Diodorus Siculus, Library 8-40

§ 14.5.5 After the death of Theramenes the Thirty drew up a list of the wealthy, lodged false charges against them, put them to death, and seized their estates. They slew even Niceratus, the son of Nicias who had commanded the campaign against the Syracusans, a man who had conducted himself toward all men with fairness and humanity, and who perhaps first of all Athenians in wealth and reputation.

§ 14.5.6 It came about, therefore, that every house was filled with pity for the end of the man, as fond thoughts due to their memory of his honest ways provoked them to tears. Nevertheless, the tyrants did not cease from their lawless conduct; rather their madness became so much the more acute that of the metics they slaughtered sixty of the wealthiest in order to gain possession of their property, and as for the citizens, since they were being killed daily, the well-to-do among them fled from the city almost to a man.

§ 14.5.7 They also slew Autolycus, an outspoken man, and, in a word, selected the most respectable citizens. So far did their wasting of the city to that more than half of the Athenians took to flight.

§ 14.6.1 The Lacedemonians, seeing the city of the Athenians abased in power and having no desire that the Athenians should ever gain strength, were delighted and made their attitude clear; for they voted that the Athenian exiles should be delivered up to the Thirty from all over Greece and that anyone who attempted to prevent this should be liable to fine of five talents.

§ 14.6.2 Though this decree was shocking, all the rest of the cities, dismayed at the power of the Spartans, obeyed it, with the exception of the Argives who, hating as they did the cruelty of the Lacedemonians and pitying the hard lot of the unfortunate, were the first to receive the exiles in a spirit of humanity.

§ 14.6.3 Also the Thebans voted that anyone who witnessed an exile being led off and did not render him all aid within his power should be subject to a fine. Such, then, was the state of the affairs of the Athenians.

§ 14.7.1 In Sicily, Dionysius, the tyrant of the Siceli, after concluding peace with the Carthaginians, planned of the busy himself more with the strengthening of his tyranny; for he assumed that the Syracusans, now that they were relieved of the war, would have plenty of time to see after the recovery of their liberty.

§ 14.7.2 And, perceiving that the Island was the strongest section of the city and could be easily defended, he divided it from the rest of the city by an expensive wall, and in this he set high towers at close intervals, while before it he built places of business and stoas capable of accommodating a multitude of the populace.

§ 14.7.3 He also constructed on the Island at great expense a fortified acropolis as a place of refuge in case of immediate need, and within its wall he enclosed the dockyards which are connected with the small harbour that is known as Laccium. The dockyards could accommodate sixty triremes and had an entrance that was closed off, through which only one ship could enter at a time.

§ 14.7.4 As for the territory of Syracuse, he picked out the best of it and distributed it in gifts to his friends as well as to higher officers, and divided the rest of it in equal portions both to aliens and to citizens, including under the name of citizens the manumitted slaves whom he designated as New Citizens.

§ 14.7.5 He also distributed the dwellings among the common people, except those on the island, which he gave to his friends and the mercenaries. When Dionysius thought that he had now organized his tyranny properly, he led forth his army against the Siceli, being eager to bring all the independent peoples under his control, and the Siceli in particular, because of their previous alliance with the Carthaginians.

§ 14.7.6 Accordingly he advanced against the city of the Herbessini and made preparations for its siege. But the Syracusans who were in the army, now that they had arms in their hands, began to gather in groups and upbraid each other that they had not joined with the cavalry in overthrowing the tyrant. The man appointed by Dionysius to command the men at first warned one of those who were freespoken, and when the man retorted, stepped boldly up to him to give him a blow.

§ 14.7.7 The soldiers, in ager at this, slew the commander, whose name was Doricus, and, crying to the citizens to strike for their freedom, sent for the cavalry from Aetne; for the cavalry, who had been banished at the beginning of the tyranny, occupied this outpost.

