Diodorus Siculus, Library 8-40

§ 14.113.7 Now in the times previous to this the people had followed the senate in all matters; with this occasion they first began to rescind decisions of that body.

§ 14.114.1 The ambassadors of the Celts returned to their camp and reported the reply of the Romans. At this they were greatly angered and, adding an army from their fellow tribesmen, they marched swiftly upon Rome itself, numbering more than seventy thousand men. The military tribunes of the Romans, exercising their special power, when they heard of the advance of the Celts, armed all the men of military age.

§ 14.114.2 They then marched out in full force and, crossing the Tiber, led their troops for eighty stades along the river; and at news of the approach of the Galatians they drew up the army for battle.

§ 14.114.3 Their best troops, to the number of twenty-four thousand, they set in a line from the river as far as the hills and on the highest hills they stationed the weakest. The Celts deployed their troops in a long line and, whether by fortune or design, stationed their choicest troops on the hills.

§ 14.114.4 The trumpets on both sides sounded the charge at the same time and the armies joined in battle with great clamour. The elite troops of the Celts, who were opposed to the weakest soldiers of the Romans, easily drove them from the hills.

§ 14.114.5 Consequently, as these fled in masses to the Romans on the plain, the ranks were thrown into confusion and fled in dismay before the attack of the Celts. Since the bulk of the Romans fled along the river and impeded one another by reason of their disorder, the Celts were not behind-hand in slaying again and again those who were last in line. Hence the entire plain was strewn with dead.

§ 14.114.6 Of the men who fled to the river the bravest attempted to swim across with their arms, prizing their armour as highly as their lives; but since the stream ran strong, some of them were borne down to their death by the weight of the arms, and some, after being carried along for some distance, finally and after great effort got off safe.

§ 14.114.7 But since the enemy pressed them hard and was making a great slaughter along the river, most of the survivors threw away their arms and swam across the Tiber.

§ 14.115.1 The Celts, though they had slain great numbers on the bank of the river, nevertheless did not desist from the zest for glory but showered javelins upon the swimmers; and since many missiles were hurled and men were massed in the river, those who threw did not miss their mark. So it was that some died at once from mortal blows, and others, who were wounded only, were carried off unconscious because of loss of blood and the swift current.

§ 14.115.2 When such disaster befell, the greater part of the Romans who escaped occupied the city of Veii, which had lately been razed by them, fortified the place as well as they could, and received the survivors of the rout. A few of those who had swum the river fled without their arms to Rome and reported that the whole army had perished. When word of such misfortunes as we have described was brought to those who had been left behind in the city, everyone fell into despair;

§ 14.115.3 for they saw no possibility of resistance, now that all their youth had perished, and to flee with their children and wives was fraught with the greatest danger since the enemy were close at hand. Now many private citizens fled with their households to neighbouring cities, but the city magistrates, encouraging the populace, issued orders for them to bring speedily to the Capitoline grain and every other necessity.

§ 14.115.4 When this had been done, both the acropolis and the Capitoline were stored not only with supplies of food but with silver and gold and the costliest raiment, since the precious possessions had been gathered from over the whole city into one place. They gathered such valuables as they could and fortified the place we have mentioned during a respite of three days.

§ 14.115.5 For the Celts spent the first day cutting off, according to their custom, the heads of the dead. And for two days they lay encamped before the city, for when they saw the walls deserted and yet heard the noise made by those who were transferring their most useful possessions to the acropolis, they suspected that the Romans were planning a trap for them.

§ 14.115.6 But on the fourth day, after they had learned the true state of affairs, they broke down the gates and pillaged the city except for a few dwellings on the Palatine. After this they delivered daily assaults on strong positions, without, however, inflicting any serious hurt upon their opponents and with the loss of many of their own troops. Nevertheless, they did not relax their ardour, expecting that, even if they did not conquer by force, they would wear down the enemy in the course of time, when the necessities of life had entirely given out.

§ 14.116.1 While the Romans were in such throes, the neighbouring Tyrrhenians advanced and made a raid with a strong army on the territory of the Romans, capturing many prisoners and not a small amount of booty. But the Romans who had fled to Veii, falling unexpectedly upon the Tyrrhenians, put them to flight, took back the booty, and captured their camp.

§ 14.116.2 Having got possession of arms in abundance, they distributed them among the unarmed, and they also gathered men from the countryside and armed them, since they intended to relieve the siege of the soldiers who had taken refuge on the Capitoline.

