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previous: XII.1‑21 This webpage reproduces a portion of The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus published in Vol. IV of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1946 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: XII.41‑59

(Vol. IV) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History

(Book XII, continued)

 p419  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 Traïs River. Here they remained for a time, but later they were driven out by the Brettii and destroyed. 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.

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​1 were elected to draft laws: Publius Clodius Regillanus, Titus Minucius, Spurius Veturius, Gaius Julius, Gaius Sulpicius, Publius Sestius, Romulus (Romilius), Spurius Postumius  p421 Calvinus.​2 These men drew up the laws.​3 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.

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.​4 2 These men, however, were not able to complete the codification of the laws. One​5 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​6 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. 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.

4 The maiden's father, who had been present at the scene and had complained bitterly of the injustice  p423 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. 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.

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,​7 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. 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;​8 and that of the annual consuls one  p425 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. 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;​9 also, in case the tribunes could not agree among themselves, the will of the interceding tribune must not be prevented.​10 Such, then, we find, was the conclusion of the civil discord in Rome.

26 1 When Diphilius 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  p427 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.

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,​11 and they also concluded one later with the Lacedaemonians, 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 Lacedaemonians having concluded a truce of thirty years. 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. 4 There was quiet also among the peoples of Italy and Celticê, 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.

27 1 When Timocles was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lar Herminius and Titus  p429 Stertinius Structor. In this year the Samians went to war with the Milesians because of a quarrel over Prienê, 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. 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​12 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.

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. 4 The Athenians  p431 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.

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. 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. 3 He built also siege machines, being the first of all men to do so,​13 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. 4 He also took from them their ships and razed their  p433 walls; then he restored the democracy and returned to his country.

As for the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, the thirty-year truce between them remained unshaken to this time.

These, then, were the events of this year.

29 1 When Myrichides 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.​14 In Sicily, in this year, Ducetius, the former leader of the cities of the Siceli, founded the native city of the Calactians,​15 and when he had established many colonists there, he lad claim to the leader­ship of the Siceli, but his attempt was cut short by illness and his life was ended. 2 The Syracusans had made subject to them all the cities of the Siceli with the exception of Trinaciê, 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. 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  p435 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. 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.

30 1 When Glaucides 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.

2 While these events were taking place it came about in Greece that the Corinthian War,​16 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.​17 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  p437 Epidamnus. 3 Since the barbarians​18 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. 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. 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.

6 The Romans were at war with the Volscians​19 and at first they engaged only in skirmishes and unimportant  p439 engagements, but later they conquered them in a great pitched battle and slew the larger number of the enemy.

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.20

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.21

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. 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.

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  p441 this year, the Corinthians, who had suffered defeat in the sea-battle, decided to build a more imposing fleet. 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. 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.

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-sixty 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. 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. 3 The Corinthians, after their failure to conclude an alliance with the Athenians, manned  p443 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, 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,​22 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.

34 1 When Antiochides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Fabius and Postumus Aebutius Ulecus.​23 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. 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,º 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. 3 When the Athenians heard of the revolt of the Potidaeans, they dispatched thirty ships with orders  p445 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. 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 Pallenê the Athenians were victorious and slew over three hundred of the enemy, and the Potidaeans were entirely beleaguered. 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.

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,​24 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. 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  p447 be ascribed to them. 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.

4 In Greece Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, died after a reign of forty-two years, and Agis succeeded to the throne and was king for twenty-five years.25

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,​26 died after a reign of seven years, and Seleucus succeeded to the throne and was king for forty years.

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,​27 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  p449 circuit of what may be called a Great Year; consequently it is called by some the Year of Meton. 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.28

4 In Italy the Tarantini removed the inhabitants of Siris,​29 as it is called, from their native city, and adding to them colonists from their own citizens, they founded a city which they named Heracleia.

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.

2 Thucydides, the Athenian, commenced his history  p451 with this year, giving an account of the war between the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, 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.30

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​31 of the war.

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,​32 they had transferred to Athens​33 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. 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  p453 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." 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.

39 1 The statue​34 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. 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​35 Anaxagoras,  p455 who was Pericles' teacher, of impiety against the gods;​36 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.37

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.

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 Lacedaemonians, being won over by the Megarians, in the most open manner dispatched ambassadors in accordance with the decision of the Council of the League,​38 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. 5 When the Assembly convened to consider the matter, Pericles, who far excelled  p457 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 Lacedaemonians, 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.

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; 2 from the ten thousand talents in the common fund four thousand had been expended on the building of the Propylaea​39 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, 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.

4 In addition to these financial resources Pericles  p459 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. 5 He also pointed out that the Lacedaemonians 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 Lacedaemonians. This he accomplished readily by reason of his great ability as an orator, which is the reason he has been called "The Olympian." 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:40

 p461  And again in another place:41

And Eupolis the poet wrote:42

---

The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 The famous Decemvirate.

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2 The sources do not agree on the names. Here Publius Clodius should be Appius Claudius; and Diodorus also omits the names of A. Manlius Vulso and P. Curiatius.