§ 14.8.1 Dionysius, terror-stricken at the revolt of the Syracusans, broke off the siege and hastened to Syracuse, being eager to secure the city. Upon his flight those who had revolted chose as generals the men who had slain the commander, and gathering to their number the cavalry from Aetne, they pitched a camp facing the tyrant on the height called Epipolae, and blocked his passage to the countryside.

§ 14.8.2 And they at once dispatched ambassadors to the Messenians and the Rhegians, urging these people to join in the bid for freedom by action at sea; for it had been the practice of these cities at this time to man no less than eighty triremes. These triremes the cities dispatched at that time to the Syracusans, being eager to support them in the cause of freedom.

§ 14.8.3 The revolters also proclaimed a large reward to any who would slay the tyrant and promised citizenship to any mercenaries who would come over to them. They also constructed engines of war with which to shatter and destroy the walls, launched daily assaults upon the Island, and kindly received any of the mercenaries who came over to them.

§ 14.8.4 Dionysius, being shut off as he now was from access to the countryside and constantly being abandoned by the mercenaries, gathered together his friends to counsel with them on the situation; for he had so completely despaired of maintaining his tyrannical power that he no longer was studying how to defeat the Syracusans but rather how to meet death in such a way as to end his rule not altogether ingloriously.

§ 14.8.5 Now Heloris, one of his friends, or as some say, his adopted father, declared to him, “Tyranny is a fair winding-sheet”; but Polyxenus, his brother-in-law, advised him to use his swiftest horse and ride off into the domain of the Carthaginians to the Campanians, whom Himilcon had left behind to guard the districts of Sicily. Philistus, however, who composed his history after these events, declared in opposition to Polyxenus that it was not fitting to dash from the tyranny on a galloping horse but to be cast out, dragged by the leg.

§ 14.8.6 Dionysius agreed with Philistus and decided to submit to anything rather than abandon the throne of his free will. Consequently he sent ambassadors to those in revolt and urged them to allow him and his companions to leave the city, while he secretly dispatched messengers to the Campanians and promised them any price they should ask for the duration of the siege.

§ 14.9.1 After the events we have described the Syracusans, having given the tyrant permission to sail away with five ships, took matters with rather less concern; the cavalry, since they were of no use in the siege, they discharged, while as for the infantry, most of them roved off into the countryside, assuming that the tyranny was already at an end.

§ 14.9.2 The Campanians, being elated at the promises they had received, first of all came to Agyrium, and leaving their baggage there with Agyris, the ruler of the city, they set forth unencumbered for Syracuse, being in number twelve hundred cavalry.

§ 14.9.3 Completing the journey in quick time, they came upon the Syracusans unexpectedly and, slaying many of them, they forced their way through to Dionysius. At this same time three hundred mercenaries had also landed to aid the tyrant, so that his hopes revived.

§ 14.9.4 The Syracusans, as the despotic power again gathered strength, were at odds among themselves, some maintaining that they should remain and continue the siege and others that they should disband their forces and abandon the city.

§ 14.9.5 As soon as Dionysius learned of this, he led his army out against them, and falling on them while they were disordered, he easily routed them near the New City, as it is called. Not many of them, however, were slain, since Dionysius, riding among his men, stopped them from killing the fugitives. The Syracusans were forthwith scattered over the countryside, but a little later more than seven thousand of them were gathered with the cavalry at Aetne.

§ 14.9.6 Dionysius, after burying the Syracusans who had fallen, dispatched ambassadors to Aetne, asking the exiles to accept terms and return to their native land, and giving his pledged word that he would not bear enmity against them.

§ 14.9.7 Now certain of them, who had left behind children and wives, felt compelled to accept the offer; but the rest replied, when the ambassadors cited the benefaction Dionysius had performed in the burial of the dead, that he deserved the same favour, and they prayed to the gods that they might, the sooner the better, see him obtain it.

