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XV.20‑44

This webpage reproduces a portion of
The Library of History

of
Diodorus Siculus

published in Vol. VII
of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1952

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!

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XV.57‑76

(Vol. VI) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History

(Book XV, continued)

 p71  45 1 Throughout Greece now that its several states were in confusion because of unwonted forms of  p73 government, and many uprisings were occurring in the midst of the general anarchy, the Lacedaemonians gave assistance to such as were trying to establish oligarchies, while the Athenians supported those groups which clung to democracy. 2 For both these states did maintain the truce​1 for a short time, but then, acting in co‑operation with their affiliated cities renewed the war, no longer respecting the general peace that had been agreed upon. So it came about that in Zacynthos the popular party, being angry and resentful toward those who had held control of the government during the domination of the Lacedaemonians, drove them all into exile. . . .​2 These Zacynthians, having taken refuge with Timotheüs the Athenian in charge of the fleet, joined his naval force and fought with him. 3 Accordingly they made him their confederate, were transported by him to the island, and seized a stronghold by the sea which they called Arcadia.​3 With this as their base and having the support of Timotheüs they inflicted damage upon those in the city.​4 4 And when the Zacynthians asked the Lacedaemonians to help them, these latter at first sent envoys to Athens to denounce Timotheüs; but then, seeing that the Athenian people favoured the exiles,​5 they organized a fleet, and manning  p75 twenty-five triremes sent them to assist the Zacynthians, placing Aristocrates in command.6

46 1 While these things were going on, some partisans of the Lacedaemonians in Corcyra revolted against the democracy and called upon the Spartans to dispatch a fleet, promising to betray Corcyra to them. The Lacedaemonians, aware of the great importance that Corcyra had for the aspirants to sea power, made haste to possess themselves of this city.​7 2 So they immediately dispatched to Corcyra twenty-two triremes, having given the command to Alcidas. They pretended that this expedition was sent to Sicily, in order to be received as friends by the Corcyraeans and then with the assistance of the exiles to occupy the city. 3 But the Corcyraeans, discovering the design of the Spartans, kept careful guard over the city and sent envoys to Athens to get help. The Athenians voted help for the Corcyraeans and the Zacynthian exiles, sent to Zacynthos Ctesicles as general in command of the exiles, and prepared to dispatch a naval force to Corcyra.

4 While these things were going on, the Plataeans in Boeotia, clinging to the alliance with the Athenians, sent to them for soldiers, having decided to hand their city over to the Athenians. At this the Boeotarchs​8 became incensed with the Plataeans, and being eager to forestall the allied force from Athens, immediately brought a considerable army against  p77 the Plataeans.​9 5 They reached the neighbourhood of Plataeae when the attack was not expected, so that a large number of the Plataeans were arrested in the fields and carried off by the cavalry, while the rest, who had escaped to the city, being helpless without any allies, were forced to make a covenant agreeable to their enemies; they were obliged, namely, to depart from the city with their movable possessions and never again to set foot on Boeotian soil. 6 Thereupon the Thebans, having razed Plataeae completely, pillaged Thespiae​10 as well, which was at odds with them. The Plataeans with their wives and children, having fled to Athens, received equality of civic rights​11 as a mark of favour from the Athenian people.

Such was the state of affairs in Boeotia.

