LacusCurtius • Diodorus Siculus

1 1 It is traditional with the people of Epirus not only to fight for their own country but also to face danger in defence of their friends and allies.

2 Decius, the Roman tribune, appointed to guard Rhegium because of King Pyrrhus, slaughtered the men of the city and appropriated their wives and property. These soldiers were Campanians, and acted just as the Mamertines did, after they slaughtered the men of Messana. Then because his distribution of the property of the victims was unjust, Decius was driven out of Rhegium and was sent into exile by his own Campanians. The Mamertines also gave assistance . . . with the money that was plundered, and made him general. On a certain occasion, being afflicted with a disease of the eye, he summoned the leading physician; and he, to avenge the outrage to his fatherland, anointed Decius' eye with a salve made from a blister-beetle, thus deprived him of his sight, and then fled from Messana.1

p47 3 A garrison was sent to Rhegium by the Romans. Decius the tribune, a Campanian by race and a man of unusual greed and daring, imitated the lawless conduct of the Mamertines. For although the Mamertines had been received as friends by the people of Messana, they seized control of the city, slaughtered the men, each at his own hearth, married the wives of their own hosts, and possessed themselves of the property of their victims. So Decius and his Campanians, though they had been sent by Rome to guard the inhabitants of Rhegium, emulated the savagery of the Mamertines; for they slaughtered the citizens, divided up their property, and occupied the city as a prize of war. Decius, who had been appointed commander of the garrison, converted into money the property of the hapless populace, and because he made an unfair distribution of the spoils, was driven out of Rhegium and sent into exile by the Campanians, his partners in guilt. The transgressors did not, however, escape punishment, but Decius, when he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, called in the best of the physicians, who, taking revenge for his country, anointed him amply with blister-beetle salve, and having robbed Decius of his sight fled from Messana.

2 1 Throughout Sicily there were tyrants, Hicetas in Syracuse, Phintias in Acragas, Tyndarion in Tauromenium, and others in the lesser cities. A war arose between Phintias and Hicetas, and when they met in battle near the Hyblaeus,2 Hicetas was victorious; p49 in their raids against one another, they pillaged the estates and made the district a wasteland. Hicetas was so elated by his victory that he joined battle with the Carthaginians, but was defeated and lost many men near the river Terias. 2 Phintias founded a city, which he named Phintias, settling in it the inhabitants of Gela, who were driven from their homes. This city, Phintias, is by the sea. He tore down the walls and houses of Gela, and transferred its people to Phintias, where he had built a wall, a notable market-place, and temples of the gods.

3 Hence, since he had shown himself a bloodthirsty murderer, all the cities subject to him came to loathe him and drove out their garrisons, the first to revolt being the people of Agyrium.3

4 Since Phintias ruled the cities by main force and put to death many of the wealthy men, his lawlessness won him the hatred of his subjects; consequently, since all were at the point of revolt, he was soon humbled, changed his ways, and by a more humane rule held his subjects under control.

3 1 Ptolemy,4 the king of the Macedonians, being quite young and inexperienced in the business of war, and being by nature rash and impetuous, exercised no prudence or foresight. For instance, when his friends advised him to wait for the troops which were tardy in arriving, he paid no attention.

p51 2 King Ptolemy was slain and the whole Macedonian army was cut to pieces and destroyed by the Gauls.

4 1 During this period the Gauls attacked Macedonia and harried it, since there were many claimants to the kingship, who possessed themselves of it briefly and were driven out. One of these was Meleager, a brother of Ptolemy, son of Lagus,5 who ruled for only a few days and was then expelled. Similarly, Antipater6 ruled for forty-five days. After them came Sosthenes,7 then Ptolemy,8 as well as Alexander,9 and Pyrrhus of Epirus. All together they ruled for three years, according to Diodorus.

5 1 Apollodorus,10 who aimed at a tyranny, and thought to render the conspiracy secure, invited a young lad, one of his friends, to a sacrifice, slew him as an offering to the gods, gave the conspirators his vitals to eat, and when he had mixed the blood with wine, bade them drink it.