§ 14.9.8 These men accordingly, who would by no means put any trust in the tyrant, remained in Aetne, watching for an opportunity against him. Dionysius treated with humanity the exiles who returned, wishing to encourage the rest to return to their native land too. To the Campanians he awarded the gifts that were due and then dispatched them from the city, having regard to their fickleness.

§ 14.9.9 These made their way to Entella and persuaded the men of the city to receive them as fellow-inhabitants; then they fell upon them by night, slew the men of military age, married the wives of the men with whom they had broken faith, and possessed themselves of the city.

§ 14.10.1 In Greece the Lacedemonians, now that they had brought the Peloponnesian War to an end, held the supremacy by common acknowledgement both on land and on sea. Appointing Lysander admiral, they ordered him to visit the cities and set up in each the magistrates they call harmosts; for the Lacedemonians, who had a dislike for the democracies, wished the cities to have oligarchic governments.

§ 14.10.2 They also levied tribute upon the peoples they had conquered, and although before this time they had not used coined money, they now collected yearly from the tribute more than a thousand talents. When the Lacedemonians had settled the affairs of Greece to their own taste, they dispatched Aristus, one of their distinguished men, to Syracuse, ostensibly pretending that they would overthrow the government, but in truth with intent to increase the power of the tyranny; for they hoped that by helping to establish the rule of Dionysius they would obtain his ready service because of their benefactions to him. 3 Aristus, after having put ashore at Syracuse and discussed secretly with the tyrant the matters we have mentioned, kept stirring up the Syracusans and promised to restore their liberty; then he slew Nicoteles the Corinthian, a leader of the Syracusans, made strong the tyrant by betraying those who put their faith in him, and by such conduct brought disgrace both upon himself and upon his native land. 4 Dionysius, sending the Syracusans out to harvest their crops, entered their homes and carried off the arms of them all; after this he built a second wall about the acropolis, constructed war vessels, and also collected a great number of mercenaries; and he made every other provision to safeguard the tyranny, since he had learned by experience that the Syracusans would endure anything to escape slavery.

§ 14.11.1 While these events were taking place, Pharnabazus, the satrap of King Darius, seized Alcibiades the Athenian and put him to death. But since Ephorus recounts that his death was sought for other reasons, I think it not unprofitable to set forth the plot against Alcibiades as the historian has described it.

§ 14.11.2 He states in the Seventeenth Book that Cyrus and the Lacedemonians were making secret plans for a joint war against Cyrus' brother Artaxerxes, and Alcibiades, learning of Cyrus' purpose from certain parties, went to Pharnabazus and told him of it in detail; and he asked him for someone to conduct him on a mission to Artaxerxes, since he wished to be the first to disclose the plot to the King.

§ 14.11.3 But Pharnabazus, on hearing the story, usurped the function of reporter and sent trusted men to disclose the matter to the King. When Pharnabazus did not provide escorts to the capital, Ephorus continues, Alcibiades set out to the satrap of Paphlagonia in order to make the trip with his assistance; but Pharnabazus, fearing lest the King should hear the truth of the affair, sent men after Alcibiades to slay him on the road.

§ 14.11.4 These came upon him where he had taken shelter in a village of Phrygia, and in the night enclosed the place with a mass of fuel. When a strong fire was kindled, Alcibiades endeavoured to save himself, but came to his death from the fire and the javelins of his attackers.

§ 14.11.5 About the same time Democritus the philosopher died at the age of ninety. And Lasthenes the Theban, who was the victor in the Olympic Games of this year, won a race, we are told, against a racehorse, the course being from Coroneia to the city of the Thebans.

§ 14.11.6 In Italy the Roman garrison of Erruca, a city of the Volsci, was attacked by the enemy, who captured the city and slew most of the defenders.

§ 14.12.1 When the events of this year had come to an end, Eucleides was archon in Athens, and in Rome four military tribunes succeeded to the consular magistracy, Publius Cornelius, Numerius Fabius, and Lucius Valerius.