47 1 The Lacedaemonians appointed Mnasippus​12 general and ordered him to proceed to Corcyra with sixty-five triremes, his forces consisting of fifteen hundred soldiers. Touching at the island, he picked up the exiles, then sailed into the harbour and captured four ships, the three remaining ships having fled to the shore, where they were burned by the Corcyraeans to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. He also defeated with his infantry  p79 a contingent on land which had seized a certain hill, and generally terrorized the Corcyraeans. 2 The Athenians had some time previously dispatched Timotheüs, Conon's son, with sixty ships to aid Corcyra. He, however, before intervening in their favour, had sailed to the region of Thrace. Here he summoned many cities to join the alliance, and added thirty triremes to his fleet. 3 At this point, because he was too late to assist Corcyra, he was at first deprived of his command as a result of his loss of popularity. Later, however, when he sailed along the Attic coast to Athens, bringing with him a great number of envoys from states which were ready to conclude an alliance with Athens, having added thirty triremes to his fleet and put the whole fleet in good trim for the war, the people repented and reinstated​13 him in his command. 4 They furthermore equipped forty additional triremes, so that altogether he had one hundred thirty; they also provided liberal stores of food, engines of war, and other supplies needed for war. To meet the immediate emergency, they chose Ctesicles​14 general and sent him with five hundred soldiers to aid the Corcyraeans. 5 He arrived there secretly by night and sailed into Corcyra undetected by the besiegers. Finding the inhabitants of the city at strife with one another and handling military matters badly, he composed the dissensions, devoted much attention to the city's business, and heartened  p81 the besieged. 6 At first in an unexpected attack on the besiegers he slew about two hundred, and later in a great battle slew Mnasippus and not a few others. Finally he encircled and laid siege to the besiegers and won great approval.​15 7 The war to possess Corcyra was practically at an end when the Athenian fleet sailed in with the generals Timotheüs​16 and Iphicrates. These, having arrived too late for the critical moment, accomplished nothing worth mentioning except that, falling in with some Sicilian triremes​17 which Dionysius had dispatched under the command of Cissides and Crinippus to assist his allies the Lacedaemonians, they captured them with their crews, nine ships in all. By selling the captives as booty they collected more than sixty talents, with which they paid their forces.18

8 While these things were going on, in Cyprus Nicocles the eunuch​19 assassinated the king Evagoras and possessed himself of the royal power over the Salaminians; and Italy the Romans, arrayed in battle against the Praenestini,​20 defeated them and slew almost all their opponents.

48 1 When Asteius was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six military tribunes with consular power, Marcus Furius, Lucius Furius, Aulus Postumius, Lucius Lucretius, Marcus Fabius, and Lucius  p83 Postumius. During their term of office great earthquakes occurred in the Peloponnese accompanied by tidal waves which engulfed the open country and cities in a manner past belief; for never in the earlier periods had such disasters befallen Greek cities, nor had entire cities along with their inhabitants disappeared as a result of some divine force wreaking destruction and ruin upon mankind. 2 The extent of the destruction was increased by the time of its occurrence; for the earthquake did not come in the daytime when it would have been possible for the sufferers to help themselves, but the blow came at night, so that when the houses crashed and crumbled under the force of the shock, the population, owing to the darkness and to the surprise and bewilderment occasioned by the event, had no power to struggle for life. 3 The majority were caught in the falling houses and annihilated, but as day returned some survivors dashed from the ruins and, when they thought they had escaped the danger, met with a greater and still more incredible danger. For the sea rose to a vast height, and a wave towering even higher washed away and drowned all the inhabitants and their native lands as well. Two cities in Achaïa bore the brunt of this disaster, Helicê and Bura,​21 the former of which had, as it happened, before the earthquake held first place among the cities of Achaïa. 4 These disasters have been the subject of much discussion. Natural scientists make it their endeavour to attribute responsibility in such cases not to divine providence, but  p85 to certain natural circumstances determined by necessary causes, whereas those who are disposed to venerate the divine power assign certain plausible reasons for the occurrence, alleging that the disaster was occasioned by the anger of the gods at those who had committed sacrilege. This question I too shall endeavour to deal with in detail in a special chapter of my history.22

