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VI

This webpage reproduces a portion of
The Library of History

of
Diodorus Siculus

published in Vol. III
of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1939

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,
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VIII

(Vol. III) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History

 p347  Fragments of Book VII

[In the following eleven Books​1 we have written a universal history of events from the Trojan War to the death of Alexander.​2 (Diod. 1.4.6)]

[In the preceding six Books​3 we have set down a record of events from the Trojan War to the war which the Athenians decreed against the Syracusans.​4 (Diod. 13.1.2)]

[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.​5 (Diod. 14.2.4)]

[link to original Greek text] 1 1 Orpheus was contemporary with Heracles, both of them living one hundred years before the period of the Trojan War; and as I read in the work of Orpheus On Stones, where he speaks about himself, he says that he lived just a little after Helenus, and that Homer was one generation after Helenus. And Homer, according to Dionysius the writer of cycles,​6 is said to have lived at the time of two  p349 expeditions, that against Thebes and the one which the Greeks undertook on behalf of Helen. And Diodorus agrees with Dionysius, as do countless others.

[link to original Greek text] 2 1 Diodorus states that Homer died before the Return of the Heracleidae.

[link to original Greek text] 3 1 Aegialeia, the wife of Diomedes, fell altogether from favour with her husband. And in her hatred she acted unjustly toward her husband and called upon her kinsmen to take vengeance upon him. And they, taking as their helper Aegisthus, who had lately possessed himself of the throne of Mycenae, passed judgment of death upon Diomedes, alleging that, although his father had been a foreigner, he was planning to banish the nobles from the state and to settle in their place some of his kinsmen from Aetolia. And since this false charge was generally believed, Diomedes became afraid and fled from Argos, together with any who wished to accompany him.

[link to original Greek text] 4 1 When Troy was taken, Aeneas, together with some other Trojans, seized a part of the city and held off the attackers. And when the Greeks let them depart under a truce and agreed with them that each man might take with him as many of his possessions as he could, all the rest took silver or gold or some other costly article, whereas Aeneas lifted upon his shoulders his father, who was now grown quite old, and bore him away. 2 For this deed he won the admiration of the Greeks and was again given permission to choose out what he would of his household possessions. 3 And when he bore off the household gods, all the more was his virtue approved,  p351 receiving the plaudits even of his enemies; 4 for the man showed that in the midst of the greatest perils his first concern was piety toward parents and reverence for the gods. And this was the reason, we are told, why he, together with the Trojans who still survived, was allowed to leave the Troad in complete safety and to go to whatever land he wished.

Eusebius, Chronicle7

Let us now turn to another witness to the same affairs, namely, to Diodorus, who gathered in summary form all libraries into one and the same clearing-house​8 of knowledge. For he writes of the history of the Romans in his seventh Book, in the following words:

[link to original Greek text] 5 1 Certain​9 historians have assumed, though in error, that the Romulus who was born of the daughter of Aeneas was the founder of Rome. But the truth is otherwise, since there were many kings in the period between Aeneas and Romulus, and the city was founded in the second year of the Seventh Olympiad, and the date of this founding falls after the Trojan War by four hundred and thirty-three years.​10 2 For three years elapsed after the taking of Troy before Aeneas received the kingship over the Latins; this kingship he held for three years, and  p353 then he disappeared from among men and received immortal honours. 3 His son Ascanius succeeded him on the throne and founded Alba Longa, as it is now called, naming it after the river which was then called Alba and now bears the name Tiber. 4 As for the name of the city, however, Fabius,​11 who wrote a history of the Romans, presents a different story. This is what he says: An oracle was given to Aeneas, stating that a four-footed animal would lead him to the place where he should found a city. And once, when he was in the act of sacrifi­cing a sow, white in colour, which was pregnant, it escaped from his hands and was pursued to a certain hill, where it dropped a farrow of thirty pigs. 5 Aeneas was astounded at this strange happening, and then, calling to mind the oracle, he made preparations to found a city on the spot. But in his sleep he saw a vision which strictly forbade him to do so and counselled him to found the city thirty years hence, corresponding to the number of the farrow of pigs, and so he gave up his design.

6 Upon the death of Aeneas his son Ascanius ascended the throne, and after thirty years he founded a settlement on the hill and gave the city the name of Alba after the colour of the sow; for the Latins call what is white alba. Ascanius also added another name, Longa, which translated means "the long," since the city was narrow in width and of great length.

 p355  And he (Diodorus) goes on to say, 7 "Ascanius made Alba the capital of his kingdom and subdued no small number of the settlements​12 round about; and he became a famous man and died after a reign of thirty-eight years."

