies in order to husband his wealth. Eumenes, however, though not over rich, when enlisting foreign troops honoured with gifts all who were best able to render him service. Accordingly, the former, by adopting a policy, not of royal generosity, but of ignoble and plebeian meanness, saw the wealth he had guarded taken captive together with his whole kingdom, while the latter, by counting all things else second to victory, not only rescued his kingdom from great dangers but also subjugated the whole nation of the Gauls.
§ 31.15.1 Prusias, king of Bithynia, also came to congratulate the senate and the generals who had brought the conflict to a successful issue. This man's ignobility of spirit must not be allowed to go without comment. For when the virtue of good men is praised, many in later generations are guided to strive for a similar goal; and when the poltroonery of meaner men is held up to reproach, not a few who are taking the path of vice are turned aside. Accordingly the frank language of history should of set purpose be employed for the improvement of society.
§ 31.15.2 Prusias was a man unworthy of the royal dignity, and throughout his entire life continually engaged in abject flattery of those above him. Once, for example, when visited by a Roman embassy, he laid aside the insignia of royalty, the diadem and the purple, and in imitation of newly emancipated freedmen at Rome went to meet the envoys with shaven head and wearing a white cap, a toga, and Roman shoes; having greeted them, he declared that he was a freedman of the Romans. A more ignoble remark it would be difficult to imagine.
§ 31.15.3 Much else in his earlier behaviour was in the same vein, and now also, when he reached the entrance leading into the senate chamber, he stood in the doorway facing the senators, and lowering both hands kissed the threshold in obeisance and greeted the seated members with the words: "Hail, ye saviour gods," thereby achieving unsurpassable depths of unmanly fawning and effeminate behaviour. In keeping with this conduct was the speech that he delivered before the senate, in which he related things of such a nature that it is not fitting for us even to record them. The senate, offended by most of his remarks, and forming an unfavourable impression of Prusias, gave him the answer that his flattery deserved. For the Romans desire even the enemies whom they conquer to be men of high spirit and bravery. 15a Dionysius, also called Petosarapis, one of the "Friends" of Ptolemy, attempted to win control of the state for himself, and thus brought the kingdom into great danger. Wielding, as he did, the greatest influence of anyone at court, and being without a peer among his fellow Egyptians on the field of battle, he scorned both the kings because of their youth and inexperience. Pretending that he had been urged by the elder to shed kindred blood, he spread word among the populace to the effect that a plot against the younger Ptolemy was being hatched by his brother. 2 The populace assembled in haste at the stadium, and when they had all been aroused to such a pitch that they were preparing to kill the elder brother and entrust the kingdom to the younger, word of the disturbance having now been brought to the court, the king summoned his brother, and protesting his innocence with tears in his eyes, begged him not to give credence to one who was seeking to usurp the royal power, and who treated them both as too young to matter; in case, however, his brother still harboured any doubts and apprehensions, he urged him to accept at his own hand the diadem and the rule. 3 The youth at once cleared his brother of any suspicion, and both of them, donning their royal robes, went out and appeared before the populace, making it manifest to one and all that they were in harmony. Dionysius, on failing in his attempt, placed himself out of reach, and at first, sending messages to those soldiers who were ripe for rebellion, he sought to persuade them to share his hopes; then, withdrawing to Eleusis, he welcomed all who decided in favour of the revolution, and when a band of turbulent soldiers some four thousand strong had been assembled . . .
§ 31.15.4 The king marched out against them and was victorious, slaying some and putting others to flight; Dionysius himself was obliged to swim naked across the flowing river and to withdraw into the interior, where he tried to incite the masses to revolt. Being a man of action and finding himself popular with the Egyptians, he soon enlisted many who were willing to share his fortunes.
§ 31.16.1 Certain of the enterprises and acts of Antiochus were kingly and altogether admirable, while others again were so cheap and so tawdry as to bring upon him the utter scorn of all mankind. For example, in celebrating his festal games he adopted, in the first place, a policy contrary to that of the other kings. They, while strengthening their kingdoms both in arms and in wealth, as far as possible tried to conceal their intentions because of the superiority of Rome. He, however, taking the opposite approach, brought together at his festival the most distinguished men from virtually the whole world, adorned all parts of his capital in magnificent fashion, and having assembled in one spot, and, as it were, put upon the stage his entire kingdom, left them ignorant of nothing that concerned him.
§ 31.16.2 In putting on these lavish games and this stupendous festival Antiochus outdid all earlier rivals. Yet for him personally to manage the affair was a shabby business, worthy of contempt. He would, for example, ride at the side of the procession on a sorry nag, ordering these men to advance, those to halt, and assigning others to their posts, as occasion required; consequently, but for the diadem, no one who did not already know him would have believed that this person was the king, lord of the whole domain, seeing that his appearance was not even that of an average subordinate. At the drinking parties, stationing himself at the entrance he would lead some of the guests in, seat others at their places, and assign to their posts the attendants who were serving food. Continuing in the same vein he would, on occasion, approach the banqueters, and sometimes sit down, sometimes recline beside them; then, laying aside his cup or tossing away his sop, he would leap to his feet and move on, and making the rounds of the whole party accept toasts even while he stood and jested with the entertainers. Indeed once, when the merrymaking was well advanced and the greater part of the guests had already departed, he made an entrance, all bundled up and carried in procession by the mimes. Placed on the ground by his fellow actors, as soon as the symphony sounded his cue he leapt to his feet naked, and jesting with the mimes performed the kind of dances that usually provoke laughter and hoots of derision — to the great embarrassment of the company, who all left the party in haste. Each and every person, in fact, who attended the festival found that when he regarded the extravagance of the outlay and the general management and administration of the games and processions, he was astounded, and that he admired both the king and the kingdom; when, however, he focused his attention on the king himself and his unacceptable behaviour, he could not believe that it was possible for such excellence and such baseness to exist in one and the same character.
§ 31.17.1 After the games had ended, the embassy of Gracchus arrived to investigate the kingdom. The king held friendly conversations with them, with the result that they caught no hint of intrigue on his part, nor anything to indicate such enmity as might be expected to exist covertly after the rebuff that he had received in Egypt. His true policy was not, however, what it appeared to be; on the contrary he was deeply disaffected toward the Romans. 17a Artaxes, the king of Armenia, broke away from Antiochus, founded a city named after himself, and assembled a powerful army. Antiochus, whose strength at this period was unmatched by any of the other kings, marched against him, was victorious, and reduced him to submission.
§ 31.17b Still another uprising occurred in the Thebaid, where an urge to revolt swept over the populace. King Ptolemy, moving against them in force, easily regained control of the rest of the Thebaid. But the city known as Panopolis stands upon an ancient mound and by reason of its inaccessibility was reputed to be secure; hence the most active of the rebels assembled there. Ptolemy, (observing?) the desperation of the Egyptians and the strength of the place, prepared to besiege it, and after undergoing every kind of hardship captured the city. Then, having punished the ringleaders, he returned to Alexandria. 7. 2 At about this time many embassies having arrived, the senate dealt first with that headed by Attalus. For the Romans were suspicious of Eumenes because of the correspondence that had come to light, in which he had contracted an alliance with Perseus against Rome. Since charges had also been levelled at him by a good many of the envoys from Asia, in particular those sent out by King Prusias and by the Gauls, Attalus and his companions did all in their power to refute the charges, point by point, and not only cleared themselves of these calumnies but returned home laden with honours. The senate, however, did not entirely abate its suspicion of Eumenes, but appointed and sent out Gaius to look into his affairs. Chaps. 8 17: see above, after Chap. 7.1.
§ 31.18.1 As King Ptolemy, now in exile, was approaching Rome on foot, Demetrius the son of Seleucus recognized him, and shocked by his strange plight, gave a truly royal and magnificent example of his own character. For he prepared at once a royal costume and diadem, and in addition a valuable horse with trappings of gold, and with his family went out to meet Ptolemy. Encountering him at a distance of two hundred stades from the city and giving him a friendly salute, he urged him to adorn himself with the insignia of kingship, and make an entrance into Rome worthy of his rank, so that he might not be thought a person of no account whatever. Ptolemy appreciated his zeal, but was so far from accepting any part of the offer that he even asked Demetrius to remain behind in one of the towns along the way, and wanted Archias and the others to remain with him.
§ 31.18.2 Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, having been driven from the kingdom by his own brother, repaired to Rome in the miserable garb of a commoner, accompanied by but one eunuch and three slaves. Discovering while still on the way the address of Demetrius the topographer, he sought him out and lodged with him, a man whom he had often entertained when he was resident in Alexandria; now, because rents at Rome were so high, he was living in a small and altogether shabby garret.
§ 31.18.3 In the light of this, who, pray, would put his faith in the things that the multitude consider good, or would regard as enviable those whose good fortune is more than average? Indeed, it would be hard to find a change in fortune sharper and greater than this, or a reversal so unexpected. For no cause or occasion worth mentioning, his high and kingly estate was brought down to the lowly fortune of a commoner, and he who commanded all those thousands of free men of a sudden had only three servants left him from the shipwreck of his personal fortune. 18a Polybius and Diodorus, the authors of the Historical Libraries, relate that he not only opposed the god in Judea but also, inflamed by the fires of avarice, tried to despoil the temple of Artemis, which was very rich, in Elymais. But thwarted by the guardians of the temple, and by the neighbouring peoples, he was driven mad by certain apparitions and terrors, and finally died of disease; and they state that this happened to him because he attempted to violate the temple of Artemis. Chap. 19: see below, after Chap. 17c.
§ 31.20.1 After Antipater died of torture, they carried off Asclepiades, the prefect of the city, loudly protesting that Timotheus was the author of this tragedy and that it was he who had provoked the youth to take unjust and impious vengeance upon his brother. As the populace from this point on was little by little becoming aware of the utter knavery of their leaders and was beginning to regard the hapless victims with pity, Timotheus and his associates, alarmed, put an end to their torture of the rest of the accused and had them done away with in private. Chap. 18: see above, after Chap. 7.2. 17c After the assassination of Timotheus the populace . . . and being disgusted at Alexandria with the king for his shameless treatment of his brother, stripped him of his royal retinue and sent to recall the elder Ptolemy from Cyprus.
§ 31.19.1 The kings of Cappadocia say that they trace their ancestry back to Cyrus the Persian, and also assert that they are descendants of one of the seven Persians who did away with the Magus. Now as to their connection with Cyrus, they count as follows. Cambyses the father of Cyrus had a sister, of legitimate birth, Atossa. To her and Pharnaces, king of Cappadocia, was born a son, Gallus; his son was Smerdis, his Artamnes, and his Anaphas, a man of outstanding bravery and daring, who was one of the seven Persians.
§ 31.19.2 Such then is the pedigree they trace for their kinship with Cyrus and with Anaphas, to whom, they say, because of his valour the satrapy of Cappadocia was granted, with the understanding that no tribute would be paid to the Persians. After his death a son of the same name ruled. When he died, leaving two sons, Datames and Arimnaeus, Datames succeeded to the throne, a man who both in war and in the other spheres of royal duty won praise, and who, engaging the Persians in battle, fought brilliantly and died in battle. The kingdom passed to his son Ariamnes, whose sons were Ariarathes and Holophernes; Ariamnes ruled for fifty years and died without achieving anything worthy of note.
§ 31.19.3 The throne passed to Ariarathes (I), the elder of his sons, who is said to have loved his brother with a surpassing love, and promoted him to the most prominent positions: thus he was sent to aid the Persians in their war against the Egyptians, and returned home laden with honours, which Ochus, the Persian king, bestowed for bravery; he died in his native land, leaving two sons, Ariarathes and Aryses.
§ 31.19.4 Now his brother, the king of Cappadocia, having no legitimate offspring of his own, adopted Ariarathes, the elder son of his brother. At about this time Alexander of Macedon defeated and overthrew the Persians, and then died; Perdiccas, who at this point held the supreme command, dispatched Eumenes to be military governor of Cappadocia. Ariarathes (I) was defeated, and fell in battle, and Cappadocia itself and the neighbouring regions fell to the Macedonians.
§ 31.19.5 Ariarathes (II), the son of the late king, regarding the situation as hopeless for the present, retired with a few followers to Armenia. Not long after, Eumenes and Perdiccas having died, and Antigonus and Seleucus being elsewhere engaged, he obtained an army from Ardoates, king of Armenia, slew Amyntas, the Macedonian general, expelled the Macedonians from the land in short order, and recovered his original domain.
§ 31.19.6 Of his three sons Ariamnes, the eldest, inherited the kingdom; he arranged a marital alliance with Antiochus (called Theos), whose daughter Stratonice he married to his eldest son Ariarathes (III). And being a man unusually devoted to his children, he placed the diadem upon his son's head, made him joint ruler, and shared with him on equal terms all the privileges of kingship. On his father's death, Ariarathes became sole ruler, and when he departed this life left the kingdom to his son Ariarathes (IV), who was then a mere infant.
§ 31.19.7 He in turn married a daughter of Antiochus (surnamed the Great), Antiochis by name, an utterly unscrupulous woman. Failing to have children, she palmed off on her unwitting husband two supposititious sons, Ariarathes and Holophernes. After a certain time, however, she ceased to be barren and unexpectedly bore two daughters and a single son, named Mithridates. Thereupon, after revealing the truth to her husband, she arranged for the elder of the supposititious sons to be sent off to Rome with a suitable stipend, and the younger to Ionia, in order to avoid any dispute with the legitimate son over the kingdom. He, they say, changed his name to Ariarathes (V) after he grew to manhood, received a Greek education, and won commendation as well for other merits.
§ 31.19.8 Now because he was such a filial son, his father made a point of taking a parental interest in return, and their regard for one another reached such a point that the father was bent on retiring from the throne altogether in favour of his son, while the son declared that it was impossible for him to accept this kind of favour while his parents yet lived. But when the fatal day came for his father, he inherited the kingdom, and by his whole way of life, and especially by his devotion to philosophy, showed himself worthy of the highest praise; and thus it was that Cappadocia, so long unknown to the Greeks, offered at this time a place of sojourn to men of culture. This king also renewed with Rome the treaty of alliance and friendship. So much, then, for the descent from Cyrus of the dynasty which to this point ruled over Cappadocia.
§ 31.19.9 Seven kings of Cappadocia, whose dynasty lasted one hundred and sixty years, began at about this time, as Diodorus writes.
§ 31.21.1 Ariarathes, surnamed Philopator, on succeeding to his ancestral kingdom, first of all gave his father a magnificent burial. Then, when he had duly attended to the interests of his friends, of those in positions of authority, and of the other subordinate officials, he succeeded in winning great favour with the populace.
§ 31.22.1 After Ariarathes had restored Mithrobuzanes to his ancestral domain, Artaxias, the king of Armenia, abating not a whit his original rapacity sent envoys to Ariarathes, urging him to make common cause with him, and proposing that they should each put to death the young man who was at his court, and divide Sophene between them. Ariarathes, to whom such villainy was completely foreign, rebuked the envoys and wrote to Artaxias, urging him to abstain from such actions. When this result was achieved, Ariarathes in consequence enhanced his own reputation in no slight degree, while Mithrobuzanes, thanks to the admirable good faith and nobility of his sponsor, succeeded to the throne of his fathers. 19a Ptolemaeus, the governor of Commagene, who even before had shown little respect for the Syrian kings, now asserted his independence, and because they were busy with their own affairs, established himself without interference in control of the country, being chiefly emboldened by its natural advantages for defence. Not satisfied with this gain, he raised an army and invaded Melitene, which belonged to Cappadocia and was subject to Ariarathes, and he won an initial success by occupying the points of vantage. When Ariarathes, however, marched against him with a strong force, he withdrew into his own province.
§ 31.23.1 Envoys arrived in Rome both from the younger Ptolemy and from the elder. An audience before the senate having been granted them, the senate, after hearing both sides out, decreed that the envoys of the elder Ptolemy must leave Italy within not more than five days, that their alliance with him was at an end, and that legates should be sent to the younger Ptolemy to inform him of the senate's goodwill and of their instructions to his brother.
§ 31.24.1 Because certain young men paid a talent for a male favourite and three hundred Attic drachmas for a jar of Pontic pickled fish, Marcus Porcius Cato, a man held in high esteem, declared before an assembly of the people that they could very readily discern herein the turn for the worse in men's conduct and in the state, when favourites were sold at a higher price than farm lands, and a jar of pickled fish than teamsters.
§ 31.25.1 Aemilius, the conqueror of Perseus, who held the office of censor and excelled his fellow citizens in nearly every virtuous capacity, at this time died. As the report of his death spread abroad and the time his funeral drew near, the entire city was so moved by grief that not only did the labouring men and the rest of the common people assemble with alacrity, but even the magistrates and the senate laid aside the affairs of state. Equally, too, from all the towns round about Rome, wherever they were able to arrive in time, the inhabitants almost to a man came down to Rome, eager both to witness the spectacle and to pay honour to the deceased.
§ 31.25.2 Diodorus, in his account of the funeral of Lucius Aemilius, the conqueror of Perseus, states that it was conducted with the utmost splendour, and adds the following passage: "Those Romans who by reason of noble birth and the fame of their ancestors are pre-eminent are, when they die, portrayed in figures that are not only lifelike as to features but show their whole bodily appearance. For they employ actors who through a man's whole life have carefully observed his carriage and the several peculiarities of his appearance. In like fashion each of the dead man's ancestors takes his place in the funeral procession, with such robes and insignia as enable the spectators to distinguish from the portrayal how far each had advanced in the cursus honorum and had had a part in the dignities of the state."
§ 31.26.1 This same Aemilius in departing this life left behind him a reputation for character equal to that which he had enjoyed while living. For though he had brought to Rome, from Spain, more gold than any of his contemporaries, had had in his possession the fabulous treasures of Macedonia, and had had unlimited powers in the said cases, he so completely abstained from appropriating any of this money that after his death his sons, whom he had given in adoption, on receiving their inheritance were unable to pay off from the whole of his personal property the dowry of his widow, except by selling some of the real property as well.
§ 31.26.2 Hence it seemed to many that in freedom from avarice he had outdone even those who were the marvel of Greece in this respect, Aristeides and Epaminondas. For they had refused gifts whenever the offer was made in the interest of the donors, but he, with full power to take as much as he wanted, had coveted nothing. Now if this statement seems incredible to some, they should take into account the fact that we cannot properly judge the freedom of the ancients from avarice by the dishonest greed of present-day Romans. For in our lifetime this people has, it appears, acquired a strong tendency to want more and more.
§ 31.26.3 Having just now called a good man to mind, I wish to speak briefly of the training of the Scipio who later destroyed Numantia, so that his success in after years may not appear incredible to some through ignorance of his youthful concern with the most noble pursuits.
§ 31.26.4 Publius Scipio was by blood, as has already been stated, the son of the Aemilius who triumphed over Perseus, but having been given in adoption to Scipio, the son of the conqueror of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, he had as his adoptive grandfather Scipio, surnamed Africanus, the greatest Roman down to his own day. Sprung from such stock, and succeeding to a family and clan of such importance, he showed himself worthy of the fame of his ancestors.
§ 31.26.5 For having had from childhood up extensive training in Greek studies, he now, on attaining the age of eighteen in this year, devoted himself to philosophy, taking as his tutor Polybius of Megalopolis, the author of the Histories. Living in constant association with him, and proving a zealous adept of every virtue, he far outstripped not only his peers in age but all his elders as well in temperance, in nobility of character, in magnanimity, and generally in all good qualities.
§ 31.26.6 Yet earlier, before applying himself to philosophy, he was generally regarded as a sluggard and no adequate successor to and representative of the dignity of his house. Nevertheless, he began, as befitted his years, by winning first a name for temperance. Now the fashion of the time tended strongly to unbridled pleasures and excessive licentiousness among the younger men.
§ 31.26.7 Some had abandoned themselves to catamites, others to courtesans, others to all sorts of musical entertainments, and banquetings, and, in general, to the extravagance that these things entail. For having spent considerable time in Greece during the war with Perseus, they soon affected the easygoing Greek attitude to such matters, the more so as they had acquired ample funds, so that their wealth made adequate provision for the costs of indulgence.
§ 31.27.1 Scipio, however, embarking upon a contrary course of conduct, and taking arms against all his natural appetites, as if they were wild beasts, in less than five years achieved a reputation, universally acknowledged for discipline and temperance. Even as this reputation was being accorded him by common consent, and was exciting favourable attention in all quarters, he set out to distinguish himself by his magnanimity and his liberal conduct of financial affairs.
§ 31.27.2 For the attainment of this virtue he had in the character of his real father, Aemilius, an excellent model to follow, and, in general, his close association with his father had given him certain advantages and left his mark on him. Chance also co-operated to no small extent, providing opportunities for his generosity about money to become quickly well known.
§ 31.27.3 Aemilia, for example, the wife of the great Scipio and sister of Aemilius, the conqueror of Perseus, died leaving a large estate, which he stood to inherit. Here he gave the first indication of his purpose, under the following circumstances. Long before the death of his father, his mother, Papiria, had been separated from her husband, but in her establishment her means were inadequate to her high station in life.
§ 31.27.4 The mother of Scipio's adoptive father, however, the woman who left him the inheritance, had possessed, apart even from the rest of her fortune, a great array of personal adornments, attendants and the like, as befitted one who had shared in the prestige of the great Scipio's life and fortunes. All these trappings, worth many talents, he now took and gave to his own mother. And since she employed this donated pomp and splendour in making conspicuous public appearances, the goodness and generosity and of the young man and, in general, his filial piety towards his mother won the acclaim of the whole city, first among the women and then among the men.
§ 31.27.5 This would be regarded as a shining example and as a thing to marvel at in any city, but especially so at Rome, where no one readily and of his own free will parts with anything he has. Later, when a large sum of money to complete their dowries remained to be paid to the daughters of the great Scipio, although it is the practice of the Romans to pay off a dowry piecemeal within three years, he paid the money to them all in full and at once. Next, when Aemilius, his real father, died and left his property to him and to Fabius, the sons he had given in adoption, Scipio performed a noble act, which deserves to be put on record.
§ 31.27.6 Seeing that his brother was less prosperous than himself he gave him as a supplement his own share of the inheritance, to the value of more than sixty talents, and thus equalized his entire holdings with those of his brother. This being greeted with approval and favourable comment on all sides he did a thing even more remarkable. For when his brother Fabius, wishing to stage a gladiatorial show in honour of their father, was unable to assume the expense because of the great outlays involved, he gave him from his own pocket a half of the total cost.
§ 31.27.7 On the death of his mother, so far from taking for himself anything he had given her, he allowed his sisters to have not only that but the rest of her estate, although they had no legal claim to the inheritance. Increasingly he gained the admiration of the whole city, receiving uncontested praise for his goodness and magnanimity; yet it was not so much the amounts involved that brought this about as the timeliness of his gifts and the tact with which he carried out his proposals. The acquisition of temperance, on the other hand, required no outlay of money; indeed, abstinence from indulgence conferred the boon of bodily health and vigour, which, as it lasted all his life, brought him ample compensation and requital.
§ 31.27.8 One virtue remains, courage, which indeed is regarded as essential by all men and in particular by the Romans: this too he pursued with unusual vigour and made perfect, chance having provided him with a great opportunity. For the Macedonian kings had always been especially devoted to the chase, and Scipio outdid everyone.
§ 32.27.2 When it became known that the Romans were ill disposed towards Demetrius, not only the other kings but even some of the satraps subject to him regarded his kingship with scant respect. Of these satraps the most outstanding was a certain Timarchus. A Milesian by birth, and a friend of the previous king, Antiochus, he had, in the course of a series of missions to Rome, worked serious detriment to the senate. Providing himself with large sums of money, he offered the senators bribes, seeking especially to overwhelm and lure with his gifts any senators who were in a weak financial position. By gaining in this way a large number of adherents and supplying them with proposals contrary to the public policy of Rome, he debauched the senate; in this he was seconded by Heracleides, his brother, a man supremely endowed by nature for such service. Following the same tactics he repaired to Rome on the present occasion, being now satrap of Media, and by launching many accusations against Demetrius persuaded the senate to enact the following decree concerning him: "To Timarchus, because of . . . to be their king." Emboldened by this decree he raised an army of considerable size in Media; he also entered into an alliance against Demetrius with Artaxias, the king of Armenia. Having, moreover, intimidated the neighbouring peoples by an impressive display of force, and brought many of them under his sway, he marched against Thapsacus, and eventually gained control of the kingdom.
§ 31.28.1 In the one hundred and fifty-fifth Olympiad envoys arrived from Ariarathes, bringing with them a "crown" of ten thousand gold pieces, to inform the senate of the king's friendly attitude towards the Roman people, as well as of his renunciation, on their account, of an alliance of marriage and friendship with Demetrius. Since this was confirmed by the testimony of Gracchus and his fellow commissioners, the senate, expressing their approval of Ariarathes, accepted the crown and sent him the highest gifts that it was their custom to bestow.
§ 31.29.1 At about the same time the envoys of Demetrius were also introduced. They too brought a "crown" of ten thousand gold pieces and had with them, in chains, the men responsible for the murder of Octavius. The senators were for a long time uncertain how to handle the situation. Finally, they accepted the crown but declined to accept custody of the men, Isocrates and Leptines, whose surrender was offered them together with the crown.
§ 31.30.1 When Demetrius sent an embassy to Rome the senate gave him a devious and enigmatic reply, that he would receive kind treatment at their hands if in the exercise of his authority he gave satisfaction to the senate.
§ 31.31.1 After vanquishing Perseus the Romans curbed some of those who had taken part in the war on the Macedonian side, and removed others to Rome. In Epirus Charops, who had gained control of the state on the strength of his reputation as a friend of the Romans, at the outset was guilty of but few crimes against his people and showed some caution; but proceeding further and further in lawless behaviour, he wrought havoc in Epirus. He incessantly brought false charges against the wealthy, and by murdering some, and driving others into exile and confiscating their property, he exacted money not only from the men but also, through his mother Philota (for she was a person with a gift for cruelty and lawlessness that belied her sex), from the women as well; and he haled many before the popular assembly on charges of disaffection to Rome. And the sentence in all cases was death.
§ 31.32.1 Orophernes, having driven his brother Ariarathes from the throne, made no effort — far from it — to manage his affairs sensibly, and to elicit popular support by helping and serving his people. Indeed, at the very time when he was raising money by forced contributions and was putting numbers of people to death, he presented Timotheus with a gift of fifty talents, and King Demetrius with a gift of seventy, quite apart from the payment to Demetrius of six hundred talents with a promise to pay the remaining four hundred at another time. And seeing that the Cappadocians were disaffected, he began to exact contributions on all sides and to confiscate for the privy purse the property of men of the highest distinction. When he had amassed a great sum, he deposited four hundred talents with the city of Priene as a hedge against the surprises of fortune, which amount the citizens of Priene later paid.