§ 14.116.3 While they were at a loss how they might reveal their plans to the besieged, since the Celts had surrounded them with strong forces, a certain Cominius Pontius undertook to get the cheerful news to the men on the Capitoline.

§ 14.116.4 Starting out alone and swimming the river by night, he got unseen to a cliff of the Capitoline that was hard to climb and, hauling himself up it with difficulty, told the soldiers on the Capitoline about the troops that had been collected in Veii and how they were watching for an opportunity and would attack the Celts. Then, descending by the way he had mounted and swimming the Tiber, he returned to Veii.

§ 14.116.5 The Celts, when they observed the tracks of one who had recently climbed up, made plans to ascend at night by the same cliff. Consequently about the middle of the night, while the guards were neglectful of their watch because of the strength of the place, some Celts started an ascent of the cliff.

§ 14.116.6 They escaped detection by the guards, but the sacred geese of Hera, which were kept there, noticed the climbers and set up a cackling. The guards rushed to the place and the Celts deterred did not dare proceed farther. A certain Marcus Mallius, a man held in high esteem, rushing to the defence of the place, cut off the hand of the climber with his sword and, striking him on the breast with his shield, rolled him from the cliff.

§ 14.116.7 In like manner the second climber met his death, whereupon the rest all quickly turned in flight. But since the cliff was precipitous they were all hurled headlong and perished. As a result of this, when the Romans sent ambassadors to negotiate a peace, they were persuaded, upon receipt of one thousand pounds of gold, to leave the city and to withdraw from Roman territory.

§ 14.116.8 The Romans, now that their houses had been razed to the ground and the majority of their citizens slain, gave permission to anyone who wished to build a home in any place he chose, and supplied him at state expense with roof-tiles; and up to the present time these are known as “public tiles.”

§ 14.116.9 Since every man naturally built his home where it suited his fancy, the result was that the streets of the city were narrow and crooked; consequently, when the population increased in later days, it was impossible to straighten the streets. Some also say that the Roman matrons, because they contributed their gold ornaments to the common safety, received from the people as a reward the right to ride through the city in chariots.

§ 14.117.1 While the Romans were in a weakened condition because of the misfortune we have described, the Volscians went to war against them. Accordingly the Roman military tribunes enrolled soldiers, took the field with their army, and pitched camp on the Campus Martius, as it is called, two hundred stades distant from Rome.

§ 14.117.2 Since the Volscians lay over against them with a larger force and were assaulting the camp, the citizens in Rome, fearing for the safety of those in the encampment, appointed Marcus Furius dictator....

§ 14.117.3 These armed all the men of military age and marched out during the night. At day-break they caught the Volscians as they were assaulting the camp, and appearing on their rear easily put them to flight. When the troops in the camp then sallied forth, the Volscians were caught in the middle and cut down almost to a man. Thus a people that passed for powerful in former days was by this disaster reduced to the weakest among the neighbouring tribes.

§ 14.117.4 After the battle the dictator, on hearing that Bola was being besieged by the Aeculani, who are now called the Aequicoli, led forth his troops and slew most of the besieging army. From here he marched to the territory of Sutrium, a Roman colony, which the Tyrrhenians had forcibly occupied. Falling unexpectedly upon the Tyrrhenians, he slew many of them and recovered the city for the people of Sutrium.

§ 14.117.5 The Gauls on their way from Rome laid siege to the city of Veascium which was an ally of the Romans. The dictator attacked them, slew the larger number of them, and got possession of all their baggage, included in which was the gold which they had received for Rome and practically all the booty which they had gathered in the seizure of the city.

§ 14.117.6 Despite the accomplishment of such great deeds, envy on the part of the tribunes prevented his celebrating a triumph. There are some, however, who state that he celebrated a triumph for his victory over the Tuscans in a chariot drawn by four white horses, for which the people two years later fined him a large sum of money. But we shall recur to this in the appropriate period of time.

§ 14.117.7 Those Celts who had passed into Iapygia turned back through the territory of the Romans; but soon thereafter the Cerii made a crafty attack on them by night and cut all of them to pieces in the Trausian Plain.

§ 14.117.8 The historian Callisthenes began his history with the peace of this year between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, the King of the Persians. His account embraced a period of thirty years in ten Books and he closed the last Book of his history with the seizure of the Temple of Delphi by Philomelus the Phocian.

