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previous: XIV.40‑78 This webpage reproduces a portion of The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus published in Vol. VI of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1954 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: XIV.97‑112

(Vol. VI) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History

(Book XIV, continued)

 p225  79​1 In Greece the Lacedaemonians, foreseeing how great their war with the Persians would be, put one of the two kings, Agesilaüs, in command. After he had levied six thousand soldiers and constitute a council of thirty of his foremost fellow citizens,​2 he transported the armament from Aulis​3 to Ephesus. 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. 3 He traversed the Plain of Caÿster and laid waste the territory held by the Persians until he arrived at  p227 Cymê. 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.

4 While these events were taking place, the Lacedaemonians dispatched ambassadors to Nephereus,​4 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 Lacedaemonian 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. 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. 6 After this Conon gathered eighty triremes and sailed to the Chersonesus, and the Rhodians, having expelled the Peloponnesian fleet, revolted from the Lacedaemonians​5 and received Conon, together with his entire fleet, into their city. 7 Now the Lacedaemonians, 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. 8 There also came to Conon ninety triremes, ten of them from  p229 Cilicia and eighty from Phoenicia, under the command of the lord of the Sidonians.

80 1 After this Agesilaüs led forth his army into the Plain of Caÿster 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 Lacedaemonians and cut down any who became separate from the main body while plundering. Agesilaüs formed his soldiers in a square and clung to the foothills of Mt. Sipylus, awaiting a favourable opportunity to attack the enemy. 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. 3 Then Agesilaüs 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. 4 Pursuing them for some distance, Agesilaüs slew over six thousand of them,  p231 gathered a great multitude of prisoners, and pillaged their camp which was stored with goods of many sorts. 5 Tissaphernes, thunderstruck at the daring of the Lacedaemonians, withdrew from the battle to Sardis, and Agesilaüs 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.

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.​6 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. 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 Agesilaüs to enter into negotiations and concluded with him a truce of six months.

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 Lacedaemonians to join them against the Boeotians. At first they sent Lysander to them with a few  p233 soldiers, who, on entering Phocis, gathered an army; but later the king, Pausanias, was dispatched there with six thousand soldiers. 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 Lacedaemonians 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. 3 This was called the Boeotian War. Pausanias, the king of the Lacedaemonians, on learning of the defeat, concluded a truce​7 with the Boeotians and led his army back to the Peloponnesus.

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. 5 Here he met the King and promised that he would destroy the Lacedaemonians' naval power if the King would furnish him with such money and other supplies as his plan required. 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  p235 Pharnabazus and then returned to the sea, having arranged everything to suit his purpose.

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.​8 After these men had assumed their magistracies the Boeotians and Athenians, together with the Corinthians and the Argives, concluded an alliance with each other. 2 It was their thought that, since the Lacedaemonians 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 Lacedaemonians to withdraw from them; 3 for at once all of Euboea and the Leucadians joined them, as well as the Acarnanians, Ambraciots, and the Chalcidians of Thrace. 4 They also attempted to persuade the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus to revolt from the Lacedaemonians, 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.

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  p237 to him two thousand soldiers. 6 After the troops had arrived Medius seized Pharsalus, in which there was a garrison of Lacedaemonians, 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 Lacedaemonians whom they seized but allowed the other Peloponnesians to leave with their possessions. 7 They then summoned to the city the Trachinians whom the Lacedaemonians had banished from their homes,​9 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 Lacedaemonians 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. 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. 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. 10 After the pitched battle both sides dismissed their armies to  p239 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.

83 1 When the Lacedaemonians saw that the greatest cities of Greece were uniting against them, they voted to summon Agesilaüs 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. 2 The battle took place along the river Nemea,​10 lasting until nightfall, and parts of both armies had the advantage, but of the Lacedaemonians and their allies eleven hundred men fell, while of the Boeotians and their allies about twenty-eight hundred.