§ 31.32a.1 King Eumenes, grieved at the expulsion of Ariarathes and being eager for reasons of his own to check Demetrius, sent for a certain youth who in beauty of countenance and in age was exceedingly like Antiochus the late king of Syria. This man resided in Smyrna and stoutly affirmed that he was a son of King Antiochus; and because of the resemblance he found many to believe him. On his arrival at Pergamum the king tricked him out with a diadem and the other insignia proper to a king, then sent him to a certain Cilician named Zenophanes. This man, who had quarrelled for some reason with Demetrius, and had been assisted in certain difficult situations by Eumenes, who was then king, was accordingly at odds with the one, and kindly disposed to the other. He received the youth in a town of Cilicia, and spread the word abroad in Syria that the youth would reclaim his father's kingdom in his own good time. Now after the generous behaviour of their former kings the common peoples of Syria were ill pleased with the austerity of Demetrius and his drastic demands. Being therefore ready for a change, they were buoyed up with hopeful expectations that the government would shortly fall into the hands of another and more considerate monarch.
§ 31.32b.1 While returning from Rome the envoys of Orophernes formed a plot during the voyage against Ariarathes, but were themselves apprehended and put to death by Ariarathes at Corcyra. Likewise at Corinth when the henchmen of Orophernes laid plans against Ariarathes, he upset their calculations by eluding them, and got safe to Attalus at Pergamum.
§ 31.33.1 Thanks to his large army the elder Ptolemy soon forced his brother to stand a siege and made him undergo every deprivation, yet did not venture to put him to death, partly because of his own innate goodness and their family ties, partly through fear of the Romans. He granted him assurances of personal safety, and made with him an agreement according to which the younger Ptolemy was to rest content with the possession of Cyrene, and was to receive each year a fixed amount of grain. Thus the relations of these kings, which had advanced to a state of serious estrangement and desperate frays, found an unexpected and humane solution.
§ 31.34.1 As the situation worsened Orophernes was anxious to pay his men, for fear they might start a revolution. But being for the present without funds he was driven to plundering the temple of Zeus, which stands beneath the Mountain of Ariadne, as it is called, though from remote times it had been held inviolable. This he robbed, and paid off the arrears of their wages.
§ 31.35.1 King Prusias of Bithynia, having failed in his design on Attalus, destroyed the sanctuary outside the walls, known as the Nicephorium, and despoiled the temple. He also carried off the votive statues, the images of the gods, and the famous statue of Asclepius, reputed to be by the hand of Phyromachus, a piece of extraordinary workmanship; and he plundered all the shrines. The divine power was quick to requite him in signal fashion. The army was stricken with dysentery, and the greater part of his soldiers perished. A similar fate overtook his naval forces: for when the fleet ran into a sudden storm in the Propontis, many of the vessels were swallowed up by the sea, men and all, while some were driven on the shore and wrecked. Such were the first returns he received for his sacrilege.
§ 31.36.1 The Rhodians, thanks to their shrewdness and the uses to which they turned their prestige, kept receiving payments of voluntary tribute, so to speak, from the kings. For by honouring whatever men are in power with clever flatteries and public decrees, and doing this, moreover, with assurance and keen foresight, they gain favours and receive donations of many times the value from the kings. From Demetrius, for example, they received a gift of two hundred thousand measures of wheat and a hundred thousand of barley, and Eumenes still owed them thirty thousand at his death; this king had also promised to do over their theatre in marble. Thus the Rhodians, while maintaining the best government in Greece, induced many princes to vie with one another in conferring benefactions upon them.
§ 31.37.1 But in general when he was put to the test of combat, like base coin he was found to be of other metal, and by his personal shortcomings he enlarged the war.
§ 31.38.1 What happened to the Rhodians was rather like a bear hunt. For indeed these beasts, which in size and strength appear so fearsome, are very easily routed when hunters unleash against them little dogs that, though small, are active and brave. For since bears have tender and fleshy feet, the snapping at their heels from beneath compels them to sit still until one of the hunters gets in a blow that strikes home, their slow and cumbersome movements making it impossible for them to . . . the nimbleness of the dogs. So the Rhodians, though world-renowned for their superiority in naval warfare, when unexpectedly surrounded on all sides by a fleet of midget ships, "mice" and "goats," were plunged into the greatest distress.
§ 31.39.1 There was in Celtiberia a small city named Begeda, which, because of a great increase in population, they voted to enlarge. The Roman senate, viewing with suspicion their growth in strength, sent out a commission to stop them in accordance with the treaty, wherein it was stated, along with much else, that without the consent of the Romans the Celtiberians might not found a city. One of the elders, named Cacyrus, replied that the agreement prevented them from founding a city but did not forbid them to enlarge their old homes; that they were not founding a city that had not previously been there, but were reconstructing the city already in existence, and so were doing nothing in violation of the treaty or of the common practice of all mankind. In all else, he said, they were obedient to the Romans, and were wholeheartedly their allies, whenever occasion required their help, but they would in no wise, he added, desist from building their city. When the assembly with one accord signified its approval of these words, the envoys returned with their answer to the senate. The senate then voided the treaty and began hostilities.
§ 31.40.1 Whereas a single occasion decides the outcome of wars in Greece, in the Celtiberian wars night generally separated the combatants with vigour and energy still undiminished, and even winter did not bring the war to an end. Hence the term "fiery war," used by some, brings this war to mind before any other. 40a Once again a popular uprising, due to the disaffection of the masses, threatened Demetrius with the loss of his throne. One of his mercenary troops, a man named Andriscus, bore a close resemblance to Philip, the son of Perseus, both in appearance and stature, and while at first it was only in jest and derision that his friends called him "son of Perseus," soon the statement won popular credence. Andriscus, boldly taking his cue from this talk, not only declared that he was indeed the son of Perseus, but adducing a fictitious story of his birth and upbringing, even approached Demetrius with a crowd of followers and called upon him to restore him to Macedonia and to the throne of his fathers. Now Demetrius at first regarded him as a crank. But when the populace had gathered, and many speakers declared that Demetrius should either restore Andriscus or, if he could not or would not play the king, should abdicate, Demetrius, fearing the quick temper of the mob, had Andriscus arrested during the night and sent him off straightway to Rome with a full report to the senate of the claims made for the man.
§ 31.41.1 After this victory the Celtiberians, with a prudent eye to the future, sent envoys to the consul to treat for peace. The consul, however, feeling that it was incumbent upon him to maintain the proud Roman tradition, told them in reply either to place themselves entirely at the disposal of the Romans or to carry on the war in earnest.
§ 31.42.1 Diodorus also calls the Iberians Lusitanians. For he says that the praetor Mummius was sent with an army to Iberia and that the Lusitanians, gathering in force and catching him off guard as he came to land, defeated him in battle and wiped out the greater part of his army. When the news of the Iberian victory became known, the Arevaci, considering themselves far superior to the Iberians, made light of the enemy, and the people in their assembly, when they elected to enter the war against the Romans, acted chiefly for this reason.
§ 31.43.1 Although the Rhodian people had been aroused to enthusiastic and eager preparations for the war, yet when they were unlucky in their ventures they lapsed into strange ways of thinking, like men long ill who lose heart. For when such men find themselves no better after observing the regimen prescribed by their physicians, they have recourse to those who deal in sacrifice and divination, while some countenance the use of spells and all sorts of amulets. So the Rhodians, suddenly failing in all their ventures, had recourse to the aid of men whom they originally held in contempt, and took a course that was bound to make them ridiculous in the eyes of others.
§ 31.44.1 It is not the equipment and size of the ships that bring victory, but the deeds and daring of the stout fighters aboard them.
§ 31.45.1 The Cretans, putting in at Siphnos, assaulted the city and by intimidation and deceit gained admission within the walls. Having pledged their word to commit no wrong, but acting with customary Cretan faithlessness, they enslaved the city, and after sacking the temples of the gods (set sail) for Crete, laden with their spoil. Swiftly the gods inflicted upon them the penalty for their transgressions, and the divine power signally dealt with their impiety in unexpected fashion. For through fear of the enemy and his large ships they were forced to set sail at night, and, when a gale burst upon them, most of the men were swallowed up by the waves, while some were dashed to death against the rocky shore, and a mere remnant were saved — those who had had no part in the perfidy practised upon the Siphnians.
§ 32.1.1 The Carthaginians, by engaging Masinissa in war, were considered to have violated their treaty with Rome. Upon sending an embassy, they were told that the Romans knew what ought to be done. Since the answer they received was so ambiguous, the Carthaginians were greatly disturbed.
§ 32.2.1 Those whose object is to gain dominion over others use courage and intelligence to get it, moderation and consideration for others to extend it widely, and paralyzing terror to secure it against attack. The proofs of these propositions are to be found in attentive consideration of the history of such empires as were created in ancient times as well as of the Roman domination that succeeded them.
§ 32.3.1 When the envoys of the Carthaginians announced that they had punished those responsible for the war against Masinissa, a member of the senate exclaimed: "And why were those responsible for the dispute not punished then and there, instead of at the end of the war?" At this the Carthaginian envoys stood silent, having no honest or plausible reply to give. The senate then returned them an awkward and elusive answer, for they adopted the statement that the Romans well knew what they ought to do.
§ 32.4.1 Philip, the son of Amyntas, having succeeded to the throne at a time when Macedonia was enslaved by the Illyrians, wrested his kingdom from them by force of arms and by his shrewdness as a military commander, but it was by the moderation that he displayed towards the vanquished that he made it the greatest power in Europe. When, for example, in a famous battle he defeated the Athenians who disputed his dominance in Greece, he took great pains with the funeral of those slain in the defeat and left behind unburied, while he released without ransom and sent back to their own land the captives, to the number of more than two thousand.
§ 32.4.2 As a result those who had taken up arms in the contest for leadership now, because of his clemency towards them, willingly resigned their authority over the Greek states; while he, who in many struggles and battles had failed to achieve that authority, through a single act of kindness received with the free consent of his opponents the leadership of all Hellas. And finally he secured the permanence of his kingdom by the use of fear, when he levelled to the ground a populous city, Olynthus.
§ 32.4.3 In like manner his son Alexander, after seizing Thebes, by the destruction of this city deterred from rebellion the Athenians and Lacedemonians, who were starting to revolt; yet in his Persian campaigns, by treating prisoners of war with the greatest kindness, he made the renown of his clemency as well as his courage contribute to his success in making the Asiatics eager to be ruled by him.
§ 32.4.4 In more recent times the Romans, when they went in pursuit of world empire, brought it into being by the valour of their arms, then extended its influence far and wide by the kindest possible treatment of the vanquished. So far, indeed, did they abstain from cruelty and revenge on those subjected to them that they appeared to treat them not as enemies, but as if they were benefactors and friends. Whereas the conquered, as former foes, expected to be visited with fearful reprisals, the conquerors left no room for anyone to surpass them in clemency. Some they enrolled as fellow citizens, to some they granted rights of intermarriage, to others they restored their independence, and in no case did they nurse a resentment that was unduly severe.
§ 32.4.5 Because of their surpassing humanity, therefore, kings, cities, and whole nations went over to the Roman standard. But once they held sway over virtually the whole inhabited world, they confirmed their power by terrorism and by the destruction of the most eminent cities. Corinth they razed to the ground, the Macedonians (Perseus for example) they rooted out, they razed Carthage and the Celtiberian city of Numantia, and there were many whom they cowed by terror.
§ 32.5.1 The Romans make it a point to embark only upon wars that are just, and to make no casual or precipitate decisions about such matters.
§ 32.6.1 When the Romans sent out an expeditionary force against the Carthaginians and news reached Carthage that the fleet was already at Lilybaion, the Carthaginians, abstaining from all acts of hostility, sent legates to Rome, who placed themselves and their country at the disposal of the Romans. The senate, accepting their surrender, made answer that inasmuch as the Carthaginians were well advised, the senate granted them their laws, territory, sanctuaries, tombs, freedom, and property (the city of Carthage, however, was nowhere mentioned, their intention to destroy it being suppressed): these mercies the Carthaginians were to obtain provided they gave three hundred hostages, senators' sons, and obeyed the orders of the consuls.
§ 32.6.2 The Carthaginians, thinking that they were quit of the war, sent the hostages, not without great lamentation. Then the Romans arrived in Utica. Carthage again sent envoys to learn if the Romans had further demands to make upon them. When the consuls told them to surrender, without fraud, their arms and artillery, they were at first cast down, inasmuch as they were at war with Hasdrubal; none the less (the Romans) received from them two hundred thousand weapons of all sorts and two thousand catapults. Thereupon the Romans again sent word to the Carthaginians, bidding them appoint a delegation of Elders, to whom they would make known their final directive.
§ 32.6.3 The Carthaginians dispatched thirty men of the highest rank. Manilius, the elder of the consuls, stated that the senate had decreed that they should abandon the city they now inhabited, and should found another at a distance of eighty stades from the sea. At this the envoys resorted to lamentation and appeals for pity, all casting themselves to the ground and mingling cries of grief with tears. And a great wave of emotion swept over the assembly. When the Carthaginians after a struggle recovered from their consternation, one man alone, a certain Blanno, uttered words appropriate to the occasion, and speaking with desperate courage yet with complete frankness aroused feelings of pity in all who heard him.
§ 32.6.4 The Romans, being immovable in their resolve to destroy Carthage, ordered the envoys to return straightway to Carthage and to report to the citizens what had been decreed. Some of the envoys, considering it hopeless to return home, individually sought refuge as best they could, but the others, electing to return, made their way back, their fatal mission completed. As the populace thronged to meet them, they said not a word to them, but beating their heads, raising aloft their hands, and calling upon the gods for aid, they proceeded to the market-place and reported to the gerousia the orders imposed by the Romans.
§ 32.7.1 Scipio (he who was later called Africanus but who at this time was a mere tribune of the soldiers), unlike the other tribunes, who disregarding their pledged word broke faith with those who had reached sworn agreements with them, was most faithful in adhering to his promises to the besieged and was honest in his dealings with all who put themselves in his hands. For this reason, and because his reputation for justice was becoming known throughout Libya, no one under siege would give himself up unless Scipio was a party to the agreement.
§ 32.8.1 Since three Romans who fell in this engagement had remained unburied, the whole army was distressed at the loss of the men and, above all, at their being deprived of burial. Scipio, with the consent of the consul, sent a written appeal to Hasdrubal to give them burial. He acceded to the appeal, performed the rites of burial with all due honour, and sent their bones to the consul; whereby Scipio advanced in esteem, as a man who was highly influential even with the enemy.
§ 32.9.1 The Carthaginian women contributed their gold jewelry. For now that life clung to the last narrow foothold, the whole populace felt that they were not losing their wealth, but were by their gift re-establishing their own safety. Chaps. 9a, 9b: see below, after Chap. 17.1. Chaps. 9c, 9d, 10 12: see below, after Chap. 27.
§ 32.13.1 [The harbour of Carthage is known as Cothon. Of its several advantages we shall endeavour to give a full account at the appropriate time.]
§ 32.14.1 He says that the wall of Carthage is forty cubits in height and twenty-two in breadth. Notwithstanding, the siege engines of the Romans and their martial exploits proved stronger than the Carthaginian defences, and the city was captured and levelled to the ground.
§ 32.15.1 [Concerning him there is again an account elsewhere.] When King Demetrius sent on to Rome the self-styled son of Perseus, a young man named Andriscus, the senate ordered him to live in a certain city of Italy. But after a period he escaped and sailed off to Miletus.
§ 32.15.2 During his stay there he invented tales about himself purporting to demonstrate that he was the son of Perseus. He said that while still an infant he had been given to . . . the Cretan to rear, and that the Cretan had transmitted to him a sealed tablet, in which Perseus revealed to him the existence of two treasures, one at Amphipolis, lying beneath the highway at a depth of ten fathoms (?), containing one hundred and fifty talents of silver, and the other, of seventy talents, at Thessalonica, in the middle of the exedra of the colonnade, opposite the court.
§ 32.15.3 Since his story attracted much attention, it finally reached the ears of the magistrates of Miletus, who arrested him and placed him in prison. Certain envoys happening to visit the city, they referred the matter to them, seeking advice on what should be done. They scoffingly bade the magistrates let the fellow loose to go his own way.
§ 32.15.4 He, on receiving his release, set himself in earnest to act out and make a reality of his mummery. By constantly embroidering the story of his royal birth, he gulled many, even the Macedonians themselves.
§ 32.15.5 Having as his accomplice a certain harpist named Nicolaus, a Macedonian by birth, he learned from him that a woman called Callippa, who had been a concubine of King Perseus, was now the wife of Athenaeus of Pergamum. Accordingly he made his way to her, and pouring out his romantic tale of kinship to Perseus procured from her funds for his travels, a regal costume, a diadem, and two slaves suited to his needs. From her he heard, moreover, that Teres, a Thracian chieftain, was married to a daughter of the late King Philip.
§ 32.15.6 Encouraged by this support he made for Thrace. On the way he stopped at Byzantium and was received with honour — a display of folly for which the citizens of Byzantium later paid the penalty to Rome. With more and more people flocking to him, he arrived in Thrace at the court of Teres. As a mark of honour Teres presented him with a troop of a hundred soldiers, and placed a diadem on his head.
§ 32.15.7 Recommended by him to the other chieftains, Andriscus received from them another hundred men. Proceeding to the court of the Thracian chieftain Barsabas, he prevailed upon him to take part in the expedition and to escort him home to Macedonia, for he was now asserting, on the grounds of inheritance, a legal claim to the Macedonian throne. Defeated in battle by Macedonicus this false Philip took refuge in Thrace. . . . Finally he gained the upper hand in the cities throughout Macedonia.
§ 32.16.1 Masinissa, the late king of Libya, who had always maintained friendly relations with Rome, lived till the age of ninety, in full possession of his faculties, and at his death left ten sons, whom he entrusted to the guardianship of Rome. He was a man remarkable for his physical vigour, and had, from the days of his childhood, accustomed himself to endurance and strenuous activities: indeed, standing in his tracks he would remain motionless the whole day long, or sit all day until nightfall without stirring, busy with his affairs; and mounted on horseback he would even ride a whole day and a night, continuously, without growing faint. The following is a prime indication of his good health and vitality: though nearly ninety, he had at the time of his death a son aged four, who was a remarkably sturdy child. In the care of his fields Masinissa was so outstanding that he left each of his sons a farm of ten thousand plethra, well equipped with all necessary buildings. His distinguished career as a king lasted sixty years.
§ 32.17.1 At his rendezvous with Phameas, Scipio, by holding out great hopes, persuaded him to desert the Carthaginians, along with twelve hundred cavalry. Chap. 17.2: see below, after Chap. 9b. 9a The pseudo-Philip, after gaining a resounding victory over the Romans, shifted to a course of savage cruelty and tyrannical disregard for law. He put many wealthy persons to death, after first throwing out false and slanderous charges against them, and murdered not a few even of his friends. For he was by nature brutal, bloodthirsty, and arrogant in manner, and was, moreover, shot through with greed and every base quality.
§ 32.17.2 Marcus Porcius Cato, a man widely acclaimed for sagacity, when asked by someone how Scipio was faring in Libya, said "He alone has sense, the others flit about like shadows." Moreover, the populace conceived such a liking for the man that he became consul.
§ 32.17.3 The populace conceived such a liking for Scipio that even though his age did not allow it nor the laws permit, they bent their best efforts to confer upon him the consulship. 9b The false Philip appointed Telestes general. He, however, seduced by the promises of the Romans, revolted and went over with his cavalry to Caecilius. The pseudo-Philip, enraged at his conduct arrested the wife and children of Telestes, and vented his anger on them. Chaps. 9c, 9d, 10 12: see below, after Chap. 27. 17. 2 Fortune, embroiling the whole situation as if of set purpose, furnished alliances to first one and then the other of the contestants.
§ 32.18.1 The Roman consul Calpurnius, after accepting the surrender of certain towns, razed them to the ground in disregard of his pledged word. Hence, being distrusted, he failed in all his undertakings, as if some divine agency were working against him. For though he attempted much his actions were ineffective.
§ 32.19.1 Since King Prusias had repulsive features and had become physically effeminate through soft living, he was detested by the Bithynians.
§ 32.20.1 The senate dispatched a commission to Asia to settle the war between Nicomedes and his father Prusias, and selected for this service Licinius, a man afflicted with gout, Mancinus, who had had his head pierced by a falling tile so that most of the bones were removed, and Lucius, a person utterly without perception. Cato, the leader of the senate and a man of great sagacity, thereupon remarked in the senate: "We are sending out an embassy without feet, without head, and without heart." His shot was well aimed and became the talk of the town.
§ 32.21.1 Nicomedes, having defeated his father Prusias in battle, put him to death after he took refuge in the sanctuary of Zeus. Thus he succeeded to the throne of Bithynia, having gained this eminence by perpetrating a most sacrilegious murder.
§ 32.22.1 While the Carthaginians lay beleaguered, Hasdrubal sent and invited Gulussa to come to a colloquy. In accordance with the commands of the general, Gulussa offered Hasdrubal an asylum for himself and ten families of his choosing with a grant of ten talents and a hundred slaves. Hasdrubal replied that while his country was being ravaged with fire the sun would never behold him seeking safety for himself. Now in words he cut a brave figure, but his deeds exposed him as a renegade. For though his city was in desperate straits, he led a luxurious life, holding drinking parties at all hours, giving sumptuous banquets, and arrogantly serving second courses. Meanwhile his fellow citizens were perishing of starvation, but he, as the crowning insult, went about in purple robes and an expensive woollen cloak, as though revelling in his country's misfortunes.
§ 32.23.1 At the fall of Carthage the general, forgetting his proud courage, or rather his proud talk, abandoned the deserters and approached Scipio in the guise of a suppliant. Clasping Scipio by the knees and sobbing as he urged every possible plea, he moved him to compassion. Scipio exhorted him to take heart, and addressing the friends who sat with him in council, said: "This is the man who a while back was not willing to accept an offer of safety on highly favourable terms. Such is the inconstancy of Fortune and her power; unpredictably she brings about the collapse of all human pretensions."
§ 32.24.1 When Carthage had been put to the torch and the flames were doing their awful work of devastation throughout the whole city, Scipio wept unabashedly. Asked by Polybius, his mentor, why he was thus affected, he said: "Because I am reflecting on the fickleness of Fortune. Some day, perhaps, the time will come when a similar fate shall overtake Rome." And he cited these lines from the poet, Homer: The day will come when sacred Ilium shall perish, with Priam and his people.
§ 32.25.1 After the capture of Carthage Scipio, showing the collected spoils to the envoys who had arrived from Sicily, bade them severally pick out whatever things had in times past been carried off from their particular cities to Carthage, and to take them home to Sicily. Many portraits of famous men were found, many statues of outstanding workmanship, and not a few striking dedications to the gods in gold and silver. Among them was also the notorious bull of Acragas: Perilaus fashioned it for the tyrant Phalaris, and lost his life in the first demonstration of his device when he was justly punished by being himself made its victim.
§ 32.26.1 Never in all the time that men's deeds have been recorded in history had Greece been a prey to such calamities. Indeed, so extreme were her misfortunes that no one could either write or read of them without weeping. I am not unaware how painful it is to rehearse the misfortunes of Greece, and through my writings to pass on to coming generations an enduring record of what then befell; but I note too that warnings drawn from experience of events and their outcome are of no little service to men in correcting their own shortcomings. Accordingly criticism should be directed not at the historians, but rather at those whose conduct of affairs has been so unwise. It was not, for example, the cowardice of the soldiers, but the inexperience of their commanders that brought the Achaean League crashing to its fall.
§ 32.26.2 For though it was a dreadful disaster that overtook the Carthaginians at about this same time, yet the misfortune that befell the Greeks was not less but even, in all truth, greater than theirs. For since the Carthaginians were utterly annihilated, grief for their misfortunes perished with them; but the Greeks, after witnessing in person the butchery and beheading of their kinsmen and friends, the capture and looting of their cities, the abusive enslavement of whole populations, after, in a word, losing both their liberty and the right to speak freely, exchanged the height of prosperity for the most extreme misery. Having so heedlessly allowed themselves to get into war with Rome, they now experienced the greatest disasters.
§ 32.26.3 Indeed the frenzy that possessed the Achaean League and their surprising plunge into self-destruction had all the appearance of a divine visitation. The men responsible for all their troubles were the generals. Some of them, being involved in debt, were ripe for revolution and war, and proposed the cancelling of all debts; and since there were many helpless debtors who supported them, they were able to arouse the commons. And there were other leaders who through sheer folly plunged into counsels of despair. Above all it was Critolaus who enflamed the sparks of revolution in the populace. Using the prestige that his position gave him he openly accused the Romans of high-handed behaviour and self-seeking: he said that he wished to be Rome's friend, but that he certainly did not choose, of his own free will, to hail the Romans as overlords. The assemblies were sweepingly assured that, if they showed themselves men, they would not lack allies; if slaves, that they would not lack masters; and in his speeches he created the impression that conversations had already been held with kings and free cities on the subject of a military alliance. 5 Having by his oratory inflamed the passions of the mob he brought forward a proposed declaration of war, nominally against Sparta, but in reality against Rome. Thus all too often vice prevails over virtue, and a declaration that leads to destruction over an appeal to refrain and be safe.
§ 32.27.1 Of Corinth the poets had sung in earlier time: Corinth, bright star of Hellas. This was the city that, to the dismay of later ages, was now wiped out by her conquerors. Nor was it only at the time of her downfall that Corinth evoked great compassion from those that saw her; even in later times, when they saw the city levelled to the ground, all who looked upon her were moved to pity. No traveller passing by but wept, though he beheld but a few scant relics of her past prosperity and glory. Wherefore in ancient times, nearly a hundred years later, Gaius Iulius Caesar (who for his great deeds was entitled divus), after viewing the site restored the city.
§ 32.27.2 Their spirits were gripped by two opposite emotions, the hope of safety and the expectation of destruction.
§ 32.27.3 In ancient times, nearly a hundred years later, Gaius Iulius Caesar (who for his great deeds was entitled divus), when he inspected the site of Corinth, was so moved by compassion and the thirst for fame that he set about restoring it with great energy. It is therefore just that this man and his high standard of conduct should receive our full approval and that we should by our history accord him enduring praise for his generosity. For whereas his forefathers had harshly used the city, he by his clemency made amends for their unrelenting severity, preferring to forgive rather than to punish. In the magnitude of his achievements he surpassed all his predecessors, and he deserved the title that he acquired on the basis of his own merits. To sum up, this was a man who by his nobility, his power as an orator, his leadership in war, and his indifference to money is entitled to receive our approval, and to be accorded praise by history for his generous behaviour. For in the magnitude of his deeds he surpassed all earlier Romans.