§ 14.117.9 But for our part, since we have arrived at the peace between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, and at the threat to Rome offered by the Gauls, we shall make this the end of this Book, as we proposed at the beginning.

§ 15.1.1 Throughout our entire treatise our practice has been to employ the customary freedom of speech enjoyed by history, and we have added just praise of good men for their fair deeds and meted out just censure upon bad men whenever they did wrong. By this means, as we believe, we shall lead men whose nature fortunately inclines them to virtue to undertake, because of immortality fame accords them, the fairest deeds, whereas by appropriate obloquies we shall turn men of the opposite character from their impulse to evil.

§ 15.1.2 Consequently, since we have come in our writing to the period when the Lacedemonians fell upon deep distress in their unexpected defeat at Leuctra, and again in their unlooked for repulse at Mantineia lost the supremacy over the Greeks, we believe that we should maintain the principle we have set for our writing and set forth the appropriate censure of the Lacedemonians.

§ 15.1.3 For who would not judge men to be deserving of accusation who had received from their ancestors a supremacy with such firm foundations and that too preserved by the high spirit of their ancestors for over five hundred years, and now beheld it, as the Lacedemonians of that time did, overthrown by their own folly? And this is easy to understand. For the men who had lived before them won the glory they had by many labours and great struggles, treating their subjects the while fairly and humanely; but their successors used their allies roughly and harshly, stirring up, besides, unjust and insolent wars against the Greeks, and so it is quite to be understood that they lost their rule because of their own acts of folly.

§ 15.1.4 For the hatred of those they had wronged found in their disasters an opportunity to retaliate upon their aggressors, and they who had been unconquered from their ancestors' time were now attended by such contempt as, it stands to reason, must befall those who obliterate the virtues that characterized their ancestors.

§ 15.1.5 This explains why the Thebans, who for many generations had been subjects of their superiors, when they defeated them to everyone's surprise, became supreme among the Greeks, but the Lacedemonians, when once they had lost the supremacy, were never at any time able to recover the high position enjoyed by their ancestors.

§ 15.1.6 Now that we have sufficiently censured the Lacedemonians, we shall in turn pass on to the further course of our history, after we have first set the time-limits of this section. The preceding Book, which is the fourteenth of our narrative, closed with the events concerned with the enslaving of the Rhegians by Dionysius and the capture of Rome by the Gauls, which took place in the year preceding the campaign of the Persians in Cyprus against Evagoras the king. In this Book we shall begin with this war and close with the year preceding the reign of Philip the son of Amyntas.

§ 15.2.1 When Mystichides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Marcus Furius, Gaius, and Aemilius. This year Artaxerxes, the King of the Persians, made war upon Evagoras, the king of Cyprus. He busied himself for a long time with the preparations for the war and gathered a large armament, both naval and land; his land force consisted of three hundred thousand men including cavalry, and he equipped more than three hundred triremes.

§ 15.2.2 As commanders he chose for the land force his brother-in law Orontes, and for the naval Tiribazus, a man who was held in high favour among the Persians. These commanders took over the armaments in Phocaea and Cyme, repaired to Cilicia, and passed over to Cyprus, where they prosecuted the war with vigour.

§ 15.2.3 Evagoras made an alliance with Acoris, the king of the Egyptians, who was an enemy of the Persians, and received a strong force from him, and from Hecatomnus, the lord of Caria, who was secretly co operating with him, he got a large sum of money to support his mercenary troops. Likewise he drew on such others to join in the war with Persia as were at odds with the Persians, either secretly or openly.

§ 15.2.4 He was master of practically all the cities of Cyprus, and of Tyre and some others in Phoenicia. He also had ninety triremes, of which twenty were Tyrian and seventy were Cyprian, six thousand soldiers of his own subjects, and many more than this number from his allies. In addition to these he enlisted many mercenaries, since he had funds in abundance. And not a few soldiers were sent him by the king of the Arabs and by certain others of whom the King of the Persians was suspicious.

§ 15.3.1 Since Evagoras had such advantages, he entered the war with confidence. First, since he had not a few boats of the sort used for piracy, he lay in wait for the supplies coming to the enemy, sank some of their ships at sea, drove off others, and captured yet others. Consequently the merchants did not dare to convey food to Cyprus; and since large armaments had been gathered on the island, the army of the Persians soon suffered from lack of food

§ 15.3.2 and the want led to revolt, the mercenaries of the Persians attacking their officers, slaying some of them, and filling the camp with tumult and revolt. It was with difficulty that the generals of the Persians and the leader of the naval armament, known as Glos, put an end to the mutiny.