3 After Agesilaüs had conveyed his army across from Asia to Europe, at first he was opposed by certain Thracians​11 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. 4 When Agesilaüs had traversed Macedonia and Thessaly and made his way through the pass of Thermopylae, he continued. . . .12

Conon the Athenian and Pharnabazus were in  p241 command of the King's fleet​13 and were tarrying in Loryma of the Chersonesus​14 with more than ninety triremes. 5 When they learned that the enemy's naval forces were at Cnidus, they made preparations for battle. Peisander, the Lacedaemonian admiral, set out from Cnidus with eighty-five triremes and put in at Physcus 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​15 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 Lacedaemonians 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.

84 1 Agesilaüs 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 to 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 Agesilaüs and his troops to take to flight. 2 Therefore the Lacedaemonians,  p243 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 Lacedaemonians and their associates three hundred and fifty. Agesilaüs, who had suffered many wounds, was taken to Delphi, where he looked after his physical needs.16

3 After the sea-fight Pharnabazus and Conon put out to sea with all their ships against the allies of the Lacedaemonians. 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. 4 Something like the same eagerness for change infected all the cities, of which some expelled their Lacedaemonian garrisons and maintained their freedom, while others attached themselves to Conon. As for the Lacedaemonians, 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. 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  p245 alliance with them, left them money, and then sailed off to Asia.17

6 At this time Aëropus, 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. 7 Theopompus of Chios ended with this year and the battle of Cnidus his Hellenistic History, which he wrote in Thrasybulus books. This historian began with the battle of Cynossema,​18 with which Thucydides ended his work, and covered in his account a period of seventeen years.19

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.​20 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 walls of the Peiraeus and the long walls had been destroyed in accordance with the terms the Athenians had concluded with the Lacedaemonians when they were reduced in the Peloponnesian War. 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.  p247 4 But Tiribazus, who commanded the land forces in Asia, was envious of Conon's successes,​21 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.

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 adventure, they put to the sword one hundred and twenty of the citizens and drove five hundred into exile. 2 While the Lacedaemonians 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. 3 The exiles, together with the Lacedaemonians and their allies, attacked Lechaeum​22 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 Lacedaemonians were victorious and slew no small number of their opponents. 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 Lacedaemonians  p249 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. 5 And since the Isthmian Games were now at hand, there was a quarrel over who should conduct them. After much contention the Lacedaemonians had their way and saw to it that the exiles conducted festival. 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.

87​23 In Sicily the people of Rhegium, bringing the charge against Dionysius that in fortifying Messenê 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​24 to lay siege to Messenê. 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. 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. 4 Dionysius, now that the regions about the Straits had been brought to friendly terms with him, planned  p251 to lead an army against Rhegium, but he had trouble with the Siceli who held Tauromenium. 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.

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. 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. 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  p253 Dionysius himself was struck on the corslet in the flight, sent scrambling, and barely escaped being taken alive. 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. 5 After this disaster the Acragantini and Messenians banished the partisans of Dionysius, asserted their freedom, and renounced their alliance with the tyrant.

89 1 Pausanias, the king of the Lacedaemonians, 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. 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.

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  p255 territory of Messenê. After ravaging the countryside and seizing much booty he marched from that place and went into camp near the city of Abacaenê, 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.

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  p257 and to resist the neighbouring Leucani; for these last were also at war with them at this time.

2 The exiles who held Lechaeum in Corinthian territory, being admitted into the city​25 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 Lacedaemonian army was passing through Corinthian territory, when Iphicrates and some of the allies in Corinth fell on them and slew the larger number. 3 Iphicrates with his peltasts advanced against the territory of Phlius,​26 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.

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. 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.

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  p259 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. 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.

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.

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​27 by constructing an under­ground passage; the city they reduced to slavery, selling the inhabitants with the other booty. 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. 4 The ambassadors who were taking it fell in with pirates from the Lipari islands, were all taken prisoners, and brought to Lipara. But Timasitheüs, 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​28 of the Massalians and returned to Rome. 5 Consequently the Roman people, when they  p261 learned of this generous act of Timasitheüs, 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 Timasitheüs of the payment of taxes and gave them freedom.