2 This same Apollodorus, having recruited some Gauls, furnished them too with arms, and, when he had conferred gifts upon them, found them loyal guardsmen and convenient tools, because of their cruelty, to execute his punishments. By confiscating the property of the well-to‑do he amassed great p53 wealth. Then, by an increase in the pay of his soldiers, and by sharing his riches with the poor, he made himself master of a formidable force. But turning then to cruelty and greed he began to exact money from the citizens at large, and by inflicting the penalty of torture upon many men and more than a few women he forced everyone to hand over gold and silver. His guide and tutor in tyranny was Calliphon the Sicel, who had lived at the court of many of the Sicilian tyrants.

6 1 A "Cadmean victory" is a proverbial expression. It signifies that the victors suffer misfortune, while the defeated are not endangered because of the magnitude of their dominion.11

2 King Pyrrhus had lost many of the Epirotes who had crossed over12 with him, and when one of his friends asked how he had fared in the battle, he replied: "If I win a victory in one more battle with the Romans, I shall not have left a single soldier of those who crossed over with me." In very truth, all his victories were, as the proverb has it, Cadmean; for the enemy, though defeated, were in no way humbled, since their dominion was so great, whereas the victor had suffered the damage and disaster that commonly go with defeat.

3 Cineas, whom Pyrrhus sent as ambassador to treat for terms with the Romans, was a persuasive diplomat, p55 and, in addition, offered valuable presents to the appropriate persons. They did not accept these presents, but all gave him the selfsame answer, that since he was at this time an enemy, such a gift was quite unfitting; if, however, he should bring about a peace and become a friend of the Roman people, they would gladly accept his gift, which would then be above reproach.13

7 1 Phintias, the founder of the city of Phintias and tyrant of Acragas, had a dream that revealed the manner of his death: he was hunting a wild boar, when the swine rushed at him, struck his side with its tusks, pierced him through, and killed him.14

2 Hicetas had ruled Syracuse for nine years when he was thrust from power by Thoenon, the son of Mameus.

3 When Thoenon and Sostratus15 had succeeded Hicetas, they once again invited King Pyrrhus to come to Sicily.

4 The Mamertines, who had treacherously murdered the men of Messana, having made an alliance with the Carthaginians, decided to join them in trying to prevent Pyrrhus from crossing over into Sicily. But p57 Tyndarion, the tyrant of Tauromenia, inclined in favour of Pyrrhus and was ready to receive his forces into the city.

5 The Carthaginians, having made an alliance with the Romans, took five hundred men16 on board their own ships and sailed across to Rhegium; they made assaults, and though they desisted from the siege, set fire to the timber that had been brought together for ship-building, and they continued to guard the Strait, watching against any attempt by Pyrrhus to cross.

6 Thoenon controlled the Island,17 while Sostratus ruled Syracuse. They had ten thousand soldiers, and carried on war with each other. But both, becoming exhausted in the war, sent ambassadors to Pyrrhus.

8 1 Pyrrhus waged war in Italy for two years and four months. While he was making ready to set sail, the Carthaginians were besieging Syracuse both by land and by sea; they blockaded the Great Harbour with a hundred ships, and on land they carried on operations close to the walls with fifty thousand men. Thus they held the Syracusans pent up while they overran their territory and laid it waste. 2 Consequently the Syracusans, being exhausted by the war, pinned their hopes on Pyrrhus because of his wife Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, who had borne Pyrrhus a son, Alexander; therefore they daily dispatched p59 envoys to him, one group after the other. He embarked his men, his elephants, and his other equipment of war aboard his ships, set sail from Tarentum, and put in at Locri on the tenth day. 3 Thence after adding Tyndarion, the dynast of Tauromenia, to his alliance and after obtaining soldiers from him, he sailed to Catana. There, having been welcomed by the inhabitants with great state and crowned with golden crowns, he disembarked his infantry. As they made their way to Syracuse, the fleet accompanied them in battle array. When they approached Syracuse, the Carthaginians, who had sent away thirty ships on some necessary missions, did not venture to do battle with the ships that remained. 4 Thus Pyrrhus sailed unchallenged into Syracuse, and accepted delivery of the Island from Thoenon, and of the rest of the city from the citizens and Sosistratus. This Sosistratus had made himself master of Acragas and of many other cities, and had an army of more than ten thousand men. Pyrrhus effected a reconciliation between Thoenon and Sosistratus and the Syracusans and restored harmony, thinking to gain great popularity by virtue of the peace. 5 The king took over the missiles, engines of war and such equipment as was in the city; the ships that he took over in Syracuse were: one hundred and twenty decked vessels, p61 twenty without decks, and the royal "niner":18 the total, including the ships he had brought with him, now amounted to a fleet of more than two hundred. While he was busy with these matters envoys arrived from Leontini, sent by Heracleides the ruler, who said that he would hand over to the king the city and its forts, together with four thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. Many other embassies also came to Syracuse, offering to hand over their cities and saying that they would co-operate with Pyrrhus. He received them all courteously, and then sent them back to their several countries, hoping now to win even Libya.