§ 15.3.3 Sailing off with their entire fleet, they transported a large quantity of grain from Cilicia and provided a great abundance of food. As for Evagoras, King Acoris transported an adequate supply of grain from Egypt and sent him money and adequate supplies for every other need.

§ 15.3.4 Evagoras, seeing that he was much inferior in naval strength, fitted out sixty additional ships and sent for fifty from Acoris in Egypt, seems he had in all two hundred triremes. These he fitted out for battle in a way to cause terror and by continued trials and drill got ready for a sea engagement. Consequently, when the King's fleet sailed past toward Citium, he fell upon the ships unexpectedly and had a great advantage over the Persians.

§ 15.3.5 For he attacked with his ships in compact array ships in disorder, and since he fought with men whose plans were prepared against men unready, he at once at the first encounter won a prearranged victory. For, attacking as he did with his triremes in close order triremes that were scattered and in confusion, he sank some and captured others.

§ 15.3.6 Still the Persian admiral Glos and the other commanders put up a gallant resistance, and a fierce struggle developed in which at first Evagoras held the upper hand. Later, however, when Glos attacked in strong force and put up a gallant fight, the result was that Evagoras turned in flight and lost many of his triremes.

§ 15.4.1 The Persians after their victory in the sea-fight gathered both their sea and land forces at the city of Citium. From this as their base they organized a siege of Salamis and beleaguered the city both by land and by sea.

§ 15.4.2 Meantime Tiribazus crossed over to Cilicia after the sea-fight and continued thence to the King, reported the victory, and brought back two thousand talents for the prosecution of the war. Before the sea-fight, Evagoras, who had fallen in with a body of the land force near the sea and defeated it, had been confident of success, but when he suffered defeat in the sea-fight and found himself besieged, he lost heart.

§ 15.4.3 Nevertheless, deciding to continue the war, he left his son Pnytagoras behind as supreme commander in Cyprus and himself took ten triremes, eluded the enemy, and got away from Salamis. On arriving in Egypt he met the king and urged him to continue the war energetically and to consider the war against the Persians a common undertaking.

§ 15.5.1 While these events were taking place, the Lacedemonians determined to make war upon Mantineia, without regard to the standing treaty, for the following reasons. The Greeks were enjoying the general peace of Antalcidas, in accordance with which all the cities had got rid of their garrisons and recovered by agreement their autonomy. The Lacedemonians, however, who by their nature loved to command and by policy preferred war, would not tolerate the peace which they considered to be a heavy burden, and longing for their past dominance over Greece, they were poised and alert to begin a new movement.

§ 15.5.2 At once, then, they stirred up the cities and formed partisan groups in them with the aid of their friends, being provided in some of the cities with plausible grounds for interference. For the cities, after having recovered their autonomy, demanded an accounting of the men who had been in control under the Lacedemonian supremacy; and since the procedure was harsh, because the people bore enmity for past injuries and many were sent into exile, the Lacedemonians took it upon themselves to give support to the defeated faction.

§ 15.5.3 By receiving these men and dispatching a force with them to restore them to their homes, they at first enslaved the weaker cities, but afterward made war on and forced the more important cities to submit, having preserved the general peace no longer than two years. Seeing that the city of the Mantineians lay upon their borders and was full of valiant men, the Lacedemonians were jealous of its growth which had resulted from the peace and were bent on humbling the pride of its citizens.

§ 15.5.4 First of all, therefore, they dispatched ambassadors to Mantineia, commanding them to destroy their walls and all of them to remove to the original five villages from which they had of old united to form Mantineia. When no one paid any attention to them, they sent out an army and laid siege to the city.

§ 15.5.5 The Mantineians dispatched ambassadors to Athens, asking for aid. When the Athenians did not choose to make a breach of the common peace, the Mantineians none the less withstood the siege on their own account and stoutly resisted the enemy. In this way, then, fresh wars got a start in Greece.