§ 32.9.2 Ptolemy Philometor entered Syria intending to support Alexander on the grounds of kinship. But on discovering the man's downright poverty of spirit, he transferred his daughter Cleopatra to Demetrius, alleging that there was a conspiracy afoot, and after arranging an alliance pledged her to him in marriage. Hierax and Diodotus, despairing of Alexander and standing in fear of Demetrius because of their misdeeds against his father, aroused the people of Antioch to rebellion, and receiving Ptolemy within the city, bound a diadem about his head and offered him the kingship. He, however, had no appetite for the throne, but did desire to add Coele Syria to his own realm, and privately arranged with Demetrius a joint plan, whereby Ptolemy was to rule Coele Syria and Demetrius his ancestral domains. 9d,
§ 32.10.1 Alexander, worsted in battle, fled with five hundred of his men to Abae in Arabia, to take refuge with Diocles, the local sheikh, in whose care he had earlier placed his infant son Antiochus. Thereupon Heliades and Casius, two officers who were with Alexander, entered into secret negotiations for their own safety and voluntarily offered to assassinate Alexander. When Demetrius consented to their terms, they became, not merely traitors to their king, but his murderers. Thus was Alexander put to death by his friends.
§ 32.10.2 It would be a mistake to omit the strange occurrence that took place before the death of Alexander, even though it is a thing so marvellous that it will not, perhaps, be credited. A short while before the time of our present narrative, as King Alexander was consulting an oracle in Cilicia (where there is said to be a sanctuary of Apollo Sarpedonius), the god, we are told, replied to him that he should beware of the place that bore the "two-formed one." At the time the oracle seemed enigmatic, but later, after the king's death, its sense was learnt through the following causes.
§ 32.11.1 There was dwelling at Abae in Arabia a certain man named Diophantus, a Macedonian by descent. He married an Arabian woman of that region and begot a son, named for himself, and a daughter called Herais. Now the son he saw dead before his prime, but when the daughter was of an age to be married he gave her a dowry and bestowed her upon a man named Samiades. 3 He, after living in wedlock with his wife for the space of a year, went off on a long journey. Herais, it is said, fell ill of a strange and altogether incredible infirmity. A severe tumour appeared at the base of her abdomen, and as the region became more and more swollen and high fevers supervened her physicians suspected that an ulceration had taken place at the mouth of the uterus. They applied such remedies as they thought would reduce the inflammation, but notwithstanding, on the seventh day, the surface of the tumour burst, and projecting from her groin there appeared a male genital organ with testicles attached. Now when the rupture occurred, with its sequel, neither her physician nor any other visitors were present, but only her mother and two maidservants.
§ 32.11.4 Dumfounded at this extraordinary event they tended Herais as best they could, and said nothing of what had occurred. She, on recovering from her illness, wore feminine attire and continued to conduct herself as a homebody and as one subject to her husband. It was assumed, however, by those who were privy to the strange secret that she was an hermaphrodite, and as to her past life with her husband, since natural intercourse did not fit their theory, she was thought to have consorted with him homosexually.
§ 32.11.5 Now while her condition was still undisclosed, Samiades returned and, as was fitting, for very shame, could not bear to appear in his presence, he, they say, grew angry. As he continually pressed the point and claimed his wife, her father meanwhile denying his plea but feeling too embarrassed to disclose the reason, their disagreement soon grew into a quarrel. As a result Samiades brought suit for his own wife against her father, for Fortune did in real life what she commonly does in plays and made the strange alteration lead to an accusation. After the judges took their seats and all the arguments had been presented, the person in dispute appeared before the tribunal, and the jurors debated whether the husband should have jurisdiction over his wife or the father over his daughter.
§ 32.11.6 When, however, the court found that it was the wife's duty to attend upon her husband, she at last revealed the truth. Screwing up her courage she unloosed the dress that disguised her, displayed her masculinity to them all, and burst out in bitter protest that anyone should require a man to cohabit with a man.
§ 32.11.7 All present were overcome with astonishment, and exclaimed with surprise at this marvel. Herais, now that her shame had been publicly disclosed, exchanged her woman's apparel for the garb of a young man; and the physicians, on being shown the evidence, concluded that her male organ had been concealed in an egg-shaped portion of the female organ, and that since a membrane had abnormally encased the organ, an aperture had formed through which excretions were discharged. In consequence they found it necessary to scarify the perforated area and induce cicatrization: having thus brought the male organ into decent shape, they gained credit for applying such treatment as the case allowed.
§ 32.11.8 Herais, changing her name to Diophantus, was enrolled in the cavalry, and after fighting in the king's forces accompanied him in his withdrawal to Abae. Thus it was that the oracle, which previously had not been understood, now became clear when the king was assassinated at Abae, the birthplace of the "two-formed one."
§ 32.11.9 As for Samiades, they say that he, a thrall still to his love and its old associations, but constrained by shame for his unnatural marriage, designated Diophantus in his will as heir to his property, and made his departure from life. Thus she who was born a woman took on man's courage and renown, while the man proved to be less strong-minded than a woman.
§ 32.11.5 A change of sex under similar conditions occurred thirty years later in the city of Epidaurus. There was an Epidaurian Callo, orphaned of both parents, who was supposed to be a girl. Now the orifice with which women are provided had in her case no opening, but beside the so called pecten she had from birth a perforation through which she excreted the liquid residues. On reaching maturity she became the wife of a fellow citizen. For two years she lived with him, and since she was incapable of intercourse as a woman, was obliged to submit to unnatural embraces. 12 Later a tumour appeared on her genitals and because it gave rise to great pain a number of physicians were called in. None of the others would take the responsibility of treating her, but a certain apothecary, who offered to cure her, cut into the swollen area, whereupon a man's privates were protruded, namely testicles and an imperforate penis. While all the others stood amazed at the extraordinary event, the apothecary took steps to remedy the remaining deficiencies. 13 First of all, cutting into the glans he made a passage into the urethra, and inserting a silver catheter drew off the liquid residues. Then, by scarifying the perforated area, he brought the parts together. After achieving a cure in this manner he demanded double fees, saying that he had received a female invalid and made her into a healthy young man. 14 Callo laid aside her loom-shuttles and all other instruments of woman's work, and taking in their stead the garb and status of a man changed her name (by adding a single letter, N, at the end) to Callon. It is stated by some that before changing to man's form she had been a priestess of Demeter, and that because she had witnessed things not to be seen by men she was brought to trial for impiety.
§ 32.12.1 Likewise in Naples and a good many other places sudden changes of this sort are said to have occurred. Not that the male and female natures have been united to form a truly bisexual type, for that is impossible, but that Nature, to mankind's consternation and mystification, has through the bodily parts falsely given this impression. And this is the reason why we have considered these shifts of sex worthy of record, not for the entertainment, but for the improvement most our readers. For many men, thinking such things to be portents, fall into superstition, and not merely isolated individuals, but even nations and cities.
§ 32.12.2 At the outset of the Marsian War, at any rate, there was, so it is reported, an Italian living not far from Rome who had married an hermaphrodite similar to those described above; he laid information before the senate, which in an access of superstitious terror and in obedience to the Etruscan diviners ordered the creature to be burned alive. Thus did one whose nature was like ours and who was not, in reality, a monster, meet an unsuitable end through misunderstanding of his malady. Shortly afterwards there was another such case at Athens, and again through misunderstanding of the affliction the person was burned alive. There are even, in fact, fanciful stories to the effect that the animals called hyenas are at once both male and female, and that in successive years they mount one another in turn. This is simply not true.
§ 32.12.3 Both the male and the female have each their own sexual attributes, simple and distinct, but there is also in each case an adjunct that creates a false impression and deceives the casual observer: the female, in her parts, has an appendage that resembles the male organ, and the male, conversely, has one similar in appearance to that of the female. This same consideration holds for all living creatures, and while it is true that monsters of every kind are frequently born, they do not develop and are incapable of reaching full maturity. Let this much then be said by way of remedy to superstitious fears. Books 33-40 missing
§ 33.1.1 The Lusitanians at first, not having a skilled general, were easily vanquished by the Romans; but after Viriathus became their general, they did them much harm. He was one of the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, a shepherd upon the mountains from his childhood; by nature of a healthy constitution, in strength and agility of body far exceeding all the Iberians;
§ 33.1.2 for he had inured himself to a sparing diet, much labour and toil, and to no more sleep than was absolutely necessary. He always carried weapons, and was famous for his conflicts both with wild beasts and robbers. At length he was chosen to be leader of the people, and soon a whole drove of bandits came to join him. Being very successful in many battles, he was admired not only for his other excellencies, but also for his prowess as a general.
§ 33.1.3 Besides, in distribution of the spoils he was very just, allotting to every man in proportion to his merits and deserts. Still proceeding and prospering, he established himself as a chieftain, rather than a thief and a robber. He fought several battles with the Romans and came off the victor, insomuch as he utterly routed Vitellius the Roman general and his army; after taking the general prisoner, he put him to death. And he performed many other brave exploits, until Fabius was appointed to go out as general against him,
§ 33.1.4 and from that time he began to decline. But not long afterwards he rallied his men, and fought bravely against Fabius, who was forced to accept terms dishonourable to the Roman name. But Caepio, who was afterwards general against Viriathus, disregarded the former treaty as invalid, and often routed Viriathus, whom (now being reduced to such straits, that he sued for terms of peace) he caused to be treacherously assassinated by some of his own kinsmen: and striking terror into Tautamus his successor, and all his army, he imposed what terms and conditions he pleased upon them, and in the end granted them the city and land about for their habitation.
§ 33.1.5 Viriathus, the leader of the Lusitanian robbers, was just and exact in distributing the spoils, and those who had conducted themselves valiantly in battle, he would liberally reward according to their several merits; and he never appropriated any of the public property to his own private use. Therefore the Lusitanians never shrank or drew back from any hazardous undertaking, when he commanded them and was their leader, honouring him as the common benefactor and saviour of their country.
§ 33.2.1 Plautius the Roman praetor greatly misgoverned his province, and being therefore condemned by the people, because he had dishonoured his government, he left Rome and went into exile.
§ 33.3.1 In Syria, king Alexander, being completely unfit to govern a kingdom, on account of his feebleness of spirit, gave up the government of Antioch to Hierax and Diodotus.
§ 33.4.1 Now that the kingdom of Egypt had been brought low, Demetrius, as the only surviving member of the Syrian royal family, believed himself to be out of all danger, and disregarded the conduct of the former kings, who had ingratiated themselves into the good opinion of their people by their affable behaviour. But he, growing every day more and more insufferable, fell at length to downright cruelty, and all sorts of heinous enormities. The cause of this is not only to be attributed to his own corrupt disposition, but also to one of his friends, who had the management of all the affairs of the kingdom; for being an impious and rash fellow, by his flattery he incited the young man to all manner of wickedness.
§ 33.4.2 At first therefore, he punished all that had sided against him in the war, with unusual sorts of cruelty. Afterwards, when the Antiochians taunted and jeered at him, in their usual manner, he got together a company of mercenary soldiers against them, and commanded that the citizens should be disarmed. Since the Antiochians refused to hand over their weapons, he killed some of them as they fell into his hands, and others he murdered in their own houses, together with their wives and children. When this caused a great uproar in the city, he burnt down most of the city to the ground.
§ 33.4.3 Many that were accused of leading this commotion, were put to death; their property was confiscated, and given to the royal treasury. Therefore many of the citizens, out of both fear and hatred of Demetrius, fled out of the city and wandered up and down all Syria, watching for a fit time and an opportunity for revenge. In the mean time Demetrius, hated by everybody, raged notwithstanding in slaughters, banishments, and confiscations, far exceeding even his father in cruelty;
§ 33.4.4 for his father, instead of ruling with royal clemency and kindness, had exercised a tyrannical and arbitrary power, oppressing his subjects with most grievous and unbearable calamities. As a result, the kings of this family, for their oppressions, were hated by all, while those of the other were as much beloved for their moderation and clemency; so that the mutual plots of the leaders of both these families, one against another, filled Syria was with continual wars and commotions. The common people themselves were so affected by the flattery and fair promises of those kings, who sought to succeed the others, that they still delighted in change.
§ 33.4a.1 A certain Diodotus called Tryphon, who had a high reputation amongst the friends of the king, when he saw the fervour of the masses and how they hated their ruler, defected from Demetrius and soon found many others to share in his enterprise. [He gained the support of] the men of Larissa, who were noted for their courage and had been allowed to dwell in this place as a reward for their brave conduct. They were settlers from Larissa in Thessaly, and had served as allies to the kings from Seleucus Nicator onwards, in the first ranks of the cavalry force . . . He also made an alliance with Iamblichus, a chieftain of Arabia, who happened to have been entrusted with the care of Antiochus, called Epiphanes; this Antiochus was the son of Alexander, and still a child. Tryphon placed a diadem on the boy's head, and gave him a retinue suitable for a king, with the intention of restoring him to his ancestral throne. For he assumed (which was reasonable) that the masses were eager for a change, and would willingly receive back the boy, because of the virtuous conduct of the [previous] kings and the lawlessness of the current ruler. And first, after collecting a moderate number of men, he encamped near the city of Chalcis, which was situated on the borders of Arabia, and was capable of supporting a force staying there in safety. Using this place as a base, he won over the neighbouring peoples and prepared all the necessary supplies for war. At first Demetrius regarded him with contempt as a mere bandit, and ordered his soldiers to arrest him. But later, when Tryphon had gathered an unexpectedly large body of supporters and was using the restoration of the boy to the throne as the pretext for his aggression, Demetrius decided to send a general against him.
§ 33.5.1 The Aradians, supposing they had got an opportunity to destroy the Marathenes, sent privately to Ammonius, the viceroy of the kingdom, and, with a bribe of three hundred talents, prevailed upon him to deliver up Marathus. Ammonius sent Isodorus to Marathus, who by his speech was to pretend some other matters, but in truth intended to seize the city, and to deliver it up to the Aradians.
§ 33.5.2 The Marathenes were unaware that they were intended for destruction, but observed that the Aradians were higher in the king's favour than themselves. They refused the king's soldiers entrance into their city, and resolved to address themselves as suppliants to the Aradians. They forthwith therefore sent ten of the most eminent of their elder citizens as ambassadors to Aradus, who brought with them humble supplications, and the oldest images of their gods which they had in their city, hoping that on account of their kinship and the reverence due to their gods, the Aradians would be appeased, and their anger diverted.
§ 33.5.3 As soon as they landed, according to the commands given, they addressed themselves as suppliants to the people: but the Aradians, who had become incensed, ignored the usual and common laws of suppliants, and cast off all reverence for their kindred's images, and their gods. Therefore they broke the images, and trampled them most shamefully under their feet, and attempted to stone the ambassadors. The crowd was with difficulty restrained by some of the elders, who prevented them from stoning the ambassadors, while they were still in a rage; but they commanded the ambassadors to be conveyed to prison.
§ 33.5.4 The Aradians, growing insolent, abused the ambassadors from Marathus, who crying out against their impiety, called upon the sacred regard that ought to be shown to suppliants, and the security and protection due to ambassadors, upon which some of the audacious young fellows were provoked to slay them. Then these murderers and their accomplices got together in a general assembly, and adding one piece of wickedness to another, contrived an impious and vile design against the Marathenes;
§ 33.5.5 for taking the rings off the fingers of the murdered men, they wrote letters to the Marathenes, as if from the ambassadors, in which they informed them, that the Aradians would within a short time send them aid. The intention was that the Marathenes would receive the Aradian soldiers into their city, and so be captured by stealth, when they thought that the soldiers had really, and without fraud, been sent to them as auxiliaries.
§ 33.5.6 But the Aradians failed in their wicked design, for although they had removed all the ships, so that no-one might reveal their treachery to the Marathenes, a certain seaman, who was a pious and upright man, and well disposed towards the Marathenes, took pity on their plight. Being accustomed to sail in the neighbouring sea, even though his own ship had been seized, at night he swam across the narrow strait, about eight stades in breadth, and revealed the fraud of the Aradians to the Marathenes. Therefore the Aradians, when they heard from spies that their plot had been discovered, abandoned the ruse of sending the letters.
§ 33.5a.1 In Pisidia a certain Molcestes, who was a native of Bubo and had a very good reputation amongst the people of that area, was appointed to be general on account of his renown. His power increased so much that he was given a bodyguard, and began to behave openly as a tyrant. Some time later, his brother Semias, seeking to seize power for himself and taking advantage of the trust he was given as a brother, killed Molcestes and became tyrant in his place. But the sons of the dead man, who were still in their childhood, were secretly taken away to Termessus by one of their relatives. There they were raised and, upon reaching manhood, set out to avenge the murder of their father. They killed the tyrant, but did not seek to take over his power for themselves; instead, they restored democracy to their homeland.
§ 33.6.1 Ptolemaeus Physcon, the brother of Philometor, began his reign most wickedly. He put many of his subjects to death, with most cruel torments, after falsely charging them with plots against his life; he banished others and confiscated their estates, for pretended crimes invented by himself. In a short time, his subjects were so enraged by these cruelties, that they all detested him; however, he reigned for fifteen years.
§ 33.6a.1 The younger Ptolemaeus reigned for fifteen years after the death of his elder brother. He committed many lawless acts: he married his own sister Cleopatra, and unjustly blamed many men for plotting against him. Some of these he killed; he drove the others into exile by false accusations, and confiscated their property.
§ 33.7.1 At the wedding of Viriathus many gold and silver cups, and all sorts of rich carpets of exquisite workmanship, were set forth to grace the ceremony. But Viriathus, supporting himself on a lance, regarded them not with admiration of such a rich and splendid display, but rather in scorn and contempt. On this occasion he spoke many things with much wisdom and prudence, and concluded with many emphatic remarks, on the subject of ingratitude towards benefactors and of the folly [. . . of] trusting in the gifts of fortune, which are so uncertain; especially, since it was apparent, that all those highly esteemed riches of his father-in-law were liable to be a prey to whoever could them away upon his spear's point. He further added, that his father-in-law ought rather to thank him, because he had not needed to give anything of his own to him {Viriathus} who was lord and owner of all.
§ 33.7.2 Viriathus therefore at that time, neither washed nor sat down, although he was earnestly entreated so to do. And although the table was plentifully furnished with rich dishes of meat, he only distributed some bread and flesh amongst them that came along with him. After he had little more than tasted the food himself, he ordered his bride to be brought to him, and having sacrificed after the manner of the Spaniards, he mounted her on horseback, and forthwith carried her away to his residence in the mountains.
§ 33.7.3 He regarded sobriety and temperance the greatest riches; liberty as his homeland; and outstanding valour as the surest possession. In conversation he spoke plainly and sincerely what he thought; his own unblemished character led him (without any formal education) to express himself faultlessly.
§ 33.7.4 At the wedding of Viriathus, a lot of wealth was displayed. After casting his eyes over this, Viriathus asked Astolpas: "How have the Romans, seeing so much wealth spread in feasts, declined to take possession of the things, although they had the power?" Astolpas replied that many Romans had seen them, but no one had thought to take nor to ask for them. "Why then have you forsaken those that let you enjoy your property quietly, to join me, who am poor and ignoble?" 5Viriathus was direct in his manner of speech, drawing on a self-taught and unspoilt nature. The people of Tucca gave their support inconsistently, sometimes to the Romans, sometimes to Viriathus, and as they continued in this manner, Viriathus taunted their inconsistency and lack of judgment, 6 reciting a fable: "A middle-aged man took two wives, of which the younger, wanting her husband to be the same age as her, pulled out his grey hair, while the older one pulled out his black hair, and finally thanks these two women pulling at it, his head became completely bald. A similar fate awaits the people of Tucca: the Romans kill their enemies, the Lusitanians kill theirs, so that your city will soon be deserted." 7 There are a lot of other pithy sayings attributed to this man, who had no formal education, but was tutored by common sense. A man who lives according to the principles of nature has concise speech, strengthened by the practice of virtue. By a brief and simple saying, this speaker can utter a maxim, which the hearer will readily recall.
§ 33.8.1 A poor and humble position in life leads to self-sufficiency and love of justice, but wealth has as its companions greed and injustice.
§ 33.9.1 Demetrius, while he was staying at Laodiceia, spent his time in banqueting, and such like luxury; and he still behaved cruelly towards many in the mean time, because his character was not at all improved by his afflictions.
§ 33.10.1 The Cnossians contended for the sovereignty of the island, which they alleged belonged to them, on account of both the ancient dignity of the city, and the glory and renown of their ancestors in the heroic age. For some say that Zeus was brought up amongst them, and that Minos, who had the dominion of the seas, was educated by Zeus at Cnossus, and excelled all other men in virtuous accomplishments.
§ 33.11.1 According to tradition, Agamemnon had cursed the warriors who remained in Crete; and there is an old saying in use among the Cretans, which in a single verse warns of the present disaster: "Alas! the men of Pergamus paid no regard to misfortune."
§ 33.12.1 In Egypt, king Ptolemaeus was hated by all his subjects because of his cruelty. His manners were not to be compared with his brother Philometor's; for his brother was of a mild and gentle nature, but he himself was fierce and cruel. Therefore the people longed for a change and earnestly waited for a suitable opportunity to revolt.
§ 33.13.1 At the time when Ptolemaeus, in the traditional manner of the Egyptians, was enthroned at Memphis, his queen Cleopatra was delivered of a son. Ptolemaeus was exceedingly pleased by this, and he called the boy Memphites, because he was born in the city Memphis at the time of his solemn inauguration. But while he was celebrating his son's birth, he did not forget his habitual cruelty; for be ordered some men from Cyrene, who had accompanied him back to Egypt, to be put to death, because they rebuked him somewhat too freely, on account of his concubine Eirene.
§ 33.14.1 After Diegylis came to the throne as king of Thrace, he was so puffed up with his prosperity, that he began to rule over his people not as his subjects and friends, but to domineer over then, as so many slaves and captives: for he put many good and honest Thracians to death by torture, and abused many others with the most extreme cruelty. He spared neither woman nor boy that was handsome and beautiful, and did not shrink from stripping men of all their possessions by force; so that he filled all his dominions with rapine and violence.
§ 33.14.2 He also plundered and spoiled the neighbouring Greek cities, and abused some of the captives and put others to death with exquisite torments. After he had captured the city of Lysimacheia, which belonged to Attalus, he burnt it to the ground, and picked out the most eminent persons from amongst the captives, and put them to death with strange and unheard of tortures;
§ 33.14.3 for he cut off the heads, hands, and feet of the children, and hung them about their parent's necks, and exchanged the members of men and women one with another. Of some he cut off their hands, and split them down the small of the back and sometimes would cause the sliced limbs to be carried about on the tips of spears, so that in his cruelty he far exceeded Phalaris and Apollodorus the tyrant of Cassandreia. His barbarity is made even more evident by the following instance.
§ 33.14.4 When he was celebrating his wedding, in the traditional manner of the Thracians, he seized two young Greek men who were travelling from the kingdom of Attalus; they were brothers, both very handsome. The one had already reached manhood, and the other was near bordering on it;
§ 33.14.5 Diegylis caused them both to be introduced crowned with garlands, after the manner of sacrificial victims. When the younger one was laid out and extended lengthways by the officer, as one ready to be split down the middle, the tyrant cried out, that kings and commoners ought not to offer the same sacrifices. Hereupon the older brother, offering loud lamentation, out of dear love for his brother, interposed himself between him and the sword; upon which Diegylis commanded that he should be laid out in the same way, and then doubling his cruelty, at one stroke he despatched them both, while the spectators all applauded so noble a piece of dexterity. He committed many other wicked acts of a similar sort.
§ 33.15.1 When Attalus understood that Diegylis was hated by all his subjects for his cruelty and greed, he took a quite contrary course; and therefore, after he had taken many Thracian prisoners captive, and freely released them all, there were many that spread abroad his fame for his generosity and clemency. When many of the Thracian nobility, out of hatred towards Diegylis, fled to him, they were kindly received; but Diegylis, when he heard of this, tortured the hostages left by those who had fled with the most grievous torments. Many of these, that were very young and of tender age, he pulled into pieces, limb from limb, and of others he cut off their hands, feet, and heads; some he crucified, and others he hung upon trees;
§ 33.15.2 many women likewise were spread-eagled before they were put to death, and prostituted to the lust of every vile fellow, as in a most barbarous manner he gave up himself to all manner of filthiness. Just as this clearly evidenced his unparalleled cruelty, so it moved many spectators, who had but the least sense of humanity, with pity and commiseration.
§ 33.16.1 The Numantines and Termessians sent ambassadors to the Romans, to treat for a peace, which was granted to them upon these conditions. That they should each deliver up their cities to the Romans, three hundred hostages, nine thousand military cloaks, three thousand hides, eight hundred war-horses, and all their weapons; and that they should be friends and allies to the Romans. A day was set for the cities to comply with these conditions, and they acted according to the terms;
§ 33.16.2 but when at last it came to delivering up of their weapons, there arose a noble regret and lamentation, and a courageous resolution in the populace to regain their liberties. Therefore they were angry one at another that they should ever have considered that they should, like women, strip themselves of their weapons. Repenting of what had been decided, the fathers reproached their sons, children their parents, and women their husbands; and so, coming to themselves again, and resolving not to deliver up their weapons, they renewed the war with Romans.
§ 33.17.1 When Pompeius was preparing to besiege the city of Lagni, the Numantines in their eagerness to assist their countrymen, sent to them in the night four hundred soldiers. The men of Lagni at first readily received the soldiers, and bountifully rewarded then as their saviours. But a few days later, dreading a siege, they negotiated with Pompeius, to deliver up the town upon terms, insisting only upon sparing their lives.
§ 33.17.2 When Pompeius would accept no conditions, unless the Numantines were delivered up to him, the men of Lagni at first shrank from the thought of such a wicked act against their benefactors, and therefore resolved to resist to the utmost. But being afterwards reduced to the utmost extremity, they sent envoys to Pompeius to inform him that they were ready to redeem their own lives by the destruction of their allies. When the Numantines discovered this, they set upon the citizens unexpectedly in the night, and made a grievous slaughter amongst them. 2 Pompeius, learning of this tumult and hustle in the town, forthwith set scaling ladders to the walls, and captured the city. Then he put all the nobles of Lagni to the sword, but generously discharged all the Numantine auxiliaries, to the number of two hundred; because he both felt pity for men who had so unworthily been brought into great danger and distress, and likewise intended by this act to gain the good will of the Numantines towards the Romans. Afterwards he razed the city to the ground.
§ 33.18.1 Arsaces king of the Parthians, being a mild and gracious prince, was exceedingly prosperous and successful, and greatly enlarged the bounds of his empire. He conquered all before him, as far as to India, where Porus reigned formerly, with a great deal of ease; and though he he had achieved that degree of power and authority, yet he inclined not in the least to pride and luxury, as is common with princes in such cases. He was kind to his subjects, and valiant in warfare against his enemies; and having subdued many nations, he collected the best of their customs, and imparted them to the Parthians.