9 1 Brennus, the king of the Gauls, accompanied by one hundred and fifty thousand infantry, armed with long shields, and ten thousand cavalry, together with a horde of camp followers, large numbers of traders, and two thousand waggons, invaded Macedonia and engaged in battle. Having in this conflict lost many men . . . as lacking sufficient strength . . . when later he advanced into Greece and to the oracle at Delphi, which he wished to plunder.19 In the mighty battle fought there he lost tens of thousands20 of his comrades-in‑arms, and Brennus himself was three times wounded. 2 Weighed down and near to death, he assembled his host there and spoke to the Gauls. p63 He advised them to kill him and all the wounded, to burn their waggons, and to return home unburdened; he advised them also to make Cichorius21 king. Then, after drinking deeply of undiluted wine, Brennus slew himself. 3 After Cichorius had given him burial, he killed the wounded and those who were victims of cold and starvation some twenty thousand in all; and so he began the journey homeward with the rest by the same route. In difficult terrain the Greeks would attack and cut off those in the rear, and carried off all their baggage. On the way to Thermopylae, food being scarce there, they abandoned twenty thousand more men. All the rest perished as they were going through the country of the Dardani, and not a single man was left to return home.

4 Brennus, the king of the Gauls, on entering a temple found no dedications of gold or silver, and when he came only upon images of stone and wood he laughed at them,22 to think that men, believing that gods have human form, should set up their images in wood and stone.

5 At the time of the Gallic invasion the inhabitants of Delphi, seeing that danger was at hand, asked the god if they should remove the treasures, the children, and the women from the shrine to the most strongly fortified of the neighbouring cities. The Pythia replied to the Delphians that the god commanded them to leave in place in the shrine the dedications and whatever else pertained to the adornment of the p65 gods; for the god, and with him the White Maidens, would protect all. As there were in the sacred precinct two temples of extreme antiquity, one of Athena Pronaia and one of Artemis, they assumed that these goddesses were the "White Maidens" named in the oracle.23