49 1 In Ionia nine cities​23 were in the habit of holding sacrifices of great antiquity on a large scale to Poseidon in a lonely region near the place called Mycalê. Later, however, as a result of the outbreak of wars in this neighbourhood, since they were unable to hold the Panionia there, they shifted the festival gathering to a safe place near Ephesus. Having sent an embassy to Delphi, they received an oracle telling them to take copies of the ancient ancestral altars at Helicê, which was situated in what was then known as Ionia,​24 but is now known as Achaïa. 2 So the Ionians in obedience to the oracle sent men to Achaïa to make the copies, and they spoke before the council of the Achaeans and persuaded them to give them what they asked. The inhabitants of Helicê, however, who had an ancient saying that they would suffer danger when Ionians should sacrifice at the altar of Poseidon, taking account of the oracle, opposed the Ionians in the matter of the copies, saying that the sanctuary was  p87 not the common property of the Achaeans, but their own particular possession. The inhabitants of Bura also took part with them in this. 3 But since the Achaeans by common decree had concurred, the Ionians sacrificed at the altar of Poseidon as the oracle directed, but the people of Helicê scattered the sacred possessions of the Ionians and seized the persons of their representatives,​25 thus committing sacrilege. It was because of these acts, they say, that Poseidon in his anger brought ruin upon the offending cities through the earthquake and the flood. 4 That it was Poseidon's wrath that was wreaked upon these cities they allege that clear proofs are at hand: first, it is distinctly conceived that authority over earthquakes and floods belongs to this god,​26 and also it is the ancient belief that the Peloponnese was an habitation of Poseidon; and this country is regarded as sacred in a way to Poseidon, and, speaking generally, all the cities in the Peloponnese pay honour to this god more than to any other of the immortals. 5 Furthermore, the Peloponnese has beneath its surface huge caverns and get under­ground accumulations of flowing water. Indeed the two rivers in it which clearly have under­ground courses; one of them, in fact, near Pheneüs, plunges into the ground, and in former times completely disappeared, swallowed up by under­ground caves, and the other, near Stymphalus,27  p89 plunges into a chasm and flows for two hundred stades concealed under­ground, then pours forth by the city of the Argives. 6 In addition to these statements the pious say further that except for those who committed the sacrilege no one perished in the disaster.​28 Concerning the earthquakes and floods which occurred we shall rest content with what has been said.

50 1 When Alcisthenes was archon at Athens, the Romans elected eight military tribunes with consular power, Lucius and Publius Valerius, Gaius Terentius, Lucius Menenius, Gaius Sulpicius, Titus Papirius, and Lucius Aemilius, and the Eleians celebrated the hundred second Olympiad in which Damon of Thurii won the stadium race. 2 During their term of office, after the Lacedaemonians had held the supremacy in Greece for almost five hundred years, a divine portent foretold the loss of their empire; for there was seen in the heavens during the course of many nights a great blazing torch which was named from its shape a "flaming beam,"​29 and a little later, to the surprise of all, the Spartans were defeated in a great battle  p91 and irretrievably lost their supremacy. 3 Some of the students of nature ascribed the origin of the torch to natural causes, voicing the opinion that such apparitions occur of necessity at appointed times, and that in these matters the Chaldaeans in Babylon and the other astrologers succeeded in making accurate prophecies. These men, they say, are not surprised when such a phenomenon occurs, but rather if it does not, since each particular constellation has its own peculiar cycle and they complete these cycles through age-long movements in appointed courses. At any rate this torch had such brilliancy, they report, and its light such strength that it cast shadows on the rather similar to those cast by the moon.

4 At this time Artaxerxes the Persian King, seeing that the Greek world was again in a turmoil, sent ambassadors,​30 calling upon the Greeks to settle their internecine wars and establish a common peace in accordance with the covenants​31 they had formerly made. All the Greeks gladly received this proposal, and all the cities agreed to a general peace except Thebes;​32 for the Thebans alone, being engaged in bringing Boeotia under a single confederacy,​33 were not admitted by the Greeks because of the general determination  p93 to have the oaths and treaties made city by city.​34 So, remaining outside of the treaties as formerly, the Thebans continued to hold Boeotia in a single confederacy subject to themselves. 5 The Lacedaemonians, being exasperated by this, decided to lead a large army against them as common enemies, for they cast an extremely jealous eye upon their increase of power, fearing lest with the leader­ship of all Boeotia they might break up the Spartan supremacy, given a suitable opportunity. For they constantly practised gymnastics and had great bodily strength, and since they were naturally lovers of war, they were inferior to no Greek nation in deeds of valour. 6 They had besides leaders conspicuous for their virtues, greatest among them being three men, Epameinondas, Gorgidas, and Pelopidas.​35 The city of the Thebans was full of pride because of the glory of its ancestors in the heroic age and aspired to mighty deeds. In this year, then, the Lacedaemonians were making ready for war, levying armies both of their own citizens and from their allies as well.