8 At the end of this period there arose a division among the people, because of two men who were contending with each other for the throne. For Iulius, since he was the son of Ascanius, maintained, "The rule which my father had belongs to me." And Silvius, the brother of Ascanius and, furthermore, a son of Aeneas by Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, whereas Ascanius was a son of Aeneas by his first wife, who had been a woman of Ilium, maintained,​13 "The rule belongs to me." Indeed, after Aeneas' death Ascanius had plotted against the life of Silvius; and it was while the latter as a child was being reared, because of this plot, by certain herdsmen on a mountain that he came to be called Silvius, after the name of the mountain, which the Latins called Silva. In this struggle of the two groups Silvius finally received the vote of the people and gained the throne. Iulius, however, though he lost the supreme power, was made pontifex maximus and became a kind of second king; and from him we are told, was sprung the Julian gens which exists in Rome even to this day.14

9 Silvius accomplished nothing of note during his reign and died after a rule of forty-nine years. He was followed in the kingship by his son Aeneas, who was given the surname of Silvius and reigned over thirty years. After him Latinus, who was also called Silvius, reigned for fifty years. He was a vigorous ruler both in internal administration and in  p357 war, laying waste the neighbouring territory and founding the eighteen ancient cities which were formerly known as the "Latin cities": Tibur, Praeneste, Gabii, Tusculum, Cora, Pometia, Lanuvium, Labici, Scaptia, Satricum, Aricia, Tellenae, Crustumerium, Caenina, Fregellae, Cameria, Medullia, and Boilum, which some men also write Bola.

10 After Latinus died, his son Alba Silvius was chosen king, and he reigned for thirty-eight years; and after him Epitus Silva ruled for twenty-six years. At his death Capys replaced him in the kingship and reigned twenty-eight years. After him his son Calpetus reigned for thirteen years, and then Tiberius Silvius for eight years. The latter undertook a campaign against the Etruscans, but while leading his army across the Alba river he fell into the flood and met his death, whence the name of the river was made Tiber. And after his death Agrippa reigned over the Latins for forty-one years, and after him Aramulius Silvius for nineteen years.

11 Of Aramulius the story is told that he carried himself haughtily during his entire life and opposed the might of Jupiter​15 in obstinate strife. Indeed, when at harvest time there would come incessant peals of heavy thunder, he used to order his soldiers, at the word of command, with one accord to strike their shields with the swords; and he would claim that the noise made in this fashion surpassed that of thunder. But he paid the penalty of his arrogance toward the gods, since he was slain by a stroke of lightning and his entire house was submerged in the Alban lake. And to this day the Romans who dwell near the lake point to evidences of this event in the form of columns  p359 which stand up in the lake from the ruins of the royal palace lying in its depths.

12 After Aramulius the next king to be chosen was Aventius, who ruled thirty-seven years. Once, when pressed back in a war with some neighbours, he withdrew for protection to the Aventine hill, and for this reason the hill received the name Aventine. Upon his death he was succeeded in the kingship by his son Proca Silvius, who reigned twenty-three years. At his death his younger son Amulius seized the kingship by violence, since Numitor, who as his elder brother and his full-brother as well, was away in a distant region. Amulius reigned a little more than forty-three years and was slain by Remus and Romulus, who were the founders of Rome.

[link to original Greek text] 6 1 After the death of Aeneas a plot was formed by Ascanius against Silvius, who was still a child. He had been reared in the mountains by certain herdsmen and was given the name Silvius, because the Latins called the mountain Silva.

[link to original Greek text] 7 1 Romulus Silvius was an arrogant man throughout his entire life and dared to contend with God. For example, when God would thunder he used to order his soldiers at a single signal to strike their shields with their blades, and he would then say that the noise they raised was greater than the thunder.