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;​29 and this year the Ninety-seventh Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Terires was victor.​30 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. 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 Mitylenê. 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  p263 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.

95 1 The Carthaginians, after a slow recovery from the disaster they had suffered at Syracuse,​31 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. 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​32 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 an alliance with him, he refrained from marching farther, since he had news that the enemy had set out from Syracuse.

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. 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  p265 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 4 The conditions  p267 were like the former​33 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.

5 Such was the state of affairs in Sicily; and in Italy the Romans pillaged the city of Faliscus​a of the tribe of the Falisci.

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The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 The narrative is resumed from chapter 39.

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2 Obviously a staff of administrators for him to use in important posts in the conduct of the war, as is clear, e.g., from Xenophon, Hell. 3.4.20.

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3 Agesilaüs fancies himself a second Agamemnon, leading the Greeks in a new Trojan War, and would repeat Agamemnon's farewell sacrifices at Aulis. See Plutarch, Agesilaüs, 6.4‑6; Xenophon, Hell. 3.4.3; 5.5.

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4 Manetho calls him Nepherites.

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5 Pausanias (6.7.6) states that they were persuaded to do so by Conon.

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6 Cp. chaps. 19 ff.

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7 In order to recover the body of Lysander (Plutarch, Lysander, 29).

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8 Livy (5.14.5) adds M. Valerius and L. Furius.

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9 See chap. 38.4‑5.

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10 The river formed the boundary between Sicyonia and Corinthia (Strabo, 8.6.25).

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11 The Trallians (Plutarch, Agesilaüs, 16.1).

❦

12 The Greek is defective: "through Phocis," "at top speed," and other suggestions have been made.

❦

13 Cp. chap. 81.4 f.

❦

14 At the south-west tip of Asia Minor.

❦

15 The part of the fleet under the command of Pharnabazus (Xenophon, Hell. 4.3.11).

❦

16 A more adequate account of the battle of Coroneia is given in Xenophon, Hell. 4.3.15‑20; Plutarch, Agesilaüs, 18.

❦

17 These negotiations were in fact the work of Pharnabazus, who was in supreme command of the fleet (Xenophon, Hell. 4.8.6 ff.) and who alone could speak for the King of Persia.

❦

18 See Book 13.40.5 f. and note.

❦

19 410‑394 B.C.

❦

20 The names differ greatly from those of Livy, 5.16.1.

❦

21 He was aroused against Conon by the Lacedaemonians (Xenophon, Hell. 4.8.12 f.).

❦

22 The harbour of Corinth on the Corinthian Gulf, connected with Corinth by long walls.

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23 The narrative is resumed from chapter 78.

❦

24 Heloris had been exiled from Syracuse by Dionysius (chap. 103.5; cp. chap. 8.5).

❦

25 Corinth.

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26 Some ten miles south-west of Corinth.

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27 The fullest account of the capture of this city after a ten-year siege is in Livy, 5.19 ff.

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28 Delphi was filled with such small buildings erected by individual Greek cities to house their dedications to the oracle.

❦

29 This list is hopelessly defective. Livy (5.24.1) gives the names as Publius Cornelius Cossus, Publius Cornelius Scipio, Marcus Valerius Maximus, Caeso Fabius Ambustus, Lucius Furius Medullinus, and Quintus Servilius.

❦

30 In the "stadion."

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31 Cp. chap. 75.

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32 Agyrium was the birthplace of Diodorus.

❦

33 See Book 13.114.1.

---

Thayer's Note:

a Usually called Falerii; this looks like an understandable slip by Diodorus himself, a Greek-speaker: why wouldn't Faliscans come from Faliscus? just as a Frenchman today might call Indiana something odd since its inhabitants are Hoosiers.

For the famous siege of Falerii, see Livy V.26‑7, Dion. Hal. XIII.1‑2, Plut. Cam. 10, Polyaen. VIII.7.1, Dio Cass. frag. XXIV.2 and Zon. VII.22, Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 23.

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