§ 14.12.2 After these magistrates had taken office, the Byzantines were in serious difficulties both because of factional strife and of a war that they were waging with the neighbouring Thracians; and since they were unable to devise a settlement of their mutual differences, they asked the Lacedemonians for a general. The Spartans, accordingly, sent them Clearchus to bring order to the affairs of the city;

§ 14.12.3 and he, after being entrusted with supreme authority, and having gathered a large body of mercenaries, was no longer their president but their tyrant. First of all, he invited their chief magistrates to attend a festival of some kind and put them to death, and after this, since there was no government in the city, he seized a group of thirty prominent Byzantines, put a cord about their necks, and strangled them to death. After appropriating for himself the property of those he had slain, he also picked out the wealthy among the rest of the citizens, and launching false charges against them, he put some to death and drove others into exile. Having thus acquired a large amount of money and assembled a great body of mercenaries, he made his tyrannical power secure.

§ 14.12.4 When the cruelty and power of the tyrant became noised abroad, the Lacedemonians first of all dispatched ambassadors to him to prevail upon him to lay down his tyrannical power, but when he paid no heed to their requests, they sent an army against him under the command of Panthoedas.

§ 14.12.5 Clearchus, on learning of his approach, transferred his army to Selymbria, being master also of this city, for he assumed that after the many crimes he had committed against the Byzantines, he would have as enemies not only the Lacedemonians, but also the inhabitants of the city.

§ 14.12.6 Consequently, having decided that Selymbria would be a safer base for the war, he removed both his treasure and his army to that place. When he learned that the Lacedemonians were close at hand, he advanced to meet them and joined battle with the troops of Panthoedas at the place called Porus.

§ 14.12.7 The struggle lasted a long while, but the Lacedemonians fought splendidly and the forces of the tyrant were destroyed. Clearchus with a few of his companions was at first shut up in Selymbria and besieged there, but later he was fearful and slipped away by night, and crossed over to Ionia, where he became intimate with Cyrus, the brother of the Persian King, and won command of his troops.

§ 14.12.8 For Cyrus, who had been appointed supreme commander of the satrapies lying on the sea and was afire with ambition, was planning to lead an army against his brother Artaxerxes.

§ 14.12.9 Observing, therefore, that Clearchus possessed daring and a prompt boldness, he supplied him with funds and instructed him to enroll as many mercenaries as he could, believing that he would have in Clearchus an apt partner for his bold undertakings.

§ 14.13.1 Lysander the Spartan, after he had introduced governments in all the cities under the Lacedemonians in accordance with the will of the ephors, establishing a rule of ten men in some and oligarchies in others, was the cynosure of Sparta. For by bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end he had bestowed upon his native land the supreme power, acknowledged by all, both on land and on sea.

§ 14.13.2 Consequently, he conceived the idea of putting an end to the kingship of the Heracleidae and making every Spartan eligible to election as king; for he hoped that the kingship would very soon come to him because of his achievements, which were very great and glorious.

§ 14.13.3 Knowing that the Lacedemonians gave very great heed to the responses of oracles, he attempted to bribe the prophetess in Delphi, since he believed that, if he should receive an oracular response favourable to the designs he entertained, he should easily carry his project to a successful end.

§ 14.13.4 But when he could not win over the attendants of the oracle, despite the large sum he promised them, he opened negotiations on the same matter with the priestesses of the oracle of Dodona, through a certain Pherecrates, who was a native of Apollonia and intimate with the attendants of the shrine.

§ 14.13.5 Meeting with no success, he made a journey to Cyrene, offering as his reason payment of vows to Ammon, but actually for the purpose of bribing the oracle; and he took with him a great sum of money with which he hoped to win over the attendants of the shrine.