51 1 When Phrasicleides was archon at Athens, the Romans elected eight military tribunes with consular power, Publius Manius, Gaius Erenucius, Gaius Sextus, Tiberius Julius, Lucius Lavinius, Publius Tribonius, and Gaius Manlius, and besides Lucius Anthestius.​36 During their term of office the Thebans, since they were not participants in the truce, were  p95 forced to undertake alone the war with the Lacedaemonians; for there was no city that could legally join them, because all had agreed to the general peace. 2 The Lacedaemonians, since the Thebans were isolated, determined to fight them and reduce Thebes to complete slavery. And since the Lacedaemonians were making their preparations without concealment and the Thebans were destitute of allies, everyone assumed that they would be easily defeated by the Spartans. 3 Accordingly some of the Greeks who were friendly to the Thebans sympathized with them at the prospect of defeat, while others who were at odds with them were overjoyed at the thought that Thebes would in a trice be reduced to utter slavery. Finally the Lacedaemonians, their huge army ready, gave command of it to Cleombrotus their king,​37 and first of all sent envoys ahead to Thebes, directing the Thebans to permit all of the Boeotian cities to be independent, to people Plataea and Thespiae,​38 and to restore the land to its former owners. 4 When the Thebans replied that they never meddled with affairs in Laconia and the Spartans had no right to touch those of Boeotia, such being the tenor of their answers, the Lacedaemonians sent Cleombrotus forth immediately with his army against Thebes; and the Spartan allies were eager for the war, confident that there would be no contest or  p97 battle but that they would master the Boeotians without a struggle.

52 1 The Spartans accordingly advanced till they came to Coroneia, where they encamped and waited for such of their allies as were tardy. The Thebans, in view of the presence of the enemy, first voted to remove their wives and children to safety in Athens, then chose Epameinondas general and turned over to him the command in the war, giving him as his advisers six boeotarchs. 2 Epameinondas, having conscripted for the battle all Thebans of military age and the other Boeotians who were willing and qualified, led forth from Thebes his army, numbering in all not more than six thousand. 3 As the soldiers were marching out from the city it seemed to many that unfavourable omens appeared to the armament. For by the gates Epameinondas was met by a blind herald, who, seeking recovery of runaway slaves, just as was usual,​39 cried his warning not to take them from Thebes nor to spirit them away, but to bring them home and keep them secure. 4 Now the older people amongst those who heard the herald considered it an omen for the future; but the younger folk kept quiet so as not to appear through cowardice to hold Epameinondas back from the expedition. But  p99 Epameinondas replied to those who told him that he must observe the omens:

One only omen is best, to fight for the land that is ours."​40

5 Though Epameinondas astounded the cautious by his forthright answer, a second omen appeared more unfavourable than the previous one. For as the clerk advanced with a spear and a ribbon attached to it and signalled the orders from headquarters, a breeze came up and, as it happened, the ribbon was torn from the spear and wrapped itself around a slab that stood over a grave, and there were buried in this spot some Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians who had died in the expedition under Agesilaüs. 6 Some of the older folk who again chanced to be there protested earnestly against leading the force out in the face of the patent opposition of the gods; but Epameinondas, deigning them no reply, led forth his army, thinking that considerations of nobility and regard for justice should be preferred as motives to the omens in question. 7 Epameinondas accordingly, who was trained in philosophy and applied sensibly the principles of his training, was at the moment widely criticized, but later in the light of his successes would be considered to have excelled in military shrewdness and did contribute the greatest benefits to his country. For he immediately led forth his army, seized in advance the pass at Coroneia, and encamped there.