§ 33.19.1 The consul Popilius, when Viriathus requested an interview, decided to state his conditions one by one, for fear that if he declared them all at once, it would push Viriathus to despair and all-out war.
§ 33.20.1 There was a man from Athamania called Galaestes, the son of Amynander who had been king of the Athamanians; and he was pre-eminent amongst his compatriots in his family, his wealth and his reputation. He was a friend of Ptolemaeus Philometor, and commanded the forces from Alexandria in the battle against Demetrius. After the defeat and death of Ptolemaeus, Galaestes was falsely accused of deliberately yielding victory to the enemy, and Ptolemaeus who became the next king removed his privileges and treated him harshly. Therefore he took fear and went away to Greece. Since many others had been driven out of Egypt by the conflict against the mercenary soldiers, Galaestes provided a welcome to the exiles. He said that he had been entrusted by Ptolemaeus Philometor to be the guardian of the king's son by Cleopatra, who was destined to be the next king. He crowned the boy with a diadem, and with the support of many of the exiles, he prepared to lead the boy back to take over his father's kingdom.
§ 33.21.1 Audas, Ditalces and Nicorontes were relatives and friends of each other, from Urso. When they observed that the authority of Viriathus had been weakened by the Romans, they started to fear for themselves and decided to win some favour with the Romans, which would ensure their own safety . . . since they saw that Viriathus was keen to make an end of the war, they announced that they would persuade Caepio to agree to peace terms, if he sent them as envoys about a truce. The chieftain readily agreed to this, and they promptly went to Caepio, who was easily persuaded to promise them safety, when they told him that they would assassinate Viriathus. After giving and receiving pledges about this, they quickly returned to their camp. In order to divert Viriathus' thoughts as far as possible away from their true intentions, they told him that they had persuaded the Romans to agree to peace, which put him in good spirits. Then, taking advantage of the trust he had in them because of their friendship, they crept into his tent by night. After dispatching Viriathus with some well-aimed blows of the sword, they immediately escaped from the camp and, travelling by a remote route over the mountains, came safely to Caepio.
§ 33.21a.1 Viriathus was buried by the Lusitanians with great pomp and state; for two hundred pairs of gladiators were matched against each other, and fought duels at his sepulchre, in honour of the remarkable valour of this man. He was, as is agreed by all, valiant in dangers, prudent and careful in providing whatever was necessary; and, what was most noteworthy of all, while he commanded he was more beloved than ever any was before him. For in dividing the spoil he never served himself with any thing above any of the rest, and out of those things which fell to his share, he often rewarded those that had fought most valiantly, and relieved those soldiers that were most in need. He acted with incredible sobriety and vigilance, not sparing any labour, or drawing back from any hazard; he was not in the least overcome by ease or pleasures. His virtuous qualities are evident and easy to prove: for he was general of the Lusitanians for the space of eleven years, during which time his soldiers were not only well-disciplined without any mutinies, but also nearly unconquerable; but after his death the forces of the Lusitanians were soon broken and dispersed, being deprived of such a general.
§ 33.22.1 Ptolemaeus [was hated by all] on account of his cruelty, murders, filthy lusts and deformed body, whence he was called Physcon. But his general Hierax, being an expert soldier, and popular in all general meetings, and a man of a great spirit, sustained the government by himself. When Ptolemaeus lacked money, and the soldiers for want of pay were ready to revolt to Galaestes, he put a stop to their mutiny by paying off their arrears out of his own purse.
§ 33.23.1 The Egyptians altogether condemned Ptolemaeus when they saw him so childish in his speeches, drowned in filthy lusts, and his body emasculated by his intemperance.
§ 33.24.1 The city known as Contobris sent envoys with instructions to order the Romans to leave the territory of Contobris immediately, or expect some catastrophe; for all those who had ever dared to invade this country with a hostile army had perished. The consul said to the envoys: "The Lusitanians and Celtiberians make great threats and ambitious claims, but the Romans know how to punish the guilty and despise their threats. It is better to show one's courage in action than by threats, and the natives will learn this at their expense."
§ 33.25.1 He thought it was better to die gloriously in battle than surrender their weapons and undergo the most shameful slavery.
§ 33.26.1 Junius exhorted his soldiers, saying that they must now, more than ever, be courageous, and be worthy of their previous victories . . . their souls must withstand fatigue and their intelligence overcome bodily weakness. The implacable vengeance with which the Romans pursued their enemies became universally known, as well as their outstanding leniency towards those who submitted.
§ 33.27.1 Aemilius the consul, being of a heavy and ungainly body as he was very fat with masses of flabby flesh, was totally unfit for conducting a war.
§ 33.28.1 In Syria, Diodotus called Tryphon killed Antiochus son of Alexander, who was a mere child and was being raised to be king. He then put on the royal diadem, and as the throne was empty, he proclaimed himself king, and prepared to fight against the satraps and generals of the royal family. In Mesopotamia there was Dionysius the Mede; in Coele Syria there were Sarpedon, Palamedes and their associates; in Seleuceia by the sea there was Aeschron, accompanied by queen Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius who had been captured by Arsaces.
§ 33.28a.1 Tryphon, who had risen from being a private citizen to become a king, did all he could to obtain a decree of the senate that would strengthen his position. Therefore, preparing a golden statue of Victory weighing ten thousand gold pieces, he sent ambassadors to Rome, to present it to the people, fully expecting that he would obtain from them the title of king, considering that the present which he sent was not only extremely valuable in itself, but also its very name was a portent of victory. But he found the senate far more subtle than himself; for their prudence prompted them to a dislike of anyone who deceitfully circumvented others. They received the present, and the good omen, together with the profit; but, instead of Tryphon's name, the senate decreed that the title of the king who was treacherously murdered should be engraved upon it. By so doing, they showed that they hated Tryphon's wickedness in murdering the child, and that they would not accept the presents of wicked men.
§ 33.28b.1 Scipio Africanus came to Alexandria along with other ambassadors, to view the whole kingdom of Egypt. Ptolemaeus met them in pomp and state, with a great retinue, and feasted them sumptuously, and, going about with them, showed them his palace and treasury. 2 But they, being persons eminent for virtue, contented themselves with a spare and wholesome diet, and scorned the rich food they were given, as prejudicial both to mind and body. As for those things which the king esteemed as rarities and admirable, they only glanced their eyes upon them, and looked on them as things of no value; but they observed most carefully those things which were really worth their viewing; such as the situation of the city, and its prosperity, and particularly the features of the Pharos. From there they sailed to Memphis, and took notice of the goodness of the land, the advantages provided by the river Nile, the number of the cities, the infinite thousands of inhabitants, the strong defences of Egypt, the excellence of the country, and how well it was provided to support and defend a large empire. 3 Having admired both the populousness of Egypt, and the advantages of the county, they were of opinion that the kingdom of Egypt could easily swell into a vast empire, if it once had worthy masters. After the ambassadors had viewed all they needed of Egypt, they went to Cyprus, and thence on to Syria. In short, they passed through most parts of the inhabited world: and, carrying themselves soberly, to admiration in all places wherever they came, they gained exceeding honour and reputation. By the time they returned home, they had earned the unanimous praise of everyone. 4 For those that were in conflict, they reconciled one to another; and others they persuaded to do right and justice to those that complained against them. Those that were impudently obstinate, they were obliged to curb and restrain by force; and such disputes as were difficult to be resolved, they referred to the senate. Conferring both with kings and their people, and renewing all former treaties, they increased the goodwill felt towards the Roman government; and so all the states, being brought to a friendly disposition, sent ambassadors to Rome and highly applauded Scipio and the other delegates, and the senate for employing such men.
§ 34.1.1 King Antiochus besieged Jerusalem. The Jews withstood the siege for some time; but when all their provisions were used up, they were forced to send ambassadors to him, to seek terms for a truce. Many of his friends urged him to storm the city, and to root out the whole nation of the Jews; for they only of all people hated to mix with any other nations, and treated them all as enemies. They suggested to him that the ancestors of the Jews were driven out of Egypt, as impious and hateful to the gods:
§ 34.1.2 for seeing that their bodies were infected with white marks and leprosy, by way of expiation the Egyptians gathered them all together, and expelled them out of their county, as profane and wicked wretches. After they were thus expelled, they settled around Jerusalem, and were afterwards united into one nation, called the nation of the Jews; but their hatred of all other men descended with their blood to their posterity. And therefore they made strange laws, and quite different from other people; they never will eat nor drink with any of other nations, or wish them any prosperity.
§ 34.1.3 His friends reminded him that Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, after subduing the Jews, entered into the temple of God, into which none was allowed to enter by their law except the priest. When he found in there the image of a man with a long beard, carved in stone sitting upon an ass, he took it to be Moses, who built Jerusalem and brought the nation together, and who established by law all their wicked customs and practices, abounding in hatred and enmity to all other men. Antiochus therefore, abhorring their antagonism to all other people, tried his utmost to abolish their laws.
§ 34.1.4 To that end he sacrificed a great swine at the image of Moses, and at the altar of God that stood in the outward court, and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded likewise that the books, by which they were taught to hate all other nations, should be sprinkled with the broth made of the swine's flesh. And he put out the lamp (called by them immortal) which burns continually in the temple. Lastly he forced the high priest and the other Jews to eat swine's flesh.
§ 34.1.2 When Antiochus' friends had spoken about all these things, they earnestly advised him to root out the whole nation, or at least to abolish their laws, and compel them to change their former manner of living. 5 But the king, being of a generous spirit and mild disposition, received hostages and pardoned the Jews: but he demolished the walls of Jerusalem, and took the tribute that was due.
§ 34.2.1 When the affairs of Sicily, after the overthrow of Carthage, had remained successful and prosperous for the space of sixty years, at length war with the slaves broke out for the following reasons. The Sicilians, through the enjoyment of a long peace, grew very rich, and bought up an abundance of slaves; who being driven in droves like so many herds of cattle from the different places where they were bred and brought up, were branded with certain marks burnt on their bodies.
§ 34.2.2 Those that were young, they used for shepherds, others for such services as they had occasion. But their masters were very strict and severe with them, and took no care to provide either necessary food or clothing for them, so that most of them were forced to rob and steal, to get these necessities: so that all places were full of slaughters and murders, as if an army of thieves and robbers had been dispersed all over the island.
§ 34.2.3 The governors of the provinces, to tell the truth, did what they could to suppress them; but they did not dare punish them, because the masters, who possessed the slaves, were rich and powerful. Therefore every governor was forced to connive at the thefts and rapines that were committed in the province. For many of the landowners were Roman knights, and because they judged the accusations brought against the governors for their conduct in the provinces, they were a terror to the governors themselves.
§ 34.4.1 The slaves therefore being in this distress, and vilely beaten and scourged beyond all reason, were now resolved not to bear it any longer. Therefore, meeting together from time to time as they had opportunity, they consulted how to free themselves from the yoke of servitude they lay under, until at length they really accomplished what they had previously agreed upon. 5 There was a Syrian, born in the city of Apameia, who was a slave of Antigenes of Enna, and he was a magician and conjuror; he pretended to foretell future events, revealed to him (as he said) by the gods in his dreams, and deceived many by this kind of practice. Then he proceeded further, and not only foretold things to come, revealed to him in dreams, but pretended that he saw the gods when he was awake, and they declared to him what was to come to pass. 6 And though these were tricks that he played, yet by chance many of the things afterwards proved true. The predictions that were not fulfilled were ignored, but those which did come to pass were everywhere applauded, so that he grew more and more celebrated. By some artifice or other, he used to breath flames of fire out of his mouth as from a burning lamp, and so would prophesy as though he had been at that time inspired by Apollo. 7 For he put fire with some combustible matter to feed it, into a nut-shell or some such thing bored through on both sides; then putting it into his mouth and forcing his breath upon it, there would issue out both sparks and flames of fire. Before the revolt of the slaves this man boasted that the Syrian goddess had appeared to him, and told him that he should reign, and this he declared not only to others but often to his own master.
§ 34.8 As this became a common subject of laughter, Antigenes was so taken with the jest and the ridiculous conceit of the man, that he took Eunus (for such was his name) with him to feasts and dinners, and several questions being put to him concerning his future kingdom, he was asked how he would treat each person who was there present at the table. He readily went on with his story, and told them that he would be very kind to his masters and like a conjuror using many monstrous magical terms and expressions, he made all the guests laugh, upon which some of them as a reward gave him large helpings from the table, and asked him to remember their kindness when he came to be king. 9 But all this jesting at length really did end in his advancement to be king; and all those who at the feasts by way of ridicule had been kind to him, he rewarded in earnest. But the beginning of the revolt was in this manner.
§ 34.10 There was one Damophilus of Enna, a man of great wealth, but of a proud and haughty disposition. This man above all measure was cruel and severe to his slaves; and his wife Megallis strove to exceed her husband in all kind of cruelty and inhumanity towards the slaves. The slaves, who had been so cruelly used, were enraged by this like wild beasts, and plotted together to rise in arms and cut the throats of their masters. To this end they consulted Eunus, and asked him whether the gods would give them success in their designs. He encouraged them and declared that they would prosper in their enterprise. He uttered conjuring words and expressions, as was his usual manner, and told them to be speedy in their execution.
§ 34.11 Therefore, after they had raised a body of four hundred slaves, at the first opportunity they suddenly armed themselves and broke into the city of Enna, led by their captain Eunus, who used his juggling tricks to breathe fire out of his mouth. Then entering the houses, they made such a great a slaughter, that they did not even spare even the suckling children, 12 but plucked them violently from their mother's breasts and dashed them against the ground. It cannot be expressed how vilely and filthily, for the satisfying of their lusts, they used men's wives in the very presence of their husbands. These villains were joined by a multitude of the slaves who were in the city. They first executed their rage and cruelty upon their own masters, and then fell to murdering others.
§ 34.13 In the mean time Eunus heard that Damophilus and his wife were in an orchard near the city. Therefore he sent some of his rabble there, who brought them back with their hands tied behind their backs, taunting them as they passed along with much ill-treatment; but they declared that they would be kind in every respect to their daughter, because of her pity and compassion towards the slaves, and her readiness always to be helpful to them. This showed that the savage behaviour of the slaves towards others arose, not from their own cruel nature, but from a desire to have revenge for the wrongs they had suffered previously. 14 The men that were sent for Damophilus and Megallis his wife brought them to the city and into the theatre, where all the rebellious rabble was assembled. There Damophilus pleaded earnestly for his life and moved many with what he said. But Hermeias and Zeuxis denounced him with many bitter accusations and called him a cheat and dissembler. Then without waiting to hear the decision of the people concerning him, the one ran him through with a sword and the other cut off his head with an axe. Then they made Eunus king, not for his valour or skill in warfare, but on account of his extraordinary tricks, and because he was the leader and author of the defection; and his name seemed to portend and to be a good omen, that he would be kind {eunous} to his subjects.
§ 34.15 When he had therefore been made general, with absolute power to order and dispose of all things as he pleased, an assembly was called, and he put all the prisoners from Enna to death except those that were skilful in making of weapons, whom he fettered and set to work. As for Megallis, he delivered her up to the will of the women slaves, to take their revenge on her as they thought fit. After they had whipped and tormented her, they threw her down a steep precipice.
§ 34.16 And Eunus himself killed his own master Antigenes and Python. At length, putting a diadem upon his head and graced with all the emblems of royalty, he caused his wife, who was a Syrian from the same city, to be called queen, and chose such as he judged to be most prudent to be his councillors. Amongst these was one Achaeus by name, and an Achaean by birth, a wise man and a good soldier. Within the space of three days he got together above six thousand men, armed with what they could by any way or means lay their hands upon; and he was joined by others, who were all furnished either with axes, hatches, slings, bills, or stakes sharpened and burnt at one end, or with spits. With these he ravaged and made spoil all over the country. At length, after he had been joined by an infinite number of slaves, he grew to such power and boldness as to engage in a war with the Roman generals, and often defeated them in battle, by overpowering them with the number of his men; for he now had with him above ten thousand men.
§ 34.17 In the mean time, a Cilician called Cleon instigated another defection of the slaves, and now all were hoping that this unruly rabble would come to blows one with another, and so Sicily would be rid of them through their mutual slaughters and destruction of each other. But contrary to all men's hopes and expectations, they joined forces together. Cleon followed the commands of Eunus in every respect, and served his prince as general, having five thousand of his own soldiers. Thirty days had now passed since the first beginning of this rebellion: 18 # and presently the slaves fought a battle with Lucius Hypsaeus, who had come from Rome and commanded eight thousand Sicilians. In this fight the rebels won the day; they were then twenty thousand in number, and very soon afterwards their army increased to two hundred thousand men. And although they fought against the Romans themselves, yet they often came off as conquerors, and were very seldom defeated.
§ 34.19.1 When news of this spread abroad, a revolt was started at Rome by one hundred and fifty slaves, who conspired against the government; similarly in Attica by one thousand slaves; and likewise at Delos, and many other places. But the magistrates of the various communities, to prevent the mischief from going further, made a quick response, and promptly fell upon the slaves, and put them all to death. So those that remained and were ready to break out into rebellion, were reduced to more sound and sober thoughts.
§ 34.20.1 But in Sicily the disorders increased more and more; for cities were taken, and their inhabitants made slaves, and many armies were routed by the rebels, until such time as Rupilius the Roman general recovered Tauromenium. The besieged had been reduced to such an extremity of famine by a sharp and close siege, that they began to eat their own children, and the men their wives; and at length they butchered one another for food. There Rupilius captured Comanus the brother of Cleon, who was endeavouring to escape out of the city while it was besieged.
§ 34.21.1 At last Sarapion, a Syrian, betrayed the citadel, and all the fugitives fell into his hands. Rupilius had them scourged and thrown over a cliff. He marched from there to Enna, and by a long siege reduced it to such straits, that there was no hope left for anyone to escape. After slaying Cleon their general, who had made a sally from the city and fought like a hero, he exposed his body to open view; and soon afterwards the city likewise was betrayed into his hands, which otherwise could never have been taken by force because of the natural strength of the place.
§ 34.22.1 As for Eunus, he fled like a coward with (?) six hundred of his guards to the top of certain high cliffs, where those that were with him, foreseeing their inevitable ruin (for Rupilius pursued then closely), cut one another's throats. But Eunus the conjuring king out of fear hid himself in some caves, which he had discovered for that purpose; he was dragged out of there with four others of his gang — his cook, his barber, the man who rubbed him in the bath and the jester at his banquets. 23 Finally he was thrown into prison, and there consumed by lice, and so ended his days at Morgantina by a death worthy of the former wickedness of his life. Rupilius afterwards with a small body of men marched all over Sicily, and presently cleared the country of thieves and robbers.
§ 34.24b.1 The slaves conspired together to rise in revolt and kill their masters. They approached Eunus, who lived not far away, and asked him whether their plan had the approval of the gods. He began to speak in a strange and inspired manner, and when he heard the purpose of their visit, he made it clear that the gods would grant success to their revolt, if they made no delay and immediately put their plot into action; for fate had assigned Enna to them as their home, which was the citadel of the whole island. When they heard what he said, and perceived that the divinity was supporting them in their venture, their spirits were so aroused to revolt that they made no further delay in implementing their plans. They immediately released some slaves from bonds, and called on others dwelling nearby to join with them. About four hundred of them gathered in a field near Enna, and after making pledges to each other and exchanging vows by night over sacrificial victims, they armed themselves as far as the occasion permitted; but they all put on the strongest of weapons, their angry determination to wipe out their arrogant masters. With Eunus as their leader, and urging each other on, about the middle of the night they fell on the city and slew many of the inhabitants.
§ 34.25.1 About this time there arose so great a mutiny and sedition of the slaves in Sicily, as no age before could ever parallel, in which many cities suffered and were miserably ransacked. Innumerable multitudes of men, women and children fell into most grievous calamities; and the whole island was now upon the point of falling into the hands of the slaves, who set no other bounds to their exorbitant power, than the absolute destruction of their masters.
§ 34.25.2 These things occurred when none in the least expected them; but those who were accustomed to investigate into the roots and causes of all events, concluded that it was not a thing that happened merely by chance. 26 For the inhabitants of this rich island grew arrogant with too much plenty; they fell into luxury and voluptuousness, and then into pride and insolence. For those reasons the cruelty of the masters towards their slaves, and the hatred of the slaves towards their masters raged and increased more and more every day. At length when a suitable opportunity offered itself, this hatred broke forth and many thousands of slaves suddenly, without any warning, joined together to destroy their masters.
§ 34.26.1 And the same thing happened in Asia, almost about the same time. For when Aristonicus without any proper rights sought to gain the kingdom of Asia, all the slaves, by reason of the cruelty of their masters, joined with him, and filled many towns and cities with bloodshed and slaughter.
§ 34.27.1 In like manner the men who had large possessions in Sicily bought up whole slave markets to till their lands. Some they shackled, others they exhausted with hard labour, and branded and marked every one of them. So great a multitude of slaves overflowed all of Sicily, like a deluge, that the excessive number seemed incredible to all who heard it. The rich men of Sicily rivalled the Italians in pride, greed, and wickedness; for many of the Italians who had great numbers of slaves had driven their shepherds to such a degree of villainy, that they allowed them to rob and steal, rather than provide them with any necessary subsistence. 28 Once this license had been permitted to those men who had strength of body, together with time and leisure, sufficient to enable them readily to execute any outrage, and who had been reduced by lack of subsistence to the extremity of attempting anything to supply their needs; in a short time this lawlessness began to spread.
§ 34.31.1 At first they used to murder travellers upon the highway, when only one or two were together; afterwards they would in groups enter into little villages by night, and pillage poor men's houses, and forcibly carry away whatever they found and kill anyone who opposed them. 29 At length, as they grew everyday more and more audacious, there was neither security in the roads in Sicily for travellers in the night, nor safety in their houses for those who dwelt in the country, but all places were full of rapine, robberies, and murders. And because the shepherds and herdsmen were supplied with weapons, and inured to stay in the open fields through night and day, they every day grew more bold and daring; carrying clubs and lances and long staves, and covered with the skins of wolves and wild boars, they had a most frightful and terrible appearance, almost like they were going to war. 30 Besides, every one had a guard of great mastiff dogs to attend them; and as they guzzled down milk, and glutted themselves with meat, and all other sorts of food, they resembled beasts both in souls and bodies. As a result, the whole island seemed as if it was full of soldiers roving up and down in every place, since all the daring slaves were let loose by their masters to act the part of madmen. 31 It is true indeed that the Roman praetors did what they could to suppress the violence of the slaves, but because they did not dare to punish them, on account of the power and influence of their masters, they were forced to suffer the country to be infested with robberies. For most of their masters were Roman knights, who had judicial authority at Rome, and might act as judges in the cases of the praetors, who were summoned to appear before them on charges relating to their administration of the province; and therefore the magistrates were for good reasons afraid of them.
§ 34.32.1 The Italians, who had large estates in Sicily, bought many slaves, every one of whom they branded with marks on their cheeks, and oppressed them with hard labour, and yet failed to give them sufficient subsistence.
§ 34.33.1 Not only in political life should the powerful behave humanely towards those who are of humble condition, but also in private life the right-minded should not be too harsh on their slaves. For as in states arrogant behaviour leads to civil dissension amongst the citizens, so in each private home, such behaviour provokes the slaves against their masters, and gives rise to terrible disorders in the cities. For when those in power act cruelly and wickedly, the character of their subjects is inflamed to reckless action. Those whom fate has placed in a lowly position will gladly yield to their superiors in honour and glory, but if they are denied the kindness which they deserve, they revolt against the men who act like cruel despots.
§ 34.34.1 There was one Damophilus of Enna, who was wealthy, but very proud and arrogant; this man cultivated a large area of land, had a vast stock of cattle, and imitated the luxury and cruelty of the Italians towards their slaves. He traversed the country up and down, travelling in a coach drawn by stately horses, and guarded by a company of armed slaves; he likewise always carried about with him many beautiful boys, flatterers and parasites. 35 In the city and in the villages he had finely engraved silver vessels, and all sorts of purple carpets of very great value; and he held magnificent feasts and entertainments, rivalling the state and grandeur of a king; in pomp and expense he far surpassed the luxury of the Persians, and his pride and arrogance were excessive. He was uncouth, and brought up without learning, or any liberal education; and having heaped up a great deal of wealth, he abandoned himself to self-indulgent licentiousness. At first this fullness and plenty made him insolent; and at length he was a plague to himself, and the occasion of bringing many miseries and calamities upon his country. 36 For having bought many slaves, he abused them in the highest degree; and those that were free born in their own country, and taken captives in war, he branded on their cheeks with the sharp points of iron pins. Some of these he bound in fetters and put in slave pens; and to others that were ordered to look after the cattle in the fields, he allowed neither clothing nor food sufficient to satisfy nature.
§ 34.37.1 The barbarity and cruelty of this Damophilus was such, that never a day passed without him scourging his slaves, without the least cause or occasion. And his wife Megallis was as cruel as himself, towards the maid servants, and other slaves that fell into her hands. Therefore his slaves, being provoked by this cruelty of their master and mistress, concluded that nothing could bring them into a worse condition than they already were; [and they suddenly rose up in revolt].
§ 34.38.1 Some naked slaves once went to Damophilus of Enna and complained that they did not have clothes; but he did not listen to their complaints. "What then," he said to them, "do the travellers in the countryside walk naked along the roads, so that you can not take the clothes off them?" He then attached them to pillars, beat them cruelly, and haughtily dismissed them.
§ 34.39.1 In Sicily Damophilus had a young daughter of a very gentle and courteous disposition, who made it her business to relieve and heal those slaves that had been abused and scourged by her parents, and to bring sustenance to those who were shackled; so that she was wonderfully beloved by all the slaves. In remembrance of her former kindness, they all had pity on her, and were so far from offering any violence or injury to the young maid, that every one of them made it their business to preserve her chastity unviolated; and chose the most suitable men from their own company, of whom Hermeias was the most eager, to conduct her to Catana to some of her family.
§ 34.40.1 The rebel slaves, venting their fury against the entire household of their masters, committed many terrible outrages. This revenge was not a mark of their cruel disposition, but the outcome of the unfair treatment that they had experienced, which made them turn angrily to punishing those who had wronged them in the past. Nature itself teaches slaves to give a just response of gratitude or revenge.
§ 34.41.1 After Eunus was declared king, he put many rich citizens to death, and spared only those who had commended him for his prophecies at their feasts, to which his master {Antigenes} used to bring him as a jest; those likewise that had been so kind as to give him some of their food, he preserved; so that the strange turn of fortune was truly astonishing, that a kindness shown to such a poor and humble person should result in a great favour, when it was most needed.