§ 15.6.1 In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, now that he was relieved of wars with the Carthaginians, enjoyed great peace and leisure. Consequently he devoted himself with much seriousness to the writing of poetry, and summoning men of repute in this line, he accorded them special honours and resorted to them, making use of them as instructors and revisers of his poems. Elated by the flattering words with which these men repaid his benefactions, Dionysius boasted far more of his poems than of his successes in war.

§ 15.6.2 Among the poets in his company was Philoxenus the writer of dithyrambs, who enjoyed very high repute as a composer in his own line. After dinner, when the compositions of the tyrant, which were wretched, had been read, he was asked what was his judgement of the poetry. When he replied with a good deal of frankness, the tyrant, offended at his words, found fault with him that he had been moved by jealousy to use scurrilous language and commanded his servants to drag him off forthwith to the quarries.

§ 15.6.3 On the next day, however, when Philoxenus' friends made petition for a grant of pardon, Dionysius made up with him and again included the same men in his company after dinner. As the drinking advanced, again Dionysius boasted of the poetry he had written, recited some lines which he considered to be happily composed, and then asked, “What do you think of the verses?” To this Philoxenus said not a word, but called Dionysius' servants and ordered them to take him away to the quarries.

§ 15.6.4 Now at the time Dionysius, smiling at the ready wit of the words, tolerated the freedom of speech, since the joke took the edge off the censure. But when some time later his acquaintances and Dionysius as well asked him to desist from his untimely frankness, Philoxenus made a paradoxical offer. He would, he said, in his answer both respect the truth and keep the favour of Dionysius. Nor did he fail to make his word good.

§ 15.6.5 For when the tyrant produced some lines that described harrowing events, and asked, “How do the verses strike you?”, he replied, “Pitiful!”, keeping his double promise by the ambiguity. For Dionysius took the word “pitiful” as signifying harrowing and deeply moving, which are successful effects of good poets, and therefore rated him as having approved them; the rest, however, who caught the real meaning, conceived that the word “pitiful” was only employed to suggest failure.

§ 15.7.1 Much the same thing, as it happened, also occurred in the case of Plato the philosopher. Dionysius summoned this man to his court and at first deigned to show him the highest favour, since he saw that he practised the freedom of speech that philosophy is entitled to. But later, being offended at some of his statements, he became altogether alienated from him, exposed him in the market, and sold him as a slave for twenty minas. Those who were philosophers, however, joined together, purchased his freedom, and sent him off to Greece with the friendly admonition that a wise man should associate with tyrants either as little as possible or with the best grace possible.

§ 15.7.2 Dionysius did not renounce his zeal for poetry but dispatched to the Olympic Games actors with the most pleasing voices who should present a musical performance of his poems for the assembled throng. At first their pleasing voices filled the hearers with admiration, but later, on further reflection, the reciters were despised and rewarded with laughter.

§ 15.7.3 Dionysius, on learning of the slight that was cast upon his poems, fell into a fit of melancholy. His condition grew constantly worse and a madness seized his mind, so that he kept saying that he was the victim of jealousy and suspected all his friends of plotting against him. At last his frenzy and madness went so far that he slew many of his friends on false charges, and he drove not a few into exile, among whom were Philistus and his own brother Leptines, men of outstanding courage who had rendered him many important services in his wars.

§ 15.7.4 These men, then, passed their banishment in Thurii in Italy where they were cordially welcomed by the Italian Greeks. Later, at the request of Dionysius, they were reconciled with him and returned to Syracuse where they enjoyed his former goodwill, and Leptines married Dionysius' daughter. These, then, were the events of this year.

§ 15.8.1 When Dexitheus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Lucretius and Servius Sulpicius, This year Evagoras, the king of the Salaminians, arrived in Cyprus from Egypt, bringing money from Acoris, the king of Egypt, but less than he had expected. When he found that Salamis was closely besieged and that he was deserted by his allies, he was forced to discuss terms of settlement.

§ 15.8.2 Tiribazus, who held the supreme command, agreed to a settlement upon the conditions that Evagoras should withdraw from all the cities of Cyprus, that as king of Salamis alone he should pay the Persian King a fixed annual tribute, and that he should obey orders as slave to master.

§ 15.8.3 Although these were hard terms, Evagoras agreed to them all except that he refused to obey orders as slave to master, saying that he should be subject as king to king. When Tiribazus would not agree to this, Orontes, who was the other general and envious of Tiribazus' high position, secretly sent letters to Artaxerxes against Tiribazus.