 p101  53 1 Cleombrotus, learning that the enemy had seized the pass first, decided against forcing a passage there, proceeded instead through Phocis, and, when he had traversed the shore road which was difficult, entered Boeotia without danger. In his passage he took some of the fortresses and seized ten triremes.​41 2 Later, when he reached the place called Leuctra, he encamped there and allowed the soldiers to recover after their march. As the Boeotians neared the enemy in their advance, and then, after surmounting some ridges, suddenly caught sight of the Lacedaemonians covering the entire plain of Leuctra, they were astounded at beholding the great size of the army. 3 And when the boeotarchs held a conference​42 to decide whether they ought to remain and fight it out with an army that many times outnumbered them, or whether they should retreat and join battle in a commanding position, it chanced that the votes of the leaders were equal. For of the six boeotarchs, three thought that they should withdraw the army, and three that they should stay and fight it out, and among the latter Epameinondas was numbered. In this great and perplexing deadlock, the boeotarch came to vote, whom Epameinondas persuaded to vote with him, and thus he carried the day. So the decision to stake all on the issue of battle was thus ratified. 4 But Epameinondas, who saw that the soldiers were superstitious on account of the omens that had occurred, earnestly desired through his own ingenuity and strategy to reverse the scruples of the  p103 soldiery. Accordingly, a number of men having recently arrived from Thebes, he persuaded them to say that the arms on the temple of Heracles had surprisingly disappeared and that word had gone abroad in Thebes that the heroes of old had taken them up and set off to help the Boeotians. He placed before them another man as one who had recently ascended from the cave of Trophonius,​43 who said that the god had directed them, when they won at Leuctra, to institute a contest with crowns for prizes in honour of Zeus the king. This indeed is the origin of this festival which the Boeotians now celebrate at Lebadeia.

54 1 An aider and abettor of this device was Leandrias​44 the Spartan, who had been exiled from Lacedaemonian and was then a member of the Theban expedition. He was produced in the assembly and declared that there was an ancient saying amongst the Spartans, that they would lose the supremacy when they should be defeated at Leuctra at the hands of the Thebans. 2 Certain local oracle-mongers likewise came up to Epameinondas, saying that the Lacedaemonians were destined to meet with a great disaster by the tomb of the daughters of Leuctrus and Scedasus for the following reasons. 3 Leuctrus was the person for whom this plain was named. His daughters and those of a certain Scedasus as well, being maidens, were violated by some Lacedaemonian ambassadors. The outraged girls, unable to endure their misfortune, called down curses on the country that had sent forth  p105 their ravishers and took their lives by their own hands.​45 4 Many other such occurrences were reported, and when Epameinondas had convened an assembly and exhorted the soldiers by the appropriate pleas to meet the issue, they all shifted their resolutions, rid themselves of their superstition, and with courage in their hearts stood ready for the battle. 5 There came also at this time to aid the Thebans an allied contingent from Thessaly, fifteen hundred infantry, and five hundred horsemen, commanded by Jason.​46 He persuaded both the Boeotians and the Lacedaemonians to make an armistice and so to guard against the caprices of Fortune. 6 When the truce came into effect, Cleombrotus set out with his army from Boeotia, and there came to meet him another large army of Lacedaemonians and their allies under the command of Archidamus,​47 son of Agesilaüs. For the Spartans, seeing the preparedness of the Boeotians, and taking measures to meet their boldness and recklessness in battle, had dispatched the second army to overcome by the superior number of their combatants the daring of the enemy. 7 Once these armies had united, the Lacedaemonians thought it cowardly to fear the valour of the Boeotians. So they disregarded the truce and with high spirits returned to Leuctra. The Boeotians too were ready for the battle and both sides marshalled their forces.