10 1 Pyrrhus, after settling matters in Syracuse and Leontini, set out with an army for Acragas. While he was on the way, men of Enna24 arrived, saying that they had expelled the Carthaginian garrison, which they had kept to prevent Phintias from becoming their ruler, and promising to hand over their city to Pyrrhus and become his allies. Pyrrhus, taking his army with him . . . he arrived at Acragas and took over from Sosistratus the city and the soldiers, eight thousand infantry and eight hundred horsemen, all picked men, no whit inferior to the men of Epirus. He also took over thirty cities that Sosistratus ruled. 2 He then sent to Syracuse and brought siege engines and a great quantity of missiles. He marched against the territory subject to the Carthaginians with an army of thirty thousand infantry, fifteen hundred cavalry25 and his elephants. He subdued first the city of Heracleia, which had a Carthaginian garrison. He then seized Azones. The people of Selinus then came over to the king, and p67 then the people of Halicyae, of Segesta, and of many other cities. 3 Although Eryx had a considerable garrison of Carthaginians and is by nature strong and not easily stormed, yet Pyrrhus determined to take it forcibly by siege. Hence he brought up his engines against the walls, and a mighty and violent siege took place and continued for a long time, until the king, desiring to win high renown and vying to rank with Heracles,26 personally led an assault on the walls; putting up an heroic fight, he slew the Carthaginians who stormed against him, and when the king's "Friends"27 also joined in the struggle, he took the city by storm. 4 After stationing a garrison there, he set out for the city of Iaetia, a place of exceptional strength, favourably situated for an attack on28 Panormus. The people of Iaetia yielded of their own accord, whereupon he advanced at once to the city of Panormus, which has the finest harbour in all Sicily, whence, in fact, the city received this, its name.29 This place also he took by storm, and when he gained control of the fortress of Herctae, he had now overcome the whole empire of Carthage and become its master, except for Lilybaeum. This city had been founded by the Carthaginians after their city of Motya had been captured by the tyrant p69 Dionysius,30 for they had gathered together all the survivors of Motya and settled them in Lilybaeum. 5 While Pyrrhus was making ready to lay siege to this city, the Carthaginians brought over from Libya to Lilybaeum a considerable army, and having control of the seas, they transported a large amount of grain, and engines of war and missiles in incredible quantities. Since most of the city is surrounded by the sea,31 they walled off the land approaches, constructed towers at short intervals, and dug a great ditch. They then sent an embassy to the king to discuss a truce and peace, for they were ready to come to terms and even to pay a large sum of money. 6 Though the king refused to accept money he was prevailed upon to concede Lilybaeum to the Carthaginians; but the king's "Friends" who were taking part in the meeting and the delegates from the cities called him aside and urged him under no circumstances to grant the barbarians a stepping-stone for an attack on Sicily, but rather to drive the Phoenicians out of the entire island and to make the sea the boundary of his domain. The king immediately encamped near the walls, and at first made constant attacks with relays of troops against them. But the Carthaginians were able to defend themselves because of the number of their fighters and the abundance of their equipment. 7 For the Carthaginians had collected so great a number of catapults, both dart-shooters and stone-throwers, that there was not room on the walls for all the equipment. And so, as missiles of all sorts p71 were hurled against the attackers, and as many of his men fell, and many others received wounds, Pyrrhus was at a disadvantage. The king undertook to construct engines of war more powerful than those he had transported from Syracuse, and to unsettle the walls by mining operations. But the Carthaginians kept up their resistance, since the ground was rocky, and after a siege of two months Pyrrhus despaired of capturing the city by force, and lifted the siege. Deciding to construct a large fleet and, when by this means he should have won mastery of the seas, to transport his forces to Libya, he now bent his efforts towards this.

11 1 Pyrrhus, having won a famous victory, dedicated the long shields of the Gauls and the most valuable of the other spoils in the shrine of Athena Itonis with the following inscription:

These shields, taken from the brave Gauls, the Molossian Pyrrhus hung here as a gift to Athena Itonis, after he had destroyed the entire host of Antigonus. Small wonder: the sons of Aeacus are warriors now even as aforetime.32

2 Being therefore conscious that they33 had committed acts of impiety so great, they expected, with good reason, to suffer punishment befitting their crimes.

p73

12 1 After Pyrrhus had sacked Aegeae,34 the seat of the Macedonian royal family, he left his Gauls there. They, learning from certain informants that in accordance with a certain ancient custom much wealth was buried with the dead at royal funerals, dug up and broke into all the graves, divided up the treasure, and scattered the bones of the dead. Pyrrhus was much reviled because of this, but did not punish the barbarians since he needed them for his wars.