§ 14.13.6 And in fact Libys, the king of those regions, was a guest-friend of his father, and it so happened that Lysander's brother had been named Libys by reason of the friendship with the king. With the king's help, then, and the money he brought, he hoped to win them, but not only did he fail of his design, but the overseers of the oracle sent ambassadors to lay charges against Lysander for his effort to bribe the oracle. When Lysander arrived at Lacedemon, a trial was proposed, but he presented a persuasive defence of his conduct. 8 Now at that time the Lacedemonians knew nothing of Lysander's purpose to abolish the kings in line of descent from Heracles; but some time later, after his death, when some documents were being searched for in his house, they found a speech, composed at greatest expense, which he had prepared to deliver to the people, to persuade them that the kings should be elected from all the citizens.

§ 14.14.1 Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, after he had made peace with the Carthaginians and had got free of the uprisings in the city, was eager to attach to himself the neighbouring cities of the Chalcidians, namely, Naxos, Catane, and Leontini.

§ 14.14.2 He was eager to be lord of them because they lay on the borders of Syracuse and possessed many advantages for further increase of his tyrannical power. First of all, then, he encamped near Aetne and won the fortress, the exiles there being no match for an army of such size;

§ 14.14.3 and after this he advanced to Leontini and pitched his camp near the city along the river Terias. Then he at first led out his army in battle-order and dispatched a herald to the Leontines, commanding them to surrender the city and believing that he had struck terror into the inhabitants.

§ 14.14.4 But when the Leontines paid no attention to him and had made every preparation to withstand a siege, Dionysius, having no engines of war, gave up the siege for the time being, but plundered their entire territory.

§ 14.14.5 From there he set out against the Siceli, pretending that he was engaging in war against them in order that the Catanians and Naxians might become slacker in the defence of their cities.

§ 14.14.6 And while he was tarrying in the neighbourhood of Enna, he persuaded Aeimnestus, a native of the city, to make a bid for tyranny, promising to aid him in the undertaking.

§ 14.14.7 But when Aeimnestus had succeeded in his design and then did not admit Dionysius into the city, Dionysius in anger changed sides and urged the Ennaeans to overthrow the tyrant. These streamed into the market-place with their arms, contending for their freedom, and the city was filled with tumult.

§ 14.14.8 Dionysius, on learning of the strife, took his light-armed troops, speedily broke through an unoccupied place into the city, seized Aeimnestus, and handed him over to the Ennaeans to be punished. He himself, refraining from all injustice, departed from the city. This he did, not so much because he had regard for right as because he wanted to encourage the other cities to put faith in him.

§ 14.15.1 From Enna Dionysius set out to the city of the Herbitaeans and attempted to ravage it. But accomplishing nothing, he made peace with them and led his army to Catane, for Arcesilaus, the general of the Catanians, had offered to betray the city to him. Consequently, being admitted by Arcesilaus about midnight, he became master of Catane. After taking their arms from the citizens, he placed an adequate garrison in the city.

§ 14.15.2 After this Procles, the commander of the Naxians, on being won over by great promises, delivered over his native city to Dionysius, who, after paying the promised gifts to the traitor and granting him his kinsmen, sold the inhabitants into slavery, turned their property over to the soldiers to plunder, and razed the walls and the dwellings.

§ 14.15.3 He also meted out a similar treatment to the Catanians, selling the captives he took as booty in Syracuse. Now the territory of the Naxians he gave as a present to the neighbouring Siceli and granted to the Campanians the city of the Catanians as their dwelling-place.

§ 14.15.4 After this he advanced to Leontini with his entire armed strength and laid siege to the city, and sending ambassadors to the inhabitants, he ordered them to hand over their city and enjoy citizenship in Syracuse. The Leontines, expecting that they would receive no help and reflecting on the fate of the Naxians and Catanians, were struck with terror in fear that they would suffer the same misfortune. Consequently, yielding to the exigency of the moment, they assented to the proposal, left their city, and removed to Syracuse.

§ 14.16.1 Archonides, the leader of Herbita, after the citizen-body of the Herbitaeans had concluded peace with Dionysius, determined to found a city. For he had not only many mercenaries but also a mixed throng who had streamed into the city in connection with the war against Dionysius; and many of the destitute among the Herbitaeans had promised him to join in the colony.

§ 14.16.2 Consequently, taking the multitude of refugees, he occupied a hill lying eight stades from the sea, on which he founded the city of Halaesa; and since there were other cities of Sicily with the same name, he called it Halaesa Archonidion after himself.

§ 14.16.3 When, in later times, the city grew greatly both because of the trade by sea and because the Romans exempted it from tribute, the Halaesians denied their kinship with the Herbitaeans, holding it a disgrace to be deemed colonists of an inferior city.

§ 14.16.4 Nevertheless, up to the present time numerous ties of relationships are to be found among both peoples, and they administer their sacrifices at the Apollonion with the same customs. But there are those who state that Halaesa was founded by the Carthaginians at the time when Himilcon concluded his peace with Dionysius.

§ 14.16.5 In Italy a war arose between the Romans and the people of Veii for the following reasons. In this campaign the Romans voted for the first time to give annual pay to the soldiers for their support. They also reduced by siege the city of the Volsci which was called at that time Anxor but now has the name Tarracine.

§ 14.17.1 At the close of the year Micion was archon in Athens, and in Rome three military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Titus Quinctius, Gaius Julius, and Aulus Mamilus. After these magistrates had entered office, the inhabitants of Oropus fell into civil strife and exiled some of their citizens.

§ 14.17.2 For a time the exiles undertook to effect their return by their own resources, but finding themselves unable to carry through their purpose, they persuaded the Thebans to send an army to assist them.

§ 14.17.3 The Thebans took the field against the Oropians, and becoming masters of the city, resettled the inhabitants some seven stades from the sea; and for some time they allowed them to have their own government, but after this they gave them Theban citizenship and attached their territory to Boeotia.

§ 14.17.4 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians brought a number of charges against the Eleians, the most serious being that they had prevented Agis, their king, from offering sacrifices to the god and that they had not allowed the Lacedemonians to compete in the Olympic Games.

§ 14.17.5 Consequently, having decided to wage war on the Eleians, they dispatched ten ambassadors to them, ordering them, in the first place, to allow their subject cities to be independent, and after that they demanded of them their quota of the cost of the war against the Athenians.

§ 14.17.6 This they did in quest of specious pretexts for themselves and of plausible openings for war. When the Eleians not only paid no heed to them but even accused them besides of enslaving the Greeks, they dispatched Pausanias, the other of their two kings, against them with four thousand soldiers.

§ 14.17.7 He was accompanied by many soldiers also from practically all the allies except the Boeotians and Corinthians. They, being offended by the proceedings of the Lacedemonians, took no part in the campaign against Elis.

§ 14.17.8 Pausanias, then, entered Elis by way of Arcadia and straightway took the outpost of Lasion at the first assault; then, leading his army through Acroreia, he won to his side the four cities of Thraestus, Halium, Epitalion, and Opous.

§ 14.17.9 Moving thence, he straightway encamped near Pylus and took this place, which was about seventy stades from Elis. After this, advancing to Elis proper, he pitched his camp on the hills across the river. A short time before this the Eleians had got from the Aetolians a thousand elite troops to help them, to whom they had given the region about the gymnasium to guard.

§ 14.17.10 When Pausanias first of all started to lay siege to this place, and in a careless manner, not supposing that the Eleians would ever dare to make a sortie against him, suddenly both the Aetolians and many of the citizens, pouring forth from the city, struck terror into the Lacedemonians and slew some thirty of them.

§ 14.17.11 At the time Pausanias raised the siege, but after this, since he saw that the city would be hard to take, he traversed its territory, laying it waste and plundering it, even though it was sacred soil, and gathered great stores of booty. 12 Since the winter was already at hand, he built walled outposts in Elis and left adequate forces in them, and himself passed the winter with the rest of the army in Dyme.

§ 14.18.1 In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Siceli, since his government was making satisfactory progress, determined to make war upon the Carthaginians; but being not yet sufficiently prepared, he concealed this purpose of his while making the necessary preparations for the coming encounters.

§ 14.18.2 And realizing that in the war with Athens the city had been blocked off by a wall that ran from the sea to the sea, he took care that he should never, when caught at a similar disadvantage, be cut off from contact with the countryside; for he saw that the site of Epipolae, as it is called, naturally commanded the city of the Syracusans.

§ 14.18.3 Sending, therefore, for his master-builders, in accord with their advice he decided that he must fortify Epipolae at the point where there stands now the Wall with the Hexapyla.

§ 14.18.4 For this place, which faces north, is precipitous in its entirety, and so steep that access is hardly to be won from the outside. Wishing to complete the building of the walls rapidly, he gathered the peasants from the countryside, from whom he selected some sixty thousand capable men and parcelled out to them the space to be walled.

§ 14.18.5 For each stade he appointed a master-builder and for each plethron a mason, and the labourers from the common people assigned to the task numbered two hundred for each plethron. Besides these, other workers, a multitude in number, quarried out the rough stone, and six thousand yoke of oxen brought it to the appointed place.

§ 14.18.6 And the united labour of so many workers struck the watchers with great amazement, since all were zealous to complete the task assigned them. For Dionysius, in order to excite the enthusiasm of the multitude, offered valuable gifts to such as finished first, special ones for the master-builders, and still others for the masons and in turn for the common labourers; and he in person, together with his friends, oversaw the work through all the days required, visiting every section and ever lending a hand to the toilers.

§ 14.18.7 Speaking generally, he laid aside the dignity of his office and reduced himself to the ranks. Putting his hands to the hardest tasks, he endured the same toil as the other workers, so that great rivalry was engendered and some added even a part of the night to the day's labour, such eagerness had infected the multitude for the task.

§ 14.18.8 As a result, contrary to expectation, the wall was brought to completion in twenty days. It was thirty stades in length and of corresponding height, and the added strength of the wall made it impregnable to assault; for there were lofty towers at frequent intervals and it was constructed of stones four feet long and carefully joined.

§ 14.19.1 At the close of the year Exaenetus was archon in Athens, and in Rome six military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Publius Cornelius, Caeso Fabius, Spurius Nautius, Gaius Valerius, and Manius Sergius.

§ 14.19.2 At this time Cyrus, who was commander of the satrapies on the sea, had been planning for a long while to lead an army against his brother Artaxerxes; for the young man was full of ambition and had a keenness for the encounters of war that was not unrewarded.

§ 14.19.3 When an adequate force of mercenaries had been collected for him and all preparations for the campaign had been completed, he did not reveal the truth to the troops, but kept asserting that he was leading the army to Cilicia against the despots who were in rebellion against the King.

§ 14.19.4 He also dispatched ambassadors to the Lacedemonians to recall to their minds the services he had rendered in their war against the Athenians and to urge them to join him as allies The Lacedemonians, thinking that the war would be to their advantage, decided to give aid to Cyrus and forthwith sent ambassadors to their admiral, named Samus, with instructions that he should carry out whatever Cyrus ordered.

§ 14.19.5 Samus had twenty-five triremes, and with these he sailed to Ephesus to Cyrus' admiral and was reduce to co-operate with him in every respect. They also sent eight hundred infantry, giving the command to Cheirisophus. The commander of the barbarian fleet was Tamos, who had fifty triremes which had been fitted out at great expense; and after the Lacedemonians had arrived, the fleets put out to sea, following a course for Cilicia.

§ 14.19.6 Cyrus, after gathering to Sardis both the levies of Asia and thirteen thousand mercenaries, appointed Persians of his kindred to be governors of Lydia and Phrygia, but of Ionia, Aeolis, and the neighbouring territories, his trusted friend Tamos, who was a native of Memphis; then he with his army advanced in the direction of Cilicia and Pisidia, spreading the report that certain peoples of those regions were in revolt. From Asia he had in all seventy thousand troops, of whom three thousand were cavalry, and from the Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece thirteen thousand mercenaries. 8 The soldiers from the Peloponnesus, with the exception of the Achaeans, were commanded by Clearchus the Lacedemonian, those from Boeotia by Proxenus the Theban, the Achaeans by Socrates the Achaean, and those from Thessaly by Menon of Larissa. 9 The officers of the barbarians, in minor commands, were Persians, and of the whole army Cyrus himself was commander-in-chief. He had disclosed to the commanders that he was marching against his brother, but he kept this hid from the troops for fear that they would leave his enterprise stranded because of the scale of his expedition. Consequently along the march, by way of providing for the coming occasion, he curried favour with the troops by affability and by providing abundant supplies of provisions.

§ 14.20.1 After Cyrus had traversed Lydia and Phrygia as well as the regions bordering on Cappadocia, he arrived at the boundaries of Cilicia and the entrance at the Cilician Gates. This pass is narrow and precipitous, twenty stades in length, and bordering it on both sides are exceedingly high and inaccessible mountains; and walls stretch down one side from the mountains as far as the roadway, where gates have been built across it.

§ 14.20.2 Leading his army through these gates, Cyrus entered a plain which in beauty yields to no plain in Asia, and through which he advanced to Tarsus, the largest city of Cilicia, which he speedily mastered. When Syennesis, the lord of Cilicia, heard of the great size of the hostile army, he was at a great loss, since he was no match for it in battle.

§ 14.20.3 When he was summoned to Cyrus' presence and had been given pledges, he went to him, and on learning the truth about the war he agreed to join him as an ally against Artaxerxes; and he sent one of his two sons along with Cyrus, giving him also a strong contingent of Cilicians for his army. For Syennesis, being by nature unscrupulous and having adjusted himself to the uncertainty of Fortune, had dispatched his other son secretly to the King to reveal to him the armaments that had been gathered against him and to assure him that he took the part of Cyrus out of necessity, but that he was still faithful to the King and, when the opportunity arose, would desert Cyrus and join the army of the King.

§ 14.20.4 Cyrus rested his army twenty days in Tarsus, and after this, when he would have resumed the march, the troops suspected that the campaign was against Artaxerxes. And as each man reckoned up the length of the distances entailed and the multitude of hostile peoples through whom they would have to pass, he was filled with the deepest anxiety; for the word had got about that it was a four months' march for an army to Bactria and that a force of more than four hundred thousand soldiers had been mustered for the King.

§ 14.20.5 Consequently the soldiers became most fearful and vexed, and in anger at their commanders they attempted to kill them on the ground that the commanders had betrayed them. But when Cyrus entreated one and all of them and assured them that he was leading the army, not against Artaxerxes, but against a certain satrap of Syria, the soldiers yielded, and when they had received an increase in pay, they resumed their former loyalty to him.

§ 14.21.1 As Cyrus marched through Cilicia he arrived at Issus, which lies on the sea and is the last city of Cilicia. At the same time the fleet of the Lacedemonians also put in at the city, and the commanders went ashore, met with Cyrus, and reported the goodwill of the Spartans toward him; and they disembarked and turned over to him the eight hundred infantry under the command of Cheirisophus.

§ 14.21.2 The pretence was that these mercenaries were sent by the friends of Cyrus, but in fact everything was done with the consent of the ephors. The Lacedemonians had not yet openly entered upon the war, but were concealing their purpose, awaiting the turn of the war. Cyrus set out with his army, travelling toward Syria, and ordered the admirals to accompany him by sea with all the ships.