55 1 Now on the Lacedaemonian side the descendants  p107 of Heracles were stationed as commanders of the wings, namely Cleombrotus the king and Archidamus,​48 son of the King Agesilaüs, while on the Boeotian side Epameinondas, by employing an unusual disposition of his own, was enabled through his own strategy to achieve his famous victory. 2 He selected from the entire army the bravest men and stationed them on one wing, intending to give to the finish with them himself. The weakest he placed on the other wing and instructed them to avoid battle and withdraw gradually during the enemy's attack. So then, by arranging his phalanx in oblique formation, he planned to decide the issue of the battle by means of the wing in which were the élite. 3 When the trumpets on both sides sounded the charge and the armies simultaneously with the first onset raised the battle-cry, the Lacedaemonians attacked both wings with their phalanx in crescent formation, while the Boeotians retreated on one wing, but on the other engaged the enemy in double-quick time. 4 As they met in hand-to‑hand combat, at first both fought ardently and the battle was evenly poised; shortly, however, as Epameinondas' men began to derive advantage from their valour and the denseness of their lines, many Peloponnesians began to fall. For they were unable to endure the weight of the courageous fighting of the élite corps; of those who had resisted some fell and others were wounded, taking all the blows in front. 5 Now as long  p109 as King Cleombrotus of the Lacedaemonians was alive and had with him many comrades-in‑arms who were quite ready to die in his defence, it was uncertain which way the scales of victory inclined; but when, though he shrank from no danger, he proved unable to bear down his opponents, and perished in an heroic resistance after sustaining many wounds, then, as masses of men thronged about his body, there was piled up a great mound of corpses.

56 1 There being no one in command of the wing, the heavy column led by Epameinondas bore down upon the Lacedaemonians, and at first by sheer force caused the line of the enemy to buckle somewhat; then, however, the Lacedaemonians, fighting gallantly about their king, got possession of his body, but were not strong enough to achieve victory. 2 For as the corps of élite outdid them in feats of courage, and the valour and exhortations of Epameinondas contributed greatly to its prowess, the Lacedaemonians were with great difficulty forced back; at first, as they gave ground they would not break their formation, but finally, as many fell and the commander who would have rallied them had died, the army turned and fled in utter rout. 3 Epameinondas' corps pursued the fugitives,​49 slew many who opposed them, and won for themselves a most glorious victory. For since they had met the bravest of the Greeks and with a small force had miraculously overcome many times their  p111 number, they won a great reputation for valour. The highest praises were accorded the general Epameinondas, who chiefly by his own courage and by his shrewdness as a commander had defeated in battle the invincible leaders of Greece. 4 More than four thousand​50 Lacedaemonians fell in the battle but only about three hundred Boeotians. Following the battle they made a truce to allow for taking up the bodies of the dead and the departure of the Lacedaemonians to the Peloponnese.

Such was the outcome of events relating to the battle of Leuctra.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 See chap. 38.1.

2 The sense seems to be: "Restored by the Lacedaemonians, these exiles banished their enemies in their turn."

3 Arcadia may have been the name of the fortress and Nellus, IG2, 43.133‑134, the name of the mountain on which it was constructed (see Dittenberger3, 1.147, note 48).

4 See account in Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.2‑3. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte2, 3.1.156, places the attack after the formation of the peace in the late autumn of 375. Cary, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.77, gives 374.

5 They even went so far as to make the Zacynthian democrats members of the league (Cambridge Ancient History, ibid.). See inscription list, IG243.131 ff., where the Zacynthians appear as the last addition to the list. Dittenberger3, 1.147, note 42, gives the date 374.

6 He must have been Spartan nauarch for 375/4 according to Beloch, Griechische Geschichte2, 2.2.281.

7 As to the Lacedaemonian aggression see Cary, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.77 and Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.4. Note the intervention of Dionysius in chap. 47.7.

8 Annual officials, eleven in number, of the Boeotian League. For reduction to seven see note on p91.

9 See also Xenophon, Hell. 6.31 and 5; Isocrates, Plataïcus; Pausanias, 9.1.8, sets the fall of Plataeae in 373/2 when Asteius was archon.

10 See chap. 51.3 and Xenophon, Hell. 6.3.1. Pausanias, 9.14, seems to place the destruction of Thespiae after the battle of Leuctra.