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3 The Laws of the Twelve Tables, the first Roman laws to be put in writing. The common Roman tradition was that two of the laws were passed under the second Decemvirate; but Diodorus (chap. 26.1) states that they were added under the consuls Horatius and Valerius, and this seems more likely (see Beloch, Römische Geschichte, p245). The correct dates of the Decemvirates are 451 and 450 B.C., and of the consuls Horatius and Valerius, 449.

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4 These are only seven names, and the last, Spurius Veturius, is not found in other lists; Clodius should be Claudius.

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5 Appius Claudius (Livy, 3.44).

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6 Verginia. The following story ranks among the most famous of Roman tradition. The classic account is in Livy, 3.44 ff.

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7 This is probably a defective translation of decemviri collegae auxilium ferentes (see Klimke, Diodor und die röm. Annalistik, p7).

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8 Diodorus had forgotten that he had already acknowledged the existence of tribunes under the year 466 (Book 11.68.8). It may be, however, that in this year the patricians first recognized in law the tribunate or some of its powers.

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9 Diodorus is the only authority for this law, which probably derives from the story of the burning to death of nine tribunes (Valerius Maximus, 6.3.2; Dio Cassius, frag. 22).

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10 Some such a provision as this may be hidden in τὸν ἀνὰ μέσον κείμενον. See Eduard Meyer, "Untersuchungen über Diodors römische Geschichte," Rhein. Museum, 37 (1882), 610‑627, especially pp618 ff., where he discusses the defective tradition which Diodorus has followed in the legislation described above.

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11 This is the treaty given in chap. 4.5.

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12 Thucydides (1.115) says fifty.

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13 The Assyrians had siege machinery several centuries earlier than this.

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14 For the third time; cp. chaps. 5 and 23.

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15 The inhabitants of Calê Actê; cp. chap. 8.2 supra.

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16 The correct date is 435 B.C.

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17 The Epidamnians were in fact colonists of Cercyra, which was a colony of Corinth.

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18 The Illyrians.

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19 Cp. Livy, 3.66.

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20 Campania is probably derived from the Latin word campus ("plain").

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21 The capital of this kingdom was Panticapaeum, on the present Straits of Kertch.

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22 This refers to the vote of the Athenian Assembly just above to "send more later if necessary."

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23 Ulecus is a corruption of Alba or Elva.

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24 See chap. 11.

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25 Archidamus died in 426 B.C. This error on the part of Diodorus is all the more surprising since he states that Archidamus led an army into Boeotia in 429 (chap. 47.1) and invaded Attica in 426 (chap. 52.1).

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26 The Straits of Kertch; the kingdom included all the territory about the Sea of Azof.

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27 According to Philochorus (Schol. to Aristophanes, Av. 997) what Meton set up was a sundial, on the wall of the Pnyx.

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28 Meton certainly was too good an astronomer to have spoken of "stars." This Metonic Cycle was designed to adjust the lunar year, which all the Greeks used, to the solar year. Its scheme called for the intercalation of seven lunar months in the nineteen years. Modern computation shows that 235 lunations are 6,939 days, 16.5 hours, and 19 solar years are 6,939 days, 14.5 hours. An inscription from Miletus reveals that in 432 B.C. the summer solstice, which is the beginning of the solar year, fell on the 13th day of the month Scirophorion, the date given by Diodorus for the beginning of Meton's 19‑year cycle. See B. D. Meritt, The Athenian Calendar in the Fifth Century, p88.

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29 On the gulf of Tarentum.

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30 Thucydides wrote a continuous account, and the ancients knew of divisions into as many as thirteen Books.

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31 The following "causes" are clearly drawn from a violent anti-Periclean source, and Diodorus himself appears to wish to disavow them when he states (chap. 41.1) that he has taken them directly from Ephorus.

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32 Given as ten thousand in chaps. 40.2; 54.3; Book 13.21.2.

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33 In 454 B.C.

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34 The gold and ivory statue in the Parthenon.

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35 The general name given the teachers of advanced education in the fifth century.

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36 Anaxagoras was one of the most distinguished physical philosophers of Greece, who maintained that the universe was directed by unchangeable Mind and tried to give a natural explanation of eclipses, rainbows, the heavenly bodies, of which he said the sun was a mass of blazing metal larger than the Peloponnesus, and other phenomena of nature. Of course such teaching ran counter to the popular polytheism of the day.

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37 It is more likely that the accusations against these two friends of Pericles fell some years before the outbreak of the war (cp. Adcock in Camb. Anc. Hist. 5, pp477‑480). At any rate Thucydides' account of the causes of the war makes no mention of either Pheidias or Anaxagoras.

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38 The Peloponnesian League.

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39 The entrance to the Acropolis.

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40 Peace, 603‑606, 609‑611 (in imitation of Archilochus). The translation is that of Rogers in the L. C. L., slightly changed where the Greek of Diodorus varies from the accepted text and because of the missing lines.

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41 Acharnians, 531‑532.

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42 Frag. 94, 11.5‑7 (Kock). Eupolis was a contemporary of Aristophanes and one of the most brilliant writers of the Old Comedy.

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