§ 34.42.1 Achaeus, an advisor to King Antiochus {Eunus}, disapproving the actions of fugitive slaves, censured their excesses, and predicted that they would soon be punished. But Eunus, far from being angry at this frankness, and putting Achaeus to death, gave him instead the house of his masters, and appointed him his advisor.
§ 34.43.1 About the same time another rebellion of the slaves broke out. Cleon, a Cilician from near Mount Taurus, who was inured to robberies from a boy and had been appointed to look after the horses in their pastures in Sicily, used to attack travellers on the highways and committed various heinous murders. This man, hearing of the good fortune of Eunus and his followers, persuaded some of the neighbouring slaves to join with him in a sudden revolt. They overran the city of Agrigentum and all the neighbouring country round about.
§ 34.44.1 Their pressing needs and lack of provisions forced the rebel slaves to risk everything, because they had no opportunity to follow a better course.
§ 34.45.1 It did not need a revelation from god to understand how easy it was to capture the city. It was obvious, even to the simplest observer, that since the walls were in disrepair due to the long time of peace, and many of the garrison had been killed, the city could not hold out for long against a siege.
§ 34.46.1 Eunus, keeping his army out of the range of weapons, shouted insults at the Romans, saying that it was not his men, but the Romans who were runaways from danger. He put on mimes for those inside, in which the slaves depicted how they had revolted from their own masters, mocking their masters' arrogance and the excessive cruelty that led to their overthrow.
§ 34.47.1 Although some men may be convinced that the gods are not concerned about the extraordinary misfortunes that afflict men, yet it is beneficial to the community for the fear of the gods to be instilled in the hearts of the masses. Few men act justly solely as a result of their own virtue; the majority of men will be stopped from crime only because of the punishments inflicted by the laws and the retribution of the gods.
§ 34.48.1 The common people, far from feeling pity for the immense misfortunes that were suffered by the Sicilians, on the contrary were delighted because they were jealous of the inequality that existed in wealth and living conditions. This jealousy, which used to cause them grief, was now turned to joy, because they saw that those who once enjoyed a brilliant fortune had now fallen into the most miserable condition. But the cruellest thing was that, although the rebels, as a sensible precaution, did not burn their houses, or destroy their property and crops, and indeed wholly avoided harming any of the men engaged in agriculture; yet the populace, using the runaway slaves as a pretext, but in reality motivated by jealousy against the rich, ran out into the countryside, and not only looted the properties but also set fire to the rural dwellings.
§ 35.3.1 In Asia, Attalus {III} as soon as he came to the throne, began to manage affairs in a way quite different from all the former kings; for they by their clemency and kindness to their subjects, reigned prosperously and happily themselves, and were a blessing to the kingdom; but this prince being of a cruel and bloody disposition, oppressed his subjects with many slaughters, and grievous calamities. Since he suspected that the most powerful of his father's friends were plotting against him, he resolved to rid himself of them. To that end he picked out some of the most brutal and rapacious ruffians from among his barbarian mercenary soldiers, and hid them in certain chambers in the palace; then he sent for those of his friends and kindred whom he most suspected, and when they appeared, he had all their throats cut by these bloody executioners of his cruelty, and he promptly ordered their wives and children to be put to death in the same manner. The rest of his father's friends that either had command in his army, or were governors of cities, he either caused to be treacherously assassinated; or seizing them, murdered them and their families together. Therefore he was hated not only by his subjects, but by all the neighbouring nations; and all within his dominions endeavoured as much as they could to bring about a revolution and change of government.
§ 35.4.1 Most of the barbarian prisoners either committed suicide or killed each other while they were being transported, because they were unwilling to bear the disgrace of slavery. A young man, still immature, who was accompanying his three sisters, slaughtered them in their sleep. He was arrested before he had time to kill himself, and was asked why he had murdered his sisters. He said that he had killed them because they had nothing worth living for; then, by refusing all food, he killed himself through starvation.
§ 35.4.2 The same prisoners, when they arrived at the borders of their country, fell down and kissed the ground, moaning and filling the folds of their clothes with dust, so that the whole army was touched with pity. Each of the soldiers felt a divine awe when he saw the emotions of his fellow humans, and observed that even the most savage barbarians, when fate separates them from the bond of their homeland, do not forget their love for the land that reared them.
§ 35.5.1 Tiberius Gracchus was the son of the Tiberius who had twice been consul, a man very famous for both his military and his political achievements. He was also, through his mother, the grandchild of that Publius Scipio who conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians. As well as being nobly born on both sides, he excelled all his contemporaries in judgement and power of speech, and indeed in all manner of learning, so that he was not afraid to debate freely with the powerful men who opposed him.
§ 35.6.1 The people flocked to Rome, like rivers flowing into the all-receptive ocean. They were determined to support their own cause, with the law as their leader and ally. Their defender {Gracchus} was a magistrate who was untouched by corruption or fear; he had decided to undergo every toil and danger until the last breath of his life, in order to acquire land for the people . . .
§ 35.6.2 He {Octavius?} had around him, not an ill-organised mob, but the strongest and most prosperous part of the people. Therefore the power of both sides was evenly balanced, and victory was long uncertain, swinging first one way, then the other. Many thousands of men had gathered together, and they supported their side with violence. The assemblies of these people had the appearance of stormy waves on the sea.
§ 35.7.1 After he was deprived of his office, Octavius did not want to admit that he was a private individual, but he did not dare to act as tribune, and so he kept quiet. Yet at the time when Gracchus proposed a decree to dismiss Octavius from his position as magistrate, Octavius could have proposed a similar decree depriving Gracchus of his position as tribune. For if the two decrees had been legally adopted, both would have returned to private life; or else they would have kept their powers, if the hostile proposals had been deemed unlawful.
§ 35.7.2 Heading relentlessly to his doom, Gracchus soon obtained his deserved punishment. Scipio seized a club that was close to hand, because anger can often overcome obstacles . . .
§ 35.7.3 When news of the death of Gracchus reached the army, Scipio Africanus exclaimed: "So may all those perish who attempt such crimes" {Homer, Od.1.47).
§ 35.8.1 The Syrian slaves cut off the hands of those they took prisoners, not at the wrists, but hands and arms together.
§ 35.9.1 Those {slaves} who ate the sacred fish endured great suffering. For the divinity, as if making a clear example of them for others, left all these madmen to die without help. So they received both a just punishment from the gods, and severe censure from writers of history.
§ 35.10.1 The senate, dreading the anger of the gods, consulted the Sibylline books, and sent ambassadors into Sicily, who visited the altars dedicated to Aetnaean Zeus throughout the whole island, and offered solemn sacrifices to him. The ambassadors enclosed the altars within walls, to exclude all except those of the several cities who, according to the customs of their own country, used to offer sacrifices to him.
§ 35.11.1 Gorgus of Morgantina, surnamed Cambalus, was one of the chief men of wealth and authority in the city. Going out to hunt and encountering a band of robbers, he took to his heels to escape back to the city. He happened to be met by his father, also called Gorgus, who was on horseback. The father forthwith leaped off his horse, and told his son to mount the horse, and make away with all speed into the city. But the son was not willing to put his own preservation above that of his father, nor could the father bear to cause the death of his son by avoiding the danger himself. And so while they were with tears entreating one another, and competing in pious affection, with the love of the father rivalling the love of the son, they were overtaken by the thieves, and both killed on the spot.
§ 35.12.1 Zibelmius the son of Diegylis followed his father's steps in cruelty. Enraged at what the Thracians had done to Diegylis, he proceeded to such a degree of implacable severity and height of wickedness, that he put to death all that had displeased him, with their whole families; and for the most slight and frivolous reasons he cut some in pieces limb from limb, crucified others, and sawed several asunder. He also killed little children before their parent's faces, and infants at their mother's breasts, and having cut them in pieces, dished up their members as curiosities for their kindred to feast upon, reviving as it were those ancient banquets of Tereus and Thyestes. At length the Thracians seized upon his person; but it was scarce possible to punish him according to his deserts. For how could one body suffer the punishment justly due for the cruelties and injuries committed against a whole nation? However, to the utmost of their power they repaid him with all the insults, and extremity of torture upon his body, that they could invent.
§ 35.13.1 Attalus, the first king of that name, consulted the oracle on some matter. The Pythia replied spontaneously in these words: "Courage, O bull-horned one, you will have regal honours, and the son of your son will have them too, but your great-grandsons will not."
§ 35.14.1 Ptolemaeus Physcon, when he saw that his sister Cleopatra was so great an enemy to him, and could not revenge himself otherwise upon her, contrived a most abominable piece of villainy for that purpose. For, imitating the cruelty of Medeia, he murdered her son, begotten by himself, in Cyprus; the son was called Memphites, and was still a young boy. Not content with this, he committed a far more wicked act: for cutting up the child's limbs, he put them in a chest and delivered them to one of his guards to be conveyed to Alexandria. He commanded that in the night before Cleopatra's birthday, which was then near at hand, the chest should be set down at the palace gates. When this was done and the circumstances became known, Cleopatra was distraught, and all the people were in a great rage against Ptolemaeus.
§ 35.15.1 The warm spring heat had begun to melt the snow; the crops, after the long cold of winter, were showing their first buds; and men were going to the work of agriculture; when Arsaces, to probe the enemy, sent envoys to negotiate peace. Antiochus replied that he would grant peace on these conditions: that his brother Demetrius was freed from captivity and released, that Arsaces evacuated the territory which he had occupied, and that, content with his ancestral realm, he paid tribute to Antiochus. Provoked by the harshness of this response, Arsaces marched against Antiochus.
§ 35.16.1 The friends of Antiochus urged him not to engage in combat against the Parthians, who were so superior in numbers; for they could retreat to the nearby mountains, where the difficult ground would protect them from the danger of the enemy cavalry. Antiochus paid no heed to this advice, saying it was shameful that the victors should fear the audacity of those they had already conquered. So he urged his friends to face the dangers and boldly withstand the attack of the barbarians.
§ 35.17.1 When the death of Antiochus became known at Antioch, the whole city mourned, and every house was full of wailing, especially from women, who bemoaned this great loss. Three hundred thousand men had been lost, including those who did not serve in the ranks. Every family had some loss to grieve: among the women, some had to mourn the death of a brother, others that of a husband or a son; and many girls and boys, left as orphans, lamented that they were bereaved of their fathers. Eventually time, the best healer of grief, put an end to their laments.
§ 35.17.2 Athenaeus, Antiochus' general, soon met with a just reward for the wrongs he had committed when he put the army in quarters. After being the first to flee, forsaking Antiochus in the heat of battle, he came to some of the villages which he had mistreated when he used them for winter quarters. They all shut their gates on him, and refused to help him with either food or drink, so that he wandered up and down the country, till at length he died from starvation.
§ 35.18.1 Arsaces, king of the Parthians, after defeating Antiochus expected to invade Syria and easily make himself master of the country, but he was not able to make this expedition, since fate had placed him in grave danger and many perils. I believe, indeed, that the deity never gives unalloyed happiness, but adds some ills to it as if on purpose; and in the same way the deity will add some blessings to follow misfortune. And in this case fortune was true to its usual character; as if weary of bestowing continual success, it brought about such a reversal in the course of the whole war, that those who were previously successful were in the end brought low.
§ 35.19.1 Arsaces, king of the Parthians, was angry against the Seleuceians and could not forgive them for the cruel punishment they had inflicted on his general Enius. The Seleuceians therefore sent envoys to him, to beg forgiveness for what had happened. When the envoys requested an answer, Arsaces led them to where Pitthides sat, blinded and lying on the ground; he ordered them to report to the Seleuceians that they should all suffer the same fate. Terror-stricken by this, they forgot their previous woes out of fear of the dangers that now threatened, because new misfortunes always tend to obscure men's past calamities.
§ 35.20.1 When Hegelochus, the general of Ptolemaeus Physcon, was sent against Marsyas the Alexandrian general, he took him prisoner and destroyed all his army. Marsyas was brought before the king, and everyone expected that he would immediately be put to a cruel death; but instead Ptolemaeus pardoned him. For now he began to repent of his former cruelties, and endeavoured to regain the people's love and favour by acts of clemency.
§ 35.21.1 Euhemerus, king of Parthia, born in Hyrcania, exceeded all known tyrants in cruelty, and omitted no sorts of torments he could invent. He enslaved many of the Babylonians, upon slight pretexts, along with their whole families, and sent them into Media to be sold as booty. He also burnt to the ground the market-place, and some of the temples in Babylon; and destroyed the best part of the city.
§ 35.22.1 Alexander surnamed Zabinas, when the distinguished officers Antipater, Clonius, and Aeropus revolted from him, besieged and captured Laodiceia, which they had occupied. However, he generously spared them all. For he was of a mild and gentle disposition, and pleasing temper, and of a wonderful affability towards his associates and those he met; and therefore he was greatly loved by the mass of his subjects.
§ 35.23.1 When Sextius had captured the city of the Gauls, and was selling the inhabitants as slaves, one Crato who was led in chains with the rest, came up to the consul, as he sat upon the tribunal, and told him he had always been a friend to the Romans, and for that reason had received many injuries, and had suffered many beatings from his fellow citizens. Sextius immediately released him from his bonds, along with all his family, and restored all his possessions; and for his good will to the Romans, gave him power to set free nine hundred of the citizens, such as he himself thought fit. For the consul was more generous and bountiful to Crato than he expected, so that the Gauls could easily see how exactly just the Romans were, both in their punishments and in their rewards.
§ 35.24.1 The people showed favour to him {Gracchus}, not only when he took up office, but when he was a candidate, and even before then. Upon his return from Sardinia, the people went out to meet him, and his landing from the boat was greeted with blessings and applause. Such was the extreme affection that people had for him.
§ 35.25.1 Gracchus in his speeches to the people urged them to overthrow the aristocracy and establish a democratic government; and after winning the favour of all classes, he had them not only as supporters, but even as instigators of his bold objectives. For every citizen, lured by the hope that the proposed laws would be in his own interests, was ready to risk any danger to ensure that they were adopted. By taking control of the courts away from the senators and setting up the knights as judges, Gracchus gave the lower classes power over the nobles, and by breaking the harmony that existed previously between the senate and the knights, he made the populace a serious rival to both those classes. By setting all the classes at variance, he built up personal power for himself; and by using funds from the public treasury for shameful and inopportune expenses, which however bought him favour with others, he made himself the centre of everyone's attention. By leaving the provinces open to the greed and rapacity of the tax-farmers, he made their subjects rightly resentful of Roman rule; and by reducing the traditional severity of military discipline through his laws, as a favour to the soldiers, he introduced insubordination and anarchy into the state. Contempt for their leaders causes men to disobey the laws, and finally leads to fatal disorders and the overthrow of the state.
§ 35.25.2 Gracchus had reached such a degree of power and arrogance, that he released Octavius, even though the people had voted to send him into exile. He told the people that he did this as a favour to his mother, who had interceded with him.
§ 35.26.1 When Popilius was sent into exile, the people accompanied him with weeping as he left the city; for the people knew that the sentence of exile was unjust, and that by accepting bribes against Popilius they had lost the ability to speak out openly against wickedness.
§ 35.27.1 Seventeen tribes voted against the law, which was approved by an equal number of tribes; when the votes of the eighteenth tribe were counted, there was a majority of one vote in favour of approval. While the judgment of the people was so finely balanced, Gracchus was terribly alarmed, as if his life was in danger; but when he heard that he had won by a margin of just one vote, he cried out in elation, "The sword is hanging over the heads of our enemies, and for the rest, we will be pleased with whatever fortune will grant us."
§ 35.28.1 Alexander, who had no confidence in the multitude, in regard to both their inexperience of warfare, and also their habitual inconstancy and craving for change, did not venture upon a pitched battle. Having got together as much money as he could out of the royal treasuries, and pillaged the temples, he resolved to slip away by night towards Greece. But he was detected while he was attempting, with the help of some of his barbarians, to plunder the temple of Zeus; and he and his accomplices almost suffered the instant punishment that they deserved. However he managed to escape with a few followers, and headed towards Seleucia. The Seleuceians, who had heard about the sacrilege he had committed, shut their gates against him; so having failed in this attempt also, he hurried along the sea coast towards Posideium.
§ 35.28.2 Alexander, after looting the temple, fled to Posideium. He seemed to be pursued by an invisible demon, which tracked his steps and constantly worked to ensnare him in the punishment that he so richly deserved. In fact, two days after his sacrilege, he was arrested and taken to the camp of Antiochus. Such is the inescapable power of avenging justice, which pursues those guilty of brazen impiety; for punishment relentlessly hunts down the wicked, bringing swift revenge. Once king and head of an army of forty thousand men, now he was led shackled and exposed to the insults and revenge of his enemies.
§ 35.28.3 When Alexander, king of Syria, was put in chains and led through the camp, it seemed incredible, not only to those who heard about it, but even to those who saw it themselves; for the unexpectedness of the event almost overcame the evidence of their senses. After they had convinced themselves by watching that it was really true, they all went away from the sight in amazement. Some in frequent exclamations of approval praised the power of destiny; others remarked in various ways on the fickleness of fate, the reversals in human fortunes, and the speed of transformations; they observed how changeable life can be, far beyond anyone's expectations.
§ 35.28a.1 Gracchus opposed them with many supporters; but as his situation became steadily worse, and he met with unexpected failure, he fell into a depression and a manic mood. He gathered his fellow conspirators at his own house, and after consulting with Flaccus, he decided that it was necessary to overcome his opponents by force, and to use violence against the magistrates and the senate. Therefore he urged them all to carry swords under their togas, and to follow him, awaiting his orders. While Opimius was deliberating on the Capitol about a suitable course of action, Gracchus rushed there with his disaffected followers; but when he found that the temple had already been occupied and that a crowd of nobles had gathered there, he went away to the portico behind the temple, in a despondent and tormented mood. An acquaintance of his called Quintus fell at his knees, while he was raging in this way, and begged him not to take any violent or desperate action against his fatherland. But Gracchus, who was already starting to behave like a tyrant, threw him face down onto the ground, and ordered his followers to slay him, making this the start of their revenge against their enemies. The consul was shocked, and he informed the senate about the murder and the intended attack on them.
§ 35.29.1 After Gracchus had been killed by his own slave, Lucius Vitellius, who had been one of his friends, was the first to come across his body; and was so far from being troubled at his death, that he cut off his head, and carried it to his own house, thereby giving a remarkable instance of his cruelty and covetousness. For when the consul {Opimius} by proclamation promised to reward anyone that should bring him the head {of Gracchus}, with its weight in gold, Vitellius bored a hole in the neck, and drawing out the brain, poured in molten lead in its place. Then he brought the head to Opimius, and returned with the promised reward; but he was hated by everyone for the rest of his life, because he had betrayed his friend. The Flacci were likewise put to death.
§ 35.30a.1 The (?) Scordisci took a large amount of booty and thereby persuaded many others to adopt the same policy, as if robbing others' property and ravaging by force . . . was conduct befitting brave men. They thought that strong men are merely confirming the law of nature when they seize the property of weaker men.
§ 35.30b.1 The Scordisci later, by blocking (?) the way through, showed that even the power of the Roman rested not in their own strength, but in the weakness of others.
§ 35.30c.1 Although intelligence may seem to be master of everything, it is surpassed by one thing alone: fortune. 35.Plans that are conceived] by an astute and clever mind can be unexpectedly ruined by capricious fortune. On the other hand, plans that have been discarded in folly . . . can succeed, contrary to everyone's expectations. As a result, men who are favoured by fortune can enjoy continual success in almost every enterprise; but those who are opposed by fortune are thwarted every time in each of their ventures, and these men can be seen . . .
§ 35.31.1 In Libya the two kings drew up their armies one against another, and Jugurtha routed the Numidians in a battle, slaying many of them. His brother Adherbal after fleeing to Cirta, where he was shut in and besieged, sent envoys to Rome to entreat the Romans not to abandon a king, who was their friend and ally, in grave danger. The senate forthwith sent messengers to Numidia with orders that the siege should be raised. When Jugurtha disregarded this message, the Romans sent more envoys vested with greater authority; but they achieved as little as the previous envoys. At length Jugurtha, digging a trench around the city, forced it into surrender through starvation. Then he most unnaturally slew his own brother, as he was going out of the city with his children and abdicating from his kingdom. Adherbal begged him only to spare his life, but Jugurtha disregarded both the affection due to family, and the respect due to suppliants. He also tortured and killed all the Italians who had fought alongside his brother.
§ 35.32.1 Jugurtha, the king of the Numidians, marvelled at the courage of the Romans and praised their virtues. He said to his own friends that with such men he could . . . through the whole of Africa . . .
§ 35.32a.1 When news arrived of the death of (?) Cassius and his army . . . the city was filled with much uproar and wailing; for many children were orphaned . . . and not a few brothers . . .
§ 35.33.1 Publius Scipio Nasica, the consul, was a man renowned for both his virtue and his nobleness of birth; for he was descended from the same family as Africanus, Asiaticus and Hispanus; of whom the first conquered Africa, the second Asia, and the third Spain; and each of them earned their surname through their achievements. In addition to the glory attached to the whole family, his father and his grandfather had been the most eminent men of the city; for both of them were leaders of the senate — the first to express their opinions in all debates — up to the time of their deaths. His grandfather upon one occasion was judged by the senate the best man of all the Roman citizens.
§ 35.33.2 For it was found written in the Sibylline oracles that the Romans should build a temple in honour of the great Mother of the Gods {Magna Mater}, and should bring her sacred images from Pessinus in Asia; and that all the people should go out of the city to meet them; and that the best man should lead the men, and the best woman be at the head of the women, when they received the images of the goddess. The senate performed all that was prescribed in the oracles; they judged Publius Nasica to be the best man, and Valeria the best woman.
§ 35.33.3 He was not only eminent for his piety towards the gods, but also a good statesman, who expressed his views intelligently. For Marcus Cato, who was given the name Demosthenes, whenever he delivered his opinion in the senate always repeated that Carthage must be destroyed, even if the senate was debating some other, unrelated matter; but Publius Nasica was ever of the opposite opinion, that Carthage should be preserved,
§ 35.33.4 Both of these opinions seemed to the senate to be worthy of consideration; but the most acute thinkers amongst them preferred the opinion of Nasica. For they conceived that the power and grandeur of the Romans should be judged, not by comparison with the feebleness of others, but rather by their superiority over even the strongest states.
§ 35.33.5 Besides, while Carthage stood, the fear of that city would force the Romans to remain in peace and concord among themselves, and they would govern their subjects with more moderation and clemency; these are the things which usually strengthen and enlarge empires. But if the rival city was destroyed, what could they expect but civil wars amongst the Romans themselves, and hatred of their leadership amongst the allies, who would suffer from the greed and insolence of the Roman magistrates.
§ 35.33.6 All of this accordingly happened to the Romans after the destruction of Carthage. For turbulent demagogues, redistribution of land, grievous revolts of allies, continual and destructive civil wars, and all the other misfortunes which Publius Scipio foretold, came to pass. His son Nasica afterwards, when he was well advanced in years, acted as leader of the senate and with his own hands killed Tiberius Gracchus, who was aiming at tyrannical power.
§ 35.33.7 This caused uproar amongst the common people, who were provoked to rage against those responsible for the death of Gracchus. The tribunes of the people, bringing all the senators one by one to the Rostra, asked them who had killed him; every one of them, fearing violence from the people, denied the facts, and gave vague answers. But when it came to Nasica, he admitted that he had killed him with his own hand; and further declared, that the ambition of Gracchus to seize absolute power had not been obvious to others, but it was very well known to him and the senate. Whereupon the people, though they were much troubled at what had happened, yet were moved by the boldness and authority of the man; and so they refrained from further action.
§ 35.33.8 This Scipio Nasica likewise, the son of the former Nasica, who died in this year, maintained an incorruptible character throughout his life; he took part in public affairs, and showed himself to be a philosopher, not only in words, but genuinely in the way he lived; so that he inherited a reputation for virtue in keeping with his ancestors.
§ 35.34.1 Antiochus Cyzicenus, as soon as he gained possession of the kingdom, applied himself to drinking and luxury, and behaviour altogether unbecoming for a king. For being extremely addicted to mimes, stage players and all kinds of conjurers, he learned their arts with great eagerness; he applied himself also to puppet-playing, and moving models of living creatures, five cubits high, which were covered over with gold and silver, and other contrivances of that sort. But he did not own any helepoleis or other siege engines, the possession of which would have brought him great renown, as well as being of practical use. Moreover, he was much addicted to inappropriate hunting, and often would steal out secretly by night, with a servant or two, to hunt boars, lions and leopards; so that many times he was in danger of his life by rashly encountering these wild beasts.
§ 35.35.1 Micipsa, son of Masinissa king of Numidia, had many children; but above them all he loved Adherbal his eldest, and Hiempsal and Micipsa. Micipsa was the most cultivated of all the kings of Numidia, and summoned the most learned of the Greeks to join him. He spent his time with them in improving himself in all sorts of learning, especially in philosophy; and he maintained his kingdom, together with his study of philosophy, until his old age.
§ 35.35a.1 Another Jugurtha {Massiva?}, a member of the royal family, came to Rome and made a rival claim to be king of Numidia. Since he was gaining an extremely good reputation, Jugurtha hired some murderers and secretly killed him; after this, without anyone preventing him, he returned to his kingdom.
§ 35.36.1 Contoniatus, the chieftain of Iontora in Gaul, was eminent for his prudence and skill in warfare. He was a friend and an ally of the Romans; for he had previously spent some time in Rome, and so shared in their virtue and liberal education. It was with the help of the Romans that he had gained power in Gaul.
§ 35.37.1 . . . of Carbo and Silanus. After so many men had been killed, some were crying for sons or brothers; others, orphaned by the death of their fathers, lamented the loss of their parents and the desolation of Italy; and a very large number of women, deprived of their husbands, were turned into poor widows. But the senate, enduring this misfortune with great magnanimity, put an end to so much wailing and crying; although they had suffered greatly from the disaster, they preferred to conceal the grief.
§ 35.38.1 Caius Marius, one of the counsellors and legates, was slighted by the proconsul, as being one of the humblest amongst them. The rest who were of eminent birth, and great reputation, were honoured and respected by the proconsul. But as for Marius, who was said to have been a tax-farmer, and had struggled to get into the lowest rank amongst the magistrates, Metellus paid no attention to him. Though in truth, all the rest loved their ease and avoided the unpleasantness of fighting; but Marius, having been often employed as leader of dangerous operations during the wars, seemed (?) to welcome this lack of respect. By applying himself to the tasks that he was given, he became a most expert soldier;
§ 35.38.2 and because he was naturally of a warlike spirit, and faced danger without flinching, in a short time he achieved a great reputation for bravery. His fairness and generosity towards the soldiers, and his affable conduct in all his meetings with those who were under his command, gained the affection of all the soldiers. In return for his kindness, they fought more courageously, when they were under his command, so as to increase the honour and reputation of their general; but if any other at any time happened to be sent to command them, the soldiers would deliberately fight more weakly at the very height of the battle. As a result, the Romans were often defeated, when one of the others commanded the army; but when Marius was general, they were always victorious.