[The third city he seized was Meschela, which was a very large place and had been settled in ancient times by Greek refugees from Troy, about whom we have already spoken in the third Book.​16 (Diod. 20.57.6)]

 p361  [Thessalus, they say, after this removed to Iolcus; and finding on his arrival that Acastus, the son of Pelias, had recently died, he took over the throne which had belonged to him by inheritance and called the people who were subject to him Thessalians after his own name. I am not unaware that this is not the only explanation given of the name the Thessalians bear, but the fact is that the other accounts which have been handed down to us are likewise at variance with one another, and concerning these we shall speak on a more appropriate occasion. (Diod. 4.55.2)]

[The Heracleidae gave up, as they had promised, their effort to return and made their way back to Tricorythus. Some time later Licymnius and his sons and Tlepolemus, the son of Heracles, made their home in Argos, the Argives admitting them to citizen­ship of their own accord; but all the rest who had made their homes in Tricorythus, when the fifty-year period had expired, returned to the Peloponnesus. Their deeds we shall record when we have come to those times. (Diod. 4.58.4‑5)]

Eusebius, Chronicle17

Kings of Lacedaemon from the Books of Diodorus

[link to original Greek text] 8 1 Since it so happens that the interval is difficult to determine from the time of the events which gather around Troy to the first Olympiad,​18 since there were no annual magistrates in this period either in Athens or in any other city, we shall use for our purpose the kings of Lacedaemon. From the Destruction of Troy to the First Olympiad, as Apollodorus of  p363 Athens says, is a period of four hundred and eight years. It was eighty years​19 to the Return of the Heracleidae, and the remaining years were included in the reigns of the Lacedaemonian kings, Procles and Eurystheus, and their descendants; we shall now enumerate the individual kings by the two houses down to the First Olympiad.

2 Eurystheus began to reign in the eightieth year after the events which gather around Troy, and he ruled forty-two years; after him Agis ruled one year; Echestratus thirty-one;​20 Labotas thirty-seven; Doristhus twenty-nine; Agesilaüs, his successor, forty-four; Archelaüs sixty; Teleclus forty; and Alcamenes thirty-eight. In the tenth year of the last reign fell the beginning of the First Olympiad, that in which Curibus of Elea won the "stadion."

Of the other house Procles was the first ruler and reigned forty-nine years;​21 after him Pritanis reigned forty-nine years; Eunomius forty-five; after him Chariclus sixty; after him Nicandrus thirty-eight; and Theopompus forty-seven. And in the tenth year also of the last reign begins the First Olympiad. And the total length of time from the taking of Troy to the Return of the Heracleidae is eighty years.

[link to original Greek text] 9 1 Now that we have examined into these matters, it remains for us to speak of Corinth and of Sicyon, and of the manner in which the territories of these cities were settled by the Dorians. For it came to  p365 pass that practically all the peoples throughout the Peloponnesus, except the Arcadians, were driven out on the occasion of the Return of the Heracleidae. 2 Now when the Heracleidae divided up the land they made an exception of the territory of Corinth and the country lying about it, and sending word to Aletes they handed this territory over to him. Aletes, becoming a notable man, increased the city of Corinth in power and reigned as king over it thirty-eight years. 3 After his death the kingship was assumed from time to time by the eldest son of his descendants, until the tyranny of Cypselus, which falls four hundred and forty-seven years after the return of the Heracleidae. The first of the Heracleidae to succeed to the kingship was Ixion, who reigned thirty-eight years; 4 after him Agelas ruled for thirty-seven years, and then Prymnis for thirty-five. And Bacchis, who ruled for an equal number of years, became a more famous man than any of his predecessors, and this was the reason why the kings who followed him came to be called no longer Heracleidae, but Bacchidae. Agelas followed Bacchis and reigned for thirty years, Eudemus for twenty-five, and Aristomedes for thirty-five. 5 At his death Aristomedes left a son Telestes, who was still a child in years, and Telestes was deprived of the kingship he had inherited by Agemon, his father's brother and his own guardian, who reigned sixteen years. After him Alexander held the royal power for twenty-five years. Alexander was slain by that Telestes who had been deprived of the ancestral rule, and he then reigned for twelve years; 6 and Telestes was slain by his kinsmen and Automenes reigned for a year. And the Bacchidae, who were  p367 descendants of Heracles, were two hundred in number when they seized the rule, and they all maintained control over the state as a body; out of their own number they annually chose one man to be chief magistrate, who held the position of the king, this form of government continuing for ninety years until it was destroyed by the tyranny which Cypselus established.

[link to original Greek text] 10 1 In the city of Cymê there was a tyrant by the name of Malacus. He established his domination by ingratiating himself with the masses and by constantly calumniating the most influential citizens, and he continually put to the sword the wealthiest citizens, seized their possessions and thus maintained mercenaries, and was a terror to the Cymeans.