11 A privilege rarely accorded by the Athenians in these days. The democrats of Samos had been accorded this privilege near the close of the Peloponnesian War. The Plataeans had been granted citizen­ship in the same war and Meyer (Geschichte des Altertums, 5.399) contends that this still held. This grant of ἰσοπολιτεία seems not to have been of the Hellenistic type (W. S. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, 31), by which the citizen of one state enjoyed certain privileges (cp. civitas sine suffragio) in another state during residence there.

12 Late summer 373 (Beloch, Griechische Geschichte2, 3.1.158). See Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.3‑15.

13 Timotheüs was not reinstated though he was acquitted in this cause célèbre. See Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.13; Nepos, Timotheüs, 4; Demosthenes, 49.9 f., 22.

14 See chap. 46.3 and Xenophon, op. cit. 2.10.

15 See Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.16‑26. The year is 372.

16 Timotheüs is wrongly included. See Cambridge Ancient History, 6.77.

17 Perhaps the occasion mentioned in Book 16.57.3. Dionysius also sent presents for Delphi (cp. IG, 22.103.9) which was burned (Dittenberger3, 295) in 373.

18 See also Xenophon, Hell. 6.2.27‑39 and Polyaenus, 3.9.55.

19 Theopompus (fr. 111) says that Evagoras and his son Pnytagoras were murdered by a eunuch Thrasydaeus. Nicocles, the son and successor of Evagoras, probably had no hand in the murder. See also Aristotle, Politics, 5.1311B; Isocrates, Ad Nicoclem (II), Nicocles (III), and Evagoras, 72. Diodorus has abbreviated his source overmuch and made Nicocles the eunuch.

20 See Livy, 6.27.9 ff.

21 See Strabo, 1.3.18: "Then there are Bura and Helicê; Bura disappeared in a chasm of the earth, and Helicê was wiped out by a wave from the sea" (H. L. Jones, L. C. L.). These cities are in Achaïa, Helicê east of Aegium on the Corinthian Gulf and Bura inland. It is strange that no mention occurs of Delphi if the same earthquake caused the fire of 373 (Mar. Par. 71; Dittenberger3, 295; Hommolle, Bull. Corr. Hell. 20 (1896), 677 ff.).

22 See on this subject Book 16.61‑64.

23 Herodotus (1.145) has twelve Ionian cities and makes the connection between Achaïa and Ionia. Helicê and Bura are specially mentioned there as two places of refuge of the Ionians from the Achaeans. Cp. Strabo, 14.1.20 for the festival celebrated near Mycalê.

24 See chap. 48.3 for earthquake and tidal wave. On the connection of Helicê and Bura with the Ionians see Strabo, 8.7.2 and 4: "after Bura, Helicê, whither the Ionians fled for refuge after they were conquered in battle by the Achaeans, and whence at last they were expelled" (L. C. L. l.c.).

25 See particularly Pausanias, 7.24.3‑7. Frazer (4.165) gives other references for this story. (For Bura, ibid. 168.)

26 When the generation to which Zeus belonged overthrew the older gods the universe was apportioned to Zeus, sky and dry land, to Poseidon, the water, to Dis, the underworld. With his trident Poseidon controlled the waters and by smiting the earth with it produced earthquakes ("Poseidon the earth-shaker").

27 The first is the river Ladon, a tributary of the Alpheüs, flowing past Pheneüs, and the second is the Stymphalus. In Frazer's Pausanias (8.20, 22) on pp262 and 268 (vol. 4) are found descriptions of these rivers. See also Strabo, 8.8.4. Both towns were in Arcadia, the first being represented by Virgil (Aeneid, 8.165) as the home of Evander.

28 One might ask about the guilt of the crews of the ten Spartan ships which chanced to be anchored off Helicê and were destroyed by the tidal wave (cp. Aelian, De Nat. animal. 11.19 and Wesseling's note on this passage of Diodorus). For the fate of similar arguments see Voltaire, Candide 5.