§ 15.8.4 The charges against him were first, that although he was able to take Salamis, he was not doing so, but was receiving embassies from Evagoras and conferring with him on the question of making common cause; that he was likewise concluding a private alliance with the Lacedemonians, being their friend; that he had sent to Pytho to inquire of the god regarding his plans for revolt; and, most important of all, that he was winning for himself the commanders of the troops by acts of kindness, bringing them over by honours and gifts and promises.

§ 15.8.5 On reading the letter the King, believing the accusations, wrote to Orontes to arrest Tiribazus and dispatch him to him. When the order had been carried out, Tiribazus, on being brought to the King, asked for a trial and for the time being was put in prison. After this the King was engaged in a war with the Cadusians and postponed the trial, and so the legal action was deferred.

§ 15.9.1 Orontes succeeded to the command of the forces in Cyprus. But when he saw that Evagoras was again putting up a bold resistance to the siege and, furthermore, that the soldiers were angered at the arrest of Tiribazus and so were insubordinate and listless in pressing the siege, Orontes became alarmed at the surprising change in the institution. He therefore sent men to Evagoras to discuss a settlement and to urge him to agree to a peace on the same terms Evagoras had agreed to with Tiribazus.

§ 15.9.2 Evagoras, then, was surprisingly able to dispel the menace of capture, and agreed to peace on the conditions that he should be king of Salamis, pay the fixed tribute annually, and obey as a king the orders of the King. So the Cyprian war, which had lasted for approximately ten years, although the larger part of the period was spent in preparations and there were in all but two years of continuous warfare, came to the end we have described.

§ 15.9.3 Glos, who had been in command of the fleet and was married to the daughter of Tiribazus, fearful that it might be thought that he had co operated with Tiribazus in his plan and that he would be punished by the King, resolved to safeguard his position by a new project of action. Since he was well supplied with money and soldiers and had furthermore won the commanders of the triremes to himself by acts of kindness, he resolved to revolt from the King.

§ 15.9.4 At once, then, he sent ambassadors to Acoris, the king of the Egyptians, and concluded an alliance with him against the King. He also wrote the Lacedemonians and incited them against the King, promising to give them a large sum of money and offering other great inducements. He pledged himself to full co operation with them in Greece and to work with them in restoring the supremacy their fathers had exercised.

§ 15.9.5 Even before this the Spartans had made up their minds to recover their supremacy, and at the time were already throwing the cities into confusion and enslaving them, as was clear to all men. Moreover, they were in bad repute because it was generally believed that in the agreement they had made with the King they had betrayed the Greeks of Asia, and so they repented of what they had done and sought a plausible excuse for a war against Artaxerxes. Consequently they were glad to enter the alliance with Glos.

§ 15.10.1 After Artaxerxes had concluded the war with the Cadusians, he brought up the trial of Tiribazus and assigned three of the most highly esteemed Persians as judges. At this time other judges who were believed to have been corrupt were flayed alive and their skins stretched tight on judicial benches. The judges rendered their decisions seated on these, having before their eyes an example of the punishment meted out to corrupt decisions.

§ 15.10.2 Now the accusers read the letter sent by Orontes and stated that it constituted sufficient cause for accusation. Tiribazus, with respect to the charge in connect with Evagoras, presented the agreement made by Orontes that Evagoras should obey the King as a king, whereas he had himself agreed upon a peace on the terms that Evagoras should obey the King as a slave his master. With respect to the oracle he stated that the god as a general thing gives no response concerning death, and to the truth of this he invoked all the Greeks present as witnesses. As for the friendship with the Lacedemonians, he replied in defence that he had formed the friendship not for any advantage of his own but for the profit of the King; and he pointed out that the Greeks of Asia were thereby detached from the Lacedemonians and delivered captive to the King. At the conclusion of his defence he reminded the judges of the former good services he had rendered the King.

§ 15.10.3 It is related that Tiribazus pointed out many services to the King, and one very great one, as a result of which he was highly regarded and became a very great friend. Once during a hunt, while the King was riding in a chariot, two lions came at him, tore to pieces two of four horses belonging to the chariot, and then charged upon the King himself; but at that very moment Tiribazus appeared, slew the lions, and rescued the King from the danger.

§ 15.10.4 In wars also, men say, he excelled in valour, and in council his judgement was so good that when the King followed his advice he never made a mistake. By means of such a defence Tiribazus was cleared of the charges by the unanimous vote of the judges.