[And last of all, after the Return of the Heracleidae, Argives and Lacedaemonians sent forth colonies which they established on certain other islands and likewise took possession of Crete, and on these islands they took certain cities for their homes; but with regard to these cities we shall give a detailed account in connection with the period of time to which they belong. (Diod. 5.80.3)]

[After Troy was taken the Carians steadily increased their power and became masters of the sea; and taking possession of the Cyclades, some of the islands they appropriated to themselves, expelling the Cretans who inhabited them, but in some islands they settled jointly with the Cretans, who had been the first to dwell there. And at a later time, when the power of the Greeks increased, the major number of the Cyclades came to be inhabited by them, and the Carians, who were non-Greeks,  p369 were driven out by them. But of these matters we shall give a detailed account in connection with the appropriate period of time. (Diod. 5.84.4)]

[link to original Greek text] 11 1 Eusebius, Chronicle22

The Periods when Certain Peoples were Masters of the Sea, Excerpted from the Writings of Diodorus.23

After the Trojan War the mastery of the sea was held by:

1. Lydians and Maeonians 92 years
2. Pelasgians 85 "
3. Thracians 79 "
4. Rhodians 23 "
5. Phrygians 25 "
6. Cyprians 33 "
7. Phoenicians 45 "
8. Egyptians "
9. Milesians "
10. –––––​24 "
11. Lesbians "
12. Phocians 44 "
13. Samians "
14. Lacedaemonians 2 "
15. Naxians 10 "
16. Eretrians 15 "
17. Aeginetans 10 "

down to the time when Xerxes​25 crossed over to the other side.26

 p371  [link to original Greek text] 12 1 Such was the magnitude of the qualities of virtue possessed by Lycurgus that once, when he went to Delphi, the Pythian priestess delivered to him this utterance:27

Lycurgus, loved of Zeus and all whose homes

Are on Olympius, thou art come upon

My wealthy shrine. I wonder how I shall

Reveal myself to thee, as god or man;

Yet more a god, Lycurgus, hold I thee.

Thou com'st in search of goodly laws; and such

A system of fair laws shall I now give

To thee as never city upon earth

Shall e'er possess.

2 The same Lycurgus inquired of the Pythian priestess what sort of customs he should establish for the Lacedaemonians whereby they might receive the greatest advantage. And when she replied that he should legislate in such a fashion that the one group should govern fairly and the other group should obey those in authority, he inquired of her again, what should be done by those who were to govern fairly and by those who were to be obedient to men in authority. Whereupon the priestess delivered the following oracle:

Two paths there be which farthest parted are,

One leading on to freedom's honoured halls,

The other to the house of slavery which

All mortals shun. The former path is trod

By those of manly soul and concord sweet;

And on this way I charge you lead the folk;

The latter is the path of loathsome strife

And weak delusion: This the way which thou

Must guard against most carefully.

 p373  3 The sum and substance of the oracle was that the greatest attention should be devoted to concord and manly spirit, since it is by these alone that freedom can be maintained, and unless a man possesses freedom nothing he has is of use to him, nor indeed any goods which the majority of mankind consider of value, seeing that he is the subject of other men. For all such things belong to those who hold authority, not to subjects; and so, if any man wishes to lay up the good things of life for himself, and for others, to use, he must first of all win freedom. 4 And the oracle commanded that both possessions​28 should be the concern of men, since neither one of them, without the other, can be of advantage to him who has won it; for there is no advantage to men to be brave, if they are at odds among themselves, or to be wholly of one mind, if they are cowards.

5 The same Lycurgus received from Delphi an oracle with regard to covetousness, which is handed down to memory in the form of a proverb:

Covetousness, and it alone, will work

The ruin of Sparta.

6 The Pythian priestess delivered to Lycurgus an oracle regarding a political constitution in these words:29

Thus Lord Apollo, he of silver bow,

Far-darter, golden haired, has made response

From out his wealthy shrine: Let kings, to whom

Is honour 'mongst the gods, in whose hearts

Is care for Sparta's lovely city, hold

 p375  In Council the first place; and let old men,

Of ancient worth, and after them from out

The folk the warriors, all in turn yielding

Obedience to straight rhetrae,​30 speak fair and hold

To justice in their ev'ry deed; nor let

Them profferº crooked counsel to this state;

And in the body of the folk let there

Reside decision and the power. 'Tis thus

That Phoebus hath appointed for the city.