§ 35.39.1 Bocchus, king of Libya, having sharply rebuked those who had persuaded him to make war upon the Romans, sent envoys to Marius. He begged pardon for his past offences, and since he desired to enter into an alliance, made many promises to provide assistance to the Romans in future. Marius ordered him to send a deputation to the senate, to treat of these matters; and accordingly the king sent envoys to Rome. The senate replied to them that Bocchus would in every respect be received into grace and favour, if he won the support of Marius. Realising that Marius was anxious to take Jugurtha the king as prisoner, Bocchus sent for Jugurtha, as if he wished to discuss some business of concern to them both. Then he seized him, and delivered him bound to Lucius Sulla the quaestor, who had been sent out for that purpose; and so, by the downfall of Jugurtha, he bought his own safety, and escaped punishment from the Romans.
§ 35.39a.1 When the elder Ptolemaeus was shut up in the city of Seleucia, one of his friends formed a plot against him. Ptolemaeus captured the plotter and punished him; but after that, he no longer had complete trust in his friends.
§ 36.1.1 About the time that Marius in a great battle defeated Bocchus and Jugurtha, the African kings, and slew many thousands of the Africans, and afterwards captured Jugurtha himself — who was delivered up to him by Bocchus, in order to gain the favour of the Romans and pardon for having made war upon them — the Romans themselves were in difficulty, by reason of the great losses they had suffered in the fighting against the Cimbrians in Gaul. And moreover, at the very same time men arrived from Sicily, reporting that many thousands of slaves there had risen in revolt. Therefore the whole Roman state was in such straits, that they knew not which way to turn; after losing sixty thousand allied troops in Gaul, in the war against the Cimbrians, they did not enough soldiers to send out another army.
§ 36.2.1 And besides, before the rebellion of the slaves in Sicily, there had been numerous revolts in Italy; but these were short and inconsiderable, as if the divinity had appointed them to be omens and presages of the great rebellion in Sicily. The first rising was at Nuceria, where thirty servants entered into a conspiracy, but they were soon punished. The second was at Capua where two hundred rose up in arms, but they were soon suppressed.
§ 36.2.2 The third happened in a strange manner, which was as follows. Titus Minutius, a Roman knight who had a very rich man for his father, chanced to fall in love with another man's maidservant, who was a very beautiful girl. Having enjoyed her, he was seized by an extraordinary passion, almost to the point of madness. He desired to buy her from her master, who was with much difficulty persuaded to part with her. The lover at length bought her for seven Attic talents, and agreed a certain time for the payment of the money; until this time, his father's great wealth procured him credit. But when the day of payment was come, he did not have the money available, and he requested a postponement of thirty days.
§ 36.2.3 That time also having passed, the creditor then demanded his money, but the lover was still not able to pay, and yet his love continued still as hot as ever. At length an extraordinary concept came into his head, which induced him to lay a trap for those that demanded the money; and to that end he decided to take on the state and dignity of a monarch. Therefore he bought five hundred panoplies; and after setting a new day for payment, in which he was trusted, he withdrew secretly to a certain field, where he stirred up his own slaves, about four hundred in number, to rise in revolt.
§ 36.2.4 Then he put on a diadem and purple cloak, and assuming all the other badges and emblems of royalty, he declared himself king, the deliverer of the slaves. In the first place he caused all those who demanded the money, which he had given for the young woman, to be scourged, and then executed. Then he entered the next towns with his armed slaves; those that came readily to join with him, he furnished with arms, and he killed all that opposed him. Having in a short time got together above seven hundred men, he divided them into centuries; and then fortifying and entrenching himself, he received all the slaves that ran away from their masters.
§ 36.2.5 When the rebellion was reported at Rome, the senate took prudent measures to put a stop to the mischief, and successfully suppressed it. The care and management of the business for the reducing and punishing of the fugitive slaves was committed to Lucius Lucullus, one of the praetors in the city, who raised six hundred men in Rome, and with them the same day marched to Capua, where he mustered four thousand foot-soldiers, and four hundred cavalrymen.
§ 36.2.6 When Vettius heard with what speed Lucullus was advancing towards him, he took possession of a strong hill, along with three thousand five hundred of his men. In the first engagement the fugitives by the advantage of the higher ground, got the better. Afterwards Lucullus bribed Apollonius, Vettius' general, to betray his confederates, by promising him, on behalf of the state, that he should receive a pardon. Apollonius duly co-operated with the Romans, and attacked Vettius, who slew himself, in order to avoid the punishment he feared for his rebellion. The rest of the rebels soon perished, except for Apollonius. And these were like prologues to that great revolt in Sicily, which began as follows.
§ 36.2a.1 There were many uprisings of slaves. The first was around Nuceria, when thirty slaves formed a conspiracy, and were quickly punished. The second was around Capua, when two hundred slaves joined in an uprising and were quickly punished. The third was extraordinary, and very different from the usual pattern of events. A certain Titus Vettius, a Roman knight with an extremely rich father, while he was still a mere youth formed a strong desire for another man's serving-maid, who was a girl of great beauty. After having intercourse with her, and living with her for some considerable time, he was seized by an extraordinary passion and a sort of madness. Because of his love for her, he tried to buy the girl's freedom,. At first, her owner refused; but later, won over by the large price that was offered, he agreed to sell her for seven Attic talents, and a time was arranged for the money to be handed over. The boy, who was trusted to pay because of his father's great wealth, took the maid away and went to one of his father's estates, where he satisfied his lusts with her. When the agreed time came for the payment, some men came to demand the money. After postponing the payment for thirty days, but still not being able to produce the money, the boy, who had become a slave to his passion, resorted to the most bizarre action. The strength of his feelings, and the shame ensuing from the postponement, drove him to childish and very silly thoughts. As he contemplated the likely departure of his mistress, he formed a desperate plot against those who were demanding the payment . . .
§ 36.3.1 As part of the command of Marius against the Cimbrians, the senate had given him a commission to raise men from the countries beyond the seas; to which end, Marius sent envoys to Nicomedes king of Bithynia, requesting him to send some men as auxiliaries; but Nicomedes replied that most of the Bithynians had been taken away as slaves by the tax-collectors, and were dispersed throughout the provinces.
§ 36.3.2 Upon hearing this, the senate decreed that no freeman belonging to any of the Roman allies should in any province be forced to be a slave, and that the praetors should take care to see that they were all set free. In pursuance of this order Licinius Nerva, then praetor in Sicily, appointed hearings and set free so many slaves that in a few days above eight hundred gained their liberty; so that all the slaves in Sicily were hereby encouraged and grew confident in their hope of liberty.
§ 36.3.3 The most eminent Sicilians therefore approached the the praetor, and asked him to desist from making any more free. Hereupon he (whether bribed, or to gain favour) withdrew his support for the hearings, and if any others came to him in the hope of being made free, he dismissed them with harsh words and sent them back to their masters. Upon this the slaves entered into a conspiracy; they left Syracuse, and gathered together at the grove of the Palici, where they discussed their intended rebellion.
§ 36.3.4 The bold mood of the slaves became evident in many places throughout the island. Amongst others, thirty slaves of two rich brothers in the country of the Halicyae were the first to assert their liberty; their leader was one Varius. These in the first place killed their masters, when they were asleep in their beds: then they went away to the neighbouring dwellings, and urged all the slaves there to follow them to freedom; and more than one hundred and twenty came to join them in that one night.
§ 36.3.5 Upon this they took possession of a place naturally strong of itself, which they endeavoured to make stronger with fortifications, where eighty more well-armed men came in to them. Licinius Nerva, the governor of the province, hastened out against them with the intention of stopping their ravages, but all his efforts were in vain. Seeing therefore that the place was not to be taken by force, he sought to gain it by treachery; for he secretly communicated with one Gaius Titinius, surnamed Gadaeus, whom he persuaded to assist in achieving his purpose, by promising him safety and protection. This man had been condemned to die two years before, but had escaped, and had robbed and murdered many freemen in that province, but never in the least injured any slave.
§ 36.3.6 Titinius, with a great body of slaves, came to this fort, where the rebels had posted themselves, as if he intended to join with them in making war upon the Romans. When they willingly and cordially received him, and in recognition of his valour made him their general, he subsequently betrayed the fort. Then some of the rebels were killed while resisting, and the rest, out of fear of what they should suffer if they were taken prisoners, threw themselves down headlong from the top of the rock. And in this manner was the first rising of the slaves suppressed.
§ 36.4.1 But the soldiers had no sooner got back to their quarters, than news was brought that about eighty slaves had started an uprising, and had cut the throat of Publius Clonius, a Roman knight, and that now their number was much increased. And to aggravate the matter the praetor, being ill advised, had disbanded most of his army, and the resulting delay gave time for the rebels to strengthen themselves.
§ 36.4.2 However, he marched out against them with those he then had. As soon as he passed the river Alba, he turned aside from the rebel slaves, who were gathered on Mount Caprianus, and arrived at Heracleia. Upon this, a report was spread around that the praetor was a coward who was afraid to attack them, and very many slaves were encouraged to join in the revolt. When many therefore flocked in, furnishing themselves as well as they could for a battle, within seven days there were above eight hundred that took up arms; and soon afterwards they amounted to two thousand.
§ 36.4.3 The praetor at Heracleia, being informed that their number was increasing, sent Marcus Titinius as commander against them, and provided him with six hundred men out of the garrison at Enna. This Titinius fought the rebels, who (having the advantage both of place and number) routed him, and killed many of his men, and the rest threw away their arms, and with much difficulty saved themselves by flight. By this means the rebels suddenly got such a great number of weapons, that they were more firmly resolved to persist in their rebellion, and now all the slaves were ready to revolt.
§ 36.4.4 As more slaves joined the revolt every day, the number amounted in a short time to such a height as none ever suspected it could, insomuch that within a few days they were above six thousand. They now called an assembly, and held a debate; in the first place they chose a king called Salvius, who was reputed to be a fortune-teller, and one who played the flute wildly in the women's entertainments. But having now been raised to be king, he disdaineded living in cities, as being the nurseries of sloth and effeminacy. Afterwards, he divided the army into three bodies, over each of which he appointed a general, and ordered them to make inroads up and down in the country, and at a certain time and place all to join again in one body.
§ 36.4.5 By these depredations they provided themselves so well with horses and other animals, that in a short time they had above two thousand horse, and no less than twenty thousand foot-soldiers, although the men were very raw and inexperienced in warfare. Among other raids, they attacked Morgantina, a strong and well-fortified city, with great fury and made fierce and continual assaults upon it.
§ 36.4.6 The Roman general marched out in the night, with about ten thousand men from Italy and Sicily, with the intention of relieving the city. He surprised the rebels, who were busily employed in the siege, by the suddenness of his assault; and, breaking into their camp, found very few guards, but a great number of prisoners, and abundance of plunder of all sorts. With great ease he captured all this; and, when he had plundered the camp, he marched away towards Morgantina;
§ 36.4.7 but the rebels turned back upon him with great fury, and having the advantage of the higher ground, soon routed him, and put all his army to flight. The rebel king ordered a proclamation to be made that no-one who threw away his weapons should be killed; and therefore most of the soldiers cast away their weapons, and fled. By this means Salvius both recovered what he had lost in his camp, and gained a glorious victory, and much spoil.
§ 36.4.8 No more than six hundred of the Italians and Sicilians were killed, owing to the moderation of the king; but four thousand were taken prisoner. After this victory, many came flocking in to join Salvius, and his army became double in size to what it was previously. Having in this way made himself absolute master of the open country, he again besieged Morgantina, and promised liberty to all the slaves who were in the city. But their masters promised the same to them, if they would be faithful, and join with them in the defence of the place; and they chose rather to accept what was offered by their masters. They fought so resolutely, that they forced the enemy to raise their siege. But the praetor afterwards revoked the promise of liberty for the slaves; and this caused many of them to run away to join the rebels.
§ 36.5.1 After this, all the slaves in the territories of Segesta and Lilybaeum were likewise infected with this desire of rebellion. Their leader was one Athenion, a valiant man, and a Cilician. This man, who was the steward of two rich brothers, and an excellent astrologer, first persuaded the slaves, over whom he had some sort of command, to join with him, to the number of two hundred; and afterwards he added those who lived in the neighbouring districts, so that in five days time there were gathered above one thousand.
§ 36.5.2 They made him king, and placed a diadem upon his head. Athenion resolved to order matters and affairs in a manner very different from the other rebels. For he did not indiscriminately receive everyone who came to him, but only those with strong and healthy bodies, who would make the best soldiers; the rest he forced to continue in their previous occupations, and everyone in his own place diligently to apply himself to the duty incumbent upon him. By this means he was able to bring in plenty of provisions for his soldiers.
§ 36.5.3 He pretended that by the stars the gods foretold that he should become the king of the whole of Sicily, and therefore he was to refrain from spoiling the country, or destroying the cattle and crops, as they all belonged to him. At length, having now got together above ten thousand men, he was so daring as to besiege Lilybaeum, a city considered to be impregnable. But since he failed to make any headway, he abandoned the enterprise, pretending he was commanded to do so by the gods, who warned him that, if they continued the siege, they would certainly fall into some sudden misfortune.
§ 36.5.4 Accordingly, while he was preparing to withdraw from the city, a fleet of Mauretanians entered the harbour, who had been sent to the assistance of the citizens of Lilybaeum. Their commander, called Gomon, surprised Athenion's army by night, as they were leaving the siege and marching off; he killed a great number of them and wounded as many others, before returning with his men to the city. The rebels were astonished, that Athenion's prophecy from reading the stars had been fulfilled in this way.
§ 36.6.1 At the same time great disorders, and an Iliad of calamities, spread over the whole of Sicily. Not only slaves, but also impoverished freemen committed all sorts of robbery and acts of wickedness; for they shamelessly killed all they met, whether slaves or free, so that none might be left to inform on them. As a result, the inhabitants of the cities felt that they scarcely owned what was with them within the walls; but as for that which was outside, it was all lost, falling as prey to the lawless rule of violence. Many other outrageous deeds were impudently committed throughout Sicily, by many different persons.
§ 36.7.1 Salvius likewise, who had besieged Morgantina, after harassing all the country, as far as the territories of Leontini, mustered his army there, consisting of above thirty thousand fighting men. Then he made a sacrifice to the Palici, the local heroes, and dedicated one of his royal robes, in gratitude for his victories. He caused himself to he proclaimed king, and was given the name Tryphon by the rebels.
§ 36.7.2 Since he wished to take possession of Triocala, and there to build a palace, he sent to Athenion, summoning him as a king would summon a general. Every man then thought that Athenion would endeavour to gain the sovereignty for himself, and by that means the rebels woald be divided, and so a speedy end would be put to the war. But fortune so ordered the matter, as if to strengthen the armies of the runaway slaves, that the two leaders fully co-operated with each other. For Tryphon marched speedily with his army to Triocala, and Athenion met him there with three thousand men, in everything observing the commands of Tryphon as king. Athenion had sent the rest of his army away to devastate the countryside, and to bring over as many slaves as they could to join in the revolt. But not long afterwards, Tryphon suspected that Athenion was planning to supplant him in time, and therefore he caused him to be put in custody. The fortress, which was in itself very secure, he made still more strong, and adorned it likewise with many stately buildings.
§ 36.7.3 They say that it was called Triocala, because it was remarkable for three fine things {tria kala}. First, for springs of excellent sweet water; secondly, for vineyards, and olive plantations, and rich lands for tillage; and thirdly, that it was an impregnable position, built upon a high and inaccessible rock. After he had built a city wall of eight stades round about it, and had surrounded it with a deep trench, he made it the his royal capital, filled with an abundance of all things necessary for the life of man. He likewise built there a stately palace and an agora, capable of receiving a vast number of men.
§ 36.7.4 He chose a suitable number of the most prudent men to be his councillors, and used them as his advisers. Moreover, whenever he was conducting business, he put on a toga, edged with purple, and a wide-bordered chiton. Lastly, he appointed lictors with rods and axes to go before him, and took great care that all the other emblems and trappings of royalty should be observed.
§ 36.8.1 At length, Lucius Licinius Lucullus was chosen general by the senate of Rome, to go against the rebels. He took with him fourteen thousand Romans and Italians; eight hundred Bithynians, Thessalians and Acarnanians; six hundred Lucanians, under the command of Cleptius, an expert general, renowned for his valour; and also six hundred from other places; in the whole amounting to (?) seventeen thousand. When he entered Sicily with this army,
§ 36.8.2 Tryphon released Athenion, and consulted with him how to manage the war against the Romans. Tryphon was of the opinion, that it was the safest way to continue at Triocala, and there await the enemy: but Athenion advised that they should fight in the open countryside, rather than allow themselves to be trapped in a siege. As this opinion prevailed, they marched out and encamped near Scirthaea, with no fewer than forty thousand men, twelve stades distant from the Roman camp.
§ 36.8.3 At first the armies employed themselves every day in light skirmishes; but at length they engaged in battle. While victory was still undecided, and many were slain on both sides, Athenion fought alongside two hundred of his cavalry, and covered the ground round about him with the bodies of his enemies. But being wounded in both knees, and then receiving a third wound, he was totally unable to continue fighting. This so discouraged the rebels, that they turned to flight.
§ 36.8.4 Athenion lay concealed, as if he were dead, and so feigned himself till night came on, and then stole away. But the Romans, having now gained a glorious victory, forced Tryphon himself to take to his heels, and in the pursuit slew at least twenty thousand men. The rest, taking advantage of the night, got away to Triocala, although the general might easily have killed them too, if he had pressed the pursuit.
§ 36.8.5 Upon this rout the slaves were so much discouraged, that it was proposed amongst them that they should return to their masters, and submit themselves wholly into their power. But those who advised to stand it out to the last, and not to surrender themselves to the vengeance of their enemies, prevailed over the other. Nine days later, the Roman praetor began to besiege Triocala; but after much slaughter on both sides, he was obliged to withdraw and leave the place. Upon this the rebels recovered their spirits; the praetor on the other hand, either through sloth and negligence, or corrupted by bribes, neglected entirely the proper conduct of his duty, for which he was afterwards brought to trial by the Romans.
§ 36.9.1 Neither did Gaius Servilius, who succeeded Lucullus, do anything worth remembering; and therefore he was brought to trial, as Lucullus had been before, and banished. In the meantime Tryphon died, and Athenion succeeded him as king of the rebels. He besieged cities and devastated the countryside, without any opposition from Servilius, so that he gained control of large areas.
§ 36.9.2 When he heard that the praetor Gaius Servilius had crossed the straits to Sicily in order to take over the command of the war, the praetor Lucullus disbanded his soldiers, and burned his palisades and fortification works, so as not to leave to his successor any useful resources for the conduct of war. Because he was being accused of dragging out the war, he believed that he could exonerate himself, by ensuring the humiliation and failure of his successor.
§ 36.10.1 In the following year, Gaius Marius was elected as consul at Rome for the fifth time, and with him Gaius Aquilius. Aquilius was sent as general against the rebels; and through his personal valour he defeated them in a great battle; like a hero, he fought hand to hand with Athenion the king of the rebels, and killed him, but himself suffered a wound on the head, from which he recovered. Then he marched against the remainder of them, who were about ten thousand; and though they did not wait for his attack, but fled to their defences, yet Aquilius did not slacken his resolution in the least, until he had overcome them by siege.
§ 36.10.2 There remained now only a thousand, led by Satyrus; at first Aquilius determined to reduce them by force; but later they sent envoys and made their submission. For the time being he put off their punishment; but when they were brought as prisoners to Rome, he consigned them to fight with wild beasts,
§ 36.10.3 where it is reported they ended their lives with great gallantry and nobleness of mind; for they scorned to fight with beasts, but slew each other at the public altars; and after all the others were dead, Satyrus being the last, with a heroic spirit killed himself. This was the tragic end of the slave war, after it had continued for the space of almost four years.
§ 36.11.1 It was not only the multitude of slaves that not devastated Sicily; but also the free men, who had no property in the countryside, turned to robbery and lawlessness. Swarms of them were impelled by poverty and lawlessness to ravage the countryside; they drove away whole herds of cattle, robbed the barns in the towns and villages, and carried away the corn and crops. They killed everyone they met, whether slave or free, so that no-one might be left to report their recklessness and cruelty.
§ 36.11.2 For since there was at this time complete anarchy in Sicily, and no Roman magistrate exercised any jurisdiction, all ran wild and committed many great enormities with impunity, so that all places were full of violence and robbery, which pillaged the possessions of the rich. They who a little before were pre-eminent amongst their fellow citizens for their wealth and distinction, by a sudden change of fortune were not only treated with the greatest contempt and scorn imaginable, and robbed of all they had by their slaves; but they were forced to bear insufferable abuse from their fellow freemen.
§ 36.11.3 And therefore no-one could properly call anything his own even within the city gates; but what was outside, they considered to be quite lost, as an irrecoverable prey to the robbers. To conclude, confusion and utter subversion of law and justice, raged throughout all the cities in the island. For the rebels, after they gained control of the open countryside, made the roads impassable; they were driven by hatred of their masters, and they were not content with their unexpected success. Even the slaves that were still within the cities, who were sick at heart and longing for an opportunity to rebel, were a dread and terror to their masters.
§ 36.12.1 Saturninus the tribune was a man of licentious habits. When he was quaestor, he had been put in charge of the transport of all the corn from Ostia to Rome; but owing to his laziness and his debased character, he was removed from this office by the senate, who committed the task to the care of others. But afterwards, when he had desisted from his former licentiousnes, and adopted a sober mode of life, he was chosen by the people to be tribune.
§ 36.13.1 One Battaces, a priest of the goddess Rhea, came to Rome from Pessinus, a city of Phrygia. He declared that he had come by command of the goddess, and he told the magistrates and senate that their temple was profaned, and that a public expiation ought to be made in the name of the Romans. His clothing and the other ornaments of his body were very strange, and altogether unusual at Rome; for he bore a golden crown of great size, and a flowered gown embroidered with gold, giving the appearance of royal rank.
§ 36.13.2 After he had spoken to the people from the Rostra, and filled the people with religious awe, he was honoured with public lodgings and hospitality: but he was forbidden to wear the crown by Aulus Pompeius, a tribune of the people. When another tribune brought him back to the Rostra, and asked how the expiatory sacrifices should be made, his answers were full of religious fervour. At length he was driven out by Pompeius' faction, with many scorns and insults. He went back to his lodgings, and never ventured out after that, saying that they had dishonoured not only himself, but also the goddess.
§ 36.13.3 Before long Pompeius fell into a high fever, and then had a quinsy, which took away his speech, and he died on the third day. The common people believed that his death was caused by divine providence, as a result of his profane and impious abuse of the goddess and her priest; for the Romans are extremely god-fearing. Therefore Battaces was honoured with many presents, and allowed to continue wearing his sacred vestments with all their ornaments; and when he left Rome to return home, he was escorted out of the city by a multitude of men and women.
§ 36.14.1 It was a custom among the Roman soldiers, that if any of their generals fought a battle and killed more than six thousand of the enemy, they called him imperator, which means the same as 'king' in Greek.
§ 36.15.1 Envoys came from king Mithridates to Rome, bringing a great sum of money, with the intention of bribing the senate. Saturninus, thinking that now he had a cause to attack the senate, reproached and abused the embassy. Encouraged by the senators, who promised to assist them, the envoys brought a prosecution against Saturninus, concerning this abuse.
§ 36.15.2 He was brought to trial in public, with great severity, by reason of the violation of the envoys, and of the constant abhorrence that the Romans have of any assault on embassies. Saturninus, who was now at risk of being condemned to death by the senate, his proper judges in such cases, fell into extreme fear and danger. Because of the seriousness of his predicament, in consternation he took refuge in the pity that is commonly given to those who are unfortunate. Throwing off his rich apparel, putting on poor and sordid clothes, and allowing his beard to grow, he ran up and down to the tumultuous throngs of people throughout the city, falling down upon his knees to some, catching others fast by the hands, begging with tears that they would assist him in his present calamities.
§ 36.15.3 He declared that he was the victim of political oppression by the senate, contrary to all right and justice, and he suffered all this because of the good will he bore the people; the senate were his enemies, accusers, and judges. The mob were swayed by his entreaties, and in an great uproar many thousands of them ran to the tribunal, so that he was unexpectedly released from the charges; and with the support of the people, he was again appointed tribune.
§ 36.16.1 For two years the subject of Metellus' banishment was debated in assemblies. His son traversed the forum with his beard and hair overgrown, and in a tattered garment, while with tears in his eyes he prostrated himself at the feet of every citizen, entreating them to recall his father. Although the people were very reluctant to make a precedent for exiles to return home in defiance of the laws, yet, in compassion to the young man, and being moved by the earnestness of his entreaties, they recalled Metellus from banishment, and surnamed the son Pius, on account of the singular affection and care that he had for his father.
§ 37.1.1 Ever since human actions have been recorded for eternal memory in history, the greatest war known to us is the Marsic War, named after the Marsi. This war, indeed, surpassed all those that preceded it, both in the bravery of the leaders and in the greatness of their exploits. Homer, the most famous of poets, made the Trojan war forever famous by his epic poem. In this struggle between Europe and Asia, while the two largest continents competed for victory, they accomplished such great deeds that posterity has drawn extensively on them for mythical and tragic subjects in the theatre.
§ 37.1.2 Yet these heroes of antiquity took ten years to subdue the cities of the Troas, while later the Romans defeated Antiochus the Great in a single battle, and became masters of Asia. After the Trojan War, the Persian king marched against Greece; permanent rivers were dried up by the crowd of warriors who followed the king. However, the strategic skill of Themistocles together with the courage of the Greeks defeated the Persians.
§ 37.1.3 At the same time, when three hundred thousand Carthaginians landed in Sicily, Gelon, the ruler of Syracuse, by a single stratagem, and within a short time, burned two hundred ships, killed in battle one hundred and fifty thousand of the enemy, and made an equal number prisoners. But the Romans, who fought in the Marsic War, defeated the descendants of those who had done all these great things.
§ 37.1.4 In more recent times, the Romans conquered Macedonia, the home of that Alexander who, by his genius and his extraordinary bravery, overthrew the Persian empire. Carthage, which had for twenty-four years fought to resist the Romans in Sicily, contesting the largest and most numerous battles by land and sea, succumbed to the power of the Romans; and later, after Carthage started the so-called Hannibalic War, although it won many battles by land and sea, and achieved great fame for its exploits under the leadership of Hannibal, a most excellent general, yet finally it was subdued by the bravery of the Romans and Italians, as well as by the prowess of Scipio.