13 1 Since the Mamertines who inhabited Messana had increased in power . . . many forts . . . and they themselves, having put their army in light array, came in haste to the aid of the territory of Messana which was under attack.35 But Hiero, after quitting enemy territory, took Mylae by storm and acquired fifteen hundred soldiers. Straightway moving to reduce the other strongholds also, he came to Ameselum, situated between Centuripa and Agyrium. Though Ameselum was well fortified and strongly manned, he captured and razed this fortress to the ground, but dismissed all charges against the men of the garrison, whom he enrolled in his own ranks. Part of the land he gave to the people of Centuripa, part to the people of Agyrium. 2 After this, Hiero with a considerable army waged war against the Mamertines. Halaesa he brought over by surrender, and having been eagerly welcomed by p75 the inhabitants of Abacaenum and Tyndaris, he became master of these cities and drove the Mamertines into a narrow area. For on the Sicilian sea he held the city of Tauromenium, near Messana, and on the Tyrrhenian sea he held Tyndaris. He invaded the territory of Messana, and encamped along the Loitanus36 River with ten thousand foot-soldiers and fifteen hundred cavalry. The Mamertines faced him with eight thousand foot-soldiers and forty (?) cavalry; their general was Ciôs. 3 Now Ciôs assembled diviners to inspect the entrails, and after sacrificing, he questioned them about the battle. When they replied that the gods revealed through the victims that he would pass the night in the encampment of the enemy, he was overjoyed, thinking that he was to gain possession of the king's camp. Immediately he deployed his forces and attempted to cross the river. 4 But Hiero, who had in his army two hundred exiles from Messana, men noted for their courage and deeds of valour, added to them four hundred more picked soldiers, and ordered them to go around the nearby hill, named Thorax, and to fall upon the enemy from the rear. He himself deployed his forces and encountered the enemy in front. There was a cavalry engagement near the stream, and at the same time the infantry, who at the order of the king had occupied a certain mound near the river, gained the advantage of favourable terrain; yet for a while the p77 battle was evenly balanced. But when those who had gone around the hill also charged the Mamertines unexpectedly and slew them with no difficulty, since they were fresh and the enemy were battle-worn, then the Mamertines, surrounded on all sides, took to flight, and the Syracusans, attacking in force, cut the whole army to pieces. 5 The general of the Mamertines fought desperately, but after he had received many wounds and had fallen to the ground unconscious he was captured alive. He was carried still breathing to the encampment of the king, and was handed over to the physicians for treatment. Now when he thus, in accordance with the prophecy and the prediction of the soothsayers, had spent the night in the enemy's camp, and the king, moreover, was solicitous to restore Ciôs to health, certain men arrived bringing horses from the battle to the king, 6 and Ciôs, recognizing his son's horse, supposed that the youth had been killed. In his excessive grief he burst the stitches of his wounds and by his own death set the price at which he rated the destruction of his son. As for the Mamertines, when the news was brought to them that Ciôs their general and all their soldiers as well had perished, they decided to come before the king as suppliants. Fortune did not, however, permit the utter collapse of the Mamertine cause. 7 For Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, happened to be moored at the island of Lipara. When he heard the unexpected news, he came posthaste p79 to the king, ostensibly to offer his congratulations, but in reality seeking to outmanoeuvre Hiero by deceit. The king trusted the Phoenician and remained inactive. Hannibal turned aside to Messana, and finding the Mamertines on the point of handing over the city, he dissuaded them, and on the pretext of lending aid, introduced into the city forty (?) soldiers. Thus the Mamertines, who because of their defeat had despaired of their cause, were restored to security in the manner just described. 8 Hiero, outwitted by the Phoenician, abandoned the siege as hopeless and returned to Syracuse, having achieved a resounding success.37

9 The Carthaginians and Hiero, after the former38 had been driven out of Messana, held a conference, and when they had arranged a treaty of alliance, they agreed on a joint attack on Messana.

The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 The Hoeschel excerptor has badly garbled the narrative, as comparison with the Constantinian version, which follows, makes evident. The story is told at greater length and with some variations by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Ant. Rom. 20.4‑5; cp. also Polybius, 1.7). Dionysius states that the garrison was sent by the Roman consul Fabricius, and that he later relieved the oppressed city, but it is not clear whether his consulship of 282 or 278 B.C. is intended. On Decius Vibellius see RE, s.v. "Vibellius" (1), and Broughton, Magistrates, Suppl. (1960), p69.