7 They who do not cherish piety toward the divinity show all the less concern to observe justice toward men.

8 The Lacedaemonians, by observing the laws of Lycurgus, from a lowly people grew to be the most powerful among the Greeks and maintained the leader­ship among the Greek states for over four hundred years.​31 But after that time, as they little by little began to relax each one of the institutions and to turn to luxury and indifference, and as they grew so corrupted as to use coined money and to amass wealth, they lost the leader­ship.

[link to original Greek text] 13 1 Temenus,​32 who obtained the territory of Argos as his portion, together with his army invaded the land of his enemies. And in the course of the war, which was a long one, he did not advance his sons to positions of command, but he assigned to Deïphontes, his daughter's husband whom he especially favoured, the undertakings which carried with them  p377 the most renown. For this reason his sons, Cissus and Phalces Cerynes, became wroth with him and formed a plot against their father by the hands of certain villains; and the latter, at the instigation of the sons, lay in wait for Temenus beside a certain river. But they did not succeed in slaying him, and took to flight after only wounding him.

2 The Argives, since they had suffered serious reverses in the war which they together with their king had undertaken against the Lacedaemonians, and had been forced to hand over their ancestral homes to the Arcadians, laid the blame for this upon their king, on the ground that he had given over their land to the exiles and had not divided it in lots among them. And the mass of citizens rose up against him and in their despair laid violent hands upon him, whereupon he fled to Tegea, where he spent his days in the enjoyment of honours at the hands of those who had received his favours.

[link to original Greek text] 14 1 The kingship among the Argives lasted for five hundred and forty-nine years, as the most learned Diodorus has stated in his history.

Eusebius, Chronicle33

[link to original Greek text] 15 1 After the rule of the Assyrians came to an end with the death of their last king, Sardanapallus,​34 there followed the period of the Macedonians.

Caranus, who was covetous of possessions, before the first Olympiad gathered forces from the Argives and from the rest of the Peloponnesus, and with this army he advanced against the territory of the Macedonians. It happened that at the same time the king of the Orestae was at war with his neighbours,  p379 who were known as Eordaei. He asked Caranus to come to his assistance and promised to give him half of his land, when he had established peace among the Orestae. The king was as good as his word, and Caranus received the land and ruled as king over it for thirty years. He died in his old age and was succeeded on the throne by his son who was known as Coenus, who reigned twenty-eight years. After him Tirimmus reigned for forty-three years, and Perdicas for forty-eight years. Perdicas wished to enlarge his kingdom and so made inquiry of Delphi.

2 And a little further on he​35 writes on the same matters:

Perdicas reigned forty-eight years and left the kingship to Argaeus. And after a reign of thirty-one years Argaeus was succeeded on the throne by Philip, who reigned thirty-three years and left the rule to Aeeropas. He ruled for twenty years, and then Alcetas succeeded to the throne and reigned eighteen years, leaving the kingship to Amintas. And after his rule of forty-nine years Alexander followed on the throne, which he held for twenty-two years, then Archelaüs for seventeen, and Aëorpus for six. After him Pausanias for one year, Ptolemaeus for three, then Perdicas for five, and Philip for twenty-four. And Alexander spent over twelve years warring with the Persians.

3 By such a genealogy trustworthy historians trace the line of the kings of Macedonia back to Heracles. From Caranus, who was the first to unite the power of Macedon and to hold it, to Alexander, who subdued the land of Asia, there are reckoned twenty-four kings and four hundred and eighty years.

 p381  [link to original Greek text] 16 1 Perdiccas, wishing to increase the strength of his kingdom, sent to Delphi to consult the oracle. And the Pythian priestess replied to him:

Stands o'er wealthy land a might of kings

Of Temenus' right noble line,

Of Aegis-bearing Zeus. But swiftly go

To Bottiaïs, rich in flocks; and then

Where thou shalt see white-horned goats,​36 with fleece

Like snow, resting at dawn, make sacrifice

Upon the blessed gods upon that spot

And raise the chief city of a state.

[link to original Greek text] 17 1 The genealogy of Caranus is given in this wise, as Diodorus reports, as well as the majority of historians, one of whom is also Theopompus. Caranus was the son of Pheidon, the son of Aristodamis, the son of Merops, the son of Thestius, the son of Cissius, the son of Temenus, the son of Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, the son of Hyllus, the son of Heracles. But there are some, he says, who adduce a different genealogy, saying that Caranus was the son of Poeas, the son of Croesus, the son of Cleodaeus, the son of Eurybiades, the son of Deballus, the son of Lachares, the son of Temenus, who likewise returned into the Peloponnesus.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Seven to seventeen inclusive.