§ 37.1.5 The Cimbri, who had the appearance of giants, endowed with enormous strength, destroyed several large Roman armies and attacked Italy with four hundred thousand men; but, thanks to the courage of the Romans, they were completely exterminated.
§ 37.1.6 So everyone judged that the palm of bravery should be awarded to the Romans and the people of Italy; but fate, which seemed deliberately to provoke discord among these peoples, unleashed a war that surpassed all others in its proportions. The people of Italy, who were always considered the bravest, were torn apart by internal factions, and rebelled against the authority of Rome. Then there arose this immense war, which was called the Marsic War after the name of the Marsi who were the leaders of the rebellion.
§ 37.2.1 (Diodorus says that) the so-called Marsic war (which happened in his lifetime) was greater than all previous wars. The Marsic war took its name from the leaders of the defection, although the Italians in general made this war upon the Romans. It is said that the primary cause of this arose was that the Romans, who had risen to such great power through their frugal and sparing way of living, fell into the pursuit and luxury and licentiousness.
§ 37.2.2 This alteration caused great dissension between the populace and the senate; and when the senate called on the Italians for support, and in response to their frequent entreaties promised to enfranchise them, and make them free citizens of Rome, and to ratify it by a law, but the Italians saw nothing performed as had been promised, these were the sparks which at length broke forth into a flame at the time when Lucius Marcius Philippus and Sextus Julius were consuls, in the hundred and (?) seventieth Olympiad.
§ 37.2.3 Many were the slaughters, sieges, and sacking of towns on both sides, during this war, victory hovering sometimes here and sometimes there, as if uncertain where to fall, and giving no assurance to either party which of them she favoured. But at length, after the shedding of much blood, the Romans with much difficulty got the better, and regained their former power and sovereignty.
§ 37.2.4 There were engaged against them in this war the Samnites, the people of Asculum, the Lucanians, the Picentines, the people of Nola, and other cities and nations; amongst which was Corfinium, a large and famous city, recently established as the capital city of the Italians. Here were all things necessary for the support and defence of so great a city, and the maintenance of the government; particularly a large forum and council-house, with a vast treasure, and a plentiful stock of provisions of all sorts.
§ 37.2.5 They had likewise a senate consisting of five hundred members; out of which were chosen those considered fit to hold the most important magistracies, and to manage the weighty affairs of state. These therefore they entrusted with the management of the war, and put the absolute power of conducting all their business into the hands of the senators, who made a law that two consuls should be chosen every year, and twelve generals.
§ 37.2.6 At this time Quintus Pompaedius Silo, a Marsian, (a person of the highest repute in his country), and Gaius Aponius Motylus, a Samnite, likewise famous for his noble acts above the rest of his own nation, were chosen consuls. They divided all Italy into two parts, and took each an equal share for the execution of their consular authority.
§ 37.2.7 They allotted the region or tract from the Cercoli (so called) to the Adriatic sea, which lies to the north and west, to Pompaedius and six of the generals. The rest, which lay to the south and east, the Italians assigned to Motylus, with an equal number of generals. Having put all things into this good order, and, to sum up, having ordered all things according to the ancient model of the Roman government, they threw themselves more intently and earnestly into the prosecution of the war, and called the city itself Italia.
§ 37.2.8 And they were so successful, that they for the most part came off as victors, until Gnaeus Pompeius was made consul and commander in the war, who with Sulla, the general of Cato the other consul, often routed them, and reduced them to such straits, that at length their power was shattered to bits. However, they still continued the war, but were often worsted by Gaius Cosconius, who was sent as general to Iapygia.
§ 37.2.9 Being therefore weakened and much reduced in numbers, since the Marsi and other neighbouring nations had gone over to the Romans, they agreed to abandon Corfinium, their capital city, and transplanted themselves to Aesernia, a city of the Samnites, under the command of five generals; of whom they made Quintus Pompaedius the chief for his valour and prudent management of the war; who with the consent of the other generals, raised a great army, which with the old soldiers amounted to the number of thirty thousand.
§ 37.2.10 And besides, he got together at least twenty thousand foot-soldiers and one thousand cavalrymen by manumitting slaves, and armed them as well as the time would allow. Coming to battle with the Romans, whose general was Mamercus, he killed a few of them, but lost upwards of six thousand of his own men. About the same time Metellus captured the important city of Venusia in Apulia, which had in it a great number of soldiers, and carried away over three thousand prisoners.
§ 37.2.11 And now the Romans prevailed every day more and more against their enemies; so that the Italians sent envoys to Mithridates king of Pontus, who had then an excellent and well appointed army, to entreat him to march into Italy with his army, to oppose the Romans; by which means, they told him, the Roman power could easily be broken. Mithridates answered, that he would march into Italy as soon as he had subdued Asia, the task in which he was currently engaged. The rebels being therefore frustrated in their hopes of immediate assistance, and of supplies of money, were greatly disheartened: for there were but a few of the Samnites remaining, together with the Sabelli at Nola, and also Lamponius and Clepitius, who commanded what were left of the Lucanians.
§ 37.2.12 The Marsic war being now almost at an end, there arose again a great sedition in Rome, by reason of the contentious ambition of many of the Roman nobles, every one striving to be general in the war against Mithridates, lured on by the greatness of the rewards and riches to be reaped in that war. For Gaius Julius and Gaius Marius, who had been six times consul, opposed each other; and the people on that occasion were divided, some for the one and some for the other. There were likewise other disturbances about the same time; 13 for Sulla the consul went from Rome to the forces which lay near to Nola, and so terrified many of the neighbouring territories and cities, that he forced them into surrender. But when Sulla was engaged in the war in Asia against Mithridates, and Rome was filled with slaughters and internal strife, Marcus Lamponius and Tiberius Cleptius, and also Pompeius, the generals of those Italians who were left remaining in Bruttium, attempted to capture the strong city of Isiae. After they had lain before the city for a long time, they left part of their army to maintain the siege, and fiercely assaulted Rhegium, in the expectation, that if they gained this place, they might with ease transport their army into Sicily, and so become masters of the richest island under the sun. 14 But Gaius Norbanus, the governor of Sicily, so overawed the Italians with the greatness of his army and his vast preparations, that they drew off from the siege; and so the Rhegians were freed from danger. And afterwards, when the civil war broke out between Marius and Sulla, some of the Italians sided with Marius, and the rest with Sulla, and most of them were killed in the war; and all those who survived, joined the conqueror Sulla. And thus, at the same time as the civil war, ended the greatest of all wars, the Marsic war.
§ 37.3.1 The Romans formerly, being governed by good and wholesome laws and customs, gradually grew to such a height of power, that at length they gained the greatest empire of any that history makes mention of. But in later times, after they had conquered many nations, and had long indulged themselves in the enjoyment of an uninterrupted peace, they declined from their ancient manners to wicked and destructive pursuits.
§ 37.3.2 For the young men, enjoying rest and ease from war, with plenty of all things to be fuel to their lusts, gave themselves up to luxury and intemperance; for in the city prodigality was preferred before frugality, and living at ease before military service; and he that wasted all his time in voluptuousness, and not he that was of a virtuous and sober conduct, was accounted by all to be the only happy man.
§ 37.3.3 Therefore sumptuous feasts, most fragrant ointments, flowered and embroidered carpets, rich and stately dining couches, splendidly wrought with gold, silver, ivory, and such like materials, came into fashion everywhere. Wine that was but of an ordinary quality they would not touch, but only Falernian and Chian, and other such fine wines: the choicest fish likewise, and everything of the best sort, was provided to gratify their shameless luxury.
§ 37.3.4 The young men likewise wore garments of the finest and softest wool, woven so fine, that they were even transparent, and, with their flimsy texture, altogether like women's gowns. All these things, serving to nourish luxury and voluptuousness, (to their ruin and destruction), were generally coveted by all, so that in a short time their prices grew to an excessive level:
§ 37.3.5 for a jar of Falernian wine was sold for a hundred drachmas, and a jar of salted Pontic fish for four hundred, skilful cooks were sold for four talents apiece, and delicate and beautiful boys for many talents. While all with full swing were giving themselves up to this luxurious course of life, some of the governors in the provinces used their utmost endeavour to reform these enormities; and to that end, being most noticeable by reason of their eminent rank, they framed their own lives so as to be examples of virtue and liberal education to others.
§ 37.3.6 Marcus Cato, a wise man and distinguished by the purity of his morals, spoke in the senate against the luxury that invaded Rome. "Only in this this city," he exclaimed, "does a pot of salted Pontic fish fetch a higher price than a pair of oxen, and a catamite cost more than a slave."
§ 37.4.1 I shall mention some men as an example for others, to give them their due praise and as an aid to public life: so that depraved men may be discouraged from pursuing their wicked designs by the blame they receive in histories, and good men may aspire to noble behaviour in the expectation of praise and external glory.
§ 37.5.1 Quintus Scaevola used his utmost endeavour to reform other men's corrupt manners by his own virtuous example. For when he was sent as proconsul to Asia, he chose Quintus Rutilius, the worthiest of his friends, to be his legate, and always took his advice in the government of his province, and in making of laws. All the costs and expenses both of himself and his retinue he ordered to be defrayed out of his own purse; and by his moderation and frugality, together with his just and upright dealings, he freed the province from its former miseries and oppressions. For the proconsuls of Asia before him had conspired with the publicans, who at that time controlled the administration of justice at Rome, and they oppressed the whole province with their illegal exactions.
§ 37.5.2 Mucius Scaevola managed his government with all possible diligence and integrity; he not only suppressed all false accusations, but also restrained the injuries and oppressions committed by the publicans. For whenever any who had been oppressed by those tax-gatherers appealed to him, he commissioned upright judges, by whom he condemned them in every case, and forced them to pay the penalty imposed upon them to the persons they had injured; but for capital offences, he gave sentence of death.
§ 37.5.3 One of the stewards of chief these publicans, who had contracted with his master for his freedom in exchange for a great sum of money, he condemned to die before he was manumitted, and crucified him.
§ 37.5.4 Those that were condemned by the judges, he delivered over to the persons injured, to be carried away by them to prison; so that they who before, through their insolence and greed, committed all manner of injustice, were unexpectedly hurried away to jail by those whom they had injured. Moreover, by paying for his own expenses and the expenses of his retinue out of his own private purse, he soon restored the goodwill of all the allies towards the people of Rome.
§ 37.5a.1 . . . he intended; but some say that he left most of his estate to be inherited by the other son, and so risked losing all of it. The youth, who was extremely rash and hot-headed, put on a diadem and proclaimed himself king of the Macedonians. He called on the populace to rebel against the Romans and re-establish the old, ancestral kingdom of the Macedonians. When many flocked to join him, in the expectation of booty, Execestus in his anxiety sent a messenger to the praetor Sestius, to inform him of his son's folly. He also contacted Cotys, the king of the Thracians, and asked him to summon the youth and persuade him to desist from his venture. Cotys, who was a friend of Euphenes, summoned the youth and, after detaining him for a few days, returned him to his father; so he was released from the accusations against him.
§ 37.6.1 The governor, by his prudence and timely relief, put an end to the hatred with which Roman rule was regarded. He received divine honours from those he had helped, and numerous awards from his fellow citizens.
§ 37.7.1 We must also mention those who, starting from a lowly position, have directed their efforts towards objectives no different from those already mentioned; for both the humble and the exalted are animated by the same zeal to distinguish themselves by their good deeds.
§ 37.8.1 Lucius Asyllius, whose father was a quaestor, was sent as praetor to Sicily, and found great turmoil and devastation in the province. But by his prudent management of things, in a short time he restored it to its former state and condition. For after the example of Scaevola, he chose as his legate Gaius Longus, the worthiest of his friends, who was a follower of the traditional temperate mode of life, and together with him used as his counsellor Publius, the most eminent of the Roman knights residing in Syracuse,
§ 37.8.2 who besides the gifts of fortune, was eminent for the virtues of his character. His piety towards the gods is sufficiently testified by his sacrifices, gifts, and adorning of the temples; and the quick and lively use of all his senses until the last moment of his life is an evident proof of his sobriety and temperance; and his learning and courteous disposition are apparent from the great value and esteem he ever had of learned men, and his bounty and liberality out of his own purse towards those who applied themselves to the study of the liberal arts and sciences.
§ 37.8.3 Syllius made it his daily care to reform and set all things right again in the province, assisted by the advice of these two men, who continued to reside close by him in adjoining houses, and sat with him when he was engaged in the administration of justice.
§ 37.8.4 In the courts of justice, this man aimed at the public good, and cleared the court of all sycophants and false accusers; and it was his chief care to relieve the poorest man, and those that were less able to help themselves. Whereas the other praetors had committed the care of orphans and widows who were destitute of friends to tutors and guardians, he looked after them himself, and decided their cases with all the care and diligence imaginable, and was a great relief to the oppressed. And as long as he was governor of Sicily, he continually used his utmost endeavour to suppress both private and public injuries, until he at length settled the island into its former state of happiness and prosperity.
§ 37.9.1 The senate had threatened Gracchus with war for transferring control of the courts to the knights, but he exclaimed boldly: "Even if I am to die, I will not cease . . . the sword seized from the side of the senators." This saying was, like an oracle, substantiated by events; for Gracchus, who aspired to tyrannical power, was put to death without trial.
§ 37.10.1 Marcus Livius Drusus, though he was still very young, was adorned with every commendable quality, in reference to either his body or his mind: for he was the son of a renowned father, who was singularly beloved of the people of Rome, on the account of both his noble birth and his virtuous character. And he himself excelled all his contemporaries in eloquence, and all his fellow-citizens in wealth and riches. On account of his faithfulness to his word, he gained a very great influence and authority among the citizens; and, having a thoroughly noble spirit, he seemed to be the only patron of the senate.
§ 37.10.2 Drusus' family enjoyed great influence due to its noble origin and humanity towards the citizens. When a law had been recently proposed and sanctioned, a citizen wrote in jest at the bottom of his vote: "This law applies to all citizens, with the exception of two Drusi."
§ 37.10.3 When the senate rejected the laws proposed by Drusus, he said: "Although I have the power to oppose the decrees of the senate, I will not do so, because I know that the guilty will soon receive their punishment." He added that if his laws were revoked, it would result in the abolition of his law about the judiciary; by this law, every incorruptible man was freed from the fear of prosecution, while those who plundered the provinces would be punished as criminals; so that the envious men, who sought to diminish his glory, would as it were kill off their own decrees.
§ 37.11.1 "By Capitoline Jupiter, Vesta of Rome, Mars the patron of the city, Sol the origin of all the people, Terra the benefactress of animals and plants; by the demigods who founded Rome, and the heroes who have contributed to the increase of its power, I swear that the friend or the enemy of Drusus will also be mine; I will not spare my life or my children or my parents, if the interests of Drusus and those who are bound by the same oath require it. If, by the law of Drusus, I become a citizen, I will regard Rome as my my homeland, and Drusus as my greatest benefactor. I will communicate this oath to the largest possible number of my fellow citizens. If I keep my oath, may I obtain every blessing; and the opposite, if I violate my oath."
§ 37.12.1 One day, when public games were being celebrated, and the theatre was filled with Roman spectators, they slew a comedian who expressed annoyance on the stage, on the pretext that he had not properly fulfilled his role. The whole theatre was filled with disorder and terror, when fortune brought onto the scene a satirical character appropriate to the circumstances.
§ 37.12.2 His name was Saunio, and he was of Latin origin. He was a very clever clown, who excited laughter not only by his words, but even when he was silent by the different poses of his body; there was something appealing about him, so that he enjoyed a high reputation in the theatres of Rome. The Picentines, wishing to deprive the Romans of the entertainment given by this humorous actor, determined to kill him.
§ 37.12.3 Saunio, informed of the fate that awaited him, stepped onto the stage where the comedian had just been murdered, and, addressing the audience, he said: "My spectators, the omens are favourable! May this evil turn into good fortune! I'm not a Roman, and I'm subject to the fasces just like you. I travel throughout Italy, searching for favours by making people laugh and giving pleasure. So spare the swallow, which the gods allow to nest safely in all your houses, for it is not fair to do anything that would make you upset." The jester continued to speak with many other humorous remarks that amused them, and so by appeasing the crowd he freed himself from danger.
§ 37.13.1 Pompaedius, general of the Marsi, attempted a great and extraordinary feat; for he picked out ten thousand soldiers from amongst those who were afraid of suffering due punishment for their offences, and, ordering them to hide their swords under their coats, marched with them towards Rome, with the intention of surrounding the senate with armed men, and demanding to share in citizenship; and if this was not granted, they would ravage the state with fire and sword. Gaius Domitius met him upon the road, and asked him: "Whither do you go, Pompaedius, with so great a company?" He answered, "To Rome," for he had been summoned by the tribunes of the plebs, to share in the citizenship. But Domitius replied, "You may obtain what you seek far more easily, and much more honourably, if you do not approach the senate in a hostile manner; for the senate will not be compelled, but entreated and petitioned, to bestow such a favour upon the Latins, who are their allies and confederates."
§ 37.13.2 Pompaedius was struck by this, as with a divine admonition from heaven, and, convinced by what Domitius had said, he immediately returned home. And thus Domitius, by his prudent advice, delivered his country from the dreadful misfortune that threatened it, addressing himself to Pompaedius much more effectively than Servilius the proconsul did to the Picentines: for Servilius spoke to them not as to freemen and allies, but as to slaves, and insulted them with the greatest scorn and contempt imaginable. He uttered such appalling threats, that he provoked the allies, to the ruin and destruction both of himself and others. But Domitius on the contrary, by his mild and calm speech, allayed the fury and violence of the enraged rebels.
§ 37.14.1 They shared the spoils with the soldiers, in order to give them a taste of the profits of war and make them more disposed to fight for freedom.
§ 37.15.1 Marius led his army into the plain of the Samnites, and encamped in front of the enemy. Pompaedius, who had been invested with the chief command of the Marsi, also advanced with his troops. As the two armies approached one another, their warlike attitude changed into a peaceful mood.
§ 37.15.2 When they came into sight, the soldiers of each army recognized many of their hosts, their comrades, and finally many of those with whom they were bound by family ties. Natural sympathy therefore drove them to exchange kind words; they called each other by their names, and exhorted them not to defile themselves with the murder of their kinsmen. Putting aside their panoplies, which they held ready to fight, they stretched out their right hands, and cordially embraced.
§ 37.15.3 Marius, when he saw this happening, also left the ranks; Pompaedius did the same, and the two leaders talked amicably. While these leaders were talking at length about peace and citizenship, both sides were filled with joy and hope, and instead of a battle, there was the appearance of a festival. By appropriate words the (?) commanders encouraged a peaceful conclusion, and they all gladly abstained from bloodshed and fighting.
§ 37.16.1 There was one Agamemnon, a Cilician, who on account of his wicked deeds and murder of allies, was committed to prison in Asculum by the Romans. This man was released by the Picentines, and in gratitude for the kindness shown to him, fought resolutely on their side. Being inured to robberies from a boy, he joined with others of a similar nature, and ravaged the enemy's country.
§ 37.17.1 Although he was not from an illustrious family and he lacked the resources for advancement, yet he unexpectedly achieved great repute and glory . . . Fortune tends towards what is fitting, and it involves those who plot evil against others in similar misfortunes of their own. They may act like tyrants for a time, but the crimes of these tyrants will eventually be punished.
§ 37.18.1 A Cretan came to the consul Julius and offered to act as a traitor. "If by my help," he said, "you defeat your enemies, what reward will you give me?" Caesar replied, "I'll make you a citizen of Rome, and you will be in favour with me." At these words, the Cretan laughed and said, "Citizenship is considered a nonsense amongst the Cretans. We aim at gain when we shoot our arrows; we only work on land and sea to get money, and so I have come here in search of money. As for political rights, grant that to those who are fighting for it and who are buying this nonsense with their blood." The consul laughed at this and said to the man, "Well, if we are successful, I will give a reward of a thousand drachmae."
§ 37.19.1 The people of Aesenia, pressed by famine, found some way of driving the slaves out of their city, because circumstances forced them to try anything and ensure their salvation by the destruction of others. Beset by this terrible misfortune, the slaves withdrew, but they found recompense for the cruelty of their masters in the kindness of their enemies.
§ 37.19.2 The people of Aesenia ate dogs and other animals; for their bodily needs forced them to act completely against convention, and to make use of abominable and unusual food.
§ 37.19.3 The soul of man partakes of the divine nature; sometimes it can predict the future, and by using natural images it can foresee what is going to occur. This is what happened to women of Pinna, who lamented their misfortune before it happened to them.
§ 37.19.4 The Italians led the children of the people of Pinna to the foot of the walls of the city, and threatened to kill them if they did not abandon their alliance with Rome. But the people of Pinna were prepared to suffer terribly, and replied: "If you deprive us of our children, we will produce some more easily, as long as we remain faithful to the Romans."
§ 37.19.5 These Italians, despairing of taking the city by persuasion, performed an act of great cruelty. They brought the children up to the walls, and ordered those who were about to die to implore the mercy of their fathers, and to raise their hands to heaven, begging the sun, which oversees the life of all men, to save their innocent lives.
§ 37.20.1 The inhabitants of the city of Pinna fell into most dreadful calamities on account of their constant fidelity to the Romans; for, being obstinately resolved not to desert the Romans, they were forced to put aside any sense of natural affection, and watch their children being slaughtered before their eyes.
§ 37.21.1 Their warlike ardour was such that they could not be surpassed by anyone, in fearlessly braving all dangers. Although they were outnumbered the besiegers, they made up for their lack of numbers by their extraordinary courage.
§ 37.22.1 The Italians, who had so often fought brilliantly on behalf of the Romans, now that they were fighting for themselves, showed even more bravery than in their previous victories. For their part, the Romans, who were fighting against their former subjects, did not want to appear to be outdone by their inferiors.
§ 37.23.1 Lamponius charged at Crassus, in the belief that the people ought not to fight for the leaders, but the leaders should fight for the people.
§ 37.24.1 The Romans and Italians fought to be able to bring in the crops. They kept on slaughtering each other in their confrontations; for with the wheat close at hand and ready to be harvested, they strove to obtain this essential food by mutual bloodshed. The soldiers did not wait for a command from their leaders; nature spurred them on to acts of bravery, because lack of food compelled them. They all preferred to die gloriously by the sword of the enemy, rather than by hunger.
§ 37.25.1 Lucius Sulla bravely and gallantly performed most notable actions, and his fame and renown was celebrated all over the city. The people of Rome judged him worthy of the consulship, looking upon him as a man eminent for both his valour and his skill as a general; in summary, it was clear that he was likely to reach the highest pitch of glory.
§ 37.26.1 Mithridates having conquered the Roman generals in Asia, and taken many prisoners, sent them all home with clothing and provisions for the journey. This mild treatment was reported everywhere, and the cities generally came flocking over to him; so that envoys came to him from all cities, inviting him by their public decrees to enter their territory, calling him their god and deliverer. Upon notice of the king's approach, the people came in crowds out of the several cities, wearing bright garments to greet him, and received him with great joy and acclamation.
§ 37.27.1 Mithridates' party swept all before them in Asia, and as there was nothing to stop them, all the cities revolted from the Romans. The Lesbians resolved not only to surrender themselves to the king, but also to deliver up Aquilius, who had fled to Mitylene, and was receiving treatment for an illness there. Therefore they sent to his lodgings some youths, chosen for their strength, who all rushed inside the house, and seized Aquilius and bound him, supposing he would be a splendid present to send, and very acceptable to the king.
§ 37.27.2 . . . but he, though he was but as yet a youth, performed a most noble and heroic act; for preferring death before disgrace and humiliating punishment, he pre-empted the men who were ready to hurry him away, and killed himself; by this desperate act he so shocked those that came to seize him, that they did not dare approach him. His valour and resolution, therefore, became famous everywhere; by putting an end to his own life, he had rescued himself with an undaunted courage from the torments awaiting him.
§ 37.28.1 When it came to a sea-fight, the Rhodians were outclassed in nothing except the number of their ships; and in all other respects they were far superior. They were the better pilots, and knew better how to arrange their ships and ply the oars; they had the braver soldiers, and the more expert commanders. The Cappadocians, on the other hand, were inexperienced and seldom exercised in sea-fights; and, what is a common cause of failure, they acted without any discipline. It is true, indeed, they were as eager to fight as the Rhodians, because they were to fight within sight of the king, and therefore wished to demonstrate their loyalty and affection to him. Since they only surpassed their enemies in the number of their ships, they used all the arts and contrivances they could devise to surround and hem them in.
§ 37.29.1 Marius went every day to the Campus, where he took part in military exercises. He wanted to correct the weakness and slowness of age by daily exercise and hard work.
§ 37.29.2 Gaius Marius was the most renowned person of his time, when he was young: he was ambitious of honour and glory, free from greed, and performed many noble acts, both in Africa and Europe, so that his name was famous, and celebrated everywhere. But when he reached old age, he coveted the riches of king Mithridates, and the wealth of the cities of Asia, and sought against the laws to have the province, which was allotted to Cornelius Sulla, transferred to himself. As a result, he suffered many calamities, and brought disgrace on his previous good reputation;
§ 37.29.3 for he not only failed to obtain those riches which he coveted, but also he lost all his own possessions, when his property was confiscated because of his extraordinary greed. He was, moreover, condemned to death by his own country; but escaped that punishment by running away, and wandered solitarily and alone up and down Italy. At length he was forced out of Africa and reached Numidia, without any resources, servants or friends. Afterwards, when the civil wars broke out in Rome, he joined with the enemies of his fatherland, and, being victorious, he was not contented with his return home, but stirred up the flames of war. At length, having gained a seventh consulship, and by his own misfortunes learned the inconstancy of fortune, he was unwilling to put things to a hazard any more.
§ 37.29.4 Therefore, foreseeing the impending war that Sulla would bring upon his country, he willingly departed from life; but he left behind him the seeds of a grievous war, which involved his son and country in most dreadful calamities. His son, being forced to contend with an enemy more powerful than himself, perished most miserably in a vault, where he fled to hide himself. The people of Rome and cities of Italy descended into the cruel war that had long awaited them, and suffered many dreadful calamities.
§ 37.29.5 For two principal men of the city, Scaevola and Crassus, without any course of legal proceedings, were murdered in the senate; their cruel murder plainly demonstrated the extent of those miseries that then threatened both the city and all Italy: for the majority of the senators, and the most eminent men of the city, were slaughtered by Sulla, and no less than a hundred thousand soldiers were slain, either in mutinies or battles; and all these miseries were caused at the start by the greed of Marius.
§ 37.30.1 Wealth, the subject of so much dispute amongst men, sometimes causes great misfortunes to those who long to gain it. It drives them to unjust and criminal actions; it provides fuel for licentiousness, and leads the unwise into shameful behaviour. Thus we see these men fall into the greatest misfortune, and bring disaster on their cities.