§ 15.11.1 The King summoned the judges one by one and asked each of them what principles of justice he had followed in clearing the accused. The first said that he observed the charges to be debatable, while the benefactions were not contested. The second said that, though it were granted that the charges were true, nevertheless the benefactions excelled the offences. The third stated that he did not take into account the benefactions, because Tiribazus had received from the King in return for them favours and honours many times as great, but that when the charges were examined apart by themselves, the accused did not appear to be guilty of them.

§ 15.11.2 The King praised the judges for having rendered a just decision and bestowed upon Tiribazus the highest honours, such as were customary. Orontes, however, he condemned as one who had fabricated a false accusation, expelled him from his list of friends, and subjected him to the utmost marks of degradation. Such was the state of affairs in Asia.

§ 15.12.1 In Greece the Lacedemonians continued the siege of Mantineia, and through the summer the Mantineians maintained a gallant resistance against the enemy. For they were considered to surpass the other Arcadians in valour, and it was for this reason that the Lacedemonians had formerly made it their practice in battle to place them, as their most trustworthy allies, on their flank. But with the coming of winter the river which flows beside Mantineia received a great increase from rains and the Lacedemonians diverted the flow of the river with great dikes, turned the river into the city, and made a pool of all region round about.

§ 15.12.2 Consequently, as the houses began to fall, the Mantineians in despair were compelled to surrender the city to the Lacedemonians. After they received the surrender, they imposed no other hardship on the Mantineians than the command that they should move back to their former villages. Consequently they were compelled to raze their own city and return to their villages.

§ 15.13.1 While these events were taking place, in Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, resolved to plant cities on the Adriatic Sea. His idea in doing this was to get control of the Ionian Sea, in order that there he might make the route to Epeirus safe and have his own cities which could give haven to ships. For it was his intent to descend unexpectedly with great armaments upon the regions about Epeirus and to sack the temple at Delphi, which was filled with great wealth.

§ 15.13.2 Consequently he made an alliance with the Illyrians with the help of Alcetas the Molossian, who was at the time an exile and spending his days in Syracuse. Since the Illyrians were at war, he dispatched to them an allied force of two thousand soldiers and five hundred suits of Greek armour. The Illyrians distributed the suits of armour among their cost warriors and incorporated the soldiers among their own troops.

§ 15.13.3 Now that they had gathered a large army, they invaded Epeirus and would have restored Alcetas to the kingship over the Molossians. But when no one paid any attention to him, they first ravaged the country, and after that, when the Molossians drew up against them, there followed a sharp battle in which the Illyrians were victorious and slew more than fifteen thousand Molossians. After such a disaster befell the inhabitants of Epeirus, the Lacedemonians, as soon as they had learned the facts, sent a force to give aid to the Molossians, by means of which they curbed the barbarians' great audacity.

§ 15.13.4 While these events were taking place, the Parians, in accordance with an oracle, sent out a colony to the Adriatic, founding it on the island of Pharos, as it is called, with the co operation of the tyrant Dionysius. He had already dispatched a colony to the Adriatic not many years previously and had founded the city known as Lissus.

§ 15.13.5 From this as his base Dionysius... Since he had the leisure, he built dockyards with a capacity for two hundred triremes and threw about the city a wall of such size that its circuit was the greatest possessed by any Greek city. He also constructed large gymnasia along the Anapus River, and likewise temples of the gods and whatever else would contribute to the growth and renown of the city.

§ 15.14.1 At the conclusion of the year, in Athens Diotrephes was archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Valerius and Aulus Mallius, and the Eleians celebrated the Ninety-ninth Olympiad, that in which Dicon of Syracuse won the “stadion.” This year the Parians, who had settled Pharos, allowed the previous barbarian inhabitants to remain unharmed in an exceedingly well fortified place, while they themselves founded a city by the sea and built a wall about it.

§ 15.14.2 Later, however, the old barbarian inhabitants of the island took offence at the presence of the Greeks and called in the Illyrians of the opposite mainland. These, to the number of more than ten thousand, crossed over to Pharos in many small boats, wrought havoc, and slew many of the Greeks. But the governor of Lissus appointed by Dionysius sailed with a good number of triremes against the light craft of the Illyrians, sinking some and capturing others, and slew more than five thousand of the barbarians, while taken some two thousand captive.