2 Probably the upper part of the Hyrminius River, in the region of Hybla Heraea.

3 Diodorus is constantly alert to opportunities for singling out his native city for mention.

4 Ptolemy Keraunos, son of Ptolemy I Soter by Eurydicê. He was proclaimed king of Macedonia by the army in 280 B.C., and was killed in 279 B.C.

5 If the text is right Meleager was an uncle of Ptolemy Keraunos. Eusebius (1.235 Schoene) calls him a brother.

7 A Macedonian, probably one of the generals of Lysimachus, he refused the proffered crown but did serve as commander of the army. Bengtson, Die Strategie ind. hellenist. Zeit, 2.381 ff., denies that Sosthenes was of ignoble birth, and notes the choice of a strategos to head the state, in lieu of a king, as a reversion to earlier practices.

9 Possibly another son of Lysimachus, or he may be identical with the Arrhidaeus named in Eusebius (1.235 Schoene).

10 The leader of a proletarian revolution in Cassandreia, a new city founded by Cassander in 316 B.C. on the site of Potidaea. He was finally subdued by Antigonus Gonatas in 276 B.C.

11 Suidas refers the expression to those who are victorious in battle but lose more men than the enemy.

12 Into Italy. The battle took place near Heracleia, and Pyrrhus commemorated his victory by a dedication at Dodona (Dittenberger, Syllogê3, 392).

13 Opinion is divided on the date of this incident, and on the question whether Cineas made a single mission to Rome, or two.

14 Among the coins issued by Phintias some bear on the reverse the figure of a boar, on the obverse the head either of Artemis (sometimes inscribed "Soteira") or of the river-god Acragas. The story recorded here may well be related to the coin-types, whether or not it is a later invention.

16 These men were Roman legionaries. For the terms of the treaty with Rome, made in 279 B.C., see Polybius, 3.25.

18 The ennērēs, or ship of the nine-class. Presumably this means nine men to an oar, not nine banks of oars.

19 The text is uncertain. Rhodoman's text gives: "he lost many men, so that he lacked sufficient strength when, etc."; Herwerden's: "having lost many men and having failed to prevail over the enemy he . . . but later he advanced, etc."

23 The "White Maidens" appeared as a blinding snowstorm, during which the Greeks successfully attacked the Gauls.

26 Plutarch (loc. cit.) states that Pyrrhus invoked the aid of Heracles and vowed to institute games and a sacrifice in his honour.

27 Cp. οἱ φίλοι or οἱ φίλοι τοῦ βασιλέως in Ptolemaic documents.

29 The word is a compound of "all" and "harbour," and appears as an adjective in Homer with the sense "always fit for mooring in." Despite the Greek name, the city was Phoenician and remained in Carthaginian hands, except for the interlude under Pyrrhus, until captured by Rome in 254 B.C. It is the modern Palermo.

32 In the Palatine Anthology (6.130) the epigram is ascribed to Leonidas of Tarentum. The sanctuary of Athena Itonis lay between Pherae and Larissa. The Gauls were mercenaries employed by Antigonus Gonatas, but the site of the victory is not recorded.

34 More commonly called Aegae. Previously known as Edessa, it had been an early capital of Macedonia and was still a religious centre, though politically overshadowed by Pella from 400 B.C. on.

35 This may refer to the defeat of Hiero's forces by the Mamertines at the river Cyamosorus near Centuripa (Polybius, 1.9.3‑4).

36 Probably, though not certainly, the same as the Longanus of Polybius, 1.9.7‑8. The chronology of Hiero's career is very uncertain, and the battle of Longanus has been variously dated in 269 and in 264 B.C.

37 The phrase probably refers to the story that Hiero, on his return to Syracuse after the victory at Longanus, was proclaimed king (Polybius, 1.9.8).

38 This seems to be the meaning (cp. Polybius, 1.11.4‑7), though the passage is clearly corrupt.

(Vol. XI) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History

p45 Fragments of Book XXII

The Loeb Editor's Notes:

(Vol. XI) Diodorus Siculus Library of History

p45 Fragments of Book XXII

The Loeb Editor's Notes:

(Vol. XI) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History