2 i.e. from 1184 B.C. to 323 B.C.

3 Seven to twelve inclusive.

4 i.e. from 1184 B.C. to 415 B.C.

5 i.e. from 1184 B.C. to 405 B.C. Athens capitulated in April, 404 B.C., but Diodorus' year is the Athenian archon year, in this case July, 405 to July, 404.

6 That is, a composer of legends or poems, Dionysius Skytobrachion ("of the leathern arm") of Alexandria wrote a mythical romance which told about the Amazons, the Atlantians, the Argonauts, and the like. On his use by Diodorus see Book 3.52.3 and note.

7 The Chronicle of Eusebius is preserved only in an Armenian version and Latin text here given is the translation of this version by H. Petermann in the edition of Schöne (Berlin, 1875). But here and in the other passages from the Chronicle the English is drawn from the German translation of the Armenian by Karst in Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, vol. 5, pp136‑39 (Leipzig, 1911). Scant attention has been paid in the translation to the Armenian orthography; the proper names have, therefore, unless the variation was marked, been given the familiar Roman form.

8 Cp. the χρηματιστήριον of Book 1.1.3.

9 This paragraph is found in Syncellus, whose version is preferred by editors, although it is also given by Eusebius.

10 i.e. in 751 B.C. Various dates for the founding of Rome were given by ancient writers — 814 B.C., 753, 752, 751, 749, and 729.

11 Quintus Fabius Pictor was the first Roman to compose a history of his city, writing it in Greek shortly before 200 B.C.

12 Karst reads "settlements" for "inhabitants" of the MSS.

13 So Karst restores the Armenian text which reads: "And Silvius, the brother of Ascanius and son of Aeneas and of Silva, the first wife (!) of Latinus, maintained, etc."

14 i.e. to the time of Diodorus, not of Eusebius.

15 The Armenian text has "Aramazd."

16 There is nothing about this incident in the third Book, and chronologically it should have fallen in this, the seventh, Book.

17 Karst, pp105‑06.

18 1184 B.C. to 776 B.C.

19 From the Fall of Troy.

20 This should be "thirty-five," as the Table of kings which follows in Eusebius has the number.

21 It would appear that there was a lacuna in the text of Diodorus which Eusebius had before him and it should be restored: "Procles 41 years, Soüs 34, Eurypon 51." Then the reigns yield the necessary total of 328 years; cp. Book 1.5.1.

Thayer's Note: the Loeb edition's English is four hundred and eight — but the fa­cing Latin (from Eusebius) reads octo supra trecentos. See my note to the passage.

22 Karst, pp106‑7.

23 A defence of the general accuracy of the following list, together with a parallel table of similar lists from the Chronologies of Syncellus, of Eusebius' Canon, and of Jerome, is to be found in J. L. Myres, "On the 'List of Thalassocracies' in Eusebius," Journ. Hell. Studies, 26 (1906), 84‑130.

24 For "Carians," found here in the Canon of Eusebius, Burn would read "Megarians" (Journ. Hell. Studies, 47 (1927), 167).

25 In 480 B.C.; the Armenian text reads "Alexander."

26 i.e. into Europe.

27 The first four lines of the oracle are given also in Herodotus, 1.65.

28 i.e. both the "good things of life" and "freedom."

29 This sentence is a marginal note; but the following oracle, which is also attributed to Tyrtaeus (4, Bergk), clearly is not a part of what immediately precedes it in the MS.

30 "Covenants"; but the word is almost a technical term for the laws of Lycurgus which were considered to be "covenants" between the Spartans and the lawgiver.

Thayer's Note: See Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 6.1‑4 and 13.6.

31 To the battle of Leuctra in 371. There appears to be good evidence from what is known of Diodorus' chronology that the number should be "five hundred."

32 One of the Heracleidae.

33 Karst, pp107‑108.

34 On this king see Book 2.23 ff.

35 Diodorus.

36 A reference to Aegae ("city of goats"), the early capital of the Macedonians.

Now called Vergina, it was the burial site of many of the Macedonian royals, and the bodies and tombs of some of them were discovered intact there in 1977: see the Aegae page at Livius.


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