29 Seneca, Q. N. 7.5: "talem effigiem ignis longi fuisse Callisthenes tradit, antequam Burin et Helicen mare absconderet. Aristoteles ait non trabem illam sed cometen fuisse." (Translation by John Clarke: "Callisthenes puts it on record that a similar appearance of a trail of fire was observed before the sea swallowed up Buris and Helice. Aristotle says it was not a 'beam,' but a comet." On the basis of this passage of Diodorus and the passage of Seneca it would seem that ὁδός in Aristotle, Meteor. 1.6, 343 B23 (διὸ καὶ ἐκλήθη ὁδός, ed. by F. H. Fobes) should read δοκός (see Wesseling's note). Aristotle dates the occurrence in 373/2 (ibid. B 19).

30 For the participation of the King see Dionysius Hal. De Lysia Iudicium, 12; Xenophon, Hell. 6.3.12, 5.1 f.

31 See chap. 38, which in many details is an anticipation of this chapter.

32 See Xenophon, op. cit. 6.3.1‑19 and for date Plutarch, Agesilaüs, 28.

33 The Boeotian League such as it had been before the Peace of Antalcidas (For its constitution see Oxyr. Pap. 842 [vol. V], xi.38‑xii.31) was set up anew, only much more strongly centralized and on a democratic basis. The executive was the college of boeotarchs no longer representative of separate states but elected from all Boeotian citizens and reduced in number from eleven to seven (chap. 52). The deciding power lay with the assembly of the Boeotian folk which met at Thebes but in which every citizen of a Boeotian state had a voice (cp. Book 16.25.1). Unlike Attica, each city had autonomy and the League army was composed of contingents from the separate states.

34 See Xenophon, op. cit. 6.3.19‑20; Plutarch, Agesilaüs, 28; Nepos, Epameinondas, 6.4; Pausanias, 9.13.2.

35 See chap. 39.

36 Gaius Erenucius is otherwise unknown. Livy (6.30.2) names six tribunes: Publius and Gaius Manlius, Lucius Julius, Gaius Sextilius, Marcus Albinius, and Lucius Antistius.

37 Cleombrotus was already in Phocis (Cary, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.0). He was sent there in 375/4 (Xenophon, Hell. 6.1.1, 2.1, 4.2). Beloch (32.2.236‑237) thinks he was sent out afresh in 371.

38 See chap. 46.6.

39 The Thebans had recently been slaves to Sparta, so the proclamation portended their destruction if they were led forth from the city. This translation is based on the assumption that the crier was reporting names and descriptions of slaves who had run away and whom the owners sought to recover, coupled with the warning not to export or conceal them but to arrest them and keep them safe for the owner.

40 Homer, Iliad, 12.243.

41 See Xenophon, Hell. 6.4.3‑4.

42 See Plutarch, Pelopidas, 20.

43 Near Lebadeia. Trophonius designates an underworld Boeotian Zeus (Chthonius) who gave oracles from this cave. For these stories see Polyaenus, 2.3.8.

44 Not known elsewhere; perhaps an error for Cleandridas (son of Gylippus?); see P.‑W. Realencyclopädies.vv.

45 A slightly different version of this story occurs in Plutarch, Pelopidas, 20.3‑4. Pausanias, 9.13.5‑6, is closer to Diodorus.

46 According to Xenophon, Hell. 6.4.20‑26, Jason came after the battle of Leuctra, and there is no mention of an armistice.

47 Archidamus likewise in Xenophon, ibid. 18, was dispatched after and not before the battle.

48 See note on chap. 54.6. It has been suggested that Xenophon, who fails to mention Epameinondas at Leuctra and represents Archidamus as being sent out after the battle, was attempting to belittle the part of Epameinondas as victor and to spare his best friend Agesilaüs, the father of Archidamus, the disgrace of his son's defeat. There is no evidence for this view.

49 In the account of the battle, Diodorus fails to give any hint of cavalry action (see Xenophon, l.c. 10‑13) which was co‑ordinated with the rapid advance of the Theban corpsd'élite. This co‑ordination (see Cary, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.82), more perhaps than the denseness of the corps and the échelon formation of the Thebans, was a new factor in the fighting later developed by Macedon.

50 Diodorus probably is exaggerating. Xenophon (Hell. 6.4.15) says "almost a thousand."


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