§ 37.30.2 Such is the pernicious power of gold over men, when they foolishly over-value it. In their insatiable greed, they apply to everything these verses of the poets:
"Blessed gold, most beautiful gift to mortals, greater pleasure than a mother . . ."
And also: "Let them call me wicked, as long as I make a profit. "
And these verses: "Blessed gold, offshoot of the land, what desire you inflame in mortals! You are mightiest of all, you are tyrant of all. In a war you are more powerful even than Ares. You entice everything; the trees and wild animals may have followed Orpheus with his songs, but you lead the whole earth, the sea and all-finding Ares."
§ 37.30.3 Yet how much better it would be to quote the poems which give the opposite advice: "Lady wisdom, how I admire you! I would not wish the god to give me the bright gleam of gold, or a tyrant's power, if I cannot have wisdom. Furthest from Zeus stands the man who has amassed a fair treasure."
§ 38.1.1 The Romans sent envoys to Cinna to treat for peace. Cinna replied, "I left Rome as consul, and I will not return there as a private man."
§ 38.2.1 Metellus, with the army that he had, approached the camp of Cinna. They agreed, after talking together, that Cinna should remain as (?) general, and Metellus was the first to acknowledge this title, but they were both blamed later for what they had done. When Marius met Cinna, he declared that, with victory almost won, they should not give up the power that had been divinely granted to them. Metellus, when he returned to Rome, had a violent quarrel with Octavius, who accused him of betraying the consuls and his country.
§ 38.2.2 Octavius said that he would not in any way allow Cinna to become absolute master of Rome, and that even if he was abandoned by everyone, he would still act in a manner worthy of his command, together with like-minded men. Finally, he added that if he was left with no hope, he would set fire to his house, and by consigning himself and his wealth to the flames, die bravely as a free man.
§ 38.3.1 When Cinna agreed to peace, upon condition that be might be restored to the consulship, Merula, who had been appointed consul in place of Cinna, proved himself to be a good citizen, and demonstrated his great love for his country. Addressing himself to the senate and people, and, stating what might most tend to the public good, he promised that he would promote concord. Since he had been chosen consul much against his will, he declared that he would now freely, of his own accord, give up his authority into the hands of Cinna; upon which he promptly surrendered his consulship, and became a private citizen. The senate then sent ambassadors to Cinna, and, having agreed with him upon the terms of peace, brought him back into the city as consul.
§ 38.4.1 Cinna and Marius called together a council of the principal leaders, and consulted what measures and methods should be taken to settle and confirm the peace. At length they resolved to put to death the most eminent persons amongst their opponents, who were most capable of challenging them; so that after their own group and party had been purged of enemies, they and their friends could govern for the future with more security, according to their own will and pleasure.
§ 38.4.2 Then they completely disregarded all the former pacts and agreements; men were proscribed and butchered in every place, without any recourse to justice. At that time Quintus Lutatius Catulus, who had celebrated a glorious triumph for his victory over the Cimbri, and was greatly esteemed by the Roman people, was accused by a tribune of the plebs on a capital offence.
§ 38.4.3 Fearing imminent danger from the accusation, he approached Marius, to entreat him to intercede for his deliverance. Marius, who he had been his friend formerly, but through some suspicion he now entertained of him, had become his enemy, merely replied, "You must die." Upon this, Catulus perceived that he had no hope of preservation and sought to die without disgrace. He killed himself in a strange and unusual way; for he shut himself up in a newly plastered house, and caused a fire to be kindled, by the smoke of which, and the moist vapours from the lime, he was there stifled to death.
§ 38.5.1 The civil war that broke out in Rome in the consulship of Sulla was (according to Livy and Diodorus) heralded by many omens. When the sky was cloudless and perfectly clear, a trumpet was heard making a sharp and plaintive sound, and all who heard it were struck with fear. The Etruscan soothsayers declared that this portent heralded a revolution in human affairs; they added that there are eight different races of men, each differing in their character and manner of life. The deity has assigned to each of them a certain period of time, which is the length of a great year. At the end of this period and the beginning of the following one, there appears some miraculous sign, either on earth or in heaven, from which the sages immediately know that a race of men has arisen with a different character and manner of life, and that the gods have less care for them than for previous men. Whether this is true or not, is something that I will not discuss here.
§ 38.6.1 Cinna and Marius were soon punished by divine vengeance, after their massacre of citizens and their outrages against other men. Sulla, who was the only one remaining out of their enemies, destroyed the army of Mithridates in Boeotia, took Athens by storm, and made a treaty with Mithridates; then he took over the fleet of Mithridates and returned to Italy. In a very short time, he destroyed the armies of Cinna and Marius, and made himself master of Rome and all Italy. He slew all the bloodthirsty supporters of Cinna, and exterminated the family of Marius. Many reasonable men considered that the punishment of the perpetrators of so many murders was imposed by divine providence. Such a punishment ought to be a valuable lesson for those who follow the path of impiety, prompting them to turn away from their wickedness.
§ 38.7.1 Sulla, being in great need of money, ransacked three temples that were full of consecrated gold and silver; that is, the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, and the famous temple of Zeus at Olympia; from the last of these he carried away a vast treasure, for it had never before been violated. But as to the temple at Delphi, the Phocians, in the time of the Sacred War, had drained it of its wealth. When Sulla, therefore, had in this way amassed a great amount of gold and silver, and other treasure, he was sufficiently furnished with money to carry on the war in Italy. But having, without any fear or religious scruples, thus robbed the temples, he consecrated an area of land to the gods, to provide an annual income instead of the money; and he would often, in a joking manner, say that he was sure to be victorious in all encounters, because he had the support of the gods, who had contributed so much to his funds.
§ 38.8.1 Fimbria, having out-paced Flaccus, and got a long way before him in his march, thought he had now gained a most convenient opportunity to undertake a bold venture; and therefore, to gain the support of the soldiers, he permitted them to ravage the land of their allies, as if it was enemy territory, and to seize anyone that they met. The soldiers very readily took advantage of this liberty, so that within a few days they had collected an abundance of wealth by their plundering. But those that had been spoiled of their goods went to meet the consul, and made bitter complaints to him concerning the injuries that they had received. The consul, who was much troubled at what had happened, commanded them to follow him, and he himself would see that restitution was made to everyone who had suffered. Accordingly with threats he ordered Fimbria to hand back to the owners immediately whatsoever had been taken away from them. Fimbria laid all the blame upon the soldiers, as if they had done this without his permission; but covertly he advised the soldiers not to obey the consul's command or allow what they had gained by force of arms, and the right of war, to be taken away from them. Therefore, when Flaccus commanded restitution to be made of their loot, adding threats to his commands, the soldiers refused to obey, so that a great tumult and mutiny arose in the army.
§ 38.8.2 Fimbria, having again crossed the Hellespont, encouraged his soldiers to commit looting and all kinds of outrages. He exacted money from the cities, and divided it amongst the soldiers, who, without any control on their actions, had the power to do whatever they pleased. Lured on by the hope of a large profit, they held Fimbria in great affection, as one who had deserved extremely well of the whole army. Moreover, when he captured any cities that resisted him, he gave them over to the plunder of his soldiers, and in this way he handed out Nicomedeia to be plundered by the soldiers.
§ 38.8.3 The same Fimbria pretended that he had come as a friend to Cyzicus. But as soon as he entered there, he began to impeach the wealthiest of the citizens, and charge them with capital offences. To terrify the others, after he had passed sentence on two of them, he caused them to be whipped with rods, and executed them. He then seized their property, and so by the deaths of these two he instilled great fear into the others, who were forced to give him everything they had, as a ransom for their lives.
§ 38.8.4 Within a short time Fimbria embroiled the province in the sort of misfortunes that might be expected from a man who had in such an impious way grasped the power to do whatever he wished. He ravaged Phrygia like a hurricane, and dashed around the cities, overwhelming everyone he met. When he killed himself, by his single death he paid the debt for the many deaths that he had caused.
§ 38.9.1 Gnaeus Pompeius devoted himself to a military life, and inured himself to the hardships and fatigues of war, so that in a short time he was acknowledged as an expert in military matters. Casting off all sloth and idleness, he was always, night and day, doing something or other that was useful for the conduct of the war. He was very sparing in his diet, ate his food sitting, and altogether refrained from baths and other such luxurious activities. He allotted fewer hours for sleep than nature demanded, and spent the rest of the night in the concerns of a general, relating to the problems that he faced during the day; so that, by his habitual planning for the uncertain events of war, he became most accomplished in military activities. And therefore, in far less time than another could have prepared himself to take charge of an army that was already raised, in that time he raised an army, trained them, and disciplined them. And when the news of his remarkable exploits was brought to Rome, everybody at first, reflecting upon his youth rather than on his valour, supposed that the messengers were merely exaggerating in their accounts. But when these reports were confirmed by the clear evidence of events, the senate sent out Junius against him, whom he routed and put to flight.
§ 38.10.1 Gnaeus Pompeius got a fine reward for his virtue, and gained distinction for his valour. He continued to act in accordance with his previous achievements, and informed Sulla by letter of the increase in his power. Sulla admired the youth for many other reasons, and berated the senators who were with him, both reproaching them and urging them to be equally zealous. Sulla said that he was amazed that Pompeius, who was still extremely young, had snatched such a large army away from the enemy, but those who were far superior to him in age and reputation could hardly keep even their own servants in a dependable alliance.
§ 38.11.1 Adrianus, the governor of Utica, was burnt alive by the people of Utica, Although this was a dreadful crime, it did not result in any punishment, because the victim had acted so wickedly.
§ 38.12.1 Even many of those who had already completed their period of military service, as defined by the law, willingly volunteered to join the consul Marius, the son of Marius, when the young man set off to war. Because they were more advanced in years, they were eager to show their juniors what they could achieve through their military training and their experience of battle and the other dangers of war.
§ 38.13.1 Throughout the cities and nations of Italy, there were numerous harsh investigations and attempts to discover their attitudes towards Marius and Sulla. They were therefore obliged to shift their pretended allegiance from one side to the other, and to appease whoever was present; but those who were responsible for raising troops for each of the factions were regularly competing with each other, and by their severe investigations they forced the cities to reveal their true opinions.
§ 38.14.1 Marius, because he lacked any necessary provisions, was abandoned by his soldiers. Marcus Perpenna, the governor of Sicily, alone remained faithful to him. Sulla sent envoys to him and urged him to join his party; but Perpenna, far from accepting this invitation, retained his strong attachment to Marius. He affirmed with threats that he would cross with all his forces from Sicily to Italy, and would rescue Marius from Praeneste.
§ 38.15.1 And now that the Marsic war was coming to an end, another great civil war arose in Rome, stirred up by Sulla and the young Gaius Marius, son of that Marius who had been seven times consul. In this strife many tens of thousands of men perished, until at length Sulla prevailed; and being created dictator, he called himself Epaphroditus {Felix}. This boastful title was not wholly inappropriate, because he prospered in all his wars, and died a natural death after his victories. But Marius, although he behaved with great gallantry in the war against Sulla, was at length routed, and fled with fifteen thousand men to Praeneste, where he was besieged for a long time. At length, being totally deserted, and seeing no way of escape, he earnestly entreated one of his faithful slaves to help him put an end to the misfortunes that surrounded him. After much persuasion, the slave at one stroke put an end to his master's life, and then immediately killed himself. And so at length ended this civil war. However, some remnants of Marius' party continued to give Sulla trouble for a while longer, until they too were suppressed, like the others.
§ 38.16.1 Scipio's army, which had been corrupted, went over to Sulla. Scipio thought that he was doomed, but Sulla sent to him a squadron of horsemen, to conduct him wherever he pleased. Thus after he had been forced in a moment to lay aside the symbols of his authority, he was subsequently, by the kindness of Sulla, brought as private citizen to the place he chose. But soon afterwards Scipio resumed the symbols of his authority, and again marched out with a considerable army.
§ 38.17.1 In the meantime, the most eminent persons in Rome were put to death on false accusations. Even Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, who had the highest reputation amongst the citizens, came to an unworthy end. The Romans were fortunate only in one thing, that this venerable priest did not withdraw into the most sacred precinct {the temple of Vesta}. For the cruelty of the murderers was such, that they would have laid him upon the very altar, and cut his throat there, so that by his own blood he would have extinguished that fire, which religious devotion has ceaselessly kept burning ever since ancient times.
§ 38.18.1 To praise good men, and rebuke disreputable men, is the most effective way of encouraging others to act nobly.
§ 38.18.2 Men who were able to devise good plans, and to put their decisions into action . . .
§ 38.19.1 When the proscription lists were fixed up in the forum, a multitude of people promptly came flocking in to read them. Most of them pitied those that were thus condemned to die. But one amongst them, a most malicious and insolent character, gloried over the miserable fate of the afflicted, and yelled out most spiteful remarks against them. Some incensed deity soon repaid him with a just revenge; for he happened to read his own name as one proscribed at the bottom of the list. He covered his head, and tried to run away through the thickest of the crowd; for he hoped in this way to escape detection and reach safety. But someone who stood nearby recognised him, and exposed him as one of the condemned; he was instantly surrounded and seized, and then put to death, to the great joy of all that heard it.
§ 38.20.1 Pompeius, seeing that Sicily had been deprived of justice for a long time, applied himself to the business of the law courts. He decided both public and private controversies, and discharged his duties with so much diligence and integrity, that no-one ever merited more commendation. Although he was only twenty-two years of age, at a time of life when he might have distracted by foolish youthful pleasures, yet he conducted himself with so much gravity and sobriety throughout his sojourn in Sicily, that the virtue of the young man was greatly admired by all the Sicilians.
§ 38.21.1 The barbarian Spartacus showed himself to be grateful to someone who had helped him; for nature itself leads even barbarians, without any education, to reward their benefactors with proper gratitude.
§ 38.22.1 A victory won through fighting brings honour both to the soldiers and to their leaders; but successes that are achieved through the skill of the general, bring renown solely to the general.
§ 38.22.2 An unstoppable impulse spread amongst the barbarians, prompting them to defect to the Romans.
§ 38.22a.1 Sertorius, seeing that he could do nothing to stop the natives from taking this course, took harsh measures against his allies. Some he killed after bringing accusations against them; others he put under guard; and he confiscated the property of the wealthiest of them. Although he gathered much silver and gold in this way, he did not put it into the common war-fund, but kept it for himself. He did not use it to supply the pay for his soldiers, or share it with his officers. He did not allow his council or advisers to share in judging capital offences, but he heard the cases by himself, and as the sole judge he pronounced the verdict. He did not deign to invite his officers to share his meals, and showed no kindness to his friends. In general, because his power had been brought low, he became savage and behaved like a tyrant towards everybody. As a result he was hated by the common people, and plotted against by his friends. His assassination was accomplished in the following way. The most influential of his officers, Perpenna and Tarquitius, conferred together and decided to kill Sertorius, because he had become a tyrant. Perpenna was chosen to be the leader of the plot, and he invited Sertorius to dinner, at the same time making sure that his fellow conspirators would be present at the meal. After Sertorius had arrived, the conspirators attacked him, and he was killed by Tarquitius and Antonius, who were sitting on either side of his couch.
§ 38.22b.1 As the result of a plot laid against him, Mithridates was almost captured by the Cyzicenes. This attempt was made by a Roman centurion, who had joined in the tunnelling work. Because both sides were digging tunnels in the area, they frequently encountered and even talked to each other; and from these encounters he became known to the king's men. Once, when he was caught on his own in the tunnels, one of the enemy pressed him to betray his allies, and he pretended to agree to the suggestion. When the king was informed of this, in his desire to capture the city he promised a reward and arranged a time to discuss the betrayal. Because the Roman demanded a surety for the agreement, the king sent men to settle it on his behalf. But the Roman said that he would not trust the agreement, unless the king gave him an oath in person. Mithridates considered that it was beneath his royal dignity to descend into the mines. But since the traitor said that he would not co-operate otherwise, and he was very eager to capture the city, Mithridates was forced to agree to the request. As a result the king would have been captured, if he had not been protected by one of his friends who, rightly suspecting a plot, produced a device that fitted in the tunnel and could quickly be opened and closed. When this had been placed in the tunnel, and Mithridates and his friends went in, the centurion . . . the men who intended to help him seize the king, drew his sword and rushed at the king. But just in time the king closed the gate, and so escaped the danger.
§ 40.1.1 Marcus Antonius agreed peace terms with the Cretans, which they observed for some time; but afterwards, they called together a council to consider what would be most advantageous for them. The older and more prudent amongst them advised to send envoys to Rome, to defend themselves against those accusations that were brought against them, and by fair words and entreaties, to achieve a reconciliation with the senate. To this end they despatched thirty men, chosen out of their most eminent citizens, as envoys, who privately visited the senators at their individual houses, and by courting them with fine words, won over those that had most influence in their meetings.
§ 40.1.2 When they were introduced into the senate, they made their defence against the matters objected against them with great prudence; accurately setting forth their good services, and their support for Roman rule, they requested that they might be restored to their former friendship and alliance. The senate, pleased with what they said, issued a decree, by which they not only acquitted the Cretans of the crimes laid against them, but declared them confederates and friends of the state. But Lentulus, surnamed Spinther, vetoed the decree; and the Cretans then departed.
§ 40.1.3 The senate were told on many occasions that the Cretans were joining with the pirates, and sharing in their robberies; and therefore they decreed that the Cretans should surrender all their ships to Rome, even down to a skiff of four oars; and provide three hundred eminent hostages; and send away Lasthenes and Panares; and jointly pay four thousand talents of silver. The Cretans, hearing what was decreed, went into a consultation about these commands imposed upon them. The more prudent amongst them advised that they should comply with all the instructions; but Lasthenes and his associates, fearing that they would be summoned to Rome, where they would be punished for the offences that they had committed, stirred up the people and urged them to maintain those liberties that they had enjoyed ever since time immemorial.
§ 40.1a.1 Some of the citizens of Antioch, feeling contempt for Antiochus because of his defeat, stirred up the masses and proposed that the king should be banished from the city. There was a great tumult, but when the king prevailed, the leaders of the uprising took fright and fled from Syria. After reaching Cilicia, they decided to bring back Philippus, who was the son of Philippus son of Antiochus Grypus. Philippus agreed to their proposal, and went to meet Azizus the Arab, who willingly received him. Azizus put a diadem on Philippus' head, and restored him to the kingship.
§ 40.1b.1 Since all his hopes rested on his alliance with Sampsiceramus, he summoned him to come with his forces. Sampsiceramus, who had secretly agreed with Azizus to kill the kings, came with his forces and sent for Antiochus. Antiochus went unsuspectingly in response, but after pretending to welcome him like a friend, Sampsiceramus seized the king; for the time being he held him captive, but later he killed him. In a similar way Azizus, in accordance with their agreement to divide up the kingdom of Syria between them, attempted to assassinate Philippus; but Philippus became aware of the plot, and fled to Antioch.
§ 40.2.1 While Pompeius was staying near Damascus in Syria, he was approached by Aristobulus the king of the Jews and his brother Hyrcanus, who were in dispute over who should be king. The most eminent of the Jews, more than two hundred in number, met the imperator and explained that their ancestors, when they rebelled from Demetrius, had sent envoys to the senate. In response, the senate granted them authority over the Jews, who were to be free and autonomous, under the leadership not of a king but of a high priest. But their current rulers, who had abolished their ancestral laws, had unjustly forced the citizens into subjection; with the help of a large number of mercenaries, they had procured the kingship through violence and much bloodshed. Pompeius postponed a decision about their dispute until later; but he strongly rebuked Hyrcanus and his associates for the lawless behaviour of the Jews and the wrongs they had committed against the Romans. He said that they deserved a stronger and harsher reprimand, but in conformity with the traditional clemency of the Romans, if they were obedient from now onwards, he would grant them forgiveness.
§ 40.3.1 Since we are about to give an account of the war against the Jews, we consider it appropriate, before we proceed further, in the first place to relate the origin of this nation, and their customs. In ancient times a great plague occurred in Egypt, and many ascribed the cause of it to the gods, who were offended with them. For since the multitudes of strangers of different nationalities, who lived there, made use of their foreign rites in religious ceremonies and sacrifices, the ancient manner of worshipping the gods, practised by the ancestors of the Egyptians, had been quite lost and forgotten.
§ 40.3.2 Therefore the native inhabitants concluded that, unless all the foreigners were driven out, they would never be free from their miseries. All the foreigners were forthwith expelled, and the most valiant and noble among them, under some notable leaders, were brought to Greece and other places, as some relate; the most famous of their leaders were Danaus and Cadmus. But the majority of the people descended into a country not far from Egypt, which is now called Judaea and at that time was altogether uninhabited.
§ 40.3.3 The leader of this colony was one Moses, a very wise and valiant man, who, after he had possessed himself of the country, amongst other cities, built that now most famous city, Jerusalem, and the temple there, which is so greatly revered among them. He instituted the holy rites and ceremonies with which they worship God; and made laws for the methodical government of the state. He also divided the people into twelve tribes, which he regarded as the most perfect number; because it corresponds to the twelve months within a whole year.
§ 40.3.4 He made no representation or image of gods, because he considered that nothing of a human shape was applicable to God; but that heaven, which surrounds the earth, was the only God, and that all things were in its power. But he so arranged the rites and ceremonies of the sacrifices, and the manner and nature of their customs, as that they should be wholly different from all other nations; for, as a result of the expulsion of his people, he introduced a most inhuman and unsociable manner of life. He also picked out the most accomplished men, who were best fitted to rule and govern the whole nation, and he appointed them to be priests, whose duty was continually to attend in the temple, and employ themselves in the public worship and service of God.
§ 40.3.5 He also made them judges, for the decision of the most serious cases, and committed to their care the preservation of their laws and customs. Therefore they say that the Jews have never had any king; but that the leadership of the people has always been entrusted to a priest, who excels all the rest in prudence and virtue. They call him the chief priest, and they regard him as the messenger and interpreter of the mind and commands of God.
§ 40.3.6 And they say that he, in all their public assemblies and other meetings, discloses what has been commanded; and the Jews are so compliant in these matters, that forthwith they prostrate themselves upon the ground, and adore him as the high priest, who has interpreted to them the will of God. At the end of the laws this is added: "This is what Moses has heard from God and proclaims to the Jews." This lawgiver also laid down many excellent rules and instructions for military affairs, in which he trained the youth to be brave and steadfast, and to endure all miseries and hardships.
§ 40.3.7 Moreover, he undertook many wars against the neighbouring nations, and gained much territory by force of arms, which he gave as allotments to his countrymen, in such a way as that everyone shared alike, except the priests, who had a larger portion than the rest; so that, because they had a larger income, they might continually attend upon the public worship of God without interruption. Neither was it lawful for any man to sell his allotment, lest, by the greed of those that bought the allotments, the others might be made poor and oppressed, and so the nation might suffer a shortage of manpower.
§ 40.3.8 He also ordered the inhabitants to be careful in rearing their children, who are brought up with very little expense; and by that means the Jewish nation has always been very populous. As to their marriages and funerals, he instituted customs far different from all other people. But under the empires which rose up in later ages, especially during the rule of the Persians, and in the time of the Macedonians, who overthrew the Persians, through intermingling with foreign nations, many of the traditional customs among the Jews were altered . . . This is what Hecataeus of (?) Abdera has related about the Jews.
§ 40.4.1 This is a copy of the inscription that Pompeius set up, recording his achievements in Asia.
Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, imperator, freed the coasts of the world and all the islands within the Ocean from the attacks of pirates. He rescued from siege the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, Galatia and the territories and provinces beyond there, Asia and Bithynia. He protected Paphlagonia, Pontus, Armenia and Achaia, also Iberia, Colchis, Mesopotamia, Sophene and Gordyene. He subjugated Dareius king of the Medes, Artoles king of the Iberians, Aristobulus king of the Jews, and Aretas king of the Nabataean Arabs, also Syria next to Cilicia, Judaea, Arabia, the province of Cyrenaica, the Achaeans, Iozygi, Soani and Heniochi, and the other tribes that inhabit the coast between Colchis and Lake Maeotis, together with the kings of these tribes, nine in number, and all the nations that dwell between the Pontic Sea and the Red Sea. He extended the borders of the empire up to the borders of the world. He maintained the revenues of the Romans, and in some cases he increased them. He removed the statues and other images of the gods, and all the other treasure of the enemies, and dedicated to the goddess {Minerva} 12,060 pieces of gold and 307 talents of silver.
§ 40.5.1 In Rome, a certain Catilina, who was heavily in debt, and Lentulus, surnamed Sura, collected a mob and planned an uprising against the senate, as follows. A festival was due to occur, in which it was customary for those who had eminent patrons to send gifts to their patrons, and for this reason their houses were kept open throughout the night. Therefore they decided that on this occasion they would send assailants to the houses of the victims of the plot; the assailants would enter the houses without suspicion by pretending to bring gifts, but they would secretly be carrying swords, and when a few of them had gathered in each house, at one and the same time they would slaughter almost the whole senate. Although the plot had been carefully organised in this way, the senate was preserved from it by remarkable coincidence. For more than four hundred persons had been assigned to carry out the killing, but one of them happened to be in love with a girl, who often rebuffed him; and he told her that in a few days he would have mastery of her life. She was amazed by this statement, and could not understand why he made the threat; but since the youth persisted with his claim, while they were relaxing and drinking together, she pretended to be enjoying his company, and asked him to explain what he meant by his remark; and because he was in love with her, and wanted to please her, he told her the complete truth. At the time she kept quiet, pretending to be pleased with what she had heard; but on the following day she met with the wife of Cicero the consul, and privately informed her of what had happened and of what the youth had said. When the conspiracy had been revealed in this way, Cicero, partly by menacing threats and partly by gentle persuasion, learned all the details of the plot from them.
§ 40.5a.1 Lucius Sergius, surnamed Catilina, being heavily in debt, planned an uprising. Marcus Cicero, the consul, composed a speech about the anticipated troubles. Catilina was summoned to the meeting, and Cicero made the accusation to his face; but Catilina said that in no way would he admit his guilt by going into voluntary exile without a trial. Cicero put the question to the senators, whether they considered that Catilina should be banished from the city. When most of them kept quiet, because they were reluctant to condemn Catilina in his presence, Cicero tried another ploy, to reveal the true opinion of the senate. He put a second question to the senators, whether they would command Quintus Catulus to leave Rome. With one voice, they all exclaimed that they did not agree and that they were unhappy with the suggestion. Turning back to Catilina, Cicero pointed out how loudly the senators objected, if they did not consider it right for someone to go into exile; so it was clear from their previous silence that they agreed that Catilina should go into exile. Catilina said that he would ponder on this privately, and he withdrew from the meeting.
§ 40.5.2 According to the proverb, less is the enemy of more.
§ 40.6.1 Vergilius, Lucian and Galen mention this Cleopatra, and Plutarch as well, and also Diodorus, Georgius the chronicler and others.