§ 15.14.3 Dionysius, in need of money, set out to make war against Tyrrhenia with sixty triremes. The school he offered was the suppression of the pirates, but in fact he was going to pillage a holy temple, richly provided with dedications, which was located in the seaport of the Tyrrhenian city of Agylle, the name of the port being Pyrgi.

§ 15.14.4 Putting in by night, he disembarked his men, attacked at daybreak, and achieved his design; for he overpowered the small number of guards in the place, plundered the temple, and amassed no less than a thousand talents. When the men of Agylle came out to bring help, he overpowered them in battle, took many prisoners, laid waste their territory, and then returned to Syracuse. From the booty which he sold he took in no less than five hundred talents. Now that Dionysius was well supplied with money, he hired a multitude of soldiers from every land, and after bringing together a very considerable army, was obviously preparing for a war against the Carthaginians. These, then, were the events of this year.

§ 15.15.1 When Phanostratus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected instead of consuls four military tribunes, Lucius Lucretius, Sentius Sulpicius, Lucius Aemilius, and Lucius Furius. This year Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, after preparations for war upon the Carthaginians, looked about to find a reasonable excuse for the conflict. Seeing, then, that the cities subject to the Carthaginians were favourable to a revolt, he received such as wished to do so, formed an alliance with them, and treated them with fairness.

§ 15.15.2 The Carthaginians at first dispatched ambassadors to the ruler and asked for the return of their cities, and when he paid no attention to them, this came to be the beginning of the war. Now the Carthaginians formed an alliance with the Italian Greeks and together with them went to war against the tyrant; and since they wisely recognized in advance that it would be a great war, they enrolled as soldiers capable youth from their own citizens, and then, raising a great sum of money, hired large forces of mercenary troops. As general they chose their king Magon and moved many tens of thousands of soldiers across to Sicily and Italy, planning to wage war on both fronts.3 Dionysius for his part also divided his forces, on the one front fighting the Italian Greeks and on the other the Phoenicians. Now there were many battles here and there between groups of soldiers and minor and continuous engagements, in which nothing of consequence was achieved. But there were two important and famous pitched battles. In the first, near Cabala, as it is called, Dionysius, who put up an admirable fight, was victorious, slaying more than ten thousand of the barbarians and capturing not less than five thousand. He also forced the rest of the army to take refuge on a hill which was fortified but altogether without water. There fell also Magon their king after a splendid combat. 4 The Phoenicians, dismayed at the magnitude of the disaster, at once sent an embassy to discuss terms of peace. But Dionysius declared that his only terms were cardinal upon their retiring from the cities of Sicily and paying the cost of the war.

§ 15.16.1 This reply was considered by the Carthaginians to be harsh and arrogant and they out-generalled Dionysius with their accustomed knavery. They pretended that they were satisfied with the terms, but stated that it was not in their power to hand over the cities; and in order that they might discuss the question with their government, they asked Dionysius to agree to a truce of a few days.

§ 15.16.2 When the monarch agreed the truce took effect, Dionysius was overjoyed, supposing that he would forthwith take over the whole of Sicily. The Carthaginians meanwhile gave their king Magon a magnificent funeral and replaced him as general with his son, who, though he was young indeed, was full of ambition and distinguished for his courage. He spent the entire period of the truce drilling and exercising his troops, and what with laborious exercise, hortatory speeches, and training in arms, he rendered the army obedient and competent.

§ 15.16.3 At the expiration of the period agreed upon both sides deployed their forces and entered the battle with high spirit. There followed a sharp pitched battle at Cronium, as it is called, and the deity redressed by victory turn for turn the defeat of the Carthaginians. The former victors, who were loudly boasting because of their military success, were unexpectedly tripped up, and they who, because of their defeat, were crestfallen at the outlook, won an unexpected and important victory.

§ 15.17.1 Leptines, who was stationed on one wing and excelled in courage, ended his life in a blaze of glory, fighting heroically and after slaying many Carthaginians. At his fall the Phoenicians were emboldened and pressed so hard upon their opponents that they put them to flight.

§ 15.17.2 Dionysius, whose troops were a select band, at first had the advantage over his opponents; but when the death of Leptines became known and the other wing was crushed, his men were dismayed and took to flight.

§ 15.17.3 When the rout became general, the Carthaginians pursued the more eagerly and called out to one another to take no one captive; and so all who were caught were put to death and the whole region close at hand was